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INDUSTRY GUIDE
Table of Contents
1. Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2. Understand the solution types and components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Solution types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Immersive telepresence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Solution components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Lessons learned. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Tech corner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3. Understand the potential budget ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Budget ranges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Immersive room build. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Lessons learned. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 4. Understand the potential project timelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Timelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Lessons learned. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 5. Understand the market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Market size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Vendor leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Supporting service providers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Lessons learned. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 6. Determine your requirements . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Business requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Functional requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Technical requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Lessons learned. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 7. Get hands-on experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Make a checklist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Potential questions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Lessons learned. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 8. Select your provider. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Timelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Potential pre-qualification questions. . . . . . . . 22 Request for proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Lessons learned. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 9. Implement the solution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Timelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Lessons learned. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 10. About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 11. About Human Productivity Lab. . . . . . . . . . 30
1. Summary
his guide provides the information you need to make an end-to-end plan for your telepresence or video conferencing project. In this guide, telepresence means either telepresence or video conferencing.
This guide is based on the experiences and lessons learned by end user organisations that have implemented telepresence projects, from personal systems to immersive room systems.
Clockwise from top left: multi-screen room system, singlescreen room system, personal system that doubles as a computer monitor, and personal system leveraging a tablet.
The following table shows the relative differences between solution types:
TABLE 1 TELEPRESENCE SYSTEMS TYPES Number of local users Cost Immersive Multi-screen room system Small or large groups Very high Usually Single screen room system Small groups High Yes Personal system 1 Low Sometimes
Sometimes No
Sometimes No
As can be seen above, multi-screen room systems have a very high relative cost. This is due to the investment to achieve an immersive experience. A full definition of immersive follows next.
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Immersive Telepresence
An immersive solution aims to make you feel like you are sitting in the same room as your videoconnected colleagues. The point at which a solution becomes immersive is arbitrary, but the more techniques used, the more effective the result. The following table provides a list of features generally agreed to contribute to an immersive solution:
TABLE 2 FEATURES THAT CONTRIBUTE TO AN IMMERSIVE EFFECT Feature Life-size Immersive contribution Life-size images provide the most significant immersive contribution. Life-size images can be a challenge when you have more participants than screen real estate. Either you maintain life-size images by using voice activation to switch video between active speakers or you reduce participant size to keep all participants on screen. Some solutions achieve this by allowing both options. This image shows how participant size has been reduced on the left side of the screen: There is a significant increase in participant engagement when eye contact is established. This effect is better when the cameras are aligned to the eyes of the displayed participant. Some companies achieve this by using a screen that can display images while also having a camera directly behind, at eye level.
Eye contact
Background consistency
Having the walls, tables and carpets identical across telepresence rooms allows them to naturally blend together. The more effectively this is done the more likely you will feel the video participants are in the same room and vice versa. This effect is further enhanced when screens bezels are removed. Some companies achieve this by projecting the video-connected participants onto a transparent screen, removing any chance of difference between backgrounds.
At right, Huddle 70 room by DVE
Feature Lighting
Immersive contribution Regular office lighting has the objective of illuminating horizontal surfaces such as desks and tables. Telepresence lighting includes emphasis on horizontal lighting to illuminate faces, rendering more lifelike video in the process. Some companies achieve this by building horizontal lighting into their systems. Directional audio, especially in multi-screen rooms, means audio and picture location is matched. Some solutions will allow you to tell if the video participant is seated on the left or the right side of the display just by closing your eyes. An immersive effect is enhanced when all participants can talk and listen without raising their voice or straining to hear. Immersive systems recognise that, much like in recording studios, the best result from a microphone is achieved in a sound-proof room without echo. Combined with quality directional speakers, the resulting audio will feel like all participants are in the same room. For long meetings this significantly reduces fatigue. Many solutions achieve this result by specifying ceiling, wall and floor finishes to reduce echo and sound proof the room.
