Intermedia, a provider of communications services—including hosted Microsoft
Exchange—to small to medium-size businesses, announced the launch of hosted
Unison, a hosted unified communications service that combines telephony, e-mail,
instant messaging and other features into a single service delivered over the
Internet. Hosted Unison users interact with Unison Desktop, which was designed
to have a familiar look and feel—one comparable to Microsoft Outlook 2007.
Hosted Unison integrates e-mail, telephony, chat, presence, contacts,
calendar and more into a single service. The service also supports mobile
synchronization of e-mail, contacts and calendar. Intermedia manages hosted
Unison service delivery from start to finish, including—through an affiliate
telecommunications company—the provision of phone numbers and voice
service. Intermedia’s 24/7 support, migration tools and a multimillion-dollar
infrastructure that includes four data centers back the service. Because
telephony is part of the service, users no longer need to use a PBX or VOIP
service and users can keep the phone numbers they have today, or get new ones.
“Complex implementations and high costs have shut small and medium-sized
businesses out of unified communications,” said Serguei Sofinski, CEO
of Intermedia. “Yet they need these benefits to level the playing field with
big business and preserve funds for growth. Hosted Unison makes unified
communications’ benefits accessible. It’s the next step in our continued
mission to provide SMBs with powerful communications services that are
incredibly reliable and simple to manage.”
Unison Desktop has both Linux and Windows versions. Hosted Unison’s
development began in 2005 and is based on Unison 3.0, designed specifically to
support multitenant hosting and the high reliability that comes with that
approach. The company has continued to beta test Unison for close to a year
prior to launch. A recent Sage Research report found that unified
communications give employees about an extra hour of time per day. Information
is shared and decisions are made more efficiently, particularly across offices
and with remote workers. Total communication costs are significantly reduced
versus the cost of maintaining individual systems.
Michael Osterman, president of Osterman Research, said in the past, unified
communications required complex integration of hardware, software and services
from multiple vendors—putting the approach out of reach for most SMBs.
“These businesses need the same capabilities as larger businesses, but
delivered as a service that is simple to set up, easy to administrate and
backed by 24/7 support,” he said. "Intermedia’s offering achieves this,
leveling the competitive playing field.”
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