Can Unified Communications Solutions Become More Popular Than the Pipe That Enables Them?
Written by Greg Carter (contact - e-mail) -- July 9th, 2008 | Recommend ThisNo one loves gadgets, cool services and devices more than I do. In fact, I have had a “one-number” service in play off and on since the early days of cellular phones, circa ’96. I think I may have just dated myself. Despite my own infatuation with the latest and greatest communications solutions, I was very surprised to learn that consumer interest in Unified Communications during much of ‘07 eclipsed interest in the very telco products/services that enable them.
Unified Communications (UC) is defined by Microsoft as technology that offers customers choices in how their communication and collaboration software is delivered, managed and maintained. UC companies such as CallWave, Inc., Microsoft, GrandCentral (Google), OneBox®, Genesys® (Alcatel-Lucent) centralize all messaging email, voicemail, SMS, fax and even video into one inbox. These messages are instantly accessible from various, user defined devices such as a computer or mobile phone. How could any mobile professional, small business owner, remote worker or field agent ignore the value add of such a service?
But does all of this spell higher interest in UC versus voice services, broadband and bundles?
The graph below illustrates online consumers’ interest in a number of UC company sites and Telco company sites. Specifically, the relative interest in UC solutions and Telco bundles from April ’07 to April ’08 was measured.
UC company consideration was on average 70% higher than Telco company consideration 2Q thru 4Q ’07 with peaks in 3Q ’07. The peak in UC interest is attributed to buzz in the marketplace among of IT professionals, marketers and procurement departments in major corporations. In fact, it has been reported that more than a quarter of all enterprises in North America and Europe now have some form of UC initiatives in play. During a briefing with CallWave, Inc. at NxtComm ‘08 recently, a representative indicated that the spike in interest about their firm was driven by the introduction of free UC widgets and increased marketing spend during 3Q ‘07. This demonstrates that lesser known companies can peak interest in new product/services with trial offerings backed by marketing dollars.
In late Q4 ’07 the trend in UC interest normalized and then ‘yielded’ to Telco interest. Despite this, Telco companies have an opportunity to leverage the UC excitement among the consumer and small business base of customers who are seeking simplified communications in their busy lives. After all, everyone gets excited about killer apps…
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July 9th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Privacy is best protected in low-tech, off-line, or diversified communication stores.
As last week’s terrible Viacom (affiliates include Microsoft) vs. YouTube (Google) court order proves, even so much as visiting a web site puts every bit of information they collect on you in the hands of the holding company, and therefore the hands of whichever government or rival sues for it.
You may not care about your IP address, browsing habits related to deleted videos, and YouTube username being passed around like the latest issue of Hot Gossip (those who use your Google Accounts as your YouTube login should be more concerned), but vulnerability is compounded with the value and personal nature of the data in question; such is the problem with Unified Communications.
All who put their lives in the cloud have their heads in the clouds.
July 9th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
patrickmc — Isn’t unified communications considered a personal communications medium (phone, email, IM, private video) ? YouTube is public medium, so there are many reasons to be concerned. As long as the government doesn’t think you are a terrorist, Unified Communication is orders of magnitude more secure than a public medium, even though it travel over many of the same paths.
I don’t think there is much learned by comparing UC companies like, CallWave, Inc., Microsoft, GrandCentral (Google), OneBox®, Genesys® to Telco Bundles. UC should draw mostly business interest and telco bundles should draw mostly consumer interest. The numbers themselves are interesting, but they only have a marginal relationship to each other.
July 10th, 2008 at 4:10 am
I don’t really think its that big a deal, but for what its worth, I agree with patrickmc. Emails, IM, etc, is, from what I understand, partially monitored, and companies like Yahoo and Microsoft quite eager to comply and provide access to the feds, if requested. Its already happened with search data before, and now this Youtube thing. Its quite possible that private data has been requested, and provided. Putting all that data in one place only makes it easier for the requesting authorities to get their hands on it without having to contact multiple companies.