IBM has pledged to invest $1bn (£497m) in
boost its unified communications and collaboration (UCC) strategy over the next
three years.
The funds have been earmarked for internal development and the acquisition of
as-yet unnamed specialist communications and collaboration hardware and software
companies.
The supplier's UCC strategy will combine software such as email and instant
messaging (IM) with voice over IP (VoIP) to deliver a complete communications
platform for PCs, laptops and other mobile devices.
IBM will compete with Microsoft, which
launched Office Communications Server 2007 late last year, as well as unified
communications products from networking specialists such as
Cisco, Avaya
and Nortel.
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