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Unified Messaging Overview

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What will it take to bring all your business communications together? Another lost sale? Another lost customer? or another lost member of staff?  Unified Messaging (UM) collects messages from all formats and funnels them in to one electronic mailbox.
  • The electronic mailbox can be accessed wherever you are, at any time.
  • Unified messaging improves employee's ability to handle and respond to important messages.
  • Field-based staff can pick up and manage messages anywhere, anytime.
  • Benefits include better internal and external communications, greater productivity and cost savings.
Imagine this: you are expecting an important call from a customer about a new contract, but you have to go away on business for a couple of days. The customer has told you that he will let you know as soon as the decision has been made but does not expect to be contacted in the meantime. The customer has your e-mail address, fax number and direct phone number and might contact you using any one of these tools. What do you do?

At some point you would begin to worry that all the important messages had gone astray.

The inefficiencies highlighted by such a scenario are one reason why more and more companies are adopting unified messaging systems that provide one centralised mailbox for all e-mail, voice and fax messages. Business people today receive messages in a variety of formats, at a number of different locations. Managing these messages can be confusing and time consuming, whilst increasing the likelihood that some will be lost or simply not replied to.

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By providing one mailbox for all message types, unified messaging gives users complete control over their business communications. The ability to manage all voice, fax and e-mail messages from one inbox using a familiar message management system such as Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes means that messages are more likely to be responded to in a timely fashion and filed away safely when dealt with.

According to a recent study by Captaris and Comgroup, having just one inbox for all messages (voicemail, fax and e-mail) can cut the time spent accessing and responding to messages by up to 50% for office-based workers and 70% the mobile workers. This makes it easy to cost-justify a unified messaging system: in some cases, the return on investment can be achieved within the first year (dependent on usage), with the promise of further cost savings well into the future.

Unified messaging systems are available from a number of suppliers. By integrating the telephone system with unified messaging, it becomes possible to access all messages on the same screen, showing the data, message time, status and sender. Because the format of messages can be changed from text to voice and vice versa, all messages can be picked up from a PC, desktop or mobile phone, whether you are in the office or out on the road.

Advanced message management features include the ability to reply to, forward, save or delete messages. And with all messages stored in one place it becomes easier to keep a record of all e-mail, fax and voice messages.

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Case StudyIn an attempt to improve internal and external communications, an international engineering company with 60 staff integrated its telephone system with the existing e-mail system to provide staff with one centralised mailbox for all messages. Using Microsoft Outlook, staff can now retrieve and manage voice, fax and e-mail messages wherever and whenever it suits them.

Unified messaging is used by everyone including the office-based staff, field engineers and the international sales manager who, with a laptop computer, can access his inbox from anywhere in the world via a wi-fi connection. Voicemail, e-mail and fax messages can be replied to, forwarded, saved or deleted, all via this one application. Unified messaging has significantly reduced the time spent accessing messages when away from the office, as well as improving message management.

What does this mean for business?
  • Mobile workers can experience a 70% time saving gain by using unified messaging*.
  • Office-based staff experience of 50% time saving gain by using unified messaging*.
  • Using the unified messaging platform enables you to save 80% of your time*.

*time saving productivity gains by unified messaging compared to using traditional methods of checking messages and sending and receiving faxes from a standalone fax (*source: Captaris and Comgroup).

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If you would like to discuss the unified messaging options available to your business please contact us on 0800 970 9751 or email us This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 
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