Unified communications is a wide-ranging topic, and the timing of deployment can lead to both unexpected benefits and unforeseen pitfalls. To get a sense of what happens during the deployment process, silicon.com interviewed CIOs and IT executives who have deployed unified communications systems to find out what the process looks like and what it takes to get ready.

Advantage 1
    According to experts, there were no surprises during the entire deployment. "We were expecting a loss of signal clarity, but that didn't happen in practice. In fact, we found that in most cases, the phone through Argento technology worked better than a direct connection."
     Hidillebagus says he's received "feedback from key department heads who are happy with additional features like click-to-call that Unified Communications brings." "This convenience makes the senior management team very happy," he says.
Disadvantage 1
    When using the system at home, there was a problem with routing, which caused one party in a conversation to get a voice, and it took an afternoon to fix the problem. "We really haven't had any serious problems," Hidillebagus said.
    "We have a very clear plan for that. In the communication with Argento, we received very good deployment support, so when it was time to really start the implementation, we had completed the preparation work, except for one problem in the afternoon, the work of the whole team was comprehensive and accurate. The transition period was short and we had no problems."
    Alan Kirkham, director of enterprise Information and Communications Technology services at Wakefield Town Local Council, is deploying the Siemens OpenScape Unified Communications system. He will speak on the convergence of OfficeCommunicator based on IP telephony and mobile phones.
Advantage 2
    Kirkham says, "The biggest payoff for managers is the actual results."
    "As a manager, I personally find it very valuable to know someone sitting in front of a computer," he added.
    The system also includes third-party components from consultants and Microsoft itself, which can effectively reduce the time delay of leaving phone messages and replying to emails.
    "You know the time you call the phone number they might not be there, the time you send the email, not knowing if it's going to be received or it's going to be opened after a while. That won't happen again. It makes the way you communicate more powerful and effective."
Disadvantage 2
    "The biggest challenge at the moment is the migration of the existing phone system, and we need to be very careful to ensure that the whole process does not have problems and affect the phone service of our customers." Kirkham said.
    NBRealEstate commercial real estate consultancy, the IT director Nick Scott is to upgrade the company's phone system recently, he chose the colt telecoms group, and Microsoft OfficeCommunicatorOfficeCommunicationsServer (OCS) 2007.
Advantage 3
    According to Scott, the company is moving faster than expected in some areas.
    "We thought that working with the old system to understand its usage would be a very slow process, but the actual work shows different signs, and the whole work is moving very quickly," he said, thanks to the simple way the phone system is integrated in the unified communications system.
    We also find the system very convenient to use, without any professional knowledge. "We've seen on multiple occasions that people are using Outlook to call their phones without training. So I think the system is very intuitive and much more convenient than I originally thought."
Disadvantage # 3
    According to Scott, the system had some technical problems around the time it started operating. "The work is done first, but our Microsoft Communicator needs to be reinstalled to support the relevant features." 'he said.
    "Although it didn't work the first time, after getting it up and running, we never found the problem again. It has been operating reliably."
    Scott also highlighted the "lack of common sense understanding of unified communications technology." "A lot of people don't really understand it," he said. "You might think that you should use the phone to contact other people, and the data is communicated to other people through transmission, which is more like a digital product in a way. There may be a difference. But in the long run, I don't think it's going to be a problem."