Unified Communications

Unified communications leads to tangible business benefits and enhanced collaboration. Everything about unified communications technologies, trends, evolutions, best practices and research.

New role, New Business Opportunities and New Texas Experiences

Bas Burger
May 14, 2013
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Today, I’m happy to announce my next chapter at BT as president of BT US and Canada (US&C) as well as the global industry verticals – Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) and Pharmaceutical and Chemical.  I am delighted to be a part of this talented organization and the transformation of its operations, performances and customer service. This new role is exciting for me as I look across the strengths of BT’s business in the US&C and these growing industries.  We have a strong business in the US&C for banking, financial trading markets, consumer products and pharmaceuticals.

I joined BT in 2008 as CEO for the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg) and in 2011 transitioned into president of the EMEA and Latin America region.  In addition to a regional leader, I also became president of the Global Commerce sector which supports companies in industries such as manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and logistics. I’m a Dutch native but have recently moved to Texas for this role and am looking forward to barbeque, American football and hot summers. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Agile & Flexible Working, Canada, Unified Communications, US Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Globalisation and collaboration: evolutions, barriers and successes

Pierrette de Leeuw-Koumans
May 8, 2013
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In 1995, journalist Frances Cairncross coined the phrase “the death of distance” in an article for The Economist (and wrote a book about it). It seems that with the ongoing interconnectedness of the world economy and the digitalisation of society we can start talking about “the death of inertia” in collaboration and globalisation.

The real-time nature of social technologies and the speed of social in general has made us enter an era of instant globalisation. One of the first  areas where instant globalisation showed its potential was medicine. In medicine, speed is crucial and sharing information about patients globally and fast can literally save lives. It’s such an important area that our BT Global Health division is focused on making this instant collaboration and globalisation happen. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Benelux, Collaboration, Country, Social business, Unified Communications Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Most Popular Stories in April

Popular Articles in April
May 7, 2013
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Once again in April, Let’s Talk was getting to the heart of the big issues of the day.

Again the topics were varied with everything from boating to banking; and we saw blogs on security, brand loyalty and pioneering telehealth in the south west of England.

Anyway, why not see for yourself? Here are the top five articles from the Let’s Talk blog over the past month.

Enjoy! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Financial Services, Global, Government, Health, IT Infrastructure, Public sector, Unified Communications Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

We’re Going to Need a Bigger Boat

Limited Resources
April 15, 2013
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There’s a temptation to write about Steven’s Spielberg’s summer blockbuster Jaws , but actually this blog shall remain firmly on land (for most of the time)!  Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) requires investment to deploy the necessary components to build a solution…the question is what is actually being built? 

Recently our CEO Luis Alvarez gave an inspirational talk to the leadership team on the Next Generation of Global Services. He shared his vision on how we are going to evolve to better serve our customers. Part of Luis’ vision is developing new business capabilities. But it is also about approach, building a new mind-set that can make a huge difference – as one construction worker says to another “we’re not just laying bricks, we’re building a cathedral”. And stealing further from his blog the author Joel Barker, author and lecturer said: “Vision without action is merely a dream; Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Global, Unified Communications Tagged With: , , , ,

Guiding safety out of thin air

Guiding safety out of thin air - communications - network - it infrastructure
March 25, 2013
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Who doesn’t like a safe landing? I certainly do. And I’m just glad there are people like Joe around to help make that happen.

Joe is an air traffic controller, and works for air traffic control service, NATS. He’s responsible for getting thousands of people to earth safely on a daily basis, and is one of the calm heads needed to help pilots navigate the busy skies around our airports. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Global, IT Infrastructure, UK, Unified Communications Tagged With: , , , ,

Conference Calls Connect With 21st Century Sound

Conference calls
March 25, 2013
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As experts in the science of sound and human perception, Dolby scientists and engineers have been working with BT to improve the workday conference call, making it sound more like an in-person meeting with BT MeetMe with Dolby Voice.

To better understand the state of audio conferencing, we talked with market experts at Wainhouse Research, who had some head-turning insights.

Wainhouse senior analyst Andy Nilssen gave his perspective on the findings, just published in a new white paper called Ripe for Change—Three Factors Set to Transform Audio Conferencing. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Conferencing, Global, Unified Communications Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Webchat: be more efficient by multi-tasking

Webchat: be more efficient by multi-tasking
March 11, 2013
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Is the phone dead? Not yet, but gone are the days where contact centres revolved around calls. We’ve been looking at the benefits of using webchat alongside the traditional call in our new research, It’s good to chat: Webchat and the contact centre. And we found call centre agents can be more efficient when they’re able to multi-task.

Webchat does three things for the advisor: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Contact centres, Global, IT Infrastructure, Unified Communications Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Yahoo! Boohoo! No More Home Working.

Are your customers fickle?
February 28, 2013
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Who would have thought that a ban on home working would cause such a fuss? CEO Marissa Mayer’s decision to ban Yahoos from home working certainly got a response – everyone from the New York Times, Business Insider, Richard Branson, mommy bloggers and their employees  felt the need to question the wisdom of the move.

Yahoo wants to regain its mojo. Mayer wants more commitment from her team and sees face to face working as an important part of Yahoo’s recovery. She may well be right for Yahoo. However, you have to ask if remote working is really Yahoos problem or are they just bad at managing remote workers? Remote working intensifies issues of trust, delegation, empowerment and freedom. If these are broken then for sure you are going to have face real difficulties managing a remote workforce. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Agile & Flexible Working, Featured, Global, Unified Communications Tagged With: , , , ,

Why do we need business governance for SharePoint?

The Two Unlikely Keys to Omnichannel Success
February 26, 2013
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SharePoint experts are an eclectic bunch – drawing on ideas, style and standards from a wide variety of sources. This is partly because the technology is so versatile allowing SharePoint to be deployed for myriad business purposes. The result is that SharePoint experts have a wide range of opinions of what is best, what works well and what works badly.

However, the one thing they have strong agreement on is the need for business governance. To put it bluntly business governance is what makes the difference between success and failure especially at the corporate level. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Cloud Computing, Global, ICT Management, IT Infrastructure, Unified Communications Tagged With: , , ,

Enterprise Security Begins At Home

Home Computer Security – Top 10 Tips
February 18, 2013
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Since writing a book on home computer security I’ve become increasingly aware of how poor security on home computers is having an effect on enterprise security. But the converse is also true; good home security can have a beneficial influence on the enterprise.

There are several ways in which deficiencies in home computer security can impact businesses. Firstly, malware on home computers is being used by criminals and hacktivists to commit fraud and to disrupt legitimate business use of the internet, through botnets for example. Secondly, more and more staff are telecommuting, or working from home, which may involve transferring documents to the home PC, or using a business laptop in an insecure environment. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Global, Security, Unified Communications Tagged With: , , , ,
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