Checklist for A Successful Communication & Collaboration Solution:

The key to a successful communication and collaboration solution is proper implementation.  To help you address the necessary organizational, technological, and process-related considerations which arise along the path toward this new infrastructure solution, Unisys has created this checklist.

1. Build a Roadmap
   Mobile business solutions, instant communication, and collaboration leads to changes in processes, patterns, and interactions. As such, a comprehensive understanding of both the explicit and unintended consequences of convergence technology in business process terms is absolutely essential.
2. Justify the Investment
   With a solid roadmap, it’s both possible and advisable to qualify and quantify the costs and benefits of unified communication to stakeholders and executive management. The business case should reflect the impact of leveraging existing IT infrastructure, expected economies and productivity gains, and greater revenue from new business opportunities.
3. Make Cultural Changes as Necessary
   Great communication and collaboration technologies go unused if the organizational infrastructure and culture don’t support their adoption. For example, an organization’s IT infrastructure, telecommunication, and video services are likely managed and provisioned by separate organizations. As such, a focus on internal education and promotion is key to successfully deploying communication and collaboration infrastructure solutions.
4. Identify Dependencies, Gaps, Overlaps, and Risks
   Infrastructure solutions, like unified communications, depend on a wide variety of services, applications, and devices. Thus, the most cost-effective architectures use a pre-built “super structure” as a foundation and then fill in relevant gaps and risks.
5. Focus First on Workflow, Then on the Applications
   Taking the time to properly define optimized workflows reduces complexity in the long run. Once the flow of business processes and data are well understood, sound automation
   decisions can be forged using a best-of-breed composite of applications that support mobile devices and common development platforms.
6. Establish Operational Policies
   Defining clear procedures in advance of technology deployment is essential to project success. Begin by establishing which aspects, including provisioning, access, mobility, and data authentication, are managed by whom.
7. Identify Vulnerabilities
   Huge amounts of information in small portable devices take the potential of loss to a new level. Therefore, it’s important to thoroughly examine the implications of lost or stolen
   equipment in detail. For example, an organization can mandate power-on passwords and device wipes after failed logon attempts, as well as encryption of confidential information.
   Network security elements, such as implementation of network access controls and quarantine policies should also be considered.
8. Choose an Architecture
   Convergence places unfamiliar demands, ranging from new functional requirements to increased resource consumption to unprecedented volumes of stored communication-related data, on an IT infrastructure. Most of these infrastructure management issues have been considered and addressed with pre-built architectures that serve as a foundation for customized solutions.
9. Consider New Partnerships
   With unified communication comes the opportunity to work with new service providers or expand the services purchased from existing partners. For example, cable companies now
   offer a “triple play” of voice, Internet, and video services – and telcos are getting in on the video-on-demand and Internet game. And while evaluating new communication options makes good business sense, sacrificing consistent performance, as well as protection of sensitive data, for speed and behavior is not an option. Hold all providers to the same high standards.
10. Start with a Pilot
    Pilot projects and teams provide valuable feedback for development, training, and business value. And, this targeted but comprehensive information can help organizations costeffectively deploy unified communication enterprise wide.
11. Use a Staggered Deployment Methodology
    Taking a staged approach – targeting certain user groups or areas – gives the helpdesk and release management team time to resolve functionality or stability issues. As such, a
    staggered deployment approach is usually best.