S.38-3310 Master’s Thesis Seminar on Networking Technology
Unified Communications
- collaborate Anytime, Anywhere,
on Any device?
Ilona Raitakari 9.5.2007
Helsinki University of Technology
Communications Laboratory
Supervisor:
Advisor:
Timo O. Korhonen
Jörg Ott
Instructor:
Timo Lummevaara / Satakunnan Puhelin Oy
Contents
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Introduction
History & former research
Unified Communications (UC)
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Definition of the UC-concept
Benefits & expectations
Key technologies & standards
Market Structure
Challenges
Conclusions
Implications for further research
What is e-Collaboration
Collaboration activities supported by some form of ICT
(Information and communication Technology) (Munkvold 2005)
Motivational background:
Contradiction between the potential and the reality
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The expected benefits of e-Collaboration technology in enabling and
facilitating more effective collaboration
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Among geographically dispersed organisations and teams
Internally or with customers, suppliers and business associates
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Broadening reach and increasing responsiveness
Time and cost savings
Decreasing the risks and bother included in travelling
Increasing flexibility in organising personal work
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Current slow diffusion levels of e-Collaboration (especially real-time
collaboration) technology
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The promises of UC*), the value of expected new capabilities and the
credibility of their realisation in near future -> What new will UC bring
here?
*) Gartner, Forrester, Wainhouse, Yankee Group 2005-2006
Research problem & Methods
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The goal of this thesis was to estimate the overall
contribution of the concept of Unified Communications
(UC) in the development, realising the benefits and
implementing the e-collaboration technology
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The expectations and key assumptions attached to UC are
presented and evaluated considering the e-collaboration
history, current technology levels and key vendor strategies
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The study is based on literature research on
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e-collaboration technology and standardisation literature sources
UC related vendor material and market analysis reports year
2005-2007
Evolution of e-Collaboration
supporting technologies
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Video Conferencing since 1927
Web conferencing since 1997
Email since 1960s
Groupware since 1980s
Instant Messaging and Presence
since 1980s
VoIP since 1970s
Current technology convergence is transforming these diverse
applications towards a multi-functional collaborative application
with integrated functionality with any other e-collaboration technology
Former research on….Real-time conferencing:
How to explain low usage levels?
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Bad usability & quality problems in earlier conferencing
applications
Network bandwidth insufficiency
High initial investment on systems
Lack of ubiquity i.e. connections could only be made between the
endpoints with conferencing facilities installed, tested and trained
well in advance
Psychological and sociological factors e.g.
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Shyness in front of the video camera
Decreased amount of informal discussions traditionally attached to face-to-face
meetings
Unawareness of correct etiquette of dealing with someone far away
Reduced opportunity to travel
Not easy to quantify economical savings
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The loss or increase in productivity vary on each occasion and is not easy to
measure
The amount of substitution of travel by real-time e-collaboration has been
questioned
Former research on… comparing
Traditional (local) teams and Virtual teams
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In majority of research, virtual teams were considered as
”asynchronous” teams i.e. they use mainly non-real-time applications
to support collaboration and have limited ability to engage in realtime interaction
Some key findings*):
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(+/-) No difference found in performance and decision
quality
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(+) Virtual teams communicate more frequently than
traditional teams
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(-) Virtual teams take longer to reach decision
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(-) Traditional teams are better able to manage conflict,
particularly in the early stages of the team’s life
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(-) Lower success in meeting team socio-emotional needs
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(+/-) Mixed views on the ability to deal with cultural diversity
*) The constrains of previous research and overall challenges in these kind of research settings
has to be observed when evaluating the results
Unified Communications
aim at providing an
integrated solution in Enterprise Communication and
Collaboration…
Team
Workspaces
Document &
Files
Email
Calendaring
Video
Conferencing
Business/
Workflow
Applications
Unified Communications
Tightly integrated
communications applications
Web/Data
Conferencing
Audio
Conferencing
Instant
Messaging
Presence &
Availability
Mobility
Telephone/PBX
Unified Communications (UC)
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The purpose of UC (as defined in this thesis) is to
improve the efficiency of interactions in personal and
