IBM on March 10 pledged to spend $1 billion on UCC (unified communications and collaboration) technologies, which to this point for Big Blue includes splicing corporate instant messaging software with VOIP (voice over IP) software to get Lotus Sametime. The investment will be in technology, products and services to help IBM fortify its position in the market versus Microsoft, Cisco, Nortel and others. eWEEK attended a small press briefing in Somers, N.Y., and found the following. 

By Clint Boulton

IBM`s Unified Communications and Collaboration Quest - 'The UCC Focus'
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IBM Senior Vice President Steve Mills says Big Blue's UCC focus is on providing "carrier-grade" solutions--ubiquitous and highly reliable, and scalable to thousands of users. Translation: This isn't going to be cheap. IBM wants you to license Sametime and get its global services team embedded like termites to support the client software.

Next: 'IM Will Be the UCC Hub ' >>

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