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Week of 26 Sep 2011 Video conferencing system helps emergency response teams mobilize (29 Sep 2011)
Transportation and emergency management officials in Houston coordinate emergency response teams using the LifeSize HD video conferencing system its UC pros recently deployed.
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Week of 19 Sep 2011 Hold the hardware: Vendors focus on software-based video conferencing (22 Sep 2011)
Enterprise adoption of desktop video is pushing more vendors, such as Polycom, to develop or improve their approaches to software-based video conferencing.
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Week of 12 Sep 2011 Enterprise social software Magic Quadrant: Assess user need first (15 Sep 2011)
Collaboration pros have three enterprise social software vendor paths, according to Gartner's social software Magic Quadrant -- choosing one requires assessing user need.
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Week of 05 Sep 2011 Building a UC strategy from scratch, with minimal service disruption (08 Sep 2011)
Amid a corporate divestiture, one UC pro was told to reconstruct his UC strategy and infrastructure from scratch and with minimal service disruption.
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Week of 29 Aug 2011 Enterprise VoIP spending up, UC pros demand advanced mobility features (29 Aug 2011)
UC pros are deploying more sophisticated enterprise VoIP endpoints and making advanced PBX features around mobility a purchasing requirement.
Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications: UC integration improves (01 Sep 2011)
Vendors are improving UC integration as they evolve their products from portfolios to integrated suites, says Gartner's latest Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications.
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Week of 15 Aug 2011 Desktop video conferencing software's Web client ups flexibility (18 Aug 2011)
UC pros at a Chicago law firm deployed desktop video conferencing software they call "business-class Skype" to keep up with the demands of their highly mobile workforce.
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Week of 08 Aug 2011 Breaking cultural barriers to enterprise social software adoption (11 Aug 2011)
The barriers to enterprise social software adoption are more cultural than technical. In this Q&A, Caleb Barlow, IBM director of UC, explains how UC pros can overcome them.
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Week of 01 Aug 2011 Multiway video collaboration turns everyone into a presenter (04 Aug 2011)
Vendors are evolving the screen-sharing features of their video collaboration products from a one-way, pass-the-ball experience to a multiway model that makes all participants presenters.
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Week of 25 Jul 2011 HD VoIP aids communications in a global economy, but by how much? (28 Jul 2011)
Vendors say a global economy drives the need for HD VoIP in multinational companies, as poor call quality exacerbates the ability to understand a colleague's foreign accent.
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Week of 18 Jul 2011 Cloud providers deliver mobile collaboration apps better than on-prem (21 Jul 2011)
On-prem UC can't keep pace with the evolving mobile device landscape and sub-second latency requirements of mobile collaboration, but cloud UC providers can, says one expert.
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Week of 11 Jul 2011 SIP-based multimedia UC call center software streamlines operations (14 Jul 2011)
Enterprises have hesitated to adopt UC call center technology, but social media and the consumerization of IT are putting pressure on traditional voice-centric approaches.
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Week of 04 Jul 2011 Lync Online UCaaS debuts, but some question if it's enterprise-ready (07 Jul 2011)
UC pros have been edgy about UC as a Service (UCaaS), citing concerns around limited customization and features—and even Microsoft may not change their minds with Lync Online.
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Week of 27 Jun 2011 Users won't plug in tablets, but mobile UC via Wi-Fi still dicey (30 Jun 2011)
Laptops, tablets and smartphones have evolved into multipurpose mobile UC endpoints, but their preferred access—Wi-Fi—hasn't kept up.
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Week of 20 Jun 2011 With enterprise social software, usability matters more than features (24 Jun 2011)
No matter how much users love Facebook, they won't automatically flock to enterprise social software. Adoption requires more than meeting a checklist of feature sets.
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Week of 06 Jun 2011 Telepresence room design: Do you really need to buy a vendor's chairs? (10 Jun 2011)
UC pros want more flexible telepresence deployment options, challenging rigid telepresence room design guidelines that require custom furniture and prescribed layouts.
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Week of 30 May 2011 Unify UC user experience for mobile, bring your own device initiatives (02 Jun 2011)
With increasing focus on mobility and bring your own device initiatives, UC pros must ensure that users who juggle multiple devices have a unified user experience.
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Week of 23 May 2011 Unified communications strategy suffers when IT 'civil war' wages (26 May 2011)
Divisions within IT lead to a splintered unified communications strategy, resulting in poor execution, lackluster adoption and unnecessary expenses, according to one expert.
