Unified communications Featured  8:00pm EDT July 26, 2008
Unified communications (UC) is one of the hottest discussions in
the communications world today. It means different things to
different people and is defined by different vendors to suit
their offerings and target market. Many use it synonymously with
unified messaging, which it’s not. It’s more expansive than
that, says Margi Shaw, Chief Operations Officer of CIMCO
Communications.  The research organization Frost & Sullivan
defines unified communications as follows: “Unified
communications is the evolution of telephone, e-mail and instant
messaging functionality into a single service or application.
This is not an evolution of technology but an evolution in the
way workers and companies deploy and use their communications
services.”  Because it is an evolutionary approach, the
definition will continue to be vague or change in its
specificity.  Smart Business spoke with Shaw to get a better
understanding of which product suites, technologies and appli