FRAMINGHAM, MASS, USA: The increasing attention and buzz around unified communications (UC) is affecting how customers select telephony systems and services, according to survey results from the fifth annual Enterprise VoIP survey conducted by IDC in conjunction with InfoWorld magazine.

Nora Freedman, senior analyst, Enterprise Networks, said: "This year's survey results show that end users have become more sophisticated about their understanding of unified communications, as well as having higher expectations about what solutions providers should be able to offer.

The IDC study, Key Trends in Enterprise VoIP 2008: Customer Perspectives on Unified Communications, concentrates on the results of all questions about end users' perspectives on UC in relation to what it means to their organisations, which vendors have the most strategic value, and which applications will be integrated with their communications infrastructure.

Among the key findings of this study are the following:

This year, Microsoft, Cisco, Avaya, and IBM were ranked by survey respondents as the top four strategic vendors in their companies' UC adoption plans. This is in contrast to the 2007 results, where respondents ranked Cisco, Avaya, Microsoft, and Nortel as their top four UC vendors.

Over 41 percent of respondents believe that the advanced applications that allow for the integration of their company's business communications with its critical business applications should come directly from Microsoft Exchange or IBM Lotus Notes or Domino environments.

When asked to choose between two definitions of unified communications, 79 percent of respondents believe that UC is a desktop or mobile-based solution or platform that combines a common inbox for email/fax/voicemail, advanced IP telephony calling and management, Web/audio/videoconferencing, instant messaging, and presence management, which can be integrated with business-critical applications.

A second IDC study, Key Trends in Enterprise VoIP 2008: North American Enterprises' Buying Behavior, focuses on the results of questions about how US enterprises are buying their telephony systems and services. Among the key findings of this study are the following:

The introduction of desktop-based IP telephony solutions by Microsoft and IBM has resulted in a shift in focus on the source of key advanced communications functionality and call control.

The top five selection criteria in 2008 for enterprise telephony systems (including TDM and IP PBXs) are product performance, equipment reliability, total cost of ownership, security features, and technical support.

Long distance savings, ability to integrate with existing business applications, and cost savings when compared with legacy equipment are the three most popular reasons why survey respondents are currently using or planning to use IP telephony within the next 12 months.

Unified messaging, remote/teleworkers solutions, and videoconferencing are the top three VoIP applications that are expected to drive future investment in respondents' data and telephony network budgets.