The forthcoming proposed tube strikes throughout the summer have been widely covered recently on news sites, and are likely to leave thousands of London commuters stranded and place a massive strain on other forms of transportation.

It isn’t just strikes however, which can effectively directly impact the productivity of an organisation; inclement weather conditions, terrorist alerts, volcanic eruptions and viral outbreaks, particularly in large urbanised areas such as London, can affect whole offices. Indeed, during the winter of 2009/2010, most employees affected by the snow were advised to stay at home, despite the economic domino effect.

It is therefore vital that all commercial and public sector enterprises familiarise themselves with the term unified communications. Many are still of the opinion that they are unable to afford an upgrade in technology at this time but are unaware of the benefits that unified communications can deliver, and the cost savings that can ultimately be made.

Unified communications is effectively a step up, technologically-speaking, from remote working facilitation. Now, rather than simply being able to dial into your office system from your home PC, you can effectively transfer your whole office – software applications, data and telephone communications, into your living room.

Once considered an unaffordable luxury to many businesses, managers are now being forced to realise that working practices are changing. Increased workloads and the demand for flexible working hours, as well as increased geographic dispersement has meant that unified communications are moving from a “nice to have “ to a “need to have”.

So what could be the turning point for some managers and business owners? What will convince them to look at unified communications as a serious option? Well, apart from the fact that it can offer substantial cost reductions, looking at an empty office with employees unable to make it into work might do the trick….

Today, Dell released plans for Streak, a 5-inch Android™-based Tablet designed to provide people the best “on-the-go” entertainment, social connection, and navigation experience.

The Dell Streak is a compact and powerful companion for people who want to expand their ability to access their digital lives on the go, and realize tomorrow’s technology today. The spacious 5-inch screen is ideal for experiencing thousands of Android Market™ widgets, games and applications, all without squinting or compromising portability. B uilt-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and available 3G connectivity brings easy access for downloading and listening to music, updating social networking status in real-time, and staying connected to friends and family through e-mail, text, IM, and voice calls.

On-the-go students, mobile professionals, and active families will find Streak’s web-browsing capabilities as natural as a laptop. The 5-inch screen is large enough to present Web pages in their natural form, create a comfortable viewing experience, and make turn-by-turn navigation simple and safe. The Dell Streak leverages Qualcomm’s Snapdragon™ solution with integrated 1GHz processor to combine basic functionality, performance, and benefits of a laptop in a pocket friendly size.

As you can see this is a very impressive list of feature. For a long time now, we have been talking to people regarding the future of communications really transferring to the hand held and smart markets. The real question for us is the use of these devices in the world of unified communications

Smartphones are making strides in its reputation as an inexpensive solution for a communications platform both from the consumer position and the comercial one. In addition to a smartphone’s telephone functions, standard features usually include e-mail, text messaging, e-mail and Web browsing. Smartphones also boast an address book, which doesn’t sound impressive — maybe it conjures imagery of a grubby little pad of paper forever lost in the kitchen junk drawer. But smartphones are a key platform for social networking features, and the more we use them, the more useful the address book becomes. Contact information from a lot of social applications, such as Facebook, can be synced on the go.

Smartphones are loaded up with social networking programs, features that blur the line between business and personal interest, such as Google Apps, and intellectual property saved as data. Communications providers realize that their target market is already accustomed to (or dependent on) using smartphones and are making the most of the opportunity. In some cases, existing users don’t even need to invest in new hardware. SIPCOM provides UC solutions that allow companies to access all of their business functions from any smartphone that meets current technological standards, without extensive modifications.

So, once you’ve got your pocket-sized device filled with confidential business secrets and sensitive contact information, how can you possibly carry it around? Well, some mobile phone manufacturers are aggressively pursuing business customers with high-tech security features to protect all that valuable data. The Nokia E71, for example, features data encryption for the phone’s internal memory and removable memory cards. The Apple iPhone can be locked or erased remotely if it’s lost or stolen. LG’s eXpo has fingerprint-based security. As the smartphone’s ability increases to perform most of the communications tasks of a desktop computer, don’t overlook its potential as an integral part of business communications.

Professional dependence on UC is pushing the technology to new and interesting places.[source:HowStuffWorks]