The world of business communications and collaboration is changing at lightning speed. And almost every organization can benefit from Integrated Collaboration. These new tools are changing how work gets done and how customers or clients are served. The results are significant savings and efficiencies, as well as the potential for increased business growth.

IC brings a new set of tools to communications. Here are four top technologies:

§  Presence: Software can now show you who is logged into the network, where that person is, whether they are busy (e.g. on the phone, in a meeting, away from their desk, etc.), and if they are available for questions, assignments or collaboration. Presence also helps your employees avoid wasting time on phone calls or landing in voice mail.

§  Instant Messaging (IM): It is now possible to communicate quickly, without the disruption of a phone call, using instant messaging (the office version of texting). Quick IM chats can replace up to 30 percent of internal phone calls. Instant messaging is more flexible too: you can simultaneously IM with more than one person even if they are on the phone (e.g. checking facts while talking to a customer).

§  Virtual Meetings: These meetings are like being at the same table in the same room. These can be one‐on‐one meetings, where you and another person are looking at the same document while you are talking about it. You can even turn on video to be “in the same room.” These can be scheduled group conference calls, just as before, but now you can share presentations or documents, essentially from anywhere on the network.

§  Mobility: You can take these new tools on the road. Just as cell phones took voice calls on the road and smartphones took email on the road, you can now take IC on the road, having presence, IM, and virtual meetings from essentially anywhere.

Check out the white paper for additional information on integrated collaboration.

You may have heard the term cloud computing before and wondered “what in the world have they thought of now” or “this can’t possibly be useful to me”.  If that was your initial response, you’re probably not in the minority. However, cloud computing is everywhere and you could be using it every day without ever knowing. 

No, cloud computing is not the act of using your laptop computer during a commercial flight, nor is it a top secret government project to harness the sky for IT applications.  Cloud computing is an information systems and business concept used to deliver data to a user wherever he or she might be.  Sounds complex, right?  In reality, it’s pretty simple to understand, and in practice, it’s very useful for many businesses.

Wikipedia defines cloud computing as “internet- ("cloud-") based development and use of computer technology ("computing")… Typical cloud computing providers deliver common business applications online which are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on the servers”.  In its simplest form, cloud computing allows a user to access information via the Internet through a web browser instead of a dedicated program running on the PC’s desktop.  So what does this mean for business?  If I’m connected to the Internet, I have access to my data.  It’s that simple.

The flexibility and scalability of cloud computing is what attracts many businesses, especially when it comes to Software as a Service (SaaS).  SaaS is a type of cloud computing that delivers actual business applications through a web browser (think Google Docs or Salesforce.com).  In the example of Google Docs, a user can create and edit documents as if he or she was using Microsoft Word or any other word processing application.  Those created documents can be saved to “the cloud” or the user’s PC; Word- created documents can even be uploaded to “the cloud” and edited via Google Docs.

The possibilities of cloud computing don’t just end at the desktop, in fact the promise extends far beyond.  Because your data is in “the cloud”, it can be accessed through any web connected device that has a browser.  This includes laptops, tablets, and smart phones, with no data synchronization of any type required.  Enabling collaboration is a key element of cloud computing as well.  Now, your documents stored in the cloud can be shared with others and true real-time collaboration can take place at the click of a button.  Imagine a platform where your data is stored in one place but accessible and sharable from anywhere - that’s flexibility.

As knowledge workers are asked to be more productive and businesses are looking for ways to innovate, providing the flexibility of “the cloud” can be crucial to staying competitive for any business.  The fast paced world of today requires information be readily accessible and easily customized to fit any need.  Providing users with the power of cloud computing may just give your business a competitive advantage and have your customers sitting on cloud nine.