The following are the most important events of the past year that will have a major and/or long lasting affect on tomorrow's enterprise communications market:1. Global economic conditions plummet: fallout from unemployment and tight credit will lead to reductions in IT expenditures and inhibit adoption of UC solutions for at least 18 months
2. Microsoft announcement of OCS 2007 Release 2 proves the software giant is serious about voice communications
3. Nortel facing bankruptcy as its financial position is tenuous and stock shares sell for pennies; rumors about company's future abound
4. IBM launches Unified Telephony, its answer to Microsoft's OCS solution, as part of a major UC investment program ($1 billion over three years)
5. Cisco solidifies position as leading UC player with announcement of Webex Connect, a SaaS offering based on its Webex service, and acquisition of Jabber, a major player in presence and IM software
6. Gores Group acquires majority interest in Siemens Enterprise Communications after the business unit was on the market for more than two years
7. Avaya President & CEO Lou D'Ambrosio steps down for medical reasons, followed by a major overhaul of Avaya's executive management team
8. Alcatel Lucent names enterprises as one of its three primary target market sectors as part of another major corporate restructuring, although enterprise communications market position in North America is below the radar of most customers, consultants, and industry analysts (except for Alcatel Lucent's Genesys Labs unit)
9. Ericsson divested itself of its Enterprise communications business; buyer Aastra Technologies becomes first-tier global supplier with the acquisition.
10. Apple repositions iPhone as a product offering for enterprises, to compete against the ubiquitous RIM Blackberry: the days of desktop telephone instruments as the primary voice communications device may slowly be coming to an end