Audio
Acoustics
Solution components
Irrespective of the type of end point, the following diagram illustrates the key components of a telepresence solution together with three example traffic flows: Point-to-point call Two end points in a video conference using the network to connect. Multipoint call using an endpoint with MCU capability Three end points in a video conference using Multi Conference Unit (MCU) capability in one of the end points to bridge a multi-party video conference. Multipoint call using the MCU, including gateway call to Company B Three end points in a video conference using a central MCU to create a multi-party video conference. In addition, a participant from Company B is included by using a gateway to travel between Company A and Company B networks.
Gateways
TABLE 3 COMPONENTS OF A TELEPRESENCE SOLUTION (CONT.) Management Systems Management systems, and related actions, include the following: Monitoring health and usage of end points, MCUs and gateways. Allocating network bandwidth and MCU resources according to capacity. Booking, scheduling and setting up conferences. Provisioning software upgrades. Proactively scanning rooms at regular intervals to check functionality. Providing live help to users booking or participating in a conference. The above functionality is sometimes referred to as the scope of a Video Network Operations Centre (VNOC). VNOCs can be established within end user organisations or outsourced to third parties.
LESSONS LEARNED
The importance of management systems is often underestimated. Poor management systems can
make even the best end points unreliable and difficult to use. Quality management systems will enable you to maximise system performance, increase reliability and provide insight into how the systems is being used. ence project. This section clearly shows there are many other technology components and factors to consider in an end-to-end solution. This will be important to remember when selecting provider/s in Section 8.
Often organisations focus most effort on end-point vendor selection when completing a telepres-
TECH CORNER
This section provides a very brief overview of the protocols and standards used for telepresence. Signalling protocols Signalling protocols define how a call is established between end points. H.323 and SIP are the most common. Resolution and frame rates Resolution defines the number of pixels that make up an image. Common resolutions with horizontal and vertical pixel count in brackets include CIF (352 x 240), 4CIF (704 x 480), 720p (1280 720) and 1080p (1920 1080). The relative difference in total pixels is shown in the below diagram. High definition is accepted as starting from 720p. Frame rate is the number of frames per second that provide video. Common values start at 30 frames per second with 60 frames for better-quality video.
Video standards Video signals rely on network connections to travel between end points. To make the most efficient use of this network connection, various standards exist to compress the signal. As illustrated in the left diagram, in general, the bit rate required to transmit a given video signal decreases as compression complexity increases.
DIAGRAM 3 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COMPRESSION COMPLEXITY AND BIT RATE
Common compression standards, in increasing complexity, are H.261, H.263 and H.264. H.264 has many versions available, including a version used for Blue-ray discs and YouTube. Much industry attention has been given to the Scalable Video Coding (SVC) version of H.264, which allows end points with different resolution and frame-rate capabilities to communicate without the need for transcoding (e.g. taking a 1080p signal from a HD room system and transcoding the resolution into a 360p signal for a tablet device). Transcoding requires processing capacity, so if this can be avoided, it saves cost. H.264 SVC avoids the need for transcoding by providing a bit stream with multiple resolutions and frame rates. Audio standards Common standards for coding and decoding voice include G711 (non-compressed), G.729 (compressed) and G.722 (wideband audio). Data-sharing standards H.239 is a common standard for enabling end points to share content (for example, PowerPoint slides). Using H.239 with a telepresence system is sometimes called people and content. Interoperability standards Single-screen systems from different vendors and between different organisations can communicate using the standards identified above. A key part of initial negotiation between end points is determining common capabilities and agreeing the standard to use. However, multi-screen systems do not have an industry standard for connectivity. Cisco has released the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol (TIP) to facility interoperability, but interoperability is limited between organisations that choose to adopt the protocol.
