At its outset, unified communications got a red carpet welcome,
with tall claims like 'the next telecom revolution after telephone'. And,
even today is predicted to radically change the way businesses communicate.
However, years after introduction of the concept, unified communications is
still limited to top notch organizations and is struggling hard to become a hot
favorite, though it has managed to satisfy the first level CIO/CTOs to make the
technology popular and well accepted. Here, we will look at different aspects of
unified communications, the pain and plus points, and the road ahead.
Large enterprises are very much aware of solutions that unified
communication can offer and how useful these solutions are in the present
business scenario. So, they have their own expertise working in co-ordination
with vendors to get a right solution for their organization. Here, the vendor is
selling the product, but their job is restricted only to serve the demand of the
customer because the customer has its own presence. This doesn't apply in the
case of small and medium enterprises. "If a vendor comes to me and makes a
presentation of how successfully the solution has been deployed in a large
organization, my immediate thought would be the higher cost involved with the
solution," says Vishwajeet Singh, manager, IT, Friends Global Travels.
"Our requirements are totally different from that of large enterprises and
at the same time we don't have a large IT team," he further adds.
Hurdles in the Way
The UC market is at an early stage of maturity. Vendors need to be more
aggressive in promoting these solutions. "Utilization, requirement, and
value addition are the three levels for the success of any solution," says
Singh. To induce an enterprise to adopt a solution, they need to be made aware
of the prima facie utilizations and benefits of the converged
communication," says Dhiren Salva, CIO, Kuoni Travels India. The low
awareness factor becomes more evident with the example of Omaxe, a construction
company with a turnover of around Rs 1,000 crore. The company is growing by
leaps and bounds every year and a unified communications solution would have
been a perfect answer to the challenges imposed with such a widespread
infrastructure. "We have a VoIP solution from Tulip with twenty licenses.
We use it for communication between different work sites and our senior
officials. We preferred Tulip over BSNL and others because the cost involved was
one fifth and the services were extremely satisfactory," says Atul Bansal,
senior IT manager, Omaxe Construction. The company is also planning to go for
large-scale deployment of an audio and video conferencing solution from Webex,
for their upcoming call center. Here also they overlooked vendors like Polycom,
because of the cost involved and complexity of the solution. "The solution
from Webex is very easy to use and it is flexible with our requirements, which
was not there with Polycom," says Atul. When asked about unified
communications, Atul says, "We have already invested in different solutions
in a phased manner. Replacing them for the sake of a unified solution would be a
little difficult. Besides, no vendor has approached us till date. We are moving
ahead as per our own demands and business goals."
"There is no such ideal |
"It all depends upon |
|
-Vishwajeet Singh, manager, IT, Friends Global Travels |
-Dhiren Salva, CIO, Kuoni Travels(India) |
Too much initial cost also stood as a barrier in penetrating the
larger segment of the market at one stage, but now the price effect is gradually
taking a back seat, considering the RoI factor. "We are not worried about
the initial cost. But, we want to have a clear statistics on RoI" says
Singh. Dhiren of Kuoni Travel agrees, "One time investment is OK with us,
if the solution promises a major cost cut at a later stage."
"There is no such ideal solution available in the market.
Vendors are imposing what big companies are using as standard," says Singh.
This is one of the big issues raised by most industry users. "Look at the
other technology solutions such as ERP, CRM, and SCM. They all are getting
recognition in the market because they have reached a matured state. People have
faith in these solution." says Atul of Omaxe.
"The unified communication solutions available are not well
defined or well developed. These issues certainly prevent us from adopting
unified communications at this stage. We would prefer to wait till the time
these solutions mature," he further adds.
