The true meaning of Unified Communication (UC)

New things are always curious and worrying. Just like UC, its technology and market are not yet mature. Many enterprises are also holding a wait-and-see attitude. Therefore, the rise of mobile communication and wireless networks over the years has brought people to notice the Unified Communication UC technology.

UC is a new product. This term covers speech, video, legacy applications in enterprise data networks, and network-centric applications. It can be said that UC is a reasonable development that surpasses Internet voice protocol VoIP.

The emergence of VoIP allows people in different regions to speak freely as they face to face. Unified Communication UC, however, forces CIOs to reevaluate their IT operations and organizational structure in order to recombine various resources based on business needs.

Generally, the organizational structure of an enterprise is centered around functions, products, markets, regions, or processes. Adding voice to the data network is only the first step of transformation. It paves the way for future video and other real-time communication. This change will not only affect the support staff of telephone and data networks, but also the support staff of service desks, storage and servers. Unified Communication is all-encompassing.

Evaluate UC complexity

Adding voice, video conferencing, and other real-time communications will suddenly increase Network Complexity and raise support requirements. It requires enterprises to fully evaluate their original organization models. This evaluation not only affects the original subordination, but also requires personnel training and equipment planning. It can be said that only those companies with open and flexible cultures can smoothly transition in a short time. UC proposes a new way to integrate traditional technologies such as email, voice mail, VoIP, instant messaging, and other collaboration tools ). As these components are integrated together, business users' expectations for UC will undoubtedly increase significantly. Any component-level lag will lead to user dissatisfaction, which puts IT under greater responsibility pressure.

The unique features of UC that span servers, data, voice, and service desks bring a problem out of the water: "Who owns UC "? Enterprises need to transform their original functions and product structure into a process-based structure. ITIL Information Technology Infrastructure Library) service management practice is an effective practice that can guide the smooth implementation of conversion. If enterprises think they do not have core advantages in UC management, they can consider outsourcing UC services during the transition period.

In the process of implementing Unified Communication UC, each enterprise is in a different stage. Some enterprises have completed the centralized communication, while some enterprises are changing their organizational structure. CIOs and other related personnel can implement Conversion Based on best practices and their specific situations.

Manage UC)

At present, UC is still a concept and long-term strategy, and a recognition of the overall trend of communication. UC should be treated as a program for long-term management.

Although many manufacturers' products are named as UC, they do not mean they are actually UC products. In fact, UC can be fully implemented only by developing applications based on low-layer technologies. Currently, this type of applications is not available.

As business teams and end users, they only care about the productivity and value that every day's tools and applications can bring to them. With the implementation of various components in the UC framework, such as VoIP, enterprise instant messaging and desktop video conferencing, the return on investment at the project level will gradually become apparent.

Since UC is still a concept and a long-term strategy, should CIOs actively pay attention to it? The answer is yes. Due to the emergence of UC, IP-based telephone systems and traditional enterprise telephone systems are challenged. software plays an important role in the speech transmission process. In addition, new UC products such as Microsoft's Office Communications Server have begun to influence the market.

CIOs should be aware of the importance of UC. More importantly, CIOs should be skeptical when vendors say they can provide "Final Version" UC products. Strictly speaking, UC is not a product, but a way to understand the integration of different communication media through a technical platform.

Five instructions on Unified Communication UC

◆ Traditional simulation) the PBX system is about to become a thing of the past. The IP-based telephone system has brought unprecedented new features and will pave the way for the future "Unified Communication UC. Therefore, before deciding to replace the old PBX system, the CIO should first understand what these new features are.

◆ CIOs should specify the future ROI of UC technology and learn about the current ROI that cannot be provided.

◆ It is not a day before the expectation of achieving voice mail on the Enterprise phone and email system. Other technologies, such as instant messaging, telephone routing, integration of wireless and Wired phone numbers, wireless IP phones, and video conferences, will drive future innovations. CIOs should understand how to use IT governance technologies in a systematic and structured manner to manage these innovations, new technologies, and user expectations.

◆ Understand the publicity about UC, which are true, so that you can be aware of it in technology procurement decisions.

◆ Ensure that any innovations in the telephone system do not affect the level of voice service.