Tektronix rolls out vector signal analysis software

Tektronix, a global leading supplier of test, measurement, and monitoring products, solutions and services for the communications, information technology and semiconductor industries has announcing the launch of SignalVu - its vector signal analysis software was launched globally on October 28. In an interview with Manu Sharma of CIOL Bureau, Sang-Wha Youn, Senior Maketing Manager, Asia Pacific, Tektronix answered a range of questions from the product launch to the size of the market in India and also about the current global financial impact on the economy. Excerpts:

CIOL: What are the special features of SignalVu that makes it different from other products available in the market?
Sang-Wha Youn: The special features that makes a difference from other products includes:* High performance: Up to 20 GHz analog bandwidth enables direct measurement of Ku-band (12-18GHz) signals.
* Greater capability: - Advanced triggering to quickly find signals of interest (Pinpoint triggering capability enables up to 14,000 combinations of triggering condition for each 4 channels)- Deep acquisition memory provides more visibility of time varying signal behavior (60 times deeper memory than other solution)- Advanced triggering to quickly find signals of interest (Pinpoint triggering capability enables up to 14,000 combinations of triggering condition for each 4 channels) - Deep acquisition memory provides more visibility of time varying signal behavior (60 times deeper memory than other solution)
* Simplicity:- Fully integrated (in oscilloscope) for faster time-to-insight. - Automated pulse measurements and statistical analysis.* Lower cost: More than 30% inexpensive than other solution by integrating solution in a oscilloscope to support up to 20GHz without up-converter and system calibration.

CIOL: How is it better than any of the competitors' products in India?
SWY: * Superior measurement capability when combined with Tektronix Digital Phosphor Oscilloscope– our wider analog bandwidth (20 GHz), higher ENOB and superior triggering benefits are directly applicable to SignalVu . As a radar and wideband solution, users can use the same test asset for making wideband microwave measurements on the same machine.
* Automated Pulse Measurements – radar engineers need to make a lot of standard pulse measurements on test waveforms. SignalVu software, makes 21 automated measurements on every pulse. other products offer only manual measurements forcing the user to locate and mark each pulse individually.
* Superior UI – Measurement type and navigation is far superior to other offerings. It takes fewer total mouse clicks and menu picks to display a desired measurement. The SignalVu UI is also common to the RSA6100A (Real Time Spectrum Analyzer) so users familiar with it will immediately know how to make any SA measurement with the Digital Phosphor Oscilloscope. The PSA, MXA and EXA have native UI mode for RF measurements and a VSA mode with a completely different UI for modulation measurements.

CIOL: What is the market size for products like SignalVu in India? How is it growing in India?
SWY: It is hard to say market size. It is for research/development engineers/researcher for applications of Radar, Satellite Communications, Frequency Agile Communications, and Spectrum Monitoring. The applications are very important in India strategically and growing faster than average electronic industry. As the modulation schemes get more complex and communication systems require wider bandwidth to carry more data, we expect demand of the SignalVu in India will grow rapidly.

CIOL: What is the clientele (major takers) for this product?
SWY: RF designers of Wideband RF and Microwave Systems who need to improve their time to insight while validating digital RF circuits and systems. Target applications are mentioned at above #3.

CIOL: Does Tektronix have any manufacturing unit in India? If not is the company planning to set up one for the manufacturing of such products?
SWY: As a world leader in test, measurement and monitoring, Tektronix is committed to supporting India's development as a global center for technology innovation and the design of advanced digital products and services for the New Digital World. Tektronix Development Center is located in Bangalore to develop software applications for test, measurement and monitoring.

CIOL: At this time when the inflation is impacting most of the sectors across, how is the T&M industry functioning? To what extent is this industry affected?
SWY: We don't have something to share at this moment. Although business environment gets tougher, Tektronix commits to keep providing customers with excellent value solutions and services.

To read more on Tektronics go to: http://www.tek.com/products/accessories/application_software/signalvu.html

India Inc may lay off 25pc jobs in 10 days

ASSOCHAM said the job cuts would be across the steel, cement, construction, real estate, aviation, IT-enabled services and financial services sectors Indian firms are likely to lay off a quarter of their employees in the next 10 days, as part of steps to contain costs in the face of shrinking margins amidst the economic turmoil, an industry body said on Wednesday.

