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Unified Messagings Role in the Migration from Traditional Messaging to Unified Communications
Table of Contents:
Executive Overview.. 2 Situation Analysis. 3 The evolution of messaging.. 3 Mobility and the distributed workforce.. 3 Business continuity and the new need for redundancy4 Unified CommunicationsWhat Is It?............................................................................ 4 Unified Messaging and its Obstacles of Market Growth.... 5 Why Unified Messaging? Why now?...............................................................................6 Choosing the Right Vendor 7 The Process of Migrating Your Messaging Systems.. 8 Phase 1"UM-Capable" Voice Mail 8 Phase 2Staged Unified Messaging Implementation8 Phase 3Staged Unified Communications.. 8 The Technical Side of Migration. 9 Conclusion 10
Executive Overview
In today's competitive environment, communication can be the key to success or failure for any company, large or small. Adding to the challenge of communicating effectively is the growing number of voice messages, emails, faxes and phone calls, as well as the disparate tools used to manage them all. Additionally, companies have deployed a myriad of tools to help improve the customer experiencetools for online collaboration, call center management, content management and mobile data access. Unifying these tools for improved productivity, efficiency and customer responsiveness has become one of the most significant trends in business operations. Unified Communications (UC) promises to solve many of these challenges. But, for many companies, migrating from traditional, disparate communication methods to fully integrated, Unified Communications is too great of a leapfinancially and technically. Unified Messaging (UM) is the pivotal piece in the migration to Unified Communications. Unified Messaging allows companies to manage voice mail, faxes, email, and video from a single inbox using a single set of management controls, and offers immediate and tangible benefitsincreased productivity, improved customer responsiveness, and a greater return on existing telephony and messaging investments. This paper examines the role of Unified Messaging in the migration toward Unified Communications, and discusses the importance of business continuity, versatility and innovation in the successful deployment of critical applications.
Situation Analysis
The evolution of messaging In the early 1980's, voice mail was introduced to the corporate world, and quickly became a widely used communication tool. At that time, the predominant voice mail technology was proprietary in nature, with limited ability to migrate to newer technology or integrate with business systems other than the PBX. The 1990's saw the introduction of the Internet, and with it, email. The intuitive email interface surpassed voice mail in terms of popularity, and quickly became the de facto standard in business communication. Today, both voice mail and email remain mission critical to business communication. Added to the mix of communication tools are VoIP, mobility, collaboration, content management, and customer interaction applications. Many companies are also faced with the challenge of what to do with aging and obsolete voice mail systems. The challenge for companies today is finding innovative solutions to unify the increasingly complex mix of business communication tools and technology.
Mobility and the distributed workforce Not only has messaging technology evolved over the last 25 years, so has the way in which companies work and utilize these applications. Companies in the face of rapid growth and those wanting to attract top talent to the organization often find their employees dispersed across town, across the country, or across the globe. Additionally, today's workforce is more mobile than ever before. According to IDC, the US mobile worker population will reach 113 million in 2009growing nearly 3% in EACH of the next three years. 1 This increase in mobility has also raised the expectations of responsiveness. Missed calls and missed messages often result in lost business opportunities. And in today's competitive marketplace, missed messages communicate an image of complacency or even incompetence. Companies today must deploy versatile and flexible applications to respond to an increasingly mobile and dispersed work environment.
IDC Worldwide Mobile Worker Population Forecast and Analysis 2005 2009 (IDC #34124) (October, 2005)
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Business continuity and the new need for redundancy Following the natural disasters and terrorist attacks of the recent past, companies are making business continuity plans a priority. According to a recent survey conducted by Frost & Sullivan, business continuity was ranked as one of the top five business priorities of enterprise decision makers 2 . However, business continuity should not be confused with disaster recovery. Disaster recovery implies the need to "recover" from a significant disaster that has halted business operationsnatural disasters, terrorist attacks, severe power outages or other devastating events. Disaster recovery focuses mainly on restoring internal operations. Business continuity focuses mainly on customers and employees, and the ability to support and communicate with these individuals as if business was operating as usual (even when it's not). Unified Communications lies at the heart of a company's ability to ensure business continuity. In the global environment today, companies must have both disaster recovery and business continuity plans in place. Unified Communications solutions built on scalable and redundant architectures are a critical component for both of these requirements.
