Unified communications: Hot technology for 2009

Unified communications is one of those technologies that's seemingly forever been on the verge of exploding but has never really become hot.

Maybe the reason is that the term "unified communications" means different things to different people. To the telecom manager, it means replacing the tried-and-true PBX with an IP-PBX from a traditional telephony hardware vendor or from an open source start-up - or maybe even jumping to a software-based platform from Microsoft.

To the desktop user, it means switching to an IP-based phone and taking advantage of a variety of such UC-based productivity applications as audio- and videoconferencing, instant messaging and presence, integrated voice and e-mail.
To BlackBerry-toting mobile workers, UC means being able to use the mobile devices to perform all the business functions associated with an office phone. They want calls made to their desktop phones to bounce to their mobile phones. They want to dial into the office and have their e-mails and voice mails read to them. They want all their devices to sync up seamlessly.

The good news is that all these features are available today from vendors including Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, Nortel and Siemens.

UC technology isn't setting the world on fire, but it is spreading inexorably across enterprise networks. Nemertes Research recently found that just 16% of the 120 companies it surveyed are doing nothing with UC. More than one-third (36%) are in an initial planning phase; 28% have a limited deployment of specific applications that make up the technology, or a full deployment to a limited number of people; and 19% have developed their strategies and are implementing the technology companywide.

What are the drivers of UC? Years ago, the decision was all about saving money and about moves, adds and changes. Last April, when Gartner asked early adopters to list the three biggest benefits of deploying UC, the top answers were employee collaboration, employee productivity and communication for distributed sites. Lower total cost of ownership came in last.

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