Trend

Fusion of communication mediums

A combination of enterprise-wide applications with unified communications is going to be the next wave of convergence in enterprise communication. By Faiz Askari

We have heard it all before, the ‘C’ word, we are talking about convergence. For once, the hype seems to be at least partially justified. Unified Communications (UC) and linking enterprise-wide applications such as ERP and CRM with it looks like a promising option.

As geographies, home-workplace, and time zones converge, people are demanding technology that helps them work smarter and faster. Responding to this phenomenon is now a strategic imperative for businesses as there is a need to link individuals to business partners, customers, colleagues and even families and friends.

Minhaj Zia, Business Development Manager, Cisco India & SAARC said, “Over the long term, opportunities exist to design entirely new businesses and approaches using mobility, such as virtual manufacturing, virtual meetings, virtual logistics or new modes of operations, such as office-less business. ERP and CRM applications linked to mobility will also be seen in the years to come.”

Vivek Porwal, BU Head – Unified Communications, Avaya GlobalConnect said, “Unified Communications or the seamless access to business communication on any device, anywhere, is fast gaining ground in India with the emergence of an agile young workforce that is eager to learn new ways of working and is prepared to explore the horizons of Intelligent Communications.”

Eitan Livneh, President and CEO of Tadiran Telecom said, “The concept of VoIP has crossed the initial threshold and India will now see the beginning of a new revolution where its use in not restricted to multinationals and large enterprises only. Sectors like education, manufacturing and government are realizing the potential of this technology and are already redefining the way in which people communicate and share information. The industry is clearly on a high growth path.”

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A definition of unified communications includes applications and services designed to improve communications within the modern organization—to keep workgroups connected, enable them to collaborate effectively, streamline business processes, and provide a competitive advantage.

Microsoft has also ventured into UC with a software-based approach. "With this we expect to usher in changes to enterprise voice communication that will fundamentally transforming business communications. Leading IT Global Research firms like Gartner have validated our approach by positioning Microsoft as one of the leaders in the Unified Communication space," said Sanjay Manchanda, Director, Information Worker Business Group, Microsoft India.

He added, “As businesses expand their geographical footprint and grow employee strength, we believe that a Unified Communications solution will become an integral tool to ensure anytime anywhere access and will significantly impact organizational productivity.”

Zia added, “It is being viewed as the new paradigm for employee communications that allows employees to reach each other rather than an unattended communications device.”

Defining the demands and challenges faced in the enterprise environment, Mohit Rampal, Country Manager - India, 3Com, said, “Everyone’s needs differ from everybody else’s, this leads to an open and customizable infrastructure requirement. So, customers are looking for a customizable and scalable network that delivers the freedom to innovate, differentiate services and simplify operations—a network that can reduce costs and maximize revenue as it better supports existing and emerging applications, more effectively address rapidly changing security threats, and increase the visibility of local and wide area network activity to ensure optimal performance as an organization drives toward convergence.”

Zia said, “Video is transforming the way in which we do business. Emerging applications like tele-presence offer an entirely new meeting experience, where each participant can make eye contact and comfortably speak at normal voice levels with no video latency. Moreover, the technology required to enable this enhanced means of business communication is invisible to users and as easy to initiate as placing a phone call.”

While agreeing to the fact that this market is evolving and that a lot of thrust is being place upon this area as customers are sharing their requirements of innovative applications, Livneh said, “Considering the importance of this market, we recently introduced a tool that ties the PC to the phone, combining instant messaging, user presence, telephone status, video sharing and more, to make applications more efficient for users of the Tadiran Coral IPx system. Navigator lets users see other users’ presence, set up buddy lists and personal profiles. It also allows users to route and redirect inbound calls based on personal preferences.”

Coming to the need for customization, Rampal said, “3Com’s Open Services Network (OSN) strategy lets organizations unlock the potential of their networks, enabling them to seamlessly run a rich set of integrated, open source and third-party applications and services. We strategically deliver a world-class infrastructure and access to a set of services that empower organizations to win in an ever-changing global economy.

“While other vendors may offer proprietary variations of ‘integrated’ networking platforms, the 3Com strategy delivers a truly open array of options. Rather than an approach that essentially limits customer choice and access to advanced applications by forcing the implementation of a single vendor’s products, an OSN infrastructure enables an entirely new business model. It facilitates the deployment of a virtually unlimited range of interoperable applications from a variety of development sources, including 3Com, third-party independent software vendors (ISVs), customers’ in-house developers or even members of the open source development community. By matching innovative technology solutions with specific business demands, organizations can control deployment timetables and protect capital investments.”

Early adopters

Apart from IT which has been an early adopter of Unified Communications, Zia said, “Other verticals such as such as Banking, Retail, Healthcare, and Manufacturing are adopting UC for gaining competitive advantage. Cisco has been leveraging its networking expertise to combine UC solutions along with wireless and security applications for enhanced productivity and business benefits for all these verticals.”

Porwal added, “Quite a few large organizations are using this technology to collaborate across locations. The easy availability of bandwidth has enabled the adoption of collaboration tools such as audio and video conferencing. However the in-house CUG IP Tel infrastructure and public communication networks (PSTN) have remained as separate pools.”

Having said all this, Porwal predicted, “Once the legislation allows for connectivity across IP and PSTN networks, it shall open the world of universal connectivity across devices, humans, equipment and business processes. Organizations understand this and are preparing themselves for the same.”

Business and technology decision-makers already place a high priority on providing optimized communication between remotely located knowledge workers and their teams. Zia concluded, “In a modern organization, communications devices become a integral part of business transactions. Despite investments in technology such as instant messaging and mobile devices, companies still have difficulties contacting key decision makers in a timely manner.”

faiz.askari@expressindia.com