The combination of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) capabilities and productivity tools give you the ability to easily create and manage customer interactions with everyday tools such as e-mail, shared calendars, IM, video conferencing and document collaboration.

FORBES: Two Clouds Equal a Storm of Productivity

The plan has set a goal of 4 Mbps (megabits per second) download of universal coverage around the country by 2020, which it says would support the basic usage of e-mail, downloading web pages and simple video conferencing.

FORBES: The Internet Is A 21st Century Utility And We Deserve Better

"Once video conferencing becomes as common as phone calls and e-mail, I think the majority of communication will be virtual, " predicts Nova Spivack, president and chief executive of Radar Networks, a startup software concern.

FORBES: Reshaping Reality

Microsoft says it will use the company's software, people and intellectual property to accelerate the delivery of its unified communications vision, a vision bringing together various technologies including e-mail, instant messaging, short message service, telephony, and Web conferencing.

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