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 - 'Challengers Welcome'
( Page 10 of 11 )

IBM is ramping up its growth in UCC to meet challengers such as Microsoft, which launched its Office Communications Server 2007 last year. But IBM exexcutives including Mills claim Microsoft's UCC scope is limited because it is Windows-based, whereas IBM promises to enable UCC for "all of the information within the enterprise or beyond the enterprise if the customer deems appropriate."

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