A lifeline for drowning clients

“There’s so much customisation that goes into UC that the chances are not one supplier will offer absolutely everything, so there’s always an opportunity to add value, whether it be integration, extra software or consulting. For the channel, the relationship with your customer is more important than ever because the end-user always goes to the integrator for advice and consulting.”

On the IT side of the fence, Microsoft’s UC platform also offers a foundation on which channel players can build custom solutions targeting particular markets. Microsoft applications such as Outlook already let users see the presence status of colleagues, but the software giant is working to allow users to embed that information in other applications, said Microsoft Australia information worker group director Tony Wilkinson.

“A lot of our partners in the past have been focused around the provision of desktop infrastructure, providing information for people using those systems. Add UC and you find IT and communications come together, providing different revenue streams for partners,” Wilkinson said.

“As the industry moves from traditional VoIP to enhanced UC, the channel needs to be prepared. VoIP used to be about convergence at the network layer only, but UC takes that to the next level at the application layer. To stay ahead of the pack, it’s important for partners and integrators to learn about these new concepts and keep their skills and knowledge current. Clients want information about the new platform and how it can work with their infrastructure, so the channel needs to ensure they are in a position to be able to advise clients and integrate solutions.”

Microsoft’s offerings allow UC capabilities to be embeded within everyday applications and business processes, Wilkinson said.

“Within an application you could enable the ability to make voice calls, start instant messaging, send emails or utilise any of those sorts of UC capabilities,” he said.

“It is not only our pre-package stuff, it is the stuff that people develop themselves. For example, you could embed presence information into an existing call centre application and then enable all sorts of new capabilities. Now within that application you could use any of those sorts of UC capabilities to contact the necessary people to resolve a caller’s issue on the spot. That adds value, which is obviously what the channel needs to focus on in order to stay in the game.’’

While integrators should be looking to re-tool in order to play further up the food chain, Nortel’s Mitch Radomir – enterprise solutions and marketing manager for UC, Asia – believes there’s still plenty of work for the channel in gluing together communications building blocks.

“You will always need to do the integration job,” Radomir said. “The channel partners will still have to integrate technologies when the customer is using CTI type technologies, for example.”

“Now the channel has communications standards to build on, such as SIP, rather than introducing yet more proprietary technology which can be a show-stopper. The good thing is that if we make the integration or the inter-working far more standards-based, it also means our partners will be able to do more of the solutions at a cheaper price and as a result stimulate the market.”

Deploying these new technologies within specified budgets and time frames will also require the services of skilled integrators, Radomir said.

“A customer might have a two-year budget so they can’t buy everything in one hit. How can they start to deploy the solution throughout their organisation so they eventually get to that UC vision, but do it within their own time frame and budget? That takes a fair bit of skill,” he said.

“In order to provide such insight, I think the channel has to understand a little more of a day in the life of the user. I think it’s very important to know how people are using this technology and how they are likely to use it in the future. This is little bit more involved than just talking features or Return On Investment, it involves understanding how people work now, and how they will in the future, so you can build the infrastructure to enable it.”

To obtain this understanding, system integrators must eat their our own dog food to truly grasp a customer’s UC requirements, said Craig Neil, managing director of VoIP system integrator NSC Group.

“Based on NSC’s experience, it is vital to deploy it in-house first so you can speak from a position of authority when discussing UC with customers,” Neil said.

“System integrators are the best placed to take advantage of UC. It is not a simple sell and one of the keys to success is the integrator’s close relationship with the customer and the deep understanding of all aspects of the customer’s business. To achieve a strong Return On Investment, UC must go beyond desktop integration and be embedded into an organisation’s business processes. This is where an integrator’s application development and implementation skills come to the fore.

“Take things slowly. Don’t skill-up too early. You may end up with highly trained implementation resources sitting around waiting for quite some time before putting their new skills into practice.”

Before any organisation embarks on a quest to unify its communications, it needs to make sure all its networking infrastructure ducks are in a row, said Pushkar Taneja, managing director of networking system integrator GlobalConnect.

“An organisation might have invested in technology that it’s quite happy with, however when it starts looking at UC you need to realise you’re going to have multiple communications channels working together under the UC umbrella,” he warned.

“The areas our customers have had to pay attention to is their data networking environment. When you look at the data side, people are often only using email, web browsing and perhaps instant messaging. Any network delays are not really apparent to users, but once you start integrating voice into the environment – with voice travelling as data packets – you can’t afford to have latency affecting performance. The first step is for someone to come and do a survey of their business and compile a report of what it might need to do to prepare for UC.”