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Welcome to the latest edition of TMCnet’s Unified Communications Software Week in Review - offering up a quick rundown on all the top stories related to UC from the past week.

One of the biggest features of UC being touted today by personal and business users is video calling. Whether it’s to hop on a quick face-to-face chat with a client or business partner, or it’s a video session to catch up with a family member back home, thousands of miles away – video is where all the hype is at right now.

Of course, getting in front of the camera also comes with a whole new dynamic of etiquette rules and standards users must adopt.

This week, TMCnet columnist Robbie Pleasant talked about those unwritten rules for getting in front of a camera to communicate.

While there isn’t a set of exact rules, yet, there are some common sense tips uncovered in a recent Harris Interactive (News - Alert) survey commissioned by Radvision that are worth highlighting.

Of those surveyed, 20 percent said they chose casual attire when on a video business call; women also spent more time getting ready for the camera.

Other topics in the survey include the best place to conduct a video call. From the Bathroom? In the swimming pool? Check out the article here to find out the top locations.

For on-the-go business users looking to make use of video calling and all the other beneficial offerings of a unified communications solution, Citirix announced this week the launch of Podio for iPad. This is a new app that makes conducting business while on the go faster and easier.

Keeping the proliferation of BYOD in mind, Citrix created the app to make a collaborative work platform possible on the iPad.

In Australia, the UC market is continuing to heat up as most businesses make use of cloud-based UC and UCaaS offerings.

The latest report from Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) notes the Australian UC market will exceed $1 billion by 2016 and will continue to grow.

Government sectors, education, healthcare, mining, and professional services are all attributed to that growth.

"Although video and collaboration have been the growth engines for UC revenues in recent years, organizations rate voice based applications as the most important UC application,” says Anand Balasubramanian, Frost & Sullivan’s industry analyst for Australia and New Zealand ICT Practice. “Enterprise telephony - both traditional and IP telephony, accounted for a major proportion of UC revenues in 2011. Although this segment will continue to be the biggest contributor to overall UC revenues, growth will begin to gradually decline as the market approaches saturation.”

To get users to really buy into UC there is also a need to deliver a quality user experience. A TMCnet this week looks at what’s most important to UC users today.

Because everyone is looking for features that will be of most use to their needs, there is not a set check list of what’s needed to ensure a better user experience – but options like consistent quality, no performance issues, ease of use, are all important. Check out the article to see what other features make the cut.

That’s all for this week. Be sure to check back with TMCnet throughout the week for the latest in Unified Communications (News - Alert) Software news as it happens. Until next week….

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