HP, Their UCC Strategy, and Leveraging VAR The Via Group for Microsoft Lync Delivery

26 Jan 2014

Introduction

Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) is gaining ground in the enterprise marketplace as a whole, and as a UCStrategies expert with multi-site enterprise clients, I see more and more interest from enterprises in Microsoft Lync as an alternative to other manufacturer UCC solutions, and even as a possible replacement of their Telephony systems at large. According to one statement from Microsoft, there are more shipments of Microsoft Lync licenses than any other manufacturer in the UCC space. Whether this statement is totally true or somewhat exaggerated, Microsoft Lync has a growing entourage of enterprise users.

The HP and Microsoft Relationship

HP has been a household word among enterprise users and is known for data infrastructure products, i.e., servers, SAN storage solutions, switches, routers, PCs, laptops, tablets, network management software such as HP Openview, and other products. HP has traditionally been an engineering company at heart, with high reliability products, strong warranties, and strong design know-how.

What HP is lesser known for is their Microsoft Lync partnership and UCC knowledge base and engineering team. Until recently, HP and their alliance with Microsoft has been, in my opinion, an almost "best kept secret." HP is now positioning itself to turn up the volume and ensure enterprises that they are, in fact, in the UCC space and a very strong Microsoft partner.

HP knows that voice is complex, unlike other applications on the data network. It is real time, requires QoS, and minimal latency, jitter and packet loss. HP has introduced several tools for its partners, including:

Software Defined Network/SDN - HP's SDN model offers a way to continue using existing protocols, including things like spanning tree or routing protocols. If your network is functioning, why introduce a whole paradigm shift of using a new mechanism to merely do what you've done before? SDN can solve some of the use cases that are really hard to do today, QoS provisioning being one example.
Reference Architectures - HP uses reference architectures (RA's), which are architectures pre built specifically for Microsoft Lync, ensuring that the design time for a Microsoft Lync deployment and possible risks and programming issues are minimized, and deployments from the start are smooth and have a known high success rate. These reference architectures are the result of HP's years of knowledge and experience internally with Microsoft. These RA's allow HP partners to get an accelerated start with their Microsoft Lync deployments.
HP Microsoft Lync Sizer - HP provides their channel partners a free tool to properly size a Microsoft Lync server environment for its full UCC suite of products. VARs can input parameters needed based on customer requirements and server models, resulting in the accurate number of servers in respective stacks. Sizing areas include server applications, collaboration functions, remote connectivity, federation, voice infrastructure assumptions and settings, RAID redundancy level and more.

In addition, HP strives to be the "Trusted Advisor" to both their VARs and enterprise customers. HP strives not only to be the manufacturer and provider of Microsoft Lync platform hardware, but through the Reference Architectures, SDN platform, and Lync Sizer tools as examples, strives to be a whole lot more than just a supplier of hardware and software.

Enter The Via Group

Leveraging HP's "Trusted Advisor" role, The Via Group, a VAR headquartered in The Woodlands, TX, brings a background of voice communications, rather than other VARs that come from the data world and have a lesser understanding of the real-time urgencies and complexities associated with voice communications.

In my consulting practice, I insist that any VAR hired needs to perform a Network Assessment to ensure that a network is ready for QoS and that there are no lurking failure points or degradation points prior to going live in a full production environment. If VARs do not have this capability, I either use a second outside resource or run Network Assessments as a part of our consulting practice. Possible anomalous areas include latency, jitter, packet loss, availability and voice prioritization, which can mitigate a successful UCC implementation. The Via Group understands the need for this, and network assessments are a requirement performed as a part of their implementation practice for Microsoft Lync.

The Via Group is a Tier 1 Microsoft Lync provider and can provide the level of support and SLAs an enterprise requires, with response times that can support enterprises at large. This is a critical component, in my opinion, as the service delivery model varies significantly among Lync VARs and Microsoft direct. As voice is real-time communication, without Tier 1 VAR service levels, a Microsoft solution will have a lesser impact to any enterprise.

The Via Group also offers a Microsoft Lync hosted solution, which can be included as a part of a free trial offered by The Via Group to evaluate Lync as a holistic enterprise voice communication and collaboration platform. Trialing, in my opinion, is always a way for an enterprise to try/buy with little-to-no risk on their part. Using The Via Group's hosted platform allows the enterprise organization to use the Lync communication and collaboration features and functionality, including mobility access, without having to build-out a Proof-of-Concept on-premise test environment using purchased servers and/or evaluation hardware.

HP and The Via Group together can provide voice and data services from HP with a full portfolio of Lync servers, HP Reference Architectures, SDN network services, Lync software and applications, the HP Trusted Advisor role, and The Via Group's Tier 1 service model. As an independent UCC consultant serving the enterprise community, these would be some of the characteristics I would consider when looking at Microsoft Lync as a possible UCC enhancement or Telephony/UCC replacement. I view these as necessary characteristics when comparing manufacturers and VARs. I also find it significant that HP can provide domestic and worldwide resource support for Lync to The Via Group and others, as well as the full HP portfolio of IT-related products and solutions.

In my consulting practice, ROI also plays a significant role in cost justification of a multi-million dollar UCC spend for a large enterprise client. When comparing Lync with other manufacturers, price point in general can be aggressive-to-very-aggressive. I have compared HP infrastructure products for data-only client solutions, and HP MSRP can be anywhere from 25-50% less than competitive offers (note that individual pricing may vary based on configuration, VAR, and maintenance programs offered).

Part of The Via Group's focus is the insurance and retail verticals. Microsoft's vision is to strategically integrate Skype as part of the Microsoft Lync portfolio, and by leveraging Microsoft Skype into the mix, these companies will eventually be able to add video into the customer service Contact Center experience using the Skype app. This will enable companies in insurance, retail, and other verticals to communicate on a more personal level with their customers, differentiating themselves from their competitors. From my perspective, video is a part of the Next-Gen Contact Center suite, and including Skype as a solution helps the client in that regard.

Cautions

HP and The Via Group as a team strive to deliver a manufacturer and VAR combination to multi-site enterprises and are delivering on a competitive model established by the rest of the VoIP/UCC industry. As Microsoft Lync continues to gain interest among enterprises, I would caution HP and The Via Group on the following:

Multi-site and national customers require a local presence, and The Via Group and HP need to provide resources, either direct or through partners, for local presence purposes.
Both HP and The Via Group need to prove to potential clients that the Microsoft solution can be highly reliable. Microsoft has been better known for feature/functionality than high-reliability modeling, especially when Telephony is in play as a part of the solution.
Partnering with a strong Contact Center manufacturer - for Contact Center solutions, The Via Group and HP may consider a Contact Center partner such as Interactive Intelligence or Aspect.

Conclusion

HP has introduced a new Microsoft ecosystem with "best-in-class VoIP/UCC-ready hardware infrastructure," along with a strong Lync product portfolio and legacy HP data infrastructure portfolio. I believe that by leveraging their HP relationship as Trusted Advisor, The Via Group can offer a competitive premise-based or hosted model for enterprise customers.

I applaud HP for being a Microsoft partner and leveraging their Reference Architectures, making them a strong alliance partner for a Microsoft Lync solution. And with The Via Group's Tier 1 service delivery model, I believe that The Via Group should be a strong consideration when an enterprise is considering Microsoft Lync as a transformative communication and collaboration platform solution for the entire organization.

This paper is sponsored by HP.