1.Some virtual teams at Boeing have discussions focused on military aircraft. Do some Internet research on UC security mechanisms and identify and briefly describe several that Boeing should have in place to ensure the privacy and integrity of such discussions.
2. To what extent do the UC benefits experienced by Boeing mirror those of other firms that have deployed UC capabilities over converged IP networks?
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3. To date, Boeing has not implemented the full range of capabilities available through UC systems. If you were the CIO at Boeing, what additional UC capabilities would you implement? What benefits would you expect Boeing to derive from deploying these capabilities?
UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS AT BOEING
The Boeing Company (http://www.boeing.com/), headquartered in
Chicago, Illinois, is the world’s largest manufacturer of military aircraft
and commercial jetliners. Boeing has more than 159,000 employees
working in 70 different countries who require effective communication to
develop and build some of the world’s most complex products using
components from more than 22,000 global suppliers.
The company’s workforce is one of the most highly educated in the world.
Most employees hold a college degree and many hold advanced degrees.
Collectively Boeing employees have very broad and deep knowledge that
can be harnessed to solve problems and design next generation products.
Like many major corporations, Boeing has experienced an uptick in the
number of employees who work remotely or travel the majority of each
work week. Boeing’s engineers number in the thousands and are
purposely scattered worldwide to support the company’s global
operations.
Boeing organizes its employees into work and project teams. Given the
company’s size and geographic footprint, many of Boeing work’s teams
include globally dispersed members. Engineers on the same team may be
separated by multiple time zones and thousands of miles. Time zone
differences and distance frequently present teams with communication
challenges when they are faced with time sensitive issues that must be
resolved quickly.
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Additional communication issues are associated with the sheer breadth
and depth of Boeing’s knowledge base. When faced with questions about
a particular part included in one of Boeing’s new airliners, an engineer can
be challenged to identify the right person in the company to contact for
answers.
Collaboration Technologies
Boeing knows that continual innovation is important to its long term
success. It also recognizes that effective communication among its
employees, customers, and suppliers is an important enabler of continual
innovation.
Boeing has traditionally relied on a variety of systems to facilitate
collaboration among its employees and business partners. As illustrated in
Figure C1-1a, Web conferencing, audio conferencing, desktop sharing,
and mobile voice and data services have been used by Boeing employees
to facilitate communication among geographically dispersed team
members. Historically, these capabilities have been provided by different
third-party providers who were selected on the basis of their ability to
provide high- quality communication services at competitive rates.
By the mid-2000s, Boeing had begun its migration toward unified
messaging and unified communications. At that time, instant messaging
(IM) was one of the more popular messaging services used Boeing
employees. At Boeing, IM has traditionally been supplemented by Web
and audio conferencing services as well as by desktop sharing services.
The capabilities provided by these services are especially important when
answers to complex questions are needed. During the mid-2000s, more
than 100,000 employees used conferencing services each year. As you
might expect, conferencing services represented a significant percentage
of Boeing’s annual communication expenses.
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As collaboration technologies, the desktop sharing and conferencing
systems worked well alone, but it was not easy to get them to use them
simultaneously for a virtual team meeting. To use them in combination
required scheduling conference rooms equipped with at least one phone
lines
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and data drop. It also required reserving conferencing time with one or
both service providers, getting all locations logged in to each service, and
performing some quick set up tasks and tests at the beginning of each
session. Hence, while it was possible to use multiple collaboration
capabilities at the same time, this was not easily or transparently done.
Advanced planning was needed at all locations to have satisfactory
interactive conferencing and desktop sharing sessions.
Over time, it became increasingly more apparent to Boeing that a
superior collaboration platform was needed. While the company’s
subscriptions to third-party services did support collaboration among
geographically dispersed team members, Boeing began to feel that it
needed something that was both easier and more robust to achieve the
levels of collaboration, innovation and responsiveness that it aspired to
have.
Converged Network Project
In 2008, Boeing signed a $400 million contract with AT&T to consolidate
its existing voice and data networks into an IP-network. Boeing began
using AT&T’s WAN services, audio conferencing services, and wireless
voice and data services. Moving the bulk of its communication facilities to
a common IP-based network infrastructure enabled Boeing to roll out
unified messaging services to more of its employees. The converged
network project also set the stage for its subsequent move to unified
communications.
