Brace yourselves folks, Unified Communications is coming your way. Major software and hardware suppliers are teaming up to make sure that people can reach each other more or less instantly, regardless of what device they’re using or where they are physically.

Effective communication between people means that work can be accelerated and collaboration facilitated. Taking the broad view, communication elements include telephone, e-mail, text messaging, instant messaging, document sharing, screen sharing, voice conferencing, web conferencing and video conferencing.

You might not want to use them all, in fact email is becoming a bit of a pain and a lot of people are looking elsewhere for more effective ways of staying in touch. But all of the above are part of what’s currently called Unified Communications. (I’ll call it UC from now on.)

It offers a guarantee that the right person can be reached in an instant. Obviously if they’re busy or switched off, messages will be stored in readiness for reconnection. But, with ‘presence sensing’ it will be possible to know if they’re around before trying to contact them. This is an important part of UC.

Obviously, there’s no point splashing out on UC unless you can see a clear business benefit. And that means money - will you make or save more than it costs to implement and run? It’s true that you can cut your carbon footprint too, but that tends to be a side-benefit rather than a primary reason for doing things.

Some recent research revealed that companies are very keen to cut their travel and accommodation bills. They see teleconferencing, flexible working and home-working as ways to do this. Another pressure might come from larger business partners who want to improve communications between your companies.

Whether UC is for you depends on the type of company you are. If you spend a lot on unnecessary travel or you’re wasting a lot of staff time on missed calls and telephone-tag, especially if they’re internal, then some degree of UC might help. If you’re experiencing the same thing externally then you might need to wait until it’s de rigeur among those you wish to communicate with.

For UC to work, directories of people, devices and rules need to be built. This is incredibly sensitive information. Ask your suppliers how it’s to be shared and secured before signing on the dotted line.

In time, I dare say we’ll take this stuff for granted. Companies like BT or Microsoft will be offering functionality as an extension of what they’re already providing you. But, right now, unless your need is burning and your tolerance of risk high, you might want to wait until you can see evidence of UC working in companies similar to your own.

PS You (and your pet techie) might benefit from a visit to Unified Communications ’08 at Olympia on 9-10 April.

UnifiedCommunications