Siemens IT Solutions and Services, Inc., the infrastructure integration arm of Siemens AG, today announced a new Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) service that aims to enhance a company’s existing voice and network technology with newer applications for presence state, web meetings, and collaboration to lower travel costs and increase productivity, the company said.
The Siemens IT Solutions and Services group, which is vendor-agnostic and does not sell a product, will work with any incumbent PBX technology, and can leverage any of the unified communications platforms available from Siemens Enterprise, Cisco, Microsoft, Nortel, and Avaya, among others. It will also work with commonly used office applications to integrate scheduling to ensure that workers are available for collaborative activities.
As a proof of concept for the UCC, the IT Solutions and Services group, which supports all 475,000 associates in the Siemens operating company, recently deployed unified communications offerings across the organization. Leveraging Cisco, Microsoft, and Siemens technology, the company was able to realize immediate savings, officials said.
“At Siemens we looked at cutting back on travel … as flying [from Boston] to Munich for a week might cost $3,000 to $5,000,” said Ray Crowe, director of portfolio and strategy at Siemens IT Solutions and Services, in an interview. “If we deployed something as simple as Microsoft Office Communication Server with Live Meeting, I can attend those meetings via video camera and collaborate with software from my office. Not only is it a significant travel savings, but I’m more productive because I’m still available to do other things,” he said.