Microsoft Beats Cisco and IBM in New ABI Research Unified Communications Vendor Matrix Ranking

ABI Research has ranked Microsoft (News - Alert) at the top of its latest Vendor Matrix. Cisco Systems and IBM Corporation took the second and third spots respectively in the company’s most recent evaluation of worldwide unified communications (UC) vendors.

ABI Research has developed the Vendor Matrix as an analytical tool to provide a clear understanding of vendors’ positions in specific markets. Vendors are assessed on critical parameters of “innovation” and “implementation” across several criteria that are unique to each vendor matrix.

In a release, Subha Rama, ABI senior analyst said that, “Microsoft has shown the strongest growth among UC vendors, leveraging its position as a leader in desktop applications. It has, over the years, integrated multiple solutions in its portfolio to offer a compelling software-based UC solution in Lync. Microsoft also has the widest spectrum of partners for Lync and is expanding this ecosystem rapidly. It has an equally significant play both on the premises and in the cloud.”

For this current matrix, under “innovation,” ABI Research (News - Alert) look at the vendors’ UC channel ecosystems, mobility, the nature of their application development efforts, the range of professional services vendors offer, technology partners, the cost of licensing and equipment, and the scope of their product portfolios.

Practice director Dan Shey (News - Alert) said that, “Cisco scores very high for the way it has evolved its UC channel partner ecosystem: all leading system integrators view Cisco as one of the top two key vendors in this space. IBM (News - Alert) was among the first to bring a high degree of credibility to the integration of social computing tools with UC platforms.”

ABI Research under “implementation,” looked at UC security features, UC system architectures, video and telepresence support, solution scalability and interoperability and messaging and IP telephony strengths.

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