How Call Accounting Can Improve Outcomes with Enterprise Lync Voice Deployments
August 21, 2014
By Susan J. Campbell
TMCnet Contributing Editor
The evolution in technology over the last decade alone has introduced a number of benefits and opportunities for the business user. It has also brought about a whole new expectation when it comes to the cost of certain features and capabilities. The cloud is gaining momentum due to the low cost of deployment and pay-per-use models. When applied in communications, it gives better outcomes in call accounting.
For instance, when unified communications are applied within the enterprise through cloud-based applications, everything is captured in one place. It’s much easier for call accounting procedures to identify costs per user or department and pinpoint services that are no longer needed. Capturing the right information often depends on ensuring you’ve outlined the important things in the configuration but once done, reporting is a breeze.
Call accounting provider, ISI (News - Alert), recently posted a blog on the topic, pointing to the changes that emerge due to a Microsoft Lync Enterprise Voice deployment. Like many technology deployments, the technical aspects can be challenging, but are really just one step of the process, and often the easiest. The biggest hurdle companies generally have to navigate is the reality that actual people will be using the technology.
People don’t generally embrace change, especially when the change introduces new processes or makes things more difficult. If a user doesn’t understand why they have to make a change or the benefits they will receive once the change is made, resistance is more likely. Microsoft (News - Alert) was smart enough to understand this reality and published a guide companies can use for dealing with the people side of a Lync rollout.
One of the things call accounting examines is the costs associated with a particular communication technology and the activities it is designed to support. If an assessment of Lync usage after a month doesn’t show significant cost improvements, something is wrong. When management places a priority on helping users understand the change and the benefits to the user and the organization, and reduces user ambiguity and frustration, the organization realizes a quicker return on investment as they have effectively minimized the end-user learning curve.
When Lync is monitored through a solution like ISI’s Infortel Select, management can also identify trends in usage for each modality in Lync, the leaders and laggards in Lync deployment among department, the types of devices used to access Lync and the mobile platforms leveraging Lync mobility. This kind of information makes it easier to develop a second stage plan that helps promote continued adoption and integration.
The basic goal is to ensure the organization gets the benefits out of the new Lync deployment and call accounting helps drive the process.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi