Pipe dream? Welcome to the converged office of the near future

Call it utopianism or just plain hype but plenty of parties have been outlining their vision of the office of the future for some time. Here, Anthony Plewes pulls together the various strands of voice, data and video convergence which are closer to reality than you may think.

Ever since the telecoms industry’s first attempts with computer telephony integration (CTI), businesses have tried to harness the power of unified communications. Although CTI's cumbersome implementation problems and trying management issues have consigned it to the contact centre environment, converged IP applications look set to finally deliver on the early promise.

That's because unified communications is about to thrust itself into the office of the future with the emergence of converged networks where voice, data and video all use the same IP pipe.

In this utopian world of the near future, the converged network seamlessly integrates communication types, allowing email to be read over the phone or telephone calls to be made at the PC. For example, IP phones offer the same functionality as normal PBX feature phones but are also able to directly access the internet and browse web pages and online directories.

Rather than simply writing emails or leaving voice mails, business people will be regularly emailing each other spoken messages or videos of themselves delivering messages. These could include clips of newscasts, for example, rather than only describing the content. And it could all involve a certain business-style panache as this information will be available on a wide variety of devices or so-called IP endpoints, including IP handsets, PDAs, mobile phones and shiny designer laptops.

Those who are a little more had-nosed will be interested to learn that the same business rules can be applied to all communications traffic in the world, making it possible to personalise the entire communications experience. That's because information relating to a user’s preferences is stored centrally, so that any device can be used for communicating. The location-independence of converged network devices thus makes it excellent for hot-desking or remote working scenarios, where a user can simply log in with any device at any location and still have access to the same services.

Here, users are able to register a whole range of communications devices in their profile and apply these business rules to all incoming communications traffic. So the selective will be able to send less important calls through to voice mail and take the most important calls on their private mobile at all times. It is already possible to integrate with the company directory or public directories to determine the identity of the caller.

Speech technology also plays an important role in converged communications applications. These include voice-driven email to allow users hands-free access in the car, voice dialling to call people directly from the directory and a whole range of personal productivity applications to provide a ‘virtual assistant’ to help manage users’ communications. They will also have a much wider range of IP end-points with converged networks, instead of just the plain old boring telephone. These can range from a PC softphone with a Bluetooth headset through to a video-enabled desktop device. In fact, this year is likely to see some serious inroads being made by video on the converged network with the much-anticipated launch of Cisco’s videophone. It certainly has always been Cisco’s intention to make a serious play in the video market with its enterprise IP telephony systems and this product is expected to be the fruit of that ambition. It is likely that devices like these will be in much demand on the higher rungs of the corporate ladder.

A number of companies are already using wireless LAN-based mobile phones that can take advantage of all the features of a converged network. A handy feature of the WLAN IP phone is that a company could buy a pool of wireless phones to share among its staff as the user profile is stored centrally. This would allow staff coming into the office to pick up a phone from reception that would then be tailored for their use. Again, mass adoption is likely to be fuelled by the decisions of dominant vendors such as Cisco, which recently launched its WLAN-based IP phone.

One of the most important – and largely overlooked - standards in converged network technology development has been session initiation protocol (SIP), which is a new signalling standard for converged networks to set up IP sessions. SIP is a text-based protocol, similar to HTTP and SMTP, for initiating interactive communication sessions between users. These include voice, video, chat, interactive games and virtual reality. Although SIP is best known for its telephony applications it also supports services such as instant messaging (IM) and more importantly, presence management.

Presence management has been one the most popular early applications for SIP after being a Holy Grail some time. It provides information about the ability and willingness of a user to communicate across a set of devices. A presence service is a system that accepts, stores, and distributes presence information to interested parties. An example of a simple presence application is the buddy lists for instant messaging, including features such as white lists and black lists. Importantly, applications such as these can be developed by third parties allowing them to directly integrate with the network.

SIP addresses are very similar to those used in internet addressing. A SIP user address will be in the format of sip:anthony@futuritymedia.com. SIP allows a user to make a call without having to know what device the person being called is using. It also provides the ability to fork calls and phone multiple numbers, such as when the particularly high-powered executive has several locations and phone numbers. SIP also allows users to program powerful call control such as redirecting calls from unknown callers to an assistant or, remarkably, replying with a web page or image.

SIP should allow the much-maligned interactive voice response (IVR) systems of many a bank or local council to be completely changed and services could be tailored to suit the capability of the caller. For example, a caller could phone a customer service number using a traditional handset that only supports voice. The SIP gateway that processed the call would be aware that the caller is only capable of supporting audio and would call up the appropriate VoiceXML script. If the call is then subsequently transferred, the system could then pop up the relevant web page to the customer service representative.

The scenario is transformed if the caller has a voice and web-enabled device. Instead of accessing a VoiceXML application that reads out the information over the phone, the caller could instead be presented with the relevant URL and the information over the web. SIP allows much tighter integration between the web and telephony, so that a delivery notification service could work by the user receiving a URL that would include a click-to-call option to set up a call to the gift’s recipient. The converged network can also help companies improve their operational efficiency. Enterprises continue to operate with a confusing mixture of PBXs and key systems scattered around the organisation. Few of these are networked together which makes intra-office phone calls costly and administration complicated.

A report from the Yankee Group found that several Fortune 500 companies it spoke to still had voice networks made up of disparate systems that did not work together. Often these systems have been built up through M&A activity and many of them just do not integrate.

Companies need to wise-up as to how much it costs to manage this type of rapidly aging voice infrastructure. The Yankee Group says that although many enterprise decision makers know the purchasing cost of the equipment they are less likely to have a handle on the ongoing costs, in particular for moves, adds and changes (MAC). Converged networks help enterprises manage voice and data networks from one location and will cut administration and MAC costs pretty dramatically.

Despite the productivity increases that converged communications can offer, it is important for enterprises to choose applications very carefully because wanton vendors have been guilty of developing them in the past without quantifying demand. Unfortunately in our Bright and Better Future, some applications simply will not have mass-market appeal.

But because of its openness, the converged network is well-suited to piloting new applications so that enterprises can see for themselves what sort of benefits they can glean from them. And it will be the most future-facing of organisations that lets its business users experience for themselves the impact converged communications can have on personal productivity.

If you have a view on convergence drop us a line at editorial@silicon.com. We'll be bringing you more news, analysis and opinion on this subject over the coming weeks.