Getting Ready for Unified Communications

In its June 2006 report Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications, 2006, Gartner describes unified communications (UC) as the ability to improve how individuals, groups, and companies interact and perform tasks. In practical terms, UC is the ability to seamlessly merge multiple communications technologies—such as voice, email, IM, and mobile technologies—while giving users a single interface to access and manage those communications. Microsoft has been busy recently with shaping its UC strategy, as it prepares to release Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, the successor to its Live Communications Server (LCS) real-time collaboration product, later this year. (You can download the public beta of Office Communications Server 2007 here.) . . .