By Art
Rosenberg, The Unified-View/
UC
Strategies Expert
Although
multimodal communications (UC) software first began to appear, we all were
excited by its ability to make us more productive; keeping us more efficiently
and flexibly connected. However, in
some respects, it has also made business communications more complex. While
legacy telephony was simply device-to-device calling, UC is more than
person-to-person contacts at desktops or with mobile devices, it’s also about
interactions with online applications and timely, proactive notification
messages from business process applications. And, as my colleague at UC
Strategies, Blair
Pleasant describes, UC-enabled software is moving quickly to the “clouds.”
The big
challenge facing any size organization is how to migrate from their legacy
telephony systems to new “cloud” based UC software services that exploit
multimodal Internet connectivity, rather than just the legacy voice PSTN. After
all, why buy something new and get the same functional services? To date, most
of the traditional service providers have not really offered a differentiated
approach, making UC implementation and adoption slower than it could be. However, GENBAND, a major vendor for service
providers (they acquired Nortel’s carrier business in 2010) as well as large
enterprises requiring carrier grade technology, has come up with a UC solution
that might just increase adoption in both those big enterprises and SMBs.
GENBAND’s SMART OFFICE 2.0
GENBAND has
just announced one of the first WebRTC-compatible UC solutions, SMART OFFICE
2.0. By focusing on browser-based clients they are opening up a new way to
connect more than just people to people. The browser is already where we go for
so many of our business self-service apps, along with all that e-mail and
social media. You start to see how
organizations can leverage HTML5 and REST APIs to embed multimodal
communications into the heart of business process workflow. GENBAND says they are still working with
partners on their approach to supporting multimodal customer service
“Interaction Centers,” which will be highly dependent on WebRTC capabilities
for flexible, “click-for-live assistance” options directly and contextually
from online and mobile customer service apps.
In discussing
GENBAND’s announcement of SMART OFFICE 2.0 and their Generation Enterprise
framework, they indicated that they are using different channel partner
strategies for different market segments. So, although not a familiar
enterprise vendor name, they have come up with two channel partner approaches
to support SMART OFFICE 2.0 implementations:
·
Enterprises and SMBs primarily interested in hosted UC can
turn to their 700 service providers/carriers
·
Large multisite enterprises that want premises equipment or
a tailored hosted solution can connect with their enterprise reseller
channel. That channel is already
working with GENBAND to supports about 300 very large legacy Nortel customers
that had carrier-class solutions deployed
Service Providers
GENBAND has a
long history of supplying carriers with new networking technologies, including
SIP Session Control and SBC’s for SIP Trucking/PSTN connectivity. What we see
with SMART OFFICE 2.0 is a stronger move into communication application
software, including Intelligent Messaging applications on their EXPERIUS
application server. It supports multi-tenant requirements for cost efficient
hosted/managed unified-messaging services in “public clouds.” So, GENBAND is
ready to support their service providers to move gracefully from PSTN telephony
services to multimodal UC offerings for any size business.
Installed Base Customers
Because
GENBAND supports a significant number (300+) of very large Nortel enterprise
customers, they had to create a solution that will avoid requiring massive
replacement of existing desktop phones.
They had to complement those desktops with new mobile device
interoperability and “mobile apps.” In addition, they can now offer WebRTC connectivity
via the WAN and Internet, rather than just give users PSTN connections.
So, for their
installed base of large customers in higher education, government, financial
markets, and health care, GENBAND has come up with a cost efficient migration
plan. They are giving their channel
partners a way to replace core communications hardware without having to
replace all existing end user desktop telephones. Once that core hardware is in
place, it is now open to exploit new software in private, public, or hybrid
“clouds” for very cost efficient UC interoperability benefits.
The Convergence of Enterprise and SMB UC With Consumer
Services
It will be
interesting to see how these two channel partner strategies will work out,
especially in extending GENBAND’s role of interoperability between
enterprise-run technology and technology supported by the carriers for smaller
businesses and, of course, consumers. I see the future “Interaction Center” for
mobile customer services as a big bridge between the two domains, and I expect
GENBAND to partner with leading, innovative contact center technology providers
like Interactive Intelligence, to make such things happen in the new world of
cloud-based, mobile, IP-based communications, that will exploit WebRTC.
Copyright © 2014 The
Unified-View, All Rights Reserved Worldwide
Posts
