Leading analyst recommends Unison's free unified communications portfolio for small businesses.
March 27, 2009 – New York – Unison™ unified communications, the world's first free enterprise software, has been listed in Gartner's "Cool Vendors in Unified Communications, 2009" report (March 12, 2009). In the research, designed to highlight interesting, new and innovative unified communications vendors, products and services, Gartner recommends that small businesses review Unison's portfolio when researching unified communications.
Among the reasons for including Unison, Gartner listed the possibility that customers can "vastly reduce the time, cost and complexity of managing multiple communication servers". The Unison Server includes its own e-mail, instant messaging, and IP-PBX functionality that allows consolidation of multiple communication systems into a single server.
"More SMBs than ever are implementing unified communications to cut costs and increase productivity and Gartner's research is great validation of the Unison value proposition," said Rurik Bradbury, chief marketing officer for Unison Technologies. "With Unison, small businesses can realistically implement unified communications with minimal investment and without being forced to use overpriced traditional software such as Microsoft® Exchange and Office Communications Server."
Unlike Microsoft's enterprise unified communications software, Unison is 'fully-unified' in that all communication is powered by one server and one desktop client. Microsoft requires multiple systems and expensive licenses to achieve the same result. Unlike Microsoft's expensive offerings, however, Unison is available at no cost, thanks to an advertising-supported version.
Unison's solution consists of two main elements: Unison Server™, which runs on Linux; and Unison Desktop™, a unified Windows/Linux desktop client, which replaces legacy clients such as Microsoft® Outlook®. Unison Server integrates a powerful IP-PBX system together with a messaging server. This allows it to power e-mail, instant messaging and real-time presence (free/busy status) alongside telephony, with connections to IP telephones, desktop softphones, mobile devices and traditional telephone lines - all from a single system.
Full versions of both Unison Server and Unison Desktop are available free – either for Linux or Windows – at www.unison.com/download, and can be deployed without buying licenses.
Gartner defines a "Cool Vendor" as a company that offers technologies or solutions that are:
Contributors: Bern Elliot, Geoff Johnson, Steve Blood, Phillip Redman, Matthew W. Cain, Bjarne Munch
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