Exchange 2010 should be your new communications system

Unified messaging is the talk in the industry. You can't pick up an IT magazine or talk turkey with anyone in IT without seeing or hearing about it. And it’s no wonder -- UM is useful, cost is dropping like a rock, and it’s just plain cool.

Essentially, UM creates a unified inbox for e-mail, voicemail and faxes.

Microsoft's latest UM technology, Exchange 2010, makes UM simpler and less expensive than ever to roll out in a business environment, and its voicemail feature is significantly improved over the Exchange 2007 version.

But not so fast -- just installing Exchange 2010 won’t automatically give you full unified messaging capabilities.

You will require a phone system that can utilize SIP protocols to maximize UM capabilities. Typically, this is Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), but you could also use SIP gateways to allow interactions between your legacy systems and Microsoft Exchange.

Once you've got the appropriate phone system in place and Exchange 2010 e-mail features installed, all that’s left to do is add the Exchange 2010 UM role into your Exchange Organization and configure it.

So what’s so cool about unified messaging?

Voicemails will appear in your e-mail inbox as industry standard file types like WMV, WAV, and now MP3 files in Exchange 2010, eliminating the need to reach for your desk phone to check for voicemail, or to call in to your system from the field. Just click on the voicemail to listen to your messages.

For users unable to access embedded files, they use Outlook Voice Access, an integrated voice response system that plays voicemail, reads your email, and accesses your calendar and corporate or personal contact lists.

Enter the second cool factor.

With Exchange 2010, Microsoft introduces voicemail transcription. Voicemail is automatically transcribed with speech-to-text technology, and the transcription is attached to every voicemail or voice reply.

Additional cool factors include the ability to easily forward and reply to messages, just like an e-mail is forwarded. Also, auto-attendants, which allow end users to configure out-of-office features for their voicemail system, are improved.

Despite the “cool” factor to unified messaging, speech-to-text functionality is still in its infancy. Noisy Bluetooth devices, cell phones, fast talkers and foreign dialects have very poor translation confidence ratings.

So why should your organization move to Exchange Unified Messaging? The features above are not just cool; they provide a foundation for enhancing corporate communications, allow access to your unified inbox from anywhere and remove usually standalone voicemail systems that require support by your staff.

Contact your C/D/H consultant to learn more about unified messaging, and what it can do for you.