Unified communications (the multimodal technologies that power communication devices) and telecommunications (communication that occurs over a cable, telephone or other electronic device) are an integral part of everyday business transmissions.
Regardless of what industry or sphere a business is operating in, it relies at least marginally on some type of communications technology to maintain daily business operation both internally and externally. Employees need to communicate with prospective clients, customers and each other to complete routine tasks and projects.
Companies typically have Telco infrastructure, unified communications technology or, more often than not, both in place to ensure that successful contact is made and maintained on a day-to-day basis.
Telecommunications have evolved from less efficient forms of communication like telegraphs and audio messages to telephones, microwave signals and fiber optic transmissions that can reach individuals on the other side of the world in a matter of seconds. The first telegraph office opened in the U.S. in 1844. The first transatlantic telegraph cable was laid in 1866 (according to telephonetribute.com message exchanges between the United States and Europe took eleven days before the telegraph line was established). Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876.
More recently, the first cell phone service became available in 1981 in both Saudi Arabia and Scandinavia. The first domain, Symbolics.com, was assigned in March of 1985, foreshadowing the Internet age. In 1992 the World Wide Web was born.
The growth of the Internet over the last 20 years has been an omnipresent force in all communications technology. VoIP technology enables users to make calls via data transmission over the Internet. APIs enable software programs to communicate with one another. SIP enables control of both voice and video calls over the Internet.
Unified communications have also rapidly advanced in tandem with the swift evolution of technology and the telecommunications industry. Many components of unified communications require the development of support systems that function to optimize technology and streamline communication processes.
From PBX systems to instant and unified messaging, unified communications serve to integrate and combine multiple technologies into a single structure to consolidate and improve the efficiency of communication systems.
Plum Voice has been recently featured on Alltop’s Unified Communications blog. Multimodal communications are becoming increasingly essential to business exchanges of all types, as one can see from taking a look at any of the blogs within Alltop’s Unified Communications category. This week we will be exploring new and emerging trends in the telecommunications and unified communications space.
