+1.888.665.8640 +1.404.490.4220 [email protected]www.ucanytime.com CONNECTING THE WORLD Mobility. Compatibility. Simplicity. GIS Hosted AVAYA SCOPIA White Paper Today’s business environment is fast-paced, ever shifting and demands that organizations do more with less. This includes the way an organization conducts its internal and external meetings. Executives and sales people alike are being asked to reduce their travel costs, but still meet and collaborate with their clients and co-workers often. And with telecommuting and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) steadily becoming a business norm, organizations continue to search for the most cost-effective ways to bring everyone together. The first choice of many organizations is to invest in a videoconferencing solution. Videoconferencing is a logical solution, however, it is not always the most cost-effective one. Investing in the equipment and infrastructure necessary to host videoconferences across the entire organization and beyond internally could not only prove costly, but detrimental to the company’s bottom line. While it might make sense for Enterprises to invest in videoconferencing equipment such as: MCUs, bridges, monitors, etc. and host everything internally; it does not necessarily make sense for small-to-medium size businesses (SMBs) to invest in such equipment and infrastructure. For SMBs and organizations looking to save on upfront investment costs, a hosted solution is the best solution. When selecting a hosted solution an organization needs consider the following elements: Interoperability Manageability Scalability/Flexibility A GIS hosted unified communication (UC) solution provides all of these in an easy to manage, easy to use, easy to deploy/integrate package.
CONNECTING THE WORLDMobility. Compatibility. Simplicity.
GIS Hosted AVAYA SCOPIA White Paper
Today’s business environment is fast-paced, ever shifting and demands that organizations do more with less. This includes the way an organization conducts its internal and external meetings. Executives and sales people alike are being asked to reduce their travel costs, but still meet and collaborate with their clients and co-workers often. And with telecommuting and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) steadily becoming a business norm, organizations continue to search for the most cost-effective ways to bring everyone together.
The first choice of many organizations is to invest in a videoconferencing solution. Videoconferencing is a logical solution, however, it is not always the most cost-effective one. Investing in the equipment and infrastructure necessary to host videoconferences across the entire organization and beyond internally could not only prove costly, but detrimental to the company’s bottom line. While it might make sense for Enterprises to invest in videoconferencing equipment such as: MCUs, bridges, monitors, etc. and host everything internally; it does not necessarily make sense for small-to-medium size businesses (SMBs) to invest in such equipment and infrastructure. For SMBs and organizations looking to save on upfront investment costs, a hosted solution is the best solution. When selecting a hosted solution an organization needs consider the following elements:
CONNECTING THE WORLDMobility. Compatibility. Simplicity.
INTEROPERABILITY Organizations with offices located throughout the country; dispersed telecommuting employees using their own mobile devices; and clients around the world demand extreme interoperability. This is especially true for any unified communication and collaboration solutions – videoconferencing among them. End-users require the flexibility to participate in a videoconference using any combination of video endpoints. An effective solution provides interconnectivity and interoperability between all devices and networks: circuit, packet IP or 3G based. Allowing for internal and external standards-based videoconferencing end-points, including: high-end room systems, telepresence systems, desktops video clients, unified communication clients, telephony and mobile devices to connect seamlessly and without interruption.
Understanding that BOYD is quickly becoming the business world norm, GIS’s hosted solution utilizes SCOPIA Mobile. SCOPIA Mobile is the industry’s first standard-based mobile video application enabling HD video conferencing and H.239 data collaboration. Allowing all users to connect to a videoconference and fully participate in the meeting using their mobile device by turning the device’s onboard camera and microphone into a fully functional videoconferencing endpoint.
