Requirements for the Future of UC

If the future of Unified Communications means even more mobility, what does that all really mean? Some essential requirements emerge:

1. Mobility
2. Collaboration
3. Ease of Use
4. Integration
5. Security

If the future is yet more and more working remote, then collaboration capability will become even more critical. If you are not going to be right next to someone, or in the same room, talking about something you both need to see, then the next best thing is sharing it on a screen. Your presence tool is the best place to do that. Or, put another way, this needs to be part of the unified communication suite. You should have a presence tool that can also make phone calls and share documents, and allow for standard editing.

Additionally, the need to be connected is more significant than ever with a truly mobile and remote workforce. So group video calling and sharing of documents as well, in a group environment is critical.

Another obvious step for the UC system is to utilize and analyze all that data available to it. In other words, integrating Artificial Intelligence into the platform. As Artificial Intelligence gets integrated, the business communication system can start making decisions based on context, past similar decision history, etc. This is happening already with the chatbot’s emergence, which will engage you more and take you further down the discussion as time goes on. Chances are you have talked to a Chatbot and did not even know it. Like most contact center innovations, Chatbots have been driven by the oxymoronic need to reduce costs and provide better service. And as speech recognition and text to speech programs, and computing power have improved and come down in cost, the advent of computer-driven speech into the contact center occurred.

Again, with Artificial Intelligence, the possibilities are endless. The system could predict who you might call based on past history, and how they might want to get connected, who might need to be on a conference call, and the system could ID you based on voice recognition. And, of course, the helper bots will continue to grow. Maybe someday my bot will-call, or message, or communicate somehow with your bot.

Next week we will cover the last two major requirements.

 

Jim Machi

Jim Machi is the Senior Vice President of Product Management and Marketing for Sangoma. He is responsible Sangoma’s overall product strategy including driving customer oriented cloud communication as a service products to the market and for developing and executing the global marketing plan including digital strategy, partner marketing, content generation, branding and lead generation activities. Prior to Sangoma, Jim spent significant time at Dialogic and Intel in various roles, including business unit general manager and SVP of product management and marketing. Jim has a BSEE from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA in finance from New York University.