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Unified communications |
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Integrating phone, fax, email and instant
messaging can bring huge benefits to your
business, as Matt Nicholson discovers. |
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Communication is fundamental to the operation of any organisation; indeed without it, organisation is not possible. And yet the communications systems to be found in most offices are disjointed and primitive, combining telephone, fax and postal services that have hardly changed in a century with technologies that are only a decade old at the most, such as email, instant messaging and social networking. There is no integration between them, making it difficult if not impossible to keep track of on-going discussions which could involve a stream of letters, phone conversations, emails, faxes and even comments embedded in documents.
Definitions
IP-PBX: A PBX that can route calls across both your internal VoIP network and to the PSTN, so giving VoIP users access to external phone lines.
IP Gateway: A device that connects a conventional PBX to a VoIP network.
PBX (Private Branch Exchange): A private telephone exchange for routing analogue calls to internal phones and through the PSTN to the outside world.
PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network): This is the public ‘circuit-switched’ telephone network, so called because a dedicated circuit is established between caller and receiver for the duration of the communication. This makes for a reliable connection and means that, for example, it is easy to trace calls back to their physical origin. Multiple calls are transmitted along the same wire using TDM (Time Division Multiplexing). Most of the PSTN is now digital but the signal is converted to analogue when it reaches the ‘local loop’ connecting individual customers to the nearest public exchange.
TAPI (Telephony API): A Windows API that was introduced by Microsoft and Intel in 1993 to allow software to control telephone systems.
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol): A protocol for sending digitised voice data across the Internet or across any IP-based Local Area Network (LAN). IP is a ‘packet-switched’ protocol which means that the data is divided into ‘packets’ of a fixed size that are each labelled with the IP address of the destination in such a way that they can be properly reassembled. VoIP makes more efficient use of the network than PSTN, however quality can suffer on the open Internet. This is not a problem when VoIP is used internally across a LAN, though, where data transfer rates are much higher. A unified communications solution attempts to bring these various forms of communication together so that they can be managed and audited in a more useful and intuitive fashion. Such a solution allows you to initiate telephone conversations and even conference calls from any application that can display contact details or telephone numbers. It enables you to store all incoming communications relating to a particular topic, whether email, voice mail, instant message or fax, in a single location. It also shows you the status of the other person, so allowing you to assess the best mode of communication and put an end to those frustrating games of ‘telephone tag’. Used properly, a unified communications solution can transform your life and greatly enhance the productivity of your business.
Putting together such a solution involves installing a number of different applications on both client and server, and can mean plugging in new hardware. One of the most powerful is that from Microsoft which is designed to integrate with Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Office, however others are available.
Bridging two worlds
Core to any unified communications solution is the unification of telephone and computer. In most offices these are completely separate. The telephone system, including associated voice mail facilities, operates through a PBX which is connected to the PSTN (see the ‘Definitions’ panel below). The computer system, including email and instant messaging facilities, operates through a LAN (Local Area Network) that is connected to the Internet. Unified communications is only possible if these two are integrated.
A limited form of integration is possible using old-fashioned modems of the sort commonplace before broadband rendered them redundant. You plug your telephone handset into the modem and can then initiate calls from your computer screen, dialling numbers stored in your PIM (Personal Information Manager) with a single mouse-click. Once the call is underway a dialog appears in which you can make notes for subsequent storage, or terminate the call with another mouse-click. An example is Tapi Link for GoldMine from Papillon Technology. This integrates with the GoldMine customer manager system and will work not only with modems but with any PBX that supports Microsoft TAPI.
Such systems are useful but do not bring the full benefits of a unified communications solution. For that you need to convert the analogue signals used by the PSTN into the digital signals that computers understand. This is usually achieved using an IP-PBX or a VoIP Gateway, a combination of hardware and software that converts an analogue signal into digital data conforming to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), and vice versa.
Once this is done, a whole range of new facilities become possible. Voice mail and faxes can sit alongside email in your inbox, making it much easier to view and organise all the communications that relate to a particular project, or a particular contact. Incoming calls show up as desktop alerts alongside incoming emails and instant messages, allowing you to make instant decisions as to how to respond. A conversation might start as a series of instant messages, but at any point you can click a button to have it converted to a phone call or even a video conference using Webcams. Conversely, when away from the office you can ring in and listen to not only your voice messages but also any emails received while you were away, dictated to you by the speech services built in to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, or available as add-ons to other products.
Presence
Another important ingredient of a unified communications solution is ‘presence’. This is the ability to publish your current status to anyone that needs to know. First introduced with Instant Messaging (IM) systems, presence technology allows you to let people know whether you are ‘Online’ and ready to communicate; ‘Busy’, which means you are there but not free to communicate; ‘Out to lunch’ which means you’ll be unavailable for an hour or so; or ‘Away’ for an indeterminate time.
