Recent Coverage Nov11

8/3/2019 Recent Coverage Nov11

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I one goes by the dictionary meaning o

Unied Communications (UC), it is the

integration o real-time communication

services such as instant messaging (chat),

presence inormation, telephony (includ-

ing IP telephony), video conerencing, call controland speech recognition with non-real-time com-

munication services such as unied messaging

(integrated voicemail, e-mail, SMS and ax). Te

evolution o the UC has been gradually over a

period time. UC is not a single product, but a

set o products that provides a consistent unied

user interace and user experience across multiple

devices and media types.

For the lay man, it is nothing but managing

communications and getting quick and timely

response. Te business turnaround entirely

depends on the response o the communications.

A delayed communication or collaboration can

incur huge amount o revenue loss. Tereore, UC

is as critical to SMEs as it is to the large enterprises.

As per Frost & Sullivan study, the total size o

the UC market in India will grow more than $1

billion by the end o 2010 and expected to grow

maniold in coming times also. Similarly, as per

Dell’Oro Group, despite pockets o weakness

reappearing, the unied communications marketwill expand signicantly in 2010 as existing ven-

dors continue to invest and expand their soware

oerings and Microso begins to actively push

Lync.

When the overall UC market is growing at the

CAGR o 7.9 percent, the individual components

o unied communications are already witnessing

healthy double digit growth number. For example

the audio video conerencing market is estimated

to grow at 60%, e-mailing and IP telephony is

growing at 20% and 30 percent CAGR.

In this scenario, globally SMEs play major

role in the growth o UC market. But in India

the market is yet to pick up because they ace a

lot o challenges. Te rst and oremost is they

have budget constraints and they think too much

about interoperability. Secondly, the UC vendors

have not been much ocussed on the Indian SME

market.

Adil Doctor, Director SMB Sales (India), Avaya

India, says, “Since, SMEs have limited resourcesthey are gradually exploiting the benets o Uni-

ed Communications to help increase eciency,

productivity, and sales. However, SMEs or com-

panies with up to 999 employees in the Indian

subcontinent beneted the most rom Unied

communication.”

According to a survey by Access Markets

International (AMI) Partners, Inc. SME in India

market spent around US$48.8 million on unied

communication (UC) in 2009.

Majority o this includes enterprise IP tele-

phony, applications like telepresence, mobility,

conerencing and collaboration are still used to

a limited extent by organizations and thereore

comprise only 10 per cent o the market.

Unifed Communications (UC) has always been the tool o the large

enterprises but with the market slowdown and the growth o the SMEs,it had also come to the space o the SMEs. But the act is that the ven-

dors are not able to understand the market as yet and thus have not

been very aggressive also.

BY SANJAY [email protected]

ACT INUNISON TO

TAP SME

OPPORTUN

COVER STORY UC



AS PER FROST & SULLIVAN

STUDY, THE TOTAL SIZE OF

THE UC MARKET IN INDIA WILL

GROW MORE THAN $1 BILLION

BY THE END OF 2010.

ITY

COVER STORYUC



Asheesh Pandia, Manager Communications,

Siemens Enterprise Communications (SEN

India), says, “UC is precisely as relevant as ‘cost-containment’, ROI or productivity to SMEs, as it

is to the large enterprises. Specically all those

verticals where the resource size is bigger, travel

OPEX is higher or communications is process

critical, they need UC more than others. Also,

categories with proven needs and interest with I/

IES, BPO, Petroleum, Manuacturing, Banking

& Finance, Healthcare and Proessional Services

need UC.”

“UC clearly oers protability, savings,

improved decision making, better collaboration

and mobility to them. Although pure IP adapta-

tion is seen more in Greeneld projects so ar,overall, we can see quantiable growth. Adapta-

tion is rising with the awareness and develop-

ments in security. At this rate, the 100% growth

dreams over next three years sound real,” he

added.

In its February 2009 report, “Market Overview:

Sizing Unied Communications”, Forrester also

predicts that “companies will deploy enhanced

UC capabilities to about 60 per cent o employees

in unctions that will benet most rom embed-

ding communications eatures like wireless and

video directly into their business applications.Minhaj Zia, National Sales Manager, Unied

Communications, Cisco India and SAARC,

says, “Indian SMBs are growing and adding more

business partners nationally and internationally.

With many o them also opening new branches,

networking will play an important role in keep-

ing employees connected. According to a Frost &

Sullivan study, currently, India leads the SAARC

region’s UC market in terms o total spending and

better overall awareness o UC. India has a good

potential or growth o UC applications as dem-

onstrated by the CAGR o 7.9 per cent during the

period rom 2008 to 2015.”

He added, “Te SMB-potential or UC is tre-

mendous as UC oerings span across budgets

and requirements. Te bouquet o UC oerings,

currently available in the market, is so versatile

that any organization, large, medium or small, cannd technology that best suits both, its needs and

budget. Interestingly, according to a NASSCOM

report, approximately 50-60 per cent o I spends

in the country is expected to come rom the four-

ishing SMB segment.”

Clearly, there is a huge market waiting out

there to be tapped and companies are ocused on

addressing it. However, in order to eectively tap

this segment, it is important that vendors develop

customized solutions, which oer a cost-eective

and easy to deploy alternative. Indian SMBs are

looking at UC as a low-cost tool to communicate

eectively with customers and suppliers as well as

acilitate communication across multiple branch

locations. It’s important that SMBs are shown

how, by streamlining communication inrastruc-

ture, they will be able to nd smarter ways to

cut travel costs maximize operational eciency

and improve business & customer strategies.Conerencing and collaboration tools such as

video, audio, web conerencing and instant mes-

saging will account or a majority o the total UC

spending.

