I personally don’t like the term Unified Communications being used as a catch all phrase for Telephony Application Services because it really only defines collaboration and productivity tools. However Computerweekly reports that the UK is slow in adopting IP Telephony and they risk not getting on the next wave of productivity:
(Gartner’s) Robinson warned that UK companies risked missing out on the business opportunities that integrated, IP-based networks will bring through greater alignment between business strategies and IT with the increasing introduction of IP-based applications and services. He said easier integration between IP-based technologies was key to deriving maximum business value from unified communications.
What is good news is that the telephony application services are becoming mainstream language but what is clear is that it is not explained well. There is a wealth of companies like Cistera, Genesys, Aspect, Interactive Intelligence and others that are do a great job building out application services for telephony but we still need to do a better job explains clearly how business value is build with these services and to make it interesting for the general media to use.
