UMS will change the way we communicate

Gone are the days when voice and electronic messaging were the hottest trends in communication. Unified messaging systems have now become a business tool for organisations the world over. But what’s the position on the home front? Stanley Glancy finds out

The Internet, by making our inboxes accessible to us anytime, anywhere, has forever transformed the way we communicate. Wireless technology has gone a step further by making it possible to stay connected while on the move. And this, technologists believe, is just a glimpse of what the future has to offer. But advancements in technology have made it necessary for business executives to respond to problems instantly, especially since customers are quick to shift loyalty to a service provider who is more efficient. As Doug Firebaugh, chief executive of PassionFire International says, "Communication is really all anyone ever gets paid for ultimately and if you cannot effectively communicate you will pay instead of getting paid."

Nothing can be truer than this, especially in the context of today’s business environment. Thanks to this trend, we have seen a convergence of computers, communications and consumer electronics, though convergence has also necessitated cost-effective methods of interconnecting various devices. But how do you interconnect such different and seemingly incompatible modes of communication such as voicemail, e-mail and fax? Also, how can a user access messages from each of these systems from a single device like POTS (plain old telephone system) or a mobile phone? Seems impossible. But unified messaging systems (UMS) have the answers.

Sanjay Jotshi says that UMS in India is still in its infancy. People have to start using low-end systems, and once the market for that is saturated they will progress to UMS

What is UMS?

UMS is a technology that enables multiple messaging formats to interact over diverse network infrastructures. It combines fax, e-mail and voicemail, and enables users to retrieve messages from a single interface like a mobile phone, desktop or another device. A unique icon is provided for each message type. By providing employees with a single access point, an organisation can not only improve productivity, but also improve communication between customers and co-workers. For insta-nce, an out-of-station employee has the option of accessing and managing messages through the landline or mobile phone. All that the employee has to do is dial into an UM system to listen to and respond to messages, be it a voice message, fax or e-mail. Elaborates Sanjay Jotshi, director, marketing and channels, Nortel Networks, "Text-to-speech technology enables the reader to listen to an e-mail message. In case the system can’t understand a particular word or phrase, it is spelled out to the user. The same holds true for fax messages. Likewise, the user can reply to the message using a voicemail. In case the employee has access to a Net connection, he can connect his notebook to the network and view all the messages in text format. The employee can then reply in the same format.

The need

Says B Ashok, vice-president, Cisco Systems, India & SAARC, "With the global nature of today’s businesses, CEOs and senior management have to travel a lot both in India and abroad. But there is constant need for them to keep in touch using e-mail, fax and voicemail so that they can respond to the needs of customers or internal teams immediately." This calls for a solution that is not only cost-effective but which will also simplify communication, and in the process improve the productivity of an organisation tremendously.

Other than the rise in the number of travelling executives, there has also been an increase in the number of messages received by employees. A study carried out by The Wall Street Journal states that globally, an average employee sends and receives more than 200 messages per day. The report goes on to add that more time is spent on managing these messages than attending to mission-critical tasks at hand. Unified messaging helps such organisations take control of their communication, and also gain competitive advantage by ramping up customer service and increasing employee productivity. When all these factors are taken together, it opens up huge opportunities for UMS technology.

According to a Frost & Sullivan report, the worldwide UMS market, which was worth $549 million in 1999, will cross the $5 billion mark by 2005. Another forecast by the US-based Pelorus Group projects the market for unified messaging customer premise equipment (CPE) products to reach $6.3 billion by 2004, up from $145.02 million in 1999 and $70.02 million in 1998. Pelorus further forecasts that the number of unified messaging CPE sets shipped worldwide will climb from 303,407 in 1998 to more than 2.4 million by 2004. Though no separate study has been carried out on the Indian UMS market, vendors expect to see tremendous growth next year. Says Maneesh Kumar, regional sales manager, India & SAARC, LogicaCMG, "Though reliable and accurate figures are not available at present, UMS in India is poised for explosive growth. Our discussions with telecom service providers indicate that, after SMS, UMS will be the most effective value-added service with a mass-market reach."

Benefits

In an era when a healthy bottomline is a key corporate goal, organisations are demanding solutions that will reduce costs further. UMS contributes in this direction by reducing an organisation’s communication costs. Says Jotshi, "Time and connectivity is of essence today. By using UMS an employee can pack in more hours into a working day, thereby increasing productivity. According to Jotshi, customers can save by combining voice and data LAN/WAN on one network.

Adds Ashok, "For large organisations, it definitely makes sense to opt for a UM system since the productivity advantages are huge. Customer responsiveness becomes more immediate, thereby strengthening existing customer relationships." He further adds that IP communications helps organisations optimise their investments in other IT products such as CRM and other sales force software.

According to B Ashok, cost savings and executive productivity are the major benefits in implementing UMS. Since executives can pick up voice, fax and e-mails anytime, anywhere they can respond to customer needs online

UMS also offers other tangible cost benefits. By making voicemail, e-mail and fax available in a single mailbox, organisations can now completely do away with the cost of investing in fax machines. Companies can also save money on direct inward dialling (DID) charges by using a single number for telephones, mobile phones as well as fax. Also, with UMS, an organisation can provide each employee with a personal fax system without incurring any additional equipment cost.

