I've been writing about unified communications for quite some time here. Our efforts here began as a VoIP-focused community, but within months it became clear that VoIP was moving quickly through any disruption into becoming a mainstay of the telecommunications networking infrastructure.

For many, with consumer VoIP services, commercial VoIP solutions (from leaders like Cisco, Avaya and Nortel), Asterisk and other departmental or SMB-oriented solutions (like Jazinga most recently), to mobility and wireless solutions have all come together to encompass the broader field of unified communications.

Today we talk often about Communications Enhanced/Enabled Business Processes (CEPB) as the next point of convergence. The truth is that there are multiple convergence paths in progress simultaneously. Yes, absolutely the integration of network service (data, voice and video) with enterprise business applications (think CRM, ERP, SFA and the like) is clearly underway. While much of the talk is relatively recent, the effort to unify services and applications has been in progress for many years. Today we have the networking technology tools to make it a productive and cost-effective reality.

Mobility solutions are converging as well. Integration of Blackberries, iPhones and other handheld devices into the business network (whether large enterprise or small business) is moving rapidly. We're seeing more and more integration of the handheld into daily business workflows and processes. This isn't just users cobbling together things they want to do their job. Today we're seeing real integration and adoption of corporation-wide solutions that bring the power of both handheld devices and wireless services into the hands of business workers everywhere.

There's another convergence zone that isn't as widely recognized, but we see it as still being a part of unified communications - that's the widening impact of what we call social media tools. These tools range from presence and status sharing (Twitter, Jaiku, Brightkite, etc.), to real networking managment sites (Facebook and LinkedIn), to the array of related and supporting services that add value to our daily routines (Jott, Phweet, Twitterfone, SpinVox) all come together under the umbrella of unified communcations as well.

I wrote about this in Is Unified Communications an Industry or just Buzz Words?. Sheryl and I did an Internet Radio call-in in show talking about the subject a few days later via our Talkshoe, but for mysterious reason known only to the net gremlins, the recorded podcast of that show vanished into the bit bucket.

We'd both take the position that today social media tools are an extended aspect of unified communications. That means in the weeks and months ahead, we'll be working with some new companies and sponsors as we develop papers, Essentials Series, eBooks and podcasts that take a firmer stance positioning social media as a part of the unified communications family.