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IP-PBXs and UC: Where Are the Improvements?IP-PBXs and UC: Where Are the Improvements?

I agree with Eric that PBXs and voice communications are already a major part of business processes. "Call the customer" requires some sort of telephonic voice device--desk, wireless, PC, home, hotel, etc.--and there are a lot of other cases where PBX-based communications are part of business processes, such as conference calls, intercoms and more.

Marty Parker

August 14, 2008

1 Min Read
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I agree with Eric that PBXs and voice communications are already a major part of business processes. "Call the customer" requires some sort of telephonic voice device--desk, wireless, PC, home, hotel, etc.--and there are a lot of other cases where PBX-based communications are part of business processes, such as conference calls, intercoms and more.

I agree with Eric that PBXs and voice communications are already a major part of business processes. "Call the customer" requires some sort of telephonic voice device--desk, wireless, PC, home, hotel, etc.--and there are a lot of other cases where PBX-based communications are part of business processes, such as conference calls, intercoms and more.The ongoing, crucial issue for all businesses is, "Where are the improvements, the breakthroughs, that will advance share, revenues, and differentiation or reduce latency, capital, cost and expense?"

That's where UC becomes so important, much as call/contact centers did in the past decade in the customer facing parts of the value chain. Companies are making significant breakthroughs with UC, and my goal is to enable more of them and to spread the word of this success, for all sorts of reasons including societal value.

Our alignment here is that if businesses are lead to think they have "done UC" only by installing VoIP (whether on a 2500 set or a Tanjay), they will potentially miss huge opportunities and feel appropriately disillusioned and frustrated by the poor service from their vendors, SIs/VARs, and us, their trusted information resources.

About the Author

Marty Parker

Marty Parker brings over three decades of experience in both computing solutions and communications technology. Marty has been a leader in strategic planning and product line management for IBM, AT&T, Lucent and Avaya, and was CEO and founder of software-oriented firms in the early days of the voice mail industry. Always at the leading edge of new technology adoption, Marty moved into Unified Communications in 1999 with the sponsorship of Lucent Technologies' innovative iCosm unified communications product and the IPEX VoIP software solution. From those prototypes, Marty led the development and launch in 2001 of the Avaya Unified Communications Center product, a speech, web and wireless suite that garnered top billing in the first Gartner UC Magic Quadrant. Marty became an independent consultant in 2005, forming Communication Perspectives. Marty is one of four co-founders of UCStrategies.com.

Marty sees Unified Communications as transforming the highly manual, unmeasured, and relatively unpredictable world of telephony and e-mail into a software-assisted, coordinated, simplified, predictable process that will deliver high-value benefits to customers, to employees and to the enterprises that serve and employ them. With even moderate attention to implementation and change management, UC can deliver the cost-saving and process-accelerating changes that deliver real, compelling, hard-dollar ROI.