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Upfront1 Per end points $300K Core $150K Immersive room build $100K2 Ongoing (per month per room) Network $10K Management $3K Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) over 5 years e.g. four end points = $4.6M
$0K3 $0K3 $1K $100 e.g. four end points = $1.7M e.g. 40 ends = $360K
$425K
$9K
1 Assumes all equipment is purchased (purchase model) with 30% discount off RRP including installation. Video as a service models (no upfront equipment to purchase) are available for the core, which effectively decrease the upfront and increase the ongoing costs. From a total budget guidance perspective, the total cost of ownership is comparable between a purchase model or video as a service model, as core costs are not a significant component. 2 Room build costs vary greatly. See Immersive section that follows. 3 With just four rooms often existing, network bandwidth can be used without impact.
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Lighting
Finishes
Average room costs will vary greatly given the above considerations. More remediation is often required in multi-screen rooms as vendor specifications are more rigid (i.e. less optional remediation) and room size is more likely to need extension. An average of $100K per multi screen room and $50K per single screen room is not unusual for large-scale deployments. LESSONS LEARNED
The total cost of ownership for room systems is very sensitive to the ongoing costs, particularly
when the solution life is often five years.
Personal systems can have very low upfront costs. This occurs for software only solutions that
leverage a users PC for video, audio and processing. lower bandwidth requirement.
The ongoing costs of personal systems can also be very low. This is because of the significantly Vendor immersive specifications are similar, so you can use any specification to get budgetary
guidance on the room build from a building contractor. This will help prevent surprises and delays later in your project.
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Timelines
The below table provides a guide on project timelines. In general, the milestones require sequential execution. It may be possible to compress timelines by determining your requirements while getting hands-on experience. However, to keep the timelines conservative, this is not assumed. Each milestone aligns to a section of this guide, which provides the supporting detail.
TABLE 6 POTENTIAL PROJECT TIMELINES Milestone Duration (weeks) Assumptions This is primarily a research exercise, so can be done quite quickly if time is dedicated. Assumes a week to define require ments, a week for stakeholder review within your organisation and a week for formal requirements signoff. Two weeks is allowed, as demonstra tions can take time to arrange and loan equipment is not always available. Includes pre-selection process, RFP process and contract process. Includes conceptual and detailed design, WAN link installation (if applicable), room remediation (if applicable), MCU/ bridge installation (if applicable), end-point installation, operational readiness, testing and end-user training and promotion. Further detail Section 5
Know the market 1 Determine 3 requirements Get hands on 2 experience Select your 10-14 provider Implement the 16 solution TOTAL 32-36
Section 6
Section 7
Section 8
Section 9
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LESSONS LEARNED
Project timelines can be dramatically reduced if you already have a preferred provider and can
skip many of the activities in the 1014 weeks allocated for selecting a provider. Keep this in mind when reviewing the above table and see Section 8 for more detail. system that requires WAN upgrades will take significantly longer than deploying software-based personal systems using outsourced MCU and bridging services. Keep this in mind when reviewing the above table and see Section 9 for more detail.
Project implementation is highly sensitive to the type of solution required. An immersive room
Market size
The size of the global telepresence market is outlined in the below table. As can be seen, room-based telepresence is over half the market, with immersive and personal systems less than 10% each.
TABLE 7 TELEPRESENCE MARKET SIZE Product type Video MCU Immersive telepresence Personal videoconferencing % of market 19.5 9.3 9.1
Telepresence 54.9
Cisco 50.6 Polycom 26.3 Lifesize 5.0 Teliris 2.6 Vidyo 2.5 Others 13.1 TOTAL 100
Source: IDC Top Five Worldwide Enterprise Videoconferencing and Telepresence Vendors, Revenue Market Share, Q1 2012.
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Network providers
Masergy, AT&T, BT, Orange Business Services, Tata Communications Services Glowpoint, Teliris, Bluejeans IBM, Dimension Data
Provide hosted MCU and bridging services. Also provide management services such as booking, monitoring and issue resolution. Systems integrators aggregate the various products and services identified in this table to provide an end-to-end solution. Some end user organisations may choose to do this themselves.
