Finding Unified Architectural Diversity Other considerations that will affect your system implementation are how "close" to put the message store to the user, whether messages should be replicated, how a message status (unopened or opened, for example) should be tracked and when and how messages and their statuses should be synchronized. Some products, such as Centigram's OneView for Windows and Applied Voice Technology's CallXpress3, provide their own visual interface integrating the message stores at the desktop, which eliminates the need for synchronization in the various stores. Notification of new messages--and the ability to tailor the notifications system--is crucial to any messaging system. Find out if the product supports external notification methods, such as outcalls to the user's cell phone or pager. Message-waiting lights and icons on PCs, for example, may not be adequate fo r mobile users. The products from Applied Voice and Centigram use message-waiting lights, PC icons, outcalls and pager notification. The Finishing Touches Before choosi ng a unified messaging system for your company, you must consider its cost of ownership, functionality and manageability. Cost of ownership takes into account the initial price, ongoing maintenance of the service and training. Acquisition costs--usually the only considered value--comprise just 20 percent of total life-cycle costs. A single message store requires less maintenance over the life of the product than multiple stores with synchronization. Functionality considers the overall capability of users to easily create the full range of media message types from the PC and process media from the telephone. Remote operation is critical for the mobile worker. Therefore, support of offline message creation is necessary. Using a multimedia notebook computer, users should be able to create faxes, e-mail and voice messages. Additi onally, the options should let them listen to voice messages while offline. Manageability focuses on the administrator's effort. One aspect that poses significant challenges is the user directory. Synchronizing and upkeep of the user directory is indispensable in managing any networking environment. In a unified environment, the directory becomes more important because it holds the address translations among the various media types for the same user. Supporting a single store model with a single directory significantly lowers the difficulty of management (and decreases the cost of ownership). The development and adherence to standards is crucial. Unified messaging is a unique blend of multiple standalone tools into a cohesive package that meets users' needs and expectations of the separate standalone tools. The trick is to package this combined functionality into a simple interface that users can learn and adopt. David A. Zimmer is president of American Eagle Group, a consultancy specializing in electronic messaging and unified messaging for end-user companies. He can be reached at dazimmer@ameagle.com.

QoS: Crating Inequality in an Equal World by Chris Lewis Updated May 12, 1997