Explains Kumar, "As companies’ needs evolve and change, unified messaging will become a critical and ubiquitous business tool. Its advantages should also be looked at in terms of opportunities which would be lost forever without the system. For instance, an unanswered e-mail, fax or voicemail may force a client to move on to a company that provides better service. A customer is more likely to remain loyal and generate more business in future if his needs are attended to immediately."

Challenges

Compatibility with e-mail software like Microsoft Exchange, Outlook, Lotus Notes, Navigator and Messenger was the key concern facing most UMS users as well as vendors. But with most UMS products being built on industry standards such as MAPI and IMAP, this is one issue that seems to have been taken care of. All the vendors Express Computer spoke to claimed that though many organisations were concerned about these issues, the truth was that since most products today are software-based and not hardware-based (unlike earlier products), the question of integration with older products is no longer an issue. Open industry standards like Audio Message Interchange Specifications (AMIS), Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) and Voice Profile for Internet Message (VPIM) have solved software compatibility problems for good, be it Nortel’s CallPilot or Cisco’s Unity.

Says Kumar, "The key to an effective UMS system is the level of integration that is required with the legacy systems of the operator, and its inter-operability. To choose a good UMS system there are some minimum requirements like support on multiple languages and time-synchronised notification and delivery." According to him, a system which supports multiple languages gains more relevance in a country as diverse as India due to the multiplicity of languages and accents.

Another area that requires certain standards in place is speech compression techniques. Kumar believes that the lack of specified standards in this area is bound to be an irritant in the future. But Jotshi says there are various standards already in place that have been adopted by vendors. These standards, according to him, will provide a trouble-free interface between products from various vendors. But both agree that as messaging systems worldwide can really become complex, it is important to have a scalable system.

Speech recognition is another area where not much progress has been made in India. This becomes especially difficult since there are different accents that have to be dealt with. But the UM systems currently available in the market don’t call for the use of too many complicated words and phrases. "Simple voice commands like send, forward, retrieve, etc., don’t call for technologically-advanced speech recognition systems since most of them interpret in a similar manner no matter what the accent," says Jotshi.

The only serious issue that seems to be plaguing the industry seems to be lack of awareness. Most Indians have still not cultivated the practice of checking their voicemail boxes, so UMS is still a far cry. Besides, the use of basic IT infrastructure is still picking up.

As Jotshi points out, "The biggest challenge for the Indian market is that the technology is still in its infancy. People graduate from low-end systems to UMS. So promotion of the use of old systems is also important. People have to start using phones, fax and e-mail, and once the market for that is saturated they will progress to UMS, which is a value-added system."

According to Ashok, telecom operators are the likely culprits for the slow growth of UMS in India. "At present, telecom operators are more focused on other revenue-generating opportunities, and hence the delay in adopting UMS. But once they understand the benefits of a UMS system, they will go in for it."

But telecom operators say otherwise. Says an official at Tata Teleservices, (which offers UMS-based solutions in all the circles it operates), "UMS is not a value-added service but a necessity. We at TTL offer our customers voicemail, e-mail and fax in a single environment using LogicaCMG’s platform." LogicaCMG has implemented a $1.2 million UMS solution for Tata Teleservices (TTL).

Maneesh Kumar says that as the market becomes more and more aware of the varying components of unified communications, service providers will be able to offer a complete package of unified communications

The market needs to be grown by the operators and service providers. One strategy that has been suggested (so as not to confuse the consumer) is to launch services in a sequential manner rather than at one go. This change can be brought about beginning with enterprises that subscribe to these services. Says Kumar, "Enterprises will try and derive the maximum possible benefit from their investment. Once they have implemented and properly utilised these systems, they will realise that benefits are immense."

Another problem, especially with reference to India, is that the government still does not allow interconnectivity between an enterprise’s closed user group (CUG) network and the public telephony network. SaysAshok, "For true convergence to happen and UM to take off, enterprises should be allowed to adopt IP-based new-world networking technologies for communication." But despite such issues, there are many factors that are pushing the market towards faster adoption of this revolutionary technology.

Drivers

Reduction of system complexity and cost will be major drivers for growth. The inevitable drop in prices is also expected to provide a boost. But as Kumar says, in order to increase awareness of the product it is necessary for someone else to pay for the service, in this instance, the service provider. Once the mass market has been penetrated, a service provider can then offer more usable features and improved service quality in terms of text-to-speech, speech recognition, etc., and then charge a premium for these services. The key point here is that end-users should recognise the beneficial functionality of the product.

Conclusion

The benefits UMS has to offer are bound to help organisations build a better bottom line. As Jotshi says, UMS has utility across the board. But financial institutions and software services companies especially stand to gain from it due to their need for being constantly in touch with both clients as well as their headquarters.

Once organisations realise the benefits that are there to be gained from migrating to UMS, we should see more adopters. And as the market becomes more aware of the varying components of unified communications, service providers will be able to offer a complete package of unified communications. Almost all service providers already have plans for bundling UM services, which is the next step up the value chain for them. Considering all this, UMS is definitely poised for major growth in India.