IP Telephony is now a practical reality and is
driving major changes to the way that enterprises communicate, bringing
about a convergence of wired and wireless communications. Furthermore,
PDAs and Instant Messaging are increasingly used for enterprise
messaging, challenging existing messaging policies.
The objective of this session was to provide
practical guidance on what enterprises should be doing now to look ahead
to a future of converged wired and wireless applications and true
multi-modal messaging.
This was the first event to address
Enterprise Email, Voice Mail, and Instant Messaging in a common
conference .. steps towards organizations convergence.
Art Rosenberg, from The Unified View, introduced the session,
explaining the title and presenting the results of a survey that his
organization carried out into the existing and anticipated use of
Unified Messaging.
He was followed by Marty Parker, VP Unified Communications for
Avaya, who described the business benefits and status of Converged
Communications, with a number of case studies of successful deployment.
This was followed by a Telephone Industry Panel session discussion.
A major feature of the day was the Virtual Panel Session which was
available via live teleconference. A recording of that session is
available in the proceedings (see below). This session was divided into
two sections:
- Provider Panel addressing their view of the state of IP
telephony migration in enterprise markets
- Enterprise Panel in which three enterprise users discussed their
experiences (positive and negative)
A panel session on Wireless Communication Mobility was preceded by a
mini-keynote from Brad Wright, Enterprise Messaging Manager from
Boeing, who gave a case study on the deployment of Blackberry devices
within Boeing.
The final panel session of the day addressed Unified Presence
Management and Instant Messaging. This session featured a presentation
from Ed Simnet, Real-Time Collaborations Group in Microsoft
Corporation,
featuring details of Microsoft's new Live Communications Server and
"Istanbul", and integrated IM and telephony client.
