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Market research firm and consultancy Gartner Group recently published its "Framework for Unified Communications" research note, detailing a framework for the broad set of technologies that make up unified communications (UC) as well as providing guidance for companies looking to invest in UC products and applications. Gartner defined UC as products (equipment, software, services) as "those that enhance individual, workgroup and organizational productivity by enabling and facilitating the control, management, integration and use of multiple enterprise communication methods." According to Gartner, UC can be divided into six broad technology groups: - Live communications (e.g. real-time voice or video calls)
- Conferencing (e.g. audio-conferencing, Web conferencing)
- Messaging (e.g. e-mail, voicemail)
- Clients and endpoints (e.g. desktop clients, smartphones)
- Support applications (e.g. presence)
Each of these categories can be broken down further, of course. Gartner did so in its report, noting for many sub-categories specific vendors that ranked high according to the firm's research. This information is summarized below. Live Communications Voice - Alcatel, Avaya (News - Alert), Cisco, Nortel Instant messaging - IBM, Microsoft, Jabber Video telephony - Polycom, Tanberg, Cisco, Avaya Conferencing Audio-conferencing and Web conferencing - Avaya, Nortel (News - Alert), Cisco, Interwise, Polycom Converged conferencing - Interwise, Polycom Messaging E-mail - Micrsofot, IBM, Novell, Mirapoint Voicemail - Avaya, AVST, Cisco, IP Unity, Nortel Unified messaging - AVST, Avaya, Cisco, Nortel, CommuniGate Systems (News - Alert) Clients and Endpoints Desktop communicator clients - Microsoft (News - Alert) Communicator, Cisco Communicator Softphones and SIP phones - Cisco, Nortel, Avaya Multimodal UC Support Applications Notification and applications - niche vendors like Recipriz and Invoq Systems, unified messaging vendors such as AVST Personal assistants - Avaya, AVST, Cisco, Nortel, Siemens (News - Alert), TeleWare Communications-enabled business processes - Siemens, Nortel, Cisco Mobility Solutions Collaboration solutions - IBM, Microsoft, Open Text Contact centers - Genesys, Avaya, Nortel, Cisco Directories - Microsoft, Sun, Novell, open-source LDAP directories
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