The unified communications hype

From just a few years ago when it was an idea thrown around at industry conferences and trade shows that seem devoted to it, unified communications (UC) has become a buzzword with a big marketing tail wind behind it. Within those shows we have also seen the emergence of sessions and tracks on UC in the contact centre as well. However, it seems that the industry has it backwards.

Unified communications is not some big new thing; it was born in the contact centre. Most of the applications that are being touted and tied together to form unified communications have been around the contact centre for years, just with different names, or no names since most of the solutions are just features within a contact centre solution. In contact centres we route, track, report, monitor, conference, and notify. We know the presence of agents; we collaborate with other agents and supervisors. The functionality is not new, but in UC, it’s the extension of call centre applications to the rest of the enterprise that’s worth the hype.

There are numerous UC definitions from vendors that claim to support UC to the press and analyst communities. To remain neutral here, a general definition of UC, found on Wikipedia, is: “Unified Communications (UC) is a commonly used term for the integration of disparate communications systems, media, devices and applications. This potentially includes the integration of fixed and mobile voice, e-mail, instant messaging, desktop and advanced business applications, Internet Protocol (IP)-PBX, voice over IP (VoIP), presence, voice-mail, fax, audio, video and web conferencing, unified messaging, unified voicemail, and whiteboarding into a single environment offering the user a more complete but simpler experience.”

So why is UC outside of the contact centre important? UC is important because it greases the productivity skids of workers, and hence business productivity in general. In the Wikipedia definition the focus is on a more complete but simpler experience for the user. Others, such as UC-Strategies.com, focus on “Communications integrated to optimise business processes.” However, whether the focus is on the business process or the user experience, UC is about
unifying the tools of the work place so that users can get to the exact person they need to contact, in the manner which suits them and is most expeditious at the time they need them, just like in the contact centre.

UC helps to reduce the human delay in getting work done. If I know where you are, and I know you are busy, then I won’t wait for you but will leave you a message or tag you so that I can get a hold of you the moment you are done, or instant message you for a heads up or quick reply, etc. We can share interactions and information more easily for consensus and completion. By formalising some of the business processes we have had in the contact centre within the enterprise, we can go back and mutually extend those applications to both. For example, with presence, an agent who needs assistance from an expert that isn’t an agent, can locate, contact and connect with them during a call. Additionally, rules can be created to allow the ACD system to also use presence in order to perform the same functionality without agent intervention. Collaboration enables agents, and supervisors to share data with “experts” outside of the contact centre and work on the same event themselves.

However, despite the hype, UC adoption is still in its infancy for various reasons. The adoption of VoIP, while increasingly more widespread, has a long way to go. Many vendors who are marketing UC have varying heritages and are still working on getting different applications to work together in their own portfolios, let alone work with others where they have a product void. Industry standards are in varying stages of completion or are works in progress. We need things such as partnership, so that different IM applications can message each other, and we need to educate customers as to the impact that UC applications will have on their networks, just to point out a few issues.

While the entire UC vendor community is aware of the issues and is actively working on solving them, innovation on core and new UC applications certainly hasn’t ground to a halt. Life must go on. In fact, there is a growing movement, particularly among those vendors who’s heritage is software-based, or who have made the switch to pure software solutions, to take a play from the contact centre history play book, and extend UC both back into the contact centre
for agents to contact experts in the enterprise, and out to enterprise business applications.

We have come a long way from where the call centre was just a call centre – a silo in an organisation. We now have ways of linking business processes from the enterprise to what is now the contact centre. In the not too distant future we will have the ability to utilise full scale business process automation out of the box, where business applications and communications are truly intertwined. In addition to the current push model that is event and notification
driven, soon, each contact into an organisation will be an event that gets tracked, communication-enabled, process driven, by the PBX until the event is complete.

However, there is lots of work to be done in extending the contact centre functionality across the enterprise. For unified communications to be simple, packaged solutions must be developed that have built-in intelligence about horizontal applications within enterprises for general applications, and deep process intelligence for any vertical market applications. The processes within those markets need to be understood and incorporated into a communications work flow. Those vendors who are software-based without functional walls or siloed enterprise communication applications to break down will have the easiest road, but eventually we will all get there.

About Dave Paulding

With more than 12 years of enterprise software experience, Dave Paulding serves as Regional Sales Director, UK & Africa for Interactive Intelligence. He joined the company in March 2003 and currently leads the sales operation across South Africa and the emerging markets in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Prior to Interactive Intelligence, Dave was Enterprise Sales Manager for divine Solutions, a leading provider of web based collaboration and contact centre technology.

In addition, Dave has held a number of other executive roles during his career at eShare Technologies and Melita International.

Recognised as an contact centre industry thought leader, Dave frequently contributes articles to leading trade journals and is a regular speaker at industry events.