As an analyst on the Current Analysis Business Network and IT Services team, Gary covers Business Telecoms Services for the UK and Ireland, with a particular interest in SME and public sector services. Gary’s responsibilities include updating and maintaining Current Analysis’s competitor assessments for the major telecoms companies operating in the UK and on a Pan-European basis.
The economy is moving online and failure to respond is likely to lose enterprises business.
SMEs are likely to be the least well prepared to take advantage of the digital economy, but the transition can be relatively straightforward.
Much attention has been given in the UK over the last six months to the provisioning (or lack thereof) of broadband services. Much of the criticism that has been levelled at Openreach, and by association BT, has related to concerns about the perceived lack of progress in rolling out superfast and ultrafast broadband services. The UK government has now also dropped its commitment to the provision of universal broadband access. This in itself is something that businesses, especially those in rural areas, should seek to have their say on. Continue reading “Accessing the Digital Economy: It’s About Bandwidth and Applications”→
• Microsoft’s acquisition of Event Zero’s ‘UC Commander’ analytics platform strengthens its UC solutions.
• The decision of who to work with for UC solutions is not easy and there are many good options – but integration is key and end users should consider who is best placed to work with their telecoms and IT estate.
Microsoft recently announced the acquisition of the ‘technology assets’ underlying Event Zero’s ‘UC Commander’ product suite. The UC Commander suite provides a series of management and analytics tools specifically for Microsoft Skype for Business (Skype). Presently, Skype users can already use the Office 365 administration centre to assign phone numbers, view usage reporting for audio and video calls/conferences, and to monitor call quality. The new acquisition will add further diagnostic and troubleshooting tools within a single new portal. Microsoft also envisages that its SP partners will be able to more easily connect on-premise Skype deployments with Office 365 and hybrid environments in general. Continue reading “Microsoft’s UC Commander Acquisition Boosts Skype for Business and Increases the Squeeze on Service Providers”→
• Enterprises should look at vendor platforms beyond Microsoft and Cisco and demand interoperability between platforms and applications.
• Unified communications (UC) and mobility are now intrinsically linked.
2015 has been the year that UC solutions have really started to achieve market traction. Take-up is far from universal, but for most UC features CA’s own research suggests that usage amongst enterprises is above 50%. The uptick in usage is down to a number of factors–for example, falling prices and the maturity of the technology–however, it is the improvement of the business case for UC that seems to have had the biggest impact. Vodafone, for example, has reported a strong response from customers following the development of new proof of concept demonstrations and a new approach to training and educating its workforce. So the initial message for enterprise users is that a conversation with your provider concerning unified communications is likely to be more centred on achieving better business outcomes, and therefore a more worthwhile experience. Continue reading “As 2016 Beckons, What Should Telecoms Buyers Look for from UC Solutions?”→
Unify’s free service offers a valuable taster of UC, but there are other ‘try before you buy’ options.
Buyers and providers should both be aware that limitations on a service (e.g., limited integration) may hide the real value of a UC solution.
Unify (newly acquired by Atos) has moved to gain market attention and traction with the offer of free UC services. The free service is limited to only 100 users and provides only 1 gigabyte of storage (for further details, see: Unify Stakes Claim to SME Market, but Might Find Only Fool’s Gold, November 20, 2015). Although it is not without risks, this is a smart move by Unify. It offers a very competitive UC solution via its Circuit platform. However, overshadowed by Cisco and Microsoft and facing the growing popularity of rivals such as BroadSoft and Google Apps, Unify has a significant challenge to gain market attention and traction. Continue reading “Unify’s Free UC Offer Is Good and True, but It May Be Better to Pay”→
Integration with a range of business applications and the ability for solutions to work outside the organisation are key features for valuable UCC solutions.
Enterprises should tell vendors what they want from systems integration offers.
This week, BroadSoft announced its plans for its new Project Tempo initiative to deliver integrated unified communications and collaboration (UCC) services based on the vendor’s UC-One platform. The initiative will begin in January 2016 with beta trials of ‘UC-One Hub,’ a cloud service designed to integrate real-time communication services (e.g., IP voice, IM and e-mail) with third-party hosted/cloud-based applications. BroadSoft states that UC-One Hub will also provide ‘contextual intelligence’ for users. Continue reading “Application Integration Is Key to Delivering Effective Collaboration”→
Enterprises should look beyond quality of service factors to the broader working practices guidance available with the new generations of unified communications and collaboration services.
New features such as WebRTC can only successfully be delivered as part of an advanced UC suite, but will deliver a genuine competitive advantage.
