Verizon Business Launches Unified Communications & Collaboration-as-a-Service Trials

Event Summary

June 30, 2010 – Verizon Business announces plans to launch a two-month field trial of the new Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution. The trials will begin in July 2010 and will enable participants to see how cloud-based unified communications features can be quickly deployed across an enterprise. All applications will reside within the Verizon network; once the service is commercially available clients will activate subscriptions to the desired services and pay for these services on a per-user basis.

Quick Take

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Positive on Verizon Business’ announcement of plans to offer a hosted unified communications service offer based on the recently launched Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution along with the initiation of field trials for the solution. This latest offer from Cisco promises offers a more full-featured unified communications platform than the company’s Hosted Unified Communications Services (HUCS) platform, and the field trials provide a low-risk opportunity for enterprises to determine if a hosted or hybrid hosted/premise-based solution meets their particular needs, and if the Verizon-Cisco solution is a good fit for their environment.

• Vendor Importance: High to Verizon Business, because the new Cisco platform allows the carrier to offer large enterprise clients a hosted unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) service that includes a broad range of applications, including contact center services, mobility, presence and conferencing. Cisco’s Hosted Collaboration Solution is being offered to Verizon Business with asan optional shared-risk model thatl, which provides Verizon with a low-risk, CapapEx- light waymeans to add a hosted unified communications component to its portfolio. The partnership is also important to Cisco as it is making a substantial investment in deploying the platform to carriers, and has a lot to gain if Verizon is successful in selling the solution into the large enterprise market segment.

• Market Impact: High on the business services market because enterprise interest in unified communications solutions is increasing as large organizations enterprises look for ways to increase productivity, and OppEx-based hosted models offer the opportunity for enterprises to deploy UC&C solutions at a lower cost per employee, with those costs based on actual usage. Other U.S. carriers have launched hosted unified communications solutions, but these services tend to focus largely around IP telephony features. Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution allows Verizon to offer enterprise clients the flexibility to of deploying either a fully hosted or a hybrid hosted and premise-based solution, along with the full range of Cisco collaboration applications.

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