Getting unified on UC a tall task

During an Avaya press and analyst breifing last week, which the networking vendor used most of to hype its unified communications platform, inquiries arose during the Q and A session about the many internal battles that have to be waged in order to implement such systems successfully. How do you get all department reps on the same page and agreeable to the concept of a newfangeld system that, depite the stated benefits on paper, will represent a considerable amount of time and effort around training and implementation?

The Avaya Canada executive charged with responding did his best by mentioning that a business must know its business before undertaking any large-scale technology implementation, and even managed to get a plug in for Avaya’s services and its resellers.

The discussion moved on to other areas, but the question seemed to hang in the air even after things had wrapped up. The fact is, there really is no answer to the question, other than by saying to those trying to move their firms to UC, put on your best diplomacy hat, be prepared for some potentially long battles with those who resist change, and do your best to get senior management on your side by clearly explaining the benefits, both operational and financial.