The Top 3 Questions People Ask Us Re: OCS 2007
Filed under: Conferencing, Instant Messaging (IM), OCS 2007, Reference, Unified Communications, Voice over IP
When you”re experts in something, people ask you questions. The same questions. Over & over again.
I”ve blogged about many of the things our customer ask us in the past. Still, a recap now and then doesn”t hurt. And since we”ve had several sales meetings that were almost cookie-cutter when it came to the questions they asked, I figured now’’s the time.
This is a trio of very common questions we get asked about Office Communications Server. (There’’s actually about 6 or 7, but I”ll save the rest for a later post.) If you”ve had a burning questions about OCS but thought it was too basic to ask? It’’s your lucky day.
1. What can we use it (OCS) for?
Use it to communicate with co-workers, clients and partners. Via text, voice or video. It runs all of that through the Office Communicator client on your desktop or mobile.
2. Does it work like a regular phone?
Yes, but not 100% the same. There are handsets you can use with OCS; that’’s pretty much a regular desktop phone for you. Otherwise, you can use the mic & speakers in your computer to have a voice conversation. Kind of like Skype, except OCS is more secure and incorporates tool for sharing business information while you chat.
Note: When people ask us about this, they”re also curious if OCS lets you talk with regular desk and cell phones too. The answer to that is yes, if you have an IP-PBX gateway installed. (We use gateways from Cisco, Aculab and Dialogic.)
3. Will it work with our phones?
Unless your phones are SIP-capable , no. Regular phones use standard telephone lines. OCS 2007′’s voice capabilities run through VoIP, which uses Internet connections. The tech’’s too new for the older phones to use. You”ll have to make some changes.
Any other OCS questions you”d like an answer to? Leave a comment, or email me. Next week I”ll post the Top 3 Questions we get about the new Exchange Server 2010.
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How Do You Determine the ROI of an OCS Setup?
Filed under: Instant Messaging (IM), OCS 2007, OCS 2007 R2, Unified Communications, Voice over IP
Using Office Communications Server 2007 in a business does have a lot of advantages, some of which I”ve covered in this blog so far. But what if you”re dealing with a numbers guy, someone who constantly repeats phrases like, “Bottom line,” “maximize profits” and “ROI?”
How do you please a hardcore-numbers manager/CFO when it comes to OCS? They”ll want to know lots of specifics. And you can be sure the question of ROI will come up. “What’’s the return on investment here?” they”ll probably bellow, pounding a fist into the desk hard enough to rattle their pen cup. “How do we know we”re getting a good value from this software?”
It’’s a fair question. So let’’s see about answering it!
What Kind of ROI Should We Expect from OCS?
I”ve talked about replacing PBX with a VoIP setup in OCS before. In terms of direct expense, that’’s the biggest ROI for OCS 2007 in terms of cash–you don”t need a PBX if you use OCS VoIP. Other related services (voicemail extras, additional phone/data lines, third-party conferencing software) also add up to monthly cost savings.
Sometimes companies buy OCS for the VoIP capability, or the conferencing capability. The fact that they get all the other services - instant messaging, presence, email plug-ins - is icing on the cake to them. However, I”d say this is another form of ROI too. Several clients found that as they began using these additional communications methods, the more valuable they became. (So did we, in fact.)
ROI of Time Savings
But a better way to look at ROI for OCS 2007 is in productivity. This is harder, maybe impossible to give numbers for. But you can illustrate it by showing what its benefits will lead to. For example.
- Conferencing Anyone Can Start. Leads to: Live records of who said what, fewer project mistakes due to clearer directions.
- Mobile information Sharing. Leads to: Fewer bottlenecks/delayed deadlines.
- Quicker, Easier Inter-office Conversations. Leads to: Faster turnaround on projects.
So, What DO We Tell the Numbers Guy?
Tell him you”ll save an estimated X each month on not paying for a PBX, conferencing systems and extra lines. Tell him employees will be able to complete projects more easily, resulting in pleased customers & more repeat sales. Tell him OCS 2007 even has hosted & virtual options, if he wants to stick to flat rates.
It’’s not a strict-dollars-and-sense type of ROI measurement. But it’’s a great way to demonstrate that the office would get value from OCS 2007.
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OCS Components: Call Forwarding
(Sorry this is up a day late. We”re in the middle of a BIG website upgrade!)
In sifting through some post ideas, I came across a few OCS tips on Brett Jo’’s blog. The one I”d like to talk about today is Call Forwarding (that’’s linked to from ”OCS” in the last sentence).
Call Forwarding is pretty standard these days. You set the office phone to forward to your mobile if you”re out. Maybe you forward calls from your cellphone when you”re in the office, too. With OCS, it’’s a little different. You set up all call forwarding from Office Communicator.
Read more
Competition on the Hosted OCS Shores?
Filed under: OCS 2007, OCS 2007 R2, Unified Communications, Voice over IP
Looks like we”ve got a little competition. CallTower, a company known for enterprise-level communication systems, is moving into hosting OCS-based phone systems.
It’’s okay though. Very few companies are enterprise-level. Our Hosted OCS plan is geared more toward smaller and mid-market companies. So CallTower isn”t freaking us out.
In fact, this says a lot about growing OCS adoption in the business world. People are waking up to the cost savings. And how handy OCS can be!