Organizations considering a hosted solution, but already have ad-hoc solutions in place require a solution that seamlessly integrates with their current hardware and software. Any disruptions to services or capabilities could result in unavoidable downtime or missed opportunities. GIS’s videoconferencing solution provides clients with superior interoperability with 3rd party vendors. Their solution works with all devices, protocols and video vendors including: LifeSize, Poloycom and Cisco/Tandberg. It also provides unmatched interoperability with any IP/ISDN device and can connect to Microsoft Lync™, IBM Sametime™, Avaya Aura and other unified communications systems. Not all hosted video conferencing solutions offer this depth of interoperability (see figures 1a and 1b) while providing unmatched conference manageability, scalability and flexibility.
GIS utilizes the SCOPIA cloud, allowing them to provide clients with:
CONNECTING THE WORLDMobility. Compatibility. Simplicity.
MANAGEABILTYThe ability to manage meetings is vital to any service provider, organization and end-user. Service providers need to be able to pinpoint and resolve IT or service related issues without service disruption. Organizations need to generate reports and monitor usage within their organization to ensure they are utilizing their videoconferencing service cost-effectively. End-users need to be able to schedule, conduct and report on any meetings they host.
Service Providers
Our hosted videoconferencing solution ensures clients are receiving the industry’s best HD video communication with rich data collaboration from any video-enabled device on the front-end; while delivering high availability, redundancy and security on the back-end. This is possible due to distributed architecture; every component has been designed for deployment in a centralized or distributed IP network. Due to its IP architecture, the entire infrastructure is not centrally located in one data center but distributed across several geographic interconnected locations. This allows for MCUs to be deployed strategically across multiple networks offering redundancy, network traffic optimization, resource management and high scalability. If one unit should experience a failure in hardware, network or location another unit will take over to ensure no loss of connectivity or service.
Organizations
In a hosted environment organizations need to have control over their users, have the ability to generate reports and eliminate any potential breaches in security. These concerns are especially true in a multi-tenant environment. The SCOPIA platform allows organizations complete control over their deployment. End-users profiles can be imported into the system through an organization’s existing directory including Microsoft Active Directory or IBM Lotus Domino. Organization administrators can manage user access by creating profiles with set capabilities, create virtual rooms and assign endpoints.
Organization administrators have access to built-in reporting, which allows for tracking usage across their organization. Built-in access control via Meeting ID, PIN and Moderator PIN, AES and SRTP Encryption and client authentication provide multiple levels of security so that administrators and end-users are assured that their meetings are secure. We can also provide dedicated server access and can tailor services around an organization’s specific security or network needs.
End-Users
Our hosted video conferencing package includes TrueDayBook, a web-based, multi-level scheduling solution accessible through Microsoft Outlook™, Lotus Notes™, iPads™, iPhone™ and Android enable devices, providing end-users with quick access to centralized, intuitive management tools. This centralized dashboard allows users to manage, track, change or cancel any existing conferences on their calendar. End-users can also moderate and reserve resources from this portal.
Inviting meeting participants is simple. End-users schedule their videoconferences through the portal and invited participants receive a link to join the meeting. If a conference needs to occur immediately, again, all participants have to do is click on the dedicated URL provided by the host and the meeting can take place without additional requirements. Other service provider’s systems are cumbersome and not as intuitive (see figure 1c) making it difficult for participants to join a conference quickly.
CONNECTING THE WORLDMobility. Compatibility. Simplicity.
SCALABILITY/FLEXIBILITYFlexibility and scalability can be determining factors for an organization when selecting a hosted videoconferencing solution.
Flexibility
The flexibility and customizable features of our hosted solution include: interface branding by the organization, end-user and participant layout controls and an exclusive content slider. These features are among the industry’s best and not offered by any other service provider.
Organizations
Organizations requiring a solution that allows for a branded interface have limited choices. We provide such organizations with a dedicated server with secure encrypted SSL capabilities allowing for a custom branded user experience. This includes a customized interface and domain name, while benefiting from the shared increased capacity, redundancy and additional features of a hosted videoconferencing solution.
