It's not exactly the cellular Centrex service that some of us have been advocating, but it's a start: Verizon announced at CTIA that it'll be offering, as a service, integration of PBXs and PDAs. The flagship Blackberry offering is based on Ascendent PBX-PDA integration (RIM acquired Ascendent two years ago.
It's not exactly the cellular Centrex service that some of us have been advocating, but it's a start: Verizon announced at CTIA that it'll be offering, as a service, integration of PBXs and PDAs. The flagship Blackberry offering is based on Ascendent PBX-PDA integration (RIM acquired Ascendent two years ago.As I discussed yesterday, mobility is fundamental to the whole idea of Unified Communications for some (though by no means all) enterprise users. The wireless carriers have been slow to respond to the evolving needs of business across the board, whether it's in adding enterprise features and functions to their cellular offerings, or providing on-site micro-cellular coverage to pre-empt the need for broader WLAN deployments.
The Verizon representative quoted in the story makes a point of not overselling the capabilities of the new offering, which is something more vendors should consider when making announcements; and if the offering isn't ready for full-fledged UC, neither are most customers, probably.
More of this, please, carriers.
