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By Evangelyze Communications, LLC

With a broad series of new Unified Communications (UC) and collaboration offerings by Avaya and Microsoft, IT organizations have been prompted to evaluate their UC strategy. Microsoft promises to lower the overall Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of a UC platform by leveraging an all-encompassing software powered communications environment integrated with its Microsoft Office™ suite through the release of Microsoft Lync, while Avaya introduces its newly released UC platform through Avaya Aura.

The purpose of this whitepaper is to clearly identify the comparisons between both provider’s UC offerings through a process of evaluating value that matter to IT organizations in selecting the right UC platform.

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By Sagemcom

This paper focuses on FAX within Microsoft environments, specifically Exchange UM—a key application within the larger sphere of UC. We clarify how faxing is implemented in environments where Microsoft infrastructure solutions including Exchange, UM and OCS are involved. Although Microsoft OCS provides users with a rich set of UC functions such as presence, chat, e-mail, voice mail and other capabilities, the sending and receiving of faxes using T.38 is currently not supported. This document provides guidelines to circumvent this known limitation.

Find out how by downloading this paper.

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In the Lippis Report Research Note 150, we discussed the new industry group called Unified Communications Interoperability Forum or UNIF and compared it to other industry consortium charted to deliver interoperable solutions. While interoperability is sorely needed in the UC industry, it looks like Microsoft killed its changes of broad industry success before it started. What I hear from both UCIF members and non-members is that UCIF is controlled by Microsoft, and thus, lacks a large cross section of industry players as well as major UC providers. With its current structure, UCIF will make limited headway on its charter. In this Lippis Report Research Note, we review UCIF and its’ opportunities.

There is no doubt that the unified communications and collaboration industry needs interoperable solutions. Video traffic, in particular, is growing exponentially, which will not abate anytime soon. Driving growth is the new mobile video market with devices being equipped with real time video applications from companies such as Apple with its’ iPhone 4.0 FaceTime feature and Cisco’s Cius tablet. There is a real-time mobile video chat for Android too via the Movicha client application. In addition, every major UC supplier will launch a tablet based, end user device this year with tight links into its UC and video collaboration infrastructure. In short, the next generation office phone is a tablet. The combination of consumer and business mobile video device options will drive demand for interoperability, not only between mobile end points, but into corporate video conferencing systems too.

There needs to be a base line of interoperability standards for presence and call management also. Yes SIP or session initiation protocol does provide a base line, but many have built proprietary extensions minimizing interoperability options.

Now is a great time for an industry wide consortium of suppliers, service providers, IT executives and analysts to contribute to a set of interoperability standards with associated certification testing. Before UCIF was established Microsoft drove the initiative with limited to no input or invitation from its competitors. This approach has alienated nearly every major UC supplier from participating in UCIF, and therefore, don’t expect to see Cisco, Avaya, ShoreTel, Mitel, NEC et al to contribute. From this point of view, Microsoft killed UCIF before it even started.

But UCIF can make a contribution especially in the area of real time video collaboration between mobile, desktop and video conferencing system end points. For example, Microsoft could open up its’ Real Time Video (RTV) and Real Time Audio (RTA) codec protocols so that mixed vendor video endpoints can communicate with Office Communicator endpoints natively. With LifeSize, Polycom, HP and Microsoft being the UCIF founding members, their contribution to video collaboration interoperability could have a large impact on the real time video conferencing market.

For example, I use a LifeSize Express 220 video conferencing system, and as a standalone device that connects to other video conferencing systems via IP, H.323 or SIP, it’s magnificent. It would be great to connect with clients that have video enabled their desktop and mobile endpoints too. The larger the universe of potential video endpoints that one can connect to, the greater the value a real time video system provides. This would be a great charter for UCIF, which is to contribute open standards and certification testing that enable mobile, desktop and corporate video conferencing systems to interoperable.

However, for UCIF to deliver on its charter, it would have to dissolve and restart with Cisco, Avaya, Mitel, ShoreTel, and a larger role for Siemens, plus service providers, analysts and IT executives all being stake holders. You cannot have a closed group defining open standards. It just does not work that way.

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In mid May of this year HP, Juniper Networks, Microsoft, Logitech / LifeSize and Polycom established a forum to develop a set of interoperability test methodologies and certification programs along with specifications and guidelines that enable mixed vendor Unified Communications UC solutions to work with each other. In short, the UC Interoperability Forum or UCIF is trying to define what it means for multi-vendor UC implementations to interoperate. Since its establishment, membership has grown by thirteen vendors, but blaringly obvious is the omission of Cisco, Avaya, Mitel, ShoreTel and other major UC providers. This begs the question of motivation. Is the UCIF interested in interoperability or changing the market landscape to gain advantage on the established leaders? In this Lippis Report Research Note we explore this question.

