On the tenth day of UC the industry gave to me no more pagers beeping,
interface enhancing,
eight CFOs bilking,
overuse of power dimming,
applications plug ‘n playing,
five phone rings,
the voicemail market girds,
an AT lens,
what SMB loves,
And a clear definition of UC.
My day 10 wish for the twelve days of unified communications is short and sweet. On day ten I wish that we no longer have much need for pagers beeping because UC works and companies are buying it. If this were the case, then pagers would be superfluous because people trying to contact, and business events that would require a notification be sent to you would know where you were and if you were available, and would know the best way to get a hold of you. You in turn, could control when and how you were reached – one of the key goals of UC. Blissfully, the rest of us wouldn’t hear “If you would like to page this person, press 5” anymore, or be subjected to an overhead page. Sigh.
As I write this I’m reminded that usually paging is initiated by one person trying to reach another, but can also is triggered by business events, which within UC incorporates the concept of Communications Enabled Business Processes (CEBP). CEBP, which Avaya and some other vendors explain as being communication that is triggered by a business process event, can often result in paging. I believe, as do my colleagues at UC-Strategies, that CEBP is just an integral part of UC, that is, unifying all communications for the user happens, but in some cases it’s driven by the user and some cases triggered by a business event. For a good clarification on the subject, you can jump into the discussion on the UC-Strategies site or check out Blair Pleasant’s blog on Why Avaya is Differentiating CEBP from Unified Communications.
In any case, if UC proliferates the way I wish, then businesses that rely heavily on paging, such as hospitals, retail establishments, or automotive repair, for example, would be able to eliminate the overhead paging in lieu of personal interaction with the intended recipient of the page. For a really good example of how this can happen, check out a company called bridgeSpeak, who integrates speech-driven IVR into business solutions to automate automotive retail applications. They use business events to trigger outbound calls and contact with employees, and just eliminate the need for paging. Whereas, they don’t sell UC, per se, their applications are a good example of what would be the CEBP side of UC. Combine those sorts of application in a larger business environment, such as a hospital, and use presence, IM, and messaging, and those pagers will go silent.