Development Model helps assess unified communications.
Press Release Summary:
Unified Communications Development Model helps organizations understand current state of performance, operational practices, and strategic execution and helps develop roadmap tailored to requirements for present and future. It allows mapping of operational and strategic competency onto 1 of 4 maturity levels: Basic, Converged, Unified, or Optimized. Model can be used as starting point for strategic planning process, progress check against planned projects, or as review of current projects.
Original Press Release:
Dimension Data Releases Unified Communications Development Model
Organizations Want Help Defining UC Roadmaps
NEW YORK, March 27 / / - Dimension Data, a $3.8 billion leading IT solutions and services provider, today announced the availability of its Unified Communications Development Model (UCDM), which helps organizations assess their competence and capabilities in the area of unified communications and develop a roadmap for UC implementation.
Developed by Dimension Data's communications experts, the UCDM reflects growing demand from clients for a model to measure their organizations against a set of operational and strategic competency areas. The model then helps them prioritize their investments in unified communications.
"As our previous unified communications research indicates, UC is a high priority on boardroom agendas for 2008 and beyond," said Mitchell Hershkowitz, national practice manager for converged communications at Dimension Data. "Global organizations see the value of deploying unified communications and are turning to solutions providers like Dimension Data for guidance. Our customers want a strategic roadmap that aligns technology with their business requirements in order to define which solutions and projects to prioritize for maximum return on investment."
Dimension Data's August 2007 UC research reflects the views of 900 IT managers and end users across 13 countries in the United States, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It indicated that up to 40 percent of end users were using their own UC technologies at work, rather than officially sanctioned applications.
"Employees face increasing pressures on productivity and need to be more mobile while working in a virtual environment. Evolving corporate roles require them to be away from their desks and co-workers - yet still responsible for the personal interactions that drive productivity. Advanced unified communications applications such as instant messaging, presence, unified messaging and mobility play a key role in enhancing productivity and efficiency. These applications, though, require careful planning for integration into the existing corporate communications platform and applications environment, especially around security and compliance requirements," Hershkowitz said.
The UCDM helps organizations understand their current state of performance, operational practices and strategic execution. It also helps them develop a roadmap tailored to specific business and employee requirements - both for the present and the future.
As part of the UCDM, Dimension Data works with business stakeholders to map each operational and strategic competency onto one of four maturity levels: Basic, Converged, Unified or Optimized. The results focus on an "as-is" and a "to-be" desired position to analyze the current state of business communications and assess future needs. With this information, the next steps can include plans for technology purchases, deeper integration of existing technologies, and/or projects that center on corporate culture or end-user training. The UCDM can also be used as a starting point for an organization's strategic planning process, a progress check against planned projects or as a review of projects already implemented.
According to the UCDM, correct strategic context and technology priorities are crucial for best leveraging investments in unified communications. With these pieces in place, an organization's people, process initiatives and technology areas can work in concert to ensure intelligent UC investments and successful implementations.
About Dimension Data
Dimension Data , a specialist IT services and solutions provider, helps clients plan, build, support and manage their network and IT infrastructures. Dimension Data applies its expertise in networking, security, operating environments, storage and contact center technologies and its unique skills in consulting, integration and managed services to create customized client services. For more information: Call 866-DIDATA-US or visit http://www.dimensiondata.com/na.
Source: Dimension Data
CONTACT: Lisa Grimes of Dimension Data, +1-703-217-2692, lisa.grimes@us.didata.com; or Mike Broberg of Davies Murphy Group for Dimension Data, +1-781-418-2442, ddna@daviesmurphy.com
Web site: http://www.dimensiondata.com/na
