Unified Communications & VoIP

Of the myriad new voice-related capabilities that are coming out on an almost daily basis, most of them can be lumped together under the catch-all name of “Unified Communications” or “UC”.

UC is the integration of real-time communication services such as:

  • IP telephony
  • Unified messaging
  • Mobility
  • Remote workers/teleworkers
  • Contact centers
  • Telephony integration/ Call control
  • E-911
  • Presence
  • Video conferencing
  • Speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as unified messaging (integrated voicemail, e-mail, SMS and fax)

We help our clients sort among the shifting array of systems and vendors to make UC decisions that best fit your organization and applications.

The promise of Unified Communications is not about technology but about the use of technology to facilitate communications by making identity separate from location and medium separate from content. But UC touches various non-voice areas as well including data networking, email, security, authentication, facilities, public safety, risk management, and compliance. To further complicate things, UC is not always a single product, but often a set of products that must interact properly to provide a consistent unified user interface and user experience across multiple devices and media types.

Vantage’s experience with Unified Communications and IP Telephony, especially with university and college telecommunications services, is extensive, with projects including Unified Communications (UC) assessments, system selection, and implementation for institutions large and small, public and private.