VoiceCon eNews: Managed/Hosted UC

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Managed and hosted services are getting increased attention across the spectrum of enterprise communications capabilities. I recently blogged  about a health care company that went with a hosted Siemens OpenScape solution as a way to upgrade to IP telephony without having to endure the staff upheaval that would have been required by a CPE migration. In that particular case, the health care provider, a mid-sized enterprise, was migrating from a 14-year-old Rolm system; not surprisingly, the company’s IT staff was much more preoccupied with issues around electronic medical records than they were with the current generation of telephony technology. The need to keep that focus made the choice of hosted IP telephony/UC a logical decision.

For enterprises looking at more advanced Unified Communications capabilities, managed and hosted services would seem to make a lot of sense as well. The technology is new in many cases, there may well be significant integration work to be done among multiple vendors’ systems, and the enterprise may well not be ready to commit to a complete UC migration plan—so buying UC as a hosted service, or having someone else manage your CPE, makes sense.

That doesn’t mean it’s straightforward for an enterprise today to go shopping for managed/hosted UC. We’re going to try and sort these issues out at VoiceCon in a session on Monday, November 2, led by Melanie Turek of Frost & Sullivan. Melanie’s put together a panel that’s a great mix of incumbent carriers (Verizon), new UC service providers (Cypress Communications and CallTower), integrators (IBM Global Services, and vendors (Siemens). Melanie’s also been kind enough to jump-start the discussion in our Session Forum on the topic [http://voicecon.uservoice.com/pages/28193-session-managed-hosted-services-for-uc].

We’ve set up one of these Session Forums for each session at VoiceCon San Francisco, and we’re inviting everyone in the community to get involved—tell us what you think about the Key Questions we pose for each session, and post your own thoughts, opinions, and links to additional resources. If you’re planning to be in San Francisco, these forums are intended to help you lay the groundwork for a more productive session. If you can’t make it to San Francisco, you can participate in the session virtually by reading and contributing to these forums.

I hope you’ll join in the conversation!

THIS WEEK’S UC EWEEKLY

There’ll be plenty of Unified Communications case studies, discussion and analysis at VoiceCon San Francisco,which convenes in just under three weeks, and UC will be on prominent display on the Exhibition Floor. That’s no surprise as UC has become the rallying point for much of what is occurring in enterprise communications, but I can’t help but wonder what role UC will play when VoiceCon Orlando 2010 kicks off on next March.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m absolutely convinced that UC is, and will remain, vitally important for many years to come. It already has become integrated into the fabric of communications product and service development and, more importantly, into the workforce’s  expectations of IT and telecom. That’s why we have about a dozen sessions at VoiceCon that focus directly on UC issues — technology, services and applications — and I expect that it will be discussed during other sessions as well.

But while UC continues to evolve, many of UC’s elements — IM, presence, all manner of conferencing and video — are no longer “new” or “innovative” or “exotic” capabilities.

READ MORE.

ON NO JITTER THIS WEEK

* Avaya Implements Virtualization in Mid-Sized Aura Platform

* AT&T Drops Restrictions on Voice over 3G Calls

* A SIP Gateway for Digital Handsets

VC VIRTUAL EVENT

If you missed VoiceCon’s first-ever Virtual Event last June, there’s a wealth of information waiting for you to access on demand: http://www.voicecon.com/virtualevents/

VOICECON PODCASTS

* 10 Guiding Principles of Reducing Network Costs

* AVST-Unimax

More Free Podcasts

FREE WEBINARS

10/14—Taking Advantage of SIP Trunking: REGISTER NOW!

9/29—CASE STUDY: Surviving and Thriving in a Down Economy: VIEW ON DEMAND

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