Analyst Show Flashes from VoiceCon is one of leading events covering IP telephony, unified communications, and converged networks. Current Analysis was at the the show, and our analysts wrote intelligence reports on announcements made at the show. Highlights from these reports appear below. Clients with a subscription to respective modules can read the full report by clicking the Client Access links. |
Contents
| ► | Microsoft Allies with Aspect, Opening Opportunities for Both - Enterprise Communications, Contact Center Solutions |
| ► | IBM Advances Unified Communications Strategy with ShoreTel, Video and Persistent World Integrations - Enterprise Communications |
| ► | Verint Systems Adds Encrypted Contact Recording to Witness Actionable Solutions - Contact Center Solutions |
| ► | Avaya’s New Presence Offering Will Deliver a More Flexible UC Solution - Enterprise Communications |
| ► | Motorola Enters FMC Fray with VoWLAN and Dual-mode Initiatives - Enterprise Communications, Enterprise Mobility - U.S. |
Microsoft Allies with Aspect, Opening Opportunities for Both
|
Analyst: Brian Riggs | Enterprise Communications | Client Access |
|
Analyst: Michael Barbagallo | Contact Center Solutions | Client Access |
Announcement Summary
|
March 18, 2008 - Microsoft Corp. and Aspect Software Inc., announced a multiyear strategic alliance to help deliver unified communications to contact centers. Microsoft is making an equity investment in Aspect to accelerate the development new solutions and services. Aspect will design its Unified IP contact center solution to interoperate with Microsoft’s OCS, with the first releases, sometime in 2008, to include an ask-an-expert capability based on the instant messaging and presence tools in OCS.
Analytical Summary
• Current Perspective: Positive on the strategic alliance between Aspect and Microsoft because it creates an environment in which each company can use its specific market strengths to create synergies and opportunities. Microsoft can use its resources, products, and marketing power to complement Aspect’s expertise, products, and reputation in contact centers to accelerate the evolution of unified communication in contact centers.
• Vendor Importance: High to Aspect because the Microsoft alliance dovetails with Aspect’s plans to focus its product development around the integration of unified communications capabilities to its Unified IP and PerformanceEdge lines of customer service solution offerings. (Please see Aspect’s UC Strategy Could Leapfrog Competitors’ Presence-enabled Contact Center Solutions, March 11, 2008). The partnership with Microsoft, whose Office Communications Server corporate instant messaging platform is an up and coming unified communications platform for enterprises and SMBs, has every potential of furthering corporate and product line transitions at Aspect as the contact center specialist seeks to position itself as a developer of unified communications solutions as well.
• Market Impact: High on the contact center and enterprise communications markets because Microsoft is seeking a role for its unified communications software in the contact center space and is making substantial financial investments in a company with a long and successful history in customer contact technology to bring this about. Customers and resellers can expect unified communications solutions to gain relevance in general enterprise communications environment and to impact the communications capabilities of contact center operations as well.
IBM Advances Unified Communications Strategy with ShoreTel, Video and Persistent World Integrations
| Analyst: Brian Riggs | Enterprise Communications | Client Access |
Announcement Summary
|
March 18, 2008 – ShoreTel, VBrick Systems, and Forterra Systems announced plug-ins that will integrate their respective IP PBX, streaming video solution and virtual world environment with IBM Lotus Sametime. Availability for the ShoreTel plug-in, which will require Sametime 8.0 to deliver telephony presence, has not been announced. The VBrick Video plug-in for Lotus Sametime supports Lotus Sametime Connect versions 7.5.1 and 8 and will be available in April 2008. The Forterra integration is expected to be complete by the second quarter of this year.
Analytical Summary
• Current Perspective: Slightly positive on the integration work IBM is conducting with ShoreTel, VBrick Systems and Forterra Systems because the work promises to increase the relevance of Sametime in a variety of market segments that either IBM tends not to play in or is only on the fringes of the overall corporate communications experience.
• Vendor Importance: Moderate to IBM because support for ShoreTel IP PBXs has the potential of opening doors in the SMB market, allowing IBM to continue efforts to sell Sametime to mid-market customers as well as the larger enterprises that are typically targeted. High to ShoreTel because, until now, the company has not delivered interoperability with third-party instant messaging servers. With most of its major telephony systems competitors announcing integration with Microsoft Office Communications Server, IBM Sametime or both, ShoreTel was becoming conspicuous for its lack of a similar capability.
• Market Impact: Low on the enterprise and SMB communications markets since integration with ShoreTel telephony systems, VBrick steaming video solutions and Forterra persistent worlds, while interesting and in some cases innovative advancements, will benefit a small subset of IBM customers rather than a broad swath of businesses.
