Forum to Enable Interoperability of Unified Communications
Hardware and Software Through Inter-vendor Openness and Collaboration
FREMONT, Calif., May 19, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Logitech (SIX:LOGN) (NASDAQ:LOGI) today announced that, along with its
LifeSize Communications division, it is a founding member of the newly
formed Unified
Communications Interoperability Forum (UCIF), a non-profit alliance
of worldwide technology leaders working together to fully realize the
potential of unified
communications (UC). The UCIF is designed to help global businesses
be more productive by enabling standards-based, cross-vendor
interoperability of UC hardware and software across enterprises, service
providers and consumer clouds.
Logitech / LifeSize is joined by founding members HP, Juniper Networks,
Microsoft and Polycom, as well as contributing participants Acme Packet,
Aspect, AudioCodes, Broadcom, BroadSoft, Brocade, ClearOne, Jabra,
Plantronics, RADVISION, Siemens Enterprise Communications, and Teliris.
The UCIF was founded with the recognition that seamless interoperability
based on open standards is one of the key requirements to drive UC
further into today's enterprises. Member companies will collaborate to
overcome existing interoperability barriers to widespread UC adoption
and deliver a reliable and rich UC experience, with the goal of
propelling worldwide enterprise UC adoption.
"Logitech and LifeSize believe in a future where video communication is
as easy as making a telephone call, where communicating with someone
from across the globe is as effective as sitting across the table in the
same room - a future that can only be achieved with seamless
interoperability within multi-vendor environments," said Matt Collier,
senior vice president of corporate development at LifeSize
Communications. "We are firmly committed to driving innovation and
collaborating with fellow UCIF members to establish industry standards
that will help realize the true potential of unified communications, and
ensure that the experience is effortless and natural for anyone,
anywhere."
"Interoperability is not only critical to customer success for deploying
unified communications but intrinsic to the delivery of legacy, current
and next-generation UC tools, services and infrastructure from multiple
vendors. Until now, efforts to achieve interoperability have appeared
ad-hoc, which has given customers little assurance that their existing
and planned investments are protected and will deliver the value
promised," said Jonathan Edwards, research analyst, Unified
Communications, IDC. "I'm delighted to see Logitech / LifeSize take a
leading role by joining the UCIF. Together, these companies will help
drive industrywide adoption of open standards and develop programs that
put accountability on the vendors and provide peace of mind and
investment protection for end customers - something that will surely
accelerate adoption of UC technologies."
The UCIF will work with existing industry standards, identifying and
filling the gaps between current protocols and interoperability issues
that have stalled broad adoption and deployment of valuable
communications methods. UCIF membership is open to hardware and software
solution providers, service providers and network operators.
Learn more about Logitech / LifeSize's role in UCIF at Blog.Logitech
and http://www.lifesize.com/ucif.
For more information or to join the UCIF, visit www.ucif.org.
About the UCI Forum
The Unified Communications Interoperability Forum (UCIF) is a non-profit
alliance of worldwide communications technology leaders working together
to realize the potential of unified communications (UC) by increasing
efficiency, decreasing implementation costs and improving the
interoperability experience for UC customers. The UCIF's vision is to
enable interoperability of standards-based UC hardware and software
across enterprises, service providers, and consumer clouds, as a means
of generating incremental business opportunity for all stakeholders in
the ecosystem and of increasing the business use of UC technologies and
services. The UCIF creates and tests interoperability profiles,
implementation guidelines and best practices for interoperability
between UC products and existing communications and business
applications. Visit www.ucif.org
to learn more.
About Logitech
Logitech is a world leader in products that connect people to the
digital experiences they care about. Spanning multiple computing,
communication and entertainment platforms, Logitech's combined hardware
and software enable or enhance digital navigation, music and video
entertainment, gaming, social networking, audio and video communication
over the Internet, video security and home-entertainment control.
Founded in 1981, Logitech International is a Swiss public company listed
on the SIX Swiss Exchange (LOGN) and on the Nasdaq Global Select Market
(LOGI).
About LifeSize Communications
LifeSize Communications is a world leader in high definition video
communications and telepresence. Founded by industry veterans in 2003,
LifeSize pioneered high definition video communications to make
communicating at a distance as natural and effective as being in the
same room, for anyone, anywhere. LifeSize became a division of Logitech
in December 2009, sharing a vision of everywhere there is voice there
should be video. More information about LifeSize can be found at http://www.lifesize.com.
Logitech, the Logitech logo, and other Logitech marks are registered in
Switzerland and other countries. All other trademarks are the property
of their respective owners. For more information about Logitech and its
products, visit the company's Web site at www.logitech.com.
LifeSize, the LifeSize logo and other LifeSize marks are trademarks or
registered trademarks of LifeSize Communications Inc.
(LOGI - IR)
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6296821&lang=en
SOURCE: Logitech
Logitech
Sarah Youngbauer, 510-713-5280
sarah_youngbauer@logitech.com
Copyright Business Wire 2010