UC interoperability is a very big deal. In fact, back in early April of this year, Zeus Kerravala, SVP of the Yankee Group and I addressed this issue in a Lippis Report podcast titled What is Holding UC Back?. Our answer was lack of interoperability standards and the vendor community’s minimal interest of embracing the ones we have. The UC market has evolved in a peculiar way as it brings together traditional voice communication companies, data networking firms, computing corporations and software concerns. UC is now at the epicenter of video communications, social networking and mobile computing too. UC represents one of the largest cross sections of disparate markets second only to the Internet. It’s here, within this cross section, that UC gains its enormous value.

UC offers to control real time communications and collaboration. Put another way, all real time business processes will be accessed and control by UC over time. Need to call a colleague? It’s via your UC client. Need to schedule a meeting? It’s via your UC calendar client. Need to video chat with a customer? It’s via your UC video client. Need to bring a group of people together for an emergency meeting? Yes, you guessed it! It is via your UC collaboration client. And common to all those UC clients is presence enabled directory to you, so you can find someone and know if they are available, a communications management system that sets up and tears down connections over intranet, internet and mobile nets. To make UC work ubiquitously, like the public telephone network or the Internet, the vendor community needs a forum or place where it can work out interoperability standards. In addition, for this next evolution in human communications to live up to its promise, it needs motivated vendors to allow their equipment to work together.

Yes, UC does have key interoperability standards such as SIP or Session Initiation Protocol that offer both end-point and communications manager interoperability, but many vendors add proprietary extensions to SIP reducing its value in multi-vendor networks. So the UCIF is to be applauded for taking the first step in creating an organization among the vendor community to usher in an era of interoperable UC. But the problem with UCIF is which companies established its formation. Clearly suppliers are businesses looking for sustainable competitive advantage that comes with large market share and innovative, albeit proprietary technologies. It’s no surprise then that when UCIF is established by firms with limited UC market share one’s mind jumps to the obvious assumption that the founding members of the UCIF are perhaps more interested in market share re-distribution than interoperability.

I’ve observed many industry forums and consortiums in the past that used interoperability as a convenient cause to hide a group’s true intentions. For example, Bay Networks, 3Com and IBM established the Network Interoperability Alliance or NIA in May of 1996 to foster interoperability between Local Area Network (LAN) switch vendors. NIA had limited success in competing with Cisco’s increasing market share gains of the enterprise router and switch market.

UCIF feels a lot like NIA to me. The shear fact that it’s mission statement, board and legal structure was done without any of the UC market leaders input and participation is unfortunate, as it has alienated them. It’s also unfortunate that Polycom and LifeSize are founding UCIF partners, but Cisco/Tandberg is not involved as this has a hint of Polycom/LifeSize fear of Cisco breaking away with the Telepresence market; UCIF seems like a way of mitigating this threat. The timing is very close with Cisco closing the Tandberg acquisition in April and UCIF being launched in May.

If UCIF is not able to entice and recruit Cisco, Avaya, Mitel, and ShoreTel et al in a meaningful and authoritative way, then its fate may very well be the same as NIA. What the industry does need is true interoperability standards so that a Cisco, Avaya, Microsoft, Siemens, HP et al UC implementations are able to work with each other in the same way that multi-vendor email systems work with each other. But without full industry participation, it seems that UCIF may be doomed and not able to deliver on its promise of interoperability. For UCIF to be meaningful it needs the UC market leaders full participation as well as Enterprise IT architects and planners plus service providers too, for without them, UCIF is NIA.

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I believe in IT. Even with all the gloom in the economic news, IT will play a major role in the recovery. This economic mess is not a typical business cycle of supply and demand balance or imbalance. It’s rooted in the greed of a few who sold sub-prime mortgages to those who could not afford them, rating agencies that gave AAA rating to BBB sub-prime mortgage-backed bonds, investment banks that solicited investors to short these bonds only so they could use the short to synthesize and multiply the number of bad bonds which eventually clogged the credit market and ignited the stock market crash of 2008. This cycle of greed has and will continue to cost us, our children and our grandchildren dearly as we are forced to bail out financial institutions, the auto industry and fund a stimulus package sized in the $500 to $700 billion range. With this concerning economic backdrop, I believe in IT more now than at any other time in my career. Why? Because after all the cost cutting, reduction in force or layoffs, supply chain rationalization, expense reduction initiatives, etc., IT is the only tool humans have to improve and sustain productivity gains.

