Expedia UCVoice Improves Employee Interaction

Integrated Communications help Expedia improve employee interaction through the strong business communications strategy. Expedia makes a variety of travel products and services available directly to travelers through its US-based Web site, as well as through localized versions of Web sites in 11 other countries.

Fulfilling customer requests requires gathering material in multiple formats, including e-mail and fax. To simplify its communications environment, Expedia deployed Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Jabra headsets from GN.

Reason for this change was to serve its almost 20 million users per month efficiently and cost effectively. To address its communication needs and develop unified business communications, Expedia decided to implement a unified communications solution based on Microsoft software in order to improve collaboration, increase productivity, and reduce network complexity.

The deployment of the Microsoft unified communications solution provides advantages to both end users and IT staff. Employees, even when they are mobile, can see whether colleagues are available, and ultimately have more options for communicating with each other. This leads to less complex infrastructure for the IT department to manage. Other benefits include:

• Faster access to colleagues
• Flexible, integrated communications
• Improved mobility
• Simplified IT infrastructure

In the future Expedia will deploy the federation capability within Office Communications Server 2007, so that the company can communicate in an encrypted environment with partners and suppliers who also have the application.