“Unified Communications”. What is it? Do you have it? Do you know what how it is used? A quick check around the industry shows that there is no unified definition of “unified communications”. It is one of those terms that many people like to use, but few understand. If you are deciding on a unified communications strategy for your company, your first decision must rest on what you want to accomplish.
Unfortunately the term Unified Communications is being over-used and distorted as it becomes more widely used in the telecommunications business. Much of what you describe would also be included in the term Unified Messaging. The definition I like to use for Unified Communications is:
“Improve information flow between people, tasks, processes and devices leading to business performance gains”.
UC can have a direct impact on user productivity as well as business process efficiency. A discussion point can revolve around how a business makes investment decisions, the people involved in these decisions and the amount of time lag (also known as Human Latency) associated with making the decision. UC tools, which have a basis in Presence and permit the choice of different session types (Instant Messaging, Voice, Video, Content Sharing etc.) can dramatically reduce the Human Latency associated with the decision process.
UC is not a product, but a collection of products and solutions built around how the business is run, the work styles of the employees and how to extend reach to key people with specific accountabilities, regardless of their locations. During the process of evaluating the above, it will be common to hit speedbumps related to the demographics and culture of the organization.
Today, leaders in the UC marketplace include; Avaya, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft and Siemens Enterprise. There are numerous other players, but these organizations are recognized by The Gartner Group as the more prominent players.
