Is There a UC ROI Opportunity Lurking in Your Business?

The great thing about communications and IT technology is that although it generally starts out costly and only accessible to the larger enterprises, over time it becomes simpler and less expensive, migrating downstream to Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) and eventually to consumers.

Looking back, some good examples of downstream migration are the PBX, voicemail and more recently Unified Messaging (UM). Now all organizations have some sort of PBX with voicemail and UM has become cost-effective for SMBs, so it is now starting to undergo wide deployment. In recent years, we have also seen the reverse effect. Technologies developed for consumers are trickling upstream into SMBs and eventually into enterprises. Prime examples of this upstream migration are Internet VoIP, instant messaging, and more recently social networking.

Occasionally some technologies migrate downstream that change the rules of the game for smaller organizations,
enabling them to revise business models and business practices. UC is such a technology. Given the economic times, now is a good time for businesses and public sector organizations to take a long hard look at how UC can benefit operations and operating budgets. If you think that UC technology is too expensive, doesn't have an ROI, or is too difficult to deploy and maintain, then take a closer look because UC technology has once again changed the rules of the game. As I mentioned in my previous column, although VoIP has its own benefits, you can obtain the benefits of UC without VoIP on your existing PBX by using a Blend and Extend strategy rather than Ripping and Replacing your existing PBX.

In every organization there are ROI opportunities with UC that are lurking, just waiting to be discovered. You just have to know how to find them. For instance, capabilities like UM, fax server, notification, and personal call control, which previously
were considered too expensive or with long ROI cycles, are now actually economically viable. In addition, other equally viable capabilities such as Interactive Voice Response (IVR), customized auto-attendants, automatic out calling, and call redirection services all part of Communications Enabled Business Processes (CEBP) can dramatically affect both customer service levels and reduce costs. This set of capabilities, once thought to be usable by only large enterprises due to cost and complexity are now feasible for even the smallest organizations. The examples below describe how companies, both large and small, deployed CEBP in less than a week and obtained ROI in as quickly as 90 days. Think about how you might apply this process to your own business.

Order status: A manufacturer of personalized items such as rubber stamps, signs and business cards uses an IVR application that provides 7/24 order status to their customers with small orders, while allowing their call attendants to concentrate on providing personal service to larger customers during office hours.

Product availability and pricing: A wallpaper manufacturer uses an IVR application that provides product availability and pricing to their resellers based on their membership level in their reseller program, providing reliable 7/24 service without the need for call takers.

After Hours Service: A large multi-national company uses an application that reliably redirects after hours calls for support to the cell phones/home numbers of on duty support staff, allowing them to eliminate staffing of their support center after hours.

Retail: A video store uses an application that allows callers to place orders using their credit card for videos 7/24 without the need for an after-hours service team.

Real Estate: A real estate broker provides a "talking house" service to real estate agents, enabling prospective purchasers to obtain information about a property while standing in front of it and offering to redirect their call to the agent if they are interested in the property.

How do you find these lurking opportunities? In my previous column, I mentioned four top ways to get started with UC: Unified Messaging, fax server, personal call control and CEBP. Spend a bit of time to become familiar with the capabilities and benefits of each, and think about how you might apply them to your own operations. In upcoming columns, I'll address
how you can benefit from the top four ways to get started with UC. But some of the most dramatic results we've seen recently come from CEBP solutions that not only generate an ROI but relieve significant pain points for an organization. Hopefully, these examples will get you thinking about how you can apply CEBP to your own business operations. If they can do it then so can you! Happy hunting for those ROIs lurking in your own organization.

David Levy is President and CEO of Objectworld Communications Corp. (www.objectworld.com).