Unified communications, on face value, could be the application of the decade given all its promises. It lets users access people and resources, no matter the location or communication channel, spurring productivity and boosting business processes at an economical cost.
But dig a little deeper and it’s clear integration, and choosing the right solution, could prove challenging for IT departments.
One reason is the crowded unified communications (UC) space, which includes IBM (NYSE: IBM), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), Nortel Networks (NYSE: NT) and Avaya (NYSE: AV) to name just a few.
And that playing field is bound to get noisier since UC technology is evolving from two distinct markets: the e-mail/desktop collaboration space and the telecom industry, according to a new study released this week from Gartner.
“PBX vendors moved into the UC space with unified messaging, IM and other UC applications. The e-mail and desktop collaboration vendors started from a software-based solution and added many of the same applications as the communications vendors. The overlap is now creating a new competitive landscape from both a technology and architectural environment,” states the report, Key Issues for Unified Communications, 2008.
While deeming UC as an “early stage” application, Gartner analyst and report author Bern Elliot believes 2008 will be a pivotal year, with more new products and partnership announcements happening just as enterprises begin initiating pilot UC efforts.
“UC will be initially layered on the business, adding value to unstructured communications capabilities to the user base. The sophistication of the organization will determine how valuable and business-changing the UC applications will be,” stated Elliot.
Gartner expects software-based solution providers to dominate the UC market place, which industry researcher IDC has said could total $17 billion by 2011.
That’s good news for Microsoft and Nortel Networks. The vendors rolled out a new UC service early in March after a year and half of planning. In making the announcement Ruchi Prasad, vice president and general manager, Innovative Communications Alliance, Nortel told InternetNews.com that “the end goal is a software-based unified communications platform.”
It’s also music to the ears at IBM’s UC division. The vendor is dedicating $1 billion in UC R&D and working on an enhanced version of IBM’s Lotus Sametime communications platform. In January it detailed its “UC-squared” strategy for integrating voice and data communications with the Lotus Connection collaboration tools.
In his keynote at this week’s VoiceCon conference, IBM’s Lotus General Manager Mike Rhodin predicted that enterprises will integrate VoIP into business applications and that new UC applications will evolve as more business software is pulled into the mix.
But while Rhodin doesn’t expect huge infrastructure “rip and tear” to make UC work, Gartner is clearly concerned that “architectural nuances” of implementations will challenge enterprise deployment.
“Large numbers of servers acting as gateways appear on the road maps of many vendors, and this is even further exacerbated in multi-vendor environments. Integration at an application and function level has commenced with an attempt to simplify, as well as lock, companies into single (or reduced number) vendor solutions,” states the report.
This article was first published on InternetNews.com. To read the full article, click here.
Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
December 04, 2020
Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 18, 2020
Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
November 10, 2020
FEATURE | By Samuel Greengard,
November 05, 2020
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 02, 2020
How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 29, 2020
Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 23, 2020
The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
October 16, 2020
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
October 07, 2020
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
October 05, 2020
CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
September 25, 2020
Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 25, 2020
Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2020
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
September 22, 2020
NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
September 18, 2020
Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 14, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 13, 2020
IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 11, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality
FEATURE | By James Maguire,
September 09, 2020
Anticipating The Coming Wave Of AI Enhanced PCs
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 05, 2020
The Critical Nature Of IBM’s NLP (Natural Language Processing) Effort
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
August 14, 2020
Datamation is the leading industry resource for B2B data professionals and technology buyers. Datamation's focus is on providing insight into the latest trends and innovation in AI, data security, big data, and more, along with in-depth product recommendations and comparisons. More than 1.7M users gain insight and guidance from Datamation every year.
Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on Datamation and our other data and technology-focused platforms.
Advertise with Us
Property of TechnologyAdvice.
© 2025 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved
Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this
site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives
compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products
appear on this site including, for example, the order in which
they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies
or all types of products available in the marketplace.