IDC's Inaugural Unified Communications Summit To Focus on Managing and Deploying Efficient Unified Communication Solutions

Business Wire, April 16, 2008

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. -- IDC today announced plans for the inaugural Unified Communications Summit, taking place June 10, 2008 at the New York Marriott Downtown in New York City. The Summit is designed to provide IT and business executives insight into understanding where Unified Communications (UC) solutions can streamline business processes and how they can provide a competitive advantage while also lowering communication costs and increasing employee productivity.

"Despite heavy promotion of UC products and services by an entire ecosystem of solution providers, customers are still struggling to understand which solutions are most relevant to them and where they should begin," said Nora Freedman, senior research analyst, Enterprise Networking. "At the summit, IDC will present the results from our extensive industry research and provide attendees with a greater understanding of the tools and processes being used to help generate incremental revenue opportunities, reduce bottom line costs, and prevent implementation obstacles. The program will cover the challenges that both solution providers and customers need to overcome before UC can transform the workplace, and offer actionable advice on how companies can create a holistic UC plan for their organization."

Featuring case studies and real-world perspectives from end-user executives, IDC analysts, and industry experts, the Summit's comprehensive program coverage includes:

* Best practices on how UC integrates communications with enterprise-wide and department-level applications, business processes, and workflows

* How implementation and adoption of UC will impact IT professionals, internal users, data and voice networks, data centers, customer contact centers, and customer service

* Business case examples for implementing IP telephony

* Deployment lessons after going live

* Sessions covering IP telephony application enablement platforms, telepresence, and reigning in mobile users.

Sponsor and Partners of the IDC Unified Communications Summit include the Hewlett-Packard, Siemens, Teliris, Mitel, DailyWireless, Network World, Von Magazine, and VoIP News.

For more information or to register for the conference, please www.idc.com/ucsummit08. Complimentary press passes are available for qualified journalists. To request a press pass, please contact Dana Basilone at 508-988-6891 or dbasilone@idc.com.

About IDC

IDC is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 900 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 90 countries worldwide. For more than 43 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. You can learn more about IDC by visiting www.idc.com.

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