14:00 – And so the afternoon sessions continue. Now we have Mario Devargas of Bolton borough council to talk about the business benefits of UC. Personally I’m looking forward to this – after all, if there are no business benefits, then there’s little point in doing this stuff is there?
14:01 – Mario has been asked by Microsoft and Nortel to give this business-focused talk based on his own experiences. The local authority employs around 14,000 staff who serve a population of 261,000. The biggest challenge it faces is the changing nature of public expectations – people want more for their money (in this case, their council tax).
14:04 – He also explains how local authorities are increasingly having to justify what they do in the same ways as other businesses in the private sector. That’s something that’s emerged over the past 10 years.
14:05 – Change is the one constant factor for the council, Mario says. He always asks himself this question: ‘Does technology help my organisation deal with change?’ If it doesn’t, he’ll say no to it.
14:07 – He also stresses how important it is to ask your suppliers similar questions – and keep asking them. He needs to know if they can help the authority serve its customers better. Delivering efficiencies is also part of the equation of course, but the bottom line for Mario when it comes to selecting business partners seems to be the needs of his employers’ customers – i.e. the population of Bolton. Trust in his suppliers is also crucial to Mario. He trusts Nortel and Microsoft at the moment – and he stresses the words at the moment. This suggests he’s constantly reviewing his supplier relationships.
14:11 – The biggest asset of the authority is not its people, contends IT director Mario, but its knowledge, or information. A lot of it tends to be stored in silos – he is using UC to break down those barriers.
14:13 – Mario hates interactive voice response (IVR). That doesn’t mean the council doesn’t use it – it does, but only when it’s appropriate. For example if someone rings at mid-night. It’s part of the delivery programme, but only a part. He knows that people like talking to people whenever possible.
14:15 – All IT directors should listen to Mario – he has just admitted that he has no idea how his network works. That’s the job of the techies who work for him. All Mario cares about is whether it works or not, whether it provides a service or not. That’s a good insight into the mindset of a business-focused IT chief.
14:17 – He explains how mobile working is putting additional demands on his business – something many companies will be familiar with. The council has a lot of field workers, as you’d expect. How can technology help them deliver services more effectively? Unified comms play a big role in that. Up to now, he’s eschewed videoconferencing, but now he’s seeing that there are potential uses for it within his organisation, including out in the field. IP is the enabler of all of this, Mario says. One of the things it enables is collaboration, internally and externally.
14:22 – Interestingly, for such a diverse organisation with so many departments, he contends that IP has made it think as one company across multiple cultures. That’s a huge business benefit.
14:23 - He also advises other organisations not to choose the technology. Work out what the need is first, then choose the technology. That way you’ll deploy the right solution in the right place. Prioritisation is inevitable.
14:25 – He warns people not to expect rapid ROI from UC. These projects take a while to pay back – but he’s sure his will. Indeed, Mario admits he doesn’t know what the ROI is at the moment. It’s not just about money, it’s about culture and efficiency, he says, which are things you can’t always quantify. He ends what was an energetic and informative presentation there.
Tags: bolton council, mario devargas, unified communications
