Unified Communications Shows Signs of Life

 

We don?t want to get too enthusiastic, but all signs are pointing to a revival, finally, in this long-promised merging of disparate corporate digital streams. This year was a fallow year for unified communications (UC), doubtless
because the up-front investment can be great, and the current
economic environment demands quick returns.

But comparing this year?s survey results to last year?s, we
see an increase in expected UC deployments coming. (See
chart 10 above.) And the benefits, certainly, are likely to be
significant in the long term.

Penske (see trend 8 earlier in the story) has invested heavily
in UC tools from a number of vendors, including Avaya, Cisco
and NEC. ?These tools allow us to run our businesses with
our Verizon devices,? says Pickett. ?We can access our voice
mail, e-mail and desktop data as if we were in the office.

?The drivers and crew chiefs will use it too, because
they?re constantly on the track or out and about, and they
depend on their handhelds. With unified communications,
you can get all you need in one place.?