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Aspect Joins Microsoft Lync Server to 1,600+ Employees

Aspect not only literally talks the talk on unified communications and collaboration (UCC) it walks the walks on the technology, whether its employees are taking their strides in its corporate offices or at their home offices, or/to from their mechanized transportation means, regardless of where in the world they are.

Aspect (News - Alert) has completed the deployment of Microsoft Lync Server 2010 to more than 1,600 of its approximately 1,900 global employees within one week of the software being made publicly available for trial. All Aspect office-based and home-based employees in the Americas and Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) are now using Microsoft (News - Alert) Lync 2010 for all voice and voicemail services, audio and Web conferencing, instant messaging (IM) and presence. Roll-out to the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region is planned for December, to complete a 100 percent company-wide deployment by the close of 2010. 

The enriched collaboration capabilities of Lync says Aspect enable its employees to better connect, share and engage with colleagues, partners and customers both inside and outside of the enterprise to deliver more effective real-time interactions in their daily communications.

The deployment news comes on the heels of Aspect’s announcement that it is integrating its Aspect Unified IP contact center platform with Microsoft Lync Server 2010 capabilities. Aspect Unified IP, with Microsoft Lync will offer key UCC features, including enhanced expert search functionality and increased collaboration for agents within the contact center and knowledge workers. The software, which will be rolled out soon will eliminate the need for two separate desktop applications for contact center agents that want to take advantage of Lync’s IM, presence and federation capabilities.

Aspect Unified IP will work with Lync to provide advanced security of customer information, including encryption, access controls and authentication through Active Directory. It will also, in conjunction with Lync, support distributed architecture models to enable data center consolidation, virtualization, as well as distributed and work at home agents and information workers.

Several of the Lync 2010 enhanced sharing and collaboration features have already been widely adopted by Aspect employees: allowing them to collaborate and communicate like never before, including:

• Extended sharing capabilities, including sharing at the application level
• Full integration of sharing and multi-participant collaboration into the Lync 2010 application environment, providing greater ease of use and a more streamlined experience
• Enhanced security and access controls for meetings
• Enhanced presence and contact information, including status, organization and reporting structures and pictures

Also, architectural improvements including a smaller footprint and support for virtualization help Aspect better leverage IT resources and reduce its carbon footprint. 

Aspect’s decision to rapidly migrate to Lync Server 2010 from its predecessor, Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, clearly demonstrates the firm’s commitment it says to advancing UCC deployment and use. It is a natural progression for Aspect, which made a strategic move to implement a company-wide unified communications infrastructure nearly two years ago, replacing its traditional telephony and PBX (News - Alert) infrastructure across all 20 countries in its global enterprise.

As part of the strategy, Aspect equipped its own global technical support organization—or contact center—with a full complement of UCC capabilities to enhance customer contact. Aspect’s enterprise-wide adoption has resulted in staggering cost-savings in traditional telephony and conferencing expenses totaling $2 million in the first 12months, while driving greater efficiency and collaboration.

“By taking the initiative in deploying Lync Server 2010 within its own enterprise, Aspect not only demonstrates its expertise in executing successful business-critical next-generation enterprise communications strategies,” said Kirk Gregersen, senior director of product management, Microsoft Lync, “but also serves as a model to other organizations looking to capitalize on the business and productivity gains like those Aspect can realize with help from Lync.”

 “Aspect is walking the walk when it comes to unified communications,” said Jamie Ryan, senior vice president, Information Technology and chief information officer, Aspect. “With our initial deployment of Office Communications Server 2007, we witnessed brisk user adoption and explosive increases in efficiency and productivity. Now, with an established culture of collaboration and the new Lync enhancements, Aspect expects employees will quickly and eagerly embrace new opportunities for working together.”

Brendan B. Read is TMCnet’s Senior Contributing Editor. To read more of Brendan’s articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Stefanie Mosca