collaborative communications by providing
 an integrated solution for asynchronous and
synchronous collaboration
 better possibilities for real-time-collaboration
 capabilities adjusting personal reachability
(Presence)
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UC must be seen more as a concept than a technology
The concept relies on technology convergence between
enterprise Information Technology and IP communications
systems
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UC – analyst expectations
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Increases the efficiency of communication and
collaboration among enterprises by
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resolving day-to-day communication and reachability problems
creating Communications-Enabled Business Processes (CEBP)
Provides a centralised control, management and
infrastructure for multiple enterprise communication
methods
Gives rise to a major industry transition as the traditional
vendor categorisations and roles change
Presents the third wave of information and communication
technology” - compared to the impact of mobility, the
internet and www-technology in the late 90s
Presence – a key enabler of UC
“Presence is expected to provide an ability to tune out distractions
selectively and automatically and – in the same time – be optimally
and immediately available for critical communications”
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Presence can be used for informing other team members of current
availability, willingness to communicate and how they wish to be
contacted
Presence-capability is seen as a basis and key enabler for Unified
Communications, as it is offering new, more effective ways to
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initiate ad hoc interaction
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select the communication medium that is best suited to the
current situation
Rich presence offers ways for automatic presence update
according to communication device status or profile, calendar
schedule, location presence
Initiating an ad hoc live collaboration
session using an UC-type solution
Communication-enabled business
Processes (CEBP)
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=> Business systems that are able to directly integrate with
communication systems and networks:
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CEBPs that are initiated by a person
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CEBPs that are initiated by an application
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E.g. Click-to-call-capability and co-browsing integrated into an online
banking solution
Linking certain system events to certain automated and proactive
communication suggestions
E.g. system alarm triggers an IM/SMS message for person currently
responsible and available. Message escalates to a broader group in case
of no response
CEBPs are expected to automate communication processes,
accelerate decision making and provide faster responses to
customer requests e.g. in sales, customer support or in a contact
centre
Key technologies and standards
affecting UC development
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Technologies:
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Standards:
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IP Communication and Conferencing
IMP Instant Messaging and Presence
Mobility and 3G: Mobile IMP, (conferencing)
SIP and SIMPLE
IMS
Proprietary peer-to-peer-technology like Skype
SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) approach
UC Market structure
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Existing UC vendors
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Traditional video/web conferencing providers
Enterprise software vendors
Telephony-centric vendors
“Wildcard” companies like Skype, Yahoo, Google
Most mobile telecommunication manufacturers haven’t published any UC strategy
Challenges of UC-development
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Unmature technology: products are still on early stage and lack
functionality
Standardisation shortages
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Basic UC-related standardisation (SIP, SIMPLE, IMS) still lacks key
elements
There is no comprehensive solution supporting UC
Even though UC vendors have announced support and adoption of SIP
and SIMPLE, current interoperability between vendors is achieved
through partnerships’ and vendors’ own agreements on ’open interface’’
As UC benefits are mostly ’soft’ e.g. related to productivity
improvements it is not easy to produce measurable benefits
Societal and psychological difficulties in understanding and
implementing the concept
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Presence-capabilities may be seen as a threat for managing own time
Fear for being forced to multichannel resources i.e. participate in
multiple concurrent conversations using different media
Time for Conclusions…
UC related market expectations are
relying on the assumptions:
1. That possibilities for ad hoc real-time collaboration
and integrated presence-capabilities contribute to
the success of e-collaboration significantly
2. That UC provides/will provide good capabilities for
managing this kind of polychronic communication,
and diminish unnecessary task interruptions
3. Providing integrated and converged solutions are
justified by clear benefits over traditional fragmented
applications
Factors supporting the first key assumptions (1&2)
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Results from previous studies:
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Spontaneous interaction with coworkers is found to be an essential
element of collaborative work
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Many functional constrains of virtual teams with limited ability to
