Unified Communications

Unified Communications (UC ) ( English for " real-time communication " ) called ( English for " unified communications " ), often also Real-Time Communication ( RTC), describes the integration of communication media in a single application environment. The idea behind unified communications is through a combination of all communication services and the integration with presence capabilities, as they are known from instant messengers to improve the availability of communication partners in a distributed work and thus accelerate business processes. UC can be understood as an extension of Unified Messaging; The latter refers to the message integration in a portal and so on asynchronous media, while UC has the integration of synchronous media to the destination.

Background

Distributed work in teams and projects is often characterized by poor accessibility of the team members and the absence of so-called context awareness, in team work ( CSCW ), knowledge of what to do other team members or whether they are achievable. Moreover, communication in the workplace today is often complex and dominated by interruptions and disturbances. At the same time the number of available media and devices available to the average user's disposal increases. The paradox of this situation is that, despite advanced communication possibilities, the accessibility continues to deteriorate, while the complexity increases further.

Unified Communications systems (including real -time communication systems called ) are positioned by their manufacturers in response to the above situation. These systems are the result of the convergence of groupware, new communication media (VoIP and instant messaging) and information and communication technology (ICT). There are built-in communications infrastructure, aimed at improving the communication between people to the goal. The manufacturers promise a relief in the management of their own communication (and their complexity), the improvement of accessibility in distributed work and more awareness for the accessibility (keyword presence ).

UC - blocks

Unified Communications as a technology concept and can be divided into four parts, that is, there are four core functions that make up the combination in what is commonly described with Unified Communications. Open is whether one should only speak about UC when solutions support all four areas, or whether the four areas are more likely to see as building blocks that describe the UC market, where manufacturers can offer individual modules.

Media Integration

UC is based on the idea of ​​media integration, ie the integration of ( especially synchronous ) media with a logical, technical control layer. This causes the user to be relieved of the management of communications media and devices according to the context. Here UC is technically based on IP technology, but may also traditional and mobile telecommunications equipment (keyword ISDN, GSM and PSTN) to include. A policy-based management system supports the user in the administration and in the selection of the most appropriate in a situation media. A logical control layer ensures that incoming communications are automatically forwarded to the user situationally preferred and currently available devices. For this, the media (text, audio, video ) devices (mobile phone, IP phone, etc. ) and software clients ( instant messenger, video and audio clients) must be configured registered in UC system. The stored rules can be complex: they may relate to individual callers, on times of day and different devices.

Presence information

Presence information are known from instant messaging tools; they signal there as icons the availability of a contact. In a distributed work context lacking traditional signals, such as the physical presence and body language of the recipient, which signal the availability for communication. The goal of UC systems is to compensate for this lack of awareness by technically mediated signaling. The created awareness through presence information to helping to improve the management of accessibility in groups. Unlike instant messaging UC can allow for much more complex forms of signaling. Thus, the presence status on the one hand be detailed basis and presented at the device level; so can see whether a recipient is reachable just for example, by telephone, an initiator. In addition, the presence status of persons can be attached ( such as files ) in other software applications aggregated at the group level or to any objects. A presence status at the group level allows to be targeted information about the accessibility of all group members, for example, such as when a telephone conference to be convened.

Context integration

For the full benefits unfold UC solutions only when they are integrated into the work context of the user. Such integration means, for example, providing presence information in third-party applications and processes and the ability to directly from third-party applications (ERP, CRM, etc.) can trigger a communication. The idea is that whenever the name of a registered in the UC system in the user application appears (for example, as an author of a document ), there also the presence status is displayed and by clicking a communication can be triggered. For this purpose, the request is passed to the UC system and built such as an IP - based video conferencing.

Second, the context of integration means integrating the work context in the reverse direction: the linking of relevant data, tools and processes with communication. An example of this is the automatic provision of customer data on incoming communications by the customer. Gets example, the customer on its stored in the system telephone connection to, gets the called customer data displayed on his monitor. This is an important workload, especially in call centers, as all the information about the previous customer contact are directly available and need not be requested again.

Further cooperation functions

The fourth module, the enrichment of communication in UC is to call together collaboration. The idea here is that of Real-Time Communication in this way is collaboration. This is also known as e-collaboration. Typical co-operation functions that can be hooked up by the system are: web conferencing, whiteboard and application sharing. In this way an ad- hoc document collaboration from the context of work out is possible, for example.

Known suppliers of UC

The provider of UC solutions have different historically grown technical backgrounds. The relevant areas are especially network elements (eg routers, switches ), telephone systems and IT applications (such as groupware, office suites ). Since the individual provider, except for Cisco, can not provide all the necessary elements for a UC solution from a single source, they are both relies on cooperation. On the other hand, they compete with some very similar solutions. The market is therefore strongly influenced by coopetition. Among the known UC providers include:

• A1 Telekom Austria
• Aastra Technologies Limited
• Alcatel- Lucent
• Avaya
• Cisco
• Damovo
• German Telekom
• IBM
• IPAustria
• Hewlett -Packard
• Microsoft - Lync Server
• Nortel Networks
• Novell
• Ricoh
• Oracle
• Panasonic
• Unify ( formerly Siemens Enterprise Communications )

Depending on the technical background of the providers they pursue different strategies in developing and implementing their UC solutions. For example, Cisco puts an emphasis on network- based services as network equipment. For traditional suppliers of PABX systems including Panasonic, Siemens and Avaya PBX and voice communication are still significant parts of its UC portfolio. Network operators such as A1 Telekom Austria, Colt Technology Services, Swisscom, T -Systems International ( German Telekom ) or Verizon offer UC as hosting solutions.