System integrators
LESSONS LEARNED
To help maximise the quality of the end-to-end solution, vendors will often certify or provide
guidelines to providers of the additional solution components. For example; Polycom has a Certified Immersive Telepresence VNOC Service Provider List and Cisco has a guideline on Delivering a Cisco TelePresence Network Connection Service. If your organisation decides to act as a systems integrator, make sure you understand the certifications required.
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Business requirements
Business requirements need to be defined by the business stakeholders of the project, not by IT or technical stakeholders. Business requirements should be both outcome-based and measurable. If they are not outcome-based, it is hard to define how they will be achieved. If they are not measurable, it is difficult to define when they are achieved. Some examples of business requirements are below: Save 10% of executive travel costs by providing an effective alternative to face-to-face board meetings. Enable executives to meet face-to-face when travel time would otherwise only permit a telephone meeting. Reduce travel costs for design staff by 10% by providing an effective alternative to sharing of concepts that require face-to-face demonstrations. Reduce hiring time for international staff by one week and save $5,000 by providing an alternative to flying potential candidates for interviews. Enable sales engineers in New York to support customer meetings in a new London office without needing to hire a sales engineer there. Enable training staff in one city to provide face-to-face training to offices in other cities/ countries without needing to hire/pay for training staff in other locations.
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Functional requirements
The following table provides a list of common functional requirements that organisations need to consider. These are provided to stimulate thought and ensure the requirements reflect the needs of your organisation.
TABLE 10 COMMON FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS TO CONSIDER Requirement Consideration Do you want an immersive or non-immersive solution? Immersive solutions attempt to make participants feel like they are in the same room. A system that has life-size images, camera angles that achieve eye contact and highdefinition video helps to achieve this. These solutions have stringent requirements on the room environment such as lighting, acoustics and even wall color to enhance the immersive effect. See section 2 for more information on achieving immersive solutions. Consider the needs of travelling executives, external company directors or even organisations you work closely with. This will require consideration of public room availability and interoperability with other telepresence solutions. There may be board meetings that may have larger groups than normal. Also consider systems for individual users (e.g. in executive offices, home workers or users who travel). Consider the type of content (e.g. static PowerPoint versus detailed Excel versus movie files) and the type of content displays (dedicated individual or larger common displays). Do you have the physical room space required without the need for extensions? (The space required for a 6+ seat room can be very surprising.) Are there tradeoffs between the telepresence experience and room flexibility? What is thecapabilityof solution supply and support in those regions?
How important is it to connect to other telepresence, video or telephone systems? How many people need to use the system? How important is it to share PC content? How much space do you have? Do you want dedicated or shared use rooms? Which cities and countries might you expand to in the future? How intuitive is the system to find other locations and establish a conference? Do you need a live service to take conference-booking requests and a live service to assist users who need help? What level of service avail- ability do you require? Do you want to be able to record conferences?
This is important as service levels greater than 99% often require redundant solutions to meet availability levels. For example, two or more MCUs or bridges and dual WAN links to a site.
How do you want to distribute recordings of the conferences? Who should recordings be available for? What sort of storage do you require (from a security and time perspective)?
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Technical requirements
You will need to consider the functional requirements outlined earlier when you think about your technical requirements. It may be that certain functional requirements are not possible or that some functional requirements not considered can be delivered with relatively low effort. The following table provides a list of technical requirements to consider:
TABLE 11 COMMON TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS TO CONSIDER Requirement Consideration Security Are telepresence conferences to be treated just as unencrypted telephone calls, or is there a business need for additional security such as encryption and physical constraints to rooms (e.g. swipe card access)? What constraints will your IT security policy place on connecting with third-party networks? What is the existing capacity and utilization of your network connecting target telepresence locations? Is there sufficient spare capacity to cover telepresence traffic and will the network support real-time, delay-sensitive traffic? If applicable, will your legacy video technologies support interoperability with modern telepresence systems? If not, what upgrades are required? Do you have an existing Unified Communications strategy covering desktop clients for presence, instant messaging and video? If so, how does this strategy align to the telepresence technologies and, in particular, personal telepresence systems providing video on user desktops? Do you have an existing BYOD strategy covering the devices available for personal communications? If so how does this strategy align to the telepresence technologies and, in particular, providing video on user smartphones or tablet PCs? Does your organization have a strategy to outsource or in-source technologies? How does this influence your approach to telepresence and to integration (if applicable) to existing technologies?
