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Unified Communications at First Rate, Presented by Adam Jacobs at Save Time. Work Smarter. Reduce Costs for Microsoft Ireland (Dublin) in May 2009.
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experts in foreign exchange services
Adam Jacobs
FRES Classification: Internal - Amber
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About me
Adam Jacobs, IT Service Delivery Manager for First Rate Exchange Services
Blog: http://imapcblog.com
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About First Rate
First Rate is one of the largest providers of foreign currency to businesses across the UK
First Rate was established as a 50/50 joint venture company between Post Office and Bank of Ireland in 2002
First Rate’s innovation led to the Post Office pioneering 0% commission in 2001 which revolutionised the UK FX market
Through efficiency and innovation First Rate has enabled the PO to become the largest supplier of foreign currency in the UK
First Rate employs around 320 people
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Why Office Communications Server?
• Encourage communications outside of e-mail
• Microsoft savvy IT Team (already using Exchange 2007 and SharePoint 2007)
• Neglected PBX (no longer fit for purpose)
• Familiar Office-style interface
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Roll-out
• Focussed first on base requirements (PBX, Exchange & WAN)
• First Rate’s deployment encompassed all user profiles (remote workers, contact centre, office based, multi-site workers and the dreaded execs)
• Small pilot within IT and Projects Teams
• Designed and tested a phased deployment
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Unified Communications & SharePoint Metrics
First Rate estimates a saving of 32mins per employee (238 deployed), per day via Office Communicator, based on:
• Click to call, no more looking up contact numbers and dialling manually
• Presence, why go upstairs or try mobiles when you can see people are out/in a meeting/on the phone?
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Unified Communications & SharePoint Metrics
First Rate estimates a saving of 38mins per employee (33 deployed), per day via SoftPhones • Deployed USB Catalina phones to hot desk areas and Directors
with multi-site offices (the ability to for people to reach you on your office DDI)
• Deployed USB Headsets for home working (existing office VPN utilised and no QoS needed!)
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Unified Communications & SharePoint Metrics
First Rate estimates a saving of 43mins per employee (238 deployed), per day via Microsoft Exchange 2007, based on:• Users can now receive voicemail indication and listen when
away from the office, via Outlook or BlackBerry therefore reducing travel
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Unified Communications & SharePoint Metrics
First Rate estimates a saving of £32k per annum when Office Communication Server R2 is deployed, based on:• A quarterly spend on 3rd party solutions of £8k per quarter
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Employee Survey
• We asked 10 people a series of questions during Unified Communications training
• Criteria:
All attendees were asked 5 questions and ranked on a scale of 1 – 5
1 – Very Poor
2 – Poor
3 – Average
4 – Good
5 – Very Good
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Q1. How would you rate the delivery of this new technology, taking into account business disruption and technical issues?
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Q2. How would you rate this new functionality or envisage its use to the business?
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Q3. How would you rate today's presentation?
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Q4. How would you rate Outlook 2007 (ribbon bar, Exchange 2007 & Voicemail integration)?
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Q5. How would you feel if IT decided to deliver the remaining Office 2007 components (Word, Excel & PowerPoint)?
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First Rate Unified Communications & SharePoint Interesting Facts
Employees have changed the way they work as a result of UC
Employees aged >30 (69 staff) have found huge comfort in collaborating via IM
Employees aged <30 (169 staff) have really taken to “click-to-call”
Managers are very happy to have employee presence (no surprises here!)
Employees have started embedding voicemail within documents for Risk & Compliance purposes
People can forward voicemail (a definite time saver, no more post-its!)
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First Rate Unified Communications & SharePoint Interesting Facts
Missed calls in your inbox, know who is trying to get hold of you
Voicemail out of office (set out of office once)
BlackBerry workforce uses Communicator for BlackBerry more presence and IM functionality
Utilised old Nortel PBX bought in 2001, just upgraded the firmware/cards for £12k
We have 5 RoundTables, we decided to purchase these as conference phones in view to adopting video conference next (price difference between previous conference phones was only £600)
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First Rate Unified Communications & SharePoint Interesting Facts
Via the integration of our HR system with Active Directory we ensured that all contact information is maintained within Communicator (E.164)
Our SharePoint 2007 intranet interrogates all of this information and allows us to quickly feedback on news or documentation via the Communicator API
IT Service Desk has become location independent using headsets and USB phones, presence and IM, with this multi-site IT support would be impossible without more FTEs
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Lessons Learned (if there is time)
E.164 – it might be a good time to check your active directory contact information
Outlook 2007 – you need this for play on phone (very useful if your corporate machines are locked down without sound support
Speak to your PBX vendor and initiate a project to upgrade/patch your neglected switch first
Directly attached OCS installations can provide greater presence capabilities (phone off-hook) – speak to your PBX vendor to see if you can achieve this
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