Unified Communications

Microsoft’s launch of its Unified Communications (News - Alert) suite has caused a frenzy of activity in the IP Communications market, largely because a bevy of vendors are scurrying to ensure integration with the Microsoft (News - Alert) solution. It also elicited widespread commentary from all corners of the industry, each with his/her own take on what Microsoft is doing.

 

I had occasion to speak with Communicado’s founder and chief strategist Kerry Shih (News - Alert) regarding the impact of Microsoft activity in the voice and collaboration markets.

 

For the sake of argument, let’s assume the Microsoft solution encompasses ten features. One of the things Shih said is that, if people think they are going to be able to work seamlessly out of the box, they are going to experience a major letdown.

 

“If Microsoft is going to work out of the box, regardless of the infrastructure, the majority of solutions are so hardened, they won’t be able to interoperate,” he said.

 

He explained: In order to achieve easy management and complete interoperability between your system and the full Microsoft feature set you have to be willing to commit yourself to a major overhaul of your entire platform. You have to be willing to clean up your system before overlaying a complex software layer over it.

 

As an enterprise CIO, he suggests, the best way to determine an appropriate approach is to work with a systems integrator or managed service provider (MSP) that has already rolled out many similar solutions. The fact is, he says, enterprise CIOs are not unlike service providers in that they really cannot afford to get it wrong and, as such, can’t afford the risks associated with learning on the fly. Service providers that were early adopters could also provide solid insight.

 

Regardless of how much preparation goes into the deployment, however, says Shih, there is bound to be a certain disconnect that will cause the full UC promise to be delayed in this Microsoft version.

 

But that’s OK, he said, adding that, despite its infancy in the voice and UC space, he welcomes Microsoft’s venture.

 

“I haven’t been this excited about a big player entering the market since Cisco,” he says. “It make people ask questions, and those questions are good for a global understanding of the IP Communications marketplace.” 

 

He’s right of course, as long as you subscribe to the theory that there’s no such thing as bad press.

 

He adds that, because of the presence of Microsoft in the business world, he, himself will spend two-thirds of his time talking about Microsoft, despite the fact that quite a small percentage of his revenue comes from its use case. In fact, he says that it’s pointless to try to avoid Microsoft — its embedded nature is going to make it hard to beat.

 

One of the projections to come out of Microsoft is the idea that hardware-based communications infrastructures will soon be a thing of the past. Shih believes otherwise, noting that even PBX manufacturers’ primary business is software. Software can be modified, managed, upgraded much more easily than hardware.

 

“I just can’t relate to it,” he says. “Everyone is in software, and it’s a little strange to say the typical hardware vendors are in trouble because of the hardware vs. software battle. That’s uneducated.”

 

At the end of the day, Microsoft will have a place in the IP Communications space, and it is already having an impact on a number of vendors that are looking to interoperate with its OCS 2007. But how much of a market impact will it have remains to be seen. Will Microsoft look to displace the PBX vendors? If so, will it succeed? Or will it continue as the communications portal, supporting the communications needs of the majority of businesses world wide?

 

“It’s just one of those things that will shake everyone up,” Shih concludes. “You have a huge brand, which is not super educated about the market, but it is going to create a lot of waves.”