Unified communications management encompasses the policies, procedures, and tools for both administration and operations management of calling, messaging, and meeting applications.ย A successfulย UCย management strategy must accomplish the following goals:ย
- Provide IT operations staff with insight into real-time performance of voice and video, and enable both proactive identification of potential issues before they occur, as well as rapid recovery from outages and/or performance problemsย that do ariseย
- Optimize the day-to-day management of UC applications to reduce operational cost, save time, and enable IT staff to avoid time-consuming repetitive tasksย
End-to-End Management Critical As UC Shift to the Cloud
UC management shouldย address end-to-end needs.ย That is, UC management tools must enable management (both performance and administration) across endpoints including phones, audio devices, and video conferencing systems, as well as core application platforms.ย
The nature of UC management has shifted as UC applications have moved to the cloud.ย ย Nemertesโ recentย Cost-Benefit Analysis: Workplace Collaboration and Contact Centerย global study of more than 564 end-user organizations found that more than 34% were now using Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) for all or part of theirย real-time collaboration and communicationsย needs.ย ย Thoughย shifting UC platforms to the cloud reduces some of the operational burden on IT shops, it does not eliminate the need for proactive strategies for performance and administrative management.ย ITย organizationsย are still responsible for ensuring the performance of real-time applications across their networks, as well asย day-to-day administrative operations, they cannot simply offload management onto theirย UCaaSย provider.ย
Key Requirements for Success
Key requirements for a successful management strategy, whether on-premises, in the cloud, orย hybrid, require leveraging specialty management tools that enable automation of day-to-day administrative tasks.ย Organizations should focus on the following building blocks for success:ย
- Automate management workflows โ including provisioning of users as well as moves/adds/changes, and deletions. An ideal approach integrates provisioning and change management with HRย and ITSM / ITย tools used to onboard (and offboard) employeesย to enable productivity benefits from faster access to new employees, and to eliminate the need for engineering staff to perform repetitive tasksย
- Apply company-wide security policies โ governing provisioning of users as well as change management, and access to applications and services.ย ย ย
- Enable self-service capabilities for password and profile management, as well as for features including voicemail, eliminating the need to involve IT staff in routine administrative tasksย
- Delegate administrative functions to lines of business or department heads, again reducing the administrative burden (and cost) on expensive IT staffย
- Enable multi-vendor support if operating multiple UC platformsย โย leveragingย specialty administrative management tools inย a multi-vendor environment isย especiallyย criticalย asย such toolsย provide a unified administrativeย consoleย forย disparate underlying systems, saving IT staff fromย managing viaย separate consoles, and reducing potential for errorย
Achieving UC management success requires a proactive approach that address performance and operational requirements to minimize cost of operations and to ensure consistent governance of UC applications, whether on-premises or in the cloud.ย Adopt tools that optimize UC management across all platforms to reduce cost and improve user satisfaction.ย
By Irwin Lazarย
