Unified communications adoption significant, moving to video

The uptake of unified communications (UC) systems is happening at a rate faster than previously believed, according to an analyst at research firm IDC Ltd. According to IDC data, 31% of Canadian businesses had incorporated some form of UC by 2007, up from 15% in 2002. "UC is happening much more quickly then people think," Vito Mabrucco, IDC's senior VP worldwide consulting and managing director, tells Network Letter. "We talk about VoIP being this great new technology that enables you to lower costs and add services, but I think the change that's going to come around will be about how this will impact other ways we communicate." Unified voice communications is now a well established technology, so it stands to reason that video communication is the next step for UC. "Communicating via video is going to become a more effective use of communications overall," says Mabrucco. "Maybe instead of voice messages, we'll start to see more video messages." The IDC executive acknowledges that full video messaging may be some ways off, saying it will likely start with more simple and easy-to-do activities, such as a CEO's message on a website or video conferencing. Mabrucco shared his technology predictions with delegates at the IT360 Conference and Expo earlier this month in Toronto. And while he doesn't foresee any earth-shattering changes to the way we do business or share information, he says we're already seeing signs of an evolution. In addition to unified communications, Web 2.0 will continue to make its way into homes and into our business. The very words Web 2.0 tend to conjure up images of Facebook, YouTube or Wikipedia; online resources more commonly associated with entertainment than efficiency. But Mabrucco points out that businesses are starting to leverage the collaborative and information-sharing aspects of Web 2.0 and turning them into tools for improved productivity. A 2007 study by IDC revealed that more than 50% of businesses currently using Web 2.0 applications are doing so with group intranets and portals, nearly 50% are using it for video messaging and conferencing, while 20% and 12.5% are using Web 2.0 for RSS news feeds and wikis, respectively. "We know what Web 2.0 means to us as consumers, but we're still defining what it means to enterprise," he said during his presentation. "Companies like IBM are trying very hard to put their stamp on it. Microsoft, Cisco Systems, just about everyone is talking about Web 2.0 as if they invented it. I liken it to the time when we went from the mainframe single server with the green screens to the client server." According to IDC data, 45% of companies surveyed plan on implementing group intranets and portals in over the next 12 months. Nearly 40% plan on incorporating video conferencing features, while 17% are looking to wikis and RSS feeds and 10% are considering social interaction tools. "One of the interesting things that came out (of these surveys) was the concern from upper management and CEOs that if they don't have these types of technologies, it'll be hard to recruit. Youth expect technologies such as social interaction and collaboration will be available to them at companies," he said. IDC predicts greater use of these technologies in the health and financial sectors over the coming year. "I think you're going to see more spending in the financial services segment in Web 2.0 technologies, where they'll be more collaboration across platforms to give their customers a better view of their bank and vice versa."

Unified communications adoption significant, moving to video

News | 04/21/2008 3:20 pm EDT

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