1) Unified Communications is Converging with Contact Centre Technology

In an effort to target B2C and B2B customers, Unified Communications is being used in the contact centre market. A contact centre is an extension of a call centre and so is ideally suited to UC technology because you can communicate with customers quickly and efficiently. While relying multiple phone lines, contact centres are also increasingly using on other methods of communicating such as responding to customer queries via instant messaging.

2) UC Solutions go Vertical

Unified Communications has traditionally been a horizontal technology but all that is changing. Unified Communications features such as Voice over Internet Protocol are rapidly emerging as part of a vertical market and there are a number of vertical market opportunities for UC users. There is even a step towards role-based UC.

3) Mobile Unified Communications

This may still be on the drawing board but many providers are working out how to make the whole suite of Unified Communications applications mobile. Already features such as VoIP and instant messaging are available on mobile devices like tablets and smart phones. This also applies to Hot Desking. Multiple employees can share a desk if they are all not in the office very often, and with UC technology they can quickly log on to access all their correspondence in one location. As we move in 2011 expect location awareness (in a similar fashion to Facebook Places) and two way video to be the future bread and butter of mobile UC.

4) Growing Choice in the Market

Microsoft, Avaya and Cisco are some of the biggest players in the current UC market but companies such as Nortel, 3CX and Mitel also offer solutions of various sizes. Most companies pride themselves on offering UC solutions to both small businesses and large enterprises but you should look at the pros oand cons of each provider, and shop around for which offer is most suited to you when you adopt the technology.

5) New Presence Features

Presence has the amazing ability to tell you who is available to work, which saves you wasting time trying to contact employees who are away or in a meeting. This is ideal for large companies and can now also be integrated with features such as calendar for a comprehensive presence outlook.

6) Users will increase in 2011

A number of surveys have showed that uptake of UC systems is rapid and for those businesses that do not yet have Unified Communications, many want to migrate that way. In fact Osterman Research recently found that only one in five of the companies that they surveyed wanted to keep separate telephony and email systems in the future. As most businesses have separate phone, fax and email systems, it will take some time for the switch to happen. Although there are long term cost savings, an initial investment is needed. Nevertheless large companies are switching to UC everyday and the facilities management company OCS has been one of the most recent adopters of the technology.

Author Bio: Robert Frische writes Unified Communications articles for 3CX, the windows phone system creator which uses a software-based IP Phone Branch Exchange to replace your proprietary hardware PBX. Read more at http://www.unified-communications.org.uk.

Category: Computers and Technology
Keywords: Unified Communications, Unified Communications features, 3CX, PBX, Microsoft, VoIP, Presence, Fax