Unified communications and VoIP solutions are huge, game changing innovations that have dramatically impacted the business world.
As Wikipedia put it, unified communications “optimizes business processes and enhances human communications by reducing latency, managing flows and eliminating device and media dependencies.”This description focuses on what UC does rather than what it is and that is a good starting place for understanding just how powerful UC can be.
Wikipedia builds on that by pointing out: “One focus of unified communications is to reduce communication response time, or in other words perceived speed, which often is essential in decision making and acting upon instructions. For example; an action that takes two days to complete but is received a day late, takes three days to complete. Unified communications technology aims to minimize that delay.”
For Teo, a company that specializes in unified communications technology, achieving advantages like reduced response time requires replacing outdated communications systems with an infrastructure capable of supporting UC applications. Without the right foundations in place, attempting to achieve UC ends up being merely a frustrating exercise in cobbling on more and more cumbersome tools that don’t work together smoothly—and therefore can never be truly unified.
As Teo points out on its website, traditional phone system providers tend to approach UC by “layer upon layer of new technology to outdated voice architectures, creating barely functioning feature sets teetering on mountains of unreliable hardware.” Besides being costly to implement and maintain, these systems were not designed from the ground up with the idea of unified and mobile communications. They are cumbersome to use, and therefore they don’t get adopted in the workplace.”
To avoid such a scenario, Teo takes a different approach: focused first and foremost on making technology less complicated to use. This means that voice, HD video, IM, messaging, e-mail and mobile accessibility must be accessible—with the same, familiar, unified interface—from any computer, smartphone or tablet.
For businesses, investing in technology that enables true UC just make sense, Teo says on its website, because “your people get more done, and they enjoy getting it done because everything just works.”
With this goal in mind, the company has developed a line of UC products that work together in harmony to make technology simpler to use. This includes a server, softphone, mobile client, and voice operator panel.
The server make it possible for employees to have one phone, with a single IP extension, for use wherever they are—eliminating the need for landlines and virtual private networks (VPNs). Mobile, remote and distributed workers can now be fully integrated, no matter where they are located in the world.
The softphone lets employees communicate when, where and how they want. It takes the employee’s existing contact management system (e.g. Exchange, local directly, Outlook) and integrates it seamlessly with IM, e-mail, voice and video.
The mobile client extends the employee’s single phone number to any one of a wide range of smartphones, so users can leverage unified presence management, company directory presence lookup, conference bridges and multi-party messaging when on-the-go. In addition, the voice operator panel is designed for attendants and receptionists and can be used as a standalone softphone or in combination with an analog or VoIP slave phone.
With these solutions, truly unified communications and all its benefits are possible for businesses and employees.
Mae Kowalke is a TMCnet contributor. She is Manager of Stories at Neundorfer, Inc., a cleantech company in Northeast Ohio. She has more than 10 years experience in journalism, marketing and communications, and has a passion for new tech gadgets. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Jamie Epstein