UCStrategies.com’s expert UC panel discussed the current state of the UC industry consolidation and what we might expect to see in the near future. Jim Burton, CXO of UCStrategies.com led the discussion with some questions for the panel. Why is all this consolidation happening? Where will it happen? What should we be looking for and how can end users prepare for it. He also discussed what might be in the future as far as acquisitions go for Siemens now that they have lost the bid for Nortel.

Blair Pleasant continued the discussion with the statement that consolidation is always going to happen, but went on to say that perhaps the wrong vendors are consolidating. Rather than Avaya and Nortel it might have been more interesting to see a consolidation with an applications vendor such as Oracle or SAP. Nancy Jamison adds to this by saying that the only time consolidation is really bad is when like acquires like for the purpose of increasing market share. Although this has been going on for years it is bad for the customer as good products simply go away in these cases.

David Yedwab discusses that point that the idea of consolidation makes sense but raises the question of what the buyer and the seller are trying to accomplish. If the seller is buying innovation and technology and bringing it into an existing distribution channel it can be a good thing for the industry. David Michaels noted that there was a big difference in the North American market between the “Big Three” and the rest of the players in this industry. Are the rest ready and willing to step up and become leaders? He also stated that the industry leaders in Europe were very different players from those in North America. He stated that more changes can still occur if any of the players wish to be truly global in scope, but wondered if this strategy has been successful to date.

This discussion panel included UC experts Nancy Jamison, Jim Burton, Michael Finnernan, Pam Avila, Jay Brandstadter, Blair Pleasant, David Yedwab, and David Michaels.