ABSTRACT
I am choosing to write my Unified Communications and Benefits Therein about the Fortune500 Company AT&T, as they are the leading Deployers and Developers of Unified Communications (UC) in the world. It was difficult to discover how AT&T utilizes UC in their own environment, but even more telling is the various methods they use in employing UC in other environments, but the benefits that AT&T receives from said implementations are measured in billions and tons.
First I shall mention the virtues of Unified Communications in various Fortune500 Companies, and the projected gains of their implementations. Covering organization, collaboration, security, and answers to those security issues.
Then I shall illustrate how AT&T can facilitate in the development of a Unified Communication solution, by revealing kinks in conventional communication and the foundations of a ground level schematic for the implementation of a technological solution, and the projected benefits that result from said implementations.
Further, we shall explore AT&T's 1.6 billion dollar undertaking on behalf of Shell Global, and the ground breaking technology they plan to implement on their behalf, which will transition into the Software Centric Netwok development that AT&T is working on, and their own Unified Communications solutions they use to monitor the Voice, Data, and Video networks of the world.
Unified Communications (UC) is quickly becoming every companies first weapon in their arsenal of communication, which is the backbone of every transaction, interaction, or reaction. Every business, from three-man mom and pop home offices, to Fortune500 companies, are looking to take their communication to the next level, and most are looking to AT&T’s UC Foundation to solve that problem.
In Vanessa Park’s 2013 article, she quoted Global Management Consulting company McKinsey as saying “McKinsey released a report on this stating that Fortune 500 companies may win $31.5 billion a year just by collecting information from employees. These employees include not only top management but also the high-skilled workers and professionals. It said that the use of this technology can cut down the time of checking emails and tracking information by 20 to 25 percent.” The figures alone close any argument concerning the Return on Investment (ROI) of UC. But the question of implementation still persists.
Many websites like Google+, LinkedIn, or Facebook can provide a solution to the problem of Unified Communications, but using said sites can be counter productive, as they are inherently open to the public, and could provide a faucet through which business rivals could siphon valuable information. Through open programs such as these, the weakest link in security are your workers, and there’s no way to guarantee they wouldn’t inadvertently release the wrong information.
So many companies take it upon themselves to have a private social network, like General Electric’s “GE Colab” or IBM’s “Beehive” where employees can contribute to a massive knowledge-base filled with forums, files, photos, and even less generalized information like employee credentials, news articles, and stock information.
Yet not every company has the resources at their disposal to create their own independent network for communication, collaboration, and the storage of a centralized accessible knowledge-base, which is where AT&T Comes in. In Blair Pleasant’s 2016 article she references a workshop AT&T Consulting held, where they were finalizing decisions for a Unified Communications Solution, they brought multiple shareholders together for the first time, where they discovered that individuals had been making conflicting decisions concerning the implementation of their UC solution. By putting tech at the forefront, and allowing the business centric shareholders in charge of the upfront planning, they were able to cohesively make arrangements for the UC implementation.
This anecdote is a perfect example of the differences in legacy communication, and UC, and explains how McKinsey projected 31.5 billion dollars in savings by eliminating administrative redundancy.
And AT&T has been working at this for a long time, in an article AT&T Co-Sponsored in 2009 they stated: “One increasingly popular unified communications application is telepresence. The adoption of telepresence throughout a global organization has been shown to substantially reduce travel costs. For example, since launching the AT&T TelePresence Solution internally, AT&T has experienced a significant improvement in collaboration across business units, increased employee productivity and reduced travel costs. AT&T estimates that its use of telepresence will reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 31,000 tons over the next five years — an amount that is roughly equal to the emissions generated by 5,732 passenger vehicles annually.”
Telepresence, a driving factor of UC, has more than just monetary benefits, it has immeasurable environmental benefits as well. And AT&T, as a major contributor to many Fortune 500 companies UC Solutions, is directly or indirectly responsible for such progress.
But that isn’t the only benefit that UC has awarded AT&T. Starting in 2008, Shell Global began a 1.6 Billion dollar “Strategic Sourcing Agreement” with AT&T, looking to unify their communications and according to Jay Crotts, Shell vice president IT Services, “provide a significant improvement in the way Shell people innovate, communicate and use technology, as it improves productivity at a lower cost.”
And AT&T isn’t only providing UC for other Fortune500 companies. Their Global Network Operations Center (GNOC) in Bedminster, New Jersey is among the most cutting edge in the world, with a 200+ wall of displays that would make NASA jealous.
Heart of AT&T’s data, voice, and mobility networks, the GNOC in Bedminster serves as the lynchpin of their Unified Communications. Here they can monitor or manipulate any form of data that crosses their extensive network, and witness or control the ebb and flows of cyberspace. In 2012 Todd Hastelton had the pleasure of touring the facility, and meeting Chuck Kerschner, director of Network operations at the Bedminster GNOC. Hastelton reported: “Kerschener showed me a number of instances where the network was flooded with data and how AT&T has to answer during a disaster: the tsnunami in Japan, for example, the flooding in New Orleans and even the attacks on September 11th all put massive strains on the network. In such a case, AT&T needs to reroute data so that those areas can stay in contact with the rest of the world.”
Clearly, AT&T has it’s finger on the pulse of Unified Communications, and is doing everything it can to further other companies endeavors in the subject. I for one cannot wait to see what arises next in the subject of UC, and hope to have a hand in whatever progressions arise.
REFERENCES
(2013, January 31). “Fortune 500 Companies Take Advantage of Unified Communications Internally” Retrieved May 11, 2016, from http://www.smartdatacollective.com/vanessaparks/100296/Fortune-500-Companies-Take-Advantage-of-Unified-Communications
(2016, March 15). “AT&T Helps Drive User Adoption for UCC” Retrieved May 11, 2016, from
http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-expert-views/att-helps-drive-user-adoption-for-ucc.aspx
(2009, May/June). “Global Telecoms Business CEO and CFO Guide to IP Transformation” Retrieved May 10, 2016 from https://www.business.att.com/content/article/09_ADVRTRL_GTB_UC_MayJun.pdf
(2010, May 18). “AT&T Press Release: Shell Selects AT&T To Provide Global Unified Communications Solution” Retrieved May 10, 2016 from
http://www.corp.att.com/emea/insights/pr/eng/shell_180510.html
(2012, July 26). “A Look Inside AT&T’s Global Network” Retrieved May, 11 2016 from
http://www.technobuffalo.com/2012/07/26/a-look-inside-atts-global-network-operations-center-gnoc/