Presence Management - the next evolution in communication

The invention of the telephone in the late half of the 19th century revolutionised the concept of communication. The same can be said about the introduction of e-mail nearly 100 years later.

Now, at the dawn of the 21st century, the time is ripe for another revolution. It is time for digital communications to replace analogue, making voice communication cheaper, easier and more accessible than ever before.

In South Africa, voice solutions vendor Polycom and its official local distributor Zycko, are making instant access - a competitive advantage in any business language - a reality with the use of Presence Management solutions, empowering people to connect and collaborate everywhere.

Says Dan Engel, Polycom Regional Sales Manager: EMEA: "VOIP (voice over IP), and even the idea of unified communications, is nothing new. In fact, usage of VOIP instead of, or to augment traditional communications has risen steadily. Growing alongside this trend has been a move towards a mobile workforce, driven by the decreasing price of mobile technology and increasing availability of wireless networks and mobile connectivity."

But in today's world where mobile workers abound and the variety of devices with which we can contact people has reached astounding levels, communication has actually become more difficult, not easier.

Adds Fiona Mclean-Banks, Polycom Business Development Manager at official distributor Zycko: "When the average mobile worker has at least five different contact points ranging from a deskbound landline to a mobile phone to instant messenger, e-mail and fax, it is difficult to know which point of contact will yield the fastest result. This may lead to frustration on the part of the caller, who has to leave multiple messages with calls remaining unresponded to for indeterminate periods of time. But it also leads to issues for the receiver of the call who must juggle all points of contact, keep track of messages, ensure that important calls are received, at the same time, avoid continuous interruptions."

These problems not only lead to frustration on both sides, but also to a lack of productivity that could actually end up costing a company a lot of money in the long term.

However, buried within the technology of IP telephony there is in fact an answer to this dilemma - a tool called Presence Management. This tool uses VOIP technology to dynamically detect a user's 'presence' on a variety of networks, acting as a sort of communications manager by showing the availability or otherwise of a user and the best method to contact them.

Adds Mclean-Banks: "Taking that even further, new generation Presence Management can route a call to whichever device the person is available on or, using technology called forking, can ring all devices at once and drop the other calls when one device is answered."

Presence Management gives new meaning to the term 'always available' by ensuring that people can reach each other whenever, wherever without the need to play phone tag and leave strings of messages, e-mails and the like that may get lost or go unanswered.

In today's fast-paced business world, the ability to immediately contact the people you need to talk to gives a company an enormous competitive advantage. Important decisions can be made that much faster; people can react far quicker to situations. Not only does this increase productivity, but also, as a result, reduce costs and positively impact an organisation's bottom line. In a pressure-based economy, faster time to react is the one thing companies can use to ensure they get the edge over their competitors.

Says Engel: "In fact, Presence Management effectively turns the globe into one big workplace, where colleagues across the world are connected, and the ability to see their availability live and online is like stepping into their office. Networks are instantly connectable, and conferencing becomes a matter of a couple of clicks instead of weeks of scheduling."

Presence Management is the next step in the evolution of global communications, turning the working world from one that relies on schedules and appointments into one that can react on an ad hoc basis, instantly and on demand.