Unified they stand

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The more savvy end users are currently looking towards interoperability as the most important factor in weighing up a unified communications (UC) strategy. “Even for customers who aren’t insisting on it (interoperability) we are actively recommending it as a way to future proof their investment,” said Jason Flynn, sales and country manager with Avaya. “It is a great way of saving costs during the current climate while simultaneously building a platform for growth on the other side of the downturn.”

Flynn noted that products which can ‘de-couple’ applications from the network as being important, allowing users to simplify their communications even if they have equipment from multiple vendors. “By making sure their UC strategy is focused on open standards such as SIP (session initiation protocol), rather than proprietary standards, businesses can breathe new life into existing infrastructure while simultaneously building a UC environment for the future,” he added.

Managing director with Damovo, John McCabe, told ComputerScope that the most prominent vendors pushing UC solutions at present are Microsoft and Cisco. “Both vendors are integrating non real-time services such as voice-mail, e-mail, SMS and fax with real-time communications such as instant messaging (IM), rich presence, VoIP, video and web conferencing.” He added that because UC is a subset of products rather than a single entity, it can be integrated with current products to give a consistent look and feel throughout.

“Customers want UC to integrate with their current setup without the need to re-educate users on new look and feel products. Integrating with current familiar products such as Office and SharePoint makes embracing new technologies easier for the end user and the support specialists who look after the system,” said McCabe.

SERVICE ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE
Anne O’Leary meanwhile, director of business and enterprise with Vodafone Ireland, pinpointed service oriented architecture (SOA) technologies as an area that is making its mark at present. “They’re centred on GUI-based programming languages which allow rapid and simple integration,” she added, “an example of this is IBM’s WebSphere.”

O’Leary went on to explain that large multinational companies who have not adopted global standards for communications infrastructure, and kept their supplier partnerships to a minimum, find themselves in the difficult position of owning multiple different vendor platforms with multiple databases none of which integrate easily or provide feature transparency.

ENABLING TOOL
Backing up McCabe’s earlier point with regards to Microsoft’s impact on the UC sector, Paul Clark, general manager UK and Ireland with Plantronics said that the most significant UC change in recent years came in the last 18 months with the introduction of Microsoft Office Communicator. This has, he said, raised the profile of UC technology as an enabling tool within business and has helped more people come to understand what can be achieved with it. The impact has been such that Clark said “People who only five months ago had no idea what we were talking about now are now very aware of the capabilities UC can bring to their business.”

Microsoft Ireland’s Richard Moore, a business manager and information worker with the company, said that more end users are fast becoming aware of the advantages of using UC solutions. “Firstly, with regards to usage of presence – 10 to 15% of companies are using that widely. A year ago or 18 months ago that might have been 2% or 3%. The huge productivity benefits possible when using presence are behind that. In terms of video conferencing we would say that only 10% of the possible Irish user base are using it at the moment, but again that number has grown quite quickly from virtually nothing. The next step is voice; people want to unify the system completely.”

Callum Hughes, solutions consultant at Sharptext, who are Cisco distributors for Ireland commented that, as part of a robust UC solution, firewalls that are aware of the UC protocols are also “highly recommended”. As a starting point though, he added that making sure you have the basics right is vital: “Plan your deployment thoroughly and make sure you take care of the infrastructure from the bottom up: there’s no point in having a rock-solid technology-based security solution if someone can walk in off the street and steal your corporate IT assets and intellectual property.”

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