Unified Communications Solutions

Imagine there are no boundaries.

Today's business world runs on its own rules. According to Microsoft executives¹, workers in most average organizations rely on 6.4 communication devices to connect with their coworkers, clients, suppliers and partners. These findings are backed up by Forrester Research², which found that 93% of workers must use more than one communications method simply to connect with their co-workers each day.

In an age of geographically dispersed work teams, increased communication velocity and information overload, it is becoming exceptionally difficult for people to maintain their wide range of real and virtual relationships. For businesses, these challenges result in significant costs.

Consider:

• As people struggle to do their jobs using systems, processes and devices that aren't synchronized, inefficiency rises
• An inability to reach mobile workers and key decision makers slows down decision making and often leads to project delays and customer dissatisfaction
• Most significantly, communication mishaps can actually stop projects in their tracks, resulting in missed deadlines, skipped delivery dates, financial penalties and even lost opportunities

But just think: If the proliferation of technology created these challenges, the unification of technology has the power to resolve them. That's what Allstream's Unified Communications solutions are all about.

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Adapt. Respond. Collaborate. Connect.

Allstream's Unified Communications solutions were designed to eliminate bottlenecks to information flow and impediments to real-time collaboration. By integrating voice, email and data on a single network, we provide your staff with a simple user interface that allows them to:

• Reach people when you need them, rather than wasting time and playing telephone tag with "attempted" contacts that never connect - enabling them to resolve issues in real time
• Remain accessible on one unified number
• Use presence information to choose how to communicate with their colleagues and set preferences for how others should communicate with them
• Pick up all their voice, fax and email messages, no matter where they're located
• Track down all their team members and determine their availability in real time
• Share files and applications, set up virtual meetings and connect seamlessly through Instant Messaging
• Improve contact centre collaboration and reporting to communicate more effectively with customers, suppliers and partners

By enabling people-centric, integrated and secure communications anytime, from anywhere, these solutions change the way people do business. They bring teams together and allow them to work more effectively. They enable access to the right people at the right time to make key decisions. They enhance the customer experience, improve employee productivity and help organizations avoid project delays and missed opportunities.

Ultimately, Unified Communications foster more adaptable, responsive, collaborative and connected enterprises, positioning your organization to compete more effectively over time.

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Unwavering focus. Uncompromising Quality

At Allstream, we're dedicated to collaborating with you to better understand your business and help you resolve your challenges. By listening to your needs and drawing on our experience, our professionals can recommend the Unified Communications solution best suited to your business strategy and technological environment. Our vendor-agnostic approach means you will be presented with the technology solutions that are right for you, while our phased migration methodology allows you to evolve your environment at your own pace.

As a leading telecommunications solutions provider with deep technical expertise, a national team of certified specialists and superior delivery capabilities, Allstream delivers reliable and secure solutions with a guaranteed quality of service. We invite you to work with us to make your people more productive and your company more competitive.

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For more information please contact us using one of the following methods:

• Complete our Information Request form
• Contact your Sales Representative
• Call us at 1 888 811-6301

¹ Remarks by Jeff Raikes, President, Microsoft Business Division, Unified Communications Group Strategy Day, Ju ne 26, 2006 at http://www. microsoft.com/presspass/exec/jeff/06-26-06UnifiedCommunications.mspx
² Forrester Consulting, Unified Communications Transform Business Communication, August 2005