When enterprises can use Skype as an internal messaging and conference service for free, is it any surprise that they question why they should pay for Microsoft Lync or Cisco HCS-based services?Apps such as ‘What’s App’ essentially offer unified messaging, whilst almost every tablet now comes with some kind of video chat software. What’s more, consumer apps are developed and released much more quickly than business grade apps. When being cutting edge matters, why not go with the most agile source of new technology? The quality of service argument still holds strong and enterprises should bear in mind that most UC solutions are provided with a 99.9% availability guarantee as a standard. The advent of HD voice is another factor that enterprises should consider. HD voice offers a genuinely enhanced end user experience and is often not available on consumer grade solutions – especially if they are free. Continue reading “Why Should Enterprises Pay for UC?”→
Go-to-market decision makers within an enterprise are likely to favour solutions that treat voice as an application.
IT managers, whilst acting as enablers for the rest of the business, should not automatically assume that the cloud holds all the answers.
The maturation of cloud platforms has, rightly, been cited as a primary contributing factor for the increased uptake amongst enterprises of unified communications (UC) solutions. However, for voice services, the PBX is still (at least for the moment) king. What is changing, though, is that the PBXs being deployed are now very commonly ‘soft’ PBXs. A number of smaller IP voice solution providers are reporting a significant uptick in the soft PBX sales, primarily virtualised on Linux, VMware or Microsoft Windows Hyper-V platforms. So, what is driving this change and why should enterprises consider a soft PBX over a pure cloud solution?
Most UK SMEs believe that improved collaboration tools are a critical part of a successful business.
There is a growing demand for collaboration solutions amongst UK SME employees, but personalities in the workplace will affect UCC adoption.
Unified communications and collaboration (UCC) solutions are gaining critical mass. I have written previously that businesses may risk ceding the advantage to their competitors if they do not consider adopting UCC technologies. However, this does not necessarily mean that a blanket rollout is appropriate. Many providers now offer custom profiles for different types of employees, such as Virgin Media Business’ UC services for ‘desk huggers’ and ‘desk hoppers.’ However, enterprises should keep in mind that employees are not just their job description, but also different people as well. A survey published jointly by BT and Avaya has highlighted, for example, that there is a generational gap when it comes to adopting and getting the best out of UCC solutions. Continue reading “Unified Communications Solutions Should Be Tailored to the Workforce”→
Mobile operators are providing a strong example of how enterprises can better engage with customers using new contact media.
Mobile operators are also emerging as powerful providers of ‘big data’ solutions that can provide genuine business insights.
Knowing who your customers are, where they are, being able to contact them, and enhancing their ability to contact you, is acknowledged to be a crucial factor in running a competitive business in most verticals. In an increasingly mobile world it is perhaps not surprising that some of the most interesting innovation is being pioneered by mobile operators. For example, Telefonica has emerged as one of the leading telcos in taking advantage of ‘new’ channels of communication to engage with its customers and provides a strong example of how businesses of all sizes can tap into the use of social media. Telefonica’s operations in Germany and the UK have both made recent moves to enhance their social media presence. O2 Germany has now launched an official Facebook ‘shop’ designed to allow O2 employees both to sell its products and services and also to offer feedback and advice. As well as providing a cost effective medium for sales, it also provides a way for O2 to demonstrate how its own employees consume O2’s products and services. O2 is one of a host of companies that are seeking to prove that they ‘eat their own dog food’, and enterprises should expect real life demonstrations of services such as unified communications (UC) propositions as they seek to establish which solutions will best enhance their own working practices. O2 UK, meanwhile, has officially launched ‘#TweetServe’, a customer account service that allows customers to find out a range of information (e.g., usage data) without having to phone customer service. The twitter service provides automated responses based on keywords, as well as also providing a standard customer identification process. Both this and O2 Germany’s Facebook page (which is open Monday – Saturday, 08:00 – 22:00) provide a valuable extension to a businesses operating/trading hours without significantly increased staffing costs. Continue reading “Flexible Customer Contact and Big Data Combine to Give a Real Competitive Edge”→
Enterprises should be excited about the potential benefits of UC – including BYOD and mobile device management (MDM).
Enterprises should also remember that traditional IP telephony and networking services remain business critical.
I wrote in my last blog that unified communications (UC) services are now finally achieving critical mass, and that widespread adoption is expected in 2014. In response to this positive surge, the marketing teams at every major ICT provider will be in over drive to proclaim the most unified, most mobility-driven, and cloud-based proposition. And, as I write on Christmas Eve, there are reasons for enterprises to celebrate this advent. BYOD, as I have previously written, is both a security concern and a potential efficiency driver if handled correctly. MDM packaged with single number dialling and unified email and messaging and (probably) presence functionality is something that enterprises should now be looking to roll out to all mobile workers. MDM on its own should be applied to every worker within an organisation, and cloud/network-hosted delivery is the only way for most enterprises to achieve this. Continue reading “UC’s Advent is Welcome, But Should Not Distract Enterprises from Their Core Fixed Services”→
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