Unison delivers on promise of Central Directory

Unison Communications has done what industries worldwide have been attempting to do for years. With skill and determination, the Unison Research and Development team designed a central directory allowing Unison`s suite of applications to run off one common platform. Dietmar Frey, Unison`s Chairman and Founder, maintains, however, that it is having all the applications under one name, fully integrating into one common directory that is the key and not the directory itself. According to Frey: "This is the concept behind the Galactrix Enterprise Solutions System. It enables one to run a fully integrated system, thereby saving time not having to maintain 10 different directories."

Time saving is the key factor of the Galactrix Central Directory as the repetitive inputting of data across an organisation`s directories is eliminated. In larger organisations, the administration of a directory is a logistical and administrative challenge with an enormous paper trail. Mention need only be made of the exorbitant costs involved in the printing of a company directory.

The concept of a centralised common directory came about some years ago when the South African Reserve Bank approached Unison. Says Frey: "They recognised that our Stella Nova Telephone Management System in use at the Reserve Bank already listed every user in the building." From there Frey says: "It gave me the idea to create a central directory server that you hang all the applications off of, thereby achieving a degree of integration that was otherwise not possible and you are actually making the customer`s overall job much easier because they only have to work in one directory."

According to Frey, it was in fact a very natural progression for Unison as it already had the technology of the various applications available.

So what in essence is it that this central directory can do? With a Galactrix Central Directory in place, whatever data needs updating, correcting or deleting, is done once in the central directory. This information can then be exported to all the other directories within an organisation, including the PABX screen-based console. This naturally results in a saving of time and an increase in productivity. The directory is also user-centric which means that a company is no longer limited to drawing reports from an extension alone but can track employee usage through their profile.

With many additional benefits, the Galactrix Central Directory makes more than just good business sense. Not only is it one platform with all the applications written in the same language and code but also one company to deal with in terms of installation, training, use and maintenance.