Metaswitch and ADTRAN - Bringing UC Closer to SMBs

Last week I attended Metaswitch Forum 2010 in Orlando, and continue to come away impressed with their ability to both grow and evolve their value proposition. Metaswitch does not turn up regularly on this portal, as UC is not really a core focus for them. They actually have UC-related offerings - mostly voice-centric, however - and only a minority of their customers have gone down this path so far. I know that will change over time, and as I learned, their partnership with ADTRAN is one way this will happen.

Last year, several of the UCStrategies contributors attended ADTRAN's first analyst event, where they announced the acquisition of Ottawa-based Objectworld, a desktop UC solution built around Microsoft Windows. This marked ADTRAN's foray into the applications space, and is a good step towards evolving from hardware to software, something that all telecom vendors need to do. They have a long way to go before catching Cisco, but the move is already paying dividends for ADTRAN.

Objectworld has now become NetVanta UC, and partnering with Metaswitch is good for both parties. By all accounts, Metaswitch is the leading nextgen switching platform vendor for the U.S. Tier 2/3 market. Many of these customers are classic RLECs and IOCs, with small subscriber bases, so this is very much an SMB opportunity. These operators typically have long and rich histories with their customers, but struggle with a host of competitive threats have only recently become real. Many have managed to migrate their customers to VoIP, but realize they need to get beyond this to remain competitive.

ADTRAN has a well established customer base of their own, but integrating with the MetaSphere applications platform gives them access to this market in ways they can't directly achieve. NetVanta UC works well here as both companies have focused on ease of use and addressing specific business problems. Neither company is flashy, and both share the same close-knit cultures that strongly define their carrier customers. I really think this goes a long way to explaining their success in this market, and they seem like polar opposites to the Tier 1 vendors that dominate the enterprise market.

During the forum, ADTRAN demonstrated the core features of NetVanta UC, with a focus on the cost savings that come with unified messaging - not just with Microsoft, but also with Lotus Notes, iGoogle and Mac OS. They also highlighted conferencing applications and administrative features that make the solution easy for an SMB to manage. On a more practical level, they talked about the benefit of integrating fax with UC - not just for being tied to other applications, but in terms of the savings for paper, printer ink and PRIs for dedicated fax lines. These may seem like small things, but they're tangible benefits that resonate with cost-conscious SMBs.

Moving along the evolutionary path of UC, they brought FMC into the conversation, explaining how easy it is to deploy features like find-me follow-me, and how they can support smartphone applications. On a more strategic level, they also talked about CEBP, and how UC has the potential go beyond everyday communications. It's probably a bit early for CEBP in this market, but at least they're showing a roadmap for these customers to grow into. These capabilities are a big step forward for many of these customers, but this is where the trusted partner status of both ADTRAN and Metaswitch really carries weight. My view is that this customer set will be more likely to adopt these features from these vendors than if they were partnering with a Tier 1 legacy vendor.

Finally, I really liked their emphasis on vertical market applications. Again, this is a practical approach to UC, and it applies just as well to SMBs as enterprises. They talked about broad verticals like education and financial services, and this is a fairly familiar entry point for any vendor trying to make UC real for carriers. What I found more interesting was their more grass-roots focus on specific types of businesses within these verticals, such as medical offices or real estate. There was a nice walk-through for the latter, which they called the "talking house." This was very much a UC application with CEBP, as they illustrated how information about a home listing can tie in directly to MLS databases, giving the agent more powerful tools to help their clients.

I stress this last point because the types of carriers that ADTRAN and Metaswitch are serving with UC will have a lot of small scale business customers with local footprints. Many of these businesses are new to VoIP, and by offering easy-to-use UC solutions, carriers can deliver value that will be quickly understood and presumably quickly adopted. Both vendors have solid technologies, and I don't think they'll have many issues on this front. The bigger challenge is delivering a user experience that SMBs will understand and showing them how UC can save them money.

For these types of customers, my view is that ADTRAN and Metaswitch are far better positioned than the Tier 1 vendors. Based on the interest level I saw at the Forum, I'd say they have a ways to go yet, as UC is far from a household word with this audience. However, the solution is there for the taking, and they need to keep stressing the value proposition and educating the market and take these deployments one win at a time.