For some this may seems like an odd position as many IT professionals have fresh memories of the 2001 recession that wiped out $5 trillion of IT market value and cost hundreds of thousands of jobs. But this economic cycle is in stark contrast to the role IT played in the 2001 recession. In short, IT was the problem in the 2001 recession; it’s the solution now.

In 2001 IT was at the epicenter of that recession. Overspending on IT, thanks to Y2K and the internet boom was the problem. The IT industry experienced 50% growth rates that reversed course to -45% within weeks. Inventories were bloated and IT firms were overstaffed. Skepticism descended upon IT investment, prompting CFOs to take charge of reviewing and approving IT projects. The 2001 recession, in retrospect, was the best thing to happen to IT. IT firms became more focused on delivering business value that was quantifiable in terms and metrics that executive management could understand. As IT firms worked off inventory and streamlined operations their balance sheets became strong with little debt to service and stayed that way.

In 2001, IT was the problem; in 2008 IT is the solution.

Well-managed IT firms have very strong balance sheets and their solutions are designed to increase productivity and reduce cost which will serve them very well during this difficult business cycle. Clearly there is reduction in force occurring across the economy with the latest unemployment levels at 6.7%. Many economists expect this number to rise above 8% during 2009. Note that every .3% increase is approximately 500,000 jobs lost meaning that another 2 million jobs are expected to be lost in 2009. But unlike 2001, IT jobs are in demand, especially those with networking skill sets. So why am I bullish on IT? Because IT is fundamental to productive and profitable business operations.

For example when organizations undergo a RIF, the workload of those remaining is increased to pick up the work performed by those who are no loner employed. While corporations may experience a short-term increase in productivity thanks to RIF, this is seldom sustained without the injection of productivity improvement processes and tools. Along with RIF many astute business and IT leaders are reviewing business processes with a laser focus toward efficiency. Automated and streamlined business processes via IT are the engine of productivity, which enables corporations to sustain productivity gains through RIF and other cost-cutting initiatives.

Larger IT firms will benefit more during the current economic cycle as they possess the resources to quickly deliver change. From an IT industry perspective there is a flight to safety occurring now which will continue during the next twelve plus months. This means that those IT firms with the largest market share and strongest balance sheets will gain the lion’s share of revenue during this business cycle. It’s highly likely that firms such as Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, HP, EMC, CA, Oracle, et al., will increase their market share during this time. This is not to say that these firms will grow in the current recession, as IT spending is usually two to three hundred basis points above GDP. But they will gain market share over their category competitors. There will be fortune change too between the largest IT players as a shift in IT spending favors the network business platform over legacy IT products and services. The bottom line is that the largest IT firms will be the winners at the other end of this economic cycle.

The Data Center At The Epicenter Of Large IT Supplier Competition

Never before have large IT vendors had so much overlap between product lines. The data center is the new front in competition between IT titans. Data center consolidation, virtualization, and cloud computing offerings will become more and more similar between large IT suppliers. In fact, Cisco is rumored to be planning a server blade offering, which has IBM’s Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano and HP’s CEO Mark Hurd alarmed. At stake during the downturn is who will control the data center? Will it be applications, servers, networking, storage companies or those that can envision, design, deploy and manage next generation data centers? Web 2.0-based collaboration that integrates video, social networking techniques and unified communications is the second front where Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and HP will clash. While data centers are more about IT cost reduction, collaboration is about corporate productivity thanks to a new communication model for enterprise operations.

IT is Strategic

In the current macro-economic climate IT could not be more strategic as it offers the only sustainable approach to productivity improvement. In fact, for those that invest in IT projects targeted at productivity improvements they could be rewarded with performance increases between 5 and 10%. Let’s think about this for a second.

During the late ’90s in the run-up to the dotcom boom and telecom crash, corporate productivity soared. The reason was IT and in particular the internet and web 1.0. The internet was and still is an efficiency engine. It sought out inefficiency in business models and processes only to transform them and improve efficiency by eliminating human and system delay in business processes.

