It’s easy for tech people to lapse into a false assumption, and that is that people we talk to have a similar understanding of the technologies we’re talking about at any given time.

When you work around other IT and/or communications technology people all the time, it becomes natural to think that “everybody” knows the acronyms, the underlying technology, and essentially how all this stuff works. More...

Whatever the root cause of our fascination with “Top 10” lists, we can’t seem to get away from them these days. Frankly, we’ve come to ignore most of them … until, that is, we saw one about the “Top 10 Reasons Why Unified Communications Implementations Fail.”

Well, you can imagine that one caught our attention. The “list” is somewhat more than a list, frankly. It’s in the form of a white paper that tops 2,000 words, and you can go here (registration required) if you want to read the whole thing. The white paper is produced by a maker of enterprise UC equipment, and is probably worth your time to read end-to-end. More...

The need for small cells – those miniature cellular access points traditionally known as femtocells – typically arises because of coverage or capacity issues within a building. Small cells are a relatively new concept that works on an operator’s licensed frequency to extend the wireless network inside a building. These cells can be installed in a number of ways to accommodate different needs. More...

I feel UC technology will be crossing a threshold of intuition in 2012. Tablet computers, spacious touch-screen smartphones and deskphones with dynamic color displays will help users understand how to use their new technology on a just-in-time basis. Given how busy everyone is today, technology will fail if everyone has to read a user’s manual just to use the basic features of a virtual phone—no matter how integrated and functional the phone may actually be for a well-trained user. More...

As I visit with customers about convergence technology, the conversation often pivots around the “capital cost” versus “operating cost” dilemma. Should a company make a large capital investment in Unified Communications or should it work entirely from operating funds by subscribing to UC?  My answer often surprises them: There is no right or wrong answer from a technology perspective, as it all depends on a company’s financial situation. More...

It probably comes as little surprise that most employees today expect on-the-spot mobile data accessibility and anywhere voice service to enhance their work productivity both at their desk and throughout an office. In response, IT teams are searching for the best approach to support this trend and provide the highest quality, in-building service available for a reasonable cost.  Small cells have emerged as a breakthrough solution. More...

One of the biggest drivers of bandwidth on the network today is multimedia. While the consumer market often moves first to take advantage of new technologies in this space, there are key learnings that we can take away as we think about enterprise strategy. Web media guru Liz Shannon Miller recently asked her GigaOm audience “Is Facebook the way to go for new web originals?” My vote is yes, as the Facebook API allows content creators to know more about who their audience is than they have ever been able to before. In fact, the power of video entertainment will help those who never understood “this Facebook thing” to have their “eureka” moment. More...

In a recent survey, 36 percent of companies say they have deployed or are utilizing Unified Communications. So what about the other 64 percent? It’s time to take the leap; companies will simply have to deploy mobile UC to be competitive. More than a nice-to-have, it is a must-have. The list here explains why and serves as a checklist to help your enterprise move into 2012.More...

Delivered right before Christmas, the gift that will keep on giving for businesses  in this new year is SIP Toll Free Service, designed to control costs, boost capacity, and enhance control over inbound toll-free calls.

Sprint announced this latest tool in the SIP Trunking toolbox on December 20. It lets organizations leverage their SIP trunks and existing communication system to make their own routing decisions, as well as to share capacity across the enterprise and aggressively control costs. More...

A year ago, the hottest topic amongst enterprise IT executives was their cloud strategy. There was the expected give and take about whether “The Cloud” was a flash in the pan or whether it was really the vein of gold that prospectors claimed. It is pretty clear that the cloud won, hands down. More...