Great UC Expectations

Sometimes marketing works too well. No, I'm not talking about the many times over the years that Apple ran a brilliant campaign for a new product, only to be swamped with orders that outpaced their production capacity, nor am I referring to things like email blasts ("When we send an email blast it is almost like printing cash," as Business Intelligence consultant Jackson Miller wrote in his personal blog.)

What I'm thinking of is how hype and buzz can distort a technology and give it the ambiance of a miraculous panacea. There's always the danger that this will happen with something as all-encompassing as unified communications, but evidence suggests that the hype around UC is actually spurring organizations to carefully examine and evaluate various systems rather than just snap at whatever glitzy thing comes along. This could be happening because of current economic considerations, or it could be happening simply because UC is such an extensive phenomenon, and it can now reach into so many business processes, that companies feel they can't afford to make a mistake in its implementation.

Take for example, the recent, fifth annual Enterprise VoIP Survey conducted by IDC in conjunctions with Info- World. The study, Key Trends in Enterprise VoIP 2008: Customer Perspectives on Unified Communications (Doc #213779), focuses on end users' perspectives on UC in relation to what it means to their organizations, which vendors have the most strategic value, and which applications will be integrated with their communications infrastructure. As it happens, the survey results demonstrate the end users have become more sophisticated about their understanding of UC, and they do have higher expectations as to what vendors and solutions providers should be offering in terms of products and services.

The study's other key findings include the expectation by 41 percent of respondents that advanced applications that allow for the integration of their company's business communications with its critical business applications should come directly from Microsoft Exchange or IBM Lotus Notes or Domino environments. (At face value that sounds logical and convenient for the customer, though Yours Truly thinks it would put quite a load on what already appear to be quasi-elephantine systems.)

Obviously, users increasingly want something more substantial that than a snazzy user interface that lists some different media on the desktop. They want real usefulness, which means intimate connections to back office systems and a real ability to communications-enable business processes, which in turn leads to a fundamental change in the business itself. When all of this finally materializes, users will either accept it with aplomb (after all, they asked for it) or they will look upon it as a Frankenstein's monster. We'll see. UC

Richard Grigonis is Executive Editor of TMC's IP Communications Group.