During the VoiceCon San Francisco 2009 keynote Wednesday, Siemens Enterprise Communications Group said it will be supporting Twitter in its OpenScape unified communication software to enable enterprises to tap into the growing business uses for social networks.

The Twitter support will be available in the first quarter of 2010, and it integrates the micro-blogging site into the UC software by enabling users to send tweets directly from the OpenScape interface, as well as including Twitter names and messages with existing contacts. Mark Straton, Siemens Enterprise Communications Group's VP of voice and application marketing, said the support has multiple business purposes because it brings another popular form of communications under a single, enterprise-ready umbrella.

OpenScape's Twitter support will also analyze the content of the tweets and can adjust other features accordingly. For example, if a user tweets that they have "just landed," OpenScape can automatically adjust that user's status, presence, and communication device of choice. This can also be used to automatically set up conference calls, as well as key in on geographic locations to adjust a user's hours of availability.

The Twitter support was made possible because OpenScape is built with open standards like SIP and service-oriented architecture, Straton said. The business uses for Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are growing every day, and Straton indicated OpenScape will feature further support for other social networks in the future.

"Social networking is really all about human interaction... and if the foundation is human interaction, we have to bring this to unified communication," Straton said.

While social networks, instant messaging, and wikis are becoming an increasingly important part of UC, Straton said voice still has to be the foundation for any next-generation business communication network. As anyone who has been on long e-mail chains knows, oftentimes the best way to get business done is to make a call and have a conversation, Straton said.

Siemens Enterprise Communications Group also said it was making OpenScape available via a pay-as-you-go cloud model, and a software development kit will enable businesses to try it out in a sandbox and build applications.

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