The UCStrategies Experts share their expertise in bylined articles, opinion pieces, blogs, and podcasts, to define unified communications, educate you about unified communications technologies, and help you make informed decisions about unified communications solutions.
UCStrategies.com defines unified communications as “Communications integrated to optimize business processes.” The definition of unified communications narrows significantly when you can read and hear about real-world examples that other companies are implementing right now—and apply them to your situation.
This section offers learning tools to help you plan your unified communications implementation.
This section provides a practical, vendor-independent service to any Enterprise that is seeking the benefits of Unified Communications. How do you pull everything together to implement unified communications? Use the tools in this sequence to define unified communications for your business.
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UCStrategies is an industry resource for unified communications enterprises, communications vendors, system integrators, and anyone interested in the growing unified communications arena.
A supplier of objective information on unified communications, UCStrategies is supported by an alliance of leading communication industry advisors, analysts, and consultants who have worked in the various segments of unified communications since its inception.
Articles from the UCStrategies.com UC experts, providing insights and analysis on UC products, events, market trends, and the state of the UC industry.
Somehow, I got a virus – a fake JAVA upgrade got past my rigorous security processes. I share this tale because security and encryption must be among the most boring of UC topics, yet something that must be prioritized and understood. VoIP attacks are common – do you have an SBC? Security needs to be top of mind, and it isn’t something that can be delegated to an Anti-Virus program.
With Tsahi Levent-Levi joining the UCStrategies Experts, we are truly embracing WebRTC going forward. And why not? It sure appears the WebRTC "peers" are about to explode.
Everything is changing and everyone is confused (though not everyone will admit it). In the days of yore, telecom was pretty stable. It is far more than just the technology that is shifting. The rules, roles, attitudes, business models, expectations, and vocabulary are changing as well.
In the past week Avaya and Cisco reported financial results. These two companies are the market share leaders for new shipments of enterprise telephony stations in North America and are two of the top market share holders on a global basis. The results show no revenue growth in the enterprise telephony markets from these two leaders.
While some of its competitors have had to explain to stockholders about recent poor performance, Interactive Intelligence continues to not only grow, but remain profitable, separating the company from most of its competitors. At the company’s “Interactions” event for customers, partners, consultants, and analysts in Indianapolis this week, I got to view some of the reasons why the company has been so successful.
I was an early champion of Google Voice. I felt the concept really had legs. Over the past few years, I’ve changed my tune. I came to realize that Google didn’t have interest in Google Voice and the service languishes within the Googleplex. UC vendors don’t need to fear Google, but rather figure out how to leverage it.
As chair of the WebRTC Conference and Expo, in Atlanta, June 25-27, I have secured a two-for-one offer for readers of UCStrategies to attend the conference. With this special offer, you can register two attendees for the price of one.
It is amazing how much our attitudes toward context have changed. The question is, will we ever have enough contextual information to be truly aware of a given situation or are we better going without contextual hints? In other words, is all this context a good thing?
Sears plans to convert some shuttered or underperforming stores into data centers. The retail giant formed a new subsidiary last March called Ubiquity Critical Environments LLC, which is chartered to convert selected Sears and Kmart properties into data centers – complete with servers, coolers, and back-up generators. Ubiquity also intends to rent rooftops to telecommunication companies.
I want to offer a different prism through which to look at WebRTC. Up until now, the only prism UC vendors used is in the area of accessing their existing architecture and solution. I want to offer two new prisms for you. If you start using them in parallel with your current worldview – you will only benefit.
As you know, I believe that WebRTC is a transformational technology. I think we can look forward to the significant impacts that WebRTC will have on markets, companies, societies and humanity in general. However, WebRTC also needs the underpinnings to make it a viable money-making technology. This combination of long-range transformational benefit and short-range profit generation is the combination that will ensure WebRTC success.
Mobile technologies for customer service are hot – but most of the attention has been focused on how customers can get customer service and support from their mobile devices. There’s another aspect that hasn’t received as much attention – yet. With the growth of mobile devices in the workforce, managers and supervisors no longer have to be tied to their desks. They are free and untethered, allowed to move from place to place while accessing the information they need at their fingertips.
The vast majority of UCaaS offerings are restricted to a single country. Thinking Phone Networks (TPN) has been building traction with some international accounts, and today formally launched its expansion into Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).
Context is also a big topic in mobility, though (like most things mobile) it has been focused on B2C interactions. Context refers to the sum total of what the customer has told us along with what we can glean from other sources to optimize the user experience: transaction history, time, speed (e.g. stationary, walking, in a vehicle), and most importantly, location. We could potentially draw on other sources like social media entries, and the types of transactions or information that user has engaged in before.
ShoreTel announced that its CEO, Peter Blackmore, intends to retire. Blackmore was hired as the CEO in December of 2010. He will remain on as CEO while the firm conducts the search for his replacement.
Today, Westcon unveiled a new solution named BYODShield – a wholesale MDM offering. Westcon’s service is powered primarily by two vendors that Westcon integrated into a single service: BlueCat Networks and Fiberlink. BYODShield is a subscription-based package designed for the channel.
At the recent UC Summit, I presented some of my thoughts on channel opportunities around video communications. I didn’t get into specific vendors in the presentation, but was approached frequently for suggestions. There’s a lot of activity, lots of great solutions and ever decreasing prices from both the major vendors and some new kids. Here are three vendors, in three different spaces, for channel partners to consider.
In recognition of this need by business end users, ShoreTel has just announced its new desktop offering, the ShoreTel Dock, coupled with ShoreTel Mobility, to allow BYOD employees to use their mobile smartphones and tablets as “portable PCs” that can also work with “smart” hard desk phones in an office or at home.
I guessed (at Enterprise Connect 2012) that every major UC vendor would have an iPad dock by the end of the year. I was wrong. It took until today – and the first to deliver is ShoreTel with its new ShoreTel Dock.
The best metaphor for the UC Summit is to describe the event like a Smörgåsbord. It’s just a veritable buffet of information, analysis, relationships, and of course food and drink. When the conferenced ended on Wednesday, everyone left full.