The Unified Communications Interoperability Forum (UCIF) is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

alliance between communications technology vendors. It was announced on May 19, 2010, with the vision to maximize the interoperability of UC based on existing standards. Founding members of UCIF were HP,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

Polycom Poly, formerly Polycom, a part of HP Inc., is an American multinational corporation that develops video, voice and content collaboration and communication technology. Polycom was co-founded in 1990 by Brian L Hinman and Jeffrey Rodman. In 2018 ...

Logitech Logitech International S.A. ( ; often shortened to Logi) is a Swiss multinational manufacturer of computer peripherals and software, with headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Newark, California. The company has offices throughout Europe ...

/ LifeSize Communications, and

Juniper Networks Juniper Networks, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. The company develops and markets networking products, including routers, switches, network management software, network security products, ...

.https://www.pcworld.com/article/196640/collaboration_vendors_join_for_interoperability.html On July 28, 2014, UCIF merged with

International Multimedia Telecommunications Consortium International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

(UMTC) into one consortium.

Unified communications

''Unified communications'' (UC) is the integration of real-time communication services such as

instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...

(chat),

presence information In computer and telecommunications networks, presence information is a status indicator that conveys ability and willingness of a potential communication partner—for example a user—to communicate. A user's client provides presence information ...

, Telephony (including

IP telephony Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet ...

video conferencing Videotelephony, also known as videoconferencing and video teleconferencing, is the two-way or multipoint reception and transmission of audio and video signals by people in different locations for real time communication.McGraw-Hill Concise Enc ...

call control In telephony, call control refers to the software within a telephone switch that supplies its central function. Call control decodes addressing information and routes telephone calls from one end point to another. It also creates the features that c ...

, and

speech recognition Speech recognition is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and computational linguistics that develops methodologies and technologies that enable the recognition and translation of spoken language into text by computers with the ma ...

with non real-time communication services such as

unified messaging Unified messaging (or UM) is a business term for the integration of different electronic messaging and communications media (e-mail, SMS, fax, voicemail, video messaging, etc.) technologies into a single interface, accessible from a variety of dif ...

(integrated

voicemail A voicemail system (also known as voice message or voice bank) is a computer-based system that allows users and subscribers to exchange personal voice messages; to select and deliver voice information; and to process transactions relating to ind ...

e-mail Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...

SMS Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...

, and

fax Fax (short for facsimile), sometimes called telecopying or telefax (the latter short for telefacsimile), is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images), normally to a telephone number connected to a printer o ...

). UC is not a single product, but a set of products that provides a consistent unified user interface and user experience across multiple devices and media types. UC also refers to a trend to offer business process integration, i.e. to simplify and integrate all forms of communications in view to optimize

business process A business process, business method or business function is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks by people or equipment in which a specific sequence produces a service or product (serves a particular business goal) for a parti ...

es and reduce the response time, manage flows and eliminate device and media dependencies.

Members

The original founding members were HP,

LifeSize Lifesize is a video and audio telecommunications company in the United States which provides high definition videoconferencing endpoints and accessories, touchscreen conference room phones and a cloud-based video collaboration platform. Lifesiz ...

Communications,

, and

. Other members were Acme Packet,

Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It designs, develops, produces and sells telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and various smart ...

Aspect

AudioCodes AudioCodes Ltd. is a provider of advanced communications software, products and productivity solutions. Its services enable enterprises and service providers to build and operate all-IP voice networks for unified communications (UC), contact cen ...

Broadcom Broadcom Inc. is an American designer, developer, manufacturer and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data center, networking, software, broadband, wirel ...

BroadSoft BroadSoft, Inc. is a communication software and service provider that was acquired by Cisco Systems in 2018. BroadSoft was founded in 1998 and completed its initial public offering in 2010, and was headquartered in Maryland. It partners with carri ...

Brocade Communications Systems Brocade is an American technology company specializing in storage networking products, now a subsidiary of Broadcom Inc. The company is known for its Fibre Channel storage networking products and technology. Prior to the acquisition, the comp ...

, ClearOne, Jabra,

Plantronics Plantronics, Inc. is an American electronics company — branded Poly to reflect its dual Plantronics and Polycom heritage — producing audio communications equipment for business and consumers. Its products support unified communications, mob ...

RADVISION Radvision was a provider of video conferencing and telepresence technologies over IP and wireless networks based in Tel Aviv, Israel. It offered development and test suites for voice and video over IP communications. Radvision was acquired by Av ...

, Siemens Enterprise Communications,

Teliris Teliris was a privately owned telepresence and videoconferencing company, headquartered in New York City and London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a ...

, Vidyo, and VOSS Solutions. At launch, news outlets drew attention to the absence of

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develo ...

and

Avaya Avaya Holdings Corp., often shortened to Avaya (), is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, that provides cloud communications and workstream collaboration services. The company's platform inc ...

from the member list, though UCIF has invited them to join as early members. On July 28, 2014, UCIF merged with

(IMTC) into one consortium.

References

{{reflist

External links

UCIF Official website

IMTC Official website
Human–computer interaction Teleconferencing Videotelephony Organizations established in 2010 Organizations disestablished in 2014

Unified communications

Members

See also

References

External links