The path to unified communications

Unified communications represents the goal of many workplace decision makers - the integration of e-mail, telephony, presence, fax, mobile communications, collaboration tools, audio conferencing, Web conferencing and videoconferencing into a coordinated and centrally managed communications system, all of which will be accessible via a single address. I believe that's where most workplace communications is ultimately headed, with the ultimate goal being truly intelligent communications. The only real question is how do you get there?

There are three basic paths you can follow:

* Start with unified messaging – the integration of e-mail, voicemail and fax into a single mailbox. This is a “light” form of unified communications and offers users the advantage of receiving their most important communications in a single place, making it easier for users, particularly mobile users, because they have only one location to check for these different communication modes. The disadvantage is that senders still have multiple different “addresses” to deal with – an e-mail address, a desktop telephone number, a mobile telephone number and a fax number. Still, it is the first major step on the road to true unified communications and is offered by Microsoft, IBM, Novell and a host of other messaging and telephony system vendors.

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Unified communications represents the goal of many workplace decision makers - the integration of e-mail, telephony, presence, fax, mobile communications, collaboration tools, audio conferencing, Web conferencing and videoconferencing into a coordinated and centrally managed communications system, all of which will be accessible via a single address. I believe that's where most workplace communications is ultimately headed, with the ultimate goal being truly intelligent communications. The only real question is how do you get there?

There are three basic paths you can follow:

* Start with unified messaging – the integration of e-mail, voicemail and fax into a single mailbox. This is a “light” form of unified communications and offers users the advantage of receiving their most important communications in a single place, making it easier for users, particularly mobile users, because they have only one location to check for these different communication modes. The disadvantage is that senders still have multiple different “addresses” to deal with – an e-mail address, a desktop telephone number, a mobile telephone number and a fax number. Still, it is the first major step on the road to true unified communications and is offered by Microsoft, IBM, Novell and a host of other messaging and telephony system vendors.

* Start with e-mail and integrate telephony and other capabilities. This is the path that Microsoft, for example (and many others), is pursuing – Exchange customers migrate to unified messaging in Exchange 2007 and then add the presence, voice, video, Web conferencing, call management and other capabilities of Office Communications Server.

* Start with your telephony infrastructure and then integrate e-mail and other capabilities into it. This is the approach that Avaya, Cisco, Nortel and others are pursuing. It leverages the existing PBX/IP PBX infrastructure to provide unified access and storage capabilities for various communication types.

This is clearly an oversimplified view of the unified communications world, since there are many issues to consider, such as current investments in the legacy infrastructure, and many variants on the approaches identified above. Where you start will depend on how much you have invested in current systems and your corporate culture, but the ultimate destination is the same. (Compare Unified Communications products)

Read more about voip & convergence in Network World's VoIP & Convergence section.