Preface
This book is all about real-time communication and collaboration—in other words all that you need to know about unified communications!
The book combines both interesting areas; business, and technology, into one single literature. The reader will get to know all important key areas of unified communications technologies: How to evaluate and integrate unified communications project in your own company or for your customer, how you select the right solution, how you plan, design, and implement the technology itself, and also how you can create a compelling business case for communications and collaborations projects. Additionally, you get to know the current innovations and available technologies for social networking, collaboration, cloud services, contact centers and enhanced collaboration for mobile devices. This book also offers a real business case of a transformational project from traditional telecommunications to unified communications technology including all key lessons, best practices and how to put together a business case you can use for your business. On the technical side: Let's get to know Microsoft Lync 2013, what's new in one of the most successful unified communications products and what innovative changes we would have in the way we communicate and collaborate in the next few years!
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Innovation of the Communication and Information Technology, introduces you to the current changes in the communication and information technology and the trends that we will see in the next few years. From the beginning of telecommunication, to the Internet and today: unified communications, collaborations, social networking, and cloud technology.
Chapter 2, Information Technology Meets Knowledge Management, explains how collaboration and communication and social networking technology can help businesses to learn faster, store "knowledge" as content, share information across the boundaries of the organization and how communication technology can create better success. Learn about the term Knowledge Management means and how important it is for companies in today's business.
Chapter 3, Business Cooperation in the World of the World Wide Web, explains how unified communications can help companies to be more efficient and more successful. You will also learn how cooperation, partnerships, and alliances between companies are key factors in today's business. To work with another company in partnership also requires a modern communication and collaboration interface.
Chapter 4, Value and Potential for End Users, illustrates a "common business day" with all the modern tools so that you are better connected to customers, business partner, friends, family and be always up-to-date with the latest information. We discuss how chat, VoIP, video conferencing, desktop, application sharing, Lync, and Skype changed our daily lives. You will also learn more about a daily life with unified communications and collaborations technology.
Chapter 5, Cost Optimization Approaches, drives you through important cost saving factors since every company wants to achieve more with less using the most optimal resources. Factors such as facility, data connection, telecommunication costs, insourcing or outsourcing to cloud services and the "real" Return of Investment (ROI) of unified communications for companies of all sizes are discussed. This chapter provides also a very helpful guideline on how you can develop a business case and ROI for a unified communications project.
Chapter 6, Unified Communications Projects in Practice, brings you through a real project example where unified communications is introduced and implemented successfully. It also answers questions such as; What was the business justification? Was the key problem resolved? Why did the company select unified communications for their business? Learn about all key areas of a real-time communication project that are critical to the successful optimization of a company.
Chapter 7, Analyzing the Key Points of a Unified Communications Project, provides great information on how a unified communications project should be introduced, what preparation is required from business and technology side, how to select the best solution for the business, how a successful project needs to be managed and controlled, and how an overall successful outcome can be made a reality. It also answers questions such as: What are the key challenges for a real time or in other words unified communications and collaborations project? What usually blocks projects in this space and how can you resolve challenges to implement a successful project and technology? Learn more about how to realize a successful project and change for the company.
Chapter 8, Technology Inside the Microsoft UC platform and a Look into the Future, provides detailed technical information on how you plan, design, implement, and run a Microsoft Lync 2013 topology for your organization. Microsoft Lync is one of the most successful unified communications solutions in the Information Technology world. Learn also about other tools such as Skype, add-ons for reporting, business intelligence, Contact Center solutions, web chat, persistent chat and great partner solutions for the Lync platform. This chapter will also provide you with an interesting look into the near future of technology.
Who this book is for
Do you want to know more about unified communications, collaborations, Lync, Skype, social, or cloud services? This book offers interesting content for many different audiences: Business decision makers, technical advocates, and IT decision makers. As this is also a fundamental book on real-time collaboration technology, it is suitable for anyone who is interested in the future of communications and collaborations. You will also learn to plan, design, and realize a project in this space for your own company or customers. Through this book's chapters you will gain an in-depth knowledge of topics such as meeting business requirements with UC, how to build a business case, selecting the best technology, plan for UC business solutions such as contact center and CRM integration, realizing projects to migrate from traditional telephony to unified communications inside an organization, and optimize communication and collaboration for your own business, your business partners or your customers.
Conventions
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "The following screenshot shows the page when the Clients option is selected."
Note
Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.
Tip
Tips and tricks appear like this.
Reader feedback
Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book—what you liked or may have disliked. Reader feedback is important for us to develop titles that you really get the most out of.
To send us general feedback, simply send an e-mail to <feedback@packtpub.com>, and mention the book title via the subject of your message.
If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide on www.packtpub.com/authors.
Customer support
Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.
Errata
Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in the text or the graphics—we would be grateful if you would report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration and help us improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/submit-errata, selecting your book, clicking on the errata submission form link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata will be uploaded on our website, or added to any list of existing errata, under the Errata section of that title. Any existing errata can be viewed by selecting your title from http://www.packtpub.com/support.
Piracy
Piracy of copyright material on the Internet is an ongoing problem across all media. At Packt, we take the protection of our copyright and licenses very seriously. If you come across any illegal copies of our works, in any form, on the Internet, please provide us with the location address or website name immediately so that we can pursue a remedy.
Please contact us at <copyright@packtpub.com> with a link to the suspected pirated material.
We appreciate your help in protecting our authors, and our ability to bring you valuable content.
Questions
You can contact us at <questions@packtpub.com> if you are having a problem with any aspect of the book, and we will do our best to address it.
