UC consultant – get a broader (business) perspective!

Unified Communications in all it´s technology oriented glory is amazing to work with. I really like to get some perspective on how customers (companies) adopt the technology in their organizations. Harvard Business Review gives you tech guys (me included) a broadened perspective.

Unified Communications (UC) has been the buzz word for a long time but I like the add an extra “C” to give it more relevance.
Building one silo for communication and another for collaboration is the wrong way to go! So let´s use the term UC&C (Gartner) as often as you can. To make it even easier to adapt, I like using “communication & collaboration” when talking to with

Harvard Business Review offers  - HBR Today – a great iPhone app that let´s you learn more by reading blogs, listening to audio/video casts.

In my job as Senior Consultant at UClarity, it´s the combination between technology and business that we want to offer our customers!

It´s not enough to tell the CEO/CTO/CFO that they will benefit from UC&C, it´s so much easier for a decision maker if they have a strong partner helping with a business case (that includes end-user feedback) and a strategy.

Don´t let Microsoft, IBM or Cisco build your UC&C strategy, that´s something that should be done by a vendor independent consultant.

CIO / CEO: Evaluate Cloud SaaS email & collaboration and get a head start

There´s a lost of fuzz about cloud / SaaS based email and collaboration solution, fixed costs and less worries attracts many CIOs / CEOs. Before you read tons of literature and listen to sales people from Microsoft, Google and IBM; try the experience for free and get a head start!

Click here to create a free demo account and try out the solutions, this makes is so much easier to compare!

Here are links to the most popular cloud (SaaS) based email and collaboration suites:

IBM Lotus Live

Goggle Apps

Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (BPOS)

Cisco takes the lead in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – wins CSR Award

I love the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility CSR.  In the bottom line, CSR is the deliberate inclusion of public interest into corporate decision-making, and the honoring of : People, Planet and Profit

“The practice of CSR is subject to much debate and criticism. Proponents argue that there is a strong business case for CSR, in that corporations benefit in multiple ways by operating with a perspective broader and longer than their own immediate, short-term profits. Critics argue that CSR distracts from the fundamental economic role of businesses; others argue that it is nothing more than superficial window-dressing; others yet argue that it is an attempt to pre-empt the role of governments as a watchdog over powerful multinational corporations. Corporate Social Responsibility has been redefined throughout the years. However, it essentially is titled to aid to an organization’s mission as well as a guide to what the company stands for and will uphold to its consumers” – Wikipedia

In addition to CSR, Cisco supports a number of Projects in Emerging Countries. In the Blog post Getting Kenya Connected you can read of a cybercafé in Kangundo, a small town of 10,000 in Kenya, a non commercial,  public-private collaboration between the Kenya ICT Board and Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) launched the Pasha centres.   The center is designed to model a community-focused format that will be self-sufficient by using technology in the form of a Web 2.0 collaborative online platform.

Cisco have been honored with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Award from CCTV (a leading business channel in China)in Davos, Switzerland at their World Economic Forum “China Night.” 

It would be interesting with a comparison between the large IT companies, how well does IBM and Microsoft handle CSR?
Can any manufacturing company guarantee that they´re not using child labor? I want to know that my webcam haven´t been assembled by children.