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Best of Breed / Best of Suite

Best of Breed / Best of Suite. Jonathan Bartholomew Principal Consultant, Converged Communications Dimension Data Americas www.dimensiondata.com. Dimension Data . IT Services and Solutions Provider that helps clients plan, build, support and manage their IT infrastructures

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Best of Breed / Best of Suite

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  1. Best of Breed / Best of Suite Jonathan Bartholomew Principal Consultant, Converged Communications Dimension Data Americas www.dimensiondata.com

  2. Dimension Data • IT Services and Solutions Provider that helps clients plan, build, support and manage their IT infrastructures • Global organization • Lines of Business • Converged Communications • Network Infrastructure & Wireless • Advanced Security • Data Center & Storage Solutions • Microsoft Solutions • Customer Interactive Solutions

  3. Current UC Trends • The economic climate has catapulted Unified Communications technology and services as a means of cost savings: Examples: • Cost Reduction: SIP trunking and consolidation, Telecom Expense Management (TEM) • Cost Avoidance: Centralization of core components, integration of communications media types (IM, email, voice, messaging, video) • Cost Control: Support Team Consolidation, SoP’s

  4. Current UC Trends cont’d • Centralization of communications technology • Provide services from central core components with survivability at the edge • Centralize support model and staff • Higher demand for business socialization using commercialized systems/endpoints • Facebook, Twitter, MySpace • PDA’s, Smartphones, iPhones • Visual Communications • Multi-channel Contact Center

  5. Arguments for Best of Suite • BoB typically excel in one or few areas of communications • Integrations between or among vendor systems may produce implementation issues – even with standard interfaces • Suite systems typically follow a similar development and release path making upgrades more cohesive • Capital investment is typically lower than BoB • Single “throat to choke” • Similar hardware, OS, databases, interfaces* • May be stronger fit for enterprise or global organizations with modest feature/service needs

  6. Arguments for Best of Breed • Typically excel in one or few areas of communications • May provide advanced functionality over suite-based systems • Many standard interfaces will allow for cross-vendor leverage • Competitive landscape offers power in vendor relationships • Industry specific applications and services typically fall within BoB (healthcare, financial, etc.) • Vendor R&D spend is more focused

  7. BoB/BoS Business Considerations • Business Requirements Met? • User Adoption Success Rate • Single vs. multiple end user interface types • Training sustainability for multiple vendor systems • End user functionality requirements vs. actual • Scalability and Upgradeability • Will upgrades to one system or application require upgrades to integrated systems/applications? • Operational Support Model – how will the solution be managed? • Staffing requirements (skill sets, resource location) • Standardized procedures

  8. BoB/BoS Technical Considerations • Technical Requirements Met (platform/network security, redundancy/uptime, performance) • Management Interfaces (Support Processes) • Service Availability • For BoB, are the integrations/interfaces between systems test/market-proven and stable? • Scalability and Upgradeability • Operational Support Model – how will the solution be managed? • Similar versus disparate databases, operating systems, interfaces, terminology • Availability of single management interface

  9. BoB/BoS Financial Considerations • Capital Spend Planned versus Actual • Integrations between or among vendor systems may produce implementation issues – even with “standard interfaces” • Negotiating Capabilities Compromised? • A Best of Suite approach usually requires lower investment at time of purchase, however may diffuse ability to gain preferential pricing, services, or support as competition soon becomes a forklift away • Operational Budgets • Will multiple tools be required to interface to multiple systems? • Will additional staff resources be required to support multiple systems (?

  10. BoB vs. BoS • Who do you put your money on? • Functionality Desired • Application Interfaces • Operational Support • Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) • End User Experience & Training

  11. BoB/BoS Recommendation • Define Requirements • Business • Technical • Financial • Score Best of Suite against requirements • Does each BoS product, service or application meet the requirements? • Is a BoB product, service or application needed to meet the requirements? • Start with Best of Suite, Best of Breed only if functionality dictates

  12. Thank You

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