Microsoft's approach is to bring together e-mail, voice instant messaging and conferencing technologies as part of the Microsoft Office System, Porter said in an e-mail.,”The Microsoft Corporation introduced a new software system signaling the end of the "voice mail jail," said Mike Porter, area general manager of Microsoft Midwest.
Microsoft's approach is to bring together e-mail, voice instant messaging and conferencing technologies as part of the Microsoft Office System, Porter said in an e-mail.
The series of new technologies, called Unified Communications, will reduce the jail-like features of voice mail such as message overload and prolonged automated voice mail systems, Porter said.
But UC will not eliminate voice mail altogether, Porter said. Instead they will make access and sharing of voice mail easier, he said.
UC user experience will be defined by the systems workers use most such as Microsoft Office Communicator and Microsoft Office Outlook, Porter said. Marquette's eMarq works through Microsoft Office Outlook.
Porter said UC will cut business costs because business communication is shifting from hardware to software.
"(UC) will reduce costs by leveraging existing investments and using applications workers use today," Porter said.
Global Crossing, a worldwide telecommunications company, has integrated the capabilities of UC directly into business applications, said Mike Fuqua, senior vice president of global information systems at Global Crossing.
UC has already saved Global Communications 30 to 50 percent in telephony, video and data collaboration costs, Fuqua said in an e-mail.
UC will increase general productivity by reducing the amount of "swivel" between different contact applications and environments, he said.
Fuqua said UC will reduce the amount of time it takes to contact a person.
Some Milwaukee businesses are also taking steps to streamline communication. Workers at Productive Knowledge, Inc., a provider of marketing and public relations services to greater metropolitan Milwaukee businesses, no longer use landline phones, said David Niles, co-owner of Productive Knowledge. Workers rely strictly on cell phones, he said.
Niles said he thinks voice mail is not entirely efficient and the UC system could hold potential benefits.
"If you're only using one device your efficiency would go up tremendously," Niles said.
But not everyone in the business sphere considers the UC technology to be expedient.
Tom Beug, chief executive officer of the Summit Group, a Milwaukee-based association of professional business consultants, said he doesn't know whether UC would have much of an effect on corporate communication.
"Microsoft comes up with ideas they think will work for all of us, but it mostly gets in the way," he said.
He added that many of the extensive software capabilities of Microsoft Word and Excel go unused by workers.
Beug said he thinks it is absurd when workers carry cell phones at all times and are reachable at any time.
"Very few of us are that important that we need to be reachable 24 hours a day," he said. "Just because you can doesn't mean you should."
Bob Shuter, chair of Marquette's department of communication studies, said he is conducting research on the ways people use electronic communication.
Shuter said people adapt their message to they type of medium available. Text messages are for short messages and act as "finders" to set up a time for personal communication, he said. E-mail and instant message can be used for more personal kinds of encounters, he said.
But traditional voice mail might be becoming passé; Shuter said.
"They may be on to something," Shuter said of Microsoft's Unified Communication. "Voice mail is a function of the past and may not be necessary anymore."
The Tribune left a voice mail with Shuter at 8 a.m. Tuesday morning. When the Tribune called again at 3 p.m., Shuter said he had not received the voice mail.
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