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[P733]Programming For Unified Communications

by Ricky Boyd, Ric

The value of unified communications business benefits far outweighs the initial cost to modify existing infrastructure designs. Businesses should take advantage of the opportunity to transform their everyday operations regarding Internet and telephony into a system that reduces downtime, cost, and intermittent errors.

The two worlds of communication, data systems and telecommunication systems, continue to evolve and become more similar despite their disparate beginnings. In fact, what began as two separate systems divided by diverse technologies has developed into two similar structures with redundant and parallel infrastructures.

Unified communications business benefits are generated through the melding of computing and telephony into a finely tuned call, multimedia, cross media, and messaging management system that encompasses all aspects of communication in the business world. Unified communications can break down the differences, combine the similarities, and produce a unified data and telephony system that generates additional business benefits.

The latest discoveries in technology lead to unified communications that can transform everyday operations from reliable and steady to reliable, quick, and efficient. The business benefits quickly become obvious as costs are reduced, productivity is enhanced, and profits are increased.

Unified communications simplifies the work space by combining telephony systems with data systems. Voice applications are switched to IP capability, allowing employees to use what already sits in front of them. It enables employees to produce more with less equipment. In fact, e-mail, instant messaging service, phone service, and mobile operations can all be used together on an integrated network system that features a single unified framework.

Business benefits begin with increased employee productivity. It continues with lower overhead costs and refined communications. In fact, unified communication can lead to additional business benefits in that it also reduces the workload of administrative employees as well as reduces the need to assign specific employees to deal with customer service concerns.

Streamlining communications also reduces the cost of maintenance, facilitates compliance, and features enhanced flexibility to keep up with changes in technology or the need to transform future communication needs.

Furthermore, changes in the communication infrastructure can help to facilitate mandated regulatory compliance. Unified communications leads to simplified transformation and incorporation of necessary changes in order to meet regulatory compliance measures. As you can see, the business benefits continue to spread and the growth of the company continues to expand. The IT infrastructure is often the heart of an enterprise and as such, when it is beating soundly, the enterprise is growing forward in leaps and bounds.

Unified communications can offer choices to business organizations that want to reap the benefits of a streamlined, more effective communication system. It can unify existing tools and systems including Internet, Fax, desktop phone systems, voice mail, and IP systems. The communication tools encompass a wide array including e-mail, faxes, Interactive Voice Response (UVR), VoIP telephone service, video conferencing, audio conferencing, and instant messaging. Unified communications provides significant business benefits to those enterprises that are savvy enough to take advantage of them now in order to increase the potential for success later.

Many people use unimaginable figures of 5 applications and 6 different channels for communication every day. The truth is that an increase in tools does not mean a more efficient communication. Actually, when they try for the first time many employees are unable to reach their co-workers, and this can be attributed to the channel options available and not adopting the most efficient method, depending on the status of the colleague. If you do not approach identity management across these systems in an integrated manner, it will result in huge administrative costs, creation of security loopholes, and inhibition of a unified faultless communications experience.

Seven valuable steps are presented here for identity management in an unfired communications world, which can be a great help in achieving improved communication facilities.

1. Choose and Formulate The Directory
Multiple directories are kept by almost all organizations and the number of directories to keep increases whenever an addition of a new technology happens to the communications network. Often they find themselves reuniting user moves, deletes, adds and changes (MACDs) manually, between their IP telephony and directory systems. This process is susceptible to errors and time consuming. That is why it is highly significant to choose and formulate a single directory that is authoritative.

2. Create The PBX
IP telephony allows employees to utilize multiple communication channels. It also delivers message retrieving capability to remote users while they are not in the office. So as to understand the importance of these features, integration must be done between IP telephony and existing systems and directories of the organization. Configuration may be required for the PBX to work with the new scheme of numbering and interpret the new scheme correctly.

3. Integration Into A Broader Provisioning Scheme
Unified communications find high importance with the integration of communications channels that are separate previously into one trouble-free experience. However, the challenge also lies here. In reality, vendors today do not offer a comprehensive suite of unified communications technologies, which accounts for all collaboration requirements inside an organization. Identity integration software is highly recommended. This software is a middleware, which will broker and translate the different directory pieces around the systems. It should have the capability to cover data and voice worlds. It should be easy to handle yet extensible.

4. Merge The People With the Right Talent And Skills
Implementation of identity integration software will rationalize the view and management of identity across systems. Therefore, this will remove the need for specialist skills for maintaining this identity information for each application. Skilled resources will be freed to work on projects, which affect business rather than less important areas.

5. Account for Risk And Compliance
Organizations require auditable and transparent processes, which can be applied consistently throughout all systems for recording the access details of an employee. Due to the fact that generally this process is time and labor intensive, it is advisable to deal with the process via automation and rules, for standardizing the way employees and access are segmented.

6. Necessity of Constant Directory Maintenance
You need to invest in tools, which automate the process of generating accounts for new hires, which change access levels along with the job change of employees, and which remove accounts when employees depart the company. Automating these systems and processes will allow organizations to be less dependant on individual people and the available time they have to maintain the communication. Apart from this, minimization of human error and reduction in risk also occurs.

7. Incorporate the Growth of Organization Into The Plan
Organizations should consider mainstream solution in technology that is effectively backed up and do not depend on custom development and knowledge to keep track with rising demands. A sufficient solution should comprise functionality such as optional web- or form- based user provisioning for streamlining the process and corporate directory look up that is web-based as the workforce of organization grows.

Article Source : Pg. 15

About Author

Both Ricky Boyd & Gregory Smyth are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Ricky Boyd has sinced written about articles on various topics from Computers and The Internet, Marketing and Communications. Ricky Boyd, CCIE 2901, is the Cisco Practice Leader at where he specializes in. Ricky Boyd's top article generates over 1600 views. to your Favourites.

Gregory Smyth has sinced written about articles on various topics from Types of Cancer, Luxury Hotels and Family Travel. . Datacraft combines an expertise in networking, security, Microsoft solutions, s. Gregory Smyth's top article generates over 201000 views. to your Favourites.