UC Week in Review: Unified Communications a Small Business for Vendors?

Some interesting research about the unified communications space came out this week. A new report by Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) predicted some big revenue changes in UC  industry for vendors.

 

“We do not believe UC will be a big revenue source for the vendors,” Elka Popova, Frost & Sullivan analyst, said.

 

As TMCnet reported, the reason for that prediction is that advanced softphones capable of integrating with instant messaging clients and conferencing platforms, as well as with telephony switches, are not strongly correlated with investments in the rest of the infrastructure required for a complete UC implementation, she said.

 

Vendors will give away UC clients to drive adoption of various advanced communications solutions involving conferencing, collaboration and mobility, according to the report. But as business users become increasingly used to the availability of UC capabilities such as soft clients, it will be difficult to take those features away from them.

 

But Frost & Sullivan’s predictions may not affect everyone in the UC  space.

 

 

According to the company, the move to simplify how users find colleagues place calls, share content and access advanced features, the Polycom Touch Control shortens the learning curve for new users and facilitates broader adoption of visual communication which helps organizations drive faster return on investment and greater productivity.

 

And in other news, Apptix (News - Alert), a provider of hosted Microsoft Exchange e-mail, Microsoft SharePoint and business VoIP services,  announced that its CEO Dave Ehrhardt has been included in Washington SmartCEO Magazine’s 2010 Smart100 list.

 

The Smart100 CEOs are recognized for leadership, strategic vision, and character in running a business. An independent committee selects CEOS for inclusion from a variety of industries, including information technology, government contracting, consulting, financial services, and video production.

 

Those are some of the top stories that made headlines this week in the UC space. For more, check out the UC news page on TMCnet.