There is no single strategy via which enterprises will move forward with Unified Communications since each customer has a unique set of needs and existing infrastructure. Avaya understands this and moves customers toward Unified Communications to support complex and flexible work environments. The consultative process begins with a business assessment to understand the communication patterns within the organization, and to identify where business processes slow or bog down. Implementing Unified Communications entails multiple initiatives over time as noted in figure 1. Some follow in series; others can be done in parallel.

Typical starting points include:

. Improve support for mobile workers

. Bring telephony to the PC

. Bring computer applications to the telephone

. Establish Unified Messaging

. Enterprise Instant Messaging Integration

. Introduce Unified Conferencing

. Add Video

A business assessment that evaluates communications patterns of the employee base is critical to successfully planning for Unified Communications. Information workers are becoming increasingly mobile and working remotely in order to service customers and to perform their jobs. Depending on the job being performed, work environments may change throughout the day, week, or month to include any combination of locations: at a desk in the office, an alternate location within the office, at a customer location, in the car, in a hotel room, or at a home or a virtual office. To identify opportunities for Unified Communications, business processes should be evaluated to identify where latencies exist due to human interaction and communication.