Business communications led the charge for converging user interfaces under the banner of “unified communications” and “unified messaging,” where users could communicate flexibly with voice and text. Bill Gates recently told 1,200 students and faculty members at Carnegie Mellon University. “In five years, Microsoft expects more Internet searches to be done through speech than through typing on a keyboard” Gates also stated that Microsoft is following up its support of UC but will use both speech and text interfaces for information access and search technologies. Microsoft’s endorsement of UC will help reinforce the flexibility of unified messaging as a fundamental element of business communications, supplemented by voice/video conferencing when required.

Slowly but surely Internet access and the power of search is changing the paradigm of “people centered” information delivery. This change in paradigm is creating what is now being viewed as “human latency," inefficiencies in business process performance. Microsoft is identifying the use of speech as a more efficient data input mode over typing or writing. The question not addressed is an inputs relationship to output. If for instance, speech is the mode of input, the output shouldn’t necessarily be speech. The best of all UC worlds would be the efficiencies of speech input combined with visual output. However, there will be times, especially with mobile users, when speech input and visual outputs will not be practical (e.g., noisy environments, eyes-free requirement while driving). So, users need dynamic choices for information access interfaces which can be supported by personalized handheld mobile devices.

Microsoft's announcement follows the multimodal approach to self-service that well-known IVR provider, Intervoice, had developed last year for mobile customer applications.  Not only is this applicable for operational efficiencies, but must also extend to external users using device independent “self-service” applications. The UC industry has been talking about this kind of “multimodal(no spelling suggestions) and “transmodal” capability for information access, including information retrieval and information delivery by automated business process applications. 

Today's business environment will have to recognize and adapt to the changes that the Internet, wireless mobility, and computers are bringing to the “virtual” enterprise table. “It’s not your father’s business filing cabinets for information retrieval!”