NEW YORK, July 23, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ -- Four leading unified-communications
vendors earned PilotHouse Awards from Nemertes Research, based on ratings from
their customers.

"For now, the main UC battle is between Cisco and Microsoft, as measured
by customer experiences and ratings," says Robin Gareiss, executive vice
president and senior founding partner of Nemertes Research. "But IBM and Avaya
aren't far behind, so the right focus on customer service, value, and
technology innovation could easily shift this market in the coming year."

As part of Nemertes' Unified Communications and Collaboration research
project, 443 IT executives from 426 companies rated their unified-
communications vendors. PilotHouse Awards recognize vendors who received the
highest average scores in several categories. UC decision-makers rated their
vendors on customer service, value, technology, product features, and
management tools.

Nemertes Research 2008 PilotHouse Awards: Unified Communications

    Best Overall UC Vendors
    -- Microsoft Corp. - Winner
    -- Cisco Systems, Inc. - Finalist
    -- IBM - Finalist

The detailed report outlines additional categories that UC decision-makers
rated their vendors. Although awards were not issued in each category, the
report does detail which vendors perform best in each area, and why.

About the Research

The benchmark, Unified Communications and Collaboration, examines several
key areas, including organizational strategies, Web 2.0, UC applications and
strategies, implementation and management, and the business case for VOIP.
Nemertes provides a complete analysis of both VOIP and unified communications
awards in separate reports.

About Nemertes Research

Nemertes Research is a research-advisory firm that specializes in
analyzing and quantifying the business value of emerging technologies. You can
learn more about Nemertes Research at our Website, http://www.nemertes.com.

SOURCE Nemertes Research

http://www.nemertes.com

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