Avaya: Converged communication comes of age

Speaking at a media roundtable, David Cannon, senior telecommunications analyst, IDC said that unified communications (UC) is finally coming of age. IDC has dubbed the current stage of development the "UC eco-system".

"The UC eco-system is really what the buzz is all about. That's because what we're talking about in that eco-system is all of the hardware, software and telco pipes that enable the delivery of converged voice, video and data over multiple locations over vast differences," he said.

Carlton Taya, managing director South Pacific, Avaya said while historically large enterprise networks have run separate voice and data networks, these days there has been a shift towards greater UC adoption, largely driven by an increased understanding of the bottom-line benefits offered by converged communications.

According to Taya, businesses moving to a single platform rather than running separate voice and data networks stand to reap cost savings, increased efficiencies and benefit from reduced support costs. He added that with the commoditisation of carriage, business customers are now seeking to leverage new functionality from their communication investments.

“In early days, voice over IP provided some savings in carriage. Today that’s not the reason for enterprises making the decision to move to IP telephony. It’s now more about taking it into a more intelligent environment that helps enterprises start to integrate a number of their communications applications with their business applications.”

Taya went on to claim that organisations cannot simply install a unified communications solution and hope to revolutionise their business processes. Instead, intelligent communication platforms must be deployed with a sound understanding of their potential, as well as their limitations, he added.

“Technology shouldn’t drive strategy: strategy should drive technology. Businesses really have to decide themselves what is their strategy, what are their differentiators, build a business process around it and then use technology as an enabler,” he said.