A recent PC World article by Peter Judge says unified communications (UC) is a good investment during recession. The article goes on to quote a Redshift survey commissioned by Mitel that claims that workers in the UK are demanding UC solutions. Unified communications is of course a very popular term these days, and many communications offerings seem to fit under the UC umbrella as companies rebrand products.

Judge made a statement about simplicity which I found particularly interesting. He makes the point that UC in its simplest form, is just teleworking through a DSL connection using an IP phone (which can in itself be just software).  I agree very much with this, as I think companies can benefit a lot from adding simple functionality on top of their existing infrastructure instead of engaging in large replacement type installations. Just adding an IM/VoIP client is a simple first step for improving efficiency by fostering collaboration, improving the ability to reach co-workers, and untying employees from their desks.

The next step is to add conferencing capabilities which can also be accomplished through software solutions. Even though this may increase complexity for servers hosting conferencing applications, the investment can yield very large cost savings compared to traditional conferencing services.

Simplicity is elegant!