Author: Steve Parrott
Technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace. What is hot today can easily become a “has been,” “could-have-been”, or hobby within a year. Although Unified Communications is still in its infancy, we can confidently say that will not be the case and instead, are already looking ahead at how it will change how we communicate. Here are half a dozen predictions of how we see UC changing the enterprise within just a few short years.
1. It won’t be called UC anymore. The seamless convergence of networks, mobility, voice, and collaborative applications will become second nature to us, making collaboration an intuitive part of our daily lives.
2. Enterprises will do far more “single-provider” partnering when it comes to mobile devices and handsets. With mobile integration the norm, businesses will no longer see a need for, or value in, splitting their purchases so evenly among multiple wireless carriers. Given that the many of the benefits of UC are in a seamless experience, business will strive to create a common employee experience regardless of the end user device.
3. We’ll lose our sense of distance and differentiation in terms of communications. We will communicate virtually anytime from anywhere. The lines that delineate our local, long distance, wireless, and international calling will vanish. Communications, all of which will have converged, will be free flowing, enabling us to move seamlessly from one mode of communications (voice) to another (text, collaborative conferencing, work sharing, etc.).
4. Enterprises won’t be buying and focusing on all the separate elements that make up communications today, such as a server, a PBX, a gateway, or a wireless device. The solutions will be integrated, carrier-provided / hosted, and based on simple architectures to address all many of the common deployment problems. There may still be a small box on the premises, but that box is likely to be for routing to the network.
5. Service providers will deliver strong customer service … or else. Although service perceptions are an issue with some carriers today, this will have to change. Carriers will have to be exceptionally good in delivering the communication and collaboration enterprises demand, since their role will broadly expand in the next few years. The network will have to be absolutely dependable, and the carrier will have to be incredibly responsive to each enterprise customer’s changing needs. Those carriers that aren’t good at customer service will have failed or be failing.
6. We’ll still talk to one another. Voice will never go away entirely. We may find more nifty ways to seamlessly collaborate that will be attributed to UC, but rest assured we’ll still make voice calls. In fact, we will always make voice calls, because for many needs, they remain the most efficient way to do things. It may seem hard to believe, but even five years from today, voice will still be the “killer app” driving UC.
For end users, this will mean we won’t have to make choices as to what is the best way to communicate. The optimal mode of communications will be part of the model…specific to that time, place and circumstance. If you’re speaking on your wireless device, and the person at the other end is available via text, then that is how they will receive your communication. Users won’t have to choose among separate e-mail accounts or communications devices; they’ll just communicate. What could be easier?
Steve Parrott is guest blogging on behalf of Sprint’s Seamless Enterprise blog (seamlessenterprise.com), which focuses on unified communications, convergence and related enterprise issues.
You can follow Steve on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/Stevenparrott
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