Microsoft and Cisco on unified communications

How has your company background influenced the way you approach UC?

HM: Microsoft's experience in unified communications is driven from the desktop. In addition, the ability to deliver conferencing to the desktop along with VoIP is a key business enabler that will become a standard part of every UC deployment going forward. When combined with presence and messaging, staff will be able to work more closely within their own work environments but also strengthen ties with their customers and partners via federation, which enables different organisations to share presence, messaging and calendar information with each other.

In your view what are the key elements to consider on formulating UC solutions?

HM: The first thing to note is with Microsoft's unified communications approach, you don't need to rip and replace your existing telephony infrastructure. You can continue to use and derive further value from it. By adding in Microsoft unified communications solutions, users make the most out of their current investments and the business can stay flexible and embrace innovations as they come.

What specific plan do you have for the channel to drive the uptake of UC going forward?

HM: Over the past year, Microsoft has seen customers and partners increasingly validate our viewpoint and strategy in this space. We have a rich ecosystem of unified communications partners that includes almost 800 systems integrators globally (32 in Australia) who have achieved Microsoft unified communications specialisation. The partner ecosystem includes telephony leaders like Nortel, Avaya, Alcatel, Cisco, NEC, Ericsson and Mitel Networks, together with independent software vendors and seven phone and device manufacturers including Polycom and Tandberg. Because our partners are unified communications certified they not only understand Microsoft UC solutions but have the skills and experience to be able to help customers of all sizes plan for, deploy and manage their UC solutions. We will continue to support and work alongside our partners to help them identify opportunities and work with our other partners to be able to deliver the best possible outcomes for their customers.

What technologies would you highlight as the next big thing in UC and why?

HM: We believe unified communications will transform business in the coming decade in the same way email changed the business landscape in the 1990s. The concept of federation will fundamentally change the way in which organisations interact with each other; VoIP will become more pervasive across Australian business, it is very extensible and we'll see it everywhere. Video conferencing - which is traditionally out of the grasp of most organisations due to expense and complexity - will become accessible to every desktop user with one click. Overall, as the desktop becomes the default platform for businesses, those applications will become easier to use, more accessible and more widely available.

What advice do you have for those in the channel looking to make a UC play?

HM: To stay ahead of the pack it's important for partners and integrators to learn about the new concepts and keep their skills and knowledge current. It's also important for partners to have a deep understanding of the customer's infrastructure so they can provide recommendations about how best to leverage and extend it while providing business efficiency and collaboration benefits for users. We're seeing convergence across the channel, creating opportunities for partners to extend the areas where they provide value to our mutual customers. A lot of our partners have historically been focused around the provision of desktop infrastructure, providing information for people using those systems. Add UC and all the different systems - IT, communications - come together, providing an opportunity to create new revenue streams.