To better serve its mobile workers, one of the first enterprise-wide
applications that Boeing deployed on its converged IP network was
Mircosoft’s Office Communication Server. This was implemented to
provide desktop sharing, VoIP, audio conferencing, instant messaging,
and presence capabilities to all of its workers worldwide. This quickly
became a popular supplement or alternative to the company’s traditional
collaboration services. Boeing subsequently made the decision to upgrade
to Mircosoft’s Lync
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Server to enable its employees to leverage enhanced presence, ad hoc
collaboration, desktop sharing, and online meeting
capabilities.
Boeing’s collaboration capabilities before and after the creation of the
converged IP network are illustrated in Figure C1.1. It is important to
note that Boeing continues to subscribe to many of the collaboration
services that it used prior to implementing its unified communications
solutions. Hence, UC is best observed to be a supplement not a
replacement to the collaboration systems that were already in place.
One of the key changes associated with Boeing UC system has been the
ability of employees to use the same softphone headset to support both
office and mobile phone calls. Phone capabilities follow the mobile worker
who can specify which device to route calls to on the fly. Their Boeing
phone number is always the same whether they are in their office, at
home, on the road, or working on the other side of the world. Detailed
presence information about team members is provided via Lync’s location
and activity feed capabilities. Supply chain partners are also able see the
presence information of their key contacts at Boeing; this facilitates their
interactions with engineering and maintenance teams at Boeing.
UC Benefits
Boeing’s converged IP network and unified communications capabilities
enable employees share information and knowledge more quickly and
effectively, regardless of their location. Boeing’s geographically dispersed
engineers use these systems to share expertise with one another just as
they could if they were in the same place at the same time. The ability to
support unified communications capabilities over the converged IP
network facilitates knowledge sharing and has become an important facet
of Boeing’s collaboration and knowledge management strategies.
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The company’s unified communications system enables employees at
remote locations to have the same capabilities that have in their home
offices. Virtual teams benefit from being able to adjust their interactions
to the communication mode that makes the most sense. For example,
they are able to transition from instant messaging to a voice
communication and/or desktop sharing session depending on what the
situation requires. The UC system’s enhanced presence capabilities also
provides real time information about the current availability and activities
of other Boeing employees so that they can be brought into conversations
about how to address time sensitive problem issues about parts,
maintenance issues, or assembly line delays.
Boeing has benefitted from increased productivity and efficiency at both
the individual and team levels. Its UC capabilities and converged IP
network have also helped the company rein in its Web and audio
conferencing costs. Prior to the UC implementation, Boeing experienced
double-digit growth in costs associated with Web conferencing. Web
conferencing continues to be widely used by Boeing employees, but the
annual costs associated with Web conferencing have leveled off as
employees increasingly use UC desktop sharing and audio conferencing
capabilities instead of third-party conferencing services.
Boeing’s annual costs for audio conferencing services have decreased by
more than 15% since implementing the UC system. While Boeing still
subscribes to third-party audio conferencing services, these are being
used less frequently for team meetings as the result of the company’s UC
capabilities.
The UC system has been positively received by Boeing employees. It is
widely viewed as a platform that facilitates collaboration in an engaging
manner. Boeing continues to have the reputation of being one of the
world’s most innovative companies and its decision to implement unified
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communications on a converged IP network demonstrates its commitment
to deploy technologies that enable innovation.
Discussion Points
1.
Some virtual teams at Boeing have discussions focused on military
aircraft. Do some Internet research on UC security mechanisms and
identify and briefly describe several that Boeing should have in
place to ensure the privacy and integrity of such discussions.
2.
To what extent do the UC benefits experienced by Boeing mirror
those of other firms that have deployed UC capabilities over
converged IP networks?
3.
To date, Boeing has not implemented the full range of capabilities
available through UC systems. If you were the CIO at Boeing, what
additional UC capabilities would you implement? What benefits
would you expect Boeing to derive from deploying these
capabilities?
Sources
[MICR10] Microsoft Case Studies. “Boeing Expects to Lower Costs and
Improve Productivity with Messaging Solution.” March 16, 2010.
Retrieved online at:
http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?casestud
yid =4000006703.
[MICR11] Microsoft Case Studies. “Boeing Promotes Knowledge Sharing
for Global Workforce with Communications Solution.” April 29, 2011.
Retrieved online at:
http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Lync-Server-
2010/Boeing/Boeing-Promotes-Knowledge-Sharing-for-Global-Workforce-
with-Communications-Solution/4000009654.
[REED08] Reed, B. “AT&T snags big Boeing voice/data contract.”
NetworkWorld. August 12, 2008. Retrieved online at:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/081208-boeing-att-contract.ht
ml
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