Network
Legacy video Alignment to Unified Communications strategies Alignment to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategies Alignment to outsource strategies
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LESSONS LEARNED
When defining requirements, involve all stakeholders from your organization, including business
stakeholders, operations teams and technical teams so that missed requirements do not cause project delays.
Keep the requirements in draft status until after getting hands-on experience. Some requirements,
such as the importance of an immersive experience, cannot be assessed by a paper-only exercise. baseline for the next phases of the project.
Have all stakeholders sign off the requirements, even when in draft status, so that there is a formal The requirements you define as a result of this section should be used as the basis of all decisions.
If necessary update the requirements, but do not make decisions without ensuring they are consistent with the requirements. If you keep this strict approach you will avoid delivering a solution that misses a requirement.
Note that none of the business requirements examples provided in this section actually mention
telepresence. It may be possible to meet the business requirements listed without using telepresence, e.g. travel costs could be reduced by 10% by renegotiating prices with a travel supplier. It is important that business requirements are technology-independent, as technology is an enabler, rather than an outcome. This approach helps avoid any uncertainty about the validity of the business requirements at a later point in the project. encing) may provide valuable insight. Determine why this existing solution does not meet the business requirements for your telepresence project to make sure you have addressed all deficiencies and do not repeat any past mistakes.
Having an existing telepresence solution (perhaps referred to in legacy terms as video confer-
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Make a checklist
Use the following points to make a checklist for assessing the solution demonstrations: Prepare a feature list Make a list of the features that you want to see in advance of the demonstration. Make sure all features can be demonstrated, in particular those features related to interoperability. Keep a record As each feature is demonstrated, keep a record of the result. It can be easy to miss a feature or forget the result. This will help when comparing results across solution demonstrations. Do not just watch As features are demonstrated, ask to try them directly yourself. You will get a first-hand view of how user-friendly the system is, and problems will be highlighted rather than stepped over. Have a real meeting To get a true feel for the meeting experience, take at least 30 minutes and complete a real meeting. The longer you spend in a connected conference, the more you will appreciate the subtlety of the experience.
Potential questions
Some potential questions you may wish to ask at the hands-on session are: If observing an immersive system, how many of the features identified in Section 2 are used? Can you demonstrate how the system interconnects with telepresence systems from other vendors? (Consider both single and multi-screen systems.) Can you demonstrate how laptop data is shared and how, if possible, this is done with another vendor solution? Can you demonstrate how a user establishes a multi-point call? How is a multi-point call affected when one of the connected systems has a poor connection? (Is only that connection affected or does it affect the overall quality of the call?) Can you demonstrate a meeting set to auto-start at a designated time? Can you demonstrate integration with calendaring tools such as Microsoft Outlook to simplify the scheduling of calls? Can you demonstrate connecting audio-only participants to a telepresence call and how is this done? (Consider how easily a user or admin person can complete this task.) Can you demonstrate how calls are both placed and accepted? (Consider calls within your organization and also to external end points.) Can you demonstrate how the system upscales lower-resolution systems that join the call so they are seen at higher quality in telepresence rooms? Can you demonstrate connections with SIP and H.323 systems simultaneously? 20
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LESSONS LEARNED
Demonstrations and loan equipment can take many weeks to organize. To prevent delays,
make requests with solution providers and with attendees from within your company as soon as possible. target users are included as part of the real meeting organised using telepresence. This is an excellent method to gain user input into the selection process. they are still valid and re-release to your stakeholders.
