Switching to a new telephony solution isn’t easy at the best of times. This is especially true when migrating from a trusted but outdated legacy infrastructure to a unified communications platform like Microsoft Teams, and you’ll almost certainly have a ton of questions along the lines of:
- Where do I start?
- What will work on day one?
- What needs to be updated or upgraded?
- What can be done to mitigate those pesky ‘unknown’ elements?
Some people swear by conducting a full system analysis, but this can be extremely time-consuming. Others take a long hard look at every IT or telephony bill they’re paying, which can certainly be an eye-opener to say the least.
But by far the best way to find out whether a solution will work is to run a proof of concept project.
Sounds Good, But What’s Involved?
In a nutshell, a proof of concept (POC) consists of trialing an idea on a fairly small scale to demonstrate its feasibility or functional capability. If successful, the solution can then be scaled up and adopted by the whole organization.
Before commencing a POC, an organization needs to have a clear definition of what the business objectives are and what success actually looks like. An objective is the metric that a milestone is measured against, and are different for each organization. Functional success criteria are linked to these objectives.
It is equally as important to define what constitutes success, since there’s no point setting a business objective without being able to quantify it.
From the organization’s point of view, the overall objective is to prove that the solution will work as expected, and to verify that all existing business-critical systems will continue to function normally.
POC Discovery Document
How to Ensure a Microsoft Teams
Proof of Concept (POC) Is a Success
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Meeting Milestones
A key milestone is a defined point in time that the POC should successfully reach. If it fails to meet the milestone, the project restarts from the previous milestone until it successfully reaches the missed one.
Failing to reach a milestone doesn’t necessarily mean that the POC itself has failed, but rather that an area of concern has been identified that needs to be given greater consideration or approached differently.
It Worked! Now What?
Upon conclusion of the project, a formal POC review meeting, with all stakeholders and decision makers present, is held to assess the effectiveness of the solution. If the POC met the business objectives and success criteria, the organization generally moves forward with a scaled deployment.
Generally, if an organization has been very clear about their business objectives, and the objectives are achievable within the project scope and continually measured, then success is inevitable.
See Microsoft Teams In Action with an AudioCodes POC
If you’re serious about migrating to Microsoft Teams, but first want to get a taste of how the platform performs in situ, AudioCodes can help you design and execute an effective POC. This includes:
- Creating a POC discovery document with your organization’s list of business objectives and success criteria.
- Building the business objectives into a project plan and defining the key milestones.
- Assigning a dedicated project manager to ensure that the project is delivered on time and on budget, with the business objectives and success criteria adhered to.
- Deploying a full-scale solution upon the successful completion of the POC.
Get in touch with us, and we’ll arrange a no-obligation – and completely free of charge – consultation with one of our in-house unified communications experts.
