Unified communications (UC) is one
of the hottest discussions in the
communications world today. It means different things to different people and is defined by different vendors to
suit their offerings and target market.
Many use it synonymously with unified
messaging, which it’s not. It’s more
expansive than that, says Margi Shaw,
Chief Operations Officer of CIMCO
Communications.
The research organization Frost &
Sullivan defines unified communications
as follows: “Unified communications is
the evolution of telephone, e-mail and
instant messaging functionality into a
single service or application. This is not
an evolution of technology but an evolution in the way workers and companies
deploy and use their communications
services.”
Because it is an evolutionary approach,
the definition will continue to be vague
or change in its specificity.
Smart Business spoke with Shaw to
get a better understanding of which
product suites, technologies and applications fall under the UC umbrella and
the overall impact of UC on the work-place.
Are businesses required to develop a UC
solution all at once, or can it be implemented in phases?
There appears to be no clear view of
the future, so taking a building block
approach is the one viewed as a more
desirable and prudent strategy. Premise-based or hosted voice services form the
building blocks of a UC solution, where
additional applications can be integrated
down the road. Industry research tells us
that 80 percent of businesses are using
some type of UC solution, and it usually
starts with VoIP (Voice over Internet
Protocol).
In our experience, we have found that
many companies are not convinced of
the new UC applications. Most are sticking with their existing IP PBXs and layering UC applications on top, which
means they are undertaking phased
approaches.
What are the benefits and advantages of
going to UC? How can we determine which
solution is best for us?
The world is moving toward a complete
UC solution, despite the fact we really
don’t know what that will look like in five
and 10 years. It is simply an evolution
that you will be forced to participate in,
so the best approach is to develop a
strategic plan with an expert, most likely
your voice and data services provider.
Most businesses incorporate some kind
of UC application for enhanced productivity purposes, particularly as business
becomes more virtual and mobile.
Integration required for the UC environment is a complex process. Components typically sitting in the LAN (instant
messaging and e-mail) are integrated
with network-based mobility, WAN and
converged IP-PBX. Latency is still a critical problem for real-time traffic, which
refers to both interactive telephone calls
(PSTN or VoIP) and instant messaging.
In fact, many see real-time communications as the key differentiator between
UC and IM, which is a store and forward
technology.
What about the human factor of a unified
communications world?
We feel, as do many in the industry, that
unified communications will transform
the workplace and social routines
throughout the world. Most discussion
around UC is about the technology, but
another real issue that should be addressed is the human factor. While unified communications will make employees more productive, it can also be seen
as a major contributor to work-related
stress as workers continually feel they
are on call.
With the plethora of tools such as lap-tops, PDAs, cell phones, e-mail and
pagers, there is an ever-widening gap
between the amount of information people are expected to keep up with and the
amount they can reasonably process.
Basically, what it comes down to is that
technology is outpacing our ability to
use it, and companies need to be realistic about how much technology is too
much for their employees to manage.
Will this contribute to employees feeling as
though they are working 24/7?
As indicated, companies need to recognize that employees must set boundaries
for work-life balance. Those boundaries
are different than the traditional ones in
the past, with technology that connects
employees to their jobs 24/7 and a global
economy where employees are accommodating different time zones.
New technology can either overwhelm
employees, or can be used to improve
productivity without working against the
employees and company culture. It’s
important to recognize that any new technology in the workplace creates many
changes in how information is received,
in business processes and in training
employees properly to efficiently use it.
Change management, change communications and user training are also important to incorporate in the planning of
such a major technology change.
MARGI SHAW is Chief Operations Officer of CIMCO Communications, based in the Chicago metropolitan area. Reach her at
(630) 691-8080 or [email protected].
