Certification - October 2008 - (Page 36)

INSIDE CERTIFICATION Unified Communications: A Practical Business and Technology Approach SCOTT SChAUER With more than eight out of ten companies moving toward unified communications solutions, IT professionals need to be in the know. Each year, billions of dollars are spent by enterprises across the globe to ensure a single call does not go unanswered, an e-mail does not get lost or a conference is not missed. In fact, society’s current emphasis on free and easy connectivity means the number of communications devices will eventually exceed the number of people using those devices. The organizations that will succeed in this environment are those that harness the power of this hyperconnectivity. That’s where unified communications solutions come in. Unified communications (UC) solutions remove the barriers between voice, e-mail, conferencing, video and instant messaging, thereby allowing for instantaneous people-to-people communications. This means reduced time to decision, increased productivity and the ability to provide a simple and consistent user experience across all types of communications. UC has particular appeal for business executives since it integrates business applications and processes with existing communication channels to open the door for substantial process improvements. It represents a new way of doing business, enhancing individual, work-group and organizational productivity. According to Forrester Research, an organization that “presence enables” its applications — meaning the applications share a common platform and draw from a synchronized store of presence information — can save more than an hour a week per employee in time otherwise spent tracking down and contacting colleagues. That’s valuable time that can be repurposed toward achieving business goals. business communications problems, as well as an understanding of the financial and technological considerations. These requirements are common across any vendor’s proposed solution. As interest in UC accelerates, businesses are in search of UC-knowledgeable professionals. According to research analyst Katherine Trost of Nemertes Research, a recent study by the company on the stage of UC deployment showed that among the 117 organizations that responded, roughly 36 percent are in the initial planning stages, about 28 percent have started limited deployment and about 19 percent are growing their deployment. Roughly 16 percent were not implementing UC solutions, she said. Acknowledging that a large number of organizations still are in the planning stages for wide-scale UC deployment and need skilled individuals, Nortel created a vendor-neutral professional certification: Nortel Certified Technology Specialist (NCTS): Unified Communications Solutions. This vendor-neutral credential was created with business managers, systems integrators, consultants, IT professionals and academic institutions in mind. Because unified communications touches many different elements in information technology, professionals in IT, telecommunications, networking, desktop applications and local-area networking (LAN) will gain a valuable understanding of UC by studying for and successfully completing the NCTS exam. What UC Professionals Need to Know Vendor-Neutral Certification Successful implementation of UC requires a thorough knowledge of its capabilities, such as solving 6 CERTIFICATION MAGAZINE October 2008 Making an organization’s UC solution vision a reality starts with four core areas that are represented on the NCTS exam. These four subjects, which a newly certified UC professional should thoroughly understand, are: http://www.nemertes.com/ http://www.nemertes.com/ http://

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Certification - October 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Data Stream Virtual Village Tech Careers Dear Techie Troubleshooting Academic Connection What We Like Look Ahead Elect IT: Technology and the Democratic Process Managing Relationships in the Nonprofit Realm Interface VoIP Technician: Answering the Call of the Network Inside Certification Ad Index Endtag

Certification - October 2008

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