Businesses are always hungry for technologies that can improve the way they
interact and collaborate, and unified communications (UC) offers an innovative
way of doing just that. By integrating real-time communications applications
such as Instant Messenger (IM), IP telephony, videoconferencing and call
control, with non real-time applications for document management, knowledge
management and enterprise collaboration, UC provides a compelling proposition
for uniting a multitude of core network propositions into a coherent mechanism
for boosting productivity and promoting operational efficiencies. The problem,
however, is that despite the maturity of many of the applications associated
with UC and more recently Enterprise Collaboration, there is still a widespread
lack of understanding of what is needed to deploy them effectively and get the
most out of investments in this area.
The way in which many enterprises deploy UC today is piecemeal and
system-centric. The common belief that if you roll out the relevant
applications, you have a UC solution is simply not the case. A series of
disparate and disconnected applications is not a UC solution. For UC to really
deliver on its promise, it needs to be unified at the network layer as well as
at the point of delivery.
The only way that UC can be delivered with the right quality of experience
across all applications is to unify them across a next generation network (NGN).
These networks are built specifically for IP applications, and therefore,
understand the building blocks of a UC environment. NGNs are converged networks,
meaning that all functions are supported across a single platform, this reduces
many of the costs involved in deploying a multitude of disjointed applications.
To draw an analogy, this is like a restaurant trying to serve Italian,
Indian, Japanese and Chinese food all from the same menu, but setting up
different kitchens to cater for each cuisine. The cost of running separate
kitchens would make this type of eatery totally impractical and, besides, the
customer service would be terrible. It would be next to impossible to get all of
these different orders on to one table at the same time. The same is true of
trying to unite applications only at the point of delivery. The cost of running
different applications on different networks is prohibitive, while the system
will struggle to bring them all together in a single unified session when
required. In short, the user experience would be awful.
For UC to work effectively, the unification needs to take place throughout
the network. Even here, however, there are dangers that businesses must be aware
of : if the right network is not in place, the UC experience will remain
unsatisfactory. Most networks can handle data, but if you start putting IP
voice, IM and other collaboration applications on top of this the user
experience will be poor. If we return to our restaurant analogy, this is akin to
going to an Italian bistro and ordering lasagne and sushi at the same time.
NGNs can intelligently prioritize traffic, allowing for unrivalled quality of
experience. If a user is conducting a videoconference while emailing at the same
time, the network knows that the videoconferencing session should take priority
on the network in order to maintain quality levels.
UC, therefore, is a highly valuable proposition, but only if it is delivered
correctly. It only truly works in an NGN environment, where the necessary levels
of intelligence are present and where the applications can be united throughout
a single coherent network platform. If this is not done, then the communications
platform cannot achieve a coherent UC service experience and many of the
expected cost and efficiency benefits will not materialize.
Vikas Bansal
The author is director, carrier business, Cable & Wireless Worldwide
vadmail@cybermedia.co.in
Page(s) 1
Print
Comment
Email
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
