Unified communications 'here at last'?

One analyst has suggested that the use of unified communications (UC) will soon break out of being only used by tech-savvy people to open up to a new audience.

Leon Erlanger, writing for InfoWorld, noted that the upcoming introduction of Microsoft could have an effect in bringing UC to the masses and allowing them to make calls through their company's IP PBX just by clicking a client's name in a document or an email contact in Outlook.

"IP telephony and UC are moving toward a more IT-centric software architecture, laying the groundwork for broader acceptance," he writes.

This may see UC become more readily accepted by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are already showing high interest in IP telephony, according to recent comments from one expert.

Maren Bennette of the Communications Management Association said that the VoIP market is currently undergoing a surge in VoIP take-up from smaller firms as they had waited until the benefits were clear.

Larger companies made the switch over to VoIP when they realised it was "here to stay", he said, but now smaller companies are moving to IP systems too.

"Smaller companies and organisations were the last group to adopt VoIP, mainly because they had little reason to change the telephone systems they had in place already," Mr Bennette said, although he pointed out that now the take-up among these firms is faster than for larger companies.

Posted on: 2007-09-25, in: General VoIP

---