Unified
communications (UC) has been presented as a potential solution for all sorts of
woes facing organisations; network complexity, playing telephone tag, high call
costs, too much travel, desktop clutter etc. Despite lots of hype and huge
marketing budgets from many of the biggest players in the industry, adoption appeared
to be slow, at least that is until a year or so ago when Microsoft's Lync
started to gain some traction.Much
of the initial push towards UC was built on the needs of the network, so much
so that it looked more like unified 'plumbing', rather than considering what
really matters, the human end of communications. Most of the value propositions
were oriented around simplifying and streamlining network operations and in
particular the long held techie dream of converging telephony with IT. No
wonder that so many organisations that were being sold UC bought into it for VoIP,
or as they positioned it internally, 'cheap calls'.Dramatic
changes have occurred in telecoms - in particular mobile services taking over a
lot of what was previously fixed line calling and users increasingly choosing
to bring their own devices. This, coupled with the spread of IP in the telecoms
networks leading to a more relaxed way of billing (cheaper calls by the minute)
by connectivity, not time - has shifted the notion for UC acceptance a little
further towards the needs of the user where it should really belong, and not
the network manager. However, this has not been without headaches of its own as
initially many vendors thought that mobile was a bit of a distraction and
treated it as an add-on.Adding
a "C" for collaboration to make it UC&C, was a definite sharp turn in
marketing by the industry towards accepting that the messages should be
oriented to how UC affects end users.All
together the combination of these changes shifting from the technology focus to
one on people and process seems to be paying off.New
research, commissioned by Sonus Networks polled just over a hundred IT decision
makers in the UK and found that while there are still a wide variety of
challenges to gaining acceptance for UC adoption, no single show stopper sticks
out and most challenges scored only relatively low percentages.Somewhat
surprisingly, the one that seems to be causing least concern is CapEx, and only
14% think that infrastructure upgrades are prohibitively expensive. However at
the other end of the spectrum, 30% admitted that other projects have higher
priority.What
could have a higher priority than getting everyone to communicate more
effectively and efficiently?Well
perhaps not, and the key challenge may be gleaned from some of the other
responses. Over a quarter thought that getting users to learn or embrace
multimedia and UC was a challenge, with a similar number saying they were
lacking the IT skills to implement and support UC.This
might seem strange in a world where everyone appears to own a smartphone,
tablet, smart TV and broadband internet connection. Even stranger when the
younger end of the workforce has grown up with all this technology and it
shouldn't faze them.Chances
are it doesn't, but awareness and familiarity are not the same as understanding
and effective use. It is all too easy to pick up and use much modern
technology, and even easier to get into bad habits or stuck with a preferred
style of usage and be reluctant to experiment or change.This
is not something that a younger generation has evolved out of, they are simply
getting stuck into the latest 'ruts', i.e. the things they like, are
comfortable with, or are most popular in their peer group. Everyone has their
own favourite means of communications, social media sites and so on. Often this
is the basis for their communications starting point - a web browser, a
smartphone app or perhaps Microsoft Outlook.The
challenge in unifying communications in the workplace is establishing a level
of consistency, especially in the face of so much consumer familiarization, and
even perhaps employees wanting to bring their own (particularly mobile,
devices). The harsh reality is that forcing everyone to use an identical toolset,
no matter how super-functional and unified it is, won't work.User
training and education needs to be more focused on how to communicate
effectively, rather than which buttons to press. When all that employees had
were desk phones and Filofaxes, good training focused on 3 ring answering,
owning the call and time management. While out of date for current technology,
the need for effective communications skills still exists.There
are plenty of search engine optimisers, social media ninjas and mavens, but what
many organisations need are all singing all dancing communications etiquette
evangelists. It might make things a little more challenging, but IT needs to go
with the communications flow, learn how to support a portfolio of technology options
and work with the business to sort out where the real work is on the people and
process side. It's more about Unified Collaboration than unifying anything
else.