Press Rlease: For Immediate Release 

For more information, contact:
Karen Wucher
Nemertes Research
Phone: 972-335-7028
Cell: 970-846-4768
Karen.Wucher@nemertes.com

NEW YORK, NY -- May 8, 2007 –The value of unified communications helps enterprises solve the challenges of complex communications and take advantage of improved responsiveness offered by presence awareness, according to Nemertes Research latest benchmark, “Real-Time Collaboration.” The study, based on five months of in-depth interviews with 120 IT executives, found 79% of enterprises were using or planning to deploy unified communications in the next two years, with more than 17% already deploying at least some form of unified communications.

Unified Communications is the integration of real-time applications such as voice, video, conferencing and instant messaging with presence, collaboration, messaging and calendaring. Several applications make up a unified communications and collaborative environment, including desktop video conferencing, IP video conferencing, and high-definition video conferencing and telepresence. “More than two-third of enterprises interviewed (67%) had deployed IP video to connect room-based systems, while only 29% were using desktop video,” says Irwin Lazar, Principal Analyst & Program Director, Convergence & Collaboration at Nemertes Research.

Another significant growth area is real-time communication dashboard deployments, increasing from 2.5% to 14% in the past year, with another 33% planning to deploy the tools in the next three years. By 2009, almost half of all enterprises will have deployed RTCDs. “Growing market awareness of both the benefits and the availability of tools for integrating voice, presence, and collaboration have led this growth,” Lazar says.

The study also found that enterprises are closely following Microsoft and IBM’s moves to deliver unified-communications clients, and in Microsoft’s case, back-end communications services. Although many IT executives have reservations about Microsoft as a telephony vendor, they did plan to deploy Microsoft Office Communicator and integrate it with their planned or existing telephony systems.

Other key findings of the research include:

• Enterprise adoption of real-time communications and collaboration tools is growing, but integration is the key challenge;
• Migration to IP audio conferencing continues to grow, with services offering potential cost savings for VOIP projects;
• Web conferencing is the most widely deployed IP-based collaboration tool and a standard part of the enterprise communications suite;
• 59% of enterprises use an enterprise instant-messaging system, with Microsoft Live Communications Server and Lotus Sametime the dominant platforms;
• Most enterprises are not yet planning to integrate their mobile users with their presence and telephony services;
• IP-enabled contact centers provide the initial driver for a VOIP project, with cost savings, improved flexibility and improved agent capabilities as primary drivers.

The benchmark includes the latest trends, best practices and analysis for usage of real-time collaboration tools and technologies including instant messaging, audio/video/Web conferencing, and presence.

About the Benchmark

The report is part of a nine-volume benchmark titled, “Building the Successful Virtual Workplace,” which examines WAN and branch-office infrastructures, convergence deployments, collaboration and unified-communications best practices and mobility strategies. In addition to the detailed research based on discussions with 120 IT executives, Nemertes will also look at the vertical-market implications.

About Nemertes Research

Nemertes Research is an analyst firm that specializes in analyzing and quantifying the business value of emerging technologies. We select technical and business issues to research based on input from our clients and benchmarks participants.

You can learn more about Nemertes Research at our website www.nemertes.com.