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Week of 09 May 2011 Microsoft/Skype: Once skeptical UC pros reassessing enterprise Skype (12 May 2011)
The Microsoft/Skype deal is prompting UC pros who were once enterprise Skype skeptics to give the VoIP provider a second look now that an established UC vendor is at the helm.
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Week of 02 May 2011 Soft PBX adds flexibility to VoIP business continuity strategy (05 May 2011)
Legacy TDM voice was often too expensive to build into a business continuity strategy. VoIP changed that, and some UC managers find more flexibility in soft PBX platforms.
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Week of 25 Apr 2011 LifeSize debuts video support for enterprise Skype, UC pros still split (28 Apr 2011)
LifeSize will natively run Skype's code and federate with its massive directory on LifeSize Passport units, but UC pros remain ambivalent as ever about enterprise Skype usage.
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Week of 18 Apr 2011 Rising UC security threats unheeded by vendors and enterprises (21 Apr 2011)
Enterprises cite security as a top reason to shun consumer tools such as Skype, yet few IT organizations are beefing up UC security on enterprise-class devices and endpoints.
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Week of 11 Apr 2011 UC managers: Unified messaging services 1st priority for mobile users (14 Apr 2011)
Despite the hype around mobile UC, most UC managers say mobile users need just basic unified messaging services on their smartphones, according to a recent survey.
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Week of 04 Apr 2011 Desktop video conferencing brings users to content, not vice versa (07 Apr 2011)
Video conferencing rooms were too rigid for one university to connect with scientists in Panama. Desktop video conferencing over Wi-Fi offered flexibility and independence.
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Week of 28 Mar 2011 Telepresence recording gets smarter with searchable video, auto-tags (31 Mar 2011)
Who wants to sit through a 90-minute telepresence recording when only a fraction of it is relevant? In response, vendors are adding ways to search and tag content.
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Week of 21 Mar 2011 Avaya Aura architecture, SIP trunking help healthcare system scale UC (23 Mar 2011)
With the Avaya Aura architecture and SIP trunking, a healthcare system centralizes and distributes UC services that were too expensive for some clinics to deploy on their own.
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Week of 14 Mar 2011 Software-based video conferencing on standard gear yields flexibility (17 Mar 2011)
A software-based video conferencing deployment has given one enterprise more flexibility and enabled it to use industry standard hardware and third-party applications.
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Week of 07 Mar 2011 Video conferencing interoperability concerns deepen as desktop video rises (10 Mar 2011)
Desktop video conferencing deployments are expected to rise, intensifying concerns around video conferencing interoperability and integration for UC pros at Enterprise Connect.
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Week of 28 Feb 2011 Business tablet hype at Enterprise Connect: Mobile UC pros skeptical (03 Mar 2011)
IT pros attending Enterprise Connect this week are enthusiastic about business tablets but not for mobile UC.
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Week of 14 Feb 2011 Telepresence interoperability: Multistream standard needed (17 Feb 2011)
Telepresence interoperability among competing vendors remains elusive, thanks to a lack of standards governing multiscreen systems. But progress is chugging along.
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Week of 07 Feb 2011 VoIP security issues: How you might become a target for TDoS attacks (10 Feb 2011)
The maturation of VoIP deployments has opened UC pros to a new world of VoIP security issues -- telephony denial of service (TDoS) attacks. Contact centers are prime targets.
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Week of 31 Jan 2011 Working at home in pajamas: Bad for desktop video conferencing uptake (02 Feb 2011)
Cultural barriers have impeded desktop video adoption among knowledge workers, requiring UC pros to focus their desktop video conferencing strategy on upper management.
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Week of 24 Jan 2011 Emerging unified communications management tools immature, demand light (27 Jan 2011)
VoIP monitoring vendors aren't ready to fully support unified communications management tools, and many enterprise UC deployments are still too immature to need them.
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Week of 10 Jan 2011 Will enterprises ever warm up to Skype for business communications? (12 Jan 2011)
Skype is courting enterprises, but UC pros still regard it as a consumer service and hesitate to depend entirely on Skype for business communications.
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Week of 03 Jan 2011 Enterprise social software adds security, more room for UC integration (05 Jan 2011)
Duke University is integrating its legacy UC tools into an enterprise social software platform to enrich collaboration among students while keeping their communications secure.
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Week of 20 Dec 2010 Complexity plagues communications-enabled business process technology (22 Dec 2010)
Communications-enabled business processes (CEBP) sound like a good idea, but adoption has limped along as its definition remains unclear and implementation is still complex.
‘Captain America’ tops list of geek movies to watch in 2011 (SearchDataManagement.com | 23 Dec 2010)
Geeks from the world of IT and the comic book industry join forces to give their picks for the most anticipated geek movies of 2011.
