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Executive summary
Integrated business communications solutions from IBM unite and consolidate the various foundational communication capabilities of the emerging Internet Protocol (IP) networks to bring the long-awaited vision of voice and data convergence to fruition. Traditional telephony, e-mail, Web collaboration, videoconferencing, presence and instant messaging (IM) ? previously available only separately ? can now be unified. Therefore, balancing cost and capability, integrated business communications solutions enable organizations to close the gap between voice and data and so unify all major aspects of employees' relationships, inside and outside the enterprise, through every major channel of interaction.
Today's collaborative strategies span data-centric information, communications and processes, from e-mail and IM to business applications and external Web sites. Tomorrow's collaborative business environment will integrate voice and video as well, enabling truly multimodal, multichannel collaboration inside and outside the enterprise. Flexible communication ? in a timely manner, regardless of differences in devices or networks ? is the real objective of integrated business communications at all levels.
Many see the convergence of voice, video and data communications as solely a technology issue ? an IT networking and telephony challenge with some interesting benefits, but ultimately with a purely infrastructural impact on an organization. Forward-thinking organizations, however, are beginning to see its true potential: the power to transform business relationships, business processes and collaboration between employees, suppliers and customers. They recognize that voice and video have been the missing link in collaborative relationships.
These organizations require a clear strategy to facilitate the move from disconnected silos of voice, video and data capability to the delivery of new collaborative applications based on converged networks. They should assess how business and communications processes could be enhanced through this opportunity and plan accordingly. The potential impact on business processes is deep and wide-ranging, as are the potential returns for organizations that invest in integrated business communications. Realizing that goal will require the support of partners that understand how to best approach the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
This IBM point of view is essential reading for senior management and decision makers responsible for strategy as well as customer-, supplier- and employee-facing processes.
What is integrated business communications?
Voice, video and data convergence is based on the emergence of IP communications. New IP communications systems provide a variety of new functions that extend beyond communication. With open standards of IP networking, the various communication servers can now collaborate efficiently to support multiple forms of contact with human users, whether as calls or messages, whether in speech or text and whether originating from people or automated application processes. IP infrastructure is helping to close the gap between business applications and person-to-person communications.
Voice and video communications have traditionally relied on discrete networks, e.g., public switched telecommunications networks (PSTNs), running alongside data networks such as the Internet. In an integrated business communications environment, however, voice and video are delivered across IP networks. They each become another data stream that is controlled and managed alongside communications from Web browsers, e-mail clients, databases, business applications, IM tools and all of the other network traffic generated by a typical business. As a result, voice and video communications can take place anywhere there is an Internet connection available, and via any device that supports IP.
It is true that integrated business communications is partly about Internet telephony and technologies such as Voice over IP (VoIP). The initial growth in the integrated business communications marketplace has been generated by the sale of networking products that simply replace existing telephony systems, and IP telephony can indeed provide clear infrastructure and cost benefits compared with traditional telephone networks. From a business perspective, however, integrated business communications represents something far more significant. Communication is central to collaboration, and central to any relationship. The convergence of voice, video and data communications is set to transform business relationships and promote vastly improved collaboration between organizations, their employees and their customers. As telephony becomes an application, businesses must consider how to integrate communications and business applications to accelerate business processes. Industry analysts share the view that convergence of communications and collaboration technologies will radically change the way people communicate in the next decade.
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