Unified Communications
The advantages of UC applications
Employees are able to work from
anywhere, anytime and be more effective and
efficient.
by Keith Bromley
As a business communication tool, unified
communications (UC) has the potential to
enhance customer service, optimize business
processes and improve employee productivity.
Through UC, users can collaborate in real
time, access needed information, make
decisions, and communicate seamlessly with
customers and co-workers, whether they are
on the road, at the office or at home.
UC encompasses a group of applications,
which includes voice, e-mail, instant
messaging, Web collaboration,
videoconferencing, call center solutions,
softphones and calendar functions. The
result is an integrated, intelligent,
communications experience that helps improve
real-world business processes. Companies are
using UC technology to address business
continuity, travel costs and timely
distribution of information.
UC concerns
IT staff.
Moving to a software-based UC solution can
simplify moves, adds and changes (MACs) and
system management. UC allows administrators
to provision and deploy telecommunications
in Windows-based environments instead of
having to manually provision lines on a PBX.
ROI.
Unified communications helps reduce
costs and increase revenue by enabling
employees to be more productive.
Employees can
respond to customer needs anytime, anywhere,
based on real-time, relevant information.
Integration.
Using non-proprietary and open architecture,
software-based UC avoids the use of
high-priced proprietary hardware. Some
solutions also enable SIP-based phones to
help lower cost.
Investment in
existing network resources.
Tailored software solutions can be
implemented without the need to rip and
replace network hardware.
UC includes presence, an application
that allows users to place a cursor over a
co-worker’s name to instantly see if
that person is available, can take
a call or prefers instant messaging
or voice mail. Presence settings
can enable single-number reach or
automatic routing of calls to a
mobile phone, or branch or home
office. Unified communications
allows users to: drag and drop
names of participants to launch
conference calls; have one number
for every employee with find-me/follow-me
capability; attach voice messages
to e-mails for forwarding to other
parties; access the corporate
directory on a mobile device;
transfer calls between a mobile
device and desk phone; and go
to a call log, click on missed
calls and automatically dial the
number.
Users can create conferences,
share documents and participate in
collaboration from a desktop client.
The use of collaboration applications,
such as document sharing, whiteboard,
chat and conferencing (voice, video and Web)
can mean decreased travel costs. Face-to-face
meetings can be replaced or augmented using
desktop sharing and conferencing.
Companies are taking advantage of UC
applications to empower employees to become
more effective and efficient. For example,
salespeople operating remotely can stay
in touch with customers, vendors and
co-workers via cell phones or softphones
downloaded to their laptops. Companies
with branch offices can save on long-distance
calls between locations. Improved business
continuity scenarios also result from UC
applications, as users can work from anywhere, anytime.
Communications servers and UC
applications are expected to be software
solutions, loadable on any standard server.
Some of today’s hybrid hardware and software
UC solutions work with traditional
time-division-multiplexing PBXs, but as IP
adoption takes over, pure software-based
solutions are expected to prevail,
eliminating the need for expensive,
proprietary hardware.
Keith Bromley is product marketing
manager, NEC Unified Solutions,
Irving, Texas.
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