Editing Unified messaging (section)

'''Unified messaging''' (or '''UM''') is a business term for the integration of different electronic [[messaging]] and [[communications]] [[electronic media|media]] ([[e-mail]], [[SMS]], [[fax]], [[voicemail]], [[video messaging]], etc.) technologies into a single interface, accessible from a variety of different devices.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iec.org/online/tutorials/unified_mess/index.html |title=Unified Messaging. Definition and Overview |publisher=International Engineering Consortium |year=2005 |access-date=2009-04-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081110195832/http://www.iec.org/online/tutorials/unified_mess/index.html |archive-date=November 10, 2008 }}</ref> 
While traditional communications systems delivered messages into several different types of stores such as [[voicemail]] systems, e-mail servers, and stand-alone fax machines, with Unified Messaging all types of messages are stored in one system. Voicemail messages, for example, can be delivered directly into the user's inbox and played either through a headset or the computer's speaker. This simplifies the user's experience (only one place to check for messages) and can offer new options for workflow such as appending notes or documents to forwarded voicemails.

Unified messaging is increasingly accepted in the corporate environment, where it's generally seen as an improvement to business productivity.<ref>{{cite web |last=Kostek |first=Jessica |date=2009-02-25 |title=Frost & Sullivan: Unified Messaging to Become Ubiquitous Enterprise Communication Solution |url=http://hdvoice.tmcnet.com/topics/unified-communications/articles/51217-frost-sullivan-unified-messaging-become-ubiquitous-enterprise-communication.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090227002151/http://hdvoice.tmcnet.com/topics/unified-communications/articles/51217-frost-sullivan-unified-messaging-become-ubiquitous-enterprise-communication.htm |archive-date=2009-02-27 |access-date=2009-04-07 |publisher=TMCnet.com}}</ref> Unified messaging for professional settings integrates communications processes into the existing [[IT infrastructure]], i. e. into [[Customer relationship management|CRM]], [[Enterprise resource planning|ERP]] and [[Message transfer agent|mail systems]].