Fred Knight and Eric Krapf talk about Unified Communications, the theme of VoiceCon Amsterdam 2008 in October.
What is Unified Communications, and why is it important?
Fred Knight, General Manager and Co-Chair of VoiceCon:
Unified communications can be thought of as the next logical technology migration, based on IP telephony. It focuses on bringing together the various ways in which we contact or reply to someone by means of telephony, messaging and conferencing channels.
Once all the different media and devices have been brought together, the unified set can be integrated into a business application. This provides the realistic prospect of voice and speech-activated applications on a much broader scale than hitherto.
Why should businesses be interested?
Eric Krapf, Programme Co-Chair of VoiceCon: It�s assumed that streamlining communications will lead to greater productivity. But the hard business case comes more from integrating communications into applications. For instance you might combine Unified Communications with a sales force application to handle more sales calls, or to respond to a customer in a measurably shorter time.
You can think of it less in terms of technology than the business objectives. It might be to improve the manufacturing process, to provide communications capabilities within SAP or Oracle, or provide different ways for the sales force to communicate with inventory.
What sort of investment will I require ?
FK: The hardware and software will actually be the smallest expenditure. You will also need upfront planning to asses your needs, and redefine how that business process will work. There may also be costs associated with reorganising the IP platform. As these technologies integrate together, the silos begin to break down and there is more convergence within the IT organisation.
EK: Unlike IP or TDM telephony you would not roll out the same capabilities to all employees. With Unified Communications you will first figure out who needs what capabilities. And whereas the telecoms or IT department could roll out telephony on its own, here they will need first to talk to the business people to understand what capabilities are needed.
What is involved in the implementation and how long will it take?
FK: It�s still early days. Unified Communications is in roughly in the same stage now that IP telephony had reached in the year 2000. As yet there is relatively little deployment.
Many of the elements of Unified Communications already exist: presence, IM, audio and web and video conferencing. It just needs rethinking how those independent systems can be brought together. However in the process of integrating software and systems you might have to replace elements that were not designed to harmonize with the others.
Royal Dutch Shell has begun a migration to Unified Communications and acknowledges it will take close to four years to complete on a global basis. This isn�t just like buying a telephone system. It�s a whole shift, not only in the underlying communications function but in how people do their jobs.
Tell us about VoiceCon Amsterdam
VoiceCon is the leading conference and exposition in North America for enterprise IP Telephony, Unified Communications and Converged Networks. It has been held in Orlando and San Francisco for the past 19 years, attracting more than 11,000 enterprise IT and communications executives and over 200 exhibitors/sponsors.
This will be the event�s first appearance in Europe. It will focus on IP telephony, software-based architectures and Unified Communications, as well as the latter�s role of mobility relative to those other two primary platforms. There will be a conference programme and an exhibition that will show attendees what�s available today and where those three technologies are headed.
Who will be at the event ?
A shake-up among communications vendors is going on, and this will be manifestly clear at VoiceCon Amsterdam. It will be an opportunity to get face to face with the major suppliers and find out how they are