In today's fast-paced economy, success depends on connecting to the right people in the right way at the right time. That is the promise of unified communications, which employs best practices in IP networking to integrate voice, messaging, faxing and the web for continuity across a business's communication platform.

Unified communications solutions can deliver unified "messaging," by which users can read their voice mail in their Outlook inbox and hear their e-mail over the phone. The convergence of data and voice over IP enables powerful applications in customer relationship management. And "presence," a relatively new aspect of unified communications, can improve customers' decision-making speed and accuracy.

Enhancing User Productivity
Presence allows for real-time access to workers' availability and contact preferences. It alerts senders to the fastest, most convenient way to get the feedback they need, using media such as landlines, cell phones, IM, e-mail, the web and videoconferencing. Presence can:

• Avoid delays in communication.
• Save time with drag-and-drop buddy lists updated in real time.
• Provide a cross-application user interface for different communication media that indicates current presence state.
• Speed employee interactions and enrich customer service.

"Every business wants to maintain easy connectivity among its staff members, as well as among customers, suppliers and partners," says Joe Berard, technology solutions engineer at Ingram Micro. "Presence allows users to learn about people's real-time availability, and it also specifies their communication preferences -- such as e-mail when in the office, or cell phone when traveling. Presence enhances communication by eliminating voice-mail tag and missed messages."

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Research statistics point to real productivity gains from presence solutions. Employees at companies using unified communications clients with their IP networks save an average of 32 minutes per day by being able to reach colleagues on the first attempt, according to Sage Research. They also save between 43 and 55 minutes per day from more-efficient message management.

Getting Started With Presence
Unified communications solutions start with installing an IP PBX, which opens the door to a broader discussion of the company's business processes and how a converged IP network could improve them. Once customers start to experience the benefits of IP communications, they usually are open to leveraging more advanced features such as presence.

Presence is made possible by support for the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), an industry standard that ensures cross-device and network interoperability. Presence solutions that support SIP are available from major IP communications suppliers such as Cisco Systems, Nortel and 3Com, and from Polycom as an option for its videoconferencing solution.

Want to get started with IP communications, or add presence to existing installations? Call Ingram Micro, where certified support engineers can help you build multimanufacturer solutions that will meet your customers' needs. In-depth sales and technical training is available at Ingram Micro's Unified Communications Boot camp, August 15-16, 2007, in Buffalo, N.Y.

For More Information
Ingram Micro's customers can find additional resources at www.ingrammicro.com/unifiedcommunications, or reach technical support by calling the Networking Help Desk at (800) 445-5066, ext. 76295.