Key Components of Unified Communications (complete article from May Solutions newsletter)
by Milton Moore, Principal Consultant, IP Consulting, Inc.

There is a major new trend happening in office communications. It is called Unified Communications (UC). UC allows for easy communications across many different platforms and devices. Organizations of all sizes are seeing major productivity gains after implementing UC. Some of the key components of Unified Communications systems are: Unified Messaging, Presence, Audio/Video Conferencing, Web Collaboration and Mobility. Below is a brief overview of each component.

Unified Messaging: Unified Messaging (UM) is one of the most well known components of the solution and includes a number of useful features. UM integrates voicemail and email onto one platform. If you receive a voicemail message you have the option of retrieving it via the phone or in your email client (i.e. Microsoft Outlook) as an email with an attachment. UM has been around for many years. Another nice feature of UM is that it can work the other way around. Using the Text to Speech function it can read your emails to you while you are out of the office.

Presence: The first thing that comes to mind when people hear Presence is Yahoo Instant Messenger, Windows Messenger or AOL AIM. Instant Messaging has become a very efficient communication tool for many people. By simply looking at your software client it is possible to see the status of a user and instantly know what is the best way to communicate with that person. You can start an instant messenger session and with a press of a button escalated it to a voice call or even a video conference if both sides have webcams connected. If you receive a phone call the Presence client will change your status to “On the Phone”. The Presence client can also check your Microsoft Outlook Calendar and change your status to “In a Meeting” automatically. Most organizations that implement a corporate Presence solution will notice a significant productivity gain.

Audio/Video Conferencing: Due to the high cost of travel many organizations are reducing travel budgets and investing in lower cost alternatives like Web conferencing for both internal and external meetings. The demand for Audio/Video conferencing has created services such as Cisco’s WebEx™, and Citrix’s GoToMeeting®. These services are public, and users pay by subscription or by the minute. New UC solutions have a device that can provide the same features. It can send out email invites with a link for web and audio conferences. The moderator can share their desktop with all the users in a conference making it easy to do a PowerPoint presentation. The solution also supports video.

Mobility: Mobility is becoming a major force in the industry. With a UC solution users can now have a single phone number. That telephone number will access them on their cell, home, and office phone. This is called Single-Number-Reach (SNR). Instead of checking your voicemail on multiple devices, you can have a single voicemail box. With this configuration if you were on a conference call in the office that ran late you could, at a press of a button, transfer the call to your cell phone without anyone noticing. There are new dual-mode mobile phones that have the capability of being a regular phone system extension when inside of the office but are also regular cell phones.

As you can see, Unified Communications offers many productive ways to cut costs and increase productivity. CPR is Cisco Premier Partner and a Microsoft Gold Partner with a Unified Communications Specialization. To learn how Unified Communications can help your business save money and help your employees increase their productivity contact us today.

About Milton
Milton Moore is Principal Consultant at IP Consulting, Inc and works with Corporate Technologies' Grand Rapids, MI office on IP phone system projects. Prior to founding IPC he was a Senior Systems Engineer with Cisco Systems for more than 6 years. His certifications include the Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (Routing & Switching) and the Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (Voice). He also holds a Bachelor degree in Network Engineering from Davenport University.