Holding out for Microsoft 'cloud power'

Working phones are a critical resource for many businesses, and moving their operation to a cutting-edge cloud service is not something many business owners would do lightly.

The proposition changes when the world’s biggest software company starts saying that it can do it too. Microsoft explicitly said in its November Lync launch the software could replace a company’s PABX.

However, Walshe says that Lync Online will do most things except for enterprise voice, which would come from various third-party vendors instead.

Companies with Microsoft enterprise agreements could turn to their integrator or reseller for IP telephony.

“The goal is that third-party providers will provide voice capability,” Walshe says.

Given that Microsoft Office 365 will be sold to smaller companies through Telstra T-Suite, it is expected the telco will handle IP telephony through Lync Online itself.

Doing so would no doubt further erode the leading telco’s fixed line revenues, but Walshe says Telstra may have had no choice.

“The reality is that if you’re not offering the service and keeping those customers, the likelihood is that you will lose the customers anyway and whatever else the have with you,” Walshe says.

“You’re going to get to a point like King Canute trying to hold back the tide.

"You can stand there and demand that this doesn’t happen but it’s going to happen anyway, and if it’s going to happen you may as well be the ones that are doing it rather than allow someone else to do it to you.”

Dimension Data was not ready to reveal its plans for IP telephony and Lync Online.

However, the global integrator was acquired by major Japanese telco NTT, which has recently
expanded its offices here. “We know that there’s a huge number of OCS and Lync seats out there so I think there will be a huge number of people moving up,” Walshe says.

"I’ll expect there will be some really attractive deals put to people. Without doubt it’s the direction Microsoft prefers people to be going.

“If you look at what you can do with a cloud versus on-premise solution, having people on the latest version is a great way of doing things.

"There’s no doubt that for all the cloud providers, once they get people into their environment they’re less likely to see them churn to someone else.”