In fact, according to a recent Psytechnics survey, more than half of the businesses it surveyed that have adopted UC solutions have done so in a multi-vendor environment. (Overall, the survey suggests that slightly less than half of businesses in the study have deployed UC solutions.)
The continued development of enhanced wireless technologies � including wireless VoIP and dual mode WiFi/cellular � will help raise the adoption rate of UC systems, as faith in those technologies continues to grow. Based on its research, AirMagnet (News - Alert) believes the coming year to realize a 40 percent growth in the wireless market, much of which is likely to result from interest in Unified Communications. After all, mobile clients are a key component of UC solutions.
The multi-vendor approach means that, as new applications are developed, the need for interoperability becomes even greater to ensure that solutions can be reliably deployed. The need for such inter-vendor collaboration is a key driver of many of the vendor-sponsored development initiatives today, such as Avaya�s DevConnect (News - Alert) program.
For Avaya, among the key reasons for the emphasis on its developer program is the recognition that, in order to continue to drive solutions to market, it needs strong alliances, particularly to jointly develop new products to enhance customers� communications capabilities.
As Bill Zekowski, Director, Avaya Emerging Technologies, explained, there is a need to orchestrate the collaboration of location, time, and mode, in order to be enable effective communication � both voice and data � between users regardless of where they are. By doing so, workforces become more intelligent and are able to increase productivity and accelerate business processes.
This means the convergence of real-time and non-real-time communications, including support of multiple devices (e.g., deskphone, mobile device, WLAN, conferencing, video, etc.). These converged applications and products must, however, be reliable, scalable, and survivable, not to mention easy to deploy and manage � that�s what the market demands.
As Zekowski says, in order to be successful, it�s important to know where the market stands in terms of adoption, and today, the market is learning that UC strategies can produce tremendous benefits, particularly if the communications processes and applications can be injected into the business process, which is really where Avaya believes the UC market ultimately is headed.
�Customers are adopting, and we believe we have crossed the chasm,� he said during Avaya�s recent DevConnect Conference. �They are still early adopters, but we are seeing customers shift their usage.�
This bodes well for not only Avaya and its developer partners, but for the entire UC market as a whole. As long as vendors are able to leverage the benefits of VoIP, unified messaging, conferencing, video, and mobility, with intuitive applications that help enhance the business process, they will continue to drive the adoption of Unified Communications.
As Nick Lippis said in his keynote at the DevConnect Conference, �Collaboration is the killer application.� Of course it is widely understood that collaboration applications are drawing widespread interest, but the other side of collaboration is the work being done behind the scenes between vendors � like members of the DevConnect community.
With continued dedication to collaborative efforts, members of the UC community will ensure the multi-vendor approach meets with greater success than in the past, when interoperability was not a given, and integration required considerably more effort. Indeed, ease of deployment and product stability are perhaps the two most critical factors in developing a successful solution set.
Cost savings are available from any number of IP-based solutions, but creating an environment whereby the communications infrastructure melds into the business process, improving workforce productivity, will be a differentiator.
Unified Communications Communications Magazine Table of Contents