OREANDA-NEWS. February 28, 2011.  NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) today announced it is demonstrating a new Unified Communications & Collaboration (UC&C) software architecture at the Enterprise Connect exhibition in Orlando, Florida. Located in booth 609, NEC is showcasing a virtualized platform that utilizes the latest in Rich Internet Applications (RIA)(*) to uniquely align with changing enterprise needs. This innovative technology employs Web and IT architectures to fundamentally change how enterprises provide rich collaborative experiences for their workforce and customers.

NEC's new UC&C RIA client framework fits into existing secure Web architectures, and can be deployed in a consistent manner across any device, whether on PC, a mobile, or a tablet. IT professionals will quickly recognize that it utilizes an integral Java application framework and the latest in RIA Flash-based technology. This approach does not require cumbersome desktop management like traditional "thick" UC client applications.

The UC&C software is designed to be user-centric, enabling IT to assign services and media resource to user as required by their role. NEC will demonstrate the power of its user-centric approach by showing the roles of various individuals across an organization. The sales person on the road, contact center agents responding to customers, and developers collaborating on projects can all employ common tools, collaborating with one another to create greater efficiencies in their businesses.

"Market trends are driving demand for UC&C solutions founded on flexible software architectures that fit more naturally into enterprise IT architectures," said Takemi Hosaka, Associate Senior Vice President, NEC, "This is a perfect time for NEC to introduce its alignment with these emerging market demands."

Slated for general availability later this year, NEC's new software architecture is part of NEC's UNIVERGE family of products. It is a distributed IT services platform that operates on general-purpose infrastructure, provides open standards, and aligns with existing IT virtualization, cloud computing, security methods, directory structures, and application delivery models with easy operation and management.

"For NEC customers UC&C will enhance the values of their existing telephony assets," Hosaka added.

The UC&C architecture is designed to operate within virtualized data centers or within cloud computing environments and can be utilized to build private enterprise communications or for UC as a service (UCaaS). NEC's UC&C core software technology is proven in deployments across enterprises and NEC partners are currently utilizing the technology to deliver UCaaS.

"This same core software technology has received accreditations from the U.S. Department of Defense Joint Interoperability Command (JITC) PBX1," said Jay Krauser, Director, Product Marketing, Enterprise Technologies, NEC Corporation of America, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NEC. "This represents some of the most stringent testing for security, resiliency, and interoperability for communications platforms."

With the UC&C architecture, every aspect of business demands is addressed. Corporate level executives are looking for ways to increase employee productivity and ensure the security of their business. IT organizations are seeking communications that fit more naturally into their IT architectures, enable them to operate with greater efficiency and to be more responsive to business pressures with business applications integration. At the same time the workforce within all enterprises has expectations for a high degree of mobility and rich web-centric communications tools.