The drive to save IT costs in the enterprise is never more relevant than it is today and unifying communications is now a key activity. This report provides decision makers and technology strategy planners with an unambiguous resource that describes the hosted unified communications market and the forces driving companies to consider a hosted UC solution versus locating it on-premises. We describe 16 hosted vendor unified communications solutions including those from hosted messaging providers, hosted VoIP vendors, carriers, and from the major premises-based providers, Microsoft, IBM, and Cisco, all of whom have recently launched hosted UC services offerings. In a unique analysis, we rigorously compare the TCO of a hosted UC solution to a premises-based UC solution over a three-year operating period.

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This report describes solutions aimed at integrating mobile devices within a larger unified communications strategy. We review mobile unified communications offerings from 28 providers including PBX manufacturers, mobile operators, wireless networking companies, software vendors, and new companies offering enterprise mobility servers and carrier fixed-mobile convergence infrastructure. For each solution we describe the value proposition and show how it works. We outline how these solutions provide key capabilities including single number reach, a single voice mailbox, corporate directory access from mobile devices, transitioning between cellular and fixed line or Wi-Fi voice, and integration with the desktop and the enterprise PBX. The report concludes with a matrix comparing the solutions covered.

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This report provides decision makers and enterprise technologists an impartial deep view into Microsoft's unified communications and collaboration strategy and the new OCS 2007 platform. It describes Microsoft's philosophy as the company approaches the unified communications marketplace. OCS 2007's client-server architecture and its four client interfaces are discussed in detail. The report analyzes Microsoft's Enterprise Voice capability and details how telephony systems can integrate with OCS, focusing on the architecture that makes integration possible and its suitability for as an enterprise voice solution. The study describes nine strengths Microsoft has in the unified communications marketplace as well as four key weaknesses. Wainhouse Research shares its opinion on seven areas where companies moving to OCS should exercise caution, particularly with respect to enterprise voice communications and presence. The report concludes with WR's estimation of Microsoft's probability for success in this market, followed by a listing of hardware/software and pricing required for an Office Communications Server 2007 solution.

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This report provides a deep view into IBM Lotus' unified communications and collaboration strategy. The new extensible and embeddable Sametime platform is explored, including a detailed look at the product's capabilities and architecture. The report identifies what Sametime delivers out of the box and reveals which functionalities one must go to a partner company to obtain. It also discusses how third party telephony, audio/video conferencing, and IM hygiene/archiving systems integrate with Sametime and includes detailed descriptions of 33 Sametime partner offerings. The report identifies 21 strengths IBM Lotus and Sametime have in the unified communications marketplace, along with 10 weaknesses. It compares IBM and Microsoft in 17 market and product characteristics, noting for each whether IBM or Microsoft exhibit leadership or are at parity one with another. The report concludes with our assessment of IBM's chances for success in the unified communications market.

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Competition in the coming years will increasingly drive major corporations to improve communication efficiency and ease of use. Telephony-based unified communications is a key business enabling technology. Many telephony vendors offer compelling unified communications applications that tightly integrate with their PBX solutions; some provide tight integration with Microsoft LCS and IBM Lotus Sametime. This report will give both end users and vendors a sense of what they should watch for as barriers to entry are smashed, old heavy-iron telephony strategies are crushed, and a new unified communications paradigm based on open standards, PBXs as software, rich presence, and multimodal ad-hoc collaborative capabilities emerges.
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Focusing exclusively on Avaya's plans for competing in the business communications market, this report presents a comprehensive overview and analysis of Avaya's integrated enterprise collaboration product offerings for IP telephony, SIP services, audio conferencing, presence and instant messaging, unified messaging, video communications, and mobility. It also looks at the firm's co-development efforts with partner companies including Motorola, IBM/Lotus, Polycom, Research in Motion, and Nokia, and includes commentary on Avaya's major competitors including Cisco Systems, Nortel, Siemens, Alcatel, and ultimately Microsoft. We conclude with our opinion on Avaya's probability of success in the near term and five to seven years into the future.
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