ITEXPO (News - Alert) is just around the corner. We invite you to join us next month in Austin, Texas, to take part in the many educational, marketing and networking opportunities this TMC (News - Alert) event provides.

Keynote speakers at ITEXPO West include Chris Hummel, chief commercial officer with Siemens Enterprise Communications, and David Tucker, vice president and general manager of the Small Business Unit at Cisco (News - Alert), both of whom will give afternoon addresses on Oct. 3, as well as Robert B. Carter, executive vice president of information services and CIO with FedEx, and Raymond P. Dolan, president and CEO at Sonus Networks, who are scheduled for Oct. 4.

Siemens Enterprise (News - Alert) Communications is a player in the telephony and UC markets. Hummel notes that Dell’Oro Group recently promoted the company from the third to the second spot globally. A press release issued in June by Siemens Enterprise Communications (News - Alert) says that Dell’Oro Group’s 1Q12 Enterprise Telephony Quarterly report notes that the vendor’s voice platforms, including OpenScape Voice, marked two consecutive quarters of consistent growth to capture new global enterprise voice market share, while leading competitors experienced ongoing revenue share loss. Hummel adds that Siemens Enterprise Communications tripled its U.S. marketshare over the last 18 months, from 0.9 to 2.7 share; that the company has grown more than 20 percent; and that its IP line shipments grew 52 percent year over year in the first quarter of 2012.

As chief commercial officer at Siemens Enterprise Communications, Hummel heads up the company’s marketing efforts and global portfolio management, is in charge of indirect channels and global alliances, and is responsible for corporate development and strategy.

During ITEXPO, Hummel aims to tackle the subject of unified communications. UC as a term has become a little passé, he tells INTERNET TELEPHONY, as the general idea has been out there for about a decade now. Yet even after all this time, he adds, it remains far too difficult for enterprises to take advantage of the benefits UC can deliver. Nonetheless, he continues, the promise of bringing communications channels together in a unified workspace to enable people to collaborate and connect is still there. Hummel’s speech will address the existing barriers to UC and how customer companies can overcome them. Siemens Enterprise Communications, he adds, is doing all it can to help companies find their easiest path to UC.

“A lot of these communications revolutions are taking place outside the enterprise, and not inside the enterprise,” Hummel says.

As a result, social, mobile, UC, and collaboration are still at the periphery of many businesses. The adoption rate of UC is in 10 to 20 percent range, he continues, but if organizations amplify the way people work together via social, mobile, and UC solutions “you’re going to see that adoption rate skyrocket.”

To find out more about Chris Hummel, Chief Commercial Officer and Siemens, visit the company at ITEXPO West 2012. To be held Oct. 2-5 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, TX, ITEXPO is the world’s premier IP communications event. Hummel will be a keynote speaker at the event. For more information on ITEXPO West 2012 click here.