On the Twelfth day of UC the industry gave to me, figuring out the plumbing (Interoperability and standards)
the value of video, not hyping, (good solid uses of video of all types)
no more pagers beeping, (customers lining up to buy unified communications solutions)
interface enhancing, (ASR and TTS improved and integrated into more UC applications/interfaces)
CFOs bilking, (UC sales up with good ROI stories)
overuse of power dimming, (Green, green, green)
applications plug ‘n playing, (integration and out of the box use)
five phone rings, (carriers solving access problems)
the voicemail market girds, (installed base churn of voice mail in favor of UC)
an AT lens, (incorporating more assistive technology components into UC solutions)
what SMB loves, (paving the way for SMB adoption of UC)
And a clear definition of UC (This one is pretty clear)
For a few of these categories, a quarter doesn’t tell much. Getting a clear definition of UC just hasn’t happened, for example. It’s too early to tell if the voicemail market is turning over in favor of UC, to soon to tell if more customers are clamoring for it, etc. However, in about six categories I’ve seen lots of things that give me hope.

Voicemail Market

One just has to assume that the voicemail market is in the midst of a makeover, I just don’t have the numbers to prove it yet. However, recently there have been a lot of end-of-life announcements for legacy (some of us prefer to think of them as “classic”) voicemail systems, including support for the Octel 300’s this year, and other versions of Octel, Intuity Audix, PhoneMail, Centigram, and Meridian Mail, in 2009 and beyond. This just has to mean churn and if not a movement to UC adoption, then at a minimum probably UM. Some vendors have taken advantage of this (who wouldn’t with such a big pond to fish out of) by beefing up their voice messaging and unified messaging products with such things as new IP integrations, or plain re-emergence of voicemail as part of a UC suite. As one example, AVST introduced a new release of CallXpress with a new Nortel Meridian Mail Telephone User Interface (TUI) emulation, and redesigned Digital Networking, among other features.

Interoperability

Last month I blogged I posted a blog about IMTC, on the UC-Strategies site, on a meeting I had at the VON conference with the President of IMTC on how this organization is pushing for interoperability of UC solutions. I consider this a statement move on pushing for interoperability. As their efforts progress I’ll be blogging about it more.

Also in March, NextPoint Networks, a provider of global, fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) border platforms and secure interconnectivity solutions that enable mobile and fixed-line operators to interoperate, announced availability of its Unified Communications Exchange (UCX) solution. NextPoint claims UCX has the ability to provide end-to-end integration between different vendors products, including IP-PBXs and IP-Centrex, voice messaging, unified messaging, audio, video and web conferencing, and IM platforms. UCX also supports presence.

Naturally, we also continued to see announcements from vendors on partnerships and integrations. For example, ShoreTel announced their integration plans between ShoreTel's unified communications solutions and IBM Lotus Sametime.

Value of Video

Video – where to start? There is a lot going on in video right now. For example, Avaya, as part of their spring one-X Communicator announcement showed off embedded desktop video conferencing, adding to their existing video conferencing solutions. If I had to pick out just one announcement about video and the desktop it would probably be the one-X Communicator (don’t everyone else scream) because Avaya has crammed a lot into one user interface with all the normal telephony features, along with both the desktop video and visual voicemail, IM, email, rich presence (although some of us are still pining for poor presence), conferencing, directories and contacts.

On the Telepresence front, Nortel launched a new videoconferencing service called Nortel Telepresence Services, with life-size, full-motion videoconferencing. Cisco and HP, both competitors in the life-sized telepresence game were not quiet either this quarter. While Cisco continued to install TelePresence systems at a rapid clip (their 4/20/08 press release said that 500 units had been ordered since its launch 18 months ago), they also made a splash at VoiceCon through a TelePresence-driven keynote address. HP also announced a key Halo win that I found heartening; an agreement with Marriott International to make Halo telepresence solutions available for the public to use at certain Marriott locations in major business centers around the world. Cisco has in the past talked about one or more of their TelePresence customers that are, or will be, doing the same thing with strategically placed business centers, but this is the first time I remember (I could be wrong) that a hotel chain has jumped on the telepresence bandwagon. I also could be wrong here too, but my gut feel is that given the push for reducing carbon footprint, and the growing issues with world economies, that we will soon be seeing a lot more of this. I find the whole concept of being able to rent a telepresence meeting room invaluable. If I’ve missed a vendor announcement on this, please speak up.