Trade body Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) said the job cuts would be across the steel, cement, construction, real estate, aviation, IT-enabled services and financial services sectors.

Expansion has slowed in Asia's third-largest economy in the last two quarters, from the 8 per cent or more annual growth in the past four years, with high interest rates crimping demand and on the global financial crisis.

The central bank last week cut its forecast for growth in 2008/09 to 7.5-8 per cent from its earlier view of 8 per cent. This compares with the economy's 9 per cent growth in 2007/08.

"Employers have no other alternatives as part of their corporate strategy ... for sustaining their operations with squeezed margins (even) after after drastic cost cutting measures," ASSOCHAM said in a statement.

A ‘prolonged’ recession would impact IT industry

The on-going recession would mean several quarters of declines in IT purchases…Software and IT services vendors will start to feel the pinch.

Forrester Research, an independent research firm has outlined an IT spending scenario for a long and deep recession for technology companies. According to this latest Forrester scenario, “A prolonged recession would mean several quarters of declines in IT purchases, not just two or three quarters with little or no growth in late 2008 and first half 2009.” This is the first time Forrester has outlined the possibility that the economic crisis could spark a short-term contraction in IT spending as opposed to a slowdown in growth.

The latest Forrester report offering this scenario - What The Financial Crisis Means To The Tech Market, by Andrew Bartels (VP & Principal Analyst, Forrester Research), states that on a full year 2009 basis, a sustained recession could lead to annual US IT spending growth of 2-3% and global IT spending growth of 3-4%. Says Bartels, “This is just a scenario as an acute financial crisis has hit not only the US but also countries in Europe and Asia.”

In his Sept’08 review of the US IT market, Bartels had predicted a distinct slowdown in growth for US business and government purchases of technology goods and services due to an assumed recession starting in the third quarter. Elaborates Bartels, “We continue to estimate global IT spending growth in 2009 being 7-8%, and we are still sticking to our forecast of a sharp decline in growth – instead of a contraction – for US tech purchases. Why? Our tech market forecast already presumes the recession that is actually happening… Still, with the financial crisis now spreading around the world, risks have grown that the US and other major countries will experience a longer and deeper recession than we had expected.

This scenario will help technology vendors to be prepared, and to mould their strategy, according to the economic environment.” He further adds, “The Software and IT services vendors will anyways – with or without the said scenario – start to feel the pain though sales of these products and services have so far avoided much slowdown in 2008. They will be hit hard in the next three quarters. Still, "hit hard" is relative — vendors in these categories will have on average 3% to 5% growth instead of the 9% to 12% growth they've seen earlier in 2008.” Stating that the rules for technology vendors’ success have changed, Bartels recommends, especially to the US based vendors, to refocus on the US market as it (US market) is likely to recover from a global slowdown sooner and stronger than other markets.

India's EDA industry growing at 30pc annually

Globally, India is amongst the fastest growing markets for EDA tools, along with USA and China. With the EDA market growing here at about 30 percent annually, Hewlett Packard, a leading EDA high performance computing platform solutions provider, is targeting the fast growing chip design centers in India.
On this occasion of the HP Intel Asia-Pacific EDA seminar, Brain Lowe, Alliance Marketing Manager of HP (Cupertino) with Faisal M. Paul, Country Manager (India) – HPC & OSLO of HP (India), spoke to Manu Sharma of CIOL Bureau the on various aspects of the EDA industry. Excerpts:

CIOL: What is EDA and what is its importance?
Brian Lowe: Electronic Design Automation (EDA) is the category of tools for designing and producing electronic systems ranging from printed circuit boards (PCBs) to integrated circuits (ICs). This is sometimes referred to as ECAD (electronic computer-aided design) or just CAD.
EDA is specifically for electronics, and concentrates on EDA used for designing integrated circuits. As chips grow larger and become more complex to design EDA becomes much more important at semiconductor companies.

