Unified communications can help address the challenge today's organizations face as they contend with increasingly complex environments that feature a wide array of communications methods. Employees, business partners, and customers now conduct business using seemingly infinite combinations of phones, voice messaging, e-mail, fax, mobile clients, and rich-media conferencing. Without unified communications, however, these tools are often not used as effectively as they could be. The result is information overload and misdirected communications that delay decisions, slow down processes, and reduce productivity.

Unified communications allows businesses to collaborate in real time using advanced applications from an integrated, easy-to-use interface. These applications include:

• Video conferencing
• Integrated voice and Web conferencing
• Mobile IP soft phones
• Voicemail, and more

Today, with the Cisco Unified Communications system of voice, video, and IP Communications products, these benefits are greater than ever. Instead of simply connecting products, the Cisco Unified Communications system provides structure and intelligence to help organizations integrate their communications more closely with business processes, and ensure that information reaches recipients quickly, through the most appropriate medium.

Cisco Unified CallManager Express with Cisco Unity Express

Cisco® Unified CallManager Express provides call processing for Cisco Unified IP phones. Cisco Unity® Express offers voicemail and automated-attendant capabilities for IP phone users connected to Cisco Unified CallManager Express. The voicemail and automated-attendant capabilities are fully integrated into the Cisco access router using a network module or advanced integration module (AIM). With this solution, the Cisco portfolio of access routers delivers features similar to those of a key system or hybrid private branch exchange (PBX) plus the rich data and routing capabilities expected on the new Cisco integrated services routers designed specifically for voice services and the award-winning Cisco multiservice access routers that many organizations already have deployed in their networks. Customers can now deliver unified communications to their small sites and branch offices with a solution that is very simple to deploy, administer, and maintain. Cisco Unified CallManager Express with Cisco Unity Express provides customers with a cost-effective, highly reliable, feature-rich solution for an office deployment of up to 240 users.

Integrated Services Routers

Embedded in the Cisco IOS Software that provides call processing for Cisco Unified IP phones, the Cisco Unified CallManager Express solution enables the large portfolio of Cisco access and integrated services routers to deliver a comprehensive set of features commonly used by business customers. Built on a foundation of comprehensive routing and switching management capabilities, Cisco Integrated Services Routers help maximize the power of your organization’s network with unified network services, integrated security, mobility, and application intelligence.