This article originally appeared in the March 2011 issue of INTERNET TELEPHONY.

In 1997 I gave a presentation at a conference in Amsterdamaddressing the need for organizations to transition from legacy information and voice solutions to VoIP and e-media technologies. “Data Smog” by the award-winning author David Shenk had recently been published. Some of the book’s concepts were incorporated into my presentation, including the theory that workers were being overwhelmed because information was being produced at a much faster rate than workers could process it. To survive the “information glut,” changes were needed quickly. My presentation concluded that we needed to go beyond simply moving prodigious amounts of information from Point A to Point B and fully automate the process using converged messaging and workflow technologies.

Recently, I was reminded of my 1997 presentation when I received calls from two separate organizations that were not satisfied with their current information and communication processing solutions. Each of the various resellers involved handled individual solution components and were not able to provide the complete answer. Company 1 needed to integrate phone traffic between several offices using systems from different suppliers. Company 2 needed to fully automate its call and workflow processes. Interestingly, the systems in place were from top quality companies like Cisco, Avaya/Nortel (News - Alert) and SAP. So, what was missing?

Not being an expert on some of the products involved, I placed calls to companies that do have this expertise. First, I called Matt Fairbanks of Unity Telecom, a full service communications company providing IP-based business communications solutions. Matt was able to identify the issues and provide the answers.Basically, the necessary tools already were in place, and the systems simply needed to be re-configured. 

My second call was to Ted Thompson of Digital Documents LLC, a company that specializes in intelligent data capture and document management processes from a variety of sources across the organization. Ted’s recommendations provided the answers for the workflow process.

Sounds simple, and it is if you have a partner network in place to bring in the appropriate expertise. Today’s customers need fully integrated communications, data and workflow solutions. Very few resellers have the resources to do it all. Partnering with other resellers and vendors to leverage their expertise will position your company as the go-to reseller and protect your customer base.

Max Schroeder (News - Alert) is senior vice president of FaxCore Inc.