Sage Research* found employees at organisations using unified communication clients with their IP communications platform saved 32 minutes a day by being able to consult the best method for reaching a colleague before attempting contact. Mobile employees benefited even more. While the average employee saved 43 minutes per day by managing voicemail, email and faxes from one inbox, mobile employees saved 55 minutes.
Communication overload is slowly choking even the most agile enterprises. Employees and organisations are finding it increasingly difficult to manage the vast array of communications and devices needed to perform their jobs. One person trying to reach another sends a voicemail, an email and an instant message, when the person they are trying to contact had a mobile with them all along... Each communication channel is totally unaware of the others.
There is a need to simplify communication, cut through the complexity of multiple platforms and streamline business processes to reduce time to decision, increase productivity, enhance customer service and provide a consistent user experience across all communications.
Unified Communications (UC) incorporates a variety of methods that can be deployed as part of an overall communications strategy to enable organisations to work more intelligently and efficiently. It empowers staff by freeing them from the complexity of technology and allows them to concentrate on the purpose of their communication, thereby improving customer service, speeding up the decision making process and the ability to locate relevant resources quickly and efficiently. *Sage Research, Unified Communications Application: Uses and Benefits, Jan 2006
Unified Communications is the convergence of all business communication applications, across a range of interfaces including PC, Telephone, Web or Mobile.
Users can access and respond to any communication message, (voicemail, text and e-mail) and react to real-time communication (phone calls, instant messaging, video conferencing etc) from one interface. Users are able to seamless switch between communication applications whilst a communication application is in progress. For example a user can switch from a mobile phone to desk phone or click to call the sender of an e-mail. Unified Communication works irrespective of device or location whilst providing access to the same directories and application of each application.
Unified Communication provides simplified interaction between agent and customer - users of unified communication can manage all their voice and messaging applications from one interface and customers can contact individuals through single number access.
Unified Communications provides an increase in accessibility to contacts without the complexity of numerous contact numbers and addresses. Business Communication applications on disparate system can now be presented in one interface with one address book allowing a user to seamless switch.
*Sage Research, Unified Communications Application: Uses and Benefits, Jan 2006
