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Testimonials JASCO - UC
Testimonials JASCO - UC
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JASCO has successfully operated a virtual office since our inception over ten years ago. In the early days, with all staff located in a single city, this did not present too many issues; as it was still possible to get everyone together once-or-twice a week over a coffee to ensure effective internal communication. The collaborative tools of the day were still very embryonic, but even then we devoted a significant amount of time to better understand ways that emerging technology could assist our somewhat unique business model. With interstate growth came additional operational barriers. Australia’s expansive East-West geographic divide made regular face-to-face meetings a practical impossibility. In an industry that relies upon rapid reaction to customer needs, email was proving far too cumbersome and introduced unacceptable delays to the collaborative process. JASCO’s solution was two-fold. Firstly, we harnessed the capabilities of Sharepoint to create virtual environments where technical, sales and management teams could share ideas and collateral freely. While this was a great step forward for us, it still lacked the mechanisms to deliver the immediate results possible in a traditional office environment; that is the ability to grab a moment of someone’s time to discuss that business-critical issue in a timely fashion. OCS 2007 and LiveMeeting revolutionised the communication modus operandi within JASCO. Once a central, data-centre hosted UC platform was built, all staff were furnished with the Office Communicator and LiveMeeting client software. For those without them already, JASCO provided an inexpensive webcam device to facilitate video conferencing. Staff members who relied more heavily upon traditional telephony were also allocated a Polycom CX200 or CX700 handset. An upgrade to OCS2007R2 was performed as soon as it became available, which added to the already rich feature set and bolstered the product’s core telephony services. Armed with this new technology, JASCO staff of all roles and technical capabilities soon came to rely upon the power of Microsoft Unified Communications. Something as simple as knowing when someone is available to communicate (presence information) has resulted in significant productivity gains for JASCO. Quite simply, our staff spend less time chasing each other for that snippet of vital information. In addition, having the ability to quickly chat via keyboard (IM), voice, video (or indeed all three) provides immense flexibility. As well has reserving time in Outlook for scheduled meetings (sales training, management meetings, etc), staff are free to pull resources from around the country into conference calls or LiveMeetings with shared content, desktops and full voice/video, at little notice. For those unable to attend, the meetings can be recorded for later viewing from a central web repository, with relevant content being available in a related meeting space within our Sharepoint portal. Activating Exchange 2007’s inbuilt Unified Messaging service, which is part of a typical OCS2007R2 rollout, has also been a godsend. Voicemail is easily processed, emails can be read aloud over the phone whilst in transit and external callers can elect to use an auto-attendant to gain direct access to JASCO staff members without needing to know their mobile or direct landline numbers (single-number reach). The added pressures of a rapidly declining economic climate in the second half of 2008 further reinforced the role of UC within our business. Interstate travel, as for many companies at the time, was relegated to a last-resort option. More widespread use of UC was almost unconsciously adopted, aiding collaboration both internally and with clients and partners alike. In most businesses, tougher economic times will trigger some form of review of operational costs. In reviewing JASCO’s communications infrastructure and related costs, our MD was delighted to see a real 40% reduction in communications costs over an 8-week period in Q1 2009. In the corresponding period, our MS Unified Communications usage figures reported;
Quite simply, MS Unified Communications has enabled our staff to work more closely with each other, and with our clients and partners, no matter where they are located. The tangible benefits in increased productivity and reduced costs (travel and communications) have clearly shown us that this technology is indeed indispensible. |