Unified Communications: An Information Communications Technology Solutions

Unified Communications : An Information Communications Technology Solutions

Introduction

Unified communications (UC ) is a commonly used term for the integration of disparate communications systems , media , devices and applications This potentially includes the integration of fixed and mobile voice e-mail , instant messaging , desktop and advanced business applications Internet Protocol (IP )-PBX , voice over IP (VoIP , presence , voice-mail fax , audio video and web conferencing , unified messaging , unified voicemail , and whiteboarding into a single environment offering the user a more complete but simpler and more effective experience

Gartner states "The largest single value

of UC is its ability to reduce "human latency " in business processes " Unified Messaging (or UM ) is the integration of different streams of communication (e-mail , SMS , Fax voice , video , etc ) into a single , or , unified 'message store accessible from a variety of different devices . Unified Messaging was expected by many in the consumer telecommunications industry to be a popular product , first augmenting and eventually replacing voicemail However , UM was slow to gain consumer acceptance , and UM vendors such as Comverse were badly hit when the slowdown in the telecommunications industry in 2001 made carriers wary of spending large amounts of money on technology with little proven consumer demand

Role of UM in Present Scenario

Today , UM solutions are increasingly accepted in the corporate environment . The aim of deploying UM solutions generally is to enhance and improve business processes as well as services . UM solutions targeting professional end-user customers integrate communications processes into the existing IT infrastructure , i . e . into CRM , ERP and mail systems (e . g . Phoenixnet PH , Microsoft Exchange , Lotus Notes , SAP etc

Unified communications is sometimes confused with unified messaging , but it is distinct . Unified communications refers to a real-time delivery of communications based on the method and location of the recipient unified messaging systems culls messages from several sources (such as email , voice mail etc , but holds those messages for retrieval at a later time

Unified messaging focuses on allowing users to access voice , e-mail , fax and other mixed media from a single mailbox independent of the access device

Multimedia services include messages of mixed media types such as video sound clips , and pictures , and include communication via short message services (SMS

Components of unified communications

Unified communications can include a variety of elements , such as instant messaging , telephony , video , email , voicemail , and short message services , all of which could be brought into real time and coordinated The concept of presence is also a factor - knowing where one 's intended recipients are and if they are available , in real time - and is itself a key component of unified communications . To put it simply , unified communications integrates all the systems that a user might already be using and helps those systems work together in real time . For example unified communications technology could allow a user to seamlessly collaborate with another person on a project , even if the two users are in separate locations . The user could quickly locate the necessary person by accessing an interactive directory , engage in...