Communication Solutions

Partly in an effort to help leverage its strategic alliance with Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard (News - Alert) yesterday announced a portfolio of unified communications services that will link its hardware with back-end communication software services.

 

“Unified communications plans that are easy to implement and manage are an increasing priority for our customers,” said HP Services VP of portfolio, marketing, and alliances for HP Services Robb Rasmussen.

 

An emerging technology, unified communications (UC) links business processes with presence information, voice mail, e-mail, voice mail, videoconferencing and instant messaging. The bundled products in HP’s offering will allow users to connect by e-mail, voice, voice mail and fax, in addition to video/data/audio conferencing by utilizing IP collaboration, mobile and wireless technologies.

 

Citing Microsoft’s (News - Alert) agreement to promote UC services, HP said its commitment will help “to meet customer demands for UC solutions that bridge Microsoft software and unified communications applications.”

 

HP’s new release will include features such as enterprise customer help in creating custom UC road maps and VoIP integration; as well as collaboration services to integrate video conferencing and telepresence. HP will also provide support services.

 

In conjunction with Microsoft Solutions and other joint efforts, including HP Messaging Solutions, HP Services will now support collaboration using Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. HP is also working with Ericsson, Avaya (News - Alert) and Nortel to support its UC initiative.