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Understanding & Applying Unified Communications

Confusion in the Market

UC means different
things
Many products with
Unified in the name
UC is often sold as a
thing you buy

Integrated VM
Chat applications
File sharing
IP communications
Webinar
Teleconferencing
Speech recognition
Business process
integration

Todays Discussion

Define UC

Identify major UC applications (tools)

3 primary ways UC can be purchased /

rolled out

UC

Unified Communications

What is Unified Communications?

Unified Communications is the integration of
communication functions into business processes
Editor CIO Magazine

Communications integrated to optimize business

processes

www.ucstrategies.com

Technology that connects communication and

collaboration applications on a common platform
Forrester Research

The UC Continuum

Three Stages of Unification

U-Infrastructure

IP Telephony

U-Applications

Conferencing

Mobility

Presence/IM

Third Party Call

Control

U-Processes

Attendance
notification

Embedded
Communications

The UC Continuum

At its lowest level, UC serves to join

multiple types of communications to:

Consolidate infrastructure

Separate Networks
Phone Network

Data Network

Combined Networks

Data and Voice

Implications

Lowest levels of UC is an IT project focused on

voice and data infrastructure

Consolidate

Merge

Collapse

Voice/Data Cabling

Voice and data staff

Voice onto the LAN

Vendors

Voice onto the data

WAN

Better potential voice integration via IP and SIP

The UC Continuum

At a moderate level, UC serves to join

communication applications to:

Enhance Personal Productivity

Enhance Workgroup Productivity

Jessica Young

Implications

Moderate levels of UC is typically focused on

deploying user productivity tools:

Presence

IM/Chat

Unified Messaging (voice/email/fax)

Click to call / Click to conference

Find Me / Follow me

Conferencing (Meet Me audio bridge, video and web

conferencing)

The UC Continuum

At its highest level, UC incorporates

functionality to:

Build communication methods directly into

business processes

Communications Enabled Business Processes

(CEBP)

Implications

High levels of UC are often concerned with

integrating some form of communications
input/output in response to a business process

This require deep knowledge of:

The enterprise business

Who is communicating with who

How they are communicating

What are the critical paths

Implications

At the highest levels, vendors are not in a good

position to address this UC functionality

They lack access to the customer organization

They lack compensation for their time to figure this out

This is where internal expertise or outside

assistance is required

Customization may be required

The UC Continuum

Thus, all the confusion

Vendors/Media often over simplify UC as a

thing you buy rather than a set of tools to be
figured out and applied to optimize business
communications

Vendors/Media often present IP telephony,

Unified Messaging, and Unified
Communications as synonymous

Vendors/Media often imply that UC capabilities

are contingent upon implementing IP telephony

The UC Continuum

Thus, all the confusion

Vendors naming conventions often build

Unified into their product names

Multiple vendors / New vendors to buy from

Many vendors are still learning and evolving

What is Driving UC?

Communication Overload

What is driving UC?

As telephone systems come up for

replacement, UC capabilities are the
newest feature sets to be considered

Available Features?
Presence

Click to Conference

Web Conferencing IM

Needed Features
Presence
IM

Click to Call

Video Conferencing

Click to Call

Federation

Search Directory

Search Directory

Kitchen Sink

Tag

What is driving UC?

Organizations are trying to figure out

How to solve communication problems

Bottlenecks

Difficulty reaching the right person quickly

How to optimize business processes

Single Number Reach

Speed up communication flows

Better collaboration

UC Toolsets

Main Categories of UC Toolsets

Contact Management
& Directory Services

Conferencing &
Collaboration

Messaging

Mobility & Remote

Office

UC Toolsets
Presence
IM/Chat
Click to Call
Enterprise Phonebook
Contact Management
& Directory Services

Enterprise dialing
Call routing/Screening rules
Single User Identity
Email, phone, cell

UC Toolsets

Presence

Real time status who is on-line and available?

