There is no single strategy which will move enterprises forward with Unified Communications. Every customer has a unique set of needs and existing infrastructure. The consultative process Avaya employs to transition a company to unified communication begins with a business assessment to understand the communication patterns within the organization, and to identify where business processes slow or bog down.

Typical starting points include:

Improve support for mobile workers

Bring telephony to the PC

Bring computer applications to the telephone

Establish Unified Messaging

Enterprise Instant Messaging Integration

Introduce Unified Conferencing

A business assessment that evaluates communications patterns of the employee base is critical to successfully planning for Unified Communications. Information workers are becoming increasingly mobile and working remotely. Depending on the job being performed, work environments may change throughout the day, week, or month to include any combination of locations: at a desk in the office, an alternate location within the office, at a customer location, in the car, in a hotel room, or at a home or a virtual office. To identify opportunities for Unified Communications, business processes should be evaluated to pinpoint where latencies exist due to human interaction and communication.