A unified communications solution can give you a visual display of presence within any supported application, so that the contacts view of your PIM, for example, displays the status of each contact in real time. This is extremely helpful when deciding whether to send someone an email or give them
Mindjet Connect
Although essentially an add-on to Mindjet’s MindManager visual outlining solution, Mindjet Connect does add collaborative facilities to the mix. Mindjet Connect lets team members access and update a single MindManager map within a secure environment, and see the changes made by others as they happen. Users can take part in Web conferencing and exchange instant messages using the built-in IM services. There is full support for the display of presence, and maps can be checked in and out with full version tracking. All communication is secured using standard 128-bit SSL encryption.a call, and can help reduce time-wasting activities such as ‘telephone tag’. If someone attaches a comment to some data within an Excel spreadsheet, for example, then a unified communication solution should give the user a clear visual display as to the status of that person and allow the user to initiate a call or fire off an email without leaving the application.
Basic systems require you to manually change your status, although some are intelligent enough to recognise that a lack of keyboard or mouse activity for longer than a set period might indicate that you are ‘Away’, or to detect that you are ‘On the phone’, and change status automatically. More sophisticated systems can make use of other information sources. Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, for example, can read a user’s Outlook calendar and display that the person is ‘In a meeting’. You can also ‘tag’ contacts so that you are notified when their status changes; arrange for members of your ‘Team’ or ‘Company’ to receive different presence information so that you can restrict communications to a specific group of people; and even specify your location as, for example, ‘London office’, ‘Home’ or ‘Café’. It all helps people make the right decision as to how to contact you, and when.
On the road
Given their ubiquitous use, a unified communications solution can only justify the title if it brings mobile devices into the mix, and presents a Web-facing interface that can usefully be operated from a laptop or Internet café, as well as a Web-ready phone. Many modern mobiles include instant messaging clients, however a unified communications system should integrate SMS text messaging as well.
A device that supports Microsoft Windows Mobile integrates particularly well with Microsoft’s unified communications solution thanks to Office Outlook Mobile and Office Communicator Mobile which offer similar functionality to their desktop counterparts. In addition, a Windows Mobile device includes an email client that works well with Microsoft Exchange.
Cutting costs
Unified communications is not a panacea. If staff are not properly trained in its use then installation can descend into chaos as users ignore ‘presence’ information, clutter up their inboxes with a disorganised mix of irrelevant communications, and make inappropriate use of IM and conference facilities. Clearly defined guidelines as to how the system should be used, and what is inappropriate, are also important, but should not be so restrictive that they suppress creativity. However used properly, the benefits can be huge. Current estimates suggest that a unified communication solution can save an average of 30 minutes per user per day.
A unified communication solution can benefit a company both internally and externally. Internally, it increases the efficiency of business processes by cutting the ‘dead’ time wasted in failed attempts to communicate. It also streamlines the whole process of arranging and attending meetings, many of which can be held ‘virtually’ through conference calling and Webcam interaction, obviating the need for expensive and time-wasting travel.
Externally, a unified communication solution can transform your relationship with both partners and customers. ‘Presence’ data allows those on the front-line to route callers quickly and painlessly to someone who can understand and handle their needs, so improving both customer retention and business-to-business productivity. Such a solution also increases the opportunities open to remote workers, allowing them to become more involved in day-to-day operations without having to return to the office.
By 2010, Gartner Research expects that 80 per cent of companies will have integrated voice and messaging communications into at least some of their business applications or processes. Done right, this will give them a strong competitive advantage. Can you afford not to join them?
The Microsoft solution
As you would expect, Microsoft’s solution builds on Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007. On the back-end, Office Communications Server 2007 (now Release 2) works with a wide range of IP Gateway and IP-PBX solutions to handle voice exchange services and call routing, directing voice mail and faxes to Exchange Server where they can sit alongside the emails, calendar events and the other services that Exchange normally handles. All PSTN-related information, such as telephone numbers, is stored in Active Directory alongside IP-related data such as email
Exchange 2010
The Release Candidate of Exchange 2010 is currently available for download and includes many new features. In particular, it is one of the first servers to be released by Microsoft that give users the choice of running on-premise, as a service hosted by Microsoft, or a combination of both. Other changes include enhanced email archiving, a new integrated conversation view and the ability to ‘mute’ yourself from conversations. Anyone buying Exchange 2007 with Software Assurance now will automatically get the new version when it is released. addresses. An Office Communications Server installation can be managed from Microsoft Management Console (MMC) alongside your other server applications, thanks to a dedicated snap-in.
