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by Knut M. Aasrud, General Manager, Communications Sector, Europe, the Middle East and Africa
Following a recent post on Unified Communications, today Microsoft announced the availability of Lync 2010, the latest release of our converged communications platform. Lync’s unique functionality offers users a single platform that integrates IM, presence, audio, video and web conferencing to streamline communications and productivity. For businesses, Lync offers a complete enterprise voice communications solution with an unparalleled out-of-the-box experience between Lync, SharePoint, Exchange and Office.
By Knut Aasrud, General Manager, Communications Sector, Microsoft EMEA
At the recent Gartner IT Expo, I asked the audience in my Unified Communications speech the fundamental question that many of us will have pondered over when discussing unified communications deployment: Are we adjusting our workplace to accommodate to a new generation whose communication and collaboration habits are different from most of us?
Developing unified communication solutions has been a bumpy ride over the last decade or so, which can be summed up by saying the customer has had a less-than-satisfactory-experience, largely due to the complexity, lack of integration and spiraling costs of unified communications to date. But how much better would it be if we could bring all the elements of unified communications – email, IM, video conferencing, voice mail etc – together into a seamless experience and how much better would it be if customers had the choice between running their own infrastructure or buying it as a service in the cloud?