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 As Unified Communications gains momentum, companies across the board are streamlining strategies around it. Peter Jayaseelan, Vice President- Industry Solutions & Applications, Avaya GlobalConnect Ltd., in an interview with Sonal Desai, speaks about competition, challenges and trends in this segment.
Microsoft, Cisco, Nortel and others are talking about Unified Communications in terms of transition from IP-based voice telecommunications to UC. Do you think Indian enterprises are ready for Unified Communications?
It is an evolution game. On the tech curve, we are taking massive steps. Culturally, we are only used to talking over phone or direct contact. Not many transactions are completed over voice messages. However, in the last half decade, emails have gained ground. Voice still lags behind, essentially since we do not feel comfortable leaving messages behind. The beauty of UC is that it connects multiple devices. I may be able to unify devices to access emails etc. MNCs are more adoptive. Indian corporates are slowly joining the bandwagon, primarily those who do business with MNCs. We are only mid-way at present, and should reach there possibly in the next 18-24 months. Even niche SMB segments like BFSI, IT/ITES are early adopters of UC. We have started developing solutions focused on them.
What are the challenges in implementing UC and also demonstrating its benefits to the top management?
From that perspective, the biggest difficulty is interoperability and integration, besides
RoI. The management needs to be convinced about the direct impact on business and for a CIO/CTO, it is the ability to articulate this RoI, convert it into a key message in terms of dollar value.
Has the industry arrived at standards that will allow certain degree of interoperability between various systems?
The Interoperability challenge is being handled well because we are moving on open standards. Every CEO wants to know what he is getting for the dollar spends, and the business impact. ISO continues to define standards. Although technology leaders will continue creating new benchmarks, issues such as interoperability, etc could be easily dealt with an open standard based model. Integration whether on Microsoft Exchange of Lotus Notes is not an issue for us.
Do you think regulatory hurdles and bandwidth prevent Indian enterprises from harnessing the benefits of IP-based telephony?
Yes, we have this issue of not connecting PSTN to IP telephony. That will go. Service providers are able to give you specific approvals if requested. Technology has responses to SP worries. Tenant participation for segregation, willingness to participate in audits, etc also helps. This is not an issue elsewhere. We will have to learn to live with the `NO’. We just have to explore how technology and software can help within the legal framework.
In such a scenario, can organizations leverage UC?
Rules allow you to do UC for messaging, not live voice. Ideally speaking, there should be one phone number per person. So if I am not responding to the phone on my desk, the UC application will direct the caller on my mobile/ residence or any other number, where I am logged in. And If I do not want to attend to the call, I can forward it to the related extension number from my phone itself. This is essentially beneficial in sales environments, where sales executives leave mobile numbers with clients or potentials. While this scenario is generally not possible, logging into a mobile network helps, although the carriage cost can be very high.
What differentiates you from competitors like Siemens, Nortel and Cisco?
Essentially, it is a two fold differentiation. One is our open standards based strategy, Two is our vertical strategy, where in we customize solutions as per the needs of the particular vertical.
What are the some of the deployment trends?
I see a lot of traction in the IT/ITES, MNCs. It has also generated a lot of interest among the Indian corporates. SMEs are still looking at it.
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