MTS Allstream Inc. hit the jackpot when it set out to deploy
unified communications for internal use and, simultaneously, as a
service offered to its customers.
The Canada-based solutions provider needed a collaborative
communications platform to let geographically dispersed employees
do their jobs just as though they were sitting at their own desks.
Also, cell phone costs were through the roof because of high
international calling rates and all too frequent hour-long
conference calls.
It turns out Allstream wasn't the only company needing to solve
its communication problems. The solution provider claims this
quarter it's seeing a "monster level of adoption" of its Allstream
Collaboration Suite (ACS). Allstream customers are in Canada as
well as several other international locations.
"[Demand] is not just huge. It's beyond huge," said Angela
Hlavka, vice president, strategic solution development, for MTS
Allstream. She also noted that demand is currently outpacing
supply. "We are using every resource in our whole group; we are
buried in orders and wondering how it is we are going to make it
happen."
Hlavka attributes the recent surge in adoption to the simultaneous
completion of several sales cycles that Allstream's customers were
undergoing for the past six to mine months. Moreover, because
several more customers are in the pipeline, she doesn't expect
demand to let up any time soon.
Allstream Collaboration Suite is based on several Microsoft
real-time collaboration technologies, which are integrated in a
hosted platform. The technologies included are hosted Microsoft
Live Meeting, which makes it so you can collaborate with others on
a project without leaving your desk; hosted Microsoft Live
Communications Server, which provides secure instant messaging,
audio/video conferencing and application and document sharing
capabilities; hosted Microsoft Exchange; and hosted Microsoft
SharePoint, which facilitates team-oriented Web sites for
information and document sharing.
The Allstream suite also includes journaling and archiving;
dual-factor security with antivirus and antispam protection;
non-stop mail; information rights management; enterprise BlackBerry
services; and support for Microsoft Windows mobile-enabled
devices.
Delivering a business benefit to Allstream's stream of
customers
ACS has already delivered key benefits to Homes by Avi. For
instance, team members can now talk to each other -- face to face
-- without ever getting on a plane. All the while, it brings people
closer and fosters that in-person feeling that they weren't getting
via phone or email. Staff members conduct video conferences with
people in the company's show homes and sales centers, without ever
leaving their offices. Homes by Avi has even been able to improve
technology support with a feature that gives support professionals
access to every employee's desktop computer, no matter where that
employee is physically located.
Another ACS user, a hotel called Delta Calgary South, has
contained its operational costs by updating its aging
Exchange-based architecture and outsourcing a collaborative
platform that would offer more than basic email functions. With
access to a fully-mature Voice over IP service (VoIP) network, the
hotel has minimized its per-minute telephony costs and it can now
redeploy its IT staff away from mundane operational tasks toward
other pressing technology needs. Hotel staff can now also securely
access a full range of messaging functions, including email and
instant messaging, from a single, easy-to-use interface.
For its part, leader of the pack Allstream needed to address
issues raised from being such a geographically dispersed company.
The company had bought several companies during the dot-com era
with a variety of international locations.
"Travel and telecom are our biggest expenses. So if we're using
a cell phone, it is expensive," Hlavka said.
Allstream now uses Live Meeting to conduct a conference that
costs nothing because it is pc to pc, whereas employees had been
paying about $5 per minute on each cell call.
The suite offers application sharing, video and audio to video
at no cost. Furthermore, if part of the team is traveling in
Europe, but some are located back in Canada, the presence in
Instant Messaging (IM) reveals where that person is and what time
they will be available.
"The presence information and timeliness has moved up our
deliverables considerably, reduced travel cost and decreased time
to market for our customers," said Hlavka.