Software-Based UC
The key to a true UC solution is software. Without intuitive, user-friendly software, a UC solution cannot be successfully deployed. When compared on paper, the UC solutions from companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, Avaya, and ShorTel have the same features. These solutions can perform the functionality that any organization needs for UC. The key difference between Microsoft and the competition is the software. If you look at the list of companies, which one is a software company and not a hardware company? Microsoft.
Hardware vendors are getting better at creating software, either through acquisition or through experience with development. However, these companies are playing catch-up with Microsoft. Since Microsoft Lync 2010, all UC functionality has been available in a single client UI. Even in the latest versions of Cisco’s UC suite, functionality is spread across multiple applications. The complexity that this introduces to end users is a major deterrent to the successful deployment of UC.
For organizations to realize the full benefits of UC, there must be a high rate of adoption. Users are less likely to take advantage of a UC solution that is not user-friendly. Microsoft is the only company that can provide a truly unified communications experience and allow organizations to reach their full potential with UC.
Cisco is typically the biggest competitor of Microsoft Lync. The basic scenario that follows outlines the differences between Microsoft and other vendors’ UC solutions, including Cisco. These differences can have a major impact on user productivity and overall user satisfaction. User satisfaction is critical to the success of UC deployments.
When you are using Microsoft Lync 2013, not only are all modalities (IM, Audio, Video, and Sharing) provided in a single application, but the conferencing experience for these modalities is in the same application. When you want to hold a conference, that conference is held in Lync. If you are in a peer-to-peer session and want to escalate to a conference, it will simply turn that call into a conference in Lync. Cisco, on the other hand, leverages two applications: Jabber for peer-to-peer functionality and WebEx for conferencing. This leads to two separate applications for end users to learn, and a disjointed experience when escalating between peer-to-peer and conference. When you want to turn a peer-to-peer session into a conference, a web page to the WebEx site must be opened. This is where the problem starts for end-user productivity.
In addition to the more intuitive user experience provided in Lync, the integration with Microsoft Office applications cannot be overlooked. Microsoft Office is the primary business application for many end users across the world. Having communication capabilities integrated into your business applications is a major factor for driving usage and enhancing productivity. Microsoft Lync integrates UC capabilities into Office applications, reducing the amount of effort required for end users to collaborate with their peers. Although other vendors can leverage APIs to show Presence and allow click-to-call capabilities from Outlook, they cannot integrate at a deeper level. Examples of this include the following:
• SharePoint Skill Search—The capability to search the SharePoint directory and view results based on skills and other user information, without leaving the Lync client.
• Exchange Distribution List Expansion—The capability to add Exchange Server distribution lists directly to the Lync client contact list as contact groups. These lists will query information directly from Exchange Server, so users do not have to worry about adding new contacts manually.
• Exchange Integration—The Lync client has the capability to display Out of Office messages that are configured by the user in the Outlook client, and stored in Exchange Server.
• Conversation History Search in Outlook—The Lync client has the capability to store conversation history in the user’s Exchange mailbox. Users can also search this conversation history in the Lync client, and in Outlook or Outlook Web App with their mail.
The preceding examples show certain areas that competitors simply do not provide for integration. Office, SharePoint, and Exchange are deployed in nearly every organization, and that is why these features are important.
In addition to integrating with other Microsoft applications, Lync also allows for easy integration with other line-of-business applications. One major benefit to Lync is the development platform it is built on. The software API for the client and server are available to developers, and are currently heavily utilized for many custom solutions. The simplest form of this development is integrating functionality, such as Presence and click to call, to line-of-business applications. Many organizations have also taken advantage of the Lync Server APIs to build custom solutions that enhance business processes. This concept is known as Communications Enabled Business Processes (CEBP) and this is a major differentiator in the market. This ecosystem, which is open and partner-driven, has led many organizations to be more successful with UC than they ever could have imagined.
In summary, a UC deployment relies heavily on the software experience that is provided to users. Although UC includes telephony and IP phones are important to telephony, the true value of UC is seen through the software application providing anywhere access and collaboration. Microsoft Lync is a superior choice for UC because it is a software-based UC platform.