Interface Enhancing

How can I not talk about speech technologies when talking about enhancing interfaces? As just one example, Nuance announced that its speech solutions are now available on the Kyocera Wireless Tempo E2000 phone, and they renewed and expanded their agreement with Samsung to continue to enhance the speech capabilities of Samsung’s line of wireless devices.

Here is a bridge between enhancing the user interface with speech and the SMB market. It’s not an announcement in Q1, but Q’4 of last year. In a prior blog I wrote that I felt ShoreTel needed to beef up its use of speech technologies. Recently I found out that Incendonet SpeechBridge product had completed ShoreTel’s Technology Partner Program certification. SpeechBridge SMB is a VoIP network appliance that provides speech-driven auto-attendant, IVR, and web services applications for the SMB market. Due to its tight integration with MS Exchange, SpeechBridge gives users speech access to their email and calendars. SpeechBridge uses LumenVox speech technologies.

SMB Market

The SMB market certainly garnered its share of announcements in Q1. For example, NEC’s UC for Business announcement was targeted directly at the SMB market with a single server UC solution that provides desktop UC applications, a fully functional contact center, attendant console and single point of administration.

In January, Nortel announced the rollout of its suite of new features for its SMB IP Telephony solution – Business Communication Manager (BCM) 50, to Africa, the Middle East and Europe, including new SMB-centric IP phones, announced in December in North America.

One of the hottest requirements in the SMB market is ease of installation, as a high percentage of SMBs don’t have an IT department. In this regards there were a number of great announcements, including the aforementioned Incendonet, that has patent-pending self provisioning technology for really fast implementation. In a similar vein, in the IP market Aastra Telecom, announced the launch of AastraLink Pro – Model 160, a cost-effective IP PBX created specifically for the small business market. The AastraLink Pro was about as plug n’ play as they get. I watched one set up and it was quick, nicely thought out, and easy. The AastraLink Pro also integrates with Aastra’s existing portfolio of SIP phones (including a couple of new ones that they also introduced last quarter).

On another note, Microsoft announced that its small-business-oriented Response Point product will soon have full VoIP via SIP trunking.

As for speech technologies and contact centers, we also saw a number of SMB announcements. Squeaking in at the end of Q1, Metaphor launched its Plug & Play Speech IVR On-Demand product, which coming from 20 years in the IVR market, I think is pretty slick. Aimed at the mid, not really small market, this product takes advantage of 55 pre-packaged applications, is extremely easy to configure, and doesn’t require someone who understands VoiceXML, just C#.

Going Green

You can’t open the paper, get on the Internet or watch the news without hearing about Green these days. It’s become a major focus of many of the companies I blog about here. For an example, just go check out the Going Green display on Nortel’s home page. However, beyond what any one vendor has done in this regard, there is a push in the general public media that is driving consumer and business customer awareness.

There have been product announcements too. For example, Mitel Inc. and Sun Microsystems jointly announced the Sun Ray Unified IP Client from Mitel; a Sun Ray thin client combined with a desktop phone accessed through a Java-based smart card. This green approach helps in two ways. Because thin clients access data and computer programs from a central server, it allows the phone to be used in shared work environments accessing data that previously would have been stored on a workers PC, thereby cutting down on physical work space requirements and the associated energy costs. Second, it lowers power usage to about 9 watts total for both the phone and thin client, which is a lot less than the typical PC (80 watts) or laptop (60 watts).

Assistive Technology

Whereas I could probably talk at length about incorporating speech technologies into phones, the one announcement that caught my eye on the assistive technology front was K-NFB Reading Technology, Inc. premiering its Reader Mobile product line on Nokia's new N82 telephone that incorporates a scanner into its footprint. Whoa Nelly! Except for the price tag, which is probably out of reach for a lot of the sight-impaired community, the idea of being able to scan anything, a document, your snail mail, the side of a box of cornflakes, and have the text read back to you is spectacular.

That’s it for now. In April there was a lot more, so I’ll be back at the end of Q2 for another round up.