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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 concernsSo 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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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.

PresenceWith 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.

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 cloudVoice 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

CommUniCaTions

direction for cloud technology, especially with the integration around voice and data.

Real time document collaborationBy 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 pre-sales 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 networksSocial 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 collaborationAlthough 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.

References1. Global Unified Communications Market

2011-2015

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