Unified Communications - Work smarter, not just harder!
Unified Communications is a topic that is alive within organisations. It is, after all, a handy and tangible tool to help increase productivity and lower costs. The tool provides the possibility of integrating different communication media, thereby offering the user the possibility of being reachable and available everywhere and at all times whenever he chooses. It is up to the user to select the best and most suitable form of communication to fit the requirements of the situation in the best possible way, at any particular time.
This is a splendid description, but it has little meaning without further explanation. Unfortunately, this hot topic is shrouded in a lot of confusion. Vendors clearly promote Unified Communications (UC) as the ultimate solution to all problems. The next step in business development according to many business analysts, because the business processes can be harmonized to the communication media, and, of course, vice versa. And who knows, perhaps even the solution to the financial crisis is hiding within UC?
The confusion is also accompanied by a great deal of uncertainty. Up to now, most companies have invested in different communication domains. The main domain remains telephony, which also includes the mobile sector. As a rule, the telephony system is used as a basis for a UC platform. Other domains are voice mail, which, in the meantime, now evolved to include unified messaging and e-mails supplemented with calendar applications and a Blackberry or Smartphone. Web conferencing with video, instant messaging with a presence function and contact centres to improve customer contacts are extensions that are often discussed. Unfortunately, these different areas are often implemented as stand-alone modules, so-called silos.
Can we speak of Unified Communications as soon as two or more of these domains are integrated? The answer is yes and no. It is unfortunately only partially true. The key to success is to adapt the communication processes, and not the technology itself. In this respect, the technology is merely a building block of the UC platform.
Contact centres (previously called customer services) that make use of advanced call centre functionalities are a simple example of this. As before, the important aspect here is to ensure that your customers are immediately put through to the employee who is best suited to provide quick, consistent and personal service. The employee in question could be situated at any location, or even be abroad, but this does not matter to the centrally controlled system. Furthermore, the centralisation of telephony on the computer network not only results in a substantial saving in telephone costs, but also in the area of support and management. Customer satisfaction rises, and costs decline. What could be better? The differentiator – and the ultimate objective that is aimed for – is the new customer support business process that can now be implemented thanks to the additional options that are available. Not the technology itself. Unified Communications is also no longer an issue for the ICT department alone. The entire organisation is involved.
Investments in the separate domains therefore require a well-considered strategy, encompassing more than just the stand-alone silos. The true merit will soon become evident once the separate domains have been integrated and the company processes have been accordingly harmonized, whereby the latter become automated. The target here is the simplification and optimisation of processes; efficiency and cost reduction are the natural results.
We have never encountered a complete roll out of a Unified Communications project that covers all domains. What we do see are customers who have invested in one or more domains, and who now wish to integrate these domains in order to better harmonize their business requirements. We ourselves are also in favour of a multi-layer approach, in which the selection of the silos requires both insight into the company, and know-how regarding the technology. The more layers (domains) that can be integrated later on, the higher the gain for the business and its approach. Only your own creativity could then set limits to the possibilities of Unified Communications.