What does “unified communications” mean to you?

 

For Don Gant, VP of business development and channel marketing at Iwatsu Voice Networks (sponsor of the Unified Communications channel on TMCnet.com), unified communications is “the ability for voicemails, e-mails and faxes to be commonly available on the desk phone, cell-phone, and PDA.”

 

The idea, Gant explained to TMCnet recently, is that at any point in time, wherever someone is, they have access to their e-mail and voicemail inboxes, and their faxes.

 

“The whole idea of merging e-mail, fax, and voice is not new,” Gant noted. “Back five years ago it was called unified messaging.”

 

The idea of unified messaging never got much traction, Gant said, because it was expensive, and difficult to install and maintain. Implementation was not straightforward, and true integration was lacking.

 

Today, that has changed. Iwatsu offers an OEM product in partnership with Esnatech that turns the promise of unified messaging into the reality of unified communications.

 

“In the last couple years, Esnatech has streamlined the product and the processes of installation and support," Gant told TMCnet. Unified messaging, turned unified communications, is now affordable and cost-effective for small and medium-sized businesses.

 

“It used to be that these types of applications were for large corporations,” Gant added. “Our product is geared toward the building across the street. It's for every business.”

 

Iwatsu’s IP PBX offering has the ability to operate in a TDM, VoIP, SIP, or H.323 environment.

 

“We call that QuadFusion,” Gant noted.

 

The environment also can be a combination of old-fashioned TDM and modern VoIP infrastructures.

 

An integral part of unified communications is being able to forward calls to the user’s cell-phone, Gant said. That’s because almost everyone has a cell-phone, they're relatively inexpensive, and most of them have more power than a typical office desk phone.

 

The power of unified communications is best seen in action. Iwatsu provides a free, 3-minute demo showing how a company might use this technology to enhance customer service while giving its employees the ability to be mobile.