Avaya and DiVitas - Mobile Unified Communications on the Move

I am a huge fan of unified communications, a somewhat imprecise term, but an exciting concept regardless. I define unified communications as the bringing together all forms of voice and data messaging into a single software platform, but also supporting many forms of (especially mobile and wireless) subscriber units. This is a little vague, but imagine having one big inbox that holds everything, and you're there. No more multiple voice-mail accounts, multiple instant-messaging and related service accounts, all of your e-mail handled in one place, and all of this provisioned on whatever device you happen to have available at a particular moment. I published a White Paper (with Cisco) on this topic late last year; this document deals with UC in healthcare and is obviously Cisco-specific, but I think it's instructive nonetheless.

But Cisco isn't the only player in UC. I've noted advances in mobile UC (and I still refuse, BTW, to use the resulting acronym, MUC) before, and now one of the leading firms in MUC (a term I did not just use), DiVitas Networks, has joined forces with another UC industry leader, Avaya, to produce an offering that's going to have huge appeal to many enterprises. This essentially combines DiVitas' MUC with Avaya's Communication Manager and Modular Messaging into a single killer product offering that's getting very close to my vision of everything on one place available through any handy device. DiVitas' support of dual-mode (cellular plus Wi-Fi) handsets is key, allowing access through the lowest-cost network available, with undeniable convenience.

What I really need, though, since I run a small company, is this capability offered as a service aimed at small businesses. Access to UC and MUC are key competitive advantages, but there are no products in this space at present aimed at smaller firms. And I'd like to see more of an everything-in-one-box-from-one-company approach rather than the multi-box, reference-sell strategy Avaya is using as of this announcement. Regardless, this is an important step forward for both firms, and I expect that we are now significantly closer to the pervasive deployment of unified communications as a result.

• Wireless / Mobile
• Avaya
• DiVitas
• mobile unified communications
• unified communications