Office Communications Server 2007 also includes Speech Server which can deliver a speech-controlled interface to your applications, talking incoming callers through a menu system to ensure their call is dealt with promptly and appropriately, or delivering automatic voice notifications to remote users or customers. There is a dedicated set of tools for application developers which integrates with Visual Studio, and Speech Server is compatible with both VoiceXML 2.x and SALT (Speech Application Language Tags).
On the client side, Microsoft Office 2007 is already designed to take full advantage of this technology. Office Outlook 2007 allows you to work with your voice mail and faxes just as you would conventional email, categorising them, assigning priority, attaching them to tasks and forwarding 
GMS Instant Messenger integrates with Microsoft Outlook 2007 to give presence
information and a choice of response mediums.them on. Open a message within Outlook, for example, and you are offered options not only to Reply or Forward but also to Call or send an Instant Message. Presence technology is implemented throughout the suite, which means contact status is displayed within not only Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007 documents, but also within collaboration sites based on Office SharePoint Server 2007.
Telephone calls, conference calls, instant messages and emails can also be instigated from Office Communicator 2007 which provides an intuitive interface for managing communications, adding participants and switching conversations from one medium to another. Office Communicator 2007 lets you store the history of a conversation within an Outlook folder.
As already mentioned, Microsoft’s solution also caters for remote workers. Users can dial in and have not only voice mail but also email and event information read back to them by the speech services built in to Exchange Server 2007. Both Exchange Server and Communications Server offer highly functional Web interfaces that can be accessed from any browser, whether on a desktop or a mobile phone, while Windows Mobile devices include Mobile versions of both Office and Office Communicator. Office Outlook Mobile in particular can be set to automatically synchronise with Exchange when it can, giving users access to personal data even when not connected. There is also good integration between BlackBerry devices and Exchange Server.
Finally, you can chose a hosted solution. Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Live Meeting and Office Communications Online, delivering a unified communications solution to each user for a monthly fee.
Ipswitch Instant Messaging
A low-cost alternative to Microsoft Exchange is IMail Server which is part of the Ipswitch Messaging range. Like Exchange, IMail Server provides a repository for not only email but also calendar events, contacts and tasks. It supports synchronisation with mobile devices and offers full-featured access from the Web. It can also be configured to use Active Directory for user authentication. Users can access data through Microsoft Outlook or other standards-based clients such as Qualcomm’s Eudora, which is free and currently moving to open source.
The most recent version 11 comes in three editions, starting from IMail Express which caters for up to 10 users. IMail Server works with any number of users and supports shared Outlook calendars for collaborative scheduling. It can also be used with Ipswitch Instant Messaging to provide a secure environment in which authorised users can exchange messages. IMail Premium adds the Commtouch Premium anti-spam service. All editions require Microsoft Windows 2000 Server or later.
Ipswitch Instant Messaging supports ‘presence’ and has a number of other handy features, including the ability to include files and documents in conversations, and to send messages to users even when they are offline. IM sessions are logged in a secure form and the system uses Smart Tags to integrate with Microsoft Office, giving immediate access to IM user names from within Office documents.
The Gordano solution
Gordano Messaging Suite (GMS), now on version 16, is a set of applications that run on not only Windows but also Linux, AIX and Solaris platforms. GMS Mail is the basic email server which works with any client that supports SMTP, POP3 or IMAP4, including Microsoft Outlook. GMS WebMail Server adds the ability for users to access personal data, such as email, calendar events, contact details, tasks and notes, from any Web browser, including those on mobile devices. GMS Collaboration Server allows the suite to offer functionality comparable to Microsoft Exchange, letting users share calendar events, contact details, notes, folders and tasks. GMS Mobile Gateway adds support for SMS.
GMS Instant Messenger adds secure IM to the mix through both a Windows and a Java-based client. The client can integrate fully with Microsoft Outlook, and uses presence technology to indicate the preferred medium of the recipient. Users can select between not only IM or email, but also SMS to a mobile phone. Messages, including SMS, are stored in the server alongside emails, and the system is secured using SSL encryption.
One of the strengths of the Gordano solution is that organisations can pick and choose the functionality that is required by their various users. While the majority of their staff may require the basic email services provided by GMS Mail, only a few may need the full services of Collaboration Server or the remote access facilities available through WebMail. This can cut licensing costs in a way that is not possible if you go for a more monolithic solution such as Microsoft Exchange.
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MATT NICHOLSON
Matt is editor of HardCopy magazine and has run the DNJ Online Web site since 1998. Prior to that he published Developer Network Journal, ran the Visual Basic User Group (VBUG) and has edited more computer and hi-fi magazines than he cares to remember.
mattn@hardcopymag.com
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Copyright © 1983-2010 Grey Matter Ltd. All rights reserved. |
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