Unified Communication: Technology For Now And The Future

By Manoj M, Sr. Product Support Engineer, Vembu Technologies

Unified communications can be defined as a set of capabilities used to integrate real-time communication services. They enable a person to send a message on one medium and the recipient to receive it on another. Wikipedia defines Unified Communications (UC) as the integration of real-time communication services such as instant messaging (chat), presence information, telephony (including IP telephony), video conferencing, call control, and speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as unified messaging (integrated voicemail, email, SMS and fax). UC is not a single product, but a set of products that provides a consistent, unified user interface and user experience across multiple devices and media types.

UC also refers to a trend to offer business process integration, i.e., to simplify and integrate all forms of communications in view to optimize business processes, reduce response time, manage flows and eliminate device and media dependencies.

Globalization has made the world an open market, and for this reason it is necessary to employ UC where the companies can centrally coordinate communication with effective methods like live conferencing, multicasting, and digital mailing.

UC has a collection of components as well as strategies which facilitates the companies to make half duplex and full duplex communication with multiple media. Companies rely on UC to be customer-centric, to reach more in markets, and to achieve high targets. It also plays a vital role in optimum resource utilization and time management among the companies. Some of the key features of unified communication are as discussed below.

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