Unified Communication Systems Still Crossing Acceptance Divide Messages seem to come from everywhere: voice mail, e-mail, cell phones, wireline phones, pagers, maybe even an occasional fax. That's where a unified communications system comes in. The system -- mostly software, though some text-to-speech or speech-to-text products include a piece of hardware -- aims to help people manage message overload. The system funnels a variety of messages from a variety of sources into one place, so users can sort them and respond faster. But businesses and consumers have been slow to adopt the service. "Unified communications has been viewed as a nice-to-have rather than a must-have application," said Ronald Gruia, an analyst at market research firm Frost & Sullivan. Sellers of unified communications usually sell to corporations and Internet access providers. Usually, the sellers install the system. Because it has to work in many environments, integration is a difficult job. Data reside in many places, and the unified communications system needs to deliver all types of messages to a variety of devices -- wireline phones, cell phones, desktop PCs, laptops and handhelds. So the software must be flexible. And data must be transformed. Voice mail needs to become e-mail, a pager voice message needs to become a short text message. Technically, these are tough tasks. Aside from those challenges, unified communications vendors face a moving target. New communications types, such as instant messaging, surface and gain importance. "The growing importance of items like instant messaging has made it important that these systems support real-time communications," said David Ferris, head of Ferris Research. As a result of all these requirements, many unified communications installations have been pretty close to custom jobs. And that adds to costs. "There has been a chicken-and-egg scenario when it comes to cost," said analyst Gruia. "Sales have been low, so the prices have been high. And prices have been high because sales have been low." Still, companies are interested in unified communications to help their employees manage message overload. Internet access providers want to offer a service to help their customers more easily sort through multiple messages. With such market uncertainty, many companies are offering unified communications. Vendors in this field include Alcatel (NYSE:ALA - News), Altigen Communications (NasdaqSC:ATGN - News), Avaya (NYSE:AV - News), Cisco Systems (NasdaqNM:CSCO - News), Nortel Networks (NYSE:NT - News), Siemens (NYSE:SI - News), 3Com (NasdaqNM:COMS - News) and Vertical Communications (OTC BB:ASFT.OB - News). Also in the mix are such privately held companies as Applied Voice & Speech Technologies and Mitel. Their focuses cover the gamut of unified communications. No vendor has every feature that a company needs, analysts say. Many vendors, though, can offer multiple features. Technically, the pieces are starting to fall into place. Speedy broadband Internet access, fast becoming commonplace in homes and businesses, is better suited to supporting unified communications than slower dial-up access services. And the emerging Internet telephony service known as VoIP, or voice over Internet protocol, aids unified messaging. "Close to nine out of every 10 companies are at least looking into deploying VoIP," said Yankee Group analyst Zeus Kerravala. So unified communications is rolling out. SBC Communications (NYSE:SBC - News) is offering such a service. Cable firm Comcast (NasdaqNM:CMCSA - News) is testing it. Marin County, Calif., added unified communications in mid-2004. Many of its 2,300 employees are mobile workers. "Before, to track messages they needed laptop computers and handheld devices and maybe other hardware," said Barbara Layton, the county's telecom manager. "Now they can read all of their messages from one device."