Aspect Hosts UC World Live Day to Bring Unified Communications Professionals Together

CHELMSFORD, Mass – Aspect, a unified communications (UC) solutions provider, today announced it is hosting UC World Live on 1 October 2009, a virtual conference featuring a day of live events and activities to bring unified communications professionals together in UC World to demystify unified communications by providing “how-to” information and return on investment (ROI) data – including a webinar based upon findings from a brand new IDC case study. UC World (www.ucworld.com) is an interactive online community providing a unique glimpse into some of the leading enterprise deployments of Microsoft unified communications, with actual users sharing real return on investment (ROI) data, lessons learned and use cases.
 
UC World Live Day offers a number of activities for participants to gain practical knowledge on planning and rolling out unified communications deployments across the enterprise and in the contact center from experts with real-world experience. All attendees will be eligible to win an Amazon Kindle 2 wireless reading device. The UC World Live schedule includes:
 
9:00 a.m. ET– 5 p.m. ET – Live chat rooms

UC World Live attendees will be able to chat live with unified communications experts. Chat topics will range from “Building the UC Business Case” to “Designing for a Microsoft® Office Communications Server Implementation.”

11:00 a.m. ET – Live group IM Session on global UC deployments

Bill Lynch, Aspect’s IT team lead on its global UC implementation, will provide an overview on best practices for deploying unified communications solutions from an internal IT perspective. Lynch will take questions on this topic, including how to prep an organization’s infrastructure and its people.

11:00 a.m. ET – Office Communicator Demo

Andrew Browne, director of sales technical services at Aspect, will demonstrate Microsoft Office Communicator capabilities and how it can change the way organizations interact with click-to-call, click-to-IM, one-click audio and video conferencing, and Web collaboration/screen sharing.

12 noon ET – Live group IM Session on optimizing a workforce through UC

Brett Williams, Aspect’s workforce optimization expert, will provide a brief overview on the risks and rewards of using UC to bring knowledge workers into direct contact with customers. Williams will take live questions on this topic, including how these interactions can be scheduled, managed and made compliant.

12 noon ET – Ask the Expert Demo

• In this product demonstration, Andrew Browne will show participants first-hand how companies can tap into the knowledge that resides across your enterprise with capabilities like presence and IM to improve the customer experience.

1:00 p.m. ET – IM Routing Demo

Andrew Browne will demonstrate the next evolution of the customer contact experience where IM is a main channel into the contact center and IMs can be routed, like voice calls or emails, to the most appropriate resource at the right time.

2:00 p.m. ET – IDC, Aspect and Microsoft on Deploying UC Across the Enterprise  

In this webcast, industry analyst firm, IDC, Microsoft and Aspect discuss how Aspect is poised to save $1 million a year while improving collaboration and streamlining its business processes, why savings can only be realized with more than VoIP alone, and why now is the time to plan a UC deployment. View the webcast tolearn how companies can realize immediate benefits with UC by bringing together email, calendaring, voice mail, instant messaging (IM) and presence, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), audio, video and Web conferencing. Jamie Ryan, chief information officer, Aspect, will present his insights on planning Aspect’s global unified communications rollout with Abner Germanow, director of Enterprise Communications Infrastructure Services at IDC, who will share his analysis on evolving enterprise network infrastructure markets.

3:00 p.m. ET – Connecting the Contact Center and the Enterprise

Customers want their inquiries addressed in a quick, informed manner by people who have the authority to get them what they need and want. Serge Hyppolite, director of interaction product management at Aspect, will discuss the current state of customer interaction challenges and contact center operations. This webcast will highlight the role of unified communications in the contact center and the necessary capabilities to improve first call resolution and the overall customer experience. Gary Barnett, chief technology officer at Aspect, will also discuss how the company leverages Ask an Expert functionality within its own call centers to increase customer satisfaction.  

4:00 pm ET – Closing Panel Session

Mike Sheridan, executive vice president of sales at Aspect, will moderate a discussion on participant thoughts from UC World Live Day. Presenters and chat leaders will discuss what key points came up around UC.

4:00 p.m. ET- Closing remarks and prize drawing

Community members and participants in the live events will hear additional reflections on unified communications to conclude UC World Live. A prize winner also will be drawn from all UC World Live Day participants for an Amazon Kindle 2.
 
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“By hosting UC World Live Day, Aspect is enabling organizations to gain valuable insight on unified communications deployments and post technical questions to IT experts that have completed an implementation, as well as the ability to network with peers,” said Jim Foy, chief executive officer, Aspect. “Members of the interactive community will see how UC can positively impact business processes across a global organization throughout every department, straight from the end users. We’re looking forward to hosting UC World Live Day and educating more businesses on the impact of UC.”     

Video
Visitors to UC World Live Day will be able to participate in interactive IM sessions and webinars on UC in addition to viewing content-rich videos that highlight a global UC deployment. http://www.youtube.com/user/AspectUC
 
Blog
Read Kevin Schwartz’s thoughts on UC World Live Day and the IM topics at http://blogs.aspect.com/
 
Registration Page
Register to join the UC World community and participate in UC World Live Day at http://www.ucworld.com/liveday/.

About UC World
UC World (www.ucworld.com) provides a unique glimpse into some of the leading enterprise deployments of Microsoft unified communications (UC), with actual users sharing real return on investment (ROI) data, lessons learned and use cases. It provides direct access to, and collaboration with, the experts who have turned their UC visions into reality, and offers a rich library of valuable technical and business information about UC. Additionally, the UC World Community features interactive access to experts on unified communications, webcasts, white papers, podcasts, videos and additional material to provide information on UC, as well as networking functionality that provides user profiles, buddy lists, community chats and more.
 
About Aspect
Aspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps more than two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.