In search of true mobility

The extension of the connected enterprise—the always on, always reachable employee, is a key constituent in any corporate’s gameplan to retain and increase its customer base. Anywhere, anytime multimedia connectivity is made possible thanks to modern technology and its applications like unified messaging. Anand Bhatt elaborates on the concept of unified communication and its benefits for companies

Mobility, responsiveness, customer satisfaction and cost optimisation are key challenges that all enterprises are facing today. However, emerging technologies such as the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Voice eXtensible Markup Language (VXML), Web services and speech recognition are being used to develop a new generation of multimedia applications and services that can help businesses to face these challenges.

There is a great need to understand present and future needs of businesses for unified communications applications that anticipate and meet these new requirements. Today, in all types of industry, the user’s working environment is becoming increasingly complex. These will be augmented by new methods of communication, such as instant messaging (IM), video mail and multimedia messaging systems (MMS) when they become available in the corporate environment in the near future. However, while an employee is on the move, even if he or she has an Internet-enabled device, it is still difficult to keep in touch with a company to receive urgent calls, information, news and messages.

Mobility will certainly be one of the main concerns for enterprises in the coming months and years. According to the Gartner Group, "By 2005, more than 30 percent of employees worldwide will use some form of remote access technology in the performance of their jobs."

In view of the increasing importance of mobility, we need to better understand users’ work places and mobility profiles. These are ‘at the desk’, ‘somewhere on the site’ or ‘roaming’. Users with these mobility profiles require specific applications and services. All have an increasing need for always-on communication and seamless access to information. While mobile telephony provides a solution for real-time voice communication, there is now an emerging need for anywhere, anytime data communication.

New technologies

Some recent technologies will help enterprises to improve employee communication flows and working environment:

Session Initiation Protocol: Using SIP, new communication applications can be defined using media-blending—the ability to mix voice, instant messaging, video conferencing and other media during a call.

Voice eXtensible Markup Language: VXML is a language that makes Internet content and information accessible via voice. Web applications can be accessed via a VXML browser running on a media server. VXML has features to control audio output/input, presentation logic and control flow, as well as event handling and telephony connections.

XML, SOAP and Web services: The eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is a language for data exchange and description on the Web. The Single Object Access Protocol (SOAP), also known as the Service Oriented Architecture Protocol, is used for exchanging structured information in a decentralised and distributed environment. It uses XML to format transmitted data. Because SOAP invokes low-level functions, the Web services Description Language (WSDL) has been defined to make it easier to describe Web services. WSDL is complementary to SOAP as it facilitates interoperability between Web services. Web services enable heterogeneous remote systems and applications to communicate via standard technical communications objects.

J2EE Application Server: Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) defines the standard for developing multi-tier enterprise applications. It simplifies applications by basing them on standard modular components, by providing a complete set of services to these components, and by automatically handling many details of application behaviour, without complex programming.

Predictable components using these tools are:

Unified messaging:

This solution leverages existing mail servers for handling non-real-time communication tools with a single multimedia mail box.

Unified messaging enables the receiver to react to any message, at any time, regardless of the format in which it was sent. For example workers can:

• Access and manage all messages using a PC, telephone, PDA, or Web browser.
• Listen to e-mail messages over the phone via text-to-speech conversion and reply instantly.
• Send and receive fax messages using a PC.
• Generate voicemail messages as e-mail attachments that can be sent to anyone with an Internet address.
• Reply in the medium of choice, allowing users to use the application and device that is most convenient.
• Work with compound messages, such as forwarding an e-mail or fax message with a voice introduction, or embedding voice messages into e-mail.

PC telephony application: For improving real-time communication flow with all types of associated devices such as analogue devices, digital devices, mobile phones and voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP).

Web and VXML-based application: Using any device, the user can set and activate rules for routing and screening calls, based on the time of day, caller identification and meeting schedules. This can be a tool for mobile workers and road warriors, helping them to stay in touch with their business ecosystem.

Media server: This server can handle SIP access, interpret VXML scripts and request media resources from the resource server, provide play/record functions and Real Time Protocol (RTP) access as well as automatic speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS) resources.

Big gains

So what can enterprises achieve with these technologies? They can:

• Boost responsiveness and improve customer satisfaction
• Optimise costs
• Leverage existing resources and investments for such solutions.
• Boost productivity

Unified communication’s potential return on investment (RoI) lies in its ability to support revenue growth and market leadership. For example, if company A does not respond to enquiries quickly, the customer is a mouse-click or phone call away from doing business with company B. Therefore, handled separately, unanswered voicemail, e-mail, and fax messages present a liability. What good is a cell phone to a company representative on the road when an urgent e-mail arrives from a high-priority client? However, using unified communication solutions, the same company representative can listen to that message using a cell phone and respond to it immediately, anytime, anywhere.

Some important points come to mind when considering a true unified communication solution for any enterprise. They are security, common/multiple interface support, message type support and integration, Scalability, support for multiple network locations, open, cross-platform standards and future add-on integration.

To remain competitive, an enterprise must constantly improve its communication abilities by enhancing contact tools for its workforce, customers, and partners. Efficient communication drives customer responsiveness and advances employee productivity. This results in increased satisfaction, retention, and loyalty from both customers and employees.

The author is senior technical consultant with Allied Digital. He can be reached at anand.bhatt@alliedindia.com