CIOL: What are the trends in EDA?
BL: EDA computing complexity and very complex chip designs put heavy demands on computing resources such as CPU MIPS and memory. In addition, there is a need for reliable, scalable storage because of the huge chip design database.
There is also a need for setting up data centers and global grid that allow designers to tap into compute servers worldwide. This will allow the compute infrastructure to utilized very efficiently. Besides, this allows the designers and the company to scale the compute resources during various phases of a project.
There is also need to optimize data center design such as power, cooling, floor space, etc., and HP's HPC clustering technologies and blades fit the bill.

CIOL: What is HP's role in the EDA industry?
BL: Electronic product development organizations are constantly challenged to deliver advanced technology to market in less time. HP's focuses on inventiveness creates innovative high-performance technical computing solutions that allow design teams to maximize their EDA productivity.
HP has architected their technical computing solutions to make large memory capacity affordable. This allows engineers to synthesize and simulate larger sections of their designs, thereby maximizing designer productivity.

CIOL: Who is HP targeting in India and why?
Faisal M. Paul: HP provides leadership and innovation in high-performance computing (HPC) solutions for customer EDA design environments. For HP, India is among the fastest growing markets with many chip design firms setting up units in India. We are growing here at 30 percent at par with the USA and China.
HP partners with leading EDA software vendors to leverage HP's internal EDA design expertise and provide direction to HP R&D product groups.

CIOL: What does HP feel about the growing chip design industry in India?
FP: Chips have automated our lives with gizmos and designing this has been a good business proposition for Indian technology firms.
Without any hesitation, we can say that we are among the largest system integration vendors for EDA across the globe. We offer a broad range of Linux-based systems – workstations, servers and blades, together with leading edge IT data center solutions for the design environment.

CIOL: What is HP's innovation in EDA?
BL: As one of the world's largest electronic, R&D, design and manufacturing companies, HP has found innovative ways to employ technologies to address the pressures found in EDA design environments.
In fact, HP was one of the first computer vendors to embrace Linux as a practical and cost-effective alternative to proprietary solutions, including support for a myriad of EDA applications, across a wide range of platforms and flexible clustering solutions.

CIOL: Where does HP's C-class blade role come in?
BL: The HP BladeSystem c-Class enclosure is said to feature the world's fastest midplane at 5TBps of aggregate throughput and the first midplane to support 4X DDR InfiniBand, the industry's fastest blade server interconnect, which delivers up to 20GBps bandwidth in each direction especially meant for high performance computing for the chip design companies.

CIOL: Where does HP stand in the blade industry today?
BL: Following the introduction of HP C Class blade for high-performance computing during the third quarter of 2006, HP has outperformed all competitors with 85 percent growth. We are at the No. 1 position according to IDC Server tracker in Q4- 2006 in x86 Blades report, followed by IBM and Dell.

CIOL: How does the chip design automation in India look like?
FP: The Indian product market has already crossed the $1 billion mark. The chip automated our lives with electronic gizmos and has been a good business proposition for Indian technology firms. Now, we are moving towards the next step, designing tools that automate the chip designing process itself.
This growth is likely to accelerate with more players entering the fray in the coming years as electronics consumption goes up significantly.
At present, there are about seven major EDA companies, both multinational and Indian, operating in the country. Cadence, Mentor Graphics, Magma, Synopsys, Circuit Sutra, Sequence Design and SoftJin are all reporting growth. The India Semiconductor Association (ISA) expects more domestic players to start providing EDA tools to chip designers.

Embrace the right technologies

Putting your neck out, betting and embracing the right technologies to create a differentiator is one of the major challenges that R. Muralidharan, Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Syntel India is facing. In a interview with Manu Sharma of CIOL Bureau, he shares his views of his achievements as a CIO and also on what he wishes to hear from vendors during the next fiscal. Excerpts:

CIOL: What are the major challenges faced by a CIO?
R. Muralidharan: The major challenges faced by the CIO today revolves around
* Reduction in total cost of ownership of running IT
* Ensuring that IT is always driving business value and consistently being perceived as a business enabler.
* Putting his neck out, betting and embracing the right technologies to create a differentiator.

CIOL: Does your organization link IT budget with the company's performance/growth? If yes please elaborate?
RM: Yes. Syntel does link IT budget with the company's performance /growth. The total IT spend is typically pegged as a percentage of revenue.

