* Unified messaging issues that need to be solved
Editor’s Note: Starting Dec. 5, this newsletter will be renamed Unified Communications. The name change will reflect the newsletter’s broader focus as we report on the industry’s move toward a unified messaging model. We hope you will continue to enjoy the newsletter and thank you for reading.
Unified communications, or unified messaging, brings together e-mail, instant messaging, voice, fax and other communication types. It offers a number of benefits to organizations and users alike despite the fact that the technology has been promised for many years.
Unified messaging promises to make messaging easier to use and more efficient by integrating all communications into a single mailbox. Further, by using directories to drive a unified messaging infrastructure, recipients can define how they want to receive communications and senders won’t have to think about the best way to send communications based on a particular message’s urgency, the time of day, etc.
That said, unified messaging carries with it some fairly significant issues that will have to be solved, including:
* Storage. This is the leading problem for e-mail managers today, given that e-mail-related storage is increasing at more than 40% per year on average. By dumping voice and fax into a user’s mailbox, storage requirements will increase dramatically, requiring significant investments in storage systems.
* Discovery. Voice messages today appear as .WAV files or equivalent in unified mailboxes. While the technology exists (sort of) to convert these files to text for purposes of archiving and, ultimately, electronic discovery, few unified messaging shops do this. However, since voice in a unified messaging system is just another data type, how long will it be before voice messages become discoverable content as e-mails increasingly are becoming today.
* Complete integration. Will users want all of their e-mail accounts to be integrated in a single unified communications system? A reader of this newsletter told me, “I’ll still be keeping my personal and work accounts separate for Sarbanes-Oxley and other reasons.” Also, will users want all work-related accounts integrated into a single mailbox, or is there value in having a ‘back channel’ for communications that consumer IM or a personal Webmail account provides?
I’d like to get your thoughts on the value of unified messaging, from the perspective of IT administrators charged with managing such an infrastructure, as well as users who would be the ultimate consumers of this approach to messaging. Please e-mail me.
