Unified Communications



ICON is often asked to comment on and explain Unified Communications (UC).  Mark Shane Sales Manager at ICON explains how ICON sees Unified Communications.



UC is changing how we communicate but it is one of the most confusing ideas to have emerged over the last few years mainly because it is just that, an idea.   It is not a product, a solution or a single technology; it’s the goal for an organisations communications. 



ICON receives award at UCEXPO

At ICON we have a number of UC focused solutions in our catalogue including the Wave IP PBX, Polycom mobility solutions and MESSAGEmanager unified messaging but we have not found a single, consistent or agreed-upon definition of what UC is.  Voice telephony is only one part of the UC business communication mix.  



A good way to understand UC is to consider the example where a business has just won a deal.  This may have been confirmed by a telephone call but the company will still need to receive or send a fax to place the order or a quotation on email; or it might be need to discuss the details on telephone conferencing.  Also, because staff move around this means that communications can happen in the office, at home, in the car, or anywhere out of the office and by any means.  A UC solution makes this happen and enables staff to keep in contact with colleagues, customers and managers by linking together landline and mobile phones, faxing, and unified messaging.

This means that UC is not a single product but a number of products integrated to create a customer solution. It is not something which can be put in front of the customer and sold on price, features and performance. It is a solution to the organisations need to enable staff to keep in contact by any means no matter where they are. 

The elements of UC solution cover a range of capabilities -- not all of which are in every vendor’s portfolio. The majority of UC solutions include PBX features, Voice services, Voice conferencing and Unified messaging.  More advance UC solutions include Presence, Instant messaging, and Mobility capabilities. 

UC is not just an enterprise solution; it is also for the SME and for the SOHO business. The opportunity for resellers is massive and it is fair to say that in the medium term all business communications solutions sold will include some element of UC.  ICON has already built up a strong portfolio of UC components and has the in-house skills to help resellers put these together in a winning solution.  In the SME market the leading global vendors such as Vertical Communications are offering IP PBX solutions which include many of the core UC components as an out of the box fully integrated feature. 

In the SME market integrating the core applications of a UC solution into a versatile IP telephone system such as the Wave IP from Vertical is the way to go and will benefit both the end user and the reseller.  End users get an out of the box solution and don’t have the hassle of managing a diverse range of technologies.  The reseller can focus on selling a solution and does not need to deal with multiple vendors or understand how to integrate the various components.   The Wave IP UC IP-PBX is well established UC solution which ICON has been selling for several years and Channel partners who take this on are entitled to take up solution sales training focused on selling this UC enabled solution.