| | September 20168CIOReviewImproving Work Processes with Unified CommunicationsBy Noel Wong, CIO & SVP, XO CommunicationsUnified Communication--Enabling Virtual Collaboration Unified communications (UC) is a set of technical solutions that allow individuals to collaborate with each other using a wide variety of electronic communication tools as a single fully integrated platform. You can collaborate with whomever you need to virtually anytime, anywhere, with any device. As businesses face tougher competition, every company is looking for new ways to improve their overall throughput and internal operational efficiencies in order to provide services to their external customers as quickly as possible. Every minute or hour value is delivered to the customer faster equates to a competitive advantage. Companies often rely on a collection of legacy applications and/or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software to support their core business. Most enterprise legacy or ERP applications are pre-engineered to be transactional, data centric and are designed from the inside out. The resulting technology landscape requires the operational workforce to dedicate a significant amount of time bridging the gaps between the various systems using emails, phone calls, face-to-face meetings, etc. Unified Communications tie all available collaboration tools together as a fully integrated suite of communication solutions enabling employees to perform their role with ease. For example, when equipped with unified communications tools, employees can easily: · See the availability of any individual one needs to collaborate with from any device (desk phone, mobile phone, smart phone, PC, tablets, telepresence) to any device, and engage with that person with a single click; and,· Start a communication thread with a text message, then elect to enhance it into a video chat or SharePoint community chat and pull in more individuals at will to drive an activity to close as efficiently as possible.Mobile application development continues to rapidly expand bringing businesses and individuals together wherever they are. As a result, there are more opportunities to integrate mobile applications with unified communication features to enhance collaboration further.Challenge Lies in Legacy SolutionsThe rapid development of consumer tech-nology has led to higher expectations on how B2B organizations will conduct business with their customers as well as In My OpinionNoel Wong
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