Operating in five global regions, Dimension Data is an IT services and solution provider, providing consulting, integration and managed services. Its two key UC partners are Cisco and Microsoft (the company has achieved the Master Unified Communications Specialization from Cisco) and the company has implemented a number of Microsoft OCS/Cisco Unified CallManager solutions, in addition to other UC solutions (often leveraging Genesys Enterprise Telephony Software to integrate with switches from Avaya, Nortel, and others).

At the company’s Analyst Conference in Boston, UC was a hot topic. I was impressed with the company’s implementation and usage of UC throughout the organization. The internal rollout of unified communications is completed in four regions and the last region is nearing completion. Everyone in the organization, not just managers or mobile workers, has UC capabilities.

The company focuses on several market solutions related to UC:

• Telephony (which Dimension Data considers the foundational element of UC) requires a secure voice infrastructure as the platform for richer communications and collaboration.
• Enterprise mobility is needed to improve the productivity of mobile workers through seamless access to corporate communications and business applications regardless of location
• Visual communications, including telepresence and video conferencing to improve interactions and the quality of remote collaboration, thus eliminating time and cost penalties of traveling.
• Integrated collaboration, reducing costs and improving business process speed by integrating multiple communication channels and presence within the user’s working context
• Contact centers, particularly IP-enabled contact centers with multiple modes of communication, are used to create and deliver integrated management of customer interaction across communication channels to retain and grow the value of the organization’s customer base.

Dimension Data discussed the importance of business relevance to UC, noting that UC helps workers achieve higher levels of productivity to execute the business process more effectively. As a system integrator, Dimension Data has to think through the business relevance of UC on the business process in order to help its clients improve the quality of their interactions with their clients. This is what the UCStrategies.com team has been preaching, so I was glad to hear about the focus on business relevance.

Quoting his grandmother, Mark Slaga, CTO and CIO, noted that implementing UC without a roadmap is like “cross stitching in the dark – it can be bloody, and when you turn the lights on, not pretty.” He stated that “everyone gets the ‘C’ part of UC, but not the ‘U’ or unified part.

To this end, Dimension Data helps companies develop a roadmap, showing them how to go from here to there and how to use UC to help run their business. For example, how can you improve claims processing using these tools? The company has expanded on its standard methodology for deployment of IP telephony solutions, and offers a UC Development Model (UCDM), “a tool customers can use to help prioritize their investment in unified communications, to assess their competence and capabilities in UC, and to develop a roadmap for implementation.” The UCDM is used to create a road map and help ensure that the organization’s people, process and technology areas are business relevant and prioritized correctly.

Dimension Data has expertise with both Cisco and Microsoft solutions, and has implemented a number of UC solutions requiring integration of those companies’ products. While Cisco and Microsoft implementations account for a good deal of the company’s business, it also offers UC solutions across multiple vendors (often times utilizing Genesys’ GETS product to integrate with diverse PBXs).

When I give presentations about UC and the various players, I always give kudos to the system integrators, identifying them as the ones who are generally tasked with putting all the UC components together, integrating them with the companies’ business processes and applications, and making it all work. Companies like Dimension Data play a critical role in the UC market, and are helping to move the industry from “slideware” to reality.