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A survey conducted by Computerworld Hong Kong indicated that users are generally tired of their company's phone and e-mail systems and are looking for alternatives with increasing enthusiasm.

 

The survey also showed that 55 percent of respondents were already using instant messaging regularly at work, 42 percent were using videoconferencing and 29 percent were using person-to-person VoIP tools like MSN Messenger, which means that home communication technologies are used in offices.

 

The survey also shows that people use many devices to communicate, and everything that can be connected to a network, is connected. Another important outcome of the survey was that 91 percent of respondents wanted presence capabilities built right into their corporate applications and 94 percent wanted easy access to voice, video, presence and other tools from within those applications.

 

As a result, it was clear that unified communications (UC), which breaks down the walls between e-mail, voice, video, IM, presence and other applications, is the thing that many of those dissatisfied two-thirds of companies are looking for. One solution is to use  Microsoft’s (News - Alert) Office Communications Server (OCS), which handles all interactions, paired with Nortel’s CS 1000 to handle back-end telephony.

 

“Nortel's Unified Communications (News - Alert) solutions address all of these concerns,” said David Wong, managing director for Nortel’s Hong Kong, Macau and South China operations, in a statement. “Our Unified Communications solutions are designed to enable complete compatibility with legacy and existing communications systems. So there is no forklift or rip and replace required - we reuse as many  of our customer's existing assets as possible. The payback is through enhanced productivity, efficiency and management of time and resources.”

 

Wong continued: “We also partner — notably with Microsoft through our Innovative Communications Alliance (News - Alert) (ICA) — to work with customers to deliver the solutions they need - when they are needed. Customers across Asia such as ASUS, Bosowa Corporation and 4ward have already invested in an ICA solution. The business case is absolutely there, with these and many other customers in the region already reaping the Significant rewards.”

“Integrating Nortel's (News - Alert) telephony expertise with Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) has produced a Unified Communications solution that perfectly complements today's increasingly mobile workplace,” said Adam Anger, senior director with the business and marketing organization at Microsoft Hong Kong, in a statement. “Key to the success of our combined solution is the seamless way it integrates voice, presence, video and IM into productivity tools people use daily such as Office, Outlook and Microsoft CRM. This maximizes the investment companies have made whilst offering secure, robust and cost effective forms of communication.”