Unified Communications at a cocktail party.

Do you ever have those times when you realize that while certain technologies are common place to you, the other half still knows so very little about them? If not, try talking about Unified Communications on this year's X-Mas cocktail circuit. Better yet, do a poll to find out what the average person actually thinks it is, or means.

We in telephony have been gabbing about UC - well, maybe not at parties - for a very long time. And of course, now that Bill Gates has jumped in the pool, we talk even more. That does not mean though that we all agree on what it stands for, who its for and what its future holds. Just visit Avaya, Nortel or MSFT and you'll find there remains disparate interpretations. Still.

What is now clearer though is that UC should - we hope - do one thing for many of us. We all use way too many communications devices and applications to, well, communicate. What was once the phone, email and a fax is now several phones, multiple email accounts, too many IM passwords and a host 2.0 widgets that clutter the desktop. UC can help with some of this as it makes its way to the general pop.

All this rant came to me from a post I read through BMighty (one of my favorite daily dishes, actually) on Siemen's view on UC. Couple of notes of interest. One, we use on average 4.8 communications applications. At least I am above average on some things. And two, they listed 5 core components of UC:

1. Built-in Presence, showing who is available and accessible. (even better once it gets to cell phones).

2. Drag and Drop Conferencing, letting users create meetings by dragging and dropping contacts into the conference screen. (My all time favorite).

3. Built-in Fax Message Box, which lets you receive and respond to faxes quickly, just like emails. (Won't touch me but can be helpful).

4. Built-in Info Status Pop-Ups, to keep you informed when new calls come in, for example. (Creates an online control panel for calls and IM).

5. Microsoft Outlook Integration means users can handle all their communications in one applications that they already know. (Even better).

Enough UC talk. All ranting aside, there is so much value in UC. But like anything else, the masses need to be able to process its core values before considering investing it. We're getting closer.