Presence identifies which users are online and available for interaction at a PC or other device. Generally, presence is used before a real-time interaction, such as a text chat or a voice or video call. It is an invaluable tool for remote workers when you are either the requestor or receiver of requests for collaborative interactions.

Presence increases productivity by reducing the time needed to locate and connect to others, and it is rapidly becoming an essential cornerstone of a robust collaboration and application integration strategy. When tied to the individual’s enterprise profile and identity, presence helps to add context to interactions.

We have identified three generations of presence. The first generation was associated mainly with instant messaging (IM). The second generation is the use of presence in unified communications and collaboration (UCC) platforms such as Cisco Jabber, IBM Sametime, and Microsoft Skype for Business to enable multimodal, real-time communication. Third-generation presence engines focus on broadly integrating presence across many applications and devices. This approach is often part of an enterprise portal strategy, in which presence is a service tied to each user’s profile and identity.

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