UC versus UC&C

Anyone else notice that the "what's UC?" question has finally died down? Just when we thought we had it licked, the term is increasingly being replaced with UC&C - or unified communications and collaboration. In case you missed the memo, everyone agreed on the change last month, and this site will be changing its name soon to UCCStrategies.com.

Actually, that last part isn't true. UC is more about the technologies and collaboration is more about the outcome. At UCStrategies, we've always been consumed with the outcome. UC&C is enabler and outcome in one, kind of like "sandwich bread." Back when it was all about voice, enterprise communications were far easier to understand. Real-time collaboration was possible over distances either by shouting or telephonically. Today, we communicate (and shout) in more ways including IM, video, email, texting, and increasingly over social networks. UC was a moniker attempting to capture it all. In the midst of all that change came consumerization and teleworking.

Consumerization is the result of some highly innovative technologies that are both powerful and intuitive - perhaps the best word is liberating. These smart devices such as smartphones and tablets - equipped with high speed networking, multiple sensors, and powerful computing - not only worked their way into the enterprise, but liberated us from our desks.

As the work force got mobile, it became harder and harder to locate colleagues. Paper-based processes such as expense reports became paralyzed as employees abandoned their desks (and physical inboxes). We had to adapt our processes to accommodate a higher degree of mobility. Over the past decade we adopted presence, eforms, scanners, e-calendars, email, and other virtual techniques.

Individual contributors still do their thing, but it turned out that those ad-hoc conversations at the office were more valuable than anyone realized. Surprise! Few us have all the answers. We live in a highly complex environment and all these experts around the office filled in some gaps. This had to be recreated for virtual teams for intentional and even accidental collaboration. While we greatly appreciate our newly found flexibility and portability, it can't come at the cost of productivity.

But watch-out, because collaboration is more than a fancy speaker-phone or virtual whiteboard - it is cultural as well. Collaboration is not a natural act - especially virtual collaboration. It requires individuals and a culture willing to work together toward common goals - technology can foster, but not instigate.

Collaboration is a commitment to productivity and innovation in a modern distributed environment. UC is a means, and along with the right culture it can result with collaboration. And when great minds work together, the outcome can be some great things.