Unified Communications: The Journey is Your Opportunity

With every major new technology, there have been great opportunities for those with vision and a willingness to move into unchartered territory.  So it is with unified communications, which is really a combination of new technology and existing technology finally merging to create something significant for customers. Unified Communications (UC) is the ultimate outcome of the path that started with Computer Telephony Integration (CTI), VoIP, Convergence and now wireless. But as my colleague, Blair Pleasant from COMMfusion says, "UC is a vision or philosophy that leads to solutions - it is not a product". And therein lies the significant opportunity for VARs/integrators and telecom dealers.

UC is a journey for customers - and savvy resellers will reap large rewards if they can guide their customers on the road to their destination. Never before has the role of “trusted advisor” been so important, whether the customer is a small, medium or very large business.

The first step to deploying UC is to help the customer define what they are trying to accomplish from a business perspective and then relating that to the “tools” that make up unified communications solutions. As a trusted advisor, it is critical to help the customer identify the core vision of business process improvement as the goal toward which you are leading them. But reaching the end goal begins with taking small steps.  For some customers, their immediate business “need” may translate to deploying Presence and have it integrate to their voice, voice mail and email. Others’ needs may translate to this technology goal but also extend the functionality out to wireless devices. And for some organizations, an initial deployment such as this will mark not an end, but the beginning of the journey that takes the customer into SOA and embedding all of these mediums within their key enterprise applications such as ERP systems.

Another key step is helping them evaluate what they already have, and determining whether all, some, or none of their existing products will be able to take them forward. The reseller’s experience will be important in determining which manufacturers are likely to be able to deliver the future products the customer will need to reach their destination. Much of the "information" heard in the marketplace today comes from a small group of giant companies seeking to persuade customers to adopt their single vendor solutions. UC is seen as the ultimate lock in by data network or enterprise software leaders seeking to extend their reach into new areas.  In the role of trusted advisor, the reseller must take on the task of separating what is best for their customer from what vendors would like to have happen.

A key role of the trusted advisor will be to serve as the gathering point for the various skill and knowledge sets that UC will require. Unlike stand alone products in the past, whose software was mostly self-contained, emerging software-driven products require a greater degree of skill to deploy since they are going into more complex environments and interoperate with more diverse sets of software and networks. In this increasingly complex environment, relationships will be the key. 

The customers’ UC journey certainly offers the reseller a variety of opportunities, beginning with the role of trusted advisor.  For some resellers, this role by itself will bring significant business.  For other resellers, success will come through partnerships and good working relationships with others who can fill in gaps to provide complete solutions. Remember this as the key…the ultimate success in deploying technology is measured by the degree to which it is accepted by the user community and actually delivers the expected benefits to the enterprise and the users.