http://www.ucstrategies.com/rss/comments_all.aspxUnified Communications Strategies - An industry resource for enterprises, vendors, and system integrators. http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-newsroom/plantronics-provides-contextual-intelligence-for-business-applications.aspx#comments It's exciting to know as headset technology continues to advances with status updates, we will increase office productivity and communicate when truly available, cutting down on wasted time retrieving voice-mail and returning calls. Tue, 08 May 2012 09:42:04 GMT Wayne Baumgartner http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-newsroom/plantronics-provides-contextual-intelligence-for-business-applications.aspx?guid=570#comments Comments http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/metaswitch-forum-the-bigger-picture-for-uc.aspx#comments Interesting article - thanks for sharing your experience at the forum. We're waiting to hear when Metaswitch will allow for desktop, CRM, and mobile integration. If interested, we also have a blog post with our thoughts and questions on the matter: http://blog.bicomsystems.com/metaswitch Tue, 08 May 2012 09:01:55 GMT Laura Houghton http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/metaswitch-forum-the-bigger-picture-for-uc.aspx?guid=569#comments Comments http://www.ucstrategies.com/industry-buzz/ucstrategies-experts-discuss-impact-of-free-cisco-jabber.aspx#comments Kurt, Thank you for the detailed response. 1. The issue typically with all Lync RCC (remote call control) integrations, not only the ShoreTel one, is not so much a technical one but rather related to customer expectations. Customers often seem to expect more functionality than the solution provides. For instance, RCC does not address remote softphone requirements. As always, it is very important to document and prioritize customer business requirements and then match a specific solution's technical capabilities to the defined business requirements. 2. The link you provided to the ShoreTel + Microsoft integration page does not seem to be working. 3. I have had good success with Audiocodes gateways and you are correct Audiocodes gateways are Microsoft certified and often act as a good "bridge" between Microsoft Lync and existing voice systems such as ShoreTel. Once again, clearly understanding customer business requirements (and expectations) ahead of a multi-vendor integration is very important. Kevin Tue, 08 May 2012 04:04:22 GMT Kevin Kieller http://www.ucstrategies.com/industry-buzz/ucstrategies-experts-discuss-impact-of-free-cisco-jabber.aspx?guid=568#comments Comments http://www.ucstrategies.com/industry-buzz/ucstrategies-experts-discuss-impact-of-free-cisco-jabber.aspx#comments Kevin, Thanks for responding to Laurent. As the Manager of Integration Products here at ShoreTel, I wanted to expand on the Lync integration options for ShoreTel customers. For more detail on our Lync integration, check out the Microsoft UC integration page at http://www.shoretel.com/products/open_integration/biz_processes/Microsoft_OCS.html. The Lync RCC integration via the ShoreTel CSTA Server provides Lync 2010 client users with 100% of the telephony controls that Microsoft implement, and that includes ShoreTel telephony presence injected into the Lync presence service and visible to all contacts in the organization and those federated with the organization. Laurent already highlighted our presence and IM integration with Lync 2010 Server for those who deploy ShoreTel Communicator on the desktop instead of the Lync 2010 client. And as you noted, the ShoreTel to Lync integration for tie line / PSTN access currently relies on a Direct SIP interconnect via Microsoft-certified gateways such as the AudioCodes Mediant series. AudioCodes is certified both with ShoreTel through our Innovation Network technology partner program http://www.shoretel.com/partners/tech_developers/ecosystem/AudioCodes_Media_Gateways.html and with Microsoft through the UCOIP. Microsoft's Direct SIP gateway certifications don't note what's on the other side of the gateway, which is why you don't see ShoreTel's name listed on the UCOIP site. Kurt Mon, 07 May 2012 11:11:49 GMT Kurt Kruger http://www.ucstrategies.com/industry-buzz/ucstrategies-experts-discuss-impact-of-free-cisco-jabber.aspx?guid=567#comments Comments http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/cebp-series-part-6-speed-information-delivery.aspx#comments Marty, Excellent series on CEBP! It suggests that organizations need to start looking at communicating with automated business applications similarly to contacts with people. Either people initiate an interactive contact "online" (Inbound) or the application initiates the contact to a person(s) (outbound). From that perspective, making contact with a person will usually require the flexibility of Mobile UC for notifications, including links for responses. Sun, 06 May 2012 07:06:05 GMT Art Rosenberg http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/cebp-series-part-6-speed-information-delivery.aspx?guid=566#comments Comments http://www.ucstrategies.com/industry-buzz/ucstrategies-experts-discuss-impact-of-free-cisco-jabber.aspx#comments Laurent, Thank you for your comments and information. If indeed Shoretel IM is provided at zero cost to the user then I understand many users electing to stay with, what you call, the "built-in collaboration functionalities" -- provided the Shoretel UC solution meets their business requirements. Often organizations are best served by choosing a single vendor UC solution. Multi-vendor integrations are easy in theory -- they always look good in PowerPoint :-) But the reality is they are generally messy, provide a less than ideal user experience and are difficult to support over time. Shoretel to Lync integration is also challenging. While Shoretel supports an RCC solution, this means Lync is only providing IM and presence features, and some customers have "expectations" beyond this. A Lync to Shortel integration based on Direct SIP or a T1 connection is possible through gateways but not currently supported, see www.technet.com/ucoip, at least from the Microsoft side. Does Shoretel plan to