Folks in the financial industry often talk about a “perfect market.”  What they are referring to is a hypothetical, idealistic state in which both buyers and sellers know all of the information there is to be known about a product and service. In a perfect market, all financial transactions would take place at the true value of the product, service, or commodity.More...

You can make all the arguments you want about how SIP Trunking and Unified Communications are about more than just reducing enterprise communication costs, but in this economy, it should come as no surprise what motivates organizations.

That rationale was validated once again in one of the latest white papers from Webtorials, titled UCC and SIP Drive Savings in Cost-Conscious Enterprises (registration required, but its free). It’s sponsored by a maker of UC equipment, but apart from the promotional aspects of the paper, it has some interesting information. More...

Ever since they switched from quill pens to typewriters, the reluctance of users to embrace a new technology or a new way of doing business has been an issue. It’s also an issue that those of us in the technology business usually have a hard time understanding.

Our jobs involve innovation. Innovative services and products that not only offer these users the chance to do their jobs better, but to do it in style. With cool gadgets! With interactivity and light and sound and sharing and collaboration! What’s not to like? More...

There’s a big psychological effect when a federal agency with the reputation and clout – and intriguing network architecture – of the National Institutes of Health strikes a blow for Unified Communications.

The NIH recently issued a major request for information (RFI) regarding UC tools and products, and it made some headlines in the trade newsletters and sites. Justifiably so, because the NIH – although it isn’t one of the largest federal entities – it is a respected organization, and a very diverse one architecturally. More...

 The whole idea behind SIP Trunking is to enable flexibility and return on investment for enterprises, to give them an option of moving to SIP trunks when and how they want to, while reaping the financial benefits of a converged network. Whether their main motivation is to save money over the local telco trunks alternative or to begin building a foundation for the future or Unified Communications, SIP Trunking gives them freedom of choice. More...

You have to hand it to Gartner. Their “magic quadrant” has become the gold standard for vendor rankings in a number of areas. Even when other organizations attempt similar rankings, most of them still come off with a magic quadrant feel to them.

The latest magic quadrant should be of great interest to Seamless Enterprise readers, since it covers Unified Communications. Which vendor is a visionary that can execute? Who’s a niche player? You can find out here. More...

We’ve all heard it said many times that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. For that reason, even if no other, it pays to know where technology came from and the problems it was designed originally to solve.

But when Network World ran a recent series of posts on the history of Unified Communications and collaboration, we have to admit we were more interested in the series-ending conclusions and perspective on where we are now and where we are going than we were in the evolution. Especially since the author was Larry Hettick, the Current Analysis analyst. More...

The first post I wrote when Seamless Enterprise  began was entitled “I’m Done with Web 2.0.” That wasn’t literal; what I was saying is that I felt like I had finally found the missing pieces to understand the impact of social media as a whole, despite the fact that I had scratched my head trying to understand the value of many of the individual pieces. But now I really am done with Web 2.0, meaning my focus now is on the elusive future-state that I assume someone else has already coined “Web 3.0.” More...

Part of our job here at Seamless Enterprise is to be always on the lookout for the freshest insight into convergence and Unified Communications. Sometimes that involves wading through sludge masquerading as insight; we do the dirty work and then can give you nice short summaries and save you vast amounts of time you don’t have anyway

Think of us as movie reviewers, who see movies so that they can warn you away from wasting $12 (not counting refreshments) and an evening of your time on some of them. More...

The topic of defining Unified Communications has come up again, but the verdict from industry analyst Melanie Turek of Frost & Sullivan, writing at NoJitter, is that on one level the definition doesn’t even matter.

Her point is that regardless of any more-or-less-official definition, UC comes down to how the buyers and users of the products see it. If an enterprise is using a couple of UC elements, and wishes to say that it is using UC, it’s hard to say that the organization is wrong. Especially since few organizations have so far ordered up the entire menu of UC tools. More...