Forum will enable interoperability of Unified Communications hardware and software through inter-vendor openness and collaboration
Plantronics (NYSE: PLT) today announced its membership in the newly
formed Unified Communications Interoperability Forum (UCIF), a
non-profit alliance of worldwide technology leaders working together to
fully realize the potential of unified communications (UC). The UCIF is
dedicated to enabling standards-based, cross-vendor interoperability of
UC hardware and software across enterprises, service providers and
consumer clouds and is designed to enable global businesses to be more
productive.
Plantronics is joined by founding members HP, Juniper Networks,
Logitech/LifeSize Communications, Microsoft and Polycom, as well as Acme
Packet, Aspect, AudioCodes, Broadcom, BroadSoft, Brocade, ClearOne,
Jabra, RADVISION, Siemens Enterprise Communications, and Teliris.
Recognizing that seamless interoperability based on open standards is
one of the key requirements to drive UC further into today’s
enterprises, UCIF members will collaborate to overcome existing
interoperability barriers to widespread UC adoption and deliver a
reliable and rich UC experience, with the goal of propelling worldwide
enterprise UC adoption.
“As unified communications gains momentum, businesses are experiencing
the challenges of integrating hardware and software solutions from
multiple vendors, making the UCIF initiative critical for successful
deployments,” said Gunjan Bhow, vice president of Unified Communications
at Plantronics. “By eliminating interoperability issues, the UCIF and
Plantronics will help IT departments speed UC deployments and eliminate
costs, while delivering exceptional end-user experiences.”
“Interoperability is not only critical to customer success for deploying
unified communications but intrinsic to the delivery of legacy, current
and next-generation UC tools, services and infrastructure from multiple
vendors. Until now, efforts to achieve interoperability have appeared
ad-hoc, which has given customers little assurance that their existing
and planned investments are protected and will deliver the value
promised,” said Jonathan Edwards, research analyst, Unified
Communications, IDC. “I’m delighted to see Plantronics take a leading
role by joining the UCIF. Together, these companies will help drive
industrywide adoption of open standards and develop programs that put
accountability on the vendors and provide peace of mind and investment
protection for end customers – something that will surely accelerate
adoption of UC technologies.”
The UCIF will work with existing industry standards, identifying and
filling the gaps between current protocols and interoperability issues
that have stalled broad adoption and deployment of valuable
communications methods. UCIF membership is open to hardware and software
solution providers, service providers and network operators. For more
information or to join the UCIF, visit www.ucif.org.
About the Unified Communications Interoperability Forum
The Unified Communications Interoperability Forum (UCIF) is a non-profit
alliance of worldwide communications technology leaders working together
to realize the potential of unified communications (UC) by increasing
efficiency, decreasing implementation costs and improving the
interoperability experience for UC customers. The UCIF’s vision is to
enable interoperability of standards-based UC hardware and software
across enterprises, service providers, and consumer clouds, as a means
of generating incremental business opportunity for all stakeholders in
the ecosystem and of increasing the business use of UC technologies and
services. The UCIF creates and tests interoperability profiles,
implementation guidelines and best practices for interoperability
between UC products and existing communications and business
applications. Visit www.ucif.org to
learn more.
Plantronics and The Voice of Unified Communications are trademarks or
registered trademark of Plantronics, Inc. The Bluetooth trademark is
owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. and any use of the mark by Plantronics,
Inc. is under license.
