John Linton ....to Microsoft if this is an accurate description of where they are 'at':
http://www.microsoft.com/australia/business/voip/
In fact, it's a very, very old concept that technology has now virtually passed by. I also noted that they list Eastern Health (a group of major hospitals eponymously in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs) as a major user which based on my personal recent attempts to reach people within that organisation by telephone is not much of a recommendation - maybe I was unlucky.
I can't remember when I first heard the phrase "Unified Communications" but I think it was in the mid 1990s so, if my memory is correct there is nothing new in using IP voice over a company's Ethernet network. Similarly Asterisk's predecessor and now Asterix's open code makes it a piece of cake for any IT department with Linux skills and the budget to buy IP handsets to put in place a "Unified Communications" system without having to screw the whole thing up buying yet more inflated price software from Microsoft.
Having said that, it is surprising that a larger percentage of Australia's small and large businesses haven't really gone much beyond installing some form of VoIP PABX rather than taking advantage of the Unified Communications facilities provided by Asterisk (for a very small amount of money) or from some of the more progressive PABX manufacturers (at as much money as you care to pay them) or, now, from Microsoft for a great deal of money. The implementation of VoIP is simple and often requires little more than the purchase of IP handsets and some sort of VoIP controller 'box'. Using Asterisk, or any proprietary equivalent and either commercially packaged or developed in house then allows the huge range of "Unified" services to be implemented and specifically tailored for any particular business.
Exetel, as in all aspects of IT and automation, has an ongoing program of "Unified Communications" that already fully operates in North Sydney and Colombo and in six other 'residences' around Australia and goes far beyond using VOIP and linking to a common intranet set of facilities. Over the past three years we have integrated our data base into our 'telephone system' and added a very large number of ancillary services that use the functions of both our data base and internal systems and our VoIP outbound and inbound teehone services.
However we understand that such an implementation is never 'done' and not only known applications and facilities are scheduled for development (or purchase) but that there will always be new ways of doing business and operating our current functions continually 'appearing' making locking Exetel into any proprietary 'platform' a major error of judgment. We never expect to stop development of our "Unified Communications" services because we are pretty sure we don't know just what will become possible in the future.
The same concept applies to residential users who are generally much more flexible and even more 'tech/phone/video 'savvy about how to use a mobile phone and broadband than a surprising number of IT decision makers within many commercial enterprises - sort of an extension of the old parental lament that "only the kids know how to program the VCR".
With the release of HTC's Android Dream intelligent mobile phone in Australia today:
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/23069/127/
and the ongoing development of the iPhone and even the Blackberry as well as a slew of new devices now appearing the concepts of integrated voice, video, entertainment and general data services for 'residential' users are far in advance of the clunky and very limited facilities MS is touting as being 'cutting edge". (they are in fact about as cutting edge as a block of concrete in technical implementation terms).
Given the current directions in technology and mobile telephony the only piece of 'computer' hardware that will exist in a few years time will be a giant flat screen display(s) with all 'content' and control coming from a mobile phone/data device.
While I have been appalled at the amount of money that Optus has spent promoting the iPhone and now, probably the Dream, I am taking some comfort that the decision we made some three years ago that it would be better to develop a relationship with Optus than with Telstra is beginning to show some signs of being a little more correct. Who knows - they may even get to build some future national fibre network and replace Telstra as the dominant carrier in Australia?
In the mean time it seems to me that HSPA is becoming ever more certain of being the broad band data medium of choice for the majority of Australia's data users over the next two years based on the plethora of datta devices with 'pop appeal' which is where the big money spenders are.
But then my predictions don't have a great track record of accuracy.