In the Race for Green

With its eco-friendly attributes, unified communications is a forerunner when

it comes to combining ecology with economics. The need for employees to be more

mobile and travel more often, and at the same time save on travel and mobility

expense has brought unified communications into the limelight.

Unified communication not only reduces physical mobility of employees, by

reducing carbon foot printing, but also adds to the Green objective of an

organization. As mobility becomes an integral part of enterprise activities,

companies need to be proactive and make mobile communications more intelligent

and seamless. In the process, it will allow the employees to connect and

collaborate more efficiently with their partners, customers, and other employees

anywhere, anytime.

Communications and commutation costs in businesses have increased over a

period of time. Enterprises have chosen to provide company-paid mobile phones

that would help them find the enterprise mobility spending which has taken a

great share of their IT budgets. To meet their IT and communications spend,

businesses are looking at technologies that enable them to extend existing

investments in business communications systems and corporate networks while

taking advantage of least cost routing for mobile communications.

Business Models Trends



To work from home would perhaps take the front seat in the modern day work

culture. According to Vivek Porwal, BU head, unified communications, Avaya

Global Connect, “Adopting mobility to enable work from home or wherever you are

eliminates and minimizes travel costs, minimizing the organization's carbon

footprint. Collaboration, weather it is telepresence, simple videoconferencing,

audio-conferencing connecting hundreds of people in a short time, IM,

Web-collaboration enables you to be virtually anywhere while earning carbon

credits. Collaboration is indeed the greatest Green enabler for businesses

across segments and even among communities.”

Unified communications helps in enabling converged business. The convergence

of technologies like voice, video and data form the basic platform for UC.

Unified communications today is accelerating the efficiency of a person. It

takes one minute to get connected to the work-place, no matter where the person

is positioned. Virtual collaboration is the key area of growth and technologies

like IP telephony have widely been acclaimed.

The Next Horizon



IP telephony has accelerated the growth of voice as the catalyst in unified

communications. PBX used to be highly deployed in the enterprise space but

slowly a shift is being seen. A lot of companies are moving to IP telephony.

According to internal research, around 20% of the companies have migrated from

PBX to IP telephony. This is the first major change from digital PBX in voice

communication. Nagi Kasinadhuni, GM, converged communication, Datacraft Asia

says, “It is this change in communications culture that will result in the

reduction of emissions. IP telephony is integral to UC. Telephony is a

foundational medium of communication and the most pervasive medium. Evolving the

telephony communication asset into IP is therefore the first step toward UC.”

“Collaboration is indeed the greatest Green enabler for businesses across segments and even among communities” Vivek Porwal, BU head, unified communications, Avaya Global Connect	“UC is easies, faster and cheaper and the break-even is less than a year” Sukhvinder Ahuja, director, sales, Nortel India	“Green is often a directive that doesn't originate from the IT organization which has traditionally been more concerned about cost” Nagi Kasinadhuni, GM, converged communication, Datacraft Asia

IP telephony in its way enables unified communication and brings it to the

end users. Offices having IP telephony in place tend to see footprinting in

office going down by 20%, thereby reducing the costs incurred on office

resources. With the economy hitting everybody, everyone wants the maximum.

Energy saving and reduction of carbon footprinting increases the RoI of the

organization.

In the process of working from home, a lot of energy is saved, and travel,

which causes carbon emissions, is reduced. In developing countries like India,

to make such a work atmosphere a cult is very important as UC is still at a

nascent stage. Virtual collaboration is the need of the hour, to bring down cost

and have a cleaner environment. Virtual Collaboration tools such as web, video,

audio collaboration and telepresence would help with the improved interaction

between employees, suppliers and customers spread across geographies providing

an alternative mode of communication.

For Sukhvinder Ahuja, director, sales, Nortel India, UC gives a new dimension

to business communication. Now one needs to travel from one end of the country

to the another or perhaps cross half the globe to attend meetings. The same can

be evaluated on a virtual environment through videoconferencing on a seamless

platform. Sukhvinder Ahuja says, “Videoconferencing is the best way to reduce

costs. Though the feel is not the same as it would be across the table, but

almost 80% efficiency is attainable. UC is easy, faster and cheaper and the

break-even is less than a year. You also do not need to rip and replace, but add

to the existing technology to get seamless communication.”

There is no doubt that unified communication would bridge the geographical

divide with much ease. But whether the industry is adopting UC with the

intention to move toward green or is it only for financial benefits, is quite

unknown. But we would like to consider the positive side. Nagi Kasinadhuni of

Datacraft Asia says, “UC places new demands on the IP infrastructure of an

organization. Budgets must be built in consideration of the necessary upgrades.

Green is often a directive that does not originate from the IT organization

which has traditionally been more concerned about cost.” Whether it is a green

initiative or not, but at least it helps in greening the surrounding, even if it

is in the motive of cost management.

Sunny Sen



suunys@cybermedia.co.in