Windows Phones and Unified Communications

Windows Phones and Unified
Communications:
How Windows Phones Combine Email,
Messaging, Voice, and Presence in a Secure,
Collaborative EnvironmentAbstractIncreasingly, teams consist of geographically and departmentally dispersed people who work asynchronously. This means team members can be doing their work any time, any place. A key enabler to this modern, collaborative way of working is a unified communications strategy which brings people together in real time so they can quickly turn raw business information into actionable business intelligence and uninterrupted business process. A cornerstone to any unified communications strategy is the smart phone. This paper explains why unified communications is essential and why Windows® Phones are ideally suited to serve as the "mobile connection" in a unified communication environment.
Introduction: 21st Century Workflow
The way we work is changing rapidly.New communication tools that go way beyond voice and email, such as web-based information repositories, social networking, and Twitter, are redefining workflow within the traditional business organization. The globalization of work groups and the ability to search, locate, and contact people instantly regardless of their location, are changing the tempo of business. Consider these examples:? Distributed work group activity can continue asynchronously around the clock. For instance, a technical documentation team can post a shared draft document and fully expect an offshore tech review team to post comments and corrections by the beginning of the next business day.? A traveling regional manager seeking approval for a policy change uses instant messaging, text messages, email, and access to a corporate social network to drive the approval process through all stakeholders while waiting for a connecting flight. A decision cycle that normally takes days is completed in minutes.? An executive is attending a professional conference which is happening in the midst of a critical contract negotiation. Between conference sessions, she checks email on her phone and discovers a contract for her review that requires immediate action. From her phone, she links to the document, reviews it, applies her electronic signature, and notifies the customer that the document is signed.Some people in today's workforce can recall a workplace before there was email. At the same time, young people joining the workforce today take social networking and phone-based texting, voice, and web browsing for granted. In fact, they expect to use these tools in the workplace.Behind all these trends is a change in the way we communicate and big changes in the capabilities of the portable communications devices we carry around with us every day. Competitive forces and the need to be more efficient in the way we work are driving these changes.In recent years, mid-size companies and enterprises have included "mobile workers" in their IT planning. The reality today, however, is that we are all becoming mobile workers.With all the lines of communication available today, and with all the communication devices and "work places" available to mobile workers, how can an organization manage communications and both effectively, and securely, disseminate the business information workers need to do their jobs?That is the essential challenge that a unified communications (UC) strategy must address. But what exactly is unified communications? Let's take a look.
Copyright © CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. TechRepublic, ZDNet and BNET are registered service marks of CBS Interactive Inc., 235 Second Street, San Francisco, CA 94105, U.S.A.November 2009.Collaboration, Unified Communications, and Business
Acceleration
The examples cited earlier of new communications tools accelerating business processes and work flow all have a common thread. In each case, these tools enable more effective collaboration toward a common business objective.We all collaborate in our daily work lives. Indeed, for most of us, work is not possible without collaboration. There is growing evidence that more effective collaboration has a direct impact on business performance. Consider these points:? A joint study by MIT and NYU has shown that employees with a large number of colleague connections generate $83,000 more revenue per year than employees with average numbers of colleague connections.? Gallup surveys have shown that h... [download for more]