In case you missed it – hey, you're busy people and you can't get around to reading everything – Sprint's own Mike Fitz sat down for an in-depth interview with the good folks at Business Solutions magazine. The topic was Unified Communications, and Mike, our wireline VP, had interesting things to say, as always.

You can check out the entire article, but to summarize, Mike pointed to three significant trends, all converging in such a way as to drive interest and investment in UC. More...

There are three major trends currently shaping Unified Communications, according to our own Mike Fitz. Mike recently shared these trends with Brian Albright, editor of Business Solutions Magazine.

These trends are user demands for more mobility and portability, CIOs becoming more focused on finding ways to support line of business activities (not just tech enablement), and the expansion and improvement of UC technology. More...

Gartner calls it the Nexus of Forces – the synergy of four platforms or movements that are happening all at once and depend on one another – Mobile, Social Media, Cloud, and Information. These forces are the future and the focus on which IT would be wise to devote resources and strategic thought.More...

Looking at the as-a-service smorgasbord, can you guess which one tops the list in terms of growth? Number one is Business Intelligence (and Analytics) as-a-Service (BIaaS).

BIaaS can trace its roots to "Big Data." Companies are striving to make sense of the ever-growing amounts of data – be it from sources such as company databases, CRM tools, and social media. Already a $12 billion market, says Gartner, business intelligence (BI) and analytics is big business – whether premises-based or in the cloud. More...

Gartner and Forbes recently completed a survey showing that more and more boards of directors are acknowledging the strategic importance of IT. This is good news, because far too often, companies assume IT decisions are tactical, rarely warranting the attention of executives who chart corporate strategy. Such a conclusion would be erroneous because it would be akin to saying the use of electricity (or coal, or steel, or labor) is merely tactical. While many aspects of how, what, why, and when in terms of specific “factors of production” might be tactical, whether to use any given factor of production per se is clearly strategic. So too it is with certain IT decisions. More...

The term "shadow IT" refers to the adoption and use of technology without the formal approval or knowledge of the central IT organization. This is becoming ubiquitous throughout organizations. Today, information technology is pervasive, easy to use, simple to access, and inexpensive. For many business units, it is simply faster to purchase and implement solutions directly themselves. More...

How does your enterprise compare? Here are a few highlights of what more than 1,000 companies had to say about their plans for, and experience with, Unified Communications solutions. The report may be accessed at ITworld. More...

... Not in the future, that is. IT is about to go through a great transformation. It has to, given the velocity at which technology is evolving.  

IT expenditures will be happening more outside the traditional boundaries of corporate IT, says Gartner. Today, some enterprises already spend more than 50 percent of IT expenses outside of corporate IT. Business units often partner with third parties when they need a solution faster than corporate IT can deliver. Interestingly, it’s not about IT’s capability, rather it’s more about the innovations in the marketplace that are being created, affordable and easy to use. More...

Does it surprise you as much as it does us that nearly one-fifth of enterprises are not even considering Unified Communications and collaboration technology now, or planning to in the next three years?

That data point leaped out at us in a piece that Melanie Turek of Frost & Sullivan wrote over at NoJitter, based on a survey that her organization did of 200 top executives. Nineteen percent of the respondents said they aren’t considering UC at all and have no plans to deploy it in the next three years. More...

Already 2012 technology predictions are being revealed. Gartner recently released its top 10 strategic technology trends for the coming year. Here’s a look. More...