Vodafone buys unified communication consultant Bluefish

Vodafone's Global Enterprise is strengthening its professional services arm by acquiring British consultant Bluefish Communications, which will form the basis of a new unified communication and collaboration practice, the operator said on Thursday.

Unified communication combines voice, instant messaging and video into one, along with the ability to see how colleagues want to communicate -- so-called presence.

Unified communication has been around for years, and for a long time vendors struggled to convince enterprises to start using it. Nevertheless the growing availability and popularity of broadband has made it easier to implement, and more popular, Blood said.

Today, most organizations are comfortable in their basic understanding of unified communication and collaboration technologies, according to Rich Costello, senior innovation analyst at IDC. Many have already implemented IP telephony, instant messaging and presence, and are now increasingly considering mobility, video conferencing, and hosted unified communication services, in particular, he recently said.

Bluefish has know-how in other areas otherwise unified communication. For instance, Vodafone as well highlights its capabilities in networking and cloud services.