Information Overload

Tony Bradley — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:21:53 +0000

Unified Communications helps companies to communicate more effectively and efficiently. It is also seen by many as being always connected and never being able to be unavailable. By phone, email, voicemail, instant messaging, from your computer, your cell phone, your laptop, or any web-based portal, workers can access tools and communicate. But, what happens when they don’t want to be available? This article from TechTarget’s SearchUnifiedCommunications examines the issues and some potential solutions. In my opinion, education is a key ingredient. Many organizations jump on the technology bandwagon, but don’t give their workers the information and the education they need to use the tools effectively. Tools like Microsoft’s Office Communicator (and its portable counterpart Office Communicator Mobile) enable workers to communicate anywhere, any time. However, users can also control that access. They can set their Presence to Do Not Disturb. They can configure the level of access for their contacts so that key people- team members, managers- can see their true availability, while the rest of the world sees their Away. When calls come in via Microsoft UC Voice, the worker can send them straight to voicemail, or right-click and port them to email or voicemail if they are not available to take the call. In order to realize the benefits of effective and efficient communications, organizations need to provide end-user training in the proper use of the tools and how to work with the more advanced capabilities as well.

Unified Communications: Click to talk » user training

Information Overload