Issue 4 Summer 008
Presence management: Simply connecting people?
by Jane Marr
Presence management applications can identify the right people with the right knowledge
and facilitate engagement with them through their preferred channel in real time. While
this may sound like the answer to the collaboration challenges faced by many global
enterprises, the benefits depend on careful integration of presence management
applications across the enterprise and organisational culture also plays an important role.
The wide range of communications options now WHAT IS PRESENCE?
available, combined with a growing need to collaborate Presence is a foundation technology that provides
with people in multiple locations, can bring complexities an application, such as instant messaging (IM), with
to the business of identifying the best channel and right an indication of the availability and connectedness
time to communicate and share information. of contacts. It shows if users’ devices are online.
From that point onward, users can communicate
Presence management technology facilitates enhanced directly with each other. Presence can sense things
management of how and when we communicate with such as users’ addresses, the types of devices they
others. Today it is often used simply to identify whether are using, their geographical locations via a global
someone is online and available. As the technology positioning system, the applications or documents
matures and presence becomes embedded into they have open on the system, the applications in
applications, it will be easier to collaborate and respond use and the activity taking place.
to individual preferences. Gartner predicts that by 2009,
80% of business applications will support at least a
basic level of presence awareness
1
. applications can now find suitably skilled staff, organise
meetings and make sure everyone has the relevant
PRESENCE AWARE APPLICATIONS papers and information.
Adopting such new capabilities is like swapping a
switchboard operator in favour of a personal assistant. BRINGING PEOPLE AND PROCESSES CLOSER
Simple presence-enabled applications have been TOGETHER
around for c30 years and just route telephone calls or The current generation of presence-enabled applications
instant messages to an available person with the right means that companies can automate the connection of
product knowledge. They tend to be single-channel and the right people across multiple communication channels,
often telephone based. Advanced presence-enabled at the right time and with the right information.
1 | Perspectives on technology
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