ReadWriteEnterprise

Alcatel-Lucent is the latest company to throw its hat into the enterprise unified communications and collaboration ring with its announcement today of the Visual Collaboration suite. It features cross-platform video and virtual whiteboarding solutions.

The video conferencing aspect will work on desktop PCs as well as dedicated video conferencing tools from vendors such as SMART Technologies, RADVISION and Lifesize.

Every firm, company or enterprise with distributed data and voice networks is looking for ways to control costs and increase efficiency. To achieve these goals, businesses need to integrate both voice and data onto a single, converged network to reduce costs and improve productivity. A converged voice and data network is the foundation for Unified Communications (UC), which fosters productivity through mobility and collaboration. Mobile technology allows users to work smarter with simple, end-to-end solutions that combine time-saving communication tools that boost user performance, such as virtual private networks and wireless applications. UC also promotes effective collaboration by connecting people with the right resources the first time, thereby increasing productivity. This paper examines the value of UC applications, tools and technologies to provide guidance for pain-free migration to a more efficient and high-performance business environment.

Independent software company Attachmate will purchase Novell for $2.2 billion the companies announced today. CPTN Holdings LLC, a consortium of companies lead by Microsoft, put up $450 million of the $2.2 billion in exchange for 882 patents from Novell, ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley discovered. Microsoft isn't talking about what patents it's purchasing from Novell.

Microsoft's debuted its unified communications platform Lync at a news conference today. Lync will go on sale December 1. Several big name companies like Boeing, Estee Lauder, France Telecom, Nikon and Orange are already using the solution according to Microsoft's announcement. Microsoft will also offer Lync Live next year along with Office 365 and promises eventual integration with Kinect, Microsoft's next-generation human-computer interface.