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Earlier this week I read a good article in Barron’s on the huge changes coming soon to offices everywhere. Listen Up – There’s a Revolution in the Cubicle (sub. required) talks about the immense promise of unified communications (UC). The article states …. The big driver will be investors’ realization that a sea change is coming to the office over the next five years. Instead of picking up a phone and dialing a number, you will simply slide a cursor over a contact’s name on your computer screen. If he’s a colleague, you’ll be instantly told whether he’s at his desk, on the phone, traveling or at home. Then you’ll be directed to the best way to reach him, whether it is by e-mail, a text message, a video conference or a link to a cell phone or other phone.

Exciting, right? Well, these capabilities are available today and forward-thinking companies are experiencing the power and productivity improvements of UC. Imagine being untethered from your desk, your computer and anything else that hinders productivity. You can access your voice and data everywhere, from any device, at anytime. When employees are connected effectively, they are more productive.

The Barron’s article was an affirmation for us here at Broadsoft. The Unified Communications transformation is a central message and driver of the agenda at our upcoming annual users’ conference, “BroadSoft Connections 2009, Voice & Vision.”

Last year we held our largest event ever, with almost 800 attendees from every continent. And we are on track for another highly attended conference. . This year we will focus on the evolution of communication services beyond voice with discussions around “Building a Winning UC Service Offering,” “How to Deliver Voice and Multimedia Applications over an IMS Network,” “Tap Trunking’s Possibilities” and “Selling Video into SMBs and Enterprises,””

Connections 2009 is also where the winners of this year’s XContestv2 (XCv2) developer contest will showcase their applications. XCv2 brings together developers from around the world to create new, compelling business and consumer mashups that combine BroadSoft’s BroadWorks services with other web services through open APIs. Through our Xtended Marketplace, developers have the opportunity to reach over 500 million subscribers.

In addition to the rich content and valuable networking opportunities at Connections 2009, we are privileged to have Nicholas Carr as our keynote speaker. Carr is the renowned author of The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google, which examines the way an enterprise approaches IT infrastructure and computing resources. It is widely considered to be the most influential book so far on the coming migration towards cloud computing. Carr will discuss the ways in which technology changes industries and outline how companies can innovate to survive.

So, circling back to the Barron’s article — I agree with the author’s overall message. Unified communications is a disruptive technology that is having a dramatic, favorable impact on workforces. Employees are immediately more efficient and the companies that make UC possible have a tremendous growth opportunity ahead of them.