2 3
Frost & Sullivan Survey, 2007 Frost & Sullivan Survey, 2007
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approach simplify the migration process, it avoids any disruption to business continuity that an abrupt cutover might cause. Additionally, many voice messaging systems today were purchased or upgraded prior to the market hysteria fueled by Y2K, and many of these systems have reached their full depreciated value. Companies looking to replace these systems should look for platforms that are versatile, flexible, and enable a gradual migration from voice messaging, to Unified Messaging, and ultimately to Unified Communications. Unified Messaging also leverages the knowledge and expertise that exists within the company today: the data messaging and network expertise of the IT staff and the telephony knowledge and know-how of the telecom staff. Leading Unified Messaging platforms today are built upon existing network and messaging systems, requiring minimal training or knowledge for the IT staff to administer. Additionally, because these systems connect directly to traditional PBX and key systems, as well as IP PBX systems, Unified Messaging offers an opportunity to leverage the knowledge of the telecom staff, and extend the ROI of the company's telephony investments. Finally, because Unified Messaging applications "unify" all messages within the email client, little or no user training is required. Users simply use the intuitive email interface with which they are already familiar to manage all message typesvoice, fax, video, and of course, email.
Technical complexities have also hindered deployment. In the past, some Unified Messaging vendors made deploying UM difficult due to lack of integration with disparate networks, email servers, and telephone systems. Because many vendors manufacture telephone systems as their primary offering, the UM applications from these vendors are built to work specifically with those telephone systems. For any organization with multiple PBX, IP PBX, or key systems in placeor with plans to migrate or upgrade their telephony equipmentchoosing a UM solution that is independent of the telephone system is imperative. Early Unified Messaging applications lacked integration at the system level, increasing system administration time and requiring the management and maintenance of multiple user directories. And, lack of adequate compression technology and network bandwidth made companies fearful of moving large, multimedia messages across the network. Finally, one of the biggest barriers to the widespread deployment of Unified Messaging has been user training. Many companies invested heavily in early, proprietary voice mail systems that have been in operation for decades. For companies with large user populations, the cost of retraining those users on a new telephone user interface is simply too costly.
Following are key criteria to consider when choosing a Unified Communications vendor: Look for experience. Choose a partner who understands the issues and best practices of migrating traditional communications systems to Unified Communications, and who offer solutions to accomplish this migration in a controlled and cost effective manner. Look for credibility. Choose a partner with a significant installed base of messaging customers and with proven customer successesand then talk to those customers. Look for innovation. Choose a vendor that is a technology leader as measured by "firsts to market," industry awards, and analyst accolades. Choose a company with proven history and success in the Unified Messaging space, and who understands the evolution of messagingthe past issues and obstacles, the best solutions for today, and a vision and understanding of the future. Choose only industry standard technologyavoid proprietary technology that will limit the ability to A) integrate within the existing infrastructure or a particular telephone system, and B) migrate to future technologies. Look for a vendor that offers best of breed solutions and the greatest breadth of integration capabilities across all data and telephony technology. Choose a vendor that offers flexible telephone user interface options to minimize user training time and cost.
Conclusion
According to analyst projections, the UM/UC market is expected to reach nearly $20 billion by the year 2010 as vendors continue to introduce innovative and versatile solutions that solve real business problems and deliver tangible ROI. Companies should look to Unified Messaging as a way to extend the ROI of the existing data and telephony infrastructure, further justify planned VoIP investments, and bridge the gap between traditional messaging and full UC implementation. Successful companies will look for innovative technology that delivers on the promises of productivity, responsiveness, and business continuity, from technology leaders with experience and know-how in this market. For more information, visit www.activevoice.com.
About Active Voice Active Voice, LLC, a subsidiary of NEC Unified Solutions, is a global provider of Unified Messaging, computer telephony, and voice messaging solutions, powering the communications infrastructure of businesses worldwide. The Seattle-based company has offices in the United States, Australia and the Netherlands. Over 200,000 Active Voice systems have been installed in more than 60 countries. Active Voices products are sold and supported through a network of independent telecommunications manufacturers, dealers, computer resellers and strategic partners. For more information, visit the Active Voice Web site at www.activevoice.com, or contact Active Voice's Sales Support at 1-800284-3575 or by e-mail at sales@activevoice.com. Page 10 Migrating Your Messaging System White Paper August 2007