Information and communications technology or information and communication technology (ICT), is often used as an extended synonym for information technology (IT), but is a more specific term that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals), computers as well as necessary enterprise software, middleware, storage, and audio-visual systems, which enable users to access, store, transmit, and manipulate information.
The term ICT is now also used to refer to the convergence of audio-visual and telephone networks with computer networks through a single cabling or link system
Unified communications (UC) is the integration of real-time communication services such as instant messaging (chat), presence information, telephony (including IP telephony), video conferencing, data sharing, call control with non-real-time communication services such as unified messaging (integrated voicemail, e-mail, SMS and fax).
In its most general sense, middleware is computer software that provides services to software applications beyond those available from the operating system.