Unified Communications? What's That?

While there is multiple definitions of what Unified Communications is depending upon who you ask, the industry definition is as follows:

Unified Communications is the integration of communication services, including unified messaging (such as e-mail, fax, SMS or short message service, and integrated voicemail) with real-time communication services like Internet Protocol telephony, instant messaging, call and speech control, presence information, and video conferencing. Unified Communications is not simply one product, but a collection of products that offers a uniform unified user interface and user experience across multiple media types and devices.

Still confused? Simply put, Unified Communications – at its most elementary level – occurs every time one of your communications tools becomes cognizant of another of your communications tools. For example, if your voicemail system notifies you via email with an attached file of the message, that is considered Unified Communications. If your phone's included directory lets you peruse to find a person's telephone number that is also Unified Communications.

To break it down even further, let's establish our own vocabulary for this article:

• For starters, let's just say that anything that does the work of a telephone (i.e. speaking with another in real-time using your voice) is called "telephony." Many would like to limit this to Internet Protocol telephony or Voice over Internet Protocol, but that is unnecessary
• Secondly, we'll call everything involving multimedia, image, text, or voice messaging transmission between parties that is not in real time (including texting, voicemail, fax, and email) "messaging"
• Thirdly, we'll call everything involving multiple party communications in real-time, such as web, video and audio conferencing "conferencing and collaboration"
• And finally, let's call that which allows you to see who is accessible or available "presence"

Now that we have established our vocabulary, we can define Unified Communications as telephony, united with messaging, conferencing and collaboration, and enabled by presence. Simple as that!

Unified Communications can be acquired in one swoop, or one piece at a time; either way, it is an essential launch pad to the next telecom buzz-word knows as CEPB, or Communications Enabled Business Practices." There you have it! When it's broken down to its simplest form, Unified Communications is much easier to understand.

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To find out more about Unified Communications, and Unified Communications providers, contact one of our professional account managers today! We can also answer any questions you might have, so give us a call!