Product certification : How valid is this as a requirement and what real benefits ensue for the user.

Mark Shane, Sales Director at ICON is a fervent believer and supporter of certification. 

“It opens up the market for third party vendors, guarantees the performance of the solution, and delivers choice for the end user”

ICON distributes Microsoft Lync certified SpectraLink Wi-Fi and DECT handset solutions and, says Mark,

“We see certification is a positive thing.  It benefits the end user and the VAR, as much as it does Microsoft.”  

“Certification is not a barrier to supply erected by Microsoft but a quality control measure.  By requiring certification, Microsoft is doing no more than every traditional IP-PBX vendor does - ensuring that the quality of experience of the end user is consistent.” 

Microsoft Lync qualified

Traditional IP-PBX vendor have full control over their solutions and the endpoints.  They can tweak, modify and change their solution at the design stage so that with their recommended endpoint it delivers a known and controlled experience for the end user.   

It is for this reason, most traditional IP-PBX vendors do not support un-branded endpoints on their solutions – they cannot guarantee a consistent end user experience.  This is good for the vendor but for the end user it limits the choice of endpoint to the few provided by the vendor.

“Certification is a win-win for everyone,” says Mark “It opens up the market for third party vendors and increases choice for the end user.  Users get a choice of endpoint and a solution that delivers to a defined functionality." 

"The VAR gets the confidence that comes from the knowledge that the solution will perform to a known level and is supported.   Microsoft gets to ensure that the user experience is consistent no matter what endpoint is used.”

The UK telecoms market in 2013

Will the market ever recover to the 2008 pre-recession sales volumes?

Mark Shane, Sales Director at ICON, is bullish about the future of the CPE PBX market.  When asked about the medium term outlook for the channel Mark commented;

“Will the CPE PBX sales volumes reach and exceed 2008 levels? Yes, most certainly they will. Will the future CPE market be the same as the pre-recession 2008 market? No it won’t” 

Growth in the market is expected

ICON is confident that the CPE PBX market will recover to its pre-recession levels.  That much is certain.  What is unknown is how long it will be before it reaches its pre-recession levels and what the market will look like in the future. The future CPE PBX market will be completely different to the market pre-recession.   

Powerful trends

There are powerful trends in the environment which are shaping the future business environment.  BYOD, mobility, and UC are all positive drives shaping and driving the future CPE PBX market forward. Mark commented;

“The consequence of these trends will be that we will see a realignment of sales volumes within the CPE PBX market resulting in some niches declining, others growing, and new ones appearing.”  

 “New product and application niches will appear and niches which existed in 2008 will either no longer exist or be as large. But the CPE market, on the whole, will recover”.  

 “We do not believe that the growth in hosted UC solutions will be sufficient to noticeably depress the CPE UC PBX market.   Published figures suggest that hosted UC solutions are currently around 5% of the total market and are suggested to grow to no more than 10% by 2014. Although this represents high growth the percentage share of the hosted market is too small to significantly impact the levels of business seen by the channel in the CPE PBX market.” 

“We expect to see hosted solutions continue to show high growth rates until the niche matures. The CPE PBX market niche will maintain its dominate market share supported by innovations in the PBX platform and applications.”

Where is the market is going

The days of the plain old CPE IP-PBX are numbered.  CPE PBX solutions which support cell phone mobility, smartphones & tablets, third party UC apps and have the capability to be deployed as a traditional CPE, in the cloud, or a distributed solution are the future.  

In the medium term the flexibility to work with either analogue or IP will be needed if vendors want to capture the legacy as well as the IP sites, but long term this capability is likely to become less important.  FortiNet with its FortiVoice solution offers one of the best examples of a CPE PBX which can work with IP phones, analogue phones or both.

Cloud or CPE  

On the issue of cloud versus CPE, versus centralised, Mark said;

Cloud or CPE PBX?

“The demarcation between the CPE PBX, cloud, or centralised versus distributed solutions markets is very grey."

"Let’s not forget that if a customer has multiple sites and wants a cloud based solution this does not rule out a CPE PBX sale. Vendors such as Vertical Communications with its Wave IP-PBX can deliver a CPE solution which can be deployed anywhere in the network - on-site or in the cloud”

The impact of Smartphones and Tablets  

 Smartphones and tablets will be one of the key driving forces shaping CPE PBX solutions over the next few years.   Mark explained;

“In themselves smartphones and tablets are not the primary market driver.  It is the UC apps which run on these devices and which impact workplace productivity which are the front line drivers for the move to smartphone and tablet friendly CPE PBX solutions."

 

"Most leading edge vendors are already integrating smartphone and tablet support into their solutions.  A prime example is the feature rich mobility friendly solution Wave IP from Vertical Communications.  This delivers all the normal mobility features needed to support cell phone users but also supports the call management solution ViewPoint Mobile for Android and Apple IOS phones.”

The changing CPE PBX  

 The concept of the CPE PBX is changing. Vendors or now delivering highly functional communications platforms capable of supporting third party apps. Mark explained;

“The notion that a CPE PBX is a platform for third party UC apps, just like the cell phone is a platform for apps, is a novel trend but one that long term will provide businesses with many more solution options and the capability to customise and add to the functionality of the PBX platform throughout its life. "

"Vertical Communications is pioneering this with its Wave IP solution which provides a platform to run applications traded on the Vertical AppMarket”

Investing in a CPE PBX platform which allows you to add functionality at will means your communications platform can change, develop, and be customised to suit the needs of the business throughout its working life unlike the monolithic CPE PBX solutions which, perforce, deliver the same functionality at the end of their life as on day one.

AppMarkets for the PBX  

The concept of the CPE PBX as a versatile customisable communications platform allows users to update and change their investment throughout the life of the asset. Mark explained;

“Innovations in the delivery of these CPE IP-PBX applications means customers have the option to enable the integrated applications built into the platform or purchase applications from on-line markets.  For example Vertical Communications in its Wave IP solution offers built in applications which can be licenced at any time but is also providing a market place where apps can be sold and bought.”

Mobile and UC

Mobile friendly CPE PBX solutions have become important in recent years as businesses look to support their mobile workforce. 

UC and BYOD is a potent force

The ViewPoint screen based call management solution for cell phones from Vertical Communications is one of the few examples of such an application.  

 

Mark ended by saying; 

 

“The driving force underpinning all of these trends is the increasing adoption of UC solutions.  But it is the combination of UC with the BYOD that is the motivation behind many of the developments in the CPE PBX product niche."  

"It is when you link UC solutions with smartphones and tablets that the power of UC and mobility begins to be appreciated by businesses from all sectors and that is what the CPE PBX vendor will be looking to harness over the coming years.”

Integrated application

CPE PBX integrated applications fall into one of two categories.  There are the core UC feature set applications which vendors such as Vertical Communications include as standard on its Wave series of PBX and the traditional and not so traditional call management applications such as such as contact centre, call recording, IVR, fax plus a host of others. Mark commented;

“A few years ago integrated applications were the novel differentiators in the CPE PBX market.  Now they have become de facto standard necessary features.  Presence and instant messaging are the UC applications many UC PBX vendors package as UC standard features."

"However, true UC PBX solutions, such as Vertical’s Wave IP, provide a host of other UC applications such as visual voicemail, conferencing, document sharing, and screen based call management for mobiles.”