IP Convergence: Beyond VoIP, Beyond Cost Savings

At some point or another when the concept of unified communications comes up during customer interactions, dialogs with colleagues, strategy discussions - often times it moves to a discussion around features and RFCs and remains there. Having come from an IT organization for which I was immersed for several years in operations I have a different perspective when I think about unified communications. When I think about unified communications I don’t think just about SIP or SIMPLE or the ability to receive communications across multiple modalities rather I think about the constructs that make unified communications possible. Don’t get me wrong – the ability to communicate across multiple modalities simultaneously such as cell phone or a software based agent using a simultaneous ring or find me follow me feature is intriguing and to some extent are becoming increasingly more prevalent in a “techno gotta have evangelists” world such as my own but it’s not the only place where unified communications is making IT operations go from good to great!

What I see as taking unified from good to great and where truly exciting work is happening is where software and network architects alike focus not on the “features” alone (although continuous improvement is important) but rather on making unified communications seamlessly integrate into existing IT environments thus allowing IT organizations to drive further value from legacy / existing investments and hopefully simplifying their operations experiences. An example of how this might occur is in and around identity management and enhanced directory services where a users identity can be defined within a unified communications model that not only allows that identity to transcend one modality to another but also might be the same identity that is used for all application access requirements. This my friends is where some of the real magic and exciting stuff appears to be occurring and what is going to make unified communications go from good today to great tomorrow when mainstream adoption across IT organizations occur so long as business justifications and associated ROI necessary for the investments are realized.

That said many vendors today offer unified communications with heavy emphasis on SIP and SIMPLE for obvious reasons – to drive market penetration for current or future products as well as to protect the cannibalization of their installed base through next generation service expansion. What will be interesting to see unfold is not what service or features come next but how many of those vendors look to attack a core and longstanding issue of IT pain points – enabling unified communications while seamlessly integrating into existing back office infrastructures. The key to success in my opinion and those who are positioned for success will be how vendors use a single identity to authenticate and gain access to different modalities such as email, voicemail, enterprise instant messaging and collaboration software or web based tools thus allowing the ability to transcend multiple modalities seamlessly and transparently while affording productivity improvements that every CIO is asking and requiring. In my opinion unified communication can’t be yet another off the shelf solution that requires more work to integrate into an environment to become productive but rather it is about enhancing the bottom line – getting something more for very little and driving tremendous productivity gains. So to be effective and win market share such companies that offer unified communications must invest heavily on seamless integration to the back office and thus driving a core fundamental of productivity that unified communications anchor on.

So no new user names, no new user accounts, rather a single yet pervasive identity in order to make unified communications become great. You could say that the argument or requirement for a single identity isn’t new – rather its been around for a while. In fact there are companies that make identity management software and have been doing so for quite some time. What you can’t say or know and for which I am most excited about is watching how those companies map their current positions in delivering such capabilities into facilitating mainstream unified communications and its adoption further. Food for thought in case you’re not yet following me - watch what IBM and its Tivoli solution, Microsoft with its Active Directory as well as others do with their software around unified communications and how they enable further business communications. Heck, one never knows what Google might do to improve their recent moves into mobile wireless communications since they may see IBM and or Microsofts current positions in this space as a threat to their continued dominance around maintaining their velocity as a formidable competitor whose deep research capabilities rival all but IBM and Microsoft in an industry moving at light speed.

From this former IT guy some real exciting stuff around unified communications is happening … taking it from good to great. Watch how a single, enhanced identity will be mapped transparently to core IT infrastructure services and driving future unified communication services thus making it possible.