engage in real-time interaction can be interpreted as consequences
of the lack of effective information exchange, delays in sending
feedback and differences in interpretation of written text
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To diminish unnecessary disturbances, accepted team interaction
rules should be created including timing and media selection
UC’s Rich Presence-capabilities seem to offer a reasonable way to
create structured use of various communication facilities
People may start adapting the Presence concept if it is automated
enough (e.g. updates from calendar etc.) and brings benefits to
themselves (e.g. by being able to control personal time better) and not
just for their working mates
Factors supporting UC’s integrated approach
Benefits of integrated solutions:
 May create more efficient working patterns as users do
not have to switch between various devices and
applications
 Easier access to various capabilities of real-timecommunications without the need to initiate the session
and start all over
 Automatic update of presence information from other
systems containing information of the user’s status
 The prerequisite in creating CEBP-processes is the
integrated approach between applications
 Facilitating centralised control and management of
multiple enterprise communication methods
The effects of UC… the writer’s
personal conclusion
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UC-type solutions clearly have potential for achieving an important role in
future enterprises- not just as a collaborative solution but providing an overall
solution for enterprise communication
UC ideology seems to have potential to overcome some major obstacles that
may have been hindering the usage of real time collaboration
The increase in real-time collaboration can increase enterprise-level
efficiency as people may start to include e-collaboration features into normal
interaction. This way tasks can be conducted in less time and at a lower cost
than equivalent e-mail-chains and by waiting for face-to-face meeting
First implementations of UC will be related to improving day-to-day
communication and offering better customer service utilising personal/group
presence information in contact centre applications
UC type services as hosted/managed ASP-services would be the easiest
model for customer and prevents being tied to one vendor architecture
Considering the early stage product offerings, current technological maturity
and psychological challenges known from the history, the true breakthrough
and market realisation of the ideas behind UC could not be expected until in
2-4 years’ time
Implications for Further Research
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On the basis of this study, the writer recommends further studies
comparing a traditional virtual team (using phone & email for realtime interaction) and a virtual team using UC-type solutions:
What benefits UC-type technology could bring regarding e.g.
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team and trust building among the team,
effectiveness of communication and coordination of work
performance and satisfaction achieved among team members
Interesting questions for further research would also be
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What are the differences in technology adoption rates and models
between groups?
Has UC changed e-collaboration models and will it produce new
innovative ways of using the technology i.e. are new working
environments creating new working practices?
What kind of new accepted team behaviour and interaction rules
should be created and trained among virtual teams to optimise the
positive effects of UC?
What is the effect of consumer-type UC solutions and future social
networking solutions (Web 2.0 etc.) on business UC?
Key references
Former research of e-collaboration;
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Gibson Cristina B., Cohen Susan G. (2003): Virtual Teams that work- Creating conditions for Virtual Team Effectiveness
Kartsten Helena (1999): Collaboration and Collaborative Information Technologies : A review of evidence
Kock Ned, Nosek John (2005): Expanding the Boundaries of E-Collaboration, IEEE Transactions on professional
communication
Mark Gloria, Poltrock Steven (2001): Diffusion of a Collaborative Technology across distance GROUP’01
Munkvold Bjørn Erik (2005): Experiences From Global E-Collaboration: Contextual Influences on Technology Adoption
and Use, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
Powell Anne, Piccoli Gabriele, Ives Blake (2004): Virtual Teams: A Review of Current Literature and Directions for future
Research
Rennecker Julie, Godwin Lindsey (2003): Theorizing the Unintended Consequences of Instant Messaging for Worker
Productivity
Market analysis reports:
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Elliot Bern, Blood Steve, Kraus Drew (2006/6): Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications, 2006, Gartner Report ,
June 2 2006,
Elliot Bern, Blood Steve, Hafner Bob (2006/4): Achieving Agility Through Communication-Enabled Business Processes,
Gartner RAS Core Research
Driver Erica, Mines Christopher, Herrell Elizabeth Schooley Claire, Kim Eric (2006) Collaboration Trends 2006 To 2007,
Forrester report
Forrester (2005): Unified Communications Transform Business Communication, A Forrester study commissioned on
behalf of Cisco, August 2005
Kelly E. Brent (2006/B) Wainhouse Research: Avaya’s Unified Communications Strategy: Business Accelerator or
Technology Trap? (Chapter 1: Unified Communications: flattening the enterprise knowledge chain published on-line)
Wainhouse Report, March 2006
Kerravala Zeus (2006): The Impact of Microsoft’s Unified Communications Launch, August 2006, Yankee Group
publication funded by Cisco
Thank You!
Any Questions?