About 6 years ago I held the position as an IT Strategy Manager for a global Pharma company. The buzz around Unified Communication at that time was a big one. Skype was on the rise to superstardom for private use, Microsofts Office Communicator or Lotus Sametime were rolled-out in the enterprises and Voice-over-IP replaced classic PBX-based telephony at homes and in the office. At the same time the first Macs started rolling out with build in Cameras, as did some Sony laptops. So it seemed just a matter of time until the buzz was daily business and we were able to communicate freely with voice, video, desktop sharing and data exchange between any device and any person at any location. Right?
Wrong!
It seems that we did not get further, the opposite: it seems we are taking constant steps backward! Here are my observations:
Unified: the word alone implies that there is the possibility of a common standard that allows us to connect between devices. This does not happen: every vendor has their own protocols and continues to roll-out new protocols. Skype - Microsoft company by now - does not talk to anything else but Skype. Apple's Facetime talks only to Facetime and MS Office Communicator only talks to its kind. And especially in the mobile space there are a million new services that apparently do exactly the same as Skype does. So we are un-unified. Each service basically all does the same, but in a slightly different way to the user and maybe here and there with a small spin (one service allows multiple Video Chats, others only one-on-one, for some this feature is free of charge, for others premium, etc.)
Communication: I observe no trend that really supports communication outside of the model that the original phone invented 120+ years ago. Each channel (voice, video, short messages, chat, sharing) still very much stands on its own, there is no cross-communication. Yes, there are some services that offer one or the other feature to cross boundaries (like Google's Voice to E-Mail translation or Apple's Siri reading a message to me), but it all has the feeling of gimmickery instead of a solution: solving the riddle of communication logistics.
Here are the discrepancies:
There always seems to be one more disconnected party: When we implement one solution that maybe fits the company internal needs, we leave out the rest of the world due to security concerns (leaving out a string of partners and vendors standing in the rain, meaning you need a new different solution to communicate with them).
There always seems to be one more device to consider: On the desktop we run a Microsoft strategy but in the mobile space we run Blackberries, Androids and iOS devices. Pop, there goes the quick chat between me - on the road with my iPad - and the guy in the office. I need to either phone him and send him my documents or need to login to VPN first, start a half baked Office Communicator mobile software and connect then - missing half of the features available to me on the desktop.
As a user and as an IT Manager this is a nightmare: for each individual constellation you will need to establish a new service or support a new technology - a rat race not to be won. (And I am leaving out here the infrastructure and security concerns all together).
Before I start communicating, I need to find out the most common denominator between the participants, most often ending up with the phone conferencing service and sending out E-Mails with the documents of the meeting. God forbid if I decide to make it an online Office Communicator session or Microsoft Livemeeting, only to find out halfway that it might be a good idea to invite the external project manager spontaneously to the call.
So, where is the Unified Communication in 2012?
Here are the main requirements:
- 1:1 or Conference - no need to define first what type of call you are having
- Dial-in and Over-IP - Voice
- Video for everyone - bandwidth and device independent use of video
- Cross channel abilities - chats become emails become twitters become blogposts become read phone messages become automatic conference transcripts
- Independence - my communication capabilities are the same whatever device I am using
- Follow me - routing capabilities seamlessly have my digital communication stream follow me where ever I go. My deskphone rings, I do not answer, get up and carry my laptop with me to the meeting room. My desktop computer starts ringing instead. I shut it down and walk out into the street and my iPhone starts ringing. Home, my Phone stops ringing and switches to voicemail (and then cross channel abilities kick in and transcribe the voicemails into E-Mails or SMS)
- In-company and out of company and private life
- Time decoupling: If the immediate medium (voice, video or chat) is not available, the next time-level kicks in (e.g. short messages), the next level kicks in (e.g. E-Mail / Voicemail) and so on...
Wrong!
It seems that we did not get further, the opposite: it seems we are taking constant steps backward! Here are my observations:
Unified: the word alone implies that there is the possibility of a common standard that allows us to connect between devices. This does not happen: every vendor has their own protocols and continues to roll-out new protocols. Skype - Microsoft company by now - does not talk to anything else but Skype. Apple's Facetime talks only to Facetime and MS Office Communicator only talks to its kind. And especially in the mobile space there are a million new services that apparently do exactly the same as Skype does. So we are un-unified. Each service basically all does the same, but in a slightly different way to the user and maybe here and there with a small spin (one service allows multiple Video Chats, others only one-on-one, for some this feature is free of charge, for others premium, etc.)
Communication: I observe no trend that really supports communication outside of the model that the original phone invented 120+ years ago. Each channel (voice, video, short messages, chat, sharing) still very much stands on its own, there is no cross-communication. Yes, there are some services that offer one or the other feature to cross boundaries (like Google's Voice to E-Mail translation or Apple's Siri reading a message to me), but it all has the feeling of gimmickery instead of a solution: solving the riddle of communication logistics.
Here are the discrepancies:
There always seems to be one more disconnected party: When we implement one solution that maybe fits the company internal needs, we leave out the rest of the world due to security concerns (leaving out a string of partners and vendors standing in the rain, meaning you need a new different solution to communicate with them).
There always seems to be one more device to consider: On the desktop we run a Microsoft strategy but in the mobile space we run Blackberries, Androids and iOS devices. Pop, there goes the quick chat between me - on the road with my iPad - and the guy in the office. I need to either phone him and send him my documents or need to login to VPN first, start a half baked Office Communicator mobile software and connect then - missing half of the features available to me on the desktop.
As a user and as an IT Manager this is a nightmare: for each individual constellation you will need to establish a new service or support a new technology - a rat race not to be won. (And I am leaving out here the infrastructure and security concerns all together).
Before I start communicating, I need to find out the most common denominator between the participants, most often ending up with the phone conferencing service and sending out E-Mails with the documents of the meeting. God forbid if I decide to make it an online Office Communicator session or Microsoft Livemeeting, only to find out halfway that it might be a good idea to invite the external project manager spontaneously to the call.
So, where is the Unified Communication in 2012?
Here are the main requirements:
- 1:1 or Conference - no need to define first what type of call you are having
- Dial-in and Over-IP - Voice
- Video for everyone - bandwidth and device independent use of video
- Cross channel abilities - chats become emails become twitters become blogposts become read phone messages become automatic conference transcripts
- Independence - my communication capabilities are the same whatever device I am using
- Follow me - routing capabilities seamlessly have my digital communication stream follow me where ever I go. My deskphone rings, I do not answer, get up and carry my laptop with me to the meeting room. My desktop computer starts ringing instead. I shut it down and walk out into the street and my iPhone starts ringing. Home, my Phone stops ringing and switches to voicemail (and then cross channel abilities kick in and transcribe the voicemails into E-Mails or SMS)
- In-company and out of company and private life
- Time decoupling: If the immediate medium (voice, video or chat) is not available, the next time-level kicks in (e.g. short messages), the next level kicks in (e.g. E-Mail / Voicemail) and so on...
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