UC: Endless Possibilities

Whether its converting your smartphones into IP phones or deploying personal UC systems with 3G, there are endless possibilities for an organization that were never possible with traditional PBX

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

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Most organizations today have multiple channels of communication for voice, data, video, etc. UC helps to integrate these technologies and provides an interface which is easy to use and lets you manage these different channels effectively. The features provided by a typical UC solution are many. One can make a call right from their desktop, chat using the same client, do multi-party conferences, etc. A key feature is detecting the presence of an individual over any one of the possible channels so that you could reach out to him no matter where he is located. As the usage of UC increases and also with the addition of newer devices to a UC solution, newer challenges arise. One of these is the increasing complexity in managing a solution that integrates multiple channels of communication. Another challenge is to have a single interface for managing the IP PBX and other communication channels from a single window. Having different interfaces to manage different technologies is not feasible as the deployments typically happen over a larger scale.

Smartphones and UC
End points form a key component of a UC solution. These comprise of IP hard phones, wireless IP phones, and softphones. Now, even hand held devices with WiFi are being used as end-points, as software that provides such a functionality has been created for them. A Nokia smartphone or a Blackberry could become an extension of your PBX. You could use your smartphone as your telephone extension without having to connect to a GSM network. A mobile client also allows users to access their corporate directory, find out the 'presence' status of other users, see conferences and meetings lined up for them, all over GPRS. A key point to note here is that GPRS and GSM connections won't work together, ie if a user finds another person from the corporate directory and calls him, then that call would be made through GSM. Possibly once 3G kicks in, such calls could be made over IP, in addition to GSM networks.

Single point of contact
This is one great benefit of UC for the mobile workforce, who're seldom found on their seats. With a single number contact in place, whenever a customer calls, both the desk phone and mobile phone of the person ring. The guy could seamlessly disconnect the call on one phone and shift to the other. The PBX will automatically transfer the call. This feature is device independence. A thing to note here is that when the call goes on to the mobile phone, it's the PBX that automatically dials out to it. So the organization has to pay for the this call through the PBX.

UC: managed or inhouse?
Having an in-house UC solution can be good for large organizations, but for mid-size organizations, setting up the whole infrastructure might not be feasible. Here, managed UC can help in terms of saving costs and manageability. Also, for organizations who want to focus only on their core business and want someone else to manage IT equipment support, such a setup is more than welcome. But, before you proceed there are certain questions that should be asked. For example, is the in-house deployment and maintenance cost for UC too much? Does an in-house deployment lead to direct increase in cost to your customers? Such questions are vital and help you better in choosing between a managed and a hosted setup. Among other benefits of a Managed IT setup, a pertinent one is that you don't need to have an in-house expert on UC to manage your setup.

The vendor whom you have outsourced your setup to is most likely to be an expert in this domain and would suggest you the most cost-effective setup. There are couple of other benefits in opting for a managed setup. In an in-house setup that has equipment from multiple vendors, the maintenance becomes more complex. And for hardware support, one needs to call up different vendors. Au contraire, in a managed setup there's only one gateway for all such issues and hence you have a simplified support mechanism. And for the end users, it hardly matters what kind of an environment they are working on, so long as they get seamless connectivity.

Communication across enterprises
There can be a possibility where UC at one organization communicates with another organization's UC infrastructure and the technology used at both ends is different. For example, consider a scenario where an organization acquires some other organization and the organization that has been acquired has a different UC solution deployed. It is not feasible to remove the existing UC infrastructure and redeploy it, so that the two UC systems can be integrated.

A better solution would be to have a unified system which can be integrated with any UC infrastructure, breaking the vendor barrier. This will enable a genuine unification of communications. Another scenario would be that of an enterprise outsourcing it's complete infrastructure to another. So, if the UC solution of both enterprises can be integrated then it would become easier to manage such an integrated system.

For example if a client machine is not working or there are certain threats being generated from a system. Immediately, the system administrator would be alerted and he can contact the person whose machine is creating the problem, irrespective of where the person is located. To effectively implement such a system, one needs to device proper policies and follow them strictly.

Personal UC systems
Till recently, UC was considered to be a system for enterprises. However, with the advent of 3G, it would be possible to have a UC system in one's hands. For example an individual can set his preferred mode of communication, such as mail, chat, call, etc for specific time periods. With the availability of high bandwidth, one shall be able to make video calls from his phone and can even have a video conference on the go. Such a setup can be hosted at the service provider's end and the user would be charged on a pay-as-you-use basis.

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