Download ENTERING THE NExT pHASE OF UNIFIEd COMMUNICATIONS

Entering the next phase of unified
communications
Unified communications (UC) is a concept that is still not fully understood by some businesses and, despite
having been around for over a decade, has only recently reached maturity. Some may have dismissed its
deployment without fully understanding the value effective collaboration can bring to an organisation. In
fact, since the term ‘unified communications’ was originally coined in the mid 1990s, it has come to mean
different things to different people. With this in mind Neil Cross, Managing Director of Advanced 365, puts UC
in context and discusses the next phase of unified communications.
Unified communications and collaboration
are terms that have now become practically
synonymous. At the heart of every UC
project is the need to enable personnel
to collaborate as efficiently as possible in
order to facilitate day-to-day productivity.
A report by analyst firm, TechNavio1
forecasts that the global UC market will
grow at a compound annual growth rate
(CAGR) of 13.5 per cent over the period
2011-2015.
To put this into context; with businesses
using an array of communication tools,
including desktop phones, mobile phones,
email, voicemail, SMS text messaging,
instant messaging and conferencing,
it should be easier than ever to reach
somebody. However, more choice can often
lead to an even greater opportunity to miss
a phone call or an email!
As communication solutions operate
distinctly, a caller could end up leaving
voicemail messages on two different
phones and sending an email and an
instant message to the same individual in
an effort to reach them. Being able to bring
all these communication channels together
so that a caller only needs to leave or send
one message in the knowledge that the
recipient will pick it up on whichever device
they choose is the essence of UC.
UC integrates these communications and
collaboration tools so that messages can
be sent using one form of communication
and received using any other that is used
by the business. Having staff always
available and in touch improves productivity
and efficiency as well as communication
between colleagues, customers, partners
and suppliers.
UC can also save time (and therefore
money), and as customers are being
responded to in a timely manner customer
service, satisfaction and retention are often
considerably improved.
Overcoming common UC concerns
So despite the many advantages of UC, what
are the most common misconceptions?
Unsurprisingly, deploying UC costs money
and with ICT budgets tighter than ever,
investing in this particular technology has
not until relatively recently been properly
understood. For example, organisations
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Communications
are often experiencing their legacy
communication systems leaking money.
This, together with the benefits of a UC
solution, helps to put the initial cost
concern into context.
Another common concern is how UC will
fit in with the culture of the business. How
will staff cope with always being ‘available’
and will they actually use new technologies
that may be implemented? Defining and
working to a collaboration strategy is an
essential prerequisite for all UC projects.
No two businesses are entirely alike and
the importance of predetermining exactly
which communication tools are best suited
to an organisation and the needs of its staff
and customers cannot be overstated. In fact,
this can make all the difference between a
successful or unsuccessful roll-out.
The issues of security and compliance may
also need addressing before an organisation
feels comfortable implementing UC. There
could be a concern that UC is easier to
hack than disparate solutions, for example.
In fact, most UC solutions have robust,
in-built security features and by ensuring
the UC provider abides by best practice
standards and that staff use strong
passwords, security threats are minimised.
Organisations that are strongly regulated
may also be concerned about whether
UC supports compliance. Those regulated
by the Financial Services Authority (FSA),
for instance, may need to record all their
conversations, regardless of whether they
are using the telephone, email or instant
messaging. Providing businesses with the
reassurance that with UC, this can be easily
achieved, alleviates these fears.
Similarly, organisations may have their
own internal governance standards that
they believe are incompatible with certain
communication tools. However, as UC can
be configured in line with organisations’
rules and standards, all these concerns can
be easily overcome.
The latest UC advances
Business and social requirements have
evolved. New capabilities are now needed
for efficiency and competitiveness. The
following developments are what I view as
the most exciting.
Presence
With so many different forms of
communication being used, it’s difficult
to know which will be the quickest way to
get hold of someone at any given moment.
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Voicemails may not be picked up and
emails left unread for hours. Imagine how
much time is wasted by callers leaving
and sending multiple messages and
by intended recipients picking up these
duplicated communications.
Presence solutions address this problem
by giving all users who have authorised
access visibility of where an individual
co-worker is at any time. That means it
will always be possible to see whether
that person is in the office, in a meeting, on
holiday, has left for the day and so on. It will
tell you whether that person is free or when
they will next become available and how
they can best be contacted.
For example, users can establish the
availability of their colleagues via a simple
‘traffic light’ feature, which indicates
green for available; amber for temporarily
away and red for unavailable. Based on
these indicators, users can quickly decide
which method of communication is most
appropriate to use.
Voice and data convergence…
UC in the cloud
Voice and data convergence has been
taking place over a number of years, but
it is only beginning to take hold now. It
brings together mobile and fixed phone
communications with data, running it over
a single network. By deploying both voice
and data over a single system that controls
the entire voice and data infrastructure,
economies of scale can be leveraged.
The growth of cloud technology has
naturally led to more demand for UC
delivery over the cloud. This particular
model enables new UC technologies to be
deployed quicker, enabling businesses to
be up and running within days. This offers
a low – cost method of delivery and a new
direction for cloud technology, especially
with the integration around voice and data.
Real time document collaboration
By integrating UC solutions with electronic
document management platforms, multiple
people can work concurrently (and in real
time) on producing and editing documents.
For example, members of a sales team can
work alongside their colleagues in presales and engineering when producing a
sales proposal, despite the fact that each
of the teams are based at entirely different
locations. Everyone can work alongside
each other as easily and readily as if they
were sat together in the same room.
Social enterprising networks
Social networking tools are increasingly
being used by businesses as part of their
UC strategies, with the use of these tools
expected to increase exponentially over
the next few years. The integration of
social media tools into an organisations’
communications strategy to create social
enterprising networks (such as online
staff forums) is certainly being seen as the
way forward as highlighted by Microsoft’s
$1.2bn buy-out of Yammer in June 2012.
Improving collaboration
Although UC has been evolving over the
course of the last decade, it is only now
seeing significant growth as businesses
recognise the productivity gains of
streamlining their communications channels
in order to improve workplace collaboration.
UC is seeing rapid year-on-year growth and
with the latest UC advances already taking
hold, the demand will increase for years
to come.
References
1. Global Unified Communications Market
2011-2015
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