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The need to reach people wherever they are, regardless of the time, is becoming a fact of life at many organizations today. Unified communications technology helps make that possible.

Unified communications is an evolving architecture that includes the integration of different communications systems, media formats and devices. It can include a blend of messaging technologies such as voice mail, e-mail and instant messaging; business applications; voice over IP; fax; video; and Web conferencing.

Among the goals of unified communications are to improve productivity and enhance business processes by making it easier for people to communicate with each other regardless of the communications device or messaging medium. Individuals can receive messages based on their preferred method — for example e-mail or voice mail — and users can be aware of which other users are reachable at a given point in time.

Among the key benefits of the technology is that it enables more-effective communication for workers both inside and outside the office, says Masha Khmartseva, senior analyst at the Radicati Group. Another benefit is that unified communications systems make it easier to manage multiple devices with a single mailbox, she adds.

The market is growing. From 2006 to 2007 the worldwide, on-premises, unified communications equipment market grew by more than 30 percent, according to the Radicati Group’s report, “On-Premises Corporate Unified Communications Market, 2007-2011.” The report predicted that by the end of 2007, unified communications solutions would have enabled about 24 million mailboxes worldwide, about 6 percent of all corporate e-mail mailboxes.

Companies offering unified communications products include PBX and telephony system providers, messaging software vendors and voice-mail system vendors.

While unified communications systems have been around in some form for more than a decade, Radicati says, they have never enjoyed as much popularity as they do today. Traditionally, voice communications technologies have been the cornerstone of unified communications offerings, the firm says. But today, more unified communications suites are using messaging, presence management and collaboration as their foundation, with voice capabilities added on top.

Corporate unified communications deployments are expected to grow by about 24 percent between 2007 and 2008, Khmartseva says. One of the key market drivers is that unified communications solutions are becoming more affordable for many organizations, she says.

The deployment of unified communications technology can be complex, Khmartseva says. One of the biggest potential challenges is integration with existing systems and devices, she says. Furthermore, a typical unified communications suite today often requires integration of products from multiple sources, sometimes as many as a dozen, according to the Radicati report.

One of the emerging trends is the ability to integrate unified communications suites with business applications such as customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP). The ability to offer this integration is becoming an important differentiator for vendors and will continue to be for the next two to three years, according to Radicati.

Aside from integration issues, Khmartseva says other key implementation challenges include the relatively high cost of systems (although prices are coming down, some offerings cost more than $1 million), long deployment time and the difficulty of estimating return on investment.

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