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Can unified communications compete with Twitter? Is the technology outdated?
In November of 2010, a Gartner analyst, Nick Jones, argued, "Unified communications is out of date and will always be out of date... consumerization wins, it always wins. Look at all the cool stuff going on in the consumer space." He further argued that unified communications cannot compete with the micro-blogging services available through Twitter. Do you agree that unified communications is out of date and cannot compete with Twitter? Why or why not? Read more here.
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2 Answers
Well, I guess we need to agree on what "unified communication" means.
This is how wikipedia defines it:
"Unified communications (UC) is the integration of real-time communication services such as instant messaging (chat), presence information, telephony (including IP telephony), video conferencing, data sharing (including web connected electronic whiteboards aka SMARTBoards), call control and speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as unified messaging (integrated voicemail, e-mail, SMS and fax).
UC is not a single product, but a set of products that provides a consistent unified user interface and user experience across multiple devices and media types.
In its broadest sense UC can encompass all forms of communications that are exchanged via the medium of the TCP/IP network to include other forms of communications such as Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and Digital Signage Communications as they become an integrated part of the network communications deployment and may be directed as one to one communications or broadcast communications from one to many.
UC allows an individual to send a message on one medium and receive the same communication on another medium. For example, one can receive a voicemail message and choose to access it through e-mail or a cell phone. If the sender is online according to the presence information and currently accepts calls, the response can be sent immediately through text chat or video call. Otherwise, it may be sent as a non real-time message that can be accessed through a variety of media."
If that's what's meant by unified communication, I can't see how it would ever be outdated and how Twitter could be an issue in that regard!
UC means many things, but I really don't buy into that line of thought. Twitter? Don't think so, even for the most liberal definition of UC. It's a useful tool, but very limited. This is really a generational thing, and I don't think anyone over 30 would agree with Nick. Since the Twitter crowd isn't making the buying decisions in big companies, I don't see UC being pushed aside by Twitter - even if it's not that broadly deployed itself. I think I'll stop there.
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