UC&C Hits Mass Adoption in North America, Vendors Now Focused On Quality

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Who says Unified Communications is slow to take off? In an analysis of the North American hosted IP telephony and UC&C services market, Frost & Sullivan reports that 2014 saw 8 million installed users, with a projection of 41.9 million users installed by 2021. That number will be mostly small and medium businesses (SMBs). Next in line will be large, distributed organizations looking to streamline their communications infrastructure and IT operations, while managing a remote workforce.

As it transitions from the early-adopter to mass-adoption stage, the North American hosted Internet Protocol (IP) telephony and Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C) services market is seeing growth rates accelerating. This is mainly due to an increase in customer awareness of cloud communications benefits. Providers are now compelled to differentiate their products through innovative features as scrutiny of service quality and reliability has increased. Vendors’ focus is gradually switching to refining their UC offerings, after successfully convincing SMBs to adopt the technology.

When Blocking Communications Is Actually A Good Idea for Business

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We love it when communication flows. Everything we do at 4PSA revolves around communication and collaboration, so we believe strongly in the power of using these as tools for building teams and businesses. But sometimes, shutting up can help too.

According to a study published in the Journal Of Social & Personal Relationships, blocking communications with negative people can increase your productivity and even boost your IQ. It’s the kind of research that seems to reach an obvious conclusion, but most of us are oblivious to these teachings our entire lives.

Quote of the Day By Douglas Adams

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For the past few months we’ve been populating our blog index with Quote of the Day entries featuring clever maxims from clever chaps and gals from all epochs and meridians. Deep, insightful, motivational, inspirational, sad, happy quotes. But never one that’s just plain funny.

Today’s quip is from The Salmon of Doubt, a posthumous collection of published and unpublished material by English writer by Douglas Adams.

How Texting Changed The Way We Walk On The Street [Study]

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Let’s face it. We’ve all turned into a population of zombies thanks to our pesky smartphones. Whether it’s texting, tweeting, scrolling through Facebook or playing Candy Crush Saga, we somehow always find ourselves fiddling with our handheld devices on the go. That’s why they’re portable, right? Not quite.

New research suggests that smartphones – along with their versatile functions – are changing the way we walk on the street. It’s not invisible to the naked eye, granted. But apparently we do it so often that it’s beginning to change how we behave. So Bath University (UK) A&M University (TX, USA) went and conducted a joint study to take a closer look at the implications of texting and walking.

Fear Is The #1 Obstacle In Deploying UC&C

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Unified Communications & Collaboration (UC&C) as a technology has unquestionable perks for productivity. In some cases, a good UC&C implementation leads to new revenue streams, a goal that sits high on every CEO’s agenda, yet many are reluctant to take the plunge. The reason itself is surprising.

Business leaders are regarded as anything but fearsome, but when it comes to investing in new technologies, many executives start to get cold feet. In a whitepaper titled Build a Better Business Case for UC, research firm Forrester offers a list of fears reported by the C-suite at 133 enterprises across the US and Europe regarding implementing UC services. Here it is below (complete with our own observations):

David’s First Task as an Intern in 4PSA Cool Summer Internship

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A little while ago, our intern Vladut was telling you in a blogpost about his first week at 4PSA. His article became so popular that we decided to share more of how our interns feel about working and learning at 4PSA. Today, we start a new series about their experiences where you’ll get to take a peek at what 4PSA Cool Summer Internship is all about.

David, one of our Apps Core interns, has a couple of things to say about his first task at 4PSA.

Quote Of The Day By Israelmore Ayivor

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Character is important when you’re looking to build a team. Good training is simply not enough to propel a company forward. You need passion and determination to excel in a competitive marketplace.

When you do find highly motivated people, your next job is to retain them. Their satisfaction has to be personal, not just aligned with the company’s goals. It may sound like common sense when you read about it, but in reality it’s not easy to attain. Youth Leadership Coach Israelmore Ayivor makes it his duty to remind aspiring leaders that teamwork rests on the shoulders of each individual.

How To Tell If A Planet Harbors Life

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In light of the historical Pluto flyby, the internet is more fired up than ever regarding planets and space stuff. New Horizons was a hot topic on Twitter and Facebook on July 14 when the probe gave us the first clear pictures of Pluto (and its tiny moons) since we discovered the dwarf-planet in the ’30s.

Few people hoped to find anything astounding there, but even as the first shots arrived, Pluto was showing several interesting characteristics, including its notoriously big heart. NASA is still sifting through the mountains of data, which promises to yield new information about the formation of the Pluto system, the Kuiper belt, and the early Solar System.

Entrepreneurship Comes From Money, Not Genes [Study]

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It’s upsetting to know that your jet-set friends will always have it better than you thanks to their wealthy families, but it’s a reality we have to accept. Many have made their fortunes through hard work, getting up at 5 and investing all their energy in changing paradigms. Who can argue, then, that their offspring received the best?

According to recent studies, it is this simple recipe that usually makes an entrepreneur: wealthy family (i.e. safety net) → great education → Mom & Dad supply capital after graduation → Mom & Dad’s connections pave the way to business-oriented future → business works thanks to positive attitude and risk taking.

IT Needs to Get Off Its Butt And Start Teaching UC

Communication between a company’s IT department and the rest of the organization is often fragmented. We all accept that this is the norm because techies do one thing and everyone else does another. Sales, marketing, operations – they all basically require you to be human. IT requires you to be smart too. Which is why we applaud them for what they do. But every once in a while, the communication barrier between IT and the rest of the organization begs to be lifted.

In every company, big or small, there comes a point when the geeks need to come down from up above (or climb out of their basement) and hold a good old-fashioned training session. In the Unified Communications game, that time is now!

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