You are not alone. So do I. So does other people like us who have become dependent on e-mails and text messages to our mobile communication devices. So does people like us who are not sitting behind our desk anymore.

It is no longer enough that people who are connected to our offices – and branch offices, in some cases – are hooked up anytime, anywhere, but in real time.

Particularly in Asia Pacific, we mobile workers are increasing in population.

"We believe, the customer experience is the last frontier of differentiation," stated Diane Shariff, global director, Unified Communications Solutions, Avaya, Inc. in her recent keynote talk "Don’t miss the forest through the trees." She was in Manila recently for the Philippine leg of the Avaya Unified Communications Roadshow 2008.

She noted that while sending of messages have become faster, they seem not to be completely effective. "Picking up messages late has impact," she stated, adding that while there are more ways to connect, there is a million ways to do so.

"Did you know that there is an estimated 9 million customer-contact agents and 100 million customer facing workers? About 50 million branch workers?" she asked. "The branch is back. People want communities! Are your remote workers available and ready to serve your customers? "

Shariff reminded the roadshow participants to address the needs of another users group that have emerged, the Generation Millennials a.k.a. Me-Gen (those born between 1980 and 2000). "They are multi-taskers. They grew up with the personal computers and the Internet."

In keeping toe to toe with this, Avaya believes the world has entered a new era of intelligent communications, where business value is delivered at the application level.

In a tearsheet provided the attendees, it reported, "Information workers are individuals who must interact with others and with the information for the purposes of accomplishing their objectives.

"Up to 64% of workers, according to an Avaya survey, carry more than one communication device and use both voice and e-Mail with some effectiveness.

"However, roughly 40% of those surveyed said they pick up an important message late more than 4 to five times a week and 34% said they lost revenue opportunities because they could not be contacted when they were needed.

"Avaya Unified Communications has the potential to transform the way people work and communicate by embedding the act of communicating into what people do instead."

In her talk, Shariff demonstrated in real time and live at the ballroom of Shangri-la Hotel in Makati City the latest Avaya Unified Communications solutions. These are integrated, multi-vendor communications applications, systems and services that work together in a reliable and secure fashion. They are able to work through a seamless user interface that is independent of device.

She said the Avaya approach to Unified Communications is not to introduce yet another technology or to insist on an "allAvaya" environment. Rather, Avaya solution makes use of existing, established technologies and work well in a multi-vendor environment.