The quality of telepresence experiences can be quite subjective. For this reason make sure your
When you finish getting hands on experience, revisit you requirements document and verify that
Approach
This is best achieved by first completing a provider pre-qualification process and then inviting the more promising providers to a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) process. Completing a pre-qualification process as an input to the formal selection process has the following advantages: Relevant and quality proposals from the formal selection process It allows the formal selection process to target providers who you already know have attractive proposals rather than getting distracted by proposals that are not viable. It also lets providers know that if invited for a formal response, you will seriously consider their proposal. Refined budget estimates By asking for budgetary guidance, it provides the first opportunity to refine the estimate made in section 3. Refined timeline estimates By asking for timeline estimates, it provides the first opportunity to refine the estimate made in section 4. Clarifying formal selection approach By asking appropriate questions about product and services capabilities, you can verify the best way to approach the formal RFP process. For example, do you need separate network and equipment procurement approaches, or do you need a single provider of an end-to-end integrated solution?
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Timelines
The below table provides a guide on the selection process timelines:
TABLE 12 TIMELINE FOR THE OVERALL SELECTION PROCESS Milestone Duration (weeks) Assumptions Allow one week for initial shortlist, one week for providers to respond to a questionnaire and one week to review and finalize the shortlist. This assumes you start preparing the RFP concurrent to the pre-qualification process. In the pre-qualification process, ask providers how long they need to respond to the RFP, if invited. This assumes a one-week intensive evaluation followed by one week to share the result with stakeholders before notifying provider/s. The process will be longer if with multiple providers or for global contracts requiring local agreements in different regions.
Personal telepresence systems MCU or bridging products Network services Video services (hosted MCU, bridging services, booking services, monitoring services) Systems integration (end-to-end solution integration and management) Please state your experience in providing the above products and services. Please provide budgetary guidance, with any options highlighted, on the statement of requirements. Please provide a delivery timetable estimate, with any options highlighted, to meet the statement of requirements. Do you have a facility to demonstrate the requirements identified? Are there any requirements that you cannot demonstrate? Will you be able to provide three customer references relevant to the requirements identified?
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LESSONS LEARNED
Getting the right contact in the provider organization that can respond to pre-qualification and
RFP questions is not always easy. The provider will want to qualify you before applying any effort. For this reason, get your potential provider contacts early and let them know a pre-qualification process will be held. attended a demonstration of the end-point solution. This is only relevant if any key stakeholders were not available as part of the hands-on experience in section 7 porting professional services. For example, a bridging service with more than 99% availability will usually require redundant bridging equipment. Engineering support with an SLA of four hours onsite will not be possible to achieve if that support is a plane flight away. meet your requirements. This is critical as capacity will influence price. For example, will the MCU require enough processing for five concurrent conferences or 10? As such, ask for capacity assumptions to be stated. so that when you finalize your telepresence selection you can roll directly into starting the room remediation as required.
Before confirming the final providers, it can be useful to make sure all key stakeholders have
Make sure that provider availability claims are consistent with their IT architectures and sup-
Providers will need to assume certain utilization levels to determine the capacity required to
If you require an immersive telepresence system, plan to identify and select a building contractor
Providers are aware some customers will prefer an end-to-end approach and develop a total
solution using sub-contract arrangements with third-party service or product providers. Understanding the sub-contract capability will become important in overall proposal evaluation. standing how to migrate services away from the provider at contract conclusion. At some point, the future products and services will be replaced. Thus, understanding the potential complexity and cost may influence the evaluation process.
One item not covered in this guide but important in the formal provider selection is under-
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Detailed design
Equipment delivery
MCU/ Bridge 2 installation (if applicable) WAN link installation 8 (if applicable)
Operational readiness End point installation Testing End user promotion and training
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2 2 2 2
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Most milestones require sequential execution, as their output drives the milestone that follows. The diagram below shows the upper duration for each milestone with a total duration of 16 weeks:
DIAGRAM 4 POTENTIAL IMPLEMENTATION TIMELINES
Checklist
The following checklists may be useful when planning each of the implementation phases:
CONCEPTUAL DESIGN
M Is the approach to providing each of the solution components in section 1 identified? M Can you clearly identify how each of your requirements defined in section 6 will be delivered? M Is the conceptual design consistent with the proposal provided by the successful RFP respondent?
