With the explosion of radical disruptive technologies like Big Data, Mobility, Cloud Computing and Social Media, communication has been continually redefining itself to fit into an evolving ecosystem. We’ve known for years that ‘voice’ is just a piece of the communication puzzle, the other bits representing everything from an instant messenger notification to a video conference. Being that as it may, what has really changed today is the fact that communication has become more on-the-go than ever before.
In other words, we don’t use communication tools only in office, but we employ them while we travel or when we get a meal or even from our bedroom. All of this means that communication is becoming increasingly virtual by the day, and the need for its tools to get integrated into a single interface is more than ever before. This calls for Unified Communication – a new technological architecture that binds both, businesses and individuals to manage their communications through a single entity rather than separately, hence improving efficiency.
Unified Communication leverages better control over features like ‘Presence’ and ‘Single number reach’.
Presence stands for the will and availability of a person to communicate. Simply put, it is what enlists the peeps in your instant messenger, where they are and how they can be contacted. Unified Communication using Presence lets you get in touch with people who are not necessarily in front of their computer, through, for example PC-to-phone calling, provided if they share information on how to do so.
Single number reach, on the other hand, is what assists you to get in touch with people who have different ways to be contacted, through a single access point (one single number), regardless of if they are using a softphone, email, IP phone, you name it. The most ideal example of a Single number reach is Google Voice. Unified Communication, by integrating multimedia services, real-time systems, data services and transactions, champion an array of benefits.
The benefits of Unified Communication in a nutshell:
- People can remain connected by enabling mobile technologies with their IP handsets or soft-phones even if it means they are outside their offices or homes.
- Enterprises can minimize infrastructure costs they incur to accommodate their employees by letting them work out of office.
- The potential of foreign human resource can be capitalized with no escalated cost or delay, making geographical distances redundant.
- Online conferencing would facilitate more productive interactivity, crunching the unnecessary costs incurred on travel and telecoms.
- For an individual, there would be considerably less bills to worry about, as all services would be from a single access point, reached out to via a single number.
The concept of Unified Communication is gaining ground increasingly, if not it having reached the summit of its absolute utilization. Microsoft, for one, has penetrated into the Unified Communication with the launch of ‘Office Suite’, and before you know it, enterprises, small and large would too. Are you ready?
Arnita is a former Happiest Mind and this content was created and published during her tenure.
