Businesses may not yet be able to access the full benefits of voice over IP (VOIP), but this is not stopping them from deploying unified communication solutions.
So says Raymond Janse van Rensburg, systems engineering manager for Cisco SA.
Unified communications leverages triple play - sending voice, video and data on a single network - technology to provide presence and collaboration services across an organisation or network.
According to Janse van Rensburg, most large companies are either evaluating unified communications, or have already adopted the technology in areas of their businesses.
"Some companies are waiting for termination on VOIP numbers to become available before rolling out triple play networks, but most see the value inherent in unified communications - with or without VOIP termination," he says.
Providing a mix of communication options like e-mail, messaging, voice and video to a variety of devices from desktop through to cellphone, unified communications enables companies to facilitate access to the right person, at the right time and in the right place, he notes.
"There is a large interest for presence in the market. Companies realise their customers require instant access to the right resources. For instance, unified communications allows incoming phone calls to alert on an office phone, home office phone and mobile phone all at the same time. This means that wherever your key resource is, he or she can be reached," he explains.
Adding to the collaborative functionality has also been of interest to corporates, says Janse van Rensburg.
"Today a group of people can work on a presentation from various locations in the world. If you can't get the point across through messaging, you can switch to voice or even video. It's about providing options for communication," he explains.
Cisco has also provided for integration into Microsoft's Live Communications Server 2007 and IBM's Sametime Connect. The upshot of this, says Janse van Rensburg, is that appointments listed in calendar clients are intuitively integrated into the availability settings of the unified communications solution.
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