It's not a new vision, but in a tight economic climate these are the types of initiatives that help IT improve business processes--and the bottom line.
By embedding communications within SOAs, vendors including Avaya (NYSE: AV), BlueNote Networks, Cisco Systems (NSDQ: CSCO), Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), NEC/Sphere, Nortel Networks (NYSE: NT), and Siemens say companies can dramatically improve personal productivity by enriching user interactions while increasing efficiency. Admins could be automatically notified in the event of an outage or slowdown, for example.