TELECOMS
call. Or you can skip the search
because the people you interact
with most frequently will be lined
up in team chats for your projects
and other work activities. With a
click on a profile picture, you can
go from typing messages back and
forth to meeting face-to-face and
sharing your screen. Again, this is
not so different from the experience
on my smartphone, where my
messaging app includes phone and
video camera icons, that allow me
to shift from messaging to talking
when that is the more convenient
way of communicating.
What I have just described
is the vision that prompted my
company, RingCentral, to buy a
team messaging product called
Glip. We now include it with every
subscription to the RingCentral
Office cloud business phone
solution, adding calling and
conference calling to the team
chat experience.
What the cloud makes possible
T he works trea m model h a s
at t racted intens e comp et it io n.
O t her unified communic at io ns
provi ders a re intro ducing te a m
chat to their product l in e s , wh il e
24 | July 2017
p o p u l a r te a m c h at p ro d u ct s a re
s c ra m b l ing to a dd vo i c e a n d
v id e o co m m u nic at i o n s.
One thing we all have in
common is we are pursuing these
goals in the cloud, which is a
natural match for communication
and collaboration tools designed
to put remote workers on equal
footing with those in the office.
Web-based APIs make it far easier
to combine cloud apps than it
ever was to work with enterprise
application ‘connectors.’
Inte grat io n is a n ot h e r
t h e m e in t h e next ge n e rat i o n of
co m m u nic at io n a n d co l l a b o rat i o n
p l at fo r m s . Fo r exa mp l e , eve n
t h o u gh te a m m e ssa g i n g
p l at fo r m s t y p ic al l y i n c l u d e
t h e ir own f il e s h a r i n g , t h e y a l so
inte grate wit h s er v i c e s l i ke B ox,
D ro p b ox , O ne D r ive a n d G o o g l e
D r ive , giv ing u s e r s mo re c h o i c e s.
O r y o u m ight wa nt to i nte g rate
y o u r p ro j e ct a nd A P I to o l s l i ke
Za p ie r, Tre l l o , S t ri p e , J i ra o r
G it H u b into y o u r co m mu n i c at i o n
a nd co l l a b o rat io n p l at fo r m.
A s a h u b fo r i nte g rat i o n s, a
te a m p l at fo r m c an p rov i d e u se r s
wit h a c e nt ra l co mma n d c e nt re
fo r get t ing wo r k d o n e , gat h e r i n g
re p o r t s f ro m a nd i ssu i n g
With a click on a
profile picture, you
can go from typing
messages back and
forth to meeting
face-to-face and
sharing your screen.
co m ma n d s to ot h e r a pp li cati on s .
Fo r t h i s re a so n , I b e l i eve
wo r k st re a m co mmu n i cati on an d
co l l a b o rat i o n to o l s a re central
to t h e f u t u re of wo r k p lace
p ro d u ct i v i t y . Fo r exa mp le, an
eve nt su c h a s a ta sk bei n g
m a r ke d co mp l ete i n a p roject
m a n a ge m e nt sy ste m can b e
p u b l i sh e d a s a m e ssa ge i n a
te a m co nve r sat i o n . C onvers ely,
u se r s c a n i nvo ke si mp le
f u n ct i o n s of ot h e r a p pli cati on s
– su c h a s c re at i n g a new tas k
to b e t ra c ke d – w i t h a few
ke y st ro ke s i n t h e c h at b ox . Over
t i m e , t h e c u r re nt l y p o p ular s las h
co m ma n d sy ntax – a sor t of team
c h at e q u i va l e nt of t h e old D OS
o r Un i x co m ma n d p ro mpt – wi ll
p ro b a b l y g i ve wa y to s omethi n g
m o re u se r f r i e n d l y .
What’s clear to me is that
today’s incarnation of this
technology is just a starting
point. Going forward, there will
be a lot more to unify beyond
what we used to call unified
communications. We should
be striving to unify workplace
experiences, not just technologies.
For further information visit:
www.ringcentral.co