Unified Communications

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  • Wireless beyond the tipping point: No more excuses for escaping to the beach

    Posted April 18, 2011 - 1:24 pm

    It wasn't a bright line, but we're clearly past whatever was the marker between the old, disconnected-and-at-peace society and whatever we live in now.

  • Trucking firm brings on unified communications to save money, boost productivity

    Posted March 16, 2011 - 3:16 pm

    Interstate trucking company Boyd Bros. Transportation was losing experienced freight agents because it couldn't support home workers, but replacing the firm's 20-year-old phone system brought unified communications features that let it hang on to these veteran employees and save money at the same time.

  • Google Docs gets Wave-like chat features

    Posted March 16, 2011 - 2:39 pm

    Remember Google Wave, the innovative although sadly unloved e-mail and chat hybrid that was retired last year? Well, it sounds like Google couldn't stand to turn it out into the cold, and several of its features have made their way into Google Docs.

  • Group texting may be IT's next headache

    Posted March 15, 2011 - 4:55 pm

    Group texting is free, easy and familiar; users will looove it, often avoiding systems built to comply with rules that specifically require text-tracking.

  • Ignore telephony security at your peril

    Posted January 5, 2011 - 2:14 pm

    Among the threats that keep IT security managers up at night, attacks against phone systems have often ranked near the bottom. The last time we asked IT leaders about their telephony security plans, just 2% had experienced a security incident, and in almost all of these cases, the attack was internal misuse of phone systems for personal long-distance calls. Few had developed any sort of comprehensive security or risk analysis plan covering their voice systems.

  • Microsoft's Lync fills gaps in VoIP

    Posted November 17, 2010 - 2:00 pm

    Despite the name change and hype around its dramatic release candidate and RTM version, the net significance of Microsoft's Lync 2010 release is that it brings the company's unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) platform up to par in some areas with competitors – though it doesn't slingshot past them, experts say.

  • App cuts cellular costs, adds link to unified communications

    Posted April 6, 2009 - 1:50 pm

    Agito's latest version of its cellular wireless LAN convergence software promises still more savings in mobile calling costs for corporate users.

  • Enterprise Social Networking v Unified Communications

    Posted October 6, 2008 - 7:26 pm

    I have to concede that enterprise social networking (eSN) has been around for a very long time. In fact, it has been around so long that it has only recently been identified as social networking. In the not-so-distant past eSN was called unified communications and collaboration.

  • Social Networking - What is the Business Value?

    Posted October 2, 2008 - 1:52 pm

    Social networking has become widely adopted in the consumer and personal market place, but has not gotten the anticipated traction in the business world. I’ve been mulling over this market dilemma for a long time and have developed some ideas to explain the lagging business adoption.

  • Channel partners looking at unified communications

    Posted August 22, 2008 - 9:22 am

    The market for hosted and managed Unified Communications is hot--and VAR's can't afford to ignore it. This is a service that is coming on strong, with several offerings making a big splash this year. Unlike the shrinking margins afforded by traditional software and hardware sales, unified communications offerings can deliver greater profits for partners.

  • Unified Communications in the Channel

    Posted July 4, 2008 - 11:16 am

    Unified Messaging holds a great deal of promise in terms of convenience. Imagine being able to click on an icon for a colleague on your computer screen, and then see a range of options for communicating with that individual. Are they in the office? You would automatically ring up their office number. At home? Doesn’t matter, your UM system would ring up their home instead. In the car in between? Ring the mobile. On the beach in Thailand? Well, you might be out of luck there.
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