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 UC providers to embrace interoperability.

There are different silos of communication involved in UC like voice, video conferencing, email, messengers, mobiles and CRM. In the words of Minhaj Zia, the challenge that individual players operating in different segments of this market like voice, software face is "How to integrate these standalone communi¬cation channels with existing business processes so that they can easily migrate from one platform to another as and when the need arise?"

Vendors have a clear understanding that industry collaboration and interoperability will be critical for the fate of UC. Vibhu Ranjan seconds this idea, "Microsoft has built most of its solutions on interoperable formats. Our software solutions are interoperable with all leading vendors like Cisco, Avaya, Nortel, Siemens etc. In order to build software that brings strategic value to our customers, we have also formed strategic alliances with video conferencing solution providers like Polycom, Tandberg and Aspect Software." According to Frost & Sullivan, Microsoft works with 74% of all videoconferencing systems and 90% of all telephony systems.

For Chandru Kavichandran, how different organizations choose to leverage the advantages that open standards of communication by different vendors offer would be determined by their "individual context". Interoperability is the key towards a transition to UC architecture. Organizations should be able to pick and choose UC suites and integrate them in their business applications without ripping apart their existing infrastructure. "Open standards of communication are pivotal to operations and business growth in our times. Taking the example of IBM, which has offices all over the globe. It becomes imperative that the communication platforms across the globe can be integrated seamlessly."

In existing business scenarios where companies also take the route of acquisitions for growth. interoperability ensures that the integration of the information and communication network is velocious and expedient.