UC in Government–NEC Perspective

Back in May of 2008, I briefly examined UC in the federal government in this article: UC in Government-A Walk on the Mild Side. It was referred to as a “walk on the mild side” since attitudes by key federal officials on VoIP remained somewhat skeptical at that time, hence casting doubt on potential UC uptake in the near-term. Recently, I re-encountered Doug Martinez, Director of Government Markets, NEC Corporation America. Doug is an old colleague and he brought me up-to-date on what NEC is learning and doing about the total government (local, state, federal) IT and communications landscape.

In previous dealings with NEC, my observations included the notions that the company really believes in doing its engineering, requirements analysis and other homework, and is a firm supporter of vertical marketing in key targets such as hospitality, healthcare, education and government. The pace of these processes may be problematic to some, but the end result is typically solid and bullet-proof.

The NEC Government Markets team has recently interviewed government CIOs and other IT leaders, and has come up with some interesting insights and trend indicators. The focus of these interchanges was for NEC to gain an understanding of current government IT processes and the issues/challenges/drivers facing the CXO including the nearly universal desire to align IT with the mission/business of the government organization(s) that it supports. Among the key outcomes were:

• CXOs want to reposition IT from being a narrow reactive help-oriented service to a true partner in agency business in an era of reduced funding;
• IT staffing is a huge issue due to obvious budget limitations and an  aging workforce with a large percentage at or near retirement;
• Staffing and budget shortfalls exacerbate responsiveness to escalating service/application demands from constituents and others;
• Accordingly, the drive to “do more with less” in IT continues, complicated further by ever-increasing technology choices/options including so-called Gov 2.0 alternatives; and
• Technology direction must be managed and balanced with political, policy, conformance, security demands and agency cultural dynamics.

Clearly these are challenging and frustrating times for the government CIO. One interpretation, however, is that the outlook for UC in this environment is likely better than what you might think. Why? The need to increase both overall agency and individual government employee productivity and efficiency is obvious. Communications, in all forms, with constituents and others, is typically a major part of agency operations. Consider, for example, the way that the Internet is utilized to expedite transactions and reduce government paperwork. Further, numerous agencies (DoD is an example) have moved to an all (or mostly) IP infrastructure for voice, data, video and other media communications. Additionally, the increased automation and application flexibility possible with UC, in managed/hosted form, for example, ought to help minimize IT staff requirements. Certainly there is a leap-of-faith here, but the future for Unified Communications in government shows promise. More interaction with government CIOs and others will help refine and qualify the opportunities.

As has been noted in UCStrategies and elsewhere, there are many definitions of UC, and likewise many migration paths to it from one’s current environment. Flexibility and adaptability are significant considerations in the transition to UC. To NEC’s credit, the company has made its Sphericall offering the “point product” in addressing UC in government markets. The Sphericall solution is software-based, which, in addition to being a robust UC platform on its own, supports using or extending the utility of existing network assets (such as a PBX or server) which, as we’ve noted above, is very important in the government market environment. It can integrate/interwork with the platforms of most any vendor including Microsoft with OCS. For example, Marty Parker recently reported on IBM Lotus UC integration in this article: “No, It’s More!” - NEC UNIVERGE® Sphericall® for IBM Lotus Foundations: A different approach to Unified Communications

Key aspects of Sphericall include:

• Scalability and configuration agility (from premises to cloud basis)
• Easily distributable to meet organization network needs
• SIP standards-based, including support of SIP trunking
• A centralized management/view of distributed environment
• It is engineered for Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
• Support of key federal government requirements such as IPv6 and mission-critical DoD certifications including MLPP for assured service in tactical military communications
• It is designed for high reliability performance providing superior failover, survivability, continuity, et. al., capabilities

NEC sees Sphericall as an important element in today’s transition from appliance-based, “box”-oriented, solutions to software-based solutions. Compared to previous closed approaches, Sphericall is open, web-centric, and clearly service-oriented. Sphericall’s comprehensive holistic approach should bode well with the government CIO looking to integrate multi-media communications with the mission/business of the organization. It is an important, positive step in aligning IT with organizational objectives and performance.

Looking ahead, there is much to be done; the government market is complex to say the least with significant differences in state, local and federal entities and the approaches to them. NEC needs to demystify UC for those targets, address their skepticism, and identify their specific UC value-added drivers. Additionally, NEC Sphericall has been somewhat of a niche offering, its profile needs to be raised and broadened for the more general-purpose government opportunity. It will be an interesting journey.