Clearly today’s corporate initiatives have changed dramatically since August. Business leaders have embarked on systemic operational cost reduction initiatives as well as increasing organizational flexibility, meaning delivering speed and scale of corporate capabilities to address market dynamics. Business leaders don’t have the luxury of patience to gain the benefits of IT projects, which means that their focus and scope is shorter. There is no time for year-long design cycles. So business and IT leaders are picking and choosing big productivity wins. For some firms this may be a streamlining of how it does business with customers, or perhaps reducing the number of product SKUs that make up a sale or making a corporation more responsive to customers and events through collaboration.

In today’s market, IT and the internet with web 2.0 deliver the tools business and IT leaders need to make their employees more productive as they pick up additional workload and business processes are streamlined. During 2009 industrial strength facebook like social networking, which integrates UC, video, telepresence, etc., could become the collaboration interface organizing employees, projects, information and processes via self-selecting groups. For example, all financial professionals may join the corporate finance group as well as various projects they support by posting videos, questions, project updates, schedules, problems, solutions, etc., in short populating and sharing information with the group. This new approach, borrowed from consumer social networking sites, promises to deliver productivity gains by moving workflow faster between employees within groups to speed up projects. In addition to enterprise-based social networking collaboration, we expect acceleration in IT projects that deliver strong business value as long as suppliers can deliver at speed.

All IT Vendors Are Becoming Networking Vendors

At the same time that the global economy is entering a great recession the IT industry is offering a new IT delivery platform – the networked platform. First a word on “platform”. A platform is an infrastructure in which business value is created and maintained. The word platform in the IT industry used to mean a software development environment, which was tied to a specific computing system.

In the 1960s and 1970s the IBM mainframe was the platform. Then in the late 1970s and into the 1980s the mini computer by Digital, HP, Data General, et al., took the platform ring. Then in the late 1980s and early 1990s the PC took the platform title. But during this time frame, a new technology emerged called local area networking (LANs), which connected PCs and expensive peripherals such as printers and file storage together into a PC LAN. This was the birth of the network-based business platform.

It took a few years, but in the early part of the 1990s LANs starting connecting all IT assets including terminals, mainframes, minicomputers, PCs, storage, servers and other LANs over wide area networks via IP. As each of these separate IT segments became connected a multi-billion dollar market arose. The network platform delivered value in two main areas: 1) it increased access to expensive IT equipment for all enterprise employees; and 2) for the first time it provided programmers with access to all computing resources so that data and applications could be shared between mainframe, mini and PC computing. Then in the mid 1990s the internet and email took off and the network platform was solidified.

Today the network has evolved well beyond a connectivity service as it touches every IT device within an enterprise, that being computing, storage, video surveillance cameras and soon facility environmental systems such as HVAC and lighting. With this sprawl networking’s value has increased by integrating security services, power distribution services, mobility, teleworking, unified communications, video services, virtualization services and application delivery services. In fact, the boundary between computing, networking and storage has been blurring with traditional demarcations soon to be redefined. All major IT industry initiatives are now based upon the network platform such as web 2.0, social networking, SaaS and cloud computing. Gone are the days when innovation such as new features to an operating system took the industry by storm. Today’s IT market is rooted in the networked world.

The unique characteristic of the network platform is flexibility, that is the ability for it to deliver business value unique to every corporation. The key aspect of the network platform is that many of the new web 2.0-based applications can be deployed from the bottom up versus top down. Business and departmental managers can easily deploy enterprise-based social network tools to keep employees updated as to project status, for example. IP video including desktop video, video on-demand and telepresence has become an important new IT tool to most organizations, which is now easy to use as it’s linked into UC solutions. These new attributes of the network platform (web 2.0, social networking, SaaS, cloud computing, etc.) will be rapidly deployed during this business cycle as they deliver results and a new IT delivery model.

So what kind of IT projects will address the post-crash corporate initiatives? Those that automate and improve business processes. For example, collaboration solutions that allow organizations to be more responsive to market dynamics by enabling speed and scale of executive decisions and implementations will be most useful. Collaboration solutions based upon the network platform which includes social networking, video and unified communications reduce organizational cost and increase productivity. IP video or telepresence for example, reduces travel cost significantly but more importantly increases decision making and adds value to business process. Unified communications solutions are well understood by the vendor community and can be implemented within months so that organizations can benefit from both reduced cost of communications, but most importantly increased productivity for all aspects of corporate operations, by linking employees, partners, suppliers and customers together, increasing corporate flexibility and hastening decision making.

The role of the IT leader is to review IT opportunities and filter them through the attitudes and initiatives of executive management. As this process of “search for corporate efficiency” takes hold throughout the world economy, many will look back and realize that IT based upon the networked business platform led the economy out of this funk.

And that’s why I believe in IT.