During VoiceCon there were many presentations that emphasized how UC could help companies save money and improve productivity during these troubled times, but I didn’t get the sense that the audience was taking those messages to heart. Instead, what I did hear from attendees, loudly and often, is considerable interest in finding low-cost solutions to real day-to-day problems. In short, enterprises are interested in solving problems. If UC is the best tool, so be it; if it’s not, the enterprise will quickly move on by.

While I enjoyed Allan Sulkin’s post, I found a comment that came in response, apparently from someone on the buyer’s side of the table, to be particularly compelling: “You said it Allan. Everything is UC these days and it’s really hurting the process in creating a real strategy. The vendors are making it harder for us to actually buy a solution because it takes so long to interpret 25 different products all named the same.” Now maybe in the “good old days” vendors could ignore such sentiments, but given the current market climate, if customers are saying that vendors are “making it harder for us to actually buy a solution….” isn’t it time for the industry to rethink its modus operandi?