Unified messaging (UM) is a technology that makes a complex world easier to deal with. It provides a single access point for the three most commonly used message types-voice, fax, and e-mail. Better yet, UM users can increase efficiency and productivity by using a couple of available and easy-to-use tools-the telephone and the personal computer.

It’s a technology that seems tailor-made for the trucking industry, where drivers and salespeople are forever on the move and in constant demand.

Using the telephone, the user dials into a UM system, and quickly and efficiently examines the type and status of incoming messages. He then downloads the messages to a personal computer. At that point, the user can decide on appropriate action, such as creating a conference call, responding via e-mail, or printing a fax message. The key to UM’s success is its simplicity.

Because the user understands the tool, he’ll use it. If the tool finds general and ongoing use, more features can be added according to the user’s needs.

The appeal of unified messaging solutions is obvious. In today’s complex and fast-paced work environments, people receive an almost overwhelming amount of information, a good deal of which is time- and mission-critical.

That information is usually received as e-mail, voice mail, and fax messages. (A recent study published in the Wall Street Journal found that the average employee sends and receives more than 200 messages per day.) Managing that level of information requires time, which can mean that other important tasks are neglected. Many companies are turning to UM as a communications tool that increases productivity, facilitates mobility, and gives companies the competitive advantage they are looking for. As a bonus, it can also help realize significant cost savings.

So far, though, unified messaging hasn’t quite lived up to its promise. That’s because UM services are presently being driven by technology vendors, rather than by what customers really need and want. The success of unified messaging will depend upon the movement from one to the other.

There’s no question that unified messaging can be used effectively. A recent industry study published by Comgroup, an independent telecommunications consulting firm, and AVT Corp. found that mobile workers, when using a unified messaging service, were able to realize a gain in time saved of 70 per cent, compared to those using more traditional means of checking messages. The study compared usage by workers managing their voice, fax, and e-mail messages over the telephone, using unified messaging, with others who checked messages by calling in over the telephone to listen to voice messages, calling an assistant at their office to send faxes to the nearest fax machine, and connecting to the Internet via a laptop computer to download and check e-mail messages.

Significantly, the study found that workers also gain substantial time savings by being able to access all of their voice, fax, and e-mail messages via a single user interface. Users experienced a 53 per cent time-savings when using a unified messaging service to check their messages from within a program such as Lotus Notes or Microsoft Outlook.

The ideal unified messaging product or service has to be simple. If the user doesn’t understand the UM tool within five or 10 minutes, he won’t use it. Unhappily, most unified messaging products and services have been developed by people who don’t use it in their daily activities. They build-and then market-something that offers everything under the sun, without understanding the real needs of the end-user. The product or service, marketed with a promise to solve all of the user’s problems, often simply overwhelms, rather than helps, the user.

Unified messaging is simply a tool on the desktop. It’s not the centre of the universe, and it’s not going to solve all of the problems that people don’t really have.

End users now see unified messaging as a product that will make their lives easier, not necessarily as one that will improve the bottom-line. That’s because most unified messaging vendors haven’t yet managed to get enough of their solutions installed to show the benefits of this technology.

Simplicity is the name of the game for unified messaging now. The real killer application for unified messaging-the screen pop-up-is already here. It’s a basic desktop visual that allows the user to answer their messaging needs, and then move on to other important tasks.

Once users find that unified messaging is a technology they can understand and use, more complex features can-and will-be added. The key to the success of unified messaging, however, will depend on developers and vendors understanding what customers want from a unified messaging solution.