CIOL: Can you cite any specific areas where IT has come up as an accomplishment in your stint as a CIO?
RM: There have been quite a few major areas of focus for IT over the last two years in my stint as the CIO of Syntel. There have been significant achievements across not just implementation of technologies but the entire aspect of effective deployment of people, process and technology all aimed towards the goal of being valued as a true business enabler. The areas of significant achievements cuts across all areas of infrastructure such as network, storage, systems/servers, security, telecom all supporting critical internal business applications and connectivity needed for providing services to its global customers. Apart from focus on investments in technologies, there has been a significant focus on processes and people competency development all aligned to delivering value to customers.

CIOL: Going forward, what are the challenges which you foresee?
RM: The challenges of the future envisaged revolves around more and more Green IT initiatives thus enabling significant environmental benefits apart from providing a lower cost of ownership for running IT in the organization. The other challenge revolves around betting on the right technologies for the future which will deliver the maximum benefit to the organization.

CIOL: How far have you come as regards adopting 'Green IT technologies'?
RM: Green IT initiative is a moving target and Syntel is investing significantly on ensuring the all the campuses being built to support the growth is enabled using Green It technologies. On a parallel front, there is a large effort on driving investments in terms of time and processes to ensure that Green IT initiatives are inculcated across the organization thus focusing on reducing carbon foot print.

CIOL: What will be the IT budget for the new fiscal year/ What is the growth rate over last year?
RM: Syntel has been consistently growing at around 25-30 percent and hence the IT budget has also been growing to meet these needs of the growth. Apart from the growth of the operating budget, there is also significant amount of investment being done in investing on cutting edge technologies in its campuses.

CIOL: Name the top 5 items that you expect to spent on this fiscal year?
RM: The top five areas of spend is expected to be in the areas of:
* Build out of campuses to support growth
* Business productivity applications
* Security and Compliance
* Network Optimization
* Virtualization

CIOL: Do you feel the amount allocated for IT is sufficient if yes why? If not why not? How much should you be spending?
RM: IT being typically treated as a cost center, it is extremely important that any investment made in IT should be measured by evaluating as to how it has lowered the total cost of ownership to business. As an IT company that is growing, it is not possible to lower the absolute amount of investment. Hence the yardstick for measurement is to primarily focus on reducing the unit cost of providing IT services to the employees of the organization. We have been able to successfully demonstrate this across all domains. The business value delivered in terms of contribution to the bottom line has been apt so far.

CIOL: How big is the IT staff in your organization?
RM: The total IT organization size globally inclusive of outsourced staff is around 160. This team supports the various business entities within the group engaged in the business of IT services and KPO.

CIOL: As a global company how are you networked all the centres?
RM: All the global delivery and sales offices are networked using multiple technologies such as ATM, MPLS, Frame Relay and IPsec VPN's over the Internet cloud. The core network is built over Nortel Passport WAN switches that support data, voice over IP and video traffic. This backbone enables us to seamlessly integrate into our customer networks securely while at the same time providing scalability and high availability to meet varied requirements at an optimum cost.

CIOL: Is it difficult to gets adequate funds for IT implementations?
RM: The biggest challenge for CIO's for getting funds for new IT implementations is to continuously work on reducing operating expenses as a percentage of the total budget for keeping lights ON and meet business expectations of IT availability. It is always a moving target as every CIO would like to get the maximum funds diverted for new implementations.

CIOL: What part of IT implementations plays a more prominent role? Software or hardware or networking? Why?
RM: IT needs to be viewed as a tool and not the end. Hence no individual component whether it is hardware, software or networking is individually more or less important. What business gets in a highly mobile environment in today's context is a function of achievements across all these domains to enhance the user experience level.

