Integrating Telephony, IM, Video
And Mobility With Presence
by Irwin Lazar
Published June 2006; Posted December 2006
Abstract:
Presence dashboards aim to integrate
various forms of real-time communications into a unified view. Are they ready
for deployment?
As enterprises have come to increasingly rely on new forms of communications
services, such as instant messaging, mobile phones, IP-telephony, and desktop
videoconferencing, the reality is that all of these new applications have served
to make communications more cumbersome than ever before. Individuals often
operate as “communications detectives,” using a series of logical guesses in an
attempt to pick the optimal communications medium for a given situation.
For example, one may first check their IM buddy list to see if a co-worker is on
line before calling. Or one may preface a call with an IM to see if the person
on the other end has time to talk. If the person isn’t on line, a call to a
mobile phone is the likely result, or perhaps leaving voice mail in multiple
places while also sending an email that hopefully will be read via a BlackBerry.
In this environment, group communications is nearly impossible, with the result
being that most group communications occur during pre-scheduled teleconferences
during which a constant struggle occurs to take attendance as people both join
and leave the conference.
Given these scenarios, numerous vendors and service providers have introduced
the capability to converge disparate communications systems and applications
into a single, unified dashboard that enables individuals to see if others are
available, and initiate communications via whatever applications or services are
available.
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About the author:
Irwin Lazar is a senior analyst with Burton Group where he covers VOIP and related real-time applications and technologies.
This article is reproduced by special arrangement with our partner, Business Communications Review. |
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