Lowering the Cost of Communications—and Six More Real Benefits of Skype for Business Voice by Zeus Kerravala
May 2015
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Skype for Business (formerly Lync) Enterprise Voice and Skype for Business
Video can improve worker productivity and streamline business processes, while
lowering the overall total cost of communications. Skype for Business Enterprise
Voice and video enables the following benefits:
•
ZK Research
A Division of Kerravala
Consulting
Lower total cost of communications: The cost savings from Enterprise
Voice in Skype for Business comes from multiple factors. Exhibit 1 shows the
main areas of costs savings and how they are derived. The relative
percentage of each category will vary by organization, but in general, the bulk
of savings will come from long-distance charges, conversion to SIP and lower
day-to-day maintenance costs.
Exhibit 1: Cost Savings from Skype for Business Enterprise Voice Come
from Multiple Sources
Long-­‐distance charges ð Low-­‐cost or free on-­‐net calls, least-­‐cost routing Trunking charges ð Consolidation of trunks, conversion to SIP System maintenance ð Reduction in spares, faster upgrades, lower-­‐cost hardware IT personnel ð Reassignment of IT staff, more tasks done with front-­‐line support Moves, adds and changes (MACs) ð MACs evolve to a self-­‐service model, driving the cost of a MAC from an average of $300 to $0 Mobility ð Wi-­‐Fi calling, unified messaging, mobile UC [email protected]
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Source: ZK Research, 2015 •
Improvement in worker productivity: Employee productivity gains can be
realized from integrating voice and video functions into business applications.
A software-based UC solution, such as Skype for Business, can be used as a
development platform where developers can build click-to-chat, click-to-call or
click-to-video–based applications.
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Better bang for the UC buck with existing UC solutions: The features
enabled with Skype for Business Enterprise Voice, combined with integration
into business applications, will drive up usage of the UC tools and make
workers much more efficient, providing rapid return on the UC investment. ZK
Research studies estimate integrated voice features can save workers an
average of four hours per week.
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Consolidation of infrastructure: Legacy communications systems often
require system hardware to reside in every location. Skype for Business can
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Lowering the Cost of Communications—and Six More Real Benefits of Skype for Business Voice
2
change the architecture to reflect more modern applications. Skype for Business servers can be centrally
deployed in a data center, and functionality can be distributed over the WAN, similar to email, CRM or other
business applications.
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Faster time-to-market: Historically, it could take weeks or even months to deliver new communications
features to workers, as every system in each location had to be touched. A centrally deployed
implementation means the system can be updated in a single location (or twice for redundancy) and every
worker has the new features.
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Support for a strategic BYOD initiative: The mobile device of today has far more capabilities than a
laptop did just a few years ago. Mobile devices can be used for real-time video services and have highquality audio capabilities, making them ideal for remote collaboration. A corporate BYOD implementation
should include Microsoft Skype for Business to maximize value.
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Groundwork laid for video: Video is a powerful enterprise communications tool. Skype for Business video
simplifies deployment and, more importantly, creates an easy-to-use interface for workers. Even if it will not
be utilized immediately, it’s important to have the infrastructure and solution partnerships in place to
accommodate video when feasible for the organization to move forward.
Part 2 of 5 in the Beyond IM and Presence: Best Practices for Deploying Microsoft Skype for Business Series
© 2015 ZK Research: A Division of Kerravala Consulting
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