From Web 2.0 to Company 2.0

Hanan Abdel Meguid, CEO of software development company Link Development, explains how unified communications can help a business become a ‘Company 2.0’.

Some have called it the IT revolution of the decade. Others have compared its expected impact on the way business will be done to the way email revolutionised business communication in the 1990s, and yet others remain somewhat sceptical. Unified communications is officially the hot topic of the day in IT and business circles from Dubai to Dublin, Muscat to Mumbai.

By now, most people are aware of the technology’s virtues and the way it will shake up the worlds of computing and telephony, radically changing the way we communicate at work. We’re all looking forward to using instant messaging as an easy and acceptable way to communicate with clients, and having the possibility of video conferencing in a few hassle-free clicks on our PC.

But what really gets tongues wagging and hearts racing within the software development centre at LINK Development is the role that unified communications will have in enabling a new wave of technology-enabled companies focused on open communication and efficient collaboration – more popularly known within the industry as ‘Company 2.0’.

Becoming a Company 2.0

A Company 2.0 is, in essence, any company that has embraced the concept of open communication and collaboration – those that have adopted elements of the Web 2.0 trend that has shifted the view of the web from a one-way communication channel and provider of information and entertainment to a mutual exchange platform, with active users significantly contributing to online content. Collaboration has become a hot topic in the context of business communication.

So how does UC play into the Company 2.0 movement? It is a progressive technology that takes collaboration to a much higher and more comprehensive level within businesses. It is one of the most important factors that can enable companies to shift into this new phase of 2.0. In short, it makes communication exactly as it should be.

Not just an IT buzzword

Although unified communications has been bubbling slowly for many years, there are signs now that it is picking up speed fast and is set to become the norm in business communication. A large part of its appeal is due to the fact that it is being developed by some IT players like Microsoft as a purely software-based technology, which means that it can easily work with existing devices with no substantial investment in new hardware and no need to overhaul legacy telephone systems – a welcome message to CIOs looking at the bottom line and minimum downtime.

According to research company Dataquest, the greatest value of unified communications lies in its ability to minimise delay in business continuity while on the move. Dataquest estimated the unified communications market last year to be worth US$40 billion worldwide.

So what is unified communications?

Unified communications is a technology platform that enables enterprises to enhance employee productivity and improve customer service by integrating various communication tools and facilitating collaboration across virtual teams. It enhances work mobility by allowing employees to access content they would normally have on PCs, using their mobile devices. By integrating email, fax, voicemail and telephone communication, it enables a PC to behave more like a telephone and vice versa.

With unified communications, a typical scene in an office would have employees videoconferencing with colleagues from their PCs and forwarding voicemail as easily as they do email, whereas mobile phones are used for instant messaging or to playback email while away from the office.

Do we really need it?

We all know that business communication needs to become easier and faster. Information technology has brought huge gains in organisational productivity, but it has also brought an overload of information. For years most organisations have had two separate but parallel investments in terms of communications: one around a voice network (telephone, fax, voicemail) and another around a data network (data, internet, email). New communication methods like mobile telephony and videoconferencing were added but have remained separate silos and therefore increased the complexity once again. So we end up with multiple communication systems, different interfaces and technologies, and a lack of effective integration.

We also know that the communication tools we use today don’t work well together. A Microsoft study shows that for 50 percent of the calls workers make, they have to look up the phone number. Customers say that multiple directories are inconvenient; switching between tools is awkward; and PC and phone are not integrated. A Gartner Group report makes clear what we always somehow knew: 60 percent of all business phone calls go to voicemail. And why is that? Because we are not in the office. And again customers say that they would like to access all their data, including real-time communication from the phone, web browser or mobile device.

For companies that rely heavily on information exchange and collaboration – a category that increasingly describes more and more businesses – UC streamlines communications and minimises delays caused by the use of multiple and disconnected communication systems.

With unified communications, each user has a single identity and point-of-entry to the networked world that is consistent across applications and devices. Users have a unified, complete view of their communication options, whether by voice or text, real-time or offline, with ready access to tools like speech-to-text and machine translation and you are able to read your email, or listen to your voicemail.

Meetings are recorded with sophisticated cameras that can detect and focus on speakers around the room. Notes taken on a whiteboard are captured and emailed to participants, and attached to the video of the meeting. They also serve as lasting stores of company knowledge, so teams won’t have to ‘reinvent the wheel’ and work with limited knowledge of the company's past experience.

So, to add to the many things being said about unified communications, we believe it will only be a matter of time that you will be communicating within your company and with customers and business partners through a unified communications platform. You will think nothing of the ability to send a voice-recorded email through your mobile informing others that you may be running a little late for a meeting, and will take it for granted that you are just a click away from contacting a colleague whether they are online or offline, in the office or out. This new level of productivity and efficiency will become the norm for your Company 2.0. After all, this is exactly how communication should be.

The LINK Development approach

Based on Microsoft Unified Communications technology, the solution we have developed integrates e-mail, fax, instant messaging, Voice over IP, video conferencing, voicemail and telephone communication, without the need for costly hardware upgrades. It is a natural addition to our suite of collaboration solutions, such as corporate intranets and team workspaces, designed to streamline communication and enhance productivity.

Because UC introduces a whole new world of ‘click to connect’ where you can reach someone from your phone or PC through theirs, it can even expand the capabilities of standard business applications such helpdesk, CRM and intranet. It does this by voice enabling them so that employee and customer requests can be accepted and actioned through an automated telephone system any time of the day regardless of the availability of staff to receive them at the time.LINK Development is the software development subsidiary of LINKdotNET and telecomms giant Orascom, and is a Gold Certified Partner of Microsoft in the Middle East. The company provides a wide range of software solutions and services, including development of portals and intranets, e-commerce, enterprise integration, Microsoft CRM implementations, helpdesk solutions, unified communications and IPTV. The company is headquartered in Cairo with offices in Dubai, Riyadh, Rome and Doha.