Verizon launches cloud-based unified communications

A new cloud-based unified communications and collaboration offering from Verizon is designed to enable enterprise customers to maximize the investment they already have made in UC-related technology, Verizon Executive Director of Global Unified Communications & Collaboration Solutions Roberta Mackintosh told Connected Planet.

Enterprise customers often have invested in applications from multiple vendors, Mackintosh said. Rarely, she said, have these applications “been deployed and planned in a logical way to achieve unified communications.”

Some customers, she said “are afraid if they make point decisions, they might isolate thespend on those [solutions] if they don’t plan accordingly.” Moving forward, she said, enterprise customers “want to consume [applications] differently—cloud is coming in to the picture.”

Fixed or mobile options
Enterprise customers will purchase and consume Verizon’s new offering, dubbed Unified Communications & Collaboration-as-a-Service, on a per-seat basis, choosing only the specific applications they need. Capabilities supported include voice call control, presence, instant messaging and others. The service will function in a fixed or mobile environment, Verizon said.

Mobile users can select Mobile UC Client to extend business telephony solutions to mobile handsets. A docking station to enable workers to replace a traditional desk phone with a mobile device is also available.

Verizon’s announcement was one of several cloud-based UC-related announcements to come out this week in connection with the Enterprise Connect event in Orlando. Other companies launching cloud-based offerings include Global Crossing, Adtran and XO Communications
.