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Do you feel like Bobo the contortionist as you try to manage disparate communications systems and maintain contact with a mobile sales force while supporting customers and employees? Do your knowledge workers spend way too much time juggling messages on a variety of e-mail and voicemail systems--time that would be better spent generating revenue? To add insult to injury, snail mail and fax transmissions may also be added to the mix. Remote users may need central-office support such as reading information to them over the phone or scanning and sending hard copies via e-mail.

It's enough to make you want to run away and join the circus.

Instead, consider unified messaging. We sent out an RFP seeking an IP-enabled, SIP-compliant UM system that supports IP PBXs and can carry both voice and data for our Legal Eagles research and information service. Out of four respondents only Cisco and Interactive Intelligence filled the bill, and our choice, thanks to its full feature set and reasonable price, was Interactive's Communité. For Cisco shops, however, the Unity product is a capable competitor.

No matter which UM system you choose, everyone wins. You get a central point of administration for enterprise messaging. Multiple devices--such as computers, telephones and PDAs--can access, view, listen to, forward, copy and archive all message types. Users get improved communications services on the road. And customers get their important incoming messages--routed directly to key personnel if necessary--no matter where they are.