Defining the scope of your Unified Communications deployment

Businesses of all size face a fundamental question when planning for a UC deployment...

Is it best to (1)continue to use multiple vendors or (2) select a single vendor to deliver all UC functionality?

Organizations that choose option #1 do so to minimize loss of functionality by selecting the best technology/platform for each business requirement.

Organizations that choose option #2 do so to streamline the user experience and reduce the number of platforms / passwords that users have to manage. 

There are benefits and challenges with each approach. 

When building your UC strategy, here are 5 questions to ask stakeholders that will help answer the big question up top!

1) Rank (in order of importance) which of the following workloads will bring the most value to your day-to-day at the office:

o   Voice and Telephony

o   Conferencing

o   Messaging

o   Presence and IM

o   Clients

o   Communication Applications

o   Document Sharing

2) How quickly (in months) would you like to have access to the above workloads?

3) Which of the following will drive the decision most: Cost, Functionality, or Reliability?

4) What existing / future business applications do we want to integrate with our UC solution? (CRM, Call Center?)

5) On a scale of 1-10, how important is it to have a single user interface, login/password drives our UC solution? 

Once you collect the answers to the above questions, you'll be ready to start evaluating providers to find your ideal UC solution.

Microsoft Lync Licensing - are you confused? If so, you're not alone!

Microsoft Lync is a hot topic of conversation these days.  For organizations that want to invest (or have already invested) in Microsoft UC are currently working to figure out how Lync will help to achieve their UC objectives.  One part of the buying process that usually requires clarification is the Lync license types.  


Here is a high-level overview to help increase your familiarity with Microsoft Lync licensing.  We (Arkadin) focus on private cloud deployments (single tenant and multi-tenant) so there will be no mention of server licensing or hardware investments (the cloud enables companies to achieve full functionality without the CapEx costs).

Microsoft Lync Licensing Overview

• Microsoft licenses are referred to as "CALs", which stands for Client Access License.
• Every user within an organization requires a Lync CAL to gain access to Lync
• CALs are licensed per user, not device (one user CAL enables  a user to have simultaneous access from multiple devices)
• The core functionality of Microsoft Lync includes:
• Instant Messaging
• Rich Presence
• PC-to-PC calling (audio & video)
• Collaboration sessions (desktop sharing)
• Multi-party audio/video conferencing
• Online Meetings
• Enterprise Voice (use Lync as your telephone / PBX replacement)

Reference Guide

Licensing Notes

Standard CAL

This is the base user license type.  The user is listed as a Lync contact in the company directory, is searchable for anyone within the organization on Lync (and with any federated organizations), has rich presence, the ability to make and receive PC-to-PC calls (audio and video) as well as join an online meeting

Standard Plus CAL

All the functionality listed above (STD CAL) as well as the Enterprise Voice functionality which means the end user has a dedicated phone number that they can receive calls from the outside world as well as place calls to any outside phone number.  Additional features include simultaneous ring and call forwarding.

Enterprise CAL

All functionality available in the STD CAL as well as the ability to host multi-party online meetings within Lync.

Enterprise Plus CAL

This is the full-featured offer from Microsoft Lync that enables all functionality available within the Lync suite.

What's next?

Now that you know the basics, it's time to look at deployment options (Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid, On-Premise) and what combination of Lync licensing will be required to meet the end user needs at your organization.

Not really sure where to start?

Don't worry, Arkadin is here to help!  Our dedicated UC team (engineers, voice specialists, solutions consultants and implementation advisors) will help build the strategic direction, project plan and implementation path and have you up and running with full functionality in a fraction of the time that an on-premise deployment would require.

Happy collaborating!

Zach Katsof

3 Tips to UC Selection & Deployment

There is no doubt about it that organizations are aggressively evaluating the pros and cons of Unified Communications offers in the market today.  The requirement to be mobile-worker friendly coupled with a younger generation entering the workforce is one of the main factors driving this collaboration technology evolution.  With any new technology, there are those tenured end users that are resistant to change and prefer the good...trusted...working solution that is in already being utilized.  As soon as the UC platform direction is defined, the next challenge on any strategy team's plate is brainstorming how best to introduce the new offer to those end users adverse to change.  Here are a few tips that have proven helpful during the selection and introduction of UC platforms. #1 - Select an offer that compliments the existing web conferencing system in place today.  For an example, if an organization is using WebEx Meeting Center today, look at WebEx Connect IM to be the bridge product to introduce your end user community to the UC world.  Conversely, if everyone is using WebEx and the new tool is on a new platform as well, it can lead to problems.#2 - ONE FEATURE AT A TIME.  The benefits of a UC offer within an organization can create a buzz / excitement that has everyone wanting to use every feature in every meeting.  With too much functionality, an organization runs the risk of lowering productivity due to end user confusion.  For example; a marketing manager needs to connect with his/her team; with a UC solution they can IM, point-to-point call, video chat, email, share their desktop...even a combination of all of the above.  A phased rollout of a UC platform with dedicated training sessions per feature is a great way to ensure proper adoption from the outset. #3 - ENSURE IT'S SCALE-ABLE AS IT GROWS.  Microsoft, Cisco and Avaya among others are driving the conversation around one Unified platform that will handle all your collaborative requirements.  On paper, and in videos, this sounds ideal.  In practice however, this is not always the case.  When an Executive hosts a large conference call with 30+ attendees and the VoIP audio conference does not scale properly, it can be a real issue when the first line of support is the iT Helpdesk.  For this reason, a hybrid UC deployment tends to be favourable for organizations that host high-profile calls and any calls that involve more then a handful of participants.  Partnering with an organization like Arkadin will ensure you have the in-call, real-time support required to deliver large-scale conferences.

What's the best way to stream video during a WebConference?

The Web Meeting inteface

We recently consulted a Marketing team tasked with delivering a product update that was not going smoothly.  The Marketing team invested in a new Customer-facing video that they wanted to deploy to the Sales team.  The issue: when they uploaded the video into their web meeting tool, it didn't work.  After searching for web providers online, they found Arkadin.  With the tight timeline (we were contacted 3 hours prior to the scheduled start time) re-scheduling was not an option.  We worked qUiCkLy to identify the requirements (capture ppt animations and stream video to all attendees) and then got them setup with Arkadin WebEx.  This solution delivers the best-in-class audio conferencing experience (Arkadin Anytime) that is fully integrated into the #1 web conferencing platform on the market, WebEx.  It was a rewarding experience because the Marketing team delivered a flawless product release and the Sales team was able to start talking to Customers about it that afternoon.