Unified Communications - Still a Moving Target

August certainly has been an interesting month in the UC space, even if all you did was review our last couple of podcasts. To varying degrees, UCStrategies has focused attention on what the vendors have been up to recently, and clearly, nobody is standing still. Here are just a few to consider, and by scanning our portal, it won't take long find more examples:

• Microsoft - integration of Skype (finally) with Lync, not to mention enhancements to their mobile client
  
  
• Cisco - recent release of UC 9.0, with more emphasis on mobility and BYOD support to extend collaboration beyond the desktop
  
  
• Avaya - Aura Conferencing 7.0, and their Collaborative Cloud platform with VMware
  
  
• Mitel - just enhanced their collaboration focus with hosted video via partnering with Vidyo and VMware
  
  
• ShoreTel - strong quarterly results last week (but still not making money), and recently release 13, with richer collaboration tools
  
  
• ININ - announced IPA 4.0, enhancing their business process automation capabilities

With a bit of browsing, you can read up on all of these on the portal, but I think you get the idea. UC continues to be a moving target, and I don't expect that to change any time soon. This really cuts both ways, and I wanted to touch on both sides of the coin in this post.

Let's start on the plus side - what's the upside to all of this constant tinkering? Certainly this is a sign of continuous improvement, and there's no harm in that. Clearly, all the vendors are scrambling to get cloud offerings out as quickly as possible, and that sends a message to buyers as to where things are going. Furthermore, the de facto value proposition has now shifted from UC to UCC. For a while now, I've been saying that Cisco staked out this claim, making collaboration the focal point, and one by one, the other vendors have followed suit. Again, consistency is good for buyers, as the rationale becomes a bit clearer - UC is ultimately about collaboration, not simply giving employees more tools to work with as they see fit.

Going the other way, I see cause for concern for both channels and buyers. How can any IT decision-maker possibly have total certainty choosing a path here? UC remains a work in progress, and I don't think it will ever be finished. The business case in this environment is very different from the last major decision point IT probably made around telephony, which was either for a PBX or migrating to IP PBX. These solutions were pretty much finished products, and it was clear what you were getting for your money. Just in 2012 alone, the core concept of UC had added a few concentric rings, such as cloud, video and mobility, as well as incorporating specific use cases such as BYOD and contact center.

ShoreTel is but one example of a vendor doing a great job trying to stay ahead of the pack, but it's hard to make buck with so much change and so many applications shifting to the cloud. All the vendors are having challenges, not just making money, but also creating meaningful differentiation. As noted in Blair Pleasant's recent UCC market opportunity report, the value proposition is shifting to collaboration, and all the vendors are heading this way. In time, everyone will buy UC for the same reasons, but this is still an early stage market, and businesses today are coming to UC from a variety of directions. No doubt, change is good, but when it's this constant, the "moving target" makes it difficult to gauge the value of UC. IT knows this is the way to go, but there is natural apprehension about investing too soon and going with the wrong vendor or solution set.

Of course, this brings us to the channel, which has its own set of concerns. They know their customers better than the vendors, so the onus is on them to make the right call. To do this, though, they need to keep current with all these changes, but most integrators or resellers can only manage to stay on top of the vendors they are closest with. The fact that UC vendors aren't really profiting from UC extends to the channel, and indicates that a price/value equilibrium has not been reached yet. This means that the UC market will continue to operate under imperfect conditions, and both buyers and sellers must accept that things will remain fluid for the foreseeable future.

So, is the market moving forward or backward? Businesses prefer to make decisions when conditions are certain, but based on what we're seeing out there, that's not in the cards right now. This largely explains why UC adoption isn't where we'd like it to be, but I do believe the longer term outlook in Blair's report will come to pass. For the balance of 2012, however, I think we just have to accept a bit more risk around UC than most businesses would like to see.

This market continues to move faster than either buyers or sellers can adapt, but UC is too empowering for businesses to ignore. I'm sure we'll see more tweaks from vendors this year, and I wouldn't be surprised to see at least one major consolidation move. Times of flux can be great opportunities - especially where UC's value proposition is far from entrenched - and the next wave could just as well come from outside the usual suspects as from the inner circle we're all familiar with. I can't tell you today what they might look like, but when the fog starts to lift, you'll be hearing from me here soon after.