The dial tone of the future

Today: Presence focused within the enterprise and

ability to have an IM session

Tomorrow: Presence servers gathering information

from various sources/platforms from in/out of the
enterprise (requires federation)

Basic Presence: On-line, level of activity

Rich Presence: Location, type of device being used,

its OS, local time, outside-of-enterprise

UC Toolsets

Instant Messaging

Enterprise-grade/Enterprise-wide Instant
Messaging

Security and Privacy

Quick exchanges

Multi-tasking / Ability to reach those that are busy

UC Toolsets

Third-Party Call Control

Activation of telephone features by point/click

Click to Call

Click to Conference

The office telephone becomes a handset

UC Toolsets

Synchronized Directory

Single user identity to tie together

Email address

Office telephone number

Mobile telephone number

UC Toolsets
Integrated audio
conferencing
Integrated web conferencing

Conferencing &
Collaboration

Integrated video
conferencing

UC Toolsets

Conferencing & Collaboration Tools

Audio conferencing (including call in bridge

service)

Video conferencing

Web conferencing

Collaborative capabilities

Shared workspaces

White boarding

File / Document sharing

Enterprise-wide Instant Messaging

UC Toolsets

Messaging

Unified Messaging

Live reply/call return of

VM messages

UC Toolsets

Unified Messaging

One in-box for email, voice mail even fax

Unified message notification for all message

types

Ability to access any messages from any device

Ability to forward voice mail messages as email

attachments

Ability to work with voice mail messages from PC

UC Toolsets

Advanced Call & Message Management

Desktop call screening (rules for screening

inbound calls)

Find Me/Follow Me

Live Reply/Call Return of a VM message

UC Toolsets

Mobility & Remote

Office

Single number service

Voice commands

Seamlessly swap calls from

cell to desk phone (and vice
versa)

Soft phone VPN to corporate

network

UC Toolsets

Mobility Tools

Single Number Service

Office Number routes to hidden cell number

Voice mail messages pulled back to enterprise VM

server

Outbound calls from cell show Office Number CLID

Voice commands

UC Toolsets

Speech Access & Personal Assistant

Voice Recognition / Natural Speech commands

Speech commands to control personal

assistants

Access inbox

Access calendar

Access directory / contacts

Set up outbound dialing

UC Toolsets

Remote Telephony Access

Soft Phone (Laptop/PC with headset/microphone)

VPN over Broadband Internet Connection

Remote workers can receive calls to their business

number

Remote workers can place calls over the corporate

trunks

UC Toolsets

What appears to be readily adopted?

Instant Messaging

Presence

Click to Call

Search Directory

UC Toolsets
Presence
IM
Click to Call
Search Directory
Tag
Click to Conference
Web Conferencing
Video Conferencing
Federation
0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

Blair Pleasant and Nancy Jamison June 2008

100%

UC in Action

Communication Grid
High

Phone

Intrusion

IM

Email

Low
Immediate

Delayed

Time

Process Optimizations

Speed up the process of reaching someone

Speed up and simplify the process of joining

multiple parties

Simplify and enhance the process of collaborating

with disparate parties

Enhance the ability of mobile users to be reached

and function with the tools available within their
office

Set up triggers to automatically provide

notification at a critical point

Contact Management

Presence shows who is available

IM allows for instant access even if they are

engaged in another task

One-Number / Find Me-Follow Me allows the

system to manage multiple venues relieving
the caller from trying different numbers

Directory Dialing and Click to Call simplifies the

process of identifying and contacting someone

Mobility

One-Number / Find Me-Follow Me allows the

system to work through multiple venues not
the caller

Unified Messaging allows voice mail, email, and

fax to available through a single interface
(Smartphone user)

Text-to-Speech allows access to email from

standard cell phones

Natural Speech allows for easier interaction

Collaboration

Audio conferencing (Meet Me)

Video Conferencing (PC to PC up to telepresence)

Web Conferencing

Rapid virtual meetings

Share documents and files

Calendar and project timeline

Presence

Communications-Enabled Portal

Integrate Presence/IM with operating system

software

Software identifies an event where assistance is

required

Software identified individuals that could assist

IM/Chat window is opened to communicate with

selected individuals

Click to Call can be selected

3 Ways to UC

3 Ways to UC

Telecom solutions

Desktop solutions

Application solutions

3 Ways to UC

UC via Telecom Provider solutions

Avaya (Nortel)

Cisco

Siemens

Mitel

NEC

3 Ways to UC

UC via Desktop Provider solutions

Microsoft

IBM

Webex

Google

3 Ways to UC

UC via Application Provider solutions

SAP

Salesforce

Ted Mallires
Plante & Moran
248.223.3340
ted.mallires@plantemoran.com