This week’s issue of Unified Communications eWeekly is sponsored by Unified Communication Strategies:

Unified Communication Strategies is an industry resource and web portal to help enterprises, vendors, and system integrators develop their UC strategies. A source of objective information and thought leadership on Unified Communications, we provide analysis, executive interviews, podcasts, white papers, and other information on the UC industry. Visit our website for more detail: http://www.ucstrategies.com/

Most of you are probably delighted that the 2006 election season is finally over, but as I watched it unfold, I couldn’t help but notice some parallels with Unified Communications. Bear with me, this might be a stretch.

The first similarity is that in both elections and UC, the term “incumbent” is often heard. Incumbent candidate, incumbent switch or technology provider. Incumbents are typically favored in politics, and the same is true in enterprise networking and IT. While we all may sympathize with the notion of “throwing the bums out,” in the real world, it’s not so easy.

Relative to UC this means enterprises need to look for a graceful migration, one that can leverage what’s already in place. This means looking at your existing switches, applications such as collaboration and messaging, as well as desktop applications and business processes, and seeing how these existing products can be integrated and migrated to allow for new UC capabilities. For example, if you’re an IBM shop and are pleased with Sametime, you’re not going to suddenly “vote” for Microsoft LCS. Instead, you’ll want to see how to leverage Sametime to work in a UC environment.

Let’s stretch the analogy a bit more. In politics there are the top two parties, but sometimes a third-party candidate can be quite appealing. The same is true in the UC world. Vendors such as Mitel, Inter-Tel, Shoretel or Sphere may be more flexible and a better fit for your company, even though larger vendors like Avaya, Nortel and Cisco get most of the press. The “third party candidates” are often worth investigating. For example, when looking at unified messaging, vendors such as AVST and Esnatech offer far more capabilities and functionality than their larger counterparts, and integrate with a variety of switches. The larger vendors may not work with technologies from other vendors, just as Democrats and Republicans typically stay closely tied to their own party platforms (pun intended) and tow the party line.

Another similarity between UC and the just-completed political season is propaganda, er, marketing and advertising. I live in California where democracy translates into tons of on-ballot propositions. What I’ve learned over the years is before deciding how I’ll vote, I spend time learning exactly who’s backing either side of the proposition and why.

The same is true for UC-it’s important to know the source of information, whether it’s an advertisement, blog, white paper, etc. For example, a well-known analyst firm recently released a white paper comparing Cisco’s and Microsoft’s UC approaches. That paper caused quite a stir because it was so positive about Cisco, and, after reading the fine print, I understood the reason why: Cisco funded the paper.

The moral is clear: Seek out objective information; don’t let biased ads or papers sway you.

Here’s the last analogy-make decisions that support your goals. In the public/political sphere, you may want to have lower taxes or a cleaner, healthier environment. In UC, are you trying to enhance workgroup productivity, improve customer service, or shorten development cycles? Select the political candidate or UC provider that will best help you reach your goals now and in the future.

The key in both politics and UC is to plan, consider, study and then, most important, act. Do Something! If you don’t “vote” by having a UC strategy in place, then you may not be around for a second term.

So, what do you think? We’re interested in your thoughts about this new newsletter-what we’re covering, what you’d like us to cover and your thoughts about Unified Communications. Just drop me a note at bpleasant@ucstrategies.com.

Blair Pleasant
President & Principal Analyst
COMMfusion, LLC

Posted in Blair Pleasant, Equipment, Implementation, Management, Unified Communications |

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