The cost savings, increased functionality, improved productivity and mobility offered by VoIP is fast making it a business priority. But what are key factors to consider when evaluating and choosing a VoIP provider, and how can you be sure that the vendor you select will be flexible enough to meet the growing needs of your company?

Whilst many enterprises have seen both cost and operational benefits in the deployment of VoIP, it is the further migration to unified communications that promises true business transformation. But, with so many VoIP implementations running into difficulties, management tools and management operations also need to be unified through each stage of the project. This session discusses how to ensure availability and performance of key network, system and application services on the road from VoIP to unified 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.

Once VoIP has been deployed across the enterprise the challenge is how you combine it into applications such as ERP and CRM to create a presence-enabled and communications-enabled business. This session will take a close look at the fundamentals of integrating business processes and applications.

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.

Whilst many enterprises have seen both cost and operational benefits in the deployment of VoIP, it is the further migration to unified communications that promises true business transformation. But, with so many VoIP implementations running into difficulties, management tools and management operations also need to be unified through each stage of the project. This session discusses how to ensure availability and performance of key network, system and application services on the road from VoIP to unified communications.

Today’s dynamic business climate sees organisations embracing communications technology as a tool for differentiation and improved business agility. Using references to best practice, practical illustrations and case studies, this session looks at how to create a collaborative business across diverse environments with unified communications

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

Using communications technology for competitive advantage is key to the real time enterprise. This session discusses how enterprises can use a software powered VOIP foundation to integrate into applications, enhance collaboration and mobile working via streamlined communication while maintaining operational control.

Unified communications and collaboration can connect your customers, employees, partners and suppliers no matter where they are and at any time. This session looks at how to deliver great service to your customers, get more from your partners and suppliers and give your organisation the agility to achieve competitive advantage

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.

Unified communications comprises a powerful set of converged network applications that can directly enhance all aspects of a company’s operation. This session discusses the characteristics of unified communications, its ability to enhance the quality of the interaction across the enterprise and how it can be used to optimise application performance according to the unique needs of each business

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 largest single value of Unified Communications is its ability to reduce "human latency" in business processes,” Gartner Group, 2007. Unified Communications (UC) is set to be the key theme for enterprise communications in 2008. Solutions such as the Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) are tearing down the boundaries between an enterprise customer’s telephony and computer networks, and “unifying” all types of business communication. Ultimately, UC will deliver massive benefits for enterprise in terms of business efficiencies and productivity, and reduce the problem of “Human Latency.”

This presentation will outline a number of examples of effective UC in action. But UC is still at a very early stage of its development and it cannot be expected to deliver results overnight. The many different types of communications used in business - instant messaging, VoIP, mobile, video, e-mail, voicemail and SMS – still exist in isolation from one another and often depend on completely separate network infrastructures. So what’s the fastest way to bring all this together without another huge round of network investment? The elements and applications that make up today's UC construct do not require a complete IP or VoIP infrastructure to deliver their business process and bottom line benefits. Instead, this presentation explains great results can be delivered adding many UC capabilities on current PBX and PSTN networks with an effective gateway strategy, which can serve as the “glue” between different types of network.

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?

This session will look at the integration of the Microsoft and Cisco Unified Communications products. We’ll look at the overall architecture and features provided along with a comparison of the various products from each vendor and how they fit into the overall solution.

Whether your company is already crafting your UC strategy, deploying UC technologies across your enterprise, or just beginning to investigate the UC phenomenon that seems to be one of the most talked about trends in many years, Microsoft and Aspect have formed an alliance to help meet your needs. By bringing unified communications to the contact centre, companies will be able to deliver better customer service, sales and collections results by being able to seamlessly access subject matter experts across the enterprise. Hear how consumer experiences will dramatically improve when organisations start leveraging Unified Communications.

Every business starts along the path to unified communications - where speed, reliability and network capacity are of the utmost importance - with a unique set of needs and an existing infrastructure. This session describes how companies should go about planning and implementing unified communications in these circumstances

Unified Communications is a term that is frequently used in and around the technology and telecommunications sector. However, it can mean different things to different people. This session discusses what Unified Communications means to organisations with multiple suppliers of business critical communication applications and a dispersed workforce and stakeholder audience. It also focuses on how organisations can simplify the management of their business critical communication processes.

Unified communications infrastructures must systematically incorporate security features and use well-known security techniques. This session discusses the security that should be foremost in your mind when evaluating or implementing a UC product or solution in your company

All the leading vendors recommend that customers actively ensure their networks are ready for unified communications deployments. Additionally, experience shows that post-deployment a unified communications environment should be pro-actively monitored in terms of availability, capacity and call quality to ensure continued success. In this session you will learn how to successfully deploy, monitor and troubleshoot unified communications deployments.

Andrew Penn will discuss and investigate ways in which Unified Communications software products can be integrated with legacy platforms including Siebel and Salesforce.Com. In particular, this session will highlight the business benefits of such integration and what users can expect. It will also confirm how important it is to have an open architecture with open interfaces so that application integration is made simple.

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.

Branch office architectures are evolving, inheriting more applications, services, features and functions usually contained at corporate headquarters sites while LAN architectures are also undergoing a fundamental change. This session looks at the impact of so-called ubiquitous computing on the next generation remote office, discusses the benefits and potential pitfalls, and reviews the technologies involved.

With the growing choice and maturity of mobile computing and communications platforms; flexible and home working has become ever-more achievable for an increasing percentage of the working population. However, whilst much emphasis is places on designing and implementing the requisite technical infrastructure and devices, the considerations related to end-user training and support are equally important but often over-looked. And yet, without the correct application of these new technologies and applications within the targeted user communities, the anticipated productivity and efficiency savings will not be realised. Consequently, output may actually suffer if employees fail to make changes to their working practices and their approach to team working.

In this presentation, a&o will outline their “working without boundaries” vision, and the key considerations for enterprises embarking on mobile working and/or unified communications projects. We will highlight the importance of taking an “end-to-end” approach to the provision of the ICT infrastructure as well as the associated IT service management processes. We will also present an overview of our cost-effective service offerings, which are designed to provide superior service levels for mobile workers – locally, nationally and internationally.

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

With the rise in teleworking, organisations are seeking ways to implementing VOIP for remote user in a secure and reliable way. Microsoft’s Office Communications Server integrates IM, Presence, Conferencing and Voice all of which the remote user can access. This talk looks at the security issues in providing Voice and focuses on key security aspects.

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?