Unified communications predicted to flourish in 2008

Merging data and voice communications services is set to become a key part of business strategy next year, it has been suggested.

According to electronic giant Siemens, unified communications (UC) will become more in vogue with firms and providers, SearchVoIP.com reports.

"More managed services providers will announce powerful, new, sophisticated UC offerings for small to mid-sized businesses and enterprises," the company predicted, adding that hosted VoIP telephony services will see a surge in adoption thanks to UC.

This assertion was backed up by a study conducted for the firm by Insignia Research, which found that that the average mid-sized company in North America or Europe could miss out on as much as £6.3 million a year by not upgrading to take advantage of unified communications.

Siemens senior global marketing manager, Grace Tiscareno-Sato, offered some more reasons for switching to the IP-based service including improved efficiency and faster times for products to get to the marketplace.