Seven Key Features to Look for in a UC Solution

Download our Unified Communications Checklist from our Knowledge Network as an additional resource to help make your decision about UC.

Unified Communications is a rapidly changing category, as what once was a series of applications you deployed is becoming a series of services you buy.

Still, any UC system (either pure-play or hybrid) must be able to support some key business features. This quick slideshow walks you through seven of the most important features to look for in your UC solution. We compiled this information from our Unified Communications Checklist, which is available in our Knowledge Network. If you are considering UC for your business — and you should — be sure to download this great resource.

Click through to learn more about key features you should evaluate in a UC solution.

For most companies, this will include POTS (‘plain old telephone service), e-mail, instant messaging (IM) and a subscriber-based system for teleconferencing.

These solutions cull messages from various sources (typically voice mail, e-mail, SMS/texting and fax messages) so that users can access them from a single source (such as a laptop). Some UM solutions translate between one medium and another, e.g. convert voice mail to text or the reverse. Note that this term specifically excludes real-time services such as IM and chat.

These include legacy services such as POTS and IM and ways to integrate them, e.g. to escalate an IM session into a telephone call or a video chat, or to reach an individual with one call that rolls over to a mobile device.

This important capability refers to the ability of a user to determine which colleagues are available and willing to receive a communication. It includes telephony presence, IM/ online presence, and mobile presence (determined by whether amobile device is turned on or not).

This is a loose term that covers the ability to communicate via mobile devices such as smartphones, mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), wireless-equipped laptop computers and other such devices.

While virtually every business has basic teleconferencing capabilities, conferencing can include many other modes, depending on location and communication mode.

Solutions in this category include many of the above capabilities plus others that facilitate working together such as calendaring. IBM’s Lotus Domino/Notes and Microsoft Exchange/Outlook are the dominant players.