CIOL: The success or failure of an IT deployment should be attributed to whom, the CIO or the vendor, or is it a collaborative accountability?
RM: Though any CIO would like to always have a joint accountability or would like to blame it on the vendor to cover up for failure, I firmly believe that it is always the CIO's accountability for the success or failure of an IT deployment. One can't have a situation where the CIO is complemented for success but the stick is on a collaborative accountability or put on the vendor. The CIO is in the best situation to know what fits his business the most and also the prerogative to choose the vendor and partner most suited to be successful for his business environment.
CIOL: What percentage do you outsource a portion of your IT project?RM: To a large extent possible, Syntel works in developing and implementing core technology components internally. What is typically outsourced for BAU support is low end hardware support activities. For any IT project under implementation, Syntel works very closely with its vendor partners to ensure that an optimum solution is implemented while ensuring that internal skills are developed. This helps us leverage our experience in these domains to deliver value and thought leadership to our clients while delivering IT and infrastructure services. CIOL: Has the nature and pattern of IT adoption become more sophisticated? If yes, to what extent?RM: IT has become an integrated tool as every aspect of business relies on IT. To this extent the dependency on IT by the various stakeholders and users has become very high. Some of the complexities or sophistication arises out of the diversified business needs and this coupled with the plethora of vendors providing various technology options. The sophistication of diverse user requirements is translated into sophistication in the need for integration of various technologies to deliver business value to the end user and business. This is making the task more and more difficult for the IT organization in terms of timely delivery of integrated solutions matching the pace of the need by the business.

CIOL: Are some enterprises under the myth that modernization processes such as automation and IT deployment can take place only in large enterprises? Elaborate.
RM: Yes. Today IT is all-prevalent and an enabler for growth. Investment in the right technologies for small and medium enterprises will help them be well prepared for scale up and growth. CIOL: As a CIO what would you wish to hear from vendors during the next fiscal?RM: One of the biggest challenges hearing from vendors is always the gap between what then can deliver vis-à-vis what they actually deliver. Secondly, there are a lot of exciting technologies in the areas of virtualization, unified communication etc. which is going to key investment areas. Key areas that I would like to hear from vendors is factual information of what they can deliver which will really help in reduce the time spent on POC's and implementing thus enabling a faster return on investment and maximizing business benefit.

CIOL: With so many vendors pushing their products, how are you able to distinguish what really works in your organization?
RM: We have a very elaborate and rigorous evaluation methodology when it comes to embracing any new technology and product. One of the key aspects of product selection focuses on relevance and adaptability to our work environment and we have been able to do a decent job so far.

CIOL: So many IT products fail after being implemented Why?
RM: There a lot of elements that needs to be addressed for a successful IT implementation. Beyond just simply what the product can do which can be addressed using a one time good evaluation process, there are areas of continuous investments in the right processes and people competency development that needs to be done to sustain the implementation and also keep upgrading it on a periodic basis to meet the changing business requirements as well as technological advancements. These are bigger challenges than the product itself and this also has a longer lifespan. These are areas where most failures occur. Or put differently, this is where competing organizations adopting similar products and technologies also differentiate themselves.

Steps into green IT technologies

The world leader in removable data storage media is a beginner in implementing 'Green IT technologies' and are taking it forward without a conscious effort Manu Sharma Moser Baer India, a world leader in the development and manufacture of removable data storage media has just made a beginning in implementing 'Green IT technologies' and are taking it forward without a conscious effort. In a interview with Muthukumar V., Senior General Manager – IT of Moser Baer India spoke to Manu Sharma of CIOL Bureau on various challenges faced an a CIO and the way ahead in tackling major issues.

CIOL: What are the major challenges faced by a CIO?
Muthukumar V: I feel that the present challenges faced by a CIO in the areas of Business Process Transformation, Innovating the enterprise, Deliver the best with the optimal resources, Team Engagement, Building service orientation and Improving on service deliveries provided by and through IT.

CIOL: Does your organization link IT budget with the company's performance/growth? If yes please elaborate?
MV: Moser Baer has no such link where in the company's IT budget is linked to the performance of the firm.

CIOL: Can you cite any specific areas where IT has come up as an accomplishment in your stint as a CIO?
MV: We have tried to leverage the ERP utilization by bringing in more processes and controls within the ERP frame work. These are done either by exploiting the existing functionality that was not implemented or by building functionality within and around the ERP. We have ensured that the investment that we had done in the ERP and other application architecture is fully exploited. We have supported the growth of the business both organically (in terms of volume growth) as well as in-organically (additional business coverage like M&ES, ITCE, Entertainment and PV).

CIOL: Going forward, what are the challenges that you foresee?
MV: I feel that the present challenges faced by a CIO will also continue over the years and these include: Business Process Transformation, Innovating the enterprise, Deliver the best with the optimal resources, Team Engagement, Building service orientation and improving on service deliveries provided by and through IT.

