Read the sales book for Cisco Unified Communications, complete with elevator pitches.

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Cisco's unified communications systems and TelePresence hardware, for instance, which are designed to facilitate easy remote conferencing, may be seen as a cost-cutting measure to replace expensive travel as fuel prices rise.

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Akiba Saeedi, the company's director of unified communications, says Cisco's focus on video in general may be slightly impractical.

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But the deal is really about "unified communications, " in which Microsoft is competing with Cisco and others.

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