What is Unified Communication?

By: Dominik Schulte-Zurhausen, Marketing Manager, Tellumat Telecoms

To attempt to define the term ‘Unified Communication’ is to open up a hornets nest of endless, yet needless discussion around the semantics. My view is quite a simple one in that unified communication (UC) is just that:
UC is a unified methodology to aggregate the communication requirements of an organization and its stakeholders. As such, UC attempts to presents an integrated communication interface to all stakeholders of the business in today’s rapidly evolving environment.

This is quite a mouthful, so let us break it down a little:
The word ‘unified’, in this context, means to a have a single, integrative and cohesive means to communicate and collaborate with all stakeholders of the business.
The word ‘communication’, in this context means any and all communication media available to the business. These media being voice, video, mail, web, IM and fax etc.

As such, UC attempts to provide a seamless, intuitive, personalized and unified communication interface to all stakeholders. These stakeholders can take the shape and form of internal staff, external staff, customers and suppliers. The view is that different stakeholders utilize different communication media, tools and devices in different situations throughout their day. Thus, UC attempts to integrate the applicable media resources under a presence-aware interface that is intuitive, customizable, personalized, device agnostic and easy to use.

In light of the fact that UC`s low level purpose is to present all communication media channels in an integrated manner to the end user, UC products can then be defined to be those technology artifacts (hardware, software and processes) which support the underlying media and allows for integration into a single user interface that allows for enhanced collaboration and improved business process structures. UC solutions are then not stand alone products, but rather suites of incorporated tools that enable the business and the individual to integrate their communication requirements.

The idea of UC has been around for over a decade, but it is only recently that UC has become a viable and practical business tool. According to Gartner 2008, the two main trends which have lead to this sudden acceptance and interest are:

• The proliferation of IP networking throughout the enterprise and telecommunication carriers.
  
• The capability of software applications to provide all communication requirements via off-the-shelf (OTS) computing hardware and delivery of data via IP packets to the end user device.
  

Of course in South Africa and many other developing nations around the world, the constantly reducing cost of bandwidth has also given a dramatic rise to the demand and interest for UC solutions based on IP networking.

The key technologies in providing UC are:

• Real-time transactions such as voice and video calls via fixed, mobile or soft phones
  
• Live collaboration using voice, video and web conferencing with options for application sharing
  
• Instant messaging (IM) based communication for peers and groups alike
  
• Delayed messaging such as e-mail, voice-mail, sms/mms, fax based communication
  
• Multi-endpoint (endpoint agnostic) support such as desktops, laptops, phones and mobile phones
  
• Value added applications that allow for presence management, directory services, skills based routing, personal assistants, CEBP (through API and/or service interfaces and tools that facilitate the integration of business application with communication)
  
• Wireless technologies supporting voice and data mobility (DECT, IP-DECT, WiFi, WiMax, GSM, UMTS, Pico-Cell etc) with options for transparent handover
  
• Least cost routing over a variety of media channels
  

The theory is that a properly deployed and leveraged UC solution will increase the efficiency as well as the effectiveness of an organization in today’s rapidly evolving business climate.

What is not Unified Communications?

UC is not a one vendor solution approach to a business` communication requirement, or even a once of investment in new communication technology. It is not VoIP in isolation; VoIP is just one of the tools. UC is not a PBX sitting in a back office or a server sitting on a rack.
In fact, UC communication is not even a true stand-alone technology in itself.

UC is just this:
A systematic and ongoing methodology which aims to harness the inherent benefits that a plethora of current and future communication technologies can provide to business` and individual end users alike.

To wrap up

UC is a methodology that loosely hints at an ongoing process of applying associated suites of communication technology tools that when properly integrated with well defined and robust business processes and existing business applications can deliver exceptional organizational efficiency and effectiveness improvements when compared to competing enterprises that do not leverage such technologies .

The cost of communications

Business communications (voice minutes as well as bandwidth) generally rates among a business's top three costs, across all industries and geographies. It shares this dubious honour with the monthly salary bill and capital expenses. So how can you bring about savings?
In South Africa the cost of telecoms is traditionally higher than the global norm. In fact, it has often acted as a deterrent to foreign investment in the country, a huge loss especially to the call centre outsourcing industry. Add the current global economic downturn to these factors, and the call to contain the cost of telecoms becomes deafening, says Langenhoven, managing executive, Tellumat Telecoms.

Return on technology
Langenhoven says one of the surest ways to achieve communications savings is through the judicious use of technology. While some vendors market their technology as boosters of top- or bottom-line earnings, the real strength of communications technology is in its potential to save money.

“In fact, return on investment in technology purchases is measured almost solely in terms of cost - the costs incurred versus the costs saved by virtue of owning technology. If the cost incurred is less than the cost saved, and the quantum of the saving is high enough, you've made a sound purchase,” he says.

The case for efficiency
In this way, a very good case can still be made for communications technology that increases efficiencies and saves money - even or perhaps especially in troubled times.

“Here are two simple examples: rather than make a series of phone calls to track someone down, well-integrated communications technologies will bring the search down significantly and dramatically enhance efficiencies. And powerful modern collaboration tools easily beat being physically present at a meeting in another town for sheer value. It is almost unthinkable to burn money in a period that some commentators are already calling the Great Recession,” says Langenhoven.