CIOL: How far have you come as regards adopting 'Green IT technologies'?
MV: Our company is a beginner in this front and we are taking it forward without a conscious effort.

CIOL: What will be the IT budget for the new fiscal year? What is the growth rate over last year?
MV: I would prefer not to respond to this question. But can only indicate that it runs in crores each year.

CIOL: Do you feel the amount allocated for IT is sufficient if yes why? If not why not? How much should you be spending?
MV: I can do with more funds. Having said that we have been very decent in allocating budget for IT, when there are enough justifications for the investment.

CIOL: Has the prices of the IT products (hardware/software) been on the decline due to the current stronger rupee against the US dollar in 2007?
MV: Do they. Don't think so; not because of a stronger rupee. In fact, India should be benefited as biggies turn more towards India as the global spend on IT could shrink.

CIOL: Since the rupee is growing stronger against the dollarin 2007, don't you thing it is the right time to purchase IT products both hardware/software?
MV: It all depends on the business benefits. Rupee appreciation against dollar can't be a critical determining factor; not at least in our case.

CIOL: How big is the IT staff in your organization?
MV: We have atleast 48 working in our department.

IBM UC2 helps people stay connected

Today's organizations are largely global in nature with the workforce being mobile and virtual. In the present environment, it is important for employees to stay connected and collaborate, says Chandru K., Business Manager (Converged Communications Services) at IBM India.
In an interview with Manu Sharma of CIOL Bureau, he spoke on the challenges faced by enterprises and the steps a CIO needs to ensure success of converged communication systems.

CIOL: Role of IBM in Converged Communications?
Chandru K: IBM offers a suite of assessment, design, deployment, integration and managed services to deliver converged communications solutions. IBM offers a uniquely flexible and broad portfolio of services, software and financing capabilities that can be easily customized to address specific needs required to support communications for a diverse and global workforce.
These capabilities are backed by the experience and technical know-how required to provide smooth, successful unified communications and collaboration deployments. Working with a broad network of partners and suppliers (device manufacturers, network equipment vendors, telecommunication service providers and independent software vendors), IBM can offer an extensive range of skills and solutions to meet the client's immediate and long-term business needs for converged communication solutions.

CIOL: What are the present challenges in communication that the enterprises are facing and what does Converged Communications help address/solve?
CK: Organizations are largely global in nature with workforce being mobile and virtual. The focus for organizations is to improve their bottom line that means they are focused on employee productivity. It is important for employees to stay connected and collaborate.
Typical challenges are:
* Communication-caused delay and disruption is a pervasive business problem.
* Communications complexity affects long-term productivity, business process reform, and financial performance.
* Decision support outcomes suffer from the inability to access and collaborate effectively with primary players.
* Resources are improperly used or misallocated because of the complexity of communication.
Converged Communications helps address these challenges and streamline communications.

CIOL: What do you accomplish by deploying Converged Communications, in the short and long terms?
CK: Converged Communications with its emerging class of applications and services helps improve communications. It helps businesses in simplifying communications for their mobile and distributed workforce to improve communication flows, access primary decision makers quickly, enhance collaboration, and improve productivity to positively affect their business. They speed access and improve communication, integrate different device modes and communication applications, and dramatically improve collaboration, allowing organizations to streamline business processes, reach the right resource the first time, and enhance profitability.

CIOL: What are the steps a CIO needs to prioritize to ensure success of Converged Communication systems?
CK: Firstly take a step back and do an assessment of the opportunities What do I spend on tools today? What are my opportunities for savings? And then do a business evaluation. Given those opportunities I uncover, how will I leverage those against my business processes?
Then, a very, very important step and that is to do a network assessment. Is my network ready? And if not, take the step, which is to get the network ready for voice deployments. And when we say network-readiness, we're talking about things such as what sort of network latency do I see in my data network? What are the jitter characteristics of my network? How much bandwidth do I have? And very, very importantly, have I implemented quality of service?
Beyond those steps, customers need to begin to prepare themselves to develop the skills necessary and really to begin to bring together skills between their traditional telephony groups and their data networking groups. And, of course, once you've gotten to that point, then it's time to move into the design and implementation phases.