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Week of 13 Dec 2010 UC news 2010: Enterprise video conferencing matures, interop falls short (15 Dec 2010)
UC pros sought to mature their deployments in 2010 by integrating collaboration tools with enterprise video conferencing and social media. But interoperability remains a problem.
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Week of 06 Dec 2010 Large providers enter UCaaS market, but will enterprises trust them? (08 Dec 2010)
Incumbent UC vendors and service providers have begun to sell UC as a Service (UCaaS), but it's unclear if large enterprises will commit to an all-cloud UC infrastructure.
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Week of 29 Nov 2010 Web conferencing video improves, possible contender for desktop video (01 Dec 2010)
Web conferencing video tools have traditionally produced pixelated and jerky thumbnails, but vendors are now enabling high-quality and HD video at no additional cost.
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Week of 08 Nov 2010 Bringing UC tools into enterprise video conferencing (11 Nov 2010)
Although UC pros welcome integrations between UC tools and enterprise video conferencing products as a way to improve employee productivity, some still hesitate to implement them.
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Week of 01 Nov 2010 Multipoint HD video conferencing bridges: Capacity vs. quality (04 Nov 2010)
Is there a tradeoff between capacity and quality with HD video conferencing bridges? Some vendors say yes, but IT pros must take a broader perspective on multipoint video conferencing.
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Week of 25 Oct 2010 Don't overprovision mobile UC licenses; most users just need the basics (28 Oct 2010)
When developing a mobile unified communications strategy, UC pros must not uniformly deploy the same set of mobile UC applications enterprise-wide. Instead, they should take a tiered approach --...
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Week of 11 Oct 2010 HD video conferencing over the Internet? Network requirements ease up (14 Oct 2010)
IT pros are dispelling misconceptions about HD video conferencing network requirements by deploying professional systems over the Internet and slower private connections.
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Week of 04 Oct 2010 Measure productivity and user satisfaction to ensure UC strategy goals (07 Oct 2010)
Although UC pros may struggle with measuring anything more than adoption rates, understanding user satisfaction can ensure that a UC strategy is achieving the productivity gains promised by vendors.
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Week of 27 Sep 2010 What's next for telephony? Cisco voice chief says video calls to be 'norm' (30 Sep 2010)
Steve Slattery, vice president and general manager of Cisco Systems' IP communications, recently spoke with SearchUnifiedCommunications.com about how video will influence Cisco voice products and the...
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Week of 20 Sep 2010 Do tablet touch screen interfaces make mobile UC slick or clumsy? (23 Sep 2010)
Touch screen interfaces may not revolutionize mobile unified communications (UC) -- the keyboard's death knell hasn't rung just yet -- but they can make some applications more intuitive for users who...
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Week of 13 Sep 2010 Vendor selection process: When gambling with a UC startup backfires (16 Sep 2010)
UC pros shared their cautionary tales of what happened when their decision to choose a startup from their unified communications vendor selection process backfired.
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Week of 06 Sep 2010 Can startups be in the unified communications vendor selection process? (09 Sep 2010)
Using a startup unified communications vendor offers some rewards, but you must mitigate your risks with a thorough vendor selection process.
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Week of 30 Aug 2010 Leasing video conferencing equipment: Easy upgrades or bigger hassle? (02 Sep 2010)
Telepresence and IP video conferencing are still evolving, making a large investment painful if it becomes obsolete in a year. Leasing programs for high-end video conferencing equipment are an option...
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Week of 23 Aug 2010 Vendor-focused UC certification and training can narrow career choices (26 Aug 2010)
Independent unified communications (UC) certification programs are sparse, meaning that UC pros may find training options limited and job responsibilities in conflict with career goals.
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Week of 16 Aug 2010 Video conferencing security threats loom, telepresence rooms a target (19 Aug 2010)
Video conferencing security isn't something many enterprises are prioritizing, and the actual risk of attack remains low. But executive telepresence suites are attractive targets for data theft and...
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Week of 09 Aug 2010 Mobile UC with GPS, Wi-Fi and cellular automates presence, status (12 Aug 2010)
Mobile UC location-based applications that automatically update presence, status and call routing preferences with Wi-Fi, cellular signals and GPS are making mobile UC mindlessly easy and smoothing...
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Week of 02 Aug 2010 Vendors broaden portfolios, but is a multi-vendor UC strategy safer? (05 Aug 2010)
Although a single-vendor approach simplifies support and management, UC pros may prefer the freedom and flexibility of a multi-vendor unified communications strategy.