Azam for large organizations and Data Centres (including a cost justification)

Azam is not just for use by small/medium-sized organizations or for members of the public. Several multinational blue chip companies have Azam, many within their Information Technology department. A cost justification for a typical large organization can be found at the bottom of the page.

Here are just some ways Azam can be integrated within such infrastructures:

• Inter-departmental technical communications can be distributed and explained much more easily. Lengthy typed memos are time consuming. Azam voice recordings are not.
• Azam Meeting Agendas can be created and standardized across departmental boundaries.
• Internal and external customer Helpdesks can record complicated requests and pass them on to 2^nd level analysts. Less "Chinese whispers", more end user satisfaction. Most IT Problem and Change Management systems can be interfaced to Azam.
• The costs of having meetings can be measured in real time. Some business users display the Azam time/cost counter as it happens during a meeting. A 5 minute saving in time, multiplied across the board, can save thousands of dollars and pay for a total Azam solution throughout hundreds of offices within days.
• Departmental servers can store Azam recordings and be adapted to provide a hierarchical and secure remote or internal access dependent on customized security tables.
• Disabled members of staff can be more productive and enjoy more responsibilities using Azam as a communication tool at home and in the office.
• Presentations to senior management or by senior management can be brought to life. Foils really can talk with Azam.
• Non attendees of important meetings can review all or part of the discussion content, after the event, as an observer, saving time and money.
• Azam can be integrated with a number of telephony and software systems.

Azam was built by senior technicians who have spent many years in Information Technology dealing with the highly complex and politically tricky subject of automating the people who run some of the largest computer centres in the world. Our Enterprise Systems Management experience, management skills and technical know how combined with this powerful Azam product can bring results very quickly to a large organization.

Consider an onsite study to assess specific requirements.

For further information please contact us at corporate@azamit.com

Corporate Business Cost Justification

The following points will assist in preparing a business case to install, evaluate and implement Azam across a large organization. As all corporations have unique methods to create business cases, we have provided seven general assumptions that may be of help to you and your senior management.

Assumption 1: Meetings are held throughout your organization, many of which are formally or informally minuted or documented.

1. How much time is spent across the organization holding meetings during a year?
2. How much does this cost the company per year? (Estimate the annual salaries of participants, double them to include pensions, holidays, paid sickness and other benefits, divide by 1700 to get an hourly wage. Multiply the total hours in (a) above to get the total average cost of holding meetings.
3. Repeat the above to take into account the cost of producing after meeting documentation.
4. If a critical member of staff is absent during an important meeting, estimate the benefits of having an audio copy of the meeting versus a verbal handover.
5. Estimate the loss in efficiency in a member of staff having to concentrate on taking minutes during a meeting rather than concentrating on the subject matter.
6. Estimate the cost savings of certain members of staff, not having to participate in a meeting, if an indexed audio recording is available after the meeting (for all, or some of what was discussed during the proceedings).
7. Estimate the benefits of having the true emotional way of stating a point at a meeting compared to a written statement. 'Mr Smith disagreed' can mean anything between 'Mr Smith didn't really mind but preferred not to', to, 'Mr Smith threatened to resign as a point of principle'.
8. Estimate the benefits of the real-time Azam meeting cost counter (view cost counter screenshot). Will meetings run more efficiently if this is prominently displayed on a large screen in the middle of the room or an alarm goes off at a pre-agreed time?
9. Are there any benefits in allowing voice clips, recorded on Azam, to be edited before general distribution?

Assuming meetings become 10% more efficient through implementing Azam, how much money might this save a typical organization of 5,000 employees?

As an estimate, assume each employee attends 1 meeting a week lasting for 1 hour. Over a year each employee spends 50 hours in these weekly meetings. At a conservative average cost per employee of $50,000/year (a salary of $25,000 doubled to include staff benefits), the time spent in these meetings costs the organization $1,375 (assuming a 35 hour working week) per employee. The overall cost to the organization of all these meetings is 5,000 x $1,375 = $6,875,000.

With only a 10% improvement in efficiency and organizational working practices, by using Azam, it could save $687,500 in the first year.

