subject: What Are The New Unified Communications Service Providers? [print this page] Unified Communications (UC) amalgamates different communications methods, business applications and data to deliver improved working between people even when they are at disparate locations.
The most commonly used UC tools are voice, email, presence, Instant Messaging, collaboration, Fixed to Mobile convergence, video conferencing and video presence.
This variety of components explains why UC means different things to different organisations. In essence, Enterprise UC integrates any mix of these technologies into a company's business processes to deliver heightened efficiency and competitive advantage.
However, many traditional Service Providers are not yet ready to supply what Enterprises want to buy today. Consequently, a new breed of provider - the Unified Communications Service Provider (UCSP) is emerging to try and meet the demand. According to recent research from the Sunday Times, this sector is the UK's 2nd fastest growing market.
Demand from Enterprises is high because UC delivers long term and sustainable business benefits. Unified Communications is probably the most powerful tool available to Enterprises today to achieve greater efficiency at lower cost. Over the past 2 years, Enterprises have been discovering what Unified Communications can do for them. They are now ready to invest heavily, spending circa $130 billion from 2010 to 2013(Business Insights, 2009). As they start to increase their investments, Enterprises have begun to make it clear that they prefer to buy their UC services from Telco's or Network Providers rather than IT Services Companies (IDC 2009).
So what does this mean across the broad spectrum of businesses?
Firstly, the new UCSPs are typically neither ready nor able to service the demands of the large Enterprise. This is mainly because they are new and growing businesses themselves.
Secondly, the small business sector is, for the first time, being served at least as well as the large Enterprise sector. This has longer term implications. It's the first time in a very long while the smaller business can adopt better technology and adopt it faster than the larger Enterprise. In addition, the mechanics of the technology mean that it is harder for an Enterprise to change service provider once the move to UC has been made. This is creating a fierce battle for customers across the market. Providers who can offer Service Level Agreements measured on business objectives are winning these customers.
Thirdly, nimble IT Services Companies are winning more and better business because they have aligned themselves well to the buyers' needs now. Although the preference of Enterprises to buy from Telco's will erode this position over time, the value of the customer base being acquired now is high.
Finally, the Telco's are trying to respond to this dynamic market demand by providing custom designed solutions to customers. This is not sustainable and blocks out the middle part of the market because;
1. Only the larger customers can afford the custom approach.
2. The Telco's can only afford to deliver this custom approach to the larger customers.
In summary, the demand and supply chains to this market are complex and changing fast. Competition is fierce and so we are in a buyers market. This is good news for businesses of all sizes.