"We are in process of
implementing unified communication solution and are experiencing immense
benefits at the initial stage"
-Girish Rao, head,
IT solutions Marico
Poor Visibility and Support
Right from the selection of a vendor to implementation and after sales
support, lack of homework done by vendors is evident. "We had considered a
number of solution providers for unified communications and there were two of
them at least-Cisco and Nortel. We went for Nortel because Cisco was not able
to provide the kind of data encryption and voice compression required (is Cisco
listening?), says AG Varughese, DGM, the South Indian Bank. Vishwajeet of FCM
Travel Solutions did not name the vendor. "Up till now, with the kind of
requirement we had, they have done a fair job. But now we are deploying unified
communications at a large scale at our call center. We are looking for other
vendors, since our earlier vendor would not be able to assure us for the desired
kind of commitment and services," he says. Once organizations go for a
final implementation, they face a different set of problem that makes them
unhappy about their choice. "They do not understand our problems. Also,
their response time is low. Once the problem is communicated to them, their
response time is not ideal. They don't have proper logistics and resources to
tackle the situation with immediate effect. Considering the fact that in a
banking environment the downtime requires to be almost nil, we face a bottleneck
at times," says Varughese.
"We are in the process of implementing unified
communication solution and are experiencing immense benefits at the initial
stage. However, one of our specific requirements from an enterprise product like
OCS 2007 is the ability to generate statistics on usage. It is necessary to
track usage for RoI as well as for finding pockets of under utilization.
Currently, the product lacks effective monitoring/analysis tools. Hence, it is a
bit difficult to get details of active and past sessions. We get this data by
querying the OCS database using SQL, but we would prefer this feature to be
incorporated in the base product," says Girish Rao, IT head, Marico
Industries. Marico has gone for a unified communication solution from Microsoft.
Another company, Kuoni Travels is currently using the unified services from
Cisco. The company is all set to go for an enterprise wise rollout of the
unified solution across the globe. "We will need more active participation
from Cisco at this point," says Dhiren.
"They do not understand |
"Even whatever unified |
|
-A G Varughese, DGM, The South Indian Bank |
-Atul Bansal, Senior IT manager, Omaxe Construction |
Benefits Recognized
Apart from all the issues, unified communication has received praises from
various CTOs. "We are satisfied with the services provided by the vendor,
primarily through Microsoft consulting from Microsoft rapid deployment program (RDP)
support. They have been quick to resolve the issues pointed out during early
days of implementation. In fact, based on our feedback, Microsoft has
incorporated some features in the final RTM (ready to market) product,"
says Girish.
Subrata Banarjee, CTO, Vedanta Aluminium, says, "Deploying
a unified communication solution for a manufacturing set up was a daunting task,
but I am happy with the flexibility and services provided by Cisco. Initially,
our project was delayed, but Cisco managed everything. On the services part,
they are very proactive. They provide constant upgrades and suggestions."
For the South Indian Bank, solutions from Nortel is working fine, except some
small issues. "On the whole, Nortel's solution has performed well and as
our business grows, we are looking forward to getting more of their
services," says Varughese. "It all depends upon right time and
approach to deploy a unified communication solution. The user is equally
responsible. Given the circumstances, Cisco has more or less done justice with
our requirements," says Dhiren.
The Sixers for Vendors |
|
The Road Ahead
The future seems to be promising for the unified communication solution.
According to an IDC report, most businesses are recognizing the importance of an
effective unified communications system. The worldwide market for unified
communications is expected to reach $1,158 by 2010. The market is going bullish
with 18 mn unified mailboxes deployed in the year 2006 and is expected to touch
47 mn by 2010. The market in India is also looking very prosperous for vendors.
The fact that all the global unified communication vendors have made their
presence felt recognizes the inherent potential of the Indian market. There are
certain things which vendors should keep in mind while providing solutions to a
variety of customers in India. The vendors require a clarity and efficacy of
solution before they approach a customer. The proper understanding of the size
and type of business and product designed accordingly will help them penetrate
better in the market. The vendor should have the ability to respond, change
direction, be flexible, and achieve competitive success as opportunities develop
with evolving customer needs and changed market dynamics. "A feasible RoI
should be promised from the vendor both in terms of increased efficiency and
cost," advices Vishwajeet.
Kumar Anshuman
anshumank@cybermedia.co.in