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By Bob Tarzey, 19 March 2009 08:00

COMMENT

Microsoft has been making inroads into the UC market with its Office Communications Server (OCS), which effectively combines email, voice and other traffic and presents it to the user through a unified interface: Microsoft Communicator. There have been doubts about its scalability but some resellers believe the latest release, OCS 2007 R2, is as good as any IP PBX.

Mobile service providers want a look-in too. Some advocate extending their own networks into that of their customers' premises using femtocells. In this scenario everyone uses a mobile telephony handset for voice calls, both internal and external. However, in most cases mobile telephony still co-exists with other forms of telephony and integration is more likely using dual mode handsets.

The drive to UC has also thrown up some pure play vendors, for example, ShoreTel. Its products have been built for the UC age and are designed to replace and/or integrate with existing telephony systems, mobile providers and IP networks.

Once a platform for UC is in place the rationalisation of end-user devices can start. It is hard to justify installing an IP phone on every desktop when many already have enough excess processing power on their PCs to run softphones - and all that is needed is a cheap USB headset. For users whose work involves some degree of mobility, the range devices provide may need some rationalisation to keep service and management costs down.

Finally, if all that is not enough choice, there is a final option which is about to take off big time - UC on-demand. This involves no internal communications platform at all; services are instead delivered via the internet from a centrally managed location that allows even small businesses to benefit from enterprise class infrastructure.

Microsoft is likely to be a big player in this area with its Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) initiative, a package for email, web conferencing and internal voice delivered on-demand. Microsoft is building its own BPOS infrastructure and encouraging partners to do the same.

Others may look to join Redmond in the on-demand space. Cisco may look to extend the range of services offered via its WebEx web conferencing platform that it acquired in 2007 - a widely used on-demand service. And Google is adding more and more capability to its applications portfolio, and has recently unveiled a preview of voice app Google Voice.

Service providers including BT and Global Crossing are building their own offerings, as are some smaller organisations - for example ThinkGrid, a UK-based service provider that has built a platform for on-demand delivery that includes many of the components of UC. It uses a range of what it considers to be best-of-breed technology from a number of vendors.

ThinkGrid's approach underlines a reality. UC will usually be a heterogeneous deployment - a different set-up from business to business, depending on what tech already exists and where the company wants to go. It will not be an overnight rip and replace of one set of technologies with another, but a migration over time.

The move to UC is a journey and the cost of embarking on it will determine if it is one to be started in a recession - but it is one that all businesses will make at some point.

A leading user-facing analyst house known for its focus on the big picture, Quocirca is made up of a team of experts in technology and its business implications. The team includes Clive Longbottom, Bob Tarzey, Rob Bamforth, Louella Fernandes, Fran Howarth and Simon Perry. Their series of columns for silicon.com seeks to demystify the latest jargon and business thinking. For a full summary of the consultancy's activities, see www.quocirca.com.