Verizon Business today became the first US-based service provider to offer a managed unified communications (UC) and collaboration service based on the newest version of Cisco Systems’ Unified Communications Manager, Cisco UCM 6.1. This newest capability integrates mobility into the UCM, eliminating the need for a separate mobility server and, for the first time, integrates presence through a presence server.

Those new features will make it easier for businesses to enable their increasingly mobile employees to communicate and collaborate, said Laurie Shook, portfolio leader, Managed Unified Communications for Verizon Business. The new offering also integrates voicemail and email for one-stop access to all messaging.

“This is a change for us because we are getting deeper into applications that relate to UC other than dialtone and voice,” Shook said. “These new capabilities enable some seamless integration of voicemail and email and instant messaging and presence, to enhance the productivity among employees and mobile workforces in the extended enterprise, but what’s more important is that, as a managed service offering, this allows the corporation to outsource some of the complexity of these UC&C applications that can be a little bit daunting.”

While talking about anytime, anywhere access to communications and information has become a cliché, Shook admitted, delivering that on a seamless basis in a way that is easy to use is not all that prevalent. “If coworkers are unable to reach each other quickly and promptly, it slows down how business gets done,” she said.

Verizon’s managed service capabilities can address two concerns that IT managers have, according to Shook. Verizon can provide the assessment of initial needs and keep a corporation up to speed on the newest advantages, and it can handle basics such as fault management on the IP network, so that IT managers can think strategically.

Verizon and Cisco have already announced that Verizon Business will support the Cisco UCM 7.0 version as well, which comes out before the end of the year, Shook said.