Unified Communication Systems : A Complete Business Communication at One Platform
Unified communication system which is primarily designed to provide effective communication is an integrated system that integrates voice, video and data communication around a shared IP- based infrastructure. And therefore it is also known as integrated communication system (ICS). Now variety of services can be combined into a single system and used. With the utilisation of unified communication system there is no more need of having different network and communication services. Only with the adaptation of this enterprise-wide IP infrastructure variety of communication services can be collected at one place.
IP Telephony , Customer contact centre , Video Telephony , Rich-Media Conferencing , Mobility solutions , Tele Presence etc are all components of Unified communication system although they might vary from vendor to vendor. UCS provides use of voice, data, internet, video and other communication services via a single integrated system developed by a single vendor with multiple supports. The major tasks played by the unified communication system can be counted as networking, call routing, call control, application and services, operations and serviceability, security etc.
Unified communication system encompasses different forms of communication and also forms of communication such as Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and digital signage communication. One advantage of using UCS is that we can access information from other communication medium while it has been sent from some other medium. For example, a voicemail message can be accessed via email or cell phone and revert can be a text or a video call etc. UCS is known for its consistency, efficiency, optimisation and productivity that it yields to the enterprise. Connection of softphones or wireless IP handsets even if people are outside the working area ensures mobility in UCS. Telecommuters can be at ease with the integrated system for it provides seamless opportunity to work from home. In the enterprise world where the interactivity plays a crucial role unified communication proffers high quality lossless web and video conferencing thereby reducing costs. Since all the services are packed as one therefore less overhead is incurred and it is relatively easier to use then other type of communication systems.
As business or enterprise runs with decentralized elements and the world is going all virtual that is everything going digital irrespective of geographical and physical confinement, IP technology and unified communication systems are making their way out in future. Now when one decides to rely on unified communication systems then there are lot of choices to comply. Type of UCS deployment model depends upon the requirements and size of the enterprise. The Single-Site model supports up to 30,000 users and is designed for those autonomous offices where most employees are IPC users. Multisite Centralised call processing model is designed for distributed operations with remote sites and it can support 30,000 phones distributed among 1000 sites. Multisite distributed call processing model is designed for large population organisation. In this each site have its own call processing agent cluster connected to IP WAN. Unified communication system is an evolving technology which automates human communication.