posted by: Mark Cortner
The enterprise response to today’s UC offerings (“UC 1.0”) has generally been tepid, no doubt in part to the difficult global economy. I recognize that there is a lot of energy in the market, sourced primarily by the vendor community, though I have not witnessed a corresponding drive to invest by our enterprise clients. The reality is that although many enterprises are interested in UC and are developing technology and platform strategies, the vast majority of investment to date has been constrained to legacy refresh initiatives with an eye to ensuring that current investments do not conflict with evolving to UC.
The UC has not developed a clear or compelling message with respect to business value to date. The benefits of service cost reduction and improving the efficiency of individual and group communications and collaboration are appealing but not convincing. CEBP is very promising but still too immature to drive UC adoption. IMHO, the UC market will continue to advance at a relatively slow pace until several disruptive forces can combine and enable “UC 2.0”.
The disruptive force will not be defined solely by the presence-based integration of the communication and collaboration applications (UC 1.0); significant impacts driven by the consumerization, democratization, and externalization of enterprise IT will combine and source the magnitude of disruptive forces required for UC to succeed. The formula for each business will undoubtedly be different although similarities will exist within vertical industries. The leading candidates to drive this disruption? The most likely prospects will be driven by wireless and mobility, the viability of cloud-based UC to complement and extend enterprise-based infrastructure and applications, and ultimately ... CEBP.
The enterprise response to today’s UC offerings (“UC 1.0”) has generally been tepid, no doubt in part to the difficult global economy. I recognize that there is a lot of energy in the market, sourced primarily by the vendor community, though I have not witnessed a corresponding drive to invest by our enterprise clients. The reality is that although many enterprises are interested in UC and are developing technology and platform strategies, the vast majority of investment to date has been constrained to legacy refresh initiatives with an eye to ensuring that current investments do not conflict with evolving to UC.
The UC has not developed a clear or compelling message with respect to business value to date. The benefits of service cost reduction and improving the efficiency of individual and group communications and collaboration are appealing but not convincing. CEBP is very promising but still too immature to drive UC adoption. IMHO, the UC market will continue to advance at a relatively slow pace until several disruptive forces can combine and enable “UC 2.0”.
The disruptive force will not be defined solely by the presence-based integration of the communication and collaboration applications (UC 1.0); significant impacts driven by the consumerization, democratization, and externalization of enterprise IT will combine and source the magnitude of disruptive forces required for UC to succeed. The formula for each business will undoubtedly be different although similarities will exist within vertical industries. The leading candidates to drive this disruption? The most likely prospects will be driven by wireless and mobility, the viability of cloud-based UC to complement and extend enterprise-based infrastructure and applications, and ultimately ... CEBP.
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