Communication has been a very basic need of humans since the beginning of their emergence as the dominant species on earth hundreds of thousands of years ago. Later, technological advances and scientific discoveries such as the invention of printing press, telephone, telegraph, radio and television marked significant milestones of man’s journey towards more effective methods of communication, both one to one and one to many. The advent of computer and internet, appropriately named Information and Communications Technology (ICT), resulted in a gigantic boom in the field of human interactivity giving birth to novel forms of communication such as email, instant messaging and video conferencing and making some of the traditional forms of communication obsolete.

     The latest development in this very fast-paced process is Unified Communications (UC), which denotes the seamless integration of real-time communication methods with non-real-time communication methods making it possible for a message to be sent from one end using one medium and the same message to be received on the other end through another medium. Here real-time communication methods mean such services as IM (instant messaging or chat), telephone (including VoIP telephone) and video conferencing. Non-real-time communication methods include fax, e-mail, voicemail and SMS.

     Let me show you how UC works through an example. Suppose someone receives a voicemail message. With UC he or she has the freedom to access it through e-mail or a cell phone. And then, if the sender of the message is online according to his or her presence information and if his/her status shows that calls are currently accepted, the response for that voice mail message can be sent immediately through IM or video call. Or else, if the receiver’s status is ’Unavailable’, ‘Busy’ or ‘Do not disturb’, the response can be sent through a non-real-time service like email or fax to be accessed at the receiver’s convenience.

     Presence Information is a key component in real-time communication services and it shows the availability status of a person for communication, and sometimes also the location of the person. The hectic and competitive nature of the corporate world today demands the freedom from being bound to a desk and chair inside an office. Many individuals need to be mobile workers or telecommuters who operate from home or while travelling as well as from the office. Presence Information is a very useful feature which informs his or her team-mates, co-workers, managers or supervisors and clients of the individual’s availability and whereabouts.

     A Unified Communications application is an essential requirement of any business organization today; whether small, medium or large, since the ease of having all your voice, video and text based messaging services on one single platform saves a lot of time, money and frustration. According to a survey made by Sage Research, the average organization uses about 6 different types of communication devices such as mobile phones, desk phones etc. and 4-5 types of communication applications such as instant messaging clients, email applications etc.

     The integration of these different communication methods to one single user interface using a UC application helps to streamline the business process by providing smarter and more effective communication facilities; thus increasing the productivity of the organization.