Online status rather than VoIP is the basis for Unified Communication

In the past two years, unified communication has been a hot topic among vendors, especially among traditional communication equipment vendors. Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at the market research company Yankee Group, said, regarding the positioning of Unified Communication, most vendors use VoIP as the basis for Unified Communication, and use Unified Communication as a "thing" built on the basis of VoIP ". He said, I always think this is a traditional idea. However, this idea of "old school" needs to be stopped. Otherwise, it will take many years for Unified Communication to realize its potential. In addition, this is only an obvious error. Online Status display should be considered as the basis for Unified Communication, rather than VoIP.

Kerravala said he was the first to discuss why VoIP should not be the foundation of Unified Communication. First, this viewpoint hinders the application of Unified Communication. As an industry, if we promote unified communication as a Tool Based on VoIP, only enterprises that have completed VoIP deployment can truly deploy Unified Communication. The last Yankee Group survey found that only about 10% of enterprises have actually completed the deployment of VoIP. In this way, a small market that can be used for Unified Communication is created. Second, when you look at all the technologies under the Unified Communication concept, analysts use instant messages, text messages, and emails more frequently than voice messages. This is because as young people enter their jobs, the use of the above technologies will become increasingly popular. Finally, although VoIP is important, analysts think it should not be a requirement for Unified Communication. If an organization wants to deploy all the Unified Communication components and keep their voice infrastructure unchanged, this is feasible as a strategy for deploying Unified Communication, some other communication tools are omitted in the initial phase.

So why is online status a basic technology? Unified Communication needs to be regarded as a platform rather than a product. This means that the long-term goal of Unified Communication should be to use unified communication tools and embed these tools into enterprise applications. Enterprise applications allow us to modify business processes and create new ones. It is interesting to integrate all our communication tools into a Desktop client. However, this practice does not really change the way we work. Embedding these tools into application enterprise applications enables us to automate and make more intelligent communication choices. The online status function provides us with this kind of intelligence.

However, to understand how this works, you must open your mind and consider what it may do if we expand the online status function to include not only people but also objects and devices. Microsoft has displayed some files with the online status function. When you view the client software of the Office communicator, you can see the file opened by a co-author of the file and what he or she is studying. Although this function is not attractive to all organizations, for companies with a large number of documents, such as law firms, this feature will provide lawyers and assistants with a level of visibility they did not previously have. The concept of "online status is an implementation factor" is the core information IBM managed to promote its use of its Sametime product.

Apply this example to the future. Imagine a factory with many production lines that require simultaneous production of small equipment. In a traditional factory, if one of the production lines fails, a person on the site will quickly find a manager to report, and then the manager needs to find a technician to repair the machine. All resources to solve this problem are in the factory. However, manual delays often affect the production line.

Now, this example is used. All personnel and equipment have the online status function, and the alarm and repair process will be automated. When a machine fails, its leased line status will be closed, causing an event or a series of events. This event may be a search process where the Search Skill database finds all persons competent to maintain the device. According to the online status of the service personnel, the information will only be sent to the personnel who display "online. In addition, the "not online" information of the faulty machine will trigger an event to automatically increase the production load of the other machine. Automation of these processes based on the online status can eliminate many human delays and greatly change the way we work.

We are entering a world where everything may be connected together. It is impossible for us to achieve all these connections through voice. However, we can understand the online status of all these things so that we can make full use of the things that are connected by the network. Using online status as a technical platform can increase the visibility we have never had before. For enterprises that are evaluating the Unified Communication solution, do not believe that the vendor is promoting the next wave of VoIP. Instead, check how powerful the online status can provide.

Related Articles]

• Three Popular manufacturers of integrated communication work hard to achieve unified VoIP Communication