As large enterprises adopt and roll out unified communication (UC) solutions on a broad and geographically dispersed basis, the industry is reaching a turning point. But one of the main factors holding back widespread adoption is the complexity associated with deploying and monitoring UC on such a large basis.
We got the chance to speak to Matt Christopher, director of Microsoft Enterprise Programs at Nectar (News - Alert) Services Corp., about the state of the UC market and what can be done to facilitate broader adoption. Nectar specializes in a UC management platform that improves service delivery of UC services while offering vital performance information to managers and IT admins.
“IT pro decision makers do not want to run the risk of trusting their real-time communications to an environment they cannot properly monitor or diagnose,” said Christopher. “As IT pro tools improve and the overall environment improves to support real-time communications, enterprises are beginning to loosen the reins on UC rollouts.”
He added that enterprise adoption is also being held back by the promise of cloud-based UC solutions without many actual choices on the market. But Nectar, which works closely with Microsoft (News - Alert), believes that Skype for Business Online has the potential to change enterprise attitudes toward cloud-based UC.
“Whether an enterprise’s UC software is hosted on their premises, in a private cloud, or in a multitenant environment, the need for assessing, monitoring, and diagnosing real-time communications traffic over the network is the same,” said Christopher. “Many enterprises and service providers falsely assume that if they have someone else host and maintain their software, then there is no need to monitor the network. Similarly, many service providers do not understand the value of ‘defending their edge.’ It is important for hosted providers to accurately demonstrate and validate that voice quality issues are not happening within their ‘cloud.’ Without that validation, they are guilty until proven innocent.”
Another barrier to widespread enterprise UC adoption has been a lack of training on the part of channel partners. While they may be educated about specific products and services, UC is blurring the lines when it comes to multiple voice, data and software technologies. Christopher said channel partners must be cross-trained on all technologies and market factors to successfully market and sell UC solutions and services.
Ultimately, deriving value from enterprise UC solutions means carrying out a thorough deployment, said Christopher. “Even more than with traditional VoIP, you need to assess, monitor, and diagnose your UC environment.”
Nectar plans to do just that at next week’s ITEXPO West in Anaheim, CA (News - Alert). Christopher will be presenting a conference session entitled “Skype for Business” and focused on how channel partners can successfully help their customers deploy and manage the UC offering in their environments. Nectar will present an additional session on Skype (News - Alert) for Business centered on the capabilities of Microsoft’s new offering as well as the practical requirements for deploying it. A third session will focus on monitoring, analytics and diagnostics for Skype.
Edited by Kyle Piscioniere