Unified Messaging

Unified messaging refers to a process to bring in any form incoming and sent messages ( eg voice mail, email, fax, SMS, MMS etc. ) into a standardized form and the user through a variety of Access clients access to grant this ( landline or mobile phone, e -mail client ).

There are services that are configured by the respective providers proprietary.

Method

The incoming messages and information, as necessary, digitized in the first step. This must be added for printed information, the text recognition for use. Faxes are usually received directly from a fax server and stored digitally and processed with OCR and text as passed ( Fax2mail ). Voice messages ( for example, from the answering machine ) can be converted into sound files and text files.

The prepared messages are forwarded to the appropriate personnel in a uniform way ( = Unified Messaging).

Currently, it is about common the employee to send by electronic mail or the various documents in a database to store transaction-based and to provide the employee with a consistent user interface to access the documents.

It is also possible that you can read the message from the computer or from Audiotex system remotely.

Target

The aim is to keep available all messages, data and documents specific to a task in one place in technically reasonably uniform manner comprehensible and accessible at any time.

To distinguish Basically, UM solutions for private use and commercial use. The latter can be ( eg SAP) as well as Exchange, Lotus Notes, Novell GroupWise, etc. for the improvement of the workflow, inter alia, in CRM and ERP systems.

Criticism

The depth and quality of the information the provider of the offered performance leaves a lot to be desired.

Concepts for the presentation of information on the medium of the current choice regardless of the chosen form of the creator and independent of the transmission channel are helpful. The actual real benefit arises from two features for personal administration of the messages:

• Possible consistent with tailored archiving selected formats
• Possible simple export to a currently selected receiving data base

With the following constraints as possible after the criteria ISO / IEC 15408:

• Uniform access rules for a technical obstacle-free but informationally secure access regardless of the selected channel
• Strong protections against any foreign unauthorized access regardless of the selected channel

Examples are known in which Unified Messaging creates new vulnerabilities

A technical standardization of tenders yet to be discerned.

UM numbers in Germany

In UM services offered nationwide use of geographic landline numbers is allowed as virtual UM-Voicebox/Faxnummern only at existing residence or registered office of the UM clients in each local network by the stricter enforcement of the local network reference of geographic subscriber numbers in Germany by the Federal Network Agency. As for the continued use of geographic numbers in accordance with the guidelines of the Federal Network Agency an elaborate address data verification of the customer would be necessary and costly telephone number blocks in all 5200 local networks would have to be requested, waive UM provider on the further use of geographic numbers and awarded instead to non-geographic national 032- subscriber numbers their customers.