Unified Messaging Systems

One of the best ways to conduct a productive working environment is through a unified Messaging System. These provide Customer Service Messengers that can make inter- office communication much easier. The challenge created by global markets is to connect key personnel that are spread over thousands of miles and dozens of time zones. To keep a far-flung workforce in sync, organizations increasingly rely on voice, fax, and e-mail messages to stay in touch. Still, the resulting blizzard of messages in their various forms often leads to mass confusion.

Unified messaging is a solution that provides easy, efficient access anywhere in the world to voice, fax, and e-mail messages. This offers organizations significant productivity gains and lowers support costs in managing their diverse communication requirements. Unified messaging solutions can be implemented via hardware on site or by contracting with a unified messaging service provider.

Unified messaging systems based on customer-premise equipment (CPE) consist of a single server handling voice, fax, and e-mail or separate servers with a unified client-based user interface. CPE unified messaging systems are based on a scalable architecture, allowing the customer to add ports and capabilities as needs change. They vary in size from eight ports on up using hardware to deliver functionality, such as text-to-speech for retrieving e-mail via telephone, as well as the recording and storing of voice messages.

These systems offer flexibility, enabling the allocation of resources to fax or voice as needed. For example, if there is a disproportionate amount of voice traffic during business hours and a need for increased fax handling at night, the system can be reconfigured. In addition, a greater level of control over changes, upgrades, privacy, and security, as well as tighter integration with accounting and database systems, and in-house telephone and data networks is possible with CPE systems.

New to the unified messaging market are systems built and managed by telecommunications service providers. Service providers issue personal phone numbers for each subscriber to enable data access via a Web browser. This allows an individual to access voice, fax, and e-mail via the Internet using a local telephone number, saving costs from long-distance toll charges. Web-based unified messaging services are attractive to individuals because there are no up-front costs and few, if any, monthly fees.

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