Driving Value by Unifying More than Communications ? ADTRAN ...

?I have often noted that UC is a moving target, and that cuts both ways. Both vendors and service providers have their own take, and I?m sure you?re well aware of the variations. The amorphous nature of UC does make it difficult to gauge the value proposition, but at the same time it gives IT leeway to define a solution that really suits the business.

Perhaps this makes your job harder, but the more you understand the options and possibilities the better choices you?ll be able to make. One way to approach that is by defining ?unified? on your terms instead of just taking what?s out there now. For most people UC is about unifying communications applications into a common, consistent interface and user experience. Not much to argue about there, aside from defining the range of applications that UC would envelop.

To really get what you want, you could also look at ?unified? from other perspectives, and here is one worth considering. I?ll explore a few others over the next few posts.

Unifying your network? Thinking back to when you first looked at VoIP, that was likely your first major step towards a converged network environment. Telephony certainly worked well running over a dedicated network, and until VoIP came along there wasn?t reason to think differently. The service was very reliable, the quality was pristine, and with 4 or 5 digit extensions, getting in touch with your co-workers was easy. Of course, legacy telephony came with a high price, and as other options emerged, the limitations became apparent. Aside from having a lower cost, these options were more flexible, easier to manage and more upgradeable in terms of supporting new features.

Presuming you have moved along this path, the benefits of a converged network are abundantly clear. By moving telephony on to the data network, VoIP provides a clear path to the future, not just for basic telephony, but for the richer world that UC can deliver. Even if VoIP is a step below TDM, the quality and reliability both continue improving, and if your network is properly optimized, the tradeoffs should be nominal.

To this point, we?re only talking about unifying your network for telephony ? that?s just one mode. This may be a basic form of unification, and you weren?t likely thinking about anything grander at the time, such as UC.? Although simple, this is actually a profound step ? and necessary ? towards the full spectrum of IP communications. Voice will always be the preferred mode of real time communications, but it?s becoming counter-productive to keep it siloed in a segregated network. The key here is to recognize that telephony can work in other settings, not just on its own, but in concert with other modes.

This may sound simplistic, but initially telephony stayed separate for good reason. Real time communication could not be compromised, and data networks were not built with the needs of telephony in mind. Now that data networks handle a mix of real time and non-real time modes, the rationale for adding telephony becomes a lot stronger.

Building on this momentum for network convergence, Unified Communications takes this to the next level. Once voice becomes acclimated to a data network, IP telephony can take on a broader role than a dedicated service. Now the notion of unifying your network becomes more powerful, since UC goes well beyond IP telephony to integrate voice with everything else running there. Even that doesn?t tell the whole story. VoIP can certainly be woven in with other communications modes ? and this is the core value proposition of UC, but on top of that, voice can be integrated with CEBP.

Not every business is ready for CEBP, but this represents the value-add of UC that speaks to the needs of the organization rather than end users as individuals. Collectively, end users can amass a lot of personal productivity with UC, but CEBP leverages the network in more far-reaching ways. When you start thinking like this, IT can craft a pretty strong agenda for UC that should bring out the best in the vendors you?re talking to.

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Related posts:

1. Driving Unified Communications ? What?s Your Mindset?
2. How Do You Know When Unified Communications is Working?
3. What is Driving Unified Communications?
4. Unified Communications ? Do You Know What You Need?
5. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Trunking ? Adding Value to Unified Communications (UC)

Source: http://connect.adtran.com/driving-value-by-unifying-more-than-communications/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=driving-value-by-unifying-more-than-communications

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