What is the UCI Forum?

UCI Forum is a non-profit alliance of worldwide technology leaders working together to fully realize the potential of unified communications. The UCI Forum's vision is to enable interoperability of UC Hardware and Software across enterprises, service providers, and consumer clouds, as a means of protecting customer's existing investments, simplifying their transition to more extended UC networks, and generating incremental business opportunity for all stakeholders in the ecosystem.

What is the UCI Forum's purpose?

The UCI Forum will accelerate and broaden the UC market by increasing adoption, decreasing implementation cost and improving the interoperability experience. UCI Forum standards-driven certified products will enhance competition, improve performance of unified communications products and services, and provide customers with more options.

UCI Forum members will collaborate to deliver a reliable and rich UC interoperability experience, initially focused on video, through defined interoperability programs. The UCI Forum will develop interoperability profiles and certification and testing programs in order to enable interoperability between disparate UC products and existing communications and business applications.

What is unified communications?

Unified communications (UC) is the convergence of real-time and non real-time communications and business applications on IP networks and platforms, including video and audio conferencing, scheduling, whiteboard, presence/IM, unified messaging, and VoIP using wireline, wireless and mobile access. The UC service set provides a consistent user experience across multiple devices and platforms. UC enhances interaction, collaboration and productivity between globally dispersed individuals, groups and companies.

How large is the unified communications market?

The unified communications market has the potential to serve a community of billions of users. Industry analyst estimates price the anticipated enterprise UC market from $4.2 billion to $17 billion in the next five years, with commensurate gains in equipment revenues.

Why are standards important in unified communications?

Certified, standards-driven products and solutions in the UC market will provide more choices for customers as they make their purchase decisions and in addition, leverage customer's existing investments so that UC adoption can be implemented in phases. Standards will also increase competition for vendors. Ultimately, the UCI Forum's approach to testing and certifying interoperability standards that are multilateral and cross-ecosystem will enable a satisfying and productive user experience.

Will the UCI Forum focus on specific standards?

The UCI Forum will develop interoperability guidelines based on existing UC standards. The UCI Forum will bring together a variety of vendor stakeholders to help shape the integration of numerous UC components such as IP PBXs, video endpoints, audio/video bridges, team workspaces, Web and communications servers, clients, LAN, WAN, cloud services, unified messaging, presence and IM.

The UCI Forum specifications will also consider the deployment of a variety of media - video, audio and presence, across different domains and clouds.

What issues do the standards address?

The UCI Forum will address both the need for interoperability and a best-practices solution to realize unified communications market potential. It will identify and fill gaps between existing UC protocols and business needs to deploy interoperable UC products with existing communications and business applications.

Aren't other organizations addressing these issues?

While there are organizations focused on various pieces of the puzzle, they are limited to very few of the multiple protocols and media necessary to enable truly unified communications. Some organizations focus on ITU standards like H.323 while others emphasize IETF protocols like SIP. And there are other protocols like XMPP and SIMPLE in play for the truly unified communications experience. UCI Forum intends to close the gap between these protocols and organizations, and it is unique in doing so.

The UCI Forum will also facilitate verification testing, which isn't currently offered by other forums.

How will UCI Forum work with other existing standardardization bodies?

The UCI Forum will liaise with existing standards bodies and industry forums and will reference and incorporate work from those groups where possible in UCI Forum specification proposals, test and certification programs, and interoperability guidelines. Individual companies that are members of the UCI Forum and already participate in existing standards bodies will continue to forge ahead on both initiatives.

Will UCI Forum develop a certification mark?

Yes, a certification mark will be one of the key near-term outcomes of the forum.

What will the output of the UCI Forum be?

The UCI Forum is in the process of developing and publishing specifications that will be used by all UCI Forum members, as a means to increase interoperability between solutions and remove barriers to customer adoption of UC. All members of UCI Forum will have the ability to participate in the development of these specifications and the resulting verification and certification programs.

Can anyone use the certification mark?

No. Only UCI Forum members will have this right, and only if their products have passed the defined test and certification procedures. Use of the mark will be strictly governed by guidelines provided by UCI Forum.

Will the UCI Forum get involved in IPR licensing discussions?

The UCI Forum has a defined Intellectual Property Rights policy which all members must abide by. However UCI Forum cannot and will not be involved in any discussions between licensors and licensees.

How will the UCI Forum address interoperability challenges between vendors?