Verint Systems Adds Encrypted Contact Recording to Witness Actionable Solutions
| Analyst: Michael Barbagallo | Contact Center Solutions | Client Access |
Announcement Summary
|
March 17, 2008 -- Verint Systems Inc. announced recent enhancements to its contact center and enterprise recording software. In response to the guidelines established by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council, the company offers optional encryption (provided by RSA Key Manager, which can be licensed with Verint Witness Actionable Solutions’ software) of recorded customer interactions in the contact center. The option is currently available from Verint Systems.
Analytical Summary
• Current Perspective: Positive on Verint Systems’ announcement that it will add encrypted interaction recording to its Witness Actionable Solutions (Witness), because it adds a significant layer of security to the quality management module and fulfills important Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) for the Witness system. Verint Systems’ partnership with RSA to implement RSA’s security key management systems provides a best-of-breed security structure from a successful and well-known partner.
• Vendor Importance: High to Verint Systems, because the inclusion of encrypted interaction recording makes Witness more competitive with financial enterprises and government contact centers, two large contact center markets, as well as any contact center that takes and stores customer personal data (such as credit card numbers).
• Market Impact: Moderate on the contact center market, because Verint Systems is a call recording market leader and the RSA solution provides features to its system that few workforce optimization vendors provide. PCI DSS are the de facto security standards of financial institutions and some large retailers; with more enterprises embracing these standards, it is important for venders to build these into their applications.
Avaya’s New Presence Offering Will Deliver a More Flexible UC Solution
| Analyst: Rob Arnold | Enterprise Communications | Client Access |
Announcement Summary
|
March 17, 2008 -- Avaya introduced Intelligent Presence, a software solution that drives greater precision, speed, and collaboration using presence-based, real-time communications. Intelligent Presence collects and integrates presence information from multiple sources for a richer view of a worker’s status that can be supplied to both individuals and business applications to improve collaboration and business execution. The Intelligent Presence Server aggregates telephony, desktop, and application presence information from Avaya and third-party sources, such as those from Microsoft, IBM, and others, and bridges open standards-based protocols including SIP/SIMPLE and Jabber/XMPP to provide comprehensive information about a user’s current availability. Intelligent Presence Server is based on the scalable, multi-protocol, carrier-grade Jabber Extensible Communications Platform (Jabber XCP). Avaya Intelligent Presence will be available in May, and it will be included within the Unified Communications Standard Edition and supported with Avaya one-X clients and endpoints, including one-X Portal, one-X Communicator, and one-X Deskphones.
Analytical Summary
• Current Perspective: Positive on the introduction of Avaya Intelligent Presence Sever, because it will foster improved communications over many unified communications solutions being delivered to enterprises by allowing enterprise users to better collaborate with others outside of their own corporate networks.
• Vendor Importance: High to Avaya, because Intelligent Presence Server will provide a platform on which the company can deliver a wide range of advanced unified communications functionality that is more scalable, more secure, and better able to integrate with third-party communications technology.
• Market Impact: Moderate on the unified communications market, because the company will be in a better position to deliver rich presence applications to its customers, thus allowing it to compete more effectively against developers with similar enterprise telephony and IM presence server offerings.
Motorola Enters FMC Fray with VoWLAN and Dual-mode Initiatives
|
Analyst: Rob Arnold | Enterprise Communications | Client Access |
|
Analyst: Kitty Weldon | Enterprise Mobility - U.S. | Client Access |
Announcement Summary
|
March 17, 2008 -- Motorola’s Enterprise Mobility business will launch its next-generation voice solutions under the Total Enterprise Access and Mobility (TEAM) name. TEAM solutions will provide security and management as well as a common architecture that will interoperate with an organization’s existing voice and IT infrastructure, such as PBXs, wired and wireless LANs, and two-way radios. This interoperability will provide enterprises with the ability to extend the functionality of existing technologies to broaden communications access to a new set of workers.
Analytical Summary
• Current Perspective: Slightly positive on Motorola’s Total Enterprise Access and Mobility Solutions (TEAM), as the company has brand recognition, expertise, a broad and diverse wireless technology portfolio, and a customer base that will provide it with an excellent starting point for success in the emerging enterprise fixed-mobile convergence space. However, the company is only just now unveiling its strategy to compete for FMC business while competitors of all stripes are much further ahead with products already available.
• Vendor Importance: Moderate to high to Motorola, specifically its Enterprise Mobility business, because with its present announcements, the organization (formed in mid-2007) is introducing a new strategy and new solutions with which to compete in markets adjacent to its traditional space. Motorola’s advancements also counter moves made by several of its foremost rivals in the mobile handset market to capitalize on emerging enterprise fixed-mobile convergence opportunities.
• Market Impact: Low on enterprise communications markets in the near-to mid-term, because while Motorola is an established presence in the consumer cellular and enterprise WLAN spaces, it joins the enterprise FMC fray against a throng of developers of all stripes that are much further along in technology development, product availability, and marketing strategies. Over the long term though, Motorola may be able to leverage its considerable resources to find success in this still-developing market, in which no clear leader has emerged.
