It was quite the week, thanks to Mother Nature, who decided to knock out power in the Minneapolis hotel, and then returned Thursday evening with a band of storms stretching from Massachusetts to Texas, shutting down LaGuardia airport in the process. 

Those distractions aside, the seminar series, which began the previous week in Dallas, has served as an eye opener to more than a few businesses in each city, thanks to some eye-opening statistics regarding SIP adoption and both hard and soft benefits that can be enjoyed.  The greatest “A-ha moment” was during a discussion of just how much time employees waste on administrative tasks every day – finding and reaching the right people, scheduling, dealing with redundant or unnecessary communications, etc. – and how much of that time SIP-based UC can recover.

Naturally, in order to enjoy maximum benefits of any technology, you have to deploy it properly, which, in the case of SIP, may mean including a session border controller at the enterprise network edge to help mediate between the different flavors of SIP and manage traffic, including prioritization and security.  After all, despite being an internationally recognized standard, every vendor puts a proprietary spin on SIP, creating an inherent difficulty in making a connection between two SIP endpoints. 

If your business hasn’t yet developed a migration strategy for moving from your legacy communications system to SIP-based UC, the next two sessions in Boston (tomorrow, July 31) and New York (Thursday, August 2) are your next opportunities to not only understand why SIP has become the de facto protocol for enterprise UC, but also why you can’t afford to wait. 

The simple explanation is this:  The market, including your customers and your competitors, are going IP.  If you don’t want to be left behind, you will do the same. 

Join Sonus, Arrow S3, and Level 3 – along with TMC senior editor Peter Bernstein – to see the proof in the pudding.

Maybe you’ve even installed a VoIP system to help reduce budgets.  Maybe you haven’t.

Either way, there’s a good chance your phone system, be it IP- or TDM-based, isn’t allowing you to remain as competitive as you would like.  You don’t have the collaboration capabilities you need; or you aren’t able to support the needs of your mobile workers, who increasingly find themselves on the road more than in the office; or you haven’t found a way to bring video into your workplace effectively; or you haven’t been able to make use of all your communications devices; or you don’t know how to integrate social media into your infrastructure.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone.  While we in the media have been talking about these and other capabilities that fall under the broad Unified Communications umbrella for years now, and there are quite a few businesses that have successfully incorporated these features in their daily operations.  But, the fact is that making the right decision isn’t as easy as it might seem and the majority of businesses have yet to make the jump.  There are countless alternatives to choose from and an awful lot rides on making the right decision, which means many execs are out there scratching their heads, asking questions, like: 

• What exactly is Unified Communications?
• What UC functions are most important?
• What are the different UC deployment options?
• Can we use our existing equipment?
• What is required for UC operation?
• What is the timing for a UC installation?
•  And of course, how quickly can we achieve ROI?

There are countless options out there in terms of vendors, each with its own strengths – and drawbacks.  The challenge business executives are faced with is how to cut through the marketing language and colloquialisms and get to the heart of the matter, which is understanding what they really need in a UC solution.

Once they’ve accomplished that, they can move to the next phase, including narrowing down the potential suitors to find the vendor most suitable for their operational and fiscal needs.

Along with Marty Parker, from UniComm Consulting and UCStrategies, and TMC’s Peter Bernstein, who has more than 30 years of telecom industry experience under his belt, I’ll be hosting a vendor-neutral UC Webinar tomorrow, Wednesday, November 30, that will help businesses answer their questions and understand just what it is they should be looking for in a Unified Communications system.

We’ll not only look at different deployment and platform options, but also many of the popular UC applications, to help business managers get to the next phase of the UC decision making process.

Register for "Five Questions to Ask Before Making Your Unified Communications Choice" today.

Incidentally, Marty, Peter, and I will be joined by IntelliCom Analytics’ Frank Stinson on Thursday, December 15 at 2:00pm ET for the second in this series of UC Webinars, Choosing the Right Unified Communications Vendor.

I look forward to hosting you for both events, and to helping your business navigate the murky waters of the Unified Communications selection process.