LONDON, July 15 /PRNewswire/ --

- Unified Communications SaaS Deployment http://tr.im/pPGA
Allows Small and Medium-Sized Businesses to Gain Full Benefits of UC at a
Reasonable Cost

A new White Paper by CommuniGate Systems http://www.communigate.com/
highlights the benefits of a Unified Communications (UC) SaaS (Software as a
Service) model for small and medium-sized businesses. This independent view
of Unified Communications SaaS deployment http://tr.im/pPGH has been written
for CommuniGate by Philip Hunter, a freelance IT journalist specialising in
communications, web technologies and digital entertainment.

Whilst Unified Communications has already made a significant contribution
to the competitiveness of larger enterprises, boosting productivity and
streamlining business processes, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs)
have been deterred from deploying UC by the high cost of implementation and
lack of technical staff. However, the availability of a Unified
Communications SaaS model, such as CommuniGate Pro http://tr.im/pPGI now
brings all of the benefits of UC within the reach of small and medium-sized
businesses for the first time.

Simon Paton, Managing Director of CommuniGate Systems UK says, "Small and
medium-sized businesses have been slower to embrace Unified Communications
because of high costs and lack of technical skills. However, the Unified
Communications SaaS model has matured rapidly, providing SMBs with a far more
cost effective mechanism for deploying UC, avoiding the complexities of
on-premise implementation, by in effect passing the buck to service
providers."

Paton continues, "The Unified Communications SaaS deployment model is
easier to deploy, more reliable, and more manageable for the SMB customer,
while facilitating future expansion in both user numbers and applications.
Furthermore, service providers are able to tailor the whole UC package using
CommuniGate Pro, including the functions provided. They can develop versions
of the package for different vertical markets, and also tailor to the needs
of individual SMB customers."

Unified Communications SaaS deployment is fast becoming the preferred
method for delivering UC to SMBs, because it is advantageous for both the
service provider and customer. The key point for both is that SaaS makes it
much easier to expand and upgrade the UC solution at a time when functions
continue to evolve fast, driven by growing integration between the components
and availability of broadband bandwidth to both fixed and mobile devices. New
features can be added purely at the service end, while new devices can be
added at the customer end just by downloading software based on the Adobe(R)
Flash(R) client Pronto! in the case of the CommuniGate Pro UC platform.

Paton continues, "Armed with the CommuniGate Pro Mobile Unified
Communications platform, service providers can deliver scaleable UC services
to the multitude of potential SMB customers, which collectively can generate
more revenue than large bases of residential or consumer subscriber services
such as ASDL and telephony."

Paton concludes, "The combination of highly reliable bandwidth
connections, a robust scaleable platform, the Unified Communications SaaS
model for delivery of UC, and widespread cultural acceptance of collaborative
tools, means that the time is ripe for a major push by service providers into
the UC SMB market."

For a full copy of the CommuniGate Systems White Paper on Unified
Communications SaaS deployment, please visit http://tr.im/siKx

About CommuniGate Systems

Based in London, CommuniGate UK is a business unit of GAP Internet
Communications - the sole distributor for CommuniGate Systems within the UK.
Founded in 1991 and based in Mill Valley, California, CommuniGate Systems
develops carrier-class Unified Communications and media delivery software for
broadband and mobile operators to deliver value-added services and SaaS
solutions. CommuniGate Systems delivers powerful mash-ups of Unified
Communications technology mixed with media and entertainment applications for
portals, social networks, enterprises and mobile communities. CommuniGate
Systems is revolutionising the Unified Communications industry with a unique
Flash-based client framework Pronto! bringing together all forms of
communication and breaking the leash to the desktop with Web 2.0 mobility.

CommuniGate Systems is the first choice in technology solutions for over
12,000 customers with over 130 million subscribers unifying e-mail,
collaboration, IM, presence and VoIP with a single identity. The Unified
Communications platform provides flexibility, performance, and scalability
with benchmark proven architecture remaining unchallenged in the industry.
Our technology powers OEM partner products ranging from embedded real time
systems to powerful unified messaging platforms at top tier global network
operators. The open development environment's simple APIs deliver extensible
flexibility with a unique clustering technology for 99.999% uptime for the
most demanding application environments

The company is a trusted and financially stable vendor, maintaining the
highest customer satisfaction levels in the Unified Communications industry
with over 175 members in its partner network worldwide.

For further information, please contact:

    Lisa Williams
    itpr
    t. +44-(0)1932-57-88-00
    http://www.itpr.co.uk