Unified Communications - an Interview with Paul Pyatt, regional account manager at ICON

Are customers initiating the UC conversation and how much of what your typical SME needs is dominated by mobile technology?

“There is still a huge educational exercise needed both in the market, and in the channel, before UC is sufficiently understood to be requested by the user.

Many users are still ignorant of what UC means and how it relates to a modern day telephone system.  The message that UC is affordable and can have a marked impact on bottom line has been slow to permeate through the channel to the end user.  In some cases, resellers do not fully understand UC and are not confident about talking about UC to the customer.  In other cases, resellers prefer to stick to the traditional sales model of proposing extensions and lines rather than business solutions.  

Nowadays business is mobile. Not only do the classic road warriors need access to their messages and calls but so do the site-based employees whose jobs take them away from their desks.  In such an environment, a UC solution with its focus on mobility will help a small or medium sized business work more effectively.  

However, instead of getting a UC solution often the customer ends up with a simple mobile phone twinning solution.  A good UC solution such as Vertical Communications Wave-IP provides close integration of the mobile phone with the UC solution.  This means the road warrior and mobile employee get the same functionality that their desk bound colleagues enjoy"

Why if a UC solution can offer mobile workers so many benefits is mobile phone twinning more often proposed?

Except for the keynote vendors such as Vertical Communications with its Viewpoint mobile app there are few vendors who have a workable and reliable UC app for android and IOS phones.  Put this together with some reseller’s unfamiliarity with UC business solutions it is easy to see why customers are often sold a twinning solution rather than a UC solution such as Viewpoint mobile.
 

Paul went on to say.  Mobile technology in and of itself is not a UC feature. Mobile access to the features of a UC solution is what it is all about and it is probably true to say that, if an IP-PBX solution does not provide mobile access to its features it is not a UC solution.    Solutions such as the Wave IP-PBX from Vertical Communications are a UC solution that provides mobile access to its UC capabilities for both android and iOS handsets with its Viewpoint mobile app.  

Where are the opportunities for the Channel and how can resellers differentiate in this market?

For the reseller who is willing to embrace UC fully the opportunities are numerous but,  says Paul, the reseller must adopt a different selling model to the traditional extensions and lines approach.  It’s all about solutions when you are selling UC

UC is about business processes and productivity.  A UC solution links in with the work processes of your company and enhances the way you work.  

The reseller who is prepared to spend just that little more time to understand the customers’ business and how they work is able to offer a solution customised for the company.  Setting themselves apart from the traditional resellers in this way is a brave step for many to take. But by doing so they are able to out run the competition and differentiate themselves from the traditional reseller whose offer focuses on extensions and lines.

Is there such a thing as killer UC app that is going to drive sales of UC CPE or hosted solutions?   

 No, says Paul. There are plenty of must have apps but at the moment there is no one app which is universally desirable by all businesses.

The true mobile UC applications such as Viewpoint come close but the SME market still has a long way to go before UC solutions have a 100% penetration into business and businesses understand the power UC can bring to the bottom line.  Until this happens, the universality of Viewpoint mobile type applications will not take off.   

 

With the plethora of end user apps aimed at the consumer market available does this make the UC a hard sell?

Selling a UC solution is about selling productivity at the bushiness level.  Get that right then the arguments for investing in a UC solution become self-evident and the need to “hard sell” the solution does not arise.   

Do you think that end users are better served by single vendor solutions or by a best of breed mix of third party applications?

A single UC vendor cannot be expert in all technologies needed to deploy a UC solution.  This has given rise to a number of alliances.  Microsoft have partnered with Spectralink who are providing the endpoints for messaging, data capture and the like for Lync, Vertical Communications has also partnered with Spectralink who it relies on to provide on-site mobility endpoints for its UC solution Wave IP.    

Vertical has also opened up its UC solution Wave IP to third party developers.   

In addition to its android and IOS mobile Viewpoint app for smart phone and tablets, Vertical is encouraging third parties to develop UC apps to run on the UC Wave –IP platform. 

The available apps include CRM integration solutions and, mobility, reporting and utility applications.