Seeking a definition for 'unified communications'

I was struck by a comment on Monday's article on Cisco's pronouncement that the combined unified communications and collaboration market will be worth $34 billion. The commenter asked what I meant when I used the term "unified communications" in the story, as they had seen several conflicting takes on the term's meaning.

As I pondered my response, I realized how many disparate definitions of unified communications are floated by industry watchers and the companies selling the solutions. While I waded through corporate definitions and read comments from companies decrying the shortcomings of their competitors' "UC" solutions, I realized something more important, and much more obvious: The definition of unified communications is considerably less important than the actual deployments of these solutions and the productivity and connectivity gains they can deliver.

In our most recent reader survey, 75 percent of respondents said unified communications was the trend they were most interested in learning more about. So, to use another buzzword with an ambiguous meaning, I'd like to "crowd source" the FierceVoIP readership for your thoughts on your own UC deployment, or thoughts about potentially deploying one.

Microsoft has a decent, though very general, jumping-off point for the discussion on its "What is UC?" page: "UC offers customers choices in how their communications and collaboration software is delivered, managed and maintained by uniting existing communications systems and tools with the productivity tools people use every day, and delivering them across multiple convenient applications and devices."

While that's a nice theoretical explanation of the supposed benefits of UC deployments, I'm much more interested--and I'm guessing you are too--in the nuts and bolts of which solutions are delivering the best return on investment, how companies are realizing productivity gains from UC, and areas where additional technological development could improve UC offerings.

What communication pieces have to be bundled for a solution to be truly unified, for your business? What parts of your unified communications solution have been the most or least effective? If you're considering a unified communications deployment, which features are the most critical to your business operations? And, if your company sells or develops unified communications products, what is the next big value-add to your solution?

Does your ideal unified communications solution have a mobile piece? Do you need integrated video conferencing to bring travel costs down? Would one-number dialing save you accounts because potential customers could get a hold of you, no matter where you are?

All of these pieces fit under certain definitions of unified communications, but likely are irrelevant in others. I'd like to know which fit for you and your company, so please email me answers to any of these questions at pwylie@fiercemarkets.com. I'll compile the responses and seek out experts to discuss the results, which I'll present to you later this month in a feature on the present state of the unified communications and collaboration market. Because if we get a good sense of what UC&C actually means today, I think we'll all be better prepared to recognize where it's headed next.

- Pete
@fiercevoip