certify your solution with Microsoft? In terms of a pure Shoretel solution, it is important the the customer can federate as required. This may not be a requirement, but as per my recent article http://www.nojitter.com/post/232901446/federation-is-the-game-changer-for-unified-communications federation can sometimes be a key requirement and of great business value. I believe Cisco is trying to make it easier (and cheaper) for customers to adopt the entire Cisco UC stack. In my mind, consistent with Shoretel's "simple" marketing focus, if you can make it even easier than you have a good chance at gaining marketshare and pleasing customers. Microsoft's "bundle" approach that they have successfully proven with Microsoft Office, is also seeming to gain traction in terms of UC. Kevin Fri, 04 May 2012 18:40:50 GMT Kevin Kieller http://www.ucstrategies.com/industry-buzz/ucstrategies-experts-discuss-impact-of-free-cisco-jabber.aspx?guid=565#comments Comments http://www.ucstrategies.com/industry-buzz/ucstrategies-experts-discuss-impact-of-free-cisco-jabber.aspx#comments (continuation of previous): We will be making a major announcement around IM enhancement next week at Interop Las Vegas and more IM announcements will be made over the summer. Stay tuned… Laurent Dinard Senior Product Manager ShoreTel, Inc. Fri, 04 May 2012 12:43:07 GMT Laurent Dinard http://www.ucstrategies.com/industry-buzz/ucstrategies-experts-discuss-impact-of-free-cisco-jabber.aspx?guid=564#comments Comments http://www.ucstrategies.com/industry-buzz/ucstrategies-experts-discuss-impact-of-free-cisco-jabber.aspx#comments Thank you for covering this great topic. I wanted to update the readers on ShoreTel's direction for Instant Messaging and Presence We recognized years ago that IM would become strategic for most organizations. We acquired the core XMPP server technology to embed natively into our system. XMPP (compared to SIMPLE- SIP for IM) scales in a very economic fashion and thus fits perfectly with our low cost of entry and low TCO goals. To our knowledge, only 3 UC vendors have a true standard-based (SIP or XMPP) IM based server: Microsoft, Cisco and ShoreTel. This technology is key to be able to expand the basic IM functionalities with future federation standards. Most other vendors have to use to third party technology to deliver IM functionalities, most notably Avaya with their Avaya Presence Server partially built using OEM technologies from… Jabber, Inc, now Cisco. ShoreTel 12 was the first release with built-in IM technology, in addition to audio conferencing and application sharing. This functionality offers a very cost efficient option to customers who want to boost collaboration without having to deal with Lync deployment complexity. A significant number of prospective customers looked at Lync for IM or collaboration, but the combination of our pricing structure, simple appliance-based model and integrated management led the majority of them to choose our built-in collaboration functionalities. On the other hand, we addressed the Microsoft IM server install base by allowing our UC desktop clients to leverage an existing Microsoft IM infrastructure. So you can use our Communicator client for call control, visual voicemail, video, softphone and IM by leveraging the MS Lync server. We have been shipping this functionality since 2008. We intend to continue to invest in these two approaches: an IM open strategy with MS Lync or the alternative IM solution built into our UC system. We will be making a major announcement around IM enhancement next wee Fri, 04 May 2012 12:42:10 GMT Laurent Dinard http://www.ucstrategies.com/industry-buzz/ucstrategies-experts-discuss-impact-of-free-cisco-jabber.aspx?guid=563#comments Comments http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/can-you-monetize-video-do-you-need-to.aspx#comments Hi Jon, Thank you for posting this article, it raises some excellent questions. I would like to bring the company Pokeware™ to your attention. Pokeware™ is a technology that naturally infuses video content with contextual advertising using it's proprietary AD EXCHANGE for objects in video. Pokeware™ delivers an innovative way to monetize video content delivering real-time search results from objects in video - to enable viewers of video content to discover more information about what they see. Pokeware™ provides immediate and granular performance analytics through their patented measurement system for both advertisers and content owners, allowing them to make informed decisions based on garnered data. I would love to speak with you at greater length about Pokeware's™ role in content monetization, please feel free to contact me for further information. Wed, 02 May 2012 22:27:30 GMT Natasha Anand http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/can-you-monetize-video-do-you-need-to.aspx?guid=562#comments Comments http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/the-end-user-experience-what-else-really-matters-for-uc.aspx#comments Jon, The "end user experience" is a very open-ended challenge. It applies to person-to-person communications (text, voice, video), as well as to UC-enabled business applications. Designing and maintaining effective multimedia application user interfaces is a skill that goes beyond hardware and software integrations, and will require customized operational needs analysis, trialing, and usage analytics. I agree with your view of channel opportunities to assist customers in planning and managing implementation of UC-enabled applications. With cloud-based options, I see them becoming more like service providers and consultants, than system resellers and break-fix installers. With the many kinds of applications that can be UC-enabled, the channels will have to be partnering with a variety of application specialist groups, as well as different vendors, to satisfy each customer needs. Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:04:13 GMT Art Rosenberg http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/the-end-user-experience-what-else-really-matters-for-uc.aspx?guid=560#comments Comments http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/a-porkbelly-luau.aspx#comments I agree with your perception of voice services only starting to be subsumed by UC enablement. With increased adoption of smartphones and tablets, that will extend to mobility and CEBP applications (online and "mobile apps"). Throw in "cloud" based services, and then you will see the need to sell at the individual customer organization level, as Russell points out, where local VARs and channels know their customers' specific application needs, and , hopefully will be able to provide the integration support in the cloud that used to come from internal IT staffs. Give it a little more time for the cloud-based "UC migration" to start moving. Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:39:58 GMT Art Rosenberg http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/a-porkbelly-luau.aspx?guid=559#comments Comments http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/a-porkbelly-luau.aspx#comments Wow, Dave, that is a very cleverly designed test case for your commodity theory. I know very little about business in Hawaii, but I suspect that part of the reality of living on an island is that there are unspoken agreements that competing on price is bad for everyone. I heard an anecdote a few years ago about the business model of a certain CLEC whose differentiator was that they sent sales people to visit small businesses because the telcos couldn't be bothered with doing that. So, even in today's impersonal internet driven world, personal relationships matter and people like to do business with other people. That seems to work in Hawaii and on the mainland too. Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:53:17 GMT Russell Bennett http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/a-porkbelly-luau.aspx?guid=558#comments Comments http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/getting-to-the-core-of-unified-communications-part-1.aspx#comments Thanks for that Tim, I completely agree with you that the focus on technology only takes the company so far. I think the old slogan gets it right, less than 30% would be technology, most of the issues are in communicating how to use it and changing the culture to allow and encourage usage. However, con$ultants, as you put it, are needed, as they can bring a lot of competence to the company. Some of the issues should absolutely be part of the pre-sales activity, but I think (and yes I sort of speak for my own cause) there will be a place for external knowledge working that helps companies identify what process can be automated with communication features, and which should not, they can act as product-independent analysts and propose an internal roadmap of what they want to achieve and help the company find that culture and implement it. Then the pre-sales gets involved and actually puts together a solution that the organization hopefully will use much more. Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:09:56 GMT jason andersson http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/getting-to-the-core-of-unified-communications-part-1.aspx?guid=557#comments Comments http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/getting-to-the-core-of-unified-communications-part-1.aspx#comments Really enjoyed your article. Years ago when I was starting out in this industry there used to be a phrase branded about (which seems to have gone out of fashion,) "people, process, technology". Most of the industry seems fixated on technology part of the equation. Marketing has lost touch with the end users choosing to focus on "technical decision makers" and the latest three letter acronyms that have a "halo". We see so many column inches on the functionality ( IM, presence, conferencing, voice, video,) with so little spent on the “what’s in it for me?” for the business owners and end users. The key to a successful UC deployment is in user adoption. If it’s not used then the ROI on which the business case was based will not get realized. As soon as you can improve business processes with technology that the people can use then surely you have a winning formula. This market doesn't need con$ultants. It simply needs pre-sales to take an interest in their customer's business issues and the ability to earn the trust and confidence of their clients. Tue, 24 Apr 2012 02:44:57 GMT Tim Banting http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/getting-to-the-core-of-unified-communications-part-1.aspx?guid=556#comments Comments http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/uc-roi-in-the-utility-industry.aspx#comments Inasmuch as utilities usually have to respond quickly to outages and potential outages with mobile field service personnel, UC-enablement provides an ideal solution for being efficiently responsive with multi-modal smartphones and tablets. Healthcare applications have similar realtime and mobility needs, but at the individual patient, physician, and nursing level. Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:27:35 GMT Art Rosenberg http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/uc-roi-in-the-utility-industry.aspx?guid=555#comments Comments http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/are-your-clients-ready-for-video-are-you.aspx#comments Jon, You forgot to include mobile accessibility as another driver for increased use of video. Although tablets and smartphones have smaller screens, they can still be useful for enabling ad hoc video information exchange, in addition to video conferencing. With UC-enablement, conferencing can allow individual end users to selectively use video in conjunction with voice conferencing, thus maximizing active team participation in real time, without everyone necessarily using the same type of equipment or modalities. That will be the real benefit of flexible UC-enabled applications used in conjunction with multi-modal endpoint devices. With cloud-based services, channels have alternative offerings they can bring to the customer's table. Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:12:36 GMT Art Rosenberg http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/are-your-clients-ready-for-video-are-you.aspx?guid=554#comments Comments http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/a-proxy-for-end-users.aspx#comments How true, Kevin! A few years ago I suggested the "ally" approach to UC planning with a generic survey of individual end user communication problems. (This was done with a very large and now successful international channel.) The focus was on "who" had "what" contact problems - people trying to communicate with you as a recipient, or vice versa for time-sensitive issues. Once you identify the "who" and the "what" of the problem, you can evaluate possible strategies to fix things at a "group" level, e.g., internal users, customers, business partners, mobile users, etc. It even can point ways to automate notifications without requiring people to be involved. The survey approach is also useful in identifying "who" to have more detailed interviews with or follow up questions to. It also helps establish the priorities of selective implementations. So, just as the implementation of UC-enabled applications must target different end user needs, the research must help identify the key business processes that those end users are associated with. Since it is easiest to do this research with existing technology relationships with an organization, current VARs and channels can make things happen by involving operational business management and providing the necessary survey tools and experience in evaluating the results. It will be particularly beneficial if the channel has expertise in specific market segments where organizations will have similar problems and UC needs. Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:59:32 GMT Art Rosenberg http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/a-proxy-for-end-users.aspx?guid=553#comments Comments http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/countdown-to-the-uc-summit.aspx#comments Right on !!!! My only addition to what you have said is to describe the channel opportunities for implementing and managing a whole slew of "UC-enabled applications," rather than installing and connecting those boxes. UC-enabled applications, many of which must support mobile users, are not just for person-to-person contacts, are what customers are really looking for in their different business processes, and may now be best provided through reselling cloud-based services. Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:17:53 GMT Art Rosenberg http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/countdown-to-the-uc-summit.aspx?guid=552#comments Comments http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/channel-implications-the-supervar.aspx#comments Kudos to you Dave! Mr. The Truth: Where have you been for the past three years? For three years, I have constantly pointed out UC Strategies folly of assigning all of the value in UC to the manufacturers. I, like you, believe that the real value comes from the VARs' ability to assess each organization's needs and create the perfect UC system to address those needs. That, Art, is what the 'V' in VAR stands for; value. And that, Art, is why, no matter how much time you and your “think tank” try and find a better definition for VAR, you will fail. Perhaps you missed the first day of marketing class, where the teacher summed up the need for marketing like this: "Just because you build a better mousetrap doesn't mean that people will beat a path to your door to buy it". There are literally thousands of awesome "UC mousetraps" available today. As such, how in the world, Art, do you expect even technically savvy organizations to piece together a system that is right for them? Not only can’t they, but it would make about as much business sense for them to do so as it would be for you to try spec out and build your own television. But you and your cohorts wouldn't understand that because you only spend time reprinting your manufacturer-sponsors' press releases, and every once in a while talking to a customer to gather information for a use case. You have done nothing but ignore the channel. You treat it as it is totally unimportant; yet that is where the magic really happens. Now I understand we are all coin operated, and as such, when you "sing for your supper", you feel compelled to let the cooks choose your musical selections. Unfortunately, this is why you will remain irrelevant to end-users who rely on the channel to deliver them from the confusion you now spread on behalf of those that support you. I get that Art; but I pity you for it too. Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:37:20 GMT Dan Aronson http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/channel-implications-the-supervar.aspx?guid=551#comments Comments http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/video-value-series-1-selling-versus-task-collaboration-and-video-value.aspx#comments Phil, Very interesting perspectives on person-to-person interactions. However, video can be just informational and it can be relationally "one-way," e.g., a video message, or an instructional presentation. So, there is a spectrum of communication and informational needs that video can support, just as the text and voice communication modalities do. In addition to the relationships involved, the "urgency" of the task can certainly impact the need and value of video conferencing. Health care, for example, which can require a physician to see and discuss a patient's physical problem, could exploit desktop or mobile video conferencing instead of requiring the patient and the doctor to be face-to-face. For a business discussion about a customer problem, seeing the problem would also be useful, rather than just discussing it. The fact that video modality can now be part of Mobile UC (smartphones, tablets) means that video can be dynamically exploited for a variety of business processes in real-time, anywhere, any time. That would be for both conferencing or informational applications. Once video becomes mobile and personalized, its practical use, in conjunction with voice conferencing for business activities can expand dramatically. Tue, 17 Apr 2012 08:54:40 GMT Art Rosenberg http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/video-value-series-1-selling-versus-task-collaboration-and-video-value.aspx?guid=550#comments Comments