What savings are and are not
“The true savings of converged communications and applications like unified communications are not so much the lower cost of voice minutes and bandwidth, as often claimed. Most of the savings lie in improved efficiencies,” he says. Businesses realise they can effectively do the same things and achieve the same outcomes more efficiently, more quickly or more cost-effectively. In some cases the re-engineering of business processes together with integrated voice technologies makes the critical difference to an organisation.

“If businesses integrate communications technology effectively and manage technologies like presence well, they optimise their external interaction and become more effective. Once they reach their customers, suppliers and partners without incurring great cost, they realise cost benefits and achieve an edge over less clear-thinking competitors. Some of these savings are measurable; others, like saved opportunity costs, less so,” he says.

Take care
It would serve companies well to remember that total cost of ownership of a technology goes far beyond its upfront price. Maintenance is an oft-forgotten invisible cost that sometimes blind-sides technology buyers. For instance, least-cost routing is often embraced without considering the high cost of maintaining it.

“In short, be sure to look at both sides of the deal - costs saved versus costs incurred. Does the right side pull the scale down?” asks Langenhoven.

Tellumat offers leading IP-based unified communications

While some vendors continue to market voice over Internet Protocol(VOIP), it is time to move on from this misleading term in the quality conscious arena of enterprise communications. “VOIP will find it hard to live down its association with cheap Internet calls,” says Bennie Langenhoven, Managing Executive of Tellumat Telecoms, the communications specialist in the Tellumat Group. “But IP-based communication is so much more than that. When done right, it enables efficient, productive communications through convergence, or what has come to be known as ‘unified communication’.”

Unified communications benefits
The benefits of unified comms (UC) include:

• Increased productivity – for instance the ability to do e-mail on the run, work seamlessly from home or collaborate on a wide range of platforms, internally or externally (combining instant messaging, e-mail, white-boarding, application sharing and conferencing with voice calls);


• Customer satisfaction – presence management allows customers to find a representative wherever he or she may be. Staff interaction with customers need never be unprofessional, as communication is always front-ended with a company number;


• Reduced costs – one needs fewer resources (including skills) and less infrastructure to handle unified communications than one does to handle separate voice and IT comms. Presence management also allows optimal routing of calls via the cheapest channel;


• UC can even be environmentally friendly: conferencing tools reduce travel carbon emissions,


• Automation – integrated with business processes, companies can auto-generate meaningful communications. For example, a debtors clerk can be reminded of a specific customer’s due date though integration with the company’s ERP system.

Business process end-game
The magic of UC is IP or Internet Protocol, the common fabric that weaves together traditional computer communications (e-mail, IM and Web-conferencing) with voice (fixed and mobile), video and new Web 2.0 communications tools.
Where will UC lead us?
To an end-game of communications driven business processes, Langenhoven says. “In the future, voice will be driven by business processes. There won’t be a dedicated voice switch that is integrated into the enterprise back-end. Voice will be an application like any other on the network, built into business processes from the ground up. Voice switching will be driven by business rules, not by the number dialled.”

Place your bets
The technology battle around unified comms is still intensifying, and is waged by traditional IP stalwarts including Cisco and Microsoft on the one end, and telecoms vendors like Siemens and Alcatel-Lucent on the other. Two years ago Tellumat went in search of UC technology that would heavily impact the market. Recently it won the distribution rights for Shore-Tel, a North American rising star that has both critical acclaim and excellent growth figures. Frost & Sullivan recognises ShoreTel’s “explosive growth” (its sales have doubled each year since inception in 1998, outpacing the bustling IP comms market). The research firm notes that ShoreTel has an edge over other players, in that it had started “from a clean sheet of paper”, an approach that solves the integration conundrum in a way that the other camps are finding hard to emulate. Langenhoven says among others, ShoreTel’s pure IP focus and distributed architecture attracted Tellumat. “We were looking for something to compete well in the new (unified) technology space, something that offers both a strong differentiation and a high degree of reliability. To us as long-time manufacturer-distributors of PBXs, the need for reliability is a non-negotiable. At the same time, we appreciate the IT mindset of a network that easily supports multiple sites. In ShoreTel we found the best combination of those qualities.”
He says the following attributes of the vendor and its range are the most impressive:

• Unique architecture and simple integration into many business applications


• Independently audited customer satisfaction programme (bonuses at all levels of the organisation are mapped to a customer satisfaction index)


• Lowest cost of ownership for VOIP solutions


• Ease-of-use, and


• Cost-effective manageability, thanks to the distributed IP architecture

Independent praise
Langenhoven and Frost are not alone in their praise. A second independent research organisation, Nemertes, rated ShoreTel’s portfolio against those of Avaya, Cisco, Nortel, Siemens, 3Com and Alcatel-Lucent. Unbelievably, it awarded the newcomer top honours in every category (features, customer service, value and ease of use). Overall, ShoreTel rated as follows against its peers:
While the results are highly favourable to ShoreTel, notes Nemertes, the report was conducted solely by it, and was not sponsored by any company, including ShoreTel. Langenhoven’s take on the vendor’s winning qualities is that Tellumat generally selects a product range on the basis of tangible value, which translates into quality at a low total cost of ownership and a good return on investment. “All these metrics are answered convincingly by ShoreTel. One can scarcely imagine a better value proposition than this.”

* The Nemertes report is available here:
http://www.shoretel.com/resources/industry_research/downloads/shoretel_nemertes_executive_summary.pdf