UC increasingly crucial to businesses

Unified communications, including IP telephony solutions, are being seen as a vital business tool more and more by IT planners, Nemertes Research has said.

This is why the profile of unified communications (UC) has risen dramatically over the last two years, according to the emerging technologies research advisory firm.

Katherine Trost, research analyst at Nemertes Research, lists audio, video, instant messaging (IM) and web conferencing as the applications UC integrates along with VoIP solutions.

Ms Trost, in an article published on VoIP information website SearchVoIP, writes that organisations can also expand UC features like presence and click-to-call (CTC) to other applications.

"The benefits of unified communications become apparent as we consider how the way in which we conduct business has evolved," Ms Trost wrote.

Workers are becoming more reliant on UC applications like VoIP phones as they are increasingly expected to work from branch locations, from home, and in between.

"These virtual workers rely on UC applications as a way to share information easily and to communicate and interact with co-workers, partners and clients," Ms Trost explained.

Large organisations are increasing the speed at which they adopt unified communications, despite the economic downturn, technology industry analyst firm Ovum said recently.