DETAILED DESIGN
M How will management services integrate? (e.g. monitoring services) M Is the approach to security detailed? (e.g. encryption of signalling or media, password management for administration or connectivity to third party devices and or networks) Consider the following items if you plan to use your existing network to provide connectivity between end points: M How will video traffic prioritization occur over other traffic? (i.e. how will your network bandwidth be allocated to video traffic and how will video traffic be tagged?) M How will network services such as network time, DHCP and directory services be provided? M How will your video-dial plan integrate into any existing dial plans? 26
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M If applicable, have you considered the logistics of establishing new WAN connections? (e.g. landlord approvals, external and internal building cable runs) M If applicable, have you considered the long lead time often required for WAN connections?
EQUIPMENT DELIVERY
M Have you considered the space required to store your deliveries? (Room systems can take substantial space when first delivered. Immersive rooms can be more than a dozen pallets of equipment. If applicable, consider the receipt, storage and transport logistics within your site. Delivery is often to your building loading bay and no further).
ROOM REMEDIATION
M Do you know what room remediation is required, if any? (Your provider will define the room remediation requirements for an immersive solution. Expect to do work on your ceiling, lighting, floors, walls, doors and air conditioning). M Do you know the power and network port requirements you need to provide? (The table locations will require power and network ports for use by the room participants, so expect to provide up to two power outlets and a network outlet per seat).
END-POINT INSTALLATION
M Do you need to plan for installation outside of business hours? (i.e. do the rooms need to be used during the day by others?). M Have you got a plan to remove rubbish during the installation? (This is most relevant to immersive solutions where the packaging required for removal is significant).
OPERATIONAL READINESS
M Do you have a process for assisting users who need help? M Do you have a process for users to establish conferences? M What is the process for how booking conflicts will be managed? M What is the process for addressing issues or problems? M Have you defined a role responsible for promoting, measuring and reporting if the telepresence solution is achieving the original business requirements defined? M Have you defined a role responsible for the overall service as the ultimate point of escalation for issues or problems? M Who is responsible for managing the service lifecycle? For example new feature releases, critical software or hardware updates, or vendor end of life announcements.
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M Who is responsible for reporting on, and managing as need be, service availability, service utilisation and solution capacity? M Is as-build documentation available that defines how the telepresence solution is configured? M Is there guidance that can be reused when additional end points are added to the solution?
TESTING
M Have you tested that your room remediation meets the required criteria? (The test criteria provided by your supplier to confirm remediation completed for immersive purposes is acceptable. This can include tone generators to measure echo, light meters to measure lux levels and noise meters to measure sound proofing). M Can you test that each of your requirements defined in section 6 are met? (Use your defined requirements and complete appropriate tests for each item). M If applicable, can you prove that your WAN can support the necessary video traffic? (If you have new WAN connections, consider insisting on long-held traffic generators to prove the network stability). M Can you prove your network availability or redundancy? (Specifically verify equipment that includes redundancy or high availability).
END-USER PROMOTION AND TRAINING
M Do you have a plan for walk-in days? (You may want to consider connecting conferences between several locations and invite users to walk in at anytime to experience telepresence. M Do you have online materials available? (This can be helpful for users who cannot make face-toface training and as a reference source for users to refresh themselves on functionality). M Do you have any user champions? (Initial training can tend to be forgotten or miss people who were out of the office. User champions provide a way for knowledge to be embedded into various part of the organization and thus hopefully continue to be passed on over time).
LESSONS LEARNED
Unlike personal telepresence systems, users often attend room-based telepresence systems without
their computer. As such, it is helpful for each room system to clearly display how to connect a call and how to ask for help. effective way to transfer processes from a written document into day to day action.
Have a process-testing day where each process is validated through simulated cases. This can be an
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