Logicalis US IDs Four Changes in the Communication and Collaboration Landscape

NEW YORK, Feb. 3, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- User experience is quickly becoming the standard by which all technology is measured.  When it comes to unified communications (UC), the goal is secure, real-time collaboration with any device, anywhere, at any time.  Making a variety of communication formats available to users, both in the office and across a spectrum of mobile devices, is what unified communication is all about.  These formats include instant messaging (IM), customer and employee portals, web conferencing, voice, email and video. And Logicalis US, an international IT solutions and managed services provider (www.us.logicalis.com), says this is just the beginning, pointing to four important changes as indicators for what is soon to come.

"The unified communications landscape is changing quickly," says Ron Temske, Vice President, Communication and Collaboration, Logicalis US. "Today's enterprise is focused on productivity gains and how users can tap into technologies to extend their desktop to anywhere they happen to be. Organizations are looking to unify the various message formats and devices they are employing to create a streamlined, intuitive set of business tools that help them be more productive and connected than ever before.  In previous years, the UC message was all about the products and their capabilities.  Today, we're having very different conversations with our customers that are all about the user experience.  We're able to have those conversations today because the technology is ready."

What's Happening in Unified Communications?

1. Video is returning to the forefront. Video has been discussed for years, but only recently have the technical barriers to video adoption begun to be erased.  Video is now becoming an affordable reality for business use with whole-room video collaboration solutions starting under $10,000 and high-end personal solutions for a third of that investment.  Bandwidth is no longer a barrier, and it is now no more complex to use video than it is to place a phone call.  Greater integration with instant messaging solutions like Jabber or Lync and conferencing solutions like WebEx are driving video usage to become mainstream.
2. The idea of persistence is gaining ground. With nearly all barriers now removed, mobile workers are able to have the same tools and experience at home, in a hotel room or in a coffee shop as they do in the office.  The next step is to tie these multi-modal conversations together, no matter what format those conversations take – IM, voice, video, email – or what device they take place on, and to save them in an easily searchable format for retrieval for future reference and use.  Imagine starting a conversation on an iPhone before heading to the office, and when you get there, all the previous comments and discussions related to that conversation are available on your desktop when you arrive.  No searching for a text on one device, an email on another – use any device you like with persistence of related messages across them all.
3. Device independence is a cornerstone in mobile application development. As the user experience demands increasing levels of freedom, mobility gains in importance.  Today, applications are increasingly being ported to either native mobile formats like iOS or Android, or written in HTML5 for total device independence.
4. The use of UC is creating a more immersive user experience. For UC, the challenge has always been to move from "cool idea" to useful tool; today, however, something is different. The adoption rate for unified communication tools is picking up steam as these tools have become more intuitive in nature. Business users are embracing the idea of a personal meeting room that combines whiteboard, audio, video and IM capabilities.  This eliminates the need to have separate encounters with the technology; users can move seamlessly from IM straight to a WebEx or video call – no scheduling, no sending meeting invites – it's all just a click away.  This is creating a more immersive, more natural experience for the user and resulting in greater productivity for the businesses that have adopted these collaboration technologies.

Want to Learn More?

• Take Logicalis' Communication and Collaboration quiz to see if your company is ready to use the unified communication tools at your disposal, then learn about the Communication & Collaboration Journey it takes to get there: http://ow.ly/HOett.  
• Logicalis is a Cisco Gold Certified partner, one of Cisco's top 10 partners in the world.  Learn more about the relationship between Logicalis and Cisco, then read a Logicalis unified communication case study: http://ow.ly/HOeBd.
• Is your network ready for communication and collaboration? The only way to know what is going on with your network is to take a look inside. Find out what a network healthcheck can tell you about the state of your network, then contact Logicalis for more information: http://ow.ly/HOhIe.

About Logicalis
Logicalis is an international IT solutions and managed services provider with a breadth of knowledge and expertise in communications and collaboration, data center and cloud services, and managed services.

Logicalis employs over 3,800 people worldwide, including highly trained service specialists who design, specify, deploy and manage complex IT infrastructures to meet the needs of almost 6,000 corporate and public sector customers.  To achieve this, Logicalis maintains strong partnerships with technology leaders such as Cisco, HP, IBM, CA Technologies, EMC, NetApp, Microsoft, VMware and ServiceNow.

The Logicalis Group has annualized revenues of $1.6 billion from operations in Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific and is one of the leading IT and communications solution integrators specializing in the areas of advanced technologies and services.

The Logicalis Group is a division of Datatec Limited, listed on the Johannesburg and London AIM Stock Exchanges, with revenues of approximately $6 billion.

For more information, visit www.us.logicalis.com.

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Media contacts:
Lisa Dreher, VP, Marketing & Business Development, Logicalis US
[email protected]
425-201-8111
www.us.logicalis.com

Karen Franse, Communication Strategy Group for Logicalis US
[email protected]
866-997-2424
www.gocsg.com

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SOURCE Logicalis US

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