Built on a successful heritage of nearly 170 years of innovation and formerly known as Siemens Enterprise Communications, a new company was introduced today as Unify. Unify has set out to change the way companies communicate and collaborate, helping them spend less time orchestrating work and more time doing it. The Unify brand and vision were revealed today at events in Munich and New York City and on a live global webcast.
Unify said significant forces were reshaping the communications and IT industries like the consumerisation of IT, bring your own device (BYOD), the role of millennials and the impact of “anywhere workers,” essentially defining a new way to work (#NW2W). The launch of the new brand builds upon significant momentum and market recognition gained from the company’s unveiling of Project Ansible in June 2013. Project Ansible is a new communications and collaboration platform that leverages secure, dynamic collaboration, universal content aggregation, and a consumer-like, single-pane-of-glass experience that drives adoption and seamless integration into business processes to enhance business performance.
“Unify is uniquely positioned to lead our customers and the industry toward the emergence of a new way to work that will transform how enterprises communicate and collaborate, where technology will amplify the collective effort of information workers, energize teams and processes, and enhance business performance,” said Hamid Akhavan, CEO of Unify. “Our Siemens history is rich and the connection to our heritage as market innovators remains strong. Our new brand brings to life our vision, backed by dedicated employees around the world, a strong partner community, and an unwavering commitment to help our customers and more than 45 million users find positive returns on their technology investments. Our customers are incredible, our history is enviable, and our future as Unify is unstoppable.”
Jacob Morgan, author of The Collaborative Organization and principal of Chess Media Group also commented on the announcement today: “Unify has the vision to address the needs of how we work today. Businesses of all sizes need to make it easier for their global employees and partners to put context to the information and data that flows through organisations while delivering a consumer-like experience anywhere, anytime, and on any device. This new way to work is now a strategic imperative and Unify is taking the leadership position.”
Unify’s brand launch included a two-hour web-streamed broadcast of original content, hosted by Baratunde Thurston, a well-known social media enthusiast and co-founder and CEO of Cultivated Wit, and Nicole Duft, industry analyst and senior vice president at Pierre-Audoin Consultants (PAC). The agenda featured the unveiling of the new brand and vision in a keynote address by Akhavan; an informative guest line-up of industry analysts and future of work experts: Jacob Morgan, Daniel Schawbel, Ray Wang and Shiela-McGee Smith; and congratulatory messages of support from customers, partners and suppliers like the Pro-Football Hall of Fame, IBM, Nycomm, Teradata, Vodafone, T-Systems, ING Bank, SAP and Fujitsu. Akhavan was also joined on the global launch broadcast by Unify’s Chief Commercial Officer and President, North America, Chris Hummel, who explained the background and process of creating this vibrant new brand.