Here's a really interesting acquisition: Interactive Intelligence announced it's acquiring AcroSoft, a company that makes document management applications for the insurance industry.AcroSoft isn't exactly a household name, and frankly, Interactive Intelligence doesn't get mentioned in the same breath as Cisco or Avaya even by people within our industry. But Interactive has some of the most forward-thinking people when it comes to envisioning the nexus between communications and business apps. The term Interactive uses is "communications-based process automation (CBPA)," a variation on the more common Communications-Enabled Business Processes (CEBP).
The two elements of this deal that merit attention are, first of all, the business-app integration component, and second of all, the vertical industry focus. Integrating communications with business apps could provide the truly revolutionary component of the Unified Communications story, since such integration really could (if done right) fundamentally change how people work. That in turn could yield benefits of shorter cycle times, quicker product introductions or approvals--improvements to the ways that companies do what they do.
The vertical focus goes hand in hand with this business process transformation, for the obvious reason that business processes vary depending on the industry, and existing business apps reflect these differences.
The idea of a communications vendor building a portfolio of applications by acquiring vertical network vendors is intriguing, and is something I think we'll see more of.
