Recently in Unified Communications Category

My last speaking engagement was a keynote at ITExpo in Miami.

At VoiceCon in Orlando next week, I'll be speaking in three sessions:
Monday, March 30, 2009 from 1:30 to 4:30 in a tutorial on UC vendors run by Marty Parker
Tuesday, 2:30 to 3:45 on a panel called Presence: Dial Tone of the Future?
Wednesday, 12:45PM to 1:15 in a Nortel session on our Open UC solutions.

At other times, I will be at the Nortel booth (#808) demonstrating web.alive, of which I have spoken often. Cool stuff.

Maybe we'll see you there. Please drop by.

Centralization of IT resources has been the path to lowest TCO, whether we are talking about application processing, or data storage. Centralization provides higher utilization of servers and reduces server costs, reduces operations costs including power, staffing and management and provides increased agility to accommodate network changes (e.g. new sites, unexpected growth, site decommissioning).

But obviously both centralized and distributed IP Telephony are viable options.

I met yesterday with a number of customers of the regional branch of the Nortel user association (INNUA), and talked to them about our open UC solutions and the transformational nature of communications-enabled applications and business processes.

One attendee asked about the ability to invoke UC from within dashboards, since they were always open, and included corporate directory access and business related data.

I recalled a discussion I had with a CIO of a financial institution (a computer-centric world if there is one) who said "we run Sametime, but aren't interested in the Sametime client. We want UC to live in our email client"- a dashboard of a different sort.

Key capabilities announced earlier this week include "the availability of new context, which will enable richer collaboration capabilities such as location and presence features." What does this mean in practical terms for OCS customers. Let me give you two examples.

We can now offer increased safety of lone workers through active tracking and application-initiated communications, by enhance Microsoft OCS by combining application-initiated communication sessions and GPS-based location information. Consent-based tracking to monitor safety of remote worker (for example social workers entering a potentially hostile environment) through periodic password based updates, failing which an alert is sent to supervisor or law enforcement agency

We also enable employee and partner communication with the right people in real-time by allowing UC initiation from any phone number or email address on any web page or web-enabled app.

than one thing in common with Nortel..

Like Nortel, Global Crossing is a strong advocate of SIP and has developed a suite of SIP trunking services.

And like Nortel, they are working with Microsoft. Under the Innovative Communications Alliance, we are continuing to work to transform communications towards a software-centric environment, while Global Crossing is stepping up to meet the trunking needs of enterprises embracing OCS 2007.

Earlier today, I presented in an ITExpo keynote session on UC. Surprisingly good attendance and some probing questions on mobility, converged networking , CEBP and the future of the desktop phone.

The theme of my talk was on Open UC.

I started by stating that Nortel was open for business, highlighting the fact that we are on track to deliver on the $300M, 10-year IPT contract with SSA.

Presence is an important feature of unified communications (UC), but is it really enough?

I say no. Presence is only an element of context.

Here's what I consider to be the four key dimensions of contextually enhanced UC:
> Identity/role: Knowledge of the identity and respective roles of individuals in a work flow is essential to any context-aware communications.

This was one of the questions raised late last year in an interview I did with Greg Galitzine.

My response:
A suite of software applications will deliver unified communications, which I view as "Communications integrated to optimize business processes". UC not only unifies the user experience by integrating all forms of communications with desktop applications (dominated by MSFT and IBM), but also unifies the IT infrastructure through software. UC multi-vendor environments will be brought together through communications integration software and embedded into workflows for:
• revenue growth and more engaging customer service
• enhanced user communications and business effectiveness
• richer collaboration and enhanced group effectiveness
• better asset utilization and accelerated business processes.

Quite a headline in these economic times.

In fact, WiPro received the Network World Asia IT All Stars Award 2008 for its innovative use of technology (specifically Nortel UC) to keep up with recruiting 20,000 new employees per year, this across its 55 industry-facing 'Centers of Excellence' spread across the globe.

WiPro may not be a household name to some. It's the world's largest independent R&D Services Provider with over 95000 employees serving 928 clients, including IBM, Microsoft and Hyundai.

You might have missed it, but Nortel is the worldwide leader in Carrier VoIP (cf. Dell'Oro Group), having shipped 100 million IP Powered Home and IP Powered Business. ports to 320 carriers, and to two thirds of IDC's worldwide listing of top 20 carriers.

Nortel is no slouch in enterprise VoIP either, and service providers are key partners in this regard.

For example, Verizon Business has just announced that it is adding a new IP PBX platform, the Nortel CS 1000 to its portfolio. The CS 1000 SIP trunking capability has been rigorously tested and certified with Verizon Business, providing agility and improved price performance over legacy ISDN approaches.