With VoiceCon in Orlando opening this week it's been a busy few days for the unified communications sector. Today, we'll highlight a number of the announcements made prior to the show, from companies including Aspect Software, Clarus Systems, CyberData and XO Communications, and next week, we'll update readers with some more in-depth news on some of the additional announcements made at the conference.

* 911 ETC announced that its V911 Connect 911ETC now offers Enhanced 911 software-as-a-service features for VoIP or for a hybrid PBX/VoIP.

* Aspect Software enhanced its contact center to better manage customer interactions, allowing calls to be routed to subject matter experts in the enterprise.

* Clarus Systems unveiled the latest release of ClarusIPC, which offers enhanced business intelligence and performance management capabilities like enhanced reporting, data augmentation, analytics, advanced monitoring and alerting.

* CyberData introduced its upcoming VoIP Intercom, which operates as a door entry phone with access control capabilities, or as an emergency phone with mass notification capabilities.

* GN released a dedicated Electronic Hook Switch (EHS) for Polycom's SoundPoint IP desktop phones. The adapter lets users with a wireless headset use Polycom's VoIP desk phones at up to 500 feet away from the phone.

* Iscoord showcased its is-phone Communicator, a SIP softphone integrated into Microsoft Outlook/MSN Messenger. It also unveiled new is-phone features, such as a feature enabling anonymous instant calls from any Web site to any phone.

* Litescape announced a new unified communications application to improve customer interactions eliminating inefficiencies of disjointed Web and phone requests to customer service reps.

* NET introduced the VX1800 Voice Exchange for Unified Communications, a high capacity intelligent media gateway that is purpose-built for enterprise VoIP and unified communications. It is Microsoft UC Certified and supports up to 1000 "any-to-any" simultaneous calls.

* NetQoS launched VoIP Monitor Version 1.1 with automatic investigations into problems when a performance threshold is exceeded as well as enhanced reporting capacity.

* Phybridge released the Phybridge Uniphyer, an appliance that enables voice/data network convergence with Power over Ethernet and guaranteed QoS.

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. Larry Hettick is a principal analyst at Current Analysis.