A Cooperative Project of VoiceCon and UC Strategies

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There is an emerging win-win story, one that will reward vendors for doing the Right Thing, while giving buyers what they seek. Here’s the situation.

Open protocols are increasingly important in the telephony communications equipment marketplace. The industry is transitioning from vertically integrated systems built by one supplier to horizontally layered components contributed by different suppliers. This happened in the computer industry two decades ago, and we’re entering a similar inflection point in communications-one that will bring a similar explosion in functionality and capabilities.

The key to rapid innovation from horizontal layering is standard interfaces. These enable an ecosystem of suppliers to contribute an array of components to a final system. Enterprise customers increasingly insist on openness, partly to assure future flexibility and partly because standards reduce customization costs and implementation timelines.

In this atmosphere, a predictable thing happened at VoiceCon Orlando. One by one, the vendors’ marketing mavens paid homage to “Openness” and “Standards.” Each solemnly promised that their systems would embrace open standards and would interoperate with their competitors’ products. And, in fact, there were many good demonstrations of functional interoperability.

The reality beneath the public Kumbaya-fest is that some suppliers will be resisting, surreptitiously if not publicly, the call to “openness.” Using history as a guide, the companies with leading market shares tend to resist open standards, while those that are small or new on the scene clamor for them.

The reasons are simple. Proprietary protocols tend to lock in the incumbents. If ABC’s signaling is proprietary, customers who purchase ABC’s platform will have to buy their adjuncts, too. Suppliers offering new or niche solutions need openness to interact with existing platforms. Since no vendor wants to be perceived as disregarding the customer desire for standards and openness, some vendors announce their adherence to open standards, and then use proprietary “extensions” or similar methods to assure a two-tier level of capability: basic functionality and interoperability with other companies’ products, and enhanced functionality when interoperating with its own gear.

Standards and interoperability will be critical to deliver UC’s promise. As the UC concepts get adopted, products from different vendors will have to work seamlessly with each other.

So far, however, progress remains slow. For all the brainpower being thrown at SIP/SIMPLE, for example, we’re just a little past 2500-set functionality so far. Is that because of the intricacy? Or is it because the vendors fear that full-function SIP will enable third-party phones and a potential revenue and profit hit? It’s clear that SIP extensions will be with us for quite awhile. Specialized functions, such as those needed to convey agent state and other contact center information, aren’t likely to be built into the SIP standard any time soon.

Beyond SIP, we’re starting to face the need to exchange presence information across platforms of different manufacturers. Many vendors are jockeying to be the central presence engine. My forecast is that it will be awhile before robust, standards-based protocols emerge that go much beyond the rudimentary federation schemes currently being contemplated. But standards will be critical.

Here’s the good news. Customers want both openness and “one throat to choke.” That means that they will not only select a vendor committed to open standards, but many will also concentrate purchases with that strategic partner, even if it means paying more for phones and adjunct equipment. These vendors will therefore have the platforms of choice for the emerging horizontally-layered communications industry, and will participate in the transformation of this industry. It’s win-win. Buyers get what they want; “open” vendors will sell all their product line and be well positioned for the future.

What do you think? Write to me at dvandoren@vanguard.net or post your comments here in the VoiceCon Unified Communications eWeekly forum.

Don Van Doren
Vanguard Communications and UCStrategies.com

Posted in Architecture, Don Van Doren, Standards, Tech Trends, Unified Communications |

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