The UCI Forum will develop technical specifications, test specifications and test programs that will consider existing standards, as well as current gaps between existing protocols and business needs to deploy the solutions brought to market by UC vendors. The UCI Forum will act in the best interests of UC customers, while continuing to compete on the value propositions that are separate from interoperability (e.g. UX, price, support).

When was the UCI Forum founded?

The UCI Forum was founded and incorporated in April 2010.

Who are the UCI Forum members?

UCI Forum members represent unified communications stakeholders and anyone can join the ecosystem. The UCI Forum will include hardware and software solution providers, service providers and network operators. Founding members include Microsoft, HP, Polycom and Logitech/LifeSize Communications.

To see the UCI Forum's member list and to learn more about joining the forum, visit our JOIN page.

What are the levels of membership available in the UCI Forum?

The UCI Forum offers two levels of membership: Contributor and Adopter. Membership privileges and fees vary by participation level. View Membership Benefits.

Does membership of UCI Forum obligate me to grant patent licenses to other UCI Forum members?

Yes. You agree to license Necessary Claims under Reasonable and Non-discriminatory (RAND) terms and conditions that may include a reasonable royalty and other RAND terms and conditions. Please refer to sections 1.3 (Compliant Portion), 1.11 (Necessary Claims), 1.12 (Normative Requirements), 1.14 (Scope), and 3.1 (Limited Patent License Obligations for Specifications) of the UCI Forum IPR policy. Additional FAQ’s on the UCI Forum IPR Policy can be found here.

Do I need to license or assign any of my copyrights in my Contributions to UCI Forum?

Yes. You must grant UCI Forum a royalty-free copyright license in your Contributions to develop UCI Forum deliverables and to the extent that any portion of your copyrighted Contributions is incorporated into a Final Deliverable, you must assign an undivided and equal joint ownership interest in the incorporated portion of the Contribution to UCI Forum. Please refer to sections 1.2 (Contribution), 3.7(a) (Development License), and 3.7(b) (Ownership) of the UCI Forum IPR policy, and section 3.15 (Final Deliverables) of the UCI Forum Bylaws. Additional FAQ’s on the UCI Forum IPR Policy can be found here.

How will I know if there are changes being made to the UCI Forum IPR policy?

UCI Forum must disclose to all members any changes made to the IPR policy at least 31 days in advance. Please refer to section 7 (Amendments) of the UCI Forum IPR policy. Also, UCI Forum will always post the definitive version of the IPR Policy on the website for download. Additional FAQ’s on the UCI Forum IPR Policy can be found here.

Can I join as a UCI Forum Board member?

The UCI Forum has a defined number of Board seats. When and if vacancies exist on the Board, the UCI Forum will follow a defined process to fill these vacancies from the UCI Forum membership.

What do UCI Forum members receive for their membership and participation?

A UCI Forum membership enables your organization to have a strategic impact on interoperability development within the unified communications market and shape its short and long term evolution. Members will gain early access to specification proposals, test materials and formal interoperability programs, as well as access to the UCI Forum certification mark on UCI Forum verified solutions. Member companies will also share in the visibility and awareness generated via UCI Forum marketing and outreach programs.

How does a new vendor interested in joining the UCI Forum do so?

Please visit the UCI Forum Join Page.

How will UCI Forum membership fees be used?

The membership fees will help fund the technical and marketing programs, and management services necessary for UCI Forum to accomplish its goals.

How is the UCI Forum governed?

The UCI Forum is governed by a Board and Officers and officers appointed by the Board. The Board is composed of individuals representing organizations that have elected to participate at this level. The Board is responsible for making decisions to further UCI Forum work, establishing annual and strategic plans, and for final approval of all output and recommendations from the workgroups.

How will the UCI Forum make progress?

The UCI Forum has established workgroups to develop specification proposals. These groups will perform much of the work, based on direction provided by the UCI Forum Board. Progress will be measured by the delivery and uptake of verification and certification testing and the growth of the UCI Forum ecosystem.

How can I participate in the work groups?

You can participate in accordance with the rights and privileges of the membership level at which you choose to join. See levels of membership and benefits.

How often and where will member or working group meetings be held?

UCI Forum will hold an annual member meeting. Working groups will meet regularly, either face to face and/or electronically, to accomplish their goals.

Who should I contact with questions?

Please send email to help@ucif.org.