Unified Communications: Planning and Implementation     2-day training seminar, $1,795

Overview

This workshop will be invaluable if you are trying to identify or choose the best UC applications for your enterprise. If you have already chosen the applications, then the workshop will provide critical details on the products, the vendors, and the implementation steps. Solutions included in the workshop include mobility, presence, collaboration, customer access, communication-enabled business processes, and comm-enabled portals.

By participating in this training seminar, you will:

• Understand the definitions and basis for Unified Communications, explaining why there is so much energy and attention on UC at this time.
• Evaluate the difference between VoIP and Unified Communications, so you can spend your time and money in the right spots and in the right sequence.
• Discover the top applications and ROIs for Unified Communications, with reference cases from similar enterprises that are already moving forward with UC.
• Apply a step-by-step process to find the best UC applications for your own enterprise, customized to your industry, by looking at the value chain in your business.
• Identify the Communication “Hot Spots” that can be eliminated or economized with UC.
• Create preliminary plans for UC investments that will eliminate major “Hot Spots”, to provide fast and sizable payback on your UC investments.
• Review the entire UC industry to see which suppliers have the best products and services for your UC requirements, including overviews of costs and pricing for all major solutions.
• Analyze the options for replacing, upgrading or supplementing your current systems to achieve your UC goals, to minimize the risks and avoid wasted time and expense.
• Evaluate strategic choices from traditional VoIP Vendors as well as from new entrants such as IBM and Microsoft.
• Learn about the details for implementation of UC, including network readiness, bandwidth planning, typical server configurations and deployments, audio/video/web conferencing configurations, mobility options, remote worker choices, and procurement tips.
• Budget for staffing, equipment, software, and support resources on a 5-year template.
• Choose the best UC applications for your enterprise. If you have already chosen the applications, then the workshop will provide critical details on the products, the vendors, and the implementation steps. Solutions included in the workshop include mobility, presence, collaboration, customer access, communication-enabled business processes, and comm-enabled portals.
• Receive tools to support you back at the office, including:
  • CD loaded with reference materials for all major vendors
  • Toolkit with planning forms and budgeting worksheets for your UC plan

Who Should Participate
Telecom and IT directors, network architects, planners, and other professionals who are considering or planning investments in Unified Communications (UC), or are involved in various stages of UC implementation.

Agenda

What is Unified Communications?

• Definition of UC with full exploration of the definition elements
• Definition of the two “zones of UC” – User Productivity and Business Process
• Illustration of the major areas of ROI for UC
• Why there is buzz about UC from vendors, other customer, other industry areas?

New communications tools based on Internet Protocols and digitized media

• Overview of the top 10 new tools that enable Unified Communications
• Description of each of these top 10 new tools.
• Summary of how these tops tools change communications

How UC is changing Communications and how these new communications technologies can produce business improvement and cost savings?

• Examples of business processes and communications before and after UC
• Real life examples and reference cases on the new UC solutions
• The myths to avoid when looking at UC

Workshop to find the UC opportunities in your company – Nine-step process

• A case study will be used, throughout, to illustrate each step.
  • Review your company’s strategic initiatives
  • Review the UC possibilities
  • Identify major business processes used in your company to achieve the strategic goals
  • Map these major processes to the people (jobs and roles) who are involved
  • Find the Communications “Hot Spots” those people experience in the processes
  • Find ways to optimize the jobs and processes by fixing “Hot Spots” with UC
  • NOTE: In this step you will actually create alternative UC options to address the “Hot Spots” and improve the business processes
  • Prioritize the possible UC solutions according to practicality, ROI, and importance
  • Identify the technology requirements for those solutions (see outline items 5 – 7 below)
  • Create the UC action plan based on these priorities (see outline item 8 below)

Identifying the technology requirements

• Review the building blocks of UC
• Map out your company’s current communications technology landscape
• Review the options you have for UC investments
  • Upgrading existing systems
  • Adding or integrating other technologies with what you already have
  • Install entirely new systems
• Review the options you have for the types of UC investments
  • Invest in Telecom-based investments (e.g. VoIP and IP PBX suppliers)
  • Invest in Desktop Application-based investments (e.g. Microsoft, IBM)
  • Invest in Application-based enhancements (e.g. SAP, Salesforce, Siebel, etc.)
  • Invest in Mobility solutions (e.g. RIM, Nokia, et al.)
• Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of each option
• Analyze your company’s options from among these choices

Understanding, Analyzing and Designing the Technology Prerequisites

• Understand UC System and Application Topologies
• Understand the UC Applications server, gateway and appliance requirements
• Understand UC Network Prerequisites
• Learn how to analyze the network bandwidth needed for UC
• Learn how to design the UC solution topology
• Understand the options for redundancy and business continuity with UC

Review the major UC Industry Participants

• Tour of all the major industry players in each of the categories above
• What are the offers, capabilities, and limitations?
• What are the price points for the offers?
• What are the prerequisites for each type of solution?
• Review the current gaps in the UC solutions across the entire industry

Create Your UC Implementation Plan

• Review Implementation Plan purpose and audience
• Review Implementation Plan table of contents
• Detail out selected elements of the Implementation plan, including these:
  • Executive Summary – a “fill-in-the-blank” sample will be provided
  • Technology Approach – choosing the best option from those available
  • Creating a multi-year plan. Tables will be completed for:
    • UC application roadmap
    • Technology investment plan
    • Staffing and Resource plan, with training requirements
    • Organizational factors as the technology changes
    • Change management planning: both technology and user adoption
    • Budgeting for technology and staffing
    • Returns from the UC changes and improvements
  • Justification models for the UC investments.
  • Operations, monitoring and maintenance of UC solutions
  • Contingency planning for UC roll-outs.

Implementing the plan

• Educating executives and senior managers on the plan
• Selecting the first locations for the new solutions
• Defining the interoperation between the old and the new solutions
• Determining the pace of the transition to the new solutions
• Planning for migration and for user and organization training
• Setting up the cost controls on the investments to avoid overruns
• Measuring the results and tuning the plan, based on results

Resources

• Websites and web casts
• Publications
• User Groups
• Conferences
• Consultants

Registration Fees
The per student registration fee for this seminar is $1795, and includes the seminar, course materials, and morning and afternoon refreshments. Class begins at 9:00 AM and ends at 5:00 PM.  Please arrive at 8:30 the first day to sign-in and meet fellow attendees.

Register securely online with confidence or please call (708) 246-0320

Seminar Schedule

May 18-19, '11	Atlanta, GA	Grand Hyatt ()
June 27-28, '11	Greenville, SC	Westin Pointsett ()
July 13-14, '11	Toronto, ON	Park Hyatt ()
Aug 3-4, '11	Chicago, IL	Hyatt Lodge ()
Aug 17-18, '11	Dallas, TX	The Adolphus ()

Click here to learn about , dates & locations

Payment is due prior to the conference.  If payment is not received, a credit card hold will be required for participation.  This card will only be processed if payment has not been received within two weeks following the conference.

Cancellation Policy.  Registrants may cancel up to fourteen days in advance of the seminar start date for a full refund, less administrative fees of $400.  Or, you may transfer your registration to another member of your company at no additional charge.  Registrants cancelling within fourteen days of the seminar will receive credit, less administrative fees of $400, toward any other Resource Center seminar.  In the unlikely event that a seminar must be cancelled, you will be notified at least one week prior to the seminar date. Seminar provider is not responsible for losses due to cancellation including losses on advanced purchase airfares.

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