"What we're working towards is the ability to have media-rich communications with presence, real-time collaboration and messaging."

While the industry gets its ducks in order, 3D is preparing for the UC bulge and setting its sights on pushing the collaborative concept into healthcare. The integrator has already implemented IP telephony at 30 hospitals.

"There are 1728 hospitals across Australia and roughly 1700 aged care facilities, so this is a prime target market," Luxford said. "There's been a recent shift in hospitals and healthcare. They aim to double or triple the technology spend in order to enhance the patient experience."

Nortel A/NZ Microsoft business manager, Kirsten Gilbertson, said presence, which is the glue that holds UC together, would transform the way doctors and nurses communicate.

"Presence is the heartbeat of the UC solution," she said. "It's identity management, what somebody is doing and where, and calendar mining. Are they on the phone, at the keyboard; basically are they available?" Gartner claims new technologies like presence are not yet fully understood. Best practices around use are not defined, the products are still at an early stage and lack functionality, product integration is complex, and the business case can be difficult to communicate. This is because it is usually based on a soft ROI, such as productivity improvements, rather than hard costs.

These issues will be addressed by 2008, leaving UC ready for mainstream adoption, the research firm said.

Widespread appeal
While acknowledging the market challenges, Nortel's Gilbertson said there was widespread appeal for the emerging technology. This was being driven by the need to improve the speed and efficiency of business processes.

Gilbertson said the technology had a horizontal selling approach. However, some hot current verticals include financial and professional services, engineering and retail.

"Look at any organisation interested in doing a voice infrastructure or communications refresh," she said. "It costs about 20-30 per cent more to change the PBX to a unified communications refresh, so it's not too great a cost."

Many corporations, particularly with large departments, were also looking to get a pilot project going, Gilbertson said.

"The 500+ space is an area of opportunity, as well as the 100-300 user space, which is accessing how UC will fit into the company culture," she said.

Like other industry players, Gilbertson agreed UC uptake was being propelled by IP telephony adoption.

The Department of Corrective Services is a case in point. "In that instance, they were saying, 'We bought the Rolls Royce, so how do we now use unified communications?' Many organisations want to use their IP investment and transform the way a company communicates," she said.

Express Data unified communications business development manager, Levi Sutherland, said things just got a lot more interesting following Cisco's move to go down-market with unified communications into SMB.

The vendor's new UC500 system provides instant messaging, single-number reach, and desktop control of all calls and messages to help enrich the communication and collaboration experience of an SMB. The all-in-one UC500 is targeted at the sub-50 crowd.

Cisco's UC products aim to boost personal communications by integrating messaging, voice, video and Web conferencing. Using integrated directories with intelligent presence and preference information, the standards-based applications integrate with common desktop business tools, enabling users to reach the right people and resources in the first place.

Sutherland expects the UC market to heat up this year. The distributor is offering UC products from Microsoft, Cisco, IBM and new player to the Australian market, TeleWare, but may be open to more relationships as the market finds its footing.

Arm in arm
Alongside technology advancements, players are feverishly inking deals in a bid to join the UC party and forge lasting relationships.

Gartner said the latest IBM/Cisco agreement to collaborate on unified communications should provide each with a competitive push and help IBM deal with the threat in this area from Microsoft.

In the meantime, Microsoft is also flexing its muscles and partnering with just about everybody, analysts said. The software giant has struck partnerships with Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Cisco, Mitel Networks, NEC Philips Unified Solutions, Polycom and Siemens Communications - all good news for these vendors considering the software giant owns the desktop.

IDC's Li said Microsoft needed to partner with IP telephony vendors and voice players in order to fully step into the game.

"Microsoft is coming from a software-based environment and doesn't have strong knowledge or a brand name in hardware, so it needs to partner to catch up in IP telephony and voice," she said.

Nortel and Microsoft are making big UC moves together. In June, the pair unveiled the Innovative Communications Alliance (ICA) incorporating Microsoft's unified communications software and Nortel's Communications Server 1000 IP-PBX.

In concert with Microsoft, Nortel is also hosting a road show in May aimed at helping partners develop integration skills and advanced consulting capabilities.

Nortel's Gilbertson said the alliance was vital given Microsoft's dominance on the desktop. "This is very significant to us and to partners," she said. "It gives us a tight and integrated R&D roadmap for the next four years. There's no competing strategy; we will work together."

IDC's Li said a multi-vendor approach was vital for overall growth of the UC market.

"With a multi-vendor environment, it's not necessary for users to have a single vendor. If you have a Cisco IP phone, you can use Microsoft LCS or IBM SameTime," she said.