Recession is upon us. Business and technology leaders are hurriedly looking for places to scale back, while defining strategies for surviving – or even getting ahead – during the economic downturn. This paper addresses three key imperatives for communications management for a tough economy:

• Streamline – How to cope with reduced budgets and staffing without impeding business operations
• Compete – Using technology to maintain speed, innovation and customer service with fewer staff
• Prepare – Ensuring your business can scale up and strike fast at the earliest signs of opportunity
  

The paper identifies key points for executives to consider in making communications reductions and investments and offers an array of solutions supported by real-world case studies.

Speed and Simplicity

Many of the solutions featured in this paper are intentionally simple. In order to address immediate business needs, they are designed to be deployed quickly and, in many cases, without disrupting the in-place communications environment.

This is not to say that more sophisticated solutions are not available (they certainly are); nor that dramatic business results would not be realized with, for example, a modernized communications infrastructure, or by integrating Unified Communications technology into core business applications. It is only to suggest that there are increments of cost and staff efficiency to be gained quickly with simpler implementations that can grow in sophistication and size as time and economics allow.

The OpenPath strategy, from Siemens Enterprise Communications, enables deployment of point solutions with minimal disruption, then allows users, features and applications to be added easily over time. The architecture of the OpenScape Suite is open, highly scalable – in both function and user capacity - modular and based on a common software server. A great deal of value can be deployed on top of in-place, multi-vendor or third-party voice environments. Siemens provides integration, maintenance and management of multi-vendor communication environments (voice, LAN and security) with its OpenScale services suite. All of this combines to create unmatched dexterity in delivering point solutions today that evolve elegantly and economically over time. Thus, we can create immediate, focused results to address the current economic situation, while ensuring agility for the future.

This paper provides a collection of ideas, backed by real-world examples in which cost savings and efficiency were calculated.

Part 1: Streamline

Reduce budgets & staffing ... without impeding business operations.

Staff and Budget reductions are often the first course of action in a difficult economy. In this section, we'll show you how to:

• Reduce voice operating expense 10% to 35% overall
• Reduce national long distance calling 25% to 40%
• Reduce international toll charges 35% to 55%
• Reduce fixed network operation costs 20%
• Reduce mobile network costs 15% to 40%
• Increase technical staff efficiency 25% to 50%
• Reduce communication TCO for multi-site businesses 30%
• Reduce the cost of moves, adds & changes in multi-site businesses 50% to 62%
• Reduce power consumption in your communications environment 90%
• Reduce IP network management manpower requirements 80%

In a difficult economy, nearly every business must seek ways to optimize budgets and staffing without compromising the organization's ability to function well. In this section, we look at opportunities in four areas of communications operations where the right technologies can protect your level of service to business units for a lower cost and/or with a reduced staff.

Of key importance, each of these solutions is also designed to progress the communications environment in line with common priorities among technology vendors:

• Create an integrated IT and Communications environment
• Move toward a flexible, change-ready environment
• Decrease the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of the communications environment
• Ensure the ability to scale users, locations and applications quickly and efficiently
  

So, while you can implement these as point solutions today for the fastest economic and operational impact, these solutions are easily scalable, standards-based, and ready for the future. In most cases, these solutions can be added to your existing voice and IT infrastructure for speed and minimal disruption.

In this section, we'll look at savings in several areas that consistently produce results:

• Out-source/out-task – to handle staff reductions and reduce expenses
• Fixed and mobile network optimization – to decrease call and circuit costs
• Centralization – of the multi-site communications solution, with a high-efficiency architecture
• Energy Savings – through a high efficiency communications architecture
• Self-Aware Networks – to dramatically decrease the amount of staff needed to operate your IP network
• Teleworking – with the latest technology to increase productivity as you reduce your real estate requirements
  

Outsource and Out-task - 10% to 35% reduction in voice operating expense

“Although we have already taken a new path in integrating Telecommunications in our IT, we did not have to build up any additional personnel for the task. With the OpenScale Managed Services contract, we were able to lower the port price of our systems and still achieve a distinct improvement in the quality of our service.”
Christian Teickner, Network Manager, Heidelberg

If coping with staff reductions, consider out-tasking communications projects or out-sourcing some or all of your communications operations. Choose a vendor with a broad portfolio of capabilities that will create flexible, custom service solutions to meet your immediate staffing needs and optimize your communications budget. If you have a multi-vendor communications environment, you can simplify vendor management and eliminate over-lapping service arrangements by selecting a partner that provides multi-vendor services.

Outsourcing does not have to be an 'all or none' arrangement. Every managed service contract is unique. Here are some key choices to consider:

What functions do you want to out-source?

• User help desk?
• Security?
• Moves and changes?
• NOC / Network Monitoring?
• Complete communications operations?
  

Do you need/want to own your communications assets?

• If this is an interim solution for you, consider retaining asset ownership.
• If this is a longer-term solution, consider transferring ownership to your services partner.
• If you need every bit of cash possible, consider transferring ownership of your assets.

Is your business undergoing dramatic staff reductions?

• If so, a managed services arrangement lets you pay-per-user, scaling costs with usage on a month-to-month basis.
• In addition to saving money, this provides a great deal of flexibility to grow when the economy recovers.

With a Siemens Managed Services arrangement you can:

• Reduce communications expenses on average by 10% to 35%
• Pay per user to scale your communications budget up and down with changes in business staffing
• Consolidate maintenance and operations of multi-vendor environments
• Access skilled staff flexibly
• Incorporate technology refresh cycles into your service plan

This Solution Matters Most for:
Medium to large businesses with:

• Need to reduce communications staff or allocate headcount to other IT functions
• Want to reduce the internal and contract costs of user support and maintenance
• Need multi-lingual user help desks, but lack the facilities or skilled staff
• Have multiple technologies and vendors to manage across the LAN, security and communications environment

by: Siemens Enterprise Communications