Optimising
workplace productivity at eircom's new headquarters
At
eircom 2008 is a big year as we consolidate and move
1,500 of our people to our new state of the art corporate
headquarters. The move marks the first time that so
many of eircom's functions will be located in one place.
It's also gives us the chance to change how our people
and teams work together, communicate and share information.
We want to create an optimum "Information Workplace"
where our employees could do their very best work.
"This
is about doing business at the speed of thought,
making it easy for people to have all the conversations
and information they need to get on with things
quickly."
Stephen Mulligan, IT Manager, eircom. |
This
has triggered one of the most significant technology
refreshes in our history, and it offers a unique opportunity
for our IT and business management units to call on
the strategy experts at eircom Advisory Services, to
examine the big picture of how we use ICT and find ways
to derive more value from our investment.
The result is that our new HQ will allow us to phase
in what we've called a New World of Work, a collection
of tools, systems, processes and training materials
that will help everyone at eircom, individually and
as groups, to be more productive.
UC for a communications intensive
business
"There are three major parts of the New World of
Work," explained Stephen Mulligan, IT Manager and
driver of the change programme at eircom. "First,
there's a converged IP voice and data communications
backbone in the building. This is coupled with a mobility
capability, where we're giving anytime, anyplace connectivity
to staff using tools like Wi-Fi and personal communicators
- these are smart IP phones which offer other features
like mobile email. Finally there's Unified Communications
(UC), tools that let staff use any communications medium
they want - e-mail, documents, instant messaging, voice,
video - wherever they are, through one combined interface."
The three pronged initiative is a direct
response to the nature of eircom's communications intensive
business, which involves a significant amount of consultation,
collaboration, face to face meetings and team project
work. We need to efficiently deliver our growing portfolio
of information and communication services to our diverse
and dispersed customer base, as well as complete the
major ICT infrastructural work of our massive Next Generation
Network (NGN) rollout. This demands that all our technical,
engineering, customer service, account management and
business management people communicate and collaborate
at peak efficiency - with each other, with customers,
and with our suppliers and partners.
UC
will offer major advantages by removing technical and
logistical barriers to efficient communications:
- IP enabled voice communications
with a “click to call” capability
- Business grade instant
messaging with Microsoft Office Communicator
2007 that displays the availability status of
key colleagues and allows on-the-fly "micro-consultations"
without interrupting each other's workflow.
Our peoples’ presence is also integrated
into our Outlook email client and SharePoint
sites.
- Instant IP videoconferencing
eliminates the need for some face to face meetings
and gives existing teleconferences more impact.
- Document sharing, information
searching and collaborative online workspaces
provided by Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
2007 make team work and particularly project
management work more effective. These tools
also reduce the reliance on e-mail as an inefficient
collaboration tool and make the job of the ICT
department much easier.
"Our use of UC is all about
enabling people - if I can think of something I need to
do, I don't want to then realise there's five technical
reasons it's not possible for me to do it right here,
right now," Stephen says. "I use all these tools
myself, and I can see what a huge difference it makes
when the technology at your fingertips makes everything
easier. "Yesterday,
for example, I set up a quick video conference with a
colleague in Cork using my laptop from home, connected
over my broadband line. In the middle of it, I was able
to switch my headset temporarily to take an urgent call
on my mobile, and then switch back to the video conference
without dropping the call. Behind the scenes here it's
technologies like Bluetooth, IP and broadband, but the
tools themselves don't matter. This is about doing business
at the speed of thought, making it easy for people to
have all the conversations and information they need to
get on with things quickly, and that's why UC really does
make people more productive."
For more information on how UC tools and strategies can
benefit your enterprise, contact your account manager
Strategy
Email to a colleague