Unified Communications Matters ? hot news

In today?s global environment, a vast majority of companies experience a set of continually increasing business pressures, regardless of industry or size. While not all companies experience the same pressures, the results are remarkably similar. In order to compete effectively, they must become increasingly agile. In this context, a company is considered to be agile if it can respond in -?real time? to situations that impact the health and well being of the enterprise and its stakeholders. So, as companies open their doors and become extended, global enterprises, they need the ability to communicate and collaborate faster over multiple devices and mediums. Recent research indicates that in order to become more agile, organizations are turning towards Unified communications (UC) which is increasingly becoming the winning solution both in terms of immediate cost reductions and long-term efficiencies. UC has evolved from simple unified messaging and voicemail integrated into e-mail, to a market where all of a user?s collaboration tools are brought together under one umbrella. These tools include telephony, mobile phones, video conferencing, audio and web conferencing, e-mail, soft phones and other commonly used communications devices. Although these devices address the need for faster communications, few of them are linked together. UC brings all of these devices and systems together. It improves the manageability and effectiveness of the ecosystem and makes the enterprise more responsive and agile, which enables it to achieve its business objectives and ultimately gain competitive advantages. It is the convergence of all forms of audio, video, web and desktop communications, built on an Internet Protocol (IP) network that breaks down all distance, time and media barriers. This enables the modern organization to keep workgroups connected, enable them to collaborate effectively and streamline business processes.

Unified communications is being used by many companies to enhance business processes in large part because it enables effective collaboration, since it does not depend on where a participant is located. It also offers other significant benefits, including increased individual and team productivity, fostering of collaboration, improved relationships, enhanced security and enterprise-class scalability. However, the two strategic business drivers that have proven to be of great importance to companies deploying UC telephony are growth in revenues and cost savings. Revenue Growth: Organizations that deploy Unified communications solutions have experienced a measurable impact on their business processes and shortened time to complete projects and sales cycles through faster responses, increased accessibility, mobility (push mail) to converge fixed to mobile environments and improved decision-making and information sharing. For example, by substituting web conferencing with audio and video collaboration for more traditional face-to-face meetings with customers, partners, suppliers, or other employees, businesses can avoid lost productivity due to travel downtime and are able to improve key business metrics. Decision making can also be made faster by allowing teams to find each other in real-time and meet more frequently, resulting in quicker problem resolution and improved information sharing. This business agility can often result in an increased sales win rate and improve customer relations because these employees are able to respond to customer and partner needs quickly. Cost Savings: Avoiding travel expenses is just the beginning of the potential cost savings of using Unified Communications. For online meetings, training, or events, web conferencing is an effective meeting solution that enables people to collaborate with groups of two or of thousands-?without leaving their desks. Furthermore organizations can easily and cost effectively implement compliance policies with built-in compliance capabilities to avoid costly exposure. There is a major savings in an organization?s Total Cost of Ownership to migrate from legacy infrastructure on messaging and telephony to a Unified Communications environment, that on top, also provides additional features and productivity benefits at lesser costs. It offers significant benefits to organizations, including increased individual and team productivity, fostering of collaboration, improved relationships, enhanced security, and enterprise-class scalability. By granting instant access to team members, partners, suppliers, and customers across geographies, time zones, and organizational boundaries, timely information can flow rapidly and efficiently. Organizations can improve team results by using Unified Communications to share ideas and information faster and more effectively. Managed solutions are a key component The greatest value in UC comes from managed and outsourced solutions, where service provides are able to offer end-to-end management across networks and applications platforms. This means a tighter and long term relationship between service provider and customer. The managed services approach is particularly suited to UC, where platforms and applications from multiple vendors need to be integrated and where one supplier is responsible for end-to-end performance as the technology continues to evolve through upgrades and enhanced capabilities. As a result, UC provides tremendous flexibility as it can cover the needs of a large enterprise as well as a SMB with the availability of the hosted model which allows SMBs to save costs by investing in UC as a pay as you go service. So, without a doubt, Unified Communications continues to be one of the hottest technologies in the ICT industry as it provides: 1. Business Value: UC when offered via a carrier class platform with powerful blend of rich media internet applications and mobility features not only enhances the overall customer experience but also leads to significant cost reduction and revenue enablement. 2. Technology Value: Underpinned by flexible, extensible and integrated IP communications platform, UC can meet customers? future business challenges and scalability needs. 3. Financial value: Customers using UC can immensely reduce their Total Cost of Ownership and ensure a higher Return on Investment. 4. Operational Value: UC is a proven solution with easy integration to existing applications. Its high availability and low failure rates positively increases operational efficiency. A unified future Unified communications has finally reached the point where the products are mature enough and feature-rich enough that companies can use it to enable new business processes and reach new levels of productivity. It is already changing the way businesses sell to consumers, interact with customers and operate internally. Goals such as re-engineering business processes, enhancing employee productivity and improving relations with customers have a common theme ? effective collaboration among employees and customers, all of who are increasingly mobile. Because Unified communication enables effective collaboration independent of the participant?s location or preferred communications device or communications mode, Unified communications is a key component of any enterprise?s efforts to achieve these goals. When coupled with continuing innovation by providers and users, UC has the potential to increase productivity and power the global economy forward. Article Resource:- Iyad Hindiyeh COO of Smart World.Smart world ? UAE based ICT services provider. Offers managed desktop services,cloud computing, IP PBX and other unified communication services for your business . To know more about our services visit www.smart-world.ae.

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Source: http://hotnews.blogspages.com/2012/02/26/unified-communications-matters/

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