Canadians talk UC

The Canadian press is talking up unified communication (UC) these days.  The Toronto Business Times is touting a partnership between Telus and Microsoft to provide better services to the SMB sector through UC, integrating voice, email, instant messaging and video conferencing at prices smaller businesses can more readily afford.

Hosted solutions are the name of the game, with Outlook Voice Access and Microsoft SharePoint as two of the tools available. Outlook Voice Access, part of Microsoft Exchange 2007, enables a customer to access a mailbox  through any phone line and a toll free number to dictate, hear and forward new emails, as well as manage calendar and contact entries. SharePoint provides a secure mechanism to share documents, collaborate, search for corporate information and manage content and workflow.

The Globe and Mail delves a bit deeper, taking a look at family-run Cooke Aquaculture and its Cisco UC setup and Microsoft's relationship with Nortel Networks.  Cisco is credited with 35 percent market share and WinterGreen Research says the market for UC is expected to grow by 15 percent in 2008 and 30 percent in 2009.  Synergy Research Group forecasts a global IP telephony market of more than $10 billion in sales.

For more:
- Toronto Business Times Talks New generation of communication exists for business
- Connecting all the (UC) pieces from the Globe and Mail

Related articles:
UC--gotta have it
Nortel welcomes Microsoft's OCS
Microsoft and Nortel announce alliance