Wireless LAN is a rapidly growing area of technical interest that most enterprises are now considering as part of their strategic IT portfolio. But with so many different approaches to the WLAN performance improvements, so many vendors, and a wide variety of claims, how do enterprises sort through the mess to find out what is really right for their organization? This session covers the key considerations for enterprises looking at The Next Generation of Wireless Networks, standards and performance improvement solutions. The session will include the standards that are coming down the pipeline in this area? What will these solutions do for you in the future? And why you need to stop, think and deploy 802.11n network differently?

It's getting tougher out there. Many IT managers want to invest in new technology, but are struggling to make the case. Spiralling energy costs have eclipsed savings on cheap hardware, while users don't seem to be able keep corporate data secure. The risk grows with every new mobile device added to the mix. Help is at hand. New, low energy technology that minimises the risk to data integrity could be the answer. This session explores the new innovations in thin client converged communications.

Unified communications has the potential to create a new breed of knowledge workers, if a clear, organisation-wide implementation strategy and plan are laid out. For the enterprise, UC will deliver a more efficient, anytime, anywhere business environment. This in turn will lead to faster decision-making, better acceptance and use of collaborative tools, work-life balance improvement and an outstanding customer experience. So, is this communications utopia?

The presentation is aimed at a business audience and looks at what exactly we mean by Unified Communications, the business needs it fulfils, the hurdles you jump to deliver an enterprise UC solution and how you should overcome them.

Service providers face increasingly complex challenges in turning an 'empty network' into one that is efficiently delivering VoIP services, without a slow and complex process of manual service provisioning - these challenges are particularly acute when serving enterprise customers. In response, service providers are investing in more integrated and automated VoIP delivery processes that provide a coherent model of subscribers and services. These integrated systems also help to meet the customer demand for more sophisticated self-service portals that provide a complete view of services and users, including automated service activation.

Today, VoIP is much less a disruptive influence and much more a mainstream technology. This session looks at how the unified communications evolution will continue to keep VoIP in the headlines and what that means for your business.

13,000 HP employees worldwide work exclusively from home offices. In 2007 HP's teleworking program saved almost 2.5 million round trip commutes, saving approximately 65 million miles of road travel and almost 28,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. This presentation will look at the implementation of flexible working practices within HP both in the UK and worldwide. It will examine the challenges which were encountered from both a technological and cultural perspective, look at the tools which HP employees use to communicate with each other, and explore the benefits that have accrued to the organisation.

As the world moves from dedicated voice systems to voice applications and unified communication, techniques for testing and verification of all components and services becomes not only essential but critical for successful implementations. This session will explore testing and monitoring strategies for ensuring that this new generation of technology meets customer, employee, and call centre agent expectations while providing the bottom-line benefits originally intended.

Enterprises are striving to maximise the potential of their infrastructure and collaborate across geographical boundaries and time zones. Achieving increased productivity and profitability are critical management objectives. Unified Communications solutions are increasingly being viewed as a means of realising this objective. Verizon Business will present how enterprises can leverage their capabilities and and the migration paths available to them.

Web 2.0 and collaboration technologies are widely predicted to drive massive productivity gains for businesses over the next decade and radically transform the way people work. This session describes the major transformations that will take place and the technology implications

It’s always been a bit of a puzzle keeping colleagues, suppliers and customers in touch, both in and out of the office, particularly if you are a small business with limited resources. Well now that's changed. This session looks at a unified communications solution built specifically for small businesses, that can reduce operating costs, improve customer service, and help you work better together, wherever you are.

These are challenging times, with organisations facing continuous change, including the shift to an agile virtual organisation, increasingly mobile workers, and the unremitting demands to increase productivity and lower costs. The requirement for a multi-channel IP network and unified communications to support all an organisation’s interaction needs has never been more evident. It is becoming increasingly important for IT management to begin to make possible the availability of common communication services, either by infrastructure upgrades or through Managed Services. If organisations have not already, then enterprises should look to put in place the foundation of a converged IP environment.

Andrew Penn will discuss likely scenarios familiar to IT teams across the UK and will look at how current infrastructure need not determine future Unified Communications technologies. Looking across the IT product and service spectrum, this master class will help the IT professional understand what and where their legacy systems are. By using this knowledge they can determine the path to Unified Communications understanding how, with a flexible system and service lead approach, organisations can ensure they are able to adapt to meet the changing needs of both their users and customers.

This session will provide an insight into the latest technologies that will influence the way you operate your business and how you can enable your employees to communicate more effectively.

Having a unified communications strategy is fast becoming an enterprise must-have. This session shows you how to align your communications roadmap with your business strategy and how this can help you build the business case for unified communications.

Unified communications innovations span networks, devices and applications and extend customer value by adding increasingly powerful features. This session looks the latest conferencing innovations and how they integrate into existing messaging platforms.

The Web has evolved from a content distribution vehicle into a platform for collaborative applications. A new generation of on-demand applications are leveraging the reach and scale of the Web to make us better informed, more productive and completely connected. How will the changing software landscape impact the way we work and who will benefit?

With open standards-based SIP, businesses can drive greater cost-efficiencies in the deployment of enterprise communications, and help improve productivity among an increasingly-mobile workforce. This session discusses the evolving role of SIP in unified communications solutions

Organisations are increasingly challenged with juggling environmental obligations and forthcoming regulations, with the pressures of running an efficient, cost effective and competitive business. This session will look at the key environmental issues and how a Unified Communications strategy can work in harmony with the green agenda, rather than in conflict.

With the business workforce becoming increasingly mobile, employees need to have access to enterprise applications and communication tools wherever their workspace is located. Hear about the latest innovations in mobile Unified communications technology and customers who have achieved real business results.

From desktop to mobile: realising the end-to-end unified communications solution.
The service provider opportunity: delivering differentiated unified communications and mobile services to SMEs
Mobile presence and location-aware context: intelligence and semantic priority in the mobile environment

Unified Communications is a culture change. The old command and control structure is being replaced by a more collaborative way of working. Is your organisation threatened by this, or embracing new ways of working? Your people are your best assets and Unified Communications changes the rules. Others are ready, are you?

The promise of greater bandwidth has fuelled expectations that 802.11n is the trigger for the so-called “All Wireless Enterprise”. How can the promise be fulfilled for corporate networks, and will that be enough? This session looks at the benefits and implications of 802.11n, and discusses the possibility of Wi-Fi becoming the principal means of network access.

Deploying a free high-speed urban wireless network totally covering a large city as a means to close the digital divide is an issue that many cities are presently examining. But such an ambitious target raises many questions regarding the choice of the right technology, legal constraints regarding the European free market and the costs and benefits. The Brussels Region has recently undertaken experiments with the concept by deploying the largest free access Wi-Fi area in Belgium covering a whole university campus. The next step is to extend that network to the whole Brussels region.

To create future competitive advantage enterprises should take a holistic view of their business and its individual communication strategies. This session shows how to bring together individual communication technologies to enable free movement between networks, applications and devices and exploit the benefits of unified communications.