Verizon Business is expanding and strengthening its unified communications services for multinational companies. 
Specifically, Verizon Business is announcing the following new features and capabilities of the company's suite of unified communications and collaboration offerings:
- Expansion of the Verizon VoIP portfolio, which provides a foundation for unified communications, to four more European countries -- Spain, Italy, Ireland and Sweden -- bringing the total to 10. From a single user interface, workers can control incoming and outgoing calls, access a single unified voice mail, manage their online presence, send instant messages, synchronize their contacts and calendars, and expand their mobility and teleworking capabilities, including softphone functionality.
- International expansion of the company's Integrated Communications Package (ICP), part of the UC platform, to 10 countries in Europe in local languages and integration with Verizon Conferencing for more efficient collaboration. The service was originally introduced to U.S. customers in August 2007. ICP users will also be able to manage conference-call scheduling and manage presence to initiate Instant Meeting and Net Conference calls by seeing who is available to invite and participate. They will also be able to import conferencing meeting subscriptions, "drag and drop" conference participants into a meeting scheduler, and schedule single or recurring audio and Net conferences.
- Employment of the newest Microsoft Office Live Meeting platform for Verizon Net Conferencing, including a redesigned interface and support for live video. In addition, Verizon Business is introducing enhanced Web-based tools to better manage conference calls. Net Conferencing powered by Office Live Meeting makes it easier for large businesses and government organizations to experience the benefits of Web conferencing, whether users are conducting simple impromptu collaboration sessions, formal Web-based meetings, advanced online training or large communication events. Verizon Business is rolling out the new version in phases, and it should be available to all Net Conferencing customers by the end of the summer.
