Microsoft Makes a Push on Telephony

The market for unified communications (UC) and telephony tools is one that's rapidly growing, and with good reason. With more and more companies discovering the value in putting such tools to work—ranging from reduced costs to improved opportunities for revenue growth—that in turn is driving companies to consider investment in UC and telephony that may not have been previously considered. But with these new considerations come new opportunities for providers of related services, and one company is eager to crack this new market fully: Microsoft (News - Alert).

The perception in the UC and telephony market right now, according to reports, is that there's a growing schism in the market. On one side is a set of “traditional vendors,” who are, increasingly, coming under fire for being too focused on hardware. It's not surprising to see customers more interested in getting in on cloud-based deployments. But on the other side of the schism is Microsoft, a company that's been impressing users lately with its Microsoft Lync system. These gains, however, aren't foolproof, and some are still questioning Microsoft's ability to perform as an alternative in the telephony market.

This doubt in the market is providing current private branch exchange (PBX (News - Alert)) vendors and the like a gift-wrapped opportunity to win customers. While Microsoft is making serious inroads, there's still plenty of doubt over Microsoft's ability to provide. If the current line of PBX vendors can illustrate clearly how building UC and collaborations tools on top of currently-available hardware is the best value for companies, then there's a real opportunity on hand to sweep the market and walk away with some substantial new business. A particularly effective strategy here might be to point out the value associated with having few—or even just one—provider for UC and telephony components; after all, simplified management requires fewer resources to track and maintain.

That's a valuable point, but some companies look at the single-source system as a bad idea on the strength of one simple premise: when the entire system has one point of failure, if that failure point activates, the whole system goes down with it. The value of backups and redundancy has never been lost on prudent businesses, especially as images of successful disaster management spring to mind like the events following Hurricane Sandy. With 13 percent of businesses in recent studies using Lync as an outright phone replacement thanks to its various instant messaging and conferencing tools, there's plenty of reason why that's the case.

Indeed, Microsoft has plenty on its side here. Not only does it have extra tools and the sheer power of the Microsoft name, but it also has the ability to bring in other tools with the help of third-party add-on systems to bring in things like call reporting and even call recording. Searchable archives lend value here too, as do video conferencing tools and the like. Plus, there's a further advantage in terms of licensing; Microsoft products are already standard throughout several industries, so adding on another Microsoft license may seem simpler to companies trying to correctly balance software licenses.

The market isn't really closed to outside firms here, but Microsoft has quite a bit going for it in this market. With so much to offer, if it can focus its marketing accordingly and show the clear benefits that Microsoft offers, there's plenty of opportunity for Microsoft to become dominant in the field. Only time will tell just who comes out on top, but Microsoft has plenty of opportunity to seize this particular ball.