Deduct the discounted cost of 1,000 Azam licenses including 1000 pre-supplied microphones and 1000 headsets: $90,000. The savings on meetings alone could be approximately $600,000/year.

But Azam can be used to save costs and increase productivity for more than just meetings:

Assumption 2: Administrative or secretarial assistance is used extensively in your organization to type up hand written notes, updates to reports, or letters.

1. How much time is spent across the organization providing this information to admin staff during a year?
2. How much does this cost the company per year? Estimate the annual salaries of management or sales staff that provide this information to admin staff manually, double them to include pensions, holidays, paid sickness and other benefits, divide by 1700 to get an hourly wage. Multiply the total hours in (a) above to get the total average cost of holding meetings. Compare doing so, using the Azam Microsoft® Word Toolbar, which allows voice clips to be transcribed.

Estimate the cost benefits of doing this

Assumption 3: "Brain dumping". During any given day within your organization, an employee will ask for or seek information relating to a series of actions. These requests can be between employees, subordinates or supervisors/management.

1. How much time is spent across the organization providing or asking for this information?
2. How much does this cost the company per year? Estimate the annual salaries of those involved, double them to include pensions, holidays, paid sickness and other benefits, divide by 1700 to get an hourly wage. Multiply the total hours in (a) above to get the total average cost of holding meetings. Compare doing so, using a simple long list of 'to dos' recorded on Azam.
3. How much improvement to communication accuracy do you estimate?
4. Following a long absence, what efficiency savings can be made by recording a hand over of recent events to employees who have returned from vacation or secondment, which can be played back for reference?

Estimate the cost benefits of doing this

Assumption 4: On any given day, your organization has employees that give instructions or information to staff by phone, while at an offsite location. (eg, at customer sites, home, remote offices)

1. How much time will be saved, if a list of instructions can be recorded down the phone line using Azam and emailed to various parties for action? For example a salesperson may summarise a customer visit while it is fresh in his mind, and the person recording the phone call, will be able to distribute actions via voice email, and have them ready for a critical report before the salesperson returns.

Estimate the cost benefits of doing this

Assumption 5: There are teams of employees - maybe telesales or a small call centre - that are not large enough to justify a PABX recording hardware device. Recording all of their calls using Azam provides-

1. An audit trail of the conversations - useful for quality control.
2. A training aid allowing calls to be analyzed for self-improvement.
3. An efficient means of passing the communication to back office staff. No information is lost through interpretation by the telephone operator.

Estimate the cost benefits of doing this

Assumption 6: Staff appraisals and reviews are regularly held throughout the organization. Staff motivational memos are sometimes sent, e.g. "Thanks for great quarterly sales improvements..."? Recording them using Azam provides -

1. An audio record within Human Resources of the appraisal.
2. The member of staff can be given a copy of the recording for later review.
3. Previous recordings can be useful in preparing for later appraisals.
4. Azam allows a more personal approach; staff can hear the CEO's message.

Estimate the cost and efficiency benefits of doing this. How would you measure the increase to staff moral?

Assumption 7: Value added benefits would be acceptable to your organization

As part of a corporate license, Azam International Technologies would empower the Human Resources department to give free copies of Azam to all staff with disabilities for their personal use at home.

Key members of staff will also be licensed to have free use of Azam at home.

Estimate the cost benefits of doing this

Costs to implement Azam

One time Charge plus 15 % annual maintenance for technical support and free upgrades or 3 year open lease

Hardware (Availability of soundcards. Disk storage to hold recordings)

In-house technical support (assume 10% of the total working day of 1 support person per 1000 active Azam users)

Training (assume 30 mins per employee in workshops attended by 30 employees at a time plus the cost of the tutor)

Estimate the bottom line cost

Summary of cost justification

Using Azam, your organization will save significant costs, increase staff moral, benefit employees with disabilities, avoid misunderstandings and increase efficiency.

We suggest the department responsible for general PC corporate use sponsors an evaluation.

We suggest you evaluate a number of Azam licenses (perhaps 100 of them) across various departments to include management, sales staff who are on the road a lot, secretaries and grass root employees. We will be happy to provide a 30 day no-cost trial and advise your company along the way. For further information, please email sales@azamit.com

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