Too often, the hottest technologies ride on nothing more than hot air. Don't confuse good looks, marketing hype, or even dominant market share with value. Many of the most familiar, popular, and widely used technologies cultivate cachet they just don't deserve. Here's bMighty's picks for nine overblown technologies that just don't deliver the goods for business.
Unified Communications has a lot of promise. That's why communications vendors ranging from Cisco to Siemens are so high on the technology. Only problem is, most small and midsize businesses don't share their enthusiasm.
When bMighty.com fielded an original research study on UC earlier this year, we discovered that most business owners don't really know what "unified communications" means, and that their main issues center around saving money, not adding new features. That's likely to be especially true in today's uncertain economic climate.
To be fair, once they figure out what UC offers -- integration of voice, e-mail, and instant messaging across computers, smartphones, VoIP telephones, and cellular networks -- many business and technology decision makers become interested, as long as they don't have to spend any money or rip out still-functional legacy systems. If that's not enough, smaller companies can't risk overlooking the need for shrewd security and access policies.
For more enthusiasm, you have to turn to specific high-volume or high-value environments, such as call centers or salespeople and executives whose time is extremely valuable to the company. UC is already finding a home in those situations, but in general purpose applications, UC will show up in fits and starts, such as click-to-call links in search results on mobile phones, for example. Or in computer programs that combine VoIP telephony with e-mail, instant messaging, and presence.
If you're looking for full-fledged UC implementations to suddenly start showing up in small and midsize companies, don't hold your breath.
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