This unfortunate state of business is creating great opportunities for technical people who train for a job in unified messaging. Be forewarned, however, that you can't become a unified-messaging expert just by taking a few courses or passing a certification exam. This discipline is so diverse and complex that you can spend years learning just one facet of it. Both fields are complex, highly technical, and very different from each other. Most unified-messaging professionals are well grounded in just one.
Vendors see a vast potential for the overall market and are pushing hard for integration standards.
Even though the standards for data communications and telecommunications are well established, the areas where they intersect are still in flux. Because the ultimate standard is still undecided, you need to understand both. James Rafferty, president of Human Communications in Danbury, Conn., suggests that you should first have a strong background in voice, fax, or E-mail technology. Then you can develop knowledge in the other fields. You should also understand Microsoft Windows NT or Unix because they are most vendors' platforms of choice.