A discussion of how Cisco Unified Communications is changing the workplace environment

August 21, 2006

Today's organizations contend with increasingly complex communications environments, featuring a wide array of communications methods. Employees, business partners, and customers are communicating with one another through various combinations of phones, voice messaging, email, fax, mobile clients and rich media conferencing. In a Q&A, Rick McConnell, Cisco Vice President and General Manager, Unified Communications, outlines this environment and explains how Cisco's Unified Communications System is a key part of this evolution.

What is meant by the term "Unified Communications"?

Rick McConnell: Unified Communications is the integration point across a number of different technologies and applications.

For example, whereas TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) telephony was just about dial tone and placing phone calls, Unified Communications incorporates a number of different types of devices - cell phones, softphones, or desk phones, with a number of different types of applications - from instant messaging to email to video telephony to rich media conferencing - and then puts them together in a way that enables companies to improve communications effectiveness.

What are some of the pain points that businesses today are struggling with around communications - and how can Unified Communications help?

Rick McConnell: "Communications chaos" is the easiest way to describe it. We all have way too many devices, way too many different means of communications.

Today, we are forced to understand the communications preferences of all our different contacts. For example, if I send one individual on my team a voice mail and get a response in a day, I'd be lucky. But if I send him an email at 2 a.m., I'll have a response by 2:30 a.m. Meanwhile, voice mail works better on others, but do I call a desk phone or a cell phone as my best option? So we all have way too many devices and communications methods, and it's all based on personal preference as to how you prefer to be reached. So this has resulted in the notion of chaos - there's a competition for mindshare. It's a constant battle to keep up with the constant array of communications technologies that we're all using to communicate.

So Unified Communications is trying to make sense of all of that - trying to integrate all of those components together in a more logical way for different knowledge workers and organizations.

What are some of the unique attributes of the Cisco Unified Communications system?

Rick McConnell: Fundamentally, Cisco has more expertise in the market for VoIP over IP than anyone else in the enterprise space. We've been doing it far longer than anyone. Interestingly, the notion of handling voice over an IP network is simply that IP voice is hard. It requires a huge understanding of the network in order to be able to deliver effective applications over this integrated platform, with the network being that platform. Cisco's expertise and understanding of the underlying network, along with our expertise in IP is very germane to our ability to be the most effective delivery partner for our customers in providing Unified Communications systems that take full advantage of that underlying infrastructure.

Why is the network so important in Unified Communications?

Rick McConnell: The network matters because every voice communication, every application that is a communications application is delivering information over that network - whether it's voice, data, or especially video. It requires an expertise and understanding to ensure that packets are reaching their destination in the timeframe and in the fashion expected. That's not an easy thing to do, and that is where it really requires substantial expertise.

How does Unified Communications benefit Cisco channel partners?

Rick McConnell: Channel partners can add significant value to their customers with Unified Communications. Now, instead of their customers just deploying dial tone as their primary communications vehicle, they can deploy a much more customized, more sophisticated, comprehensive approach to the overall communications of their customers. By offering more aspects of the communications mix, partners have an opportunity to grow their revenue base because they are providing more service to their customers.

Can you further explain the notion of pervasive presence, and how it will influence Unified Communications?

Rick McConnell: This is a point I alluded to earlier - this notion of being able to understand all of our colleagues' unique preferences for communications methods. Now, by tracking presence with Cisco Unified Call Manager 5.0 and Cisco Unified Presence Server, I can see the best way to reach someone and then contact them by double clicking their name. It can perhaps take me into an instant messaging session. It can dial them on their cell phone or office phone. As presence information gets better, it not only depicts preference information of individuals with whom I might want to communicate, but it also tells me the availability of each person by that particular method. Are they available on their cell? Are they available on their office phone, etc…?

So this concept of enabling people to define their preferred method of communicating, combined with a system-based availability of that individual by that particular method on that application or device becomes very powerful.