A gap analysis is a process that should be performed on all projects, regardless of size. The concept of a gap analysis is to review, in detail, the requirements of what the project is designed to deliver and the current plan of action. For example, in the case of Litware, Inc. and the solution that is being delivered using Office Communications Server, the original primary requirements were:

The planning team has reached conclusions on all three of the primary requirements. Retirement of the PBXs may take more time than originally desired, but the tradeoff is that they were able to still meet the goals of the project by providing a path to migrate users to Office Communicator as a computer client, Office Communicator Phone Edition as a desk phone, and remote access for remote users. For the federated business partners, the ability for workers—regardless of location—to collaborate with suppliers and partners will be realized by Web Conferencing and the tools available within.

The gap is the cost of this effort without a massive amount of work and service disruption. A less costly and less disruptive approach is to upgrade the existing PBX to be IP-enabled (IP PBX) and integrate it directly with Office Communications Server by using Direct SIP. The document, "Direct SIP with IP-PBX," on the companion CD provides step-by-step details on configuring Direct SIP with Cisco Unified Communications Manager 4.2.1.

However, this does not mean that the project is at risk. A pilot is going forward in Chicago that will help to define how large the effort really is and what the actual costs will be to retire the PBXs. This will allow for a much better understanding of the costs associated with such an effort.

Litware also has goals of providing a method for offering better collaboration with business partners. This is a good example of where Litware has a gap to address. What if the partner doesn’t have Office Communications Server? In this case, Litware would need to look to suitable alternatives that might integrate with Office Communications Server and provide a consistent experience for the user. Litware could look at using the hosted Live Meeting service and public IM connectivity as a solution to this particular gap.