Lync Conference 2013: Changing the Game

The Lync Conference 2013 in San Diego, CA, from February 18 - 21, 2013 was Microsoft's first Conference gathering for users and resellers of the Microsoft Lync platform. This was a milestone in itself, indicating that Lync has reached that critical mass in Microsoft where it can justify a stand-alone conference. As an "analyst" guest, there was much to note at the Conference.

The Conference highlighted that Microsoft is changing the game in several important ways:

Mobility

The Lync 2013 client for mobile devices was the highlight of the opening keynote. Derek Burney, the Engineering VP for Lync, did the demos live, with his team's participation, and led the audience through a tour de force of the client on Windows Phone 8, iPhone, Android phone, Apple iPad, Apple Mac and Windows PC. Every single client session included both voice and video. All of these clients were progressively added to a Lync meeting so the clients also showed the multi-party video functions, as applicable. For the iPad, with more real estate than the smartphones, the client includes live presentation viewing along with the real-time media.

In addition, Derek demonstrated the new Web App client, which also provides IP-based voice, video and app sharing. The clients and Web App will be available over the next several months.

This changes the mobility conversation about Lync. For the past several years, our UCStrategies colleague and mobility expert, Michael Finneran, has noted that Microsoft was lagging in this area. The competitors also reveled in focusing on this gap in the Microsoft story. It seems the playing field has been leveled on mobility, so the game is going to shift elsewhere.

Video Room Systems

The keynote and the exhibit hall and numerous breakout rooms were all highlighting the new Microsoft Lync Room System. Announced in partnership with Polycom, Lifesize, Smart Technologies and Crestron, the Room System is an extension of the Lync conferencing capability to support the multiple HD screen room configurations produced by the first three partners, and supported by Crestron control systems.

The features of the Lync Room System are what you would expect for a well-equipped video-capable meeting room system, thanks to the devices and appliances of the Microsoft Partners. The user interface brings Lync features onto the touch-sensitive surfaces (Smart boards, Crestron controls) and includes some features that show off the Microsoft suite, such as a large touch display of the room availability to show if the room is available and to reserve a future meeting.

It seems to me that this will change the game for Lync video solutions. While Lync has provided good video features for PC (and now mobile) clients, the sense in the market was that room systems were in another category, requiring purchase of non-Microsoft brands from an audio-video integrator. It is now pretty clear that Microsoft Partners will be including room video systems in their proposals; Polycom, Lifesize, Smart and Crestron will still have their fair share of this business, too, but the video rooms can and will be included in the UC proposals.

UC and CEBP Applications

So, now that the playing field is leveled out for mobility and video room systems, it seems to me that the game will shift to UC and CEBP (Communication-Enabled Business Process) applications. More than once, we heard Microsoft speakers emphasize that Lync is a platform, i.e. that Lync can be used for innovations that extend well beyond the scope of the core Lync functionality of the Microsoft Lync CALs (Client Access Licenses).

To make this point, the Lync Conference featured an entire day of "Show and Tell" where customers and Partners shared their creativity with the Lync platform. I heard some pretty clever examples of how the Lync platform is being used for everything from a virtual collaboration and education environment, to hand-motion control of meeting rooms using Microsoft Kinect with Lync, to automating parking garages using the Lync platform to support camera-equipped kiosks at the garage exits. Other breakouts featured specific themes, such as the session on "The Unified Contact Center" highlighting Partner delivery of those functions.

All of this was backed up by Microsoft Partners. The exhibit space included a wide range of Microsoft system integration partners, including some of the giants of the industry such as HP and Dimension Data. So, the application game is on and this is a challenge which the IP-PBX based competition should take seriously.

Skype: Just think B2X

As you know from other posts, Skype and Lync are now combined in the Skype division of Microsoft, headed by Tony Bates, former Cisco exec who became CEO of Skype and stayed with Microsoft after that acquisition. The opening and closing keynotes emphasized this idea of B2X, meaning that the combination of Lync and Skype can deliver a range of options for a business (enterprise) to communicate with clients, partners, customers, consumers, family and the public - thus: B2B, B2C, and B2X.

Lync 2013 now supports federation of presence, instant messaging and voice calls between Skype clients and Lync users, so the ball is rolling. This does not yet include video between the clients, which was referenced as "definitely on the roadmap." Also, this does not make the Skype connections to the PSTN (Skype-In and Skype-Out) available to the Lync users, though you can imagine some great applications for that, but the sense is that something will be done in the future to leverage the global Skype communication network.

Beyond all this, the keynoters continued to emphasize the growing market adoption of Lync across all modalities - IM, conferencing and voice. Adoption of Lync for enterprise voice communications was shown at 5 million users, growing at 35 percent per annum.

Summary

In summary, it sure looks like the game is changing. The playing field seems pretty level in the areas of mobility and video room systems, and the Lync team is on the offensive with UC and CEBP apps and with B2X connections to Skype. We'll continue to watch and comment as the game evolves. It certainly appears to be evolving right on track with our UCStrategies definition: Communications integrated to optimize business processes.

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