As VoiceCon Spring 2007 fades in the rearview mirror, and I read more of the VoiceCon summaries, I realize that my perspective on the event is somewhat different. Unlike some of my UC Strategies colleagues, my current consulting practice deals almost exclusively with end user clients. As a result, my “take aways” from VoiceCon are not necessarily specific product and services-oriented. Although it is important to know and be aware of them, I look for those “nuggets” of information that I can use to help my clients leverage their current technologies more effectively or advise them on the best solution for their particular business needs.
- Voice Con is still great learning investment. I have attended nearly every VoiceCon since its inception in 1990, including the infamous 2003 snowstorm in DC, presented at several, and learned a pertinent item or several at each one. I schedule VoiceCon as one of my “training” investments, since no other gathering offers such a wide diversity of users, analysts, vendors, and other consultants. Once again, Fred Knight, Eric Krapf, Crystal Lucas, Jon Osing, and the whole crew came through with a well-organized and more importantly, relevant event.
- Technology is nearing “commodity” status. While commodity might be too strong a characterization for some, this is the first VoiceCon in several years at which I did not see a “stop me in my tracks”, revolutionary product or service announcement or introduction. In recent years, especially from an enterprise voice communications perspective, most systems are pretty equal in providing a comprehensive set of features, functions, and applications. Of course, each has its strengths and weaknesses for particular applications, such as contact centers, administration and management, or just having cool devices. For the most part, they all can satisfy the overwhelming majority of most organizations’ core telecommunication needs. In many competitive situations, the deciding factors become total cost of ownership (TCO) and how well a specific vendor or reseller can implement, install, and support its solution. The actual technology is becoming relatively less critical. And this is a cycle that will repeat itself continually, until something comes along that changes the market and competitive landscape.
- Microsoft was visible and proactive at VoiceCon. That something that could change the market – Microsoft and its pending Office Communications Server (OCS) – was very visible at VoiceCon. Although Microsoft has attended in the past, its presence this year was far more proactive evidenced by presence of key executives and through presentations. This should serve as a clear signal to the user and vendor communities of its intention to muscle its way into the enterprise voice telecommunications market; one that a recent Gartner seminar characterized as “Cisco and the seven dwarfs.” That assessment is accurate enough to wonder what the presence of another “big guy” in the market will do. Microsoft has had difficulty gaining traction in the voice world, and its initial offerings will probably require some inevitable “tweeking,” but with Nortel’s voice experience, Microsoft will catch up quickly enough. As a result, we could see some new and interesting developments, including the dreaded “consolidation.”
- Unified communications (UC) is still a vendor “push” rather than a market “pull.” My UC Strategies colleague, Blair Pleasant, made this quite clear in her session on the state of the UC market. She noted up front that she did not have any market numbers, simply because they are too insignificant to even track at this time. That is predicted to change. Allan Sulkin, president of TEQConsult, estimates in his 2006 ECA Converged Communications Systems Market Report (www.encomm.org ) that UC revenues will increase dramatically from about $50 million in 2005 (about 200,000 user station ports @ $250) to over $4 billion in 2013. Pricing is predicted to trend downward to under $100, which works out to about 40,000.000 user ports. As enterprises identify which of their business needs UC can meet, the “pull” will increase and begin to outstrip the “push.”
- A chasm exists between UC and users. New services, technologies, and products continually promise to help us do more with less at lower costs. When used “as designed” by the vendors, this is undoubtedly true. But in keeping with the “push” of the current market mentioned above, these technologies are what the vendors want to sell, not necessarily what businesses need to accomplish their objectives. Most enterprise users’ worlds, unlike mine and most VoiceCon exhibitors and attendees, do not revolve around technology: USERS DON’T CARE WHAT THE TECHNOLOGY IS! They just want tools that are easy to use, work every time, and help them do their jobs. As an industry our challenge is less technology-oriented and more translation-oriented. We need to translate wonderful, complex technology into simple, business goal-oriented applications.
So, the next year will be like opening a Christmas present to see what new technologies will be available, how our industry will change, how much UC is being “pulled” by the market, and most importantly, if and how much we progress in making the complex simple.
I am always interested in hearing your thoughts and comments. My e-mail is bwbattles@battlesgroup.com. Let me hear from you.