What is Unified Communications? It’s a question that effectively was the base for a panel discussion that included IBM (News - Alert) vice president of Integrated Communications Services Laurence Guihard-Joly, along with representatives from Avaya, Cisco, and Microsoft.

 

Two definitions of Unified Communications (News - Alert) were offered for comment. The first, that UC is basically a refocus on the product and the end user, with the introduction of new features like presence; while the second described UC as a business process enhancing solution (i.e., CEBP, or Communications Enabled Business Process).

 

Guihard-Joly says IBM, which just announced a one billion dollar data management initiative, actually accepts both definitions, but that from a software and services perspective, the key is really interoperability and legacy integration. As such, IBM is not only focusing on interoperability — it insists on it — which is equally important for its UC strategy as it is for its new data management strategy. Unified Communications is, by nature, a multivendor endeavor, and IBM’s obsession with it, as Guihard-Joly calls it, from a software and service perspective, is a necessary element of successful UC installs.

 

In addition to merely providing productivity enhancing features, UC, on a larger level, must address scalability, security, and availability concerns that plague businesses as they consider new technology. According to Bruce Morse, vice president, Unified Communications Software at IBM, from the end user perspective, must be intuitive and simple. Today’s workers have far too much their minds to consider anything less — and of course, the same holds for network managers, who benefit equally from easy-to-use solutions.

 

For IBM, according to Morse, the key to successfully helping customers implement UC solutions is an understanding — from the vendor — that UC does not have to start with telephony. In fact, many IBM customers have yet to implement IP Telephony. Instead, customers can begin their UC migration with collaboration, or any other component.

 

Morse and Guihard-Joly are united in their conviction that this holistic approach to business communications, along with the longevity of its software solutions — IBM Sametime is celebrating a decade on the market — and its consultative approach to understand its customers’ needs, is what drives its success in the market.