Unified Communications Week in Review

There was plenty of news to be had in the field of unified communications (UC), and not even Halloween itself could scare off the flood that was to follow. But with so much going on, it's great to be able to take a breath, a step back, and a better look at the broader outlook of the market. The weekend at hand gives us just the chance we need, so settle in and let's get a look at the broader field of events in UC this week with our Week in Review coverage!

First, we had a look at LiveQoS, who acquired Openera in a bid to get a more robust offering going in the cloud services field. While LiveQoS is already a pretty major name in the field, thanks to a variety of tools geared toward improving both quality of experience and quality of service, the addition of Openera to the roster allows LiveQoS access to a new set of file compression tools as well as transfer technologies to improve on a user experience that was already regarded as both fast and secure.

Next we had a look at Polycom, who was riding something of a growth wave in the UC market, along with the collaborations market, as discovered by a survey Polycom (News - Alert) commissioned through Redshift Research. Nearly all of the over 1,200 business decision makers in the survey—96 percent—believed that video conferencing both improves productivity and removes the barriers of distance, and 52 percent believed video would be the weapon of choice in collaboration in the next three years.

We then had a look at Akkadian Labs, who was set to take over the sales, development and support for Fidelus Technologies' software business. Fidelus had quite a bit of software to handle, including the recently released Voice Bundle and Video Bundle packages, along with a variety of other UC solutions geared toward getting businesses to better communicate and take advantage of cost savings associated with same. With Akkadian Labs in place, Fidelus has an arm that can specifically focus on this growing market and getting out more products suited to take advantage of same.

A wider look at the global digital marketing software market made the next piece of news, as Research and Markets' “Global Digital Marketing Software Market 2012-2016” report emerged, running down some highlights in the wider industry. Oddly, dominance in the field was largely kept within four separate firms: SAP, Oracle, IBM (News - Alert) and Microsoft. With many companies still analyzing the potential of cloud computing in IT operations, digital marketing software has big upward potential.

Finally, we had a look at what UC could offer when it was associated with the cloud. Since there are many products associated with UC, it not only provides access to more one-way data flows—things like video, fax services, tweets and Facebook (News - Alert) likes—but also to more collaborative systems like voice communication, collaboration software, scheduling and workflow management systems. Fields like disaster recovery also get a leg up, as the ability to work remotely is a huge help when disaster strikes.

That was the week that was in unified communications, and there was plenty of news in the wider market to talk about this week. With new products and new ideas getting involved, the UC market is being shaped on a daily basis. Our global online community was in fine form, finding the latest news for us right here, so be sure to join us next week for all the latest UC news in the field, and every weekend for our Week in Review!