The unified communications era: Why midsize companies should care
By Howard Baldwin
From the Internet revolution has emerged a more subtle evolution, one of the few that could affect midsize businesses even more than enterprise companies. This is the new era of unified communications — the convergence of software, hardware, and network technology to enable companies to optimize business processes and provide employees with a seamless, integrated system of business communication technology.
In Summary:
| • | Migrate to a combined voice and data network only when an event such as a move or lease expiration makes it economically feasible. |
| • | Unified communications can save money on telephone charges and by managing a single network versus multiple networks. |
| • | Internet Protocol (IP)-based messaging and collaboration applications can improve employee and call center productivity. |
Unified communications is a business communication technology sea change in which midsize companies can participate — without waiting for cost reductions based on widespread enterprise adoption. In fact, some companies may be able to move faster and use unified communications to compete better against larger companies.
Unified communications is driven by new applications for collaboration that take advantage of more affordable converged voice and data networks.
It is far more than just IP telephony, although that is a critical component. For instance, the fact that information traditionally transmitted over voice lines can now travel over data lines means that faxes and voice mails can now appear in your inbox. Viewing your voice mails alongside your e-mails and clicking on the most important ones is much simpler than having to listen to them in sequence — even though it might take some getting used to. This capability alone could bring significant productivity gains for employees in the office and on the road.
 | When I had a PBX system and I wanted to change an extension, I had to call a service guy from the phone company to set it up. I don't have to do that anymore. |  | | Steve Fleury, president
Cambria Bicycle Outfitter | |
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Why IP telephony is so popular at midsize companies
According to a June 2006 Forrester Research survey of 1,121 small and midsize companies in Europe and North America, 17 percent of respondents said moving voice traffic to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) networks was a priority in 2006. At the time of the survey, some 18 percent of midsize companies (those with 100 to 999 employees) were already using VoIP for site-to-site or interoffice voice communications.
The technology behind VoIP is relatively simple: It involves digitizing a voice conversation (similar to creating a .wav file) and sending it across the network the same way you would send a data packet (for more information, see this related article, "Preparing for the network of the future").
Cost savings have been the primary push behind unified communications. If your calls are going over your data lines, you are not paying long distance charges, although the steep drop in telecommunications costs in recent years makes this less of an advantage. Increasingly, interest in VoIP relates to efficiency.
Steve Fleury, president of Cambria Bicycle Outfitter, a 40-employee, high-end bicycle retailer on California's central coast, finds the simplicity of IP telephony compelling. His company has two offices, and he loves that he only has to dial a four-digit extension to find any employee no matter their location.
IP-based applications help improve productivity
The most prevalent of these new applications are the unified-messaging tools available from telecommunications and networking companies such as Avaya, Cisco, Nortel, and Siemens. These are the applications that give users a one-stop inbox for e-mail, fax and voice mail.
These companies, along with Alcatel, British Telecom, Mitel, and NEC, are working on interoperability between voice communications solutions and Microsoft's real-time communications platform, Office Communicator. The forthcoming version is Office Communicator 2007, which combines voice, instant messaging, video and even "presence awareness" in conjunction with the 2007 Microsoft Office release.
Presence awareness allows the software to intelligently route calls based on a user profile, with rules regarding incoming calls that can be updated at any time. For instance, you might designate that from 6 p.m. to midnight the calls from your manager or best client be routed to your home or mobile phone (versus your inbox). Office Communicator 2007 also adds Web conferencing and the ability to make and receive voice calls within the application.
Other IP applications include the click-to-chat or click-to-talk capabilities that some companies offer on their Web sites; consumers whose questions are answered quickly are more likely to make a purchase at that moment. Some companies in the call center space, such as Nice Systems and Nuasis, are even using IP-based telephony to make it simpler to analyze recorded phone calls for trends, since the stored file format makes it easier to search for repetitive customer responses.
Economic advantages of deploying a converged voice and data network
Quantifying the benefits of integrated applications can be difficult, because they are designed to deliver efficiency and productivity, which can be less tangible. "When I had a PBX system and I wanted to change an extension, I had to call a service guy from the phone company to set it up," Fleury says. "I don't have to do that anymore."
But a key advantage is more simplified network monitoring. Since both voice and data travel on the same IP-based network, you need only one network monitoring system —and thus fewer IT staff minding your network.
Of course, you will need to spend some money upfront to prepare your infrastructure for IP applications. For instance, you will likely need to upgrade your network and you will need to invest in IP phones (for more details, see this companion article).
Because of this, midsize companies often prefer to wait for what analysts call a "trigger event" — that is, the expiration of a PBX system lease or an impending move. The cost will depend on the number of users, the size of your network and how much bandwidth capacity you need to add. However, Forrester Research has calculated several cost benefits to unified communications, including:
| • | Having a single contact phone number (through intelligent routing) saves five minutes per day, or 20.8 hours per year. |
| • | Easier setup of meetings (through integrated calendaring features) saves one hour per week, or 50 hours per year. |
For many years, vendors have worked to combine the capabilities of the devices that have been mandatory for business desktops. Only in the past few years have we seen real progress, with products that midsize companies can afford. Now is the time to start thinking about creative ways your employees can be more efficient with applications that combine voice and data, because before long, you will be able to deploy them.
Howard Baldwin is a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based contributing writer to the Microsoft Midsize Business Center. His work has appeared in CIO, Optimize and InfoWorld.
