A Cooperative Project of VoiceCon and UC Strategies

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It’s that time of year-time to recap all of the exciting things that happened in the past 12 months. It’s certainly been a whirlwind for Unified Communications: It went from being a nebulous concept to a real industry with products shipping, customers purchasing and implementing solutions, and real productivity gains being realized.

Here are just a few of the highlights of the past year:

• ROI has become a key theme, with companies working diligently to identify hard dollar returns on their UC investments. Companies like Global Crossing have strong ROI stories that are helping other companies realize the benefits of UC.
• IBM and Microsoft escalated the battle, with new offerings from both companies. IBM announced new Sametime releases, offering improved integration with Microsoft Office applications (including Outlook). The company also introduced it new tag-line: “Unified Communications and Collaboration” or “UC2.” IBM also introduced IBM Lotus “Unified Telephony,” which leverages elements of Siemens’ OpenScape open unified communications capabilities to integrate with a variety of switches.In October we saw the launch of Microsoft’s OCS 2007, led by the appearance of Bill Gates at the kick-off event in San Francisco, making Microsoft a serious contender in the voice and telephony market. There were a significant number of customer adoptions during OCS’s extended beta period. Microsoft also introduced several new endpoints, which incorporate a user’s presence information and take advantage of Microsoft Office Communicator’s (MOC) capabilities.

  Nortel’s relationship with Microsoft progressed, and the companies announced 430,000 licenses for joint solutions. Microsoft also purchased Parlano, which provides group chat technology that are being added to OCS and MOC.

• Speaking of acquisitions, Avaya acquired Ubiquity Software, whose SIP-based communications software will be integrated with Avaya’s portfolio. Cisco acquired WebEx, propelling it into the Software as a Service (SaaS) space.And the competitive landscape changed in other ways. Avaya went private, which potentially could lead to more software innovation while pumping new energy into the entire sector. Mitel and Inter-Tel merged, creating a serious threat in the SMB market. Siemens Enterprise Communications did not find a suitor and instead established its enterprise business as a self-sufficient entity refocused on software and services offers.

Some interesting key themes also emerged during 2007. The term “Communications Enabled Business Processes” (CEBP) became a hot topic, and Avaya introduced a CEBP offering based on the new Avaya Communications Process Manager. Other vendors are also getting into this area in differing ways. Nortel introduced Communication Enabled Applications, and Cisco is focusing on Customer Business Process Transformation. Integration with business processes is a theme we’ve been harping on, and we started to see companies implementing UC solutions that tie in to their critical applications in 2007.

Mobility was another strong theme, with a variety of companies extending their UC offerings with mobile capabilities. NEC released the UNIVERGE Mobile Client, extending desktop telephony and messaging functionality to mobile devices. Cisco introduced several mobility solutions, including Cisco Mobile Solutions for Unified Communications, Cisco Business on the Go Solutions, and its In-Store Mobility Solutions designed to help transform retail store environments. Expect to see more fixed mobile convergence announcements next year, as well as more announcements on the carrier side as they attempt to make a splash in UC.

Apple introduced the iPhone, which while in limited use within enterprises, will have significant impact on future user interfaces and the features and capabilities we expect in our devices, while bringing “visual voicemail” to the mainstream.

A new focus on small and medium-sized businesses was also hot. Nortel introduced its “My Business” campaign and partnered with IBM to provide a UC solution that runs on a single system i. Avaya announced the Avaya Quick Edition, while Cisco introduced its Smart Care Service, as well as a Select Certification, an entry-level certification for channel partners with a primary focus on the SMB market. Siemens launched its HiPath OpenOffice, while Alcatel-Lucent looked to mid-sized companies with its Business integrated Communication Solution (BiCS), a multi-service single-server solution that’s pre-integrated with communication applications.

Of course there were many more UC happenings in 2007, and 2008 should be a landmark year in the industry. My wish-list for the New Year includes presence federation, real interoperability between vendors, a way of measuring the UC market and, of course, world peace.

I would love to get your feedback about UC’s progress in 2007 and what you think will be likely to happen in 2008. Please send me your thoughts at bpleasant@commfusion.com or post them here in the VoiceCon Unified Communications eWeekly forum.

Blair Pleasant
COMMfusion LLC & UCStrategies.com

Posted in Blair Pleasant, Management, Market Trends, Unified Communications |

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