About 50% of business will have employed unified communications in some form within the next two years, according to a recent DataMonitor survey.
This is up from the current figure of 25%.
"However, that doesn't necessarily mean people will be using it," commented Ky Ox, unified communications practice leader at Dimension Data, at the ITWeb-DiData Unified Communications Forum in Bryanston, Johannesburg, yesterday.
Ox says unified communications is "being able to use any device, in any location, with any application. It's about combining instant messaging, telephony and personal productivity."
Underneath every unified communications initiative is an Internet Protocol backbone. If a user gets a call, or misses a call, receives an e-mail, instant message or a fax, the front-end unified communications interface will let him or her know, he says.
This interface can be accessed at the office, home, on a phone or with a PDA, and should be available almost everywhere. In fact, "presence" awareness in unified communications will know where a person is, and how best to get personal notes to him or her.
It is estimated that the average information worker wastes about 30 minutes a day playing "phone tag" - finding numbers, missing people, calling back, asking if they can speak later, and so on.
21st century truths
Unified communications applications should consolidate one's calendar, meeting schedules, video and audio conferences, as well as all their communications interfaces (IM, e-mail, fax, Skype and phone) into speech recognition technology.
Any leading 'communicator client' will utilise the knowledge it has of one's present states, and re-route calls to where the user is, adds Roberto Del La Mora - Cisco's unified communications lead for emerging markets.
He pointed to some 21st century business realities: there is no longer such a thing as time zones; people need to be mobile; customers have high service expectations; and the phenomenon of "working moments" is more evident. This is where somebody types a quick e-mail at a red traffic light, or a person sends instant messages just before they go to bed, for instance.
These trends have made unified communications essential to most businesses, he adds.
Share