How many times have we made the point that Unified Communications has to be mobile in order to be truly unified? That's a rhetorical question – we don't expect you to know the answer – but let's just say that we've said it a lot.

So you can imagine how heartened we were by a recent survey, reported in a Network World article, that shows a distinct increase in demand by users for mobile UC. This survey of businesspeople in the U.S. and two other countries showed that workers are often frustrated when it comes to their existing communications options. More...

Well hey, it's 2013! The 20th anniversary year of Intel's Pentium chips and the first recorded incident of spamming. We've come a long way since then.

Now that everybody's all eager to get back to business after the holiday interlude, we want to take a second and anticipate what we'll be talking about this year in convergence, networking, and IT. 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...

When it comes to leveraging the magic combination of Unified Communications and mobility – and you can't deny that UC isn't really unified until it is mobile, especially in today's environment – an enterprise does have to take a few things into consideration

The factors to consider are spelled out well in a recent Tech Notes article by Gary Audin. For instance, a typical IT organization is going to have to support four distinct mobile profiles. They are the road warrior, the person who's always on the road visiting customers, for example; the teleworker, the person who works most or all of the time at home; the campus roamer, who's always at a meeting somewhere or on his or her way to one; and the nomad, who works outside the office but typically at a specific location, such as a client site. More...

We’re always interested in business case advice, especially as it relates to Unified Communications. So a recent Webtorials white paper that purported to offer advice about building a comprehensive UC business case, caught our eye.

Turns out that the white paper (free registration required) was less about a business case than it was about a strategic approach to bringing UC into the enterprise. But that’s OK, because it has some good and thoughtful material about how the author – veteran consultant Don Van Doren – segments UC into a couple of sub-categories. 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...

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...

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...

If you’re lucky, the frenzied pace of business finally starts to drop off about this time of year, and it gives you a rare opportunity to think. Maybe you can finally read that book/e-book you bought/downloaded months ago. Or do some planning for 2012 without as many interruptions. More...