A Cooperative Project of VoiceCon and UC Strategies

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Unified Communications (UC) reached full stride in 2007. Every major supplier delivered new releases and new products, and there has been a steady stream of press releases announcing new applications and customer wins. UC was front and center at major industry events like VoiceCon and Interop, with keynote presentations devoted to the topic as well as highly attended sessions—both on the main stage and breakouts.

Here are some major themes that I’ve noticed during this past year:

Theme 1: Product Deliveries: Promises were made during 2006, and many were kept during 2007. The biggest splash was certainly the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS) launch in October, bringing a full communications suite to the desktop and mobile office user. IBM kept pace with three releases of new Sametime functionality, as well as a new collaboration tool—Quickr—and IBM Social Networks for Business, all of which deliver very comprehensive mobility and collaboration support.

Meanwhile, Avaya delivered its complete one-X suite to provide “one eXperience” across office, mobile and teleworking environments. Cisco rolled out new UC software releases across the board at VoiceCon Spring 2007.

Theme 2: Mobility: The mobility theme was everywhere (pun intended). All of the new product suites mentioned above feature major mobility components. In addition, Siemens introduced HiPath Wireless, which integrates mobile devices with the enterprise PBX environment.

The buzz around Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) mostly focused on seamless dual mode device transition between cellular and in-building wireless LAN networks. Meanwhile, the mobile device producers continued their initiatives, including Nokia’s delivery of new enterprise solutions utilizing Intellisync software and RIM’s (BlackBerry) delivery of enterprise solutions that leverage its Ascendent software.

Theme 3: Alliances and Interoperability: Everyone was announcing new or updated alliances with IBM and Microsoft. Notably, Siemens announced licensing of OpenScape software to IBM. Others hitching a ride on the IBM bandwagon during 2007 included Nortel and Cisco, along with a refresh of Avaya’s IBM links.

On the Microsoft front, Avaya improved its integrations and commitments, Nortel expanded its product integrations, Cisco featured integrations with Microsoft Office and Outlook, and Mitel announced it would use Microsoft OCS for call control in a future product offering aimed at small and mid-sized businesses.

Theme 4: Collaboration, of All Sorts: Cisco’s acquisition of WebEx was a huge event in 2007, and it expanded Cisco’s focus on collaboration. Beyond that, IBM Quickr and IBM Social Networks for Business, which were introduced at Lotusphere, extended IBM’s collaboration offers.

Microsoft OCS, especially with links to Office and SharePoint, is definitely a collaboration advance, and Microsoft’s investment in FaceBook opens the door to new levels of enterprise/business-based social networking. Nortel partnered with Polycom to produce HD Video Conferencing, echoing Cisco’s major move with TelePresence in 2006.

Theme 5: SMB and Hosted UC Solutions: The action here extended far and wide—specialized small-mid business (SMB) UC solutions such as OpenOffice from Siemens, new SMB suites from Avaya and Cisco, and the combination of Mitel and Inter-Tel to create a real powerhouse in the SMB markets. Meanwhile, more capability now can be purchased in a hosted, per-user, per-month mode, with examples including Microsoft LiveMeeting and Cisco WebEx. Obviously, this is a hot area with more to come.

Theme 6: UC Applications and Application Toolkits: It seemed as if there were new customer UC success stories coming out all the time, as well as major customer keynotes at VoiceCon from Merrill Lynch, Oracle and Black & Decker. Another trend was investment and alliances between communications and business application software companies, notably Salesforce.com showing integration with Siemens, Cisco, Avaya and more during the year.

Theme 7: Mergers, Acquisitions and More: The merger and acquisition activity included the Mitel-Inter-Tel deal mentioned above, and Avaya’s acquisition of Ubiquity to expand its foothold in mobility, SIP and IMS solutions.

Avaya’s decision to take itself private by selling to financial buyers seems likely to accelerate its play in the UC space (OK, Avaya calls it Intelligent Communications, but you get the idea).

Cisco’s acquisition of WebEx changes the playing field in enterprise collaboration, and it offers a counterpoint to Microsoft and IBM suites and a hedge option on the evolution of IP Telephony. NEC bought Sphere, giving NEC a major new tool set for UC business process integration. IBM bought WebLogic, to enhance its conferencing offerings, and Microsoft bought Parlano for persistent chat features and also invested in FaceBook giving it a stake in the growing social networks world.

All of these business moves, product announcements and customer wins occurred during the past 12 months. It’s been quite a year, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! All of those deliveries, announcements and investments represent the seeds for even more UC growth in 2008 and beyond.

What do you think? Do you agree that UC is on the move? Please share your comments, concerns and point of view with me at mparker@UniCommConsulting.com or post your comments here in the VoiceCon Unified Communications eWeekly forum.

Marty Parker
Principal, UniComm Consulting

Posted in Social Networking, Wireless/Mobility, Collaboration, Market Trends, Marty Parker, Unified Communications |

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