The In-Box, Redefined

With all the advances in mobility and social networking, and the communication/information overload that has come with it, the definition of the “in-box” has to change.  We are overloaded more than ever with multiple modes, identities and applications to view and manage our communications.  It’s the general subject of my blog series.

Once upon a time, the in-box meant your email in-box (usually just one or two).  Separate from that we had our call log for our voice call activity.  It was two applications but not all that difficult to deal with.

If I look at what I have today I can list the following, as well as the issues I have with it:

1. Multiple email accounts (business and personal, sometimes multiples of each) – Many smart phone mobile clients are doing a reasonable job supporting multiple email accounts in one view.  However, it’s still a separate application and view from the rest of my communication activity and history.
2. Twitter.  Note that twitter supports people reaching me with private “Direct Messages”.  I also consider any tweet or retweet with my ID mentioned as something I want to see.  Today I have to use a separate application like Twitter or TweetDeck to look for these communications.
3. Facebook also supports private communication and messages to me.  You can optionally forward these to your email or as an SMS.  The email option is OK but not optimal.  Facebook also supports it’s own chat application.  These too are messages I’d want to see and optionally retain in my in-box.
4. Phone or video calls – the traditional call log or history application.  I don’t want to look at my calls in a separate application or as a separate form of communication any more.
5. Instant Messages.  Today, this is also typically a separate application.  You usually have to take separate steps to record or save them, if desired, to retain them once the IM session is closed.
6. Voice messages - today this is typically a separate application to view, listen and respond to these messages.

Considering the above, here’s what I want the in box of today to look like.  It’s a total communications history view:

1. One application or dashboard.  I don't want to have to go to multiple locations or applications to view and respond to my communications
2. Show me every and all communications (in and out) by time, modality (phone, IM, Twitter, email by account, voice messages etc), originator or destination
3. Originator/destination should be mapped into my contacts view if possible.  More on this later
4. Allow sorting and filtering by day/time, source/modality, originator/destination
5. Initiate a reply via any available modality I choose.  When I go to reply, if the originator is known in my contacts, show me the known modalities I have for that person along with current presence or contact preferences.  Of course this implies that my view of a contacts application view that includes that kind of information.
6. Similarly, when I do look at a contact, it should allow me to open a view of my total communication history with that person.

Unified Communications is all about unifying multi-modal communications.  Unifying this expanded view of the “in-box” has got to be part of it.  It’s more than unified access to the communications from multiple devices.  Unifying this view for both business and personal communications is yet another challenge.

What does your in-box look like these days?  Please share your thoughts.

Michael Killian

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Unified Communications - It's Not Just For Business!

Unified Communications is getting a lot of attention as a productivity enhancer in business communication and collaboration.  The need and interest is growing with the advances in mobility, smart phones and web 2.0 communication oriented applications.  There is a growing communication overload situation and opportunity to unify.   There are several reputable vendors competing in this space aimed at enterprise customers. What about our personal communications?  Why shouldn't solutions aim to "unify" our total communications landscape, business and personal?


What Is Unified Communications?

There are several definitions out there.  Here's my brief definition of it and the key attributes that interest me. 

It's a single integrated communication/collaboration application and interface to manage all available modes of communication, with whomever, in a consistent way, independent of the device being used.  It includes, but isn't limited to the following:

• Multi-modal support:  Support the display and choice of all possible communication modes for a user to select from - voice, video, IM, email, social network feeds, social network direct/private messages, blog comments, or other Web 2.0 communication/collaboration services (e.g. Skype or internal enterprise social nets/forums).
• Mode of Contact Preference: Allow the user to identify how they prefer to be contacted and make that preference visible to those looking to contact them.  Show the user the same for people they are looking to contact.  These preferences should be able to vary by time of day and other presence information.
• Communication Dashboard:  Provide a dashboard and total history of incoming and outgoing communications no matter which modality was used. Sub-dividing that history by contact is even more powerful.
• Device Independence:  Provide consistent access to the above independent of the device used to communicate - PC, smart phone, IP "phone" on the desk
• Tools to help filter, sort, and manage my incoming and outgoing communication based on presence, source, content preferences  - a personal agent. This has yet to evolve to where it needs to be even for business users.
• Communication-enabled business processes (CEBP): Business applications are integrated with the unified communications platform.  This element is strictly business oriented and business specific.

Why Unify All Communications?
Being connected virtually 24/7 for business and/or personal use is my main driver in the case to unify all a users communications.  Is there really a difference in our personal communication needs and our business needs (other than CEBP)?  My main reasons to converge include:

• Blur between personal and work time.  This blur creates the need to access and manage "all" my communication 24/7 no matter what device I'm using at any time of day.
• Multiple identities - converge my business and personal email, IM, social network IDs, IMs and presence.  It's inefficient to check and manage multiple communication channels in multiple applications.  I'd like a dashboard that aggregates it all accessible through a dashboard application.
• Separate "devices" for work and personal use - device overload.  Specifically, I don't want to carry two mobile phones or other mobile communicator devices (e.g.tablets).
• A personal agent can be a great asset in limiting the intersection of business and personal communication at inopportune times.  It doesn't have to be limited to communications through the enterprise.  For me, the main reason I'm interested in the personal agent is to assist with the personal/business management.  A single view of presence, calendar entries/purpose and identifying the source of the communication are key.  This can help us keep at least a fuzzy line between work and personal time.

Potential Roadblocks
Personal and business communication convergence doesn't come without issues and questions.

• Work Use Only:  Enterprises often have a policy of work use only for the laptops, smart phones, and network usage they supply their employees.  In addition, they state the right to monitor and read it.  These policies will need some revision if these employers expect employees to perform a level of work and/or to be reachable on "personal" time.  In exchange there is likely to be some amount of personal business or communication needed during "work" time.  Some support is needed for a converged calendar and ability to access personal email, social network IDs, and personal contacts.
• End user fears of big brother:  On the one hand many of us may benefit from total Unified Communications.  On the other, the user needs some assurance on what is still private, only accessible by them even when received on their employers systems .  Many resort to carrying two cell phones to avoid any possibility of their employer seeing personal call/text records.  The same is true for accessing personal email accounts, personal contacts, and calendar entries.  Many won't put their personal appointments or contacts into their employers MS Exchange or similar tools of choice.  
• A Single Mobile Phone:  Mobile phone convergence to a single phone is a difficult one.  If the user is very active and mobile on personal time and equally active on enterprise time, who picks up the tab for it?
• Ultimately, where does the unification reside?  I'd like to see this unification happen but where would it live?  Which class of vendors would be the ones likely to bridge the business and personal space; the enterprise vendors, service providers, or web 2.0 vendors?  A topic for another post.

I'd like to hear from you.  I'm interested in your thoughts on Unified Communications in general, the need, or not, to apply it across all forms of individual communications, who you think can and should address it and more.

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