There really isn't much debate about whether videoconferencing can save an enterprise money, paying for itself through travel replacement and increased productivity. Sure, there are people in the organization who resist video meetings, such as salespersons who insist on meeting in person with a key customer (and if that's the customer's preference, it trumps everything else) or some old-school types who doubt video's effectiveness, or those who feel self-conscious with a camera pointed at them. But video's march continues on. More...

What's a mobile UC solution worth to your company? How about $5,500 per year per mobile employee?

That's the "conservative" estimate put forth by a new Webtorials white paper, titled Mobile Unified Communications: The Emergence of 4D Convergence. The "4D" reference threw us at first, but the point there is that this represents the fourth dimension, defined as independence of time and space (cue the Twilight Zone music). In other words, the session isn't determined by the factors of connectivity method, location, or device, and hence the value of a UC solution is enhanced. More...

Digital natives are the generation of young workers who grew up with digital technology as an integral part of their daily lives. They are inspired by their interests in entertainment (such as video games and movies), online social media networks, and content sharing such as video and blogs; they are extreme multi-taskers and thrive in dynamic environments.  More...

Unified Communications is a reality in more than half of companies with annual revenues of $100M to over $1 billion, says the 2012 survey by IDG Enterprise. What is interesting, however, is that the employees or end users don’t know it. By this I mean, in the IT world, UC is a known factor – it has been talked about, tried, and proven true for years now. Ask an end user what UC means to them, and you are likely to receive a silent response with a furrowed brow. More...

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...

How will Unified Communications evolve? Now that we're at a point where more and more organizations are embracing UC, it's worth looking at its future. What will UC look like next year? In five years? Will we even recognize it in 10 years?

Michael Finneran, writing at Webtorials, offers an interesting point of view on the future of UC. In his view, basically it gets absorbed into the social media vortex and disappears. Its functionalities and purpose will remain, but UC won't be recognizable as a technological or operational entity. We're not fully convinced, although there's no doubt the advancements in social media will have a tremendous effect on UC.More...

CIO.com announced its annual 2012 winners  – 100 companies – all of whom are leveraging IT for big wins within their industry. Interestingly, these winners each have in common how they are leveraging technology to improve the customer experience, which is ultimately driving revenue and lowering costs. Here’s a sample: More...

There is interest across most industries in hosted Unified Communications, but it is interesting that we at Cisco, as we work with Sprint in implementing these solutions, are seeing spikes of interest in certain vertical markets and sectors.

There is a high degree of interest in financial services and insurance, all professional services, manufacturing and packaged goods, and in every area of the public sector. Why these markets more than others? We think the answer is in a few key business and competitive pressures that seem to be more intense in these areas. Interest and activity will remain high here, while other verticals are quickly following this market transition. More...

Wouldn’t we all like to be a hero? All that admiration and acclaim, the satisfaction of knowing we really accomplished something bold and daring. Not to mention what a great resume enhancer heroism can be.

While we’re dreaming, why not just make the leap to superhero? We all have a favorite superhero (I’ve always been partial to capes), and just imagine what we could accomplish in our work lives with superpowers. Cooling the data center with your breath could be a huge energy saver, for instance, and probably would at least earn you Employee of the Month honors and a reserved parking space. More...