In today’s business environment the need for security on every level is paramount, including unified communication tools. Organizations utilizing a hosted solution want assurance that they will not encounter security breaches. Our hosted solution provides security and control features including owner and access PINs, authentication, locked meetings and HTTPS encryption ensuring clients will not experience a security breach such as unwanted guests or unauthorized users. Security conscious organizations still utilize and rely on ISDN when conducting videoconferences – We provide organizations with the ability to call and be called by one or multiple ISDN systems and seamlessly include them in any end-user meetings.
Layout and Moderator Control
When presenting a videoconference with more than two participants, there is always a question of choosing the best arrangement of video images on a screen in a way that is both convenient and relevant. This is true for both the host (moderator) and the participants. One meeting layout might work the presenter, but not for the participants. This solution supports H.264 SVC and H.264 High Profile allowing conference participants to choose their own video layouts. The solution also provides Moderator Control, a feature that allows conference moderators to mute or unmute participants; determine security settings and whether or not users will be able to join the conference. This feature is available to both desktop and mobile users.
Presentation Content Slider
Attendees who join a conference late often have a hard time following the presentation and being part of the discussion. If their participation is necessary to conversation, they might interrupt the discussion and be asked to brought up to speed. This type of distraction can derail a conference completely. Interruptions like this can be avoided with our videoconferencing solution’s built-in content slider. This unique feature allows participants to view previously shared materials, or late joiners to review and catch up to the presentation without interrupting the presenter or fellow attendees. The content slider works on desktop and mobile devices.
CONNECTING THE WORLDMobility. Compatibility. Simplicity.
GIS Hosted AVAYA SCOPIA White Paper
Scalability
When considering a hosted videoconferencing solution, organizations of every size will take into account how scalable a solution is and if it will meet the expected requirements. Large organizations will take into account any user/max attendee limits, and additional licensing fees associated with adding users. Many industry vendors claim a highly scalable solution (see figures 1c and 1d), however, we are among the few that actually do. Our unique platform canaccommodateover400,000usersinupto2,000simultaneousconferenceswithupto500usersperconferenceproving organizations the assurance that they can rely on this solution to handle a high volume of conferences and participants due to it’s out of the box multi-tenancy. In addition, we does not utilize a licensing model, so there are no licensing fees or user limits.
Organizations need the assurance that no matter the size of the meeting their presenters and attendees will not experience disruption in connectivity or choppy video due to high bandwidth usage. The need for a steady video transmission to all endpoints is important to a successful videoconference. Our solution provides both bandwidth management and Scalable Video Coding (SVC) to ensure client video calls proceed without undue technical issues. The SVC feature counters network errors and packet loss, improves network resiliency and reduces bandwidth consumptionby30to50present.SVCalsoimprovesthequalityofconnectionsbetweencascadedMCUsensuringhigh quality communication across the entire infrastructure and endpoints. Bandwidth usage can be monitored across the entire network and generate alerts when usage rises above a given threshold. This provides unlimited scalability and load balancing to safeguard MCUs so they do not exceed capacity.
CONCLUSIONWhether an organization is looking for a hosted videoconferencing solution to better collaborate internally and externally, or as an alternative to the high cost of owning and maintaining a videoconferencing solution outright, the solution must provide flexibility, scalability, manageability and interoperability at an affordable price. Our hosted videoconferencing solution provides all of this, plus added functionality for presenters and attendees to ensure a successful unified communication session. With no licensing fees, monthly or user commitments, and simplified pricing, this solution provides organizations with an industry leading solution that is affordable and enhances all videoconferencing and unified communications currently in place.
About UsWe are committed to providing clients with industry leading video bridging and hosted solutions. We offer fully redundant, state of the art bridging technology and provide video conferencing capabilities from most any location worldwide and provide our clients with the flexibility to participate in videoconferences using any combination of video endpoints. Include room based systems, desktop MACs or PCs, and a variety of mobile devices including iPhones, iPads and Android based devices for a truly unified communication solution.