CIOL: What are the differences between Unified Communications and Unified Messaging?
CK: Unified Communications enables people to find peers or decision makers using a single telephone number or Internet address. It integrates e-mail, instant messaging, and calendaring applications with communications devices and applications—telephony—wired and wireless; voice messaging; and audio, video, and Web conferencing.
Unified Communications applications support advanced presence-sensitivity and find-me capability, and media independence. They are easy to use, with a familiar intuitive interface linked to powerful functions. Finally, they provide voice access to applications and data.
While, Unified Messaging is a subset or one of the Unified Communications applications, Unified Messaging is the integration of different messaging (voice, email and fax) into a single or Unified Message store. They can access this through a variety of devices. Since these are integrated it makes it easier for users to access their message store. For e.g., they can access their voice, fax and email messages through a single touch point, their emails.

CIOL: What are the benefits of using IBM UC2?
CK: IBM offers the essential software, services, strategic alliances and hardware elements that companies need to help people stay connected to applications, data and one another anytime, anywhere. So, users can find an expert, reach out within and beyond business boundaries and collaborate more easily. And, as a result, help organizations improve productivity, speed responsiveness and lower operational costs, while creating a better, more attractive work environment that's easier to manage, extend and enrich.
Unified Communications requires an integrated communications strategy and architecture—enabling the secure combination of voice, video, data, and mobility applications within a robust, intelligent network. IBM, with its industry-leading breadth of solutions, its world-class partnerships, and its understanding of how to map technology to address business challenges, is uniquely able to fulfill the promise of Converged Communications.

CIOL: Why do I need technology from Avaya, AVST or Cisco?
CK: Global Technology Services within IBM focuses on providing infrastructure solution for customers. We work with customers to understand their business problems and check on the best technology to fit this. Working with a broad network of partners and suppliers (device manufacturers, network equipment vendors, telecom service providers and independent software vendors), IBM can offer an extensive range of skills and solutions to meet the client's needs.

CIOL: What is IBM's predictions for Unified Communications?
CK: The Virtual Workplace will become the rule! There will be no need to leave the office. Just bring it [Unified Communications] along. Desk phones and desktop computers will gradually disappear, replaced by mobile devices, including laptops that take on traditional office capabilities. Social networking tools and virtual world meeting experiences will simulate the feeling on being there in-person. Work models will be changed by expanded globalization, and green business initiatives that reduce travel and encourage work at home.
* Instant Messaging and other real-time collaboration tools will become the norm, bypassing e-mail. Just as e-mail became a business necessity, a new generation of workers has a new expectation for Instant Messaging (IM) as the preferred method of business interaction. This will fuel more rapid adoption of Unified Communications as traditional IM becomes the core extension point for multi-modal communications.
* Beyond Phone Calls to Collaborative Business Processes. Companies will go beyond the initial capabilities of IM, like click-to-call and online presence, to deep integration with business processes and line-of-business applications, where they can realize the greatest benefit.
* Interoperability and Open Standards will tear down proprietary walls across business and public domains. Corporate demand for interoperability and maturing of industry standards will force unified communications providers to embrace interoperability. Converged, aggregated, and rich presence will allow businesses and individuals to better find and reach the appropriate resources, removing inefficiencies from business processes and daily lives.
* New meeting models will emerge. Hang up on routine, calendared conference calls. The definition of "meetings" will radically transform and become increasingly adhoc and instantaneous based on context and need. 3-D virtual world and gaming technologies will significantly influence online corporate meeting experiences to deliver more life-like experiences demanded by the next generation workers who will operate more efficiently in this familiar environment.

CIOL: Why is IBM holding this roundtable and what will be the focus? What issues will IBM address at the meet?
CK: IBM in association with CIOL is bringing a live session on Converged Communication. The rountable will focus on the subject, "Enhancing effective business communication". IBM will address issues such as how to communicate and collaborate effectively in today's disparate work environment and how to reduce reliance on external voice, video, date service providers.
The forum will provide an opportunity to discuss the communication challenges organization are facing today and understand how Converged Communication solutions help address these. Customers will have an opportunity to talk to experts and also network with industry peers. IBM will also showcase the actual working of Converged Communication solutions at our customer solution center at Delhi.