As per Minhaj with the expansion o Unied

Communications rom the enterprise space into

mid-level and smaller organizations, a growing

number o SMEs are gradually exploring how

Unied Communications has the potential o

increasing eciency, productivity, and sales. As

unied communications applications become

more prevalent in the extended workspace, moreorganizations are realizing the associated benets.

Results documented by Sage Research dem-

onstrate a multitude o benets - both in terms

o employee time savings and nancial savings.

Organizations using unied communications

clients saved an average o 32 minutes daily per

employee because presence technology enabled

sta to reach one another on the rst try.

Use o sophones resulted in an average sav-

ings o $1,727 per month in cell phone and long

distance charges. Mobile workers also saved 40

minutes each day, enjoyed greater business com-

munications convenience, and generated annualproductivity gains o 3.5 days per year through

business continuity impact.

Organizations using unied messaging

reported that employees saved 43 minutes per day

rom more ecient message management while

mobile workers saved 55 minutes per day.

Companies using integrated voice and Web

conerencing reported a 30 percent reduction

in conerencing expenses (by making integrated

conerencing capabilities available in-house and

on-network) and an average savings o approxi-

mately $1,700 per month in travel costs basis theSage report.

Unied business communications applications

not only acilitate productivity improvements or

employees wherever their work takes them, they

can also enhance the way in which all employees

communicate.

More specically or SMBs, the biggest USP o

opting or UC solutions is the cost savings that

they present in terms o travel, communications,

etc. Many SMBs also appreciate that enhanced

geographical collaboration that comes with the

adoption o UC.

For example, CoStar has made a signicant

investment in a broadcast-quality video coner-

encing system rom Polycom to connect 3,000

“AS SMES HAVE LIMITED

RESOURCES THEY ARE

GRADUALLY EXPLOITING

THE BENEFITS OF UNIFIEDCOMMUNICATIONS TO HELP

INCREASE EFFICIENCY,

PRODUCTIVITY, AND

SALES.”

ADIL DOCTOR, DIRECTOR SMB SALES, AVAYA

INDIA

“UC IS PRECISELY AS

RELEVANT AS ‘COST-

CONTAINMENT’, ROI

OR PRODUCTIVITY TO

SMES, AS IT IS TO THE

LARGE ENTERPRISES.”

ASHEESH PANDIA, MANAGER COM-

MUNICATIONS, SIEMENS ENTERPRISE

COMMUNICATIONS (SEN INDIA)

COVER STORY UC



CoStar workers in the US and abroad. Tey’ve

worked hard to build out their network -- dealing

with bandwidth allocation, trac shaping and

end-user training -- to keep users satised with

and using the system.

According to CoStar’s Sergio Soto, “When werst started with video conerencing a ew years

ago, we simply wanted a way to reduce travel costs

or our sales team. Now we have developers and

researchers on both coasts that use our video

conerencing rooms eight hours a day.” Video has

helped them cut $4-$5M in travel costs.

Neeraj Gill, Managing Director, India &

SAARC, Polycom, says, “SMEs have always aced

an uphill battle when competing with larger, more

established companies. Te challenge is even

more daunting in the current economy o slower

business growth, reduced sales opportunities,and sometimes lower revenues. SMEs are turn-

ing to these solutions because they can help them

Improve productivity, Higher return on invest-

ment (ROI), Enhance their corporate image,

Make better decisions aster, Reduce costs, etc.

Company-wide Communications,Vendor/Sup-

plier Relationships ,Employee raining/Distance

Learning etc are ew more points or which SMEs

need the UC solutions.”

Te other vendor o UC is NEC, which is

present in India since 2006 and among other

products, the company has a strong oothold on

UC space. Ravinder Raina, Country Head – Pri- vate Network Solutions, NEC India, says, “In the

post recession scenario, Unied Communications

is ast emerging as a business necessity. Large

organizations and SMBs have become optimistic

about unied communications and use it or

integrating communication tools with real-time

business processes. Over the years, unied com-

munications has helped in easing communication

hassles and now, even SMEs have started to realize

these advantages.”

He added, “Unied Communications has come

a long way rom a simple unied messaging inboxor email, voice and axes, to enhanced mobility,

multi-modal mashups o various orms o com-

munications. Tough, the market or UC tech-

nologies is still at its inancy. Currently, the UC

market in India stands at $549 mn, while $321mn

comes rom enterprise telephony that includes

17% share o contact center applications, 11%

email and messaging, 10% tele-presence and con-

erencing while 1% comes rom mobility, which is

still a long way to go.”

Similarly, Business Octane is another player

who contributes large to UC space through its

large presence in the telepresence space.

Sanjay Bansal, Chairman o the Board & Man-

aging Director, Business Octane, says, “Immersive

elepresence is gaining momentum and has a

huge potential in India. Te SME market in India

is growing tremendously. Te SME segment is

already a heavy user or virtual collaboration

technologies. Te Immersive elepresence Suites

available in the marketplace are majorly suitable

or large enterprises given the nancial band-

width and quantum o usage in such enterprises.

However, these actors dier or the SME seg-

ment where the demand will be driven by such

innovations that can replicate in the most eective

manner as possible the experience o immersive

telepresence at reduced costs to vindicate theinvestments being made.”

He added, “Business Octane has gone ahead in

terms o innovation with its customized range o

Immersive elepresence Suites & Solutions or the

SME segment that will help these enterprises ben-

et rom a aster ROI. We had recently introduced

CollaboratorPOWERMAXM an aordable

immersive telepresence collaboration suite that

oers media-rich, immersive dynamic telepres-

ence experience. Te customized suite creates a

meeting experience over telepresence which is as

eective as meeting ace-to-ace with distant par-

ticipants with high denition studio quality video

and high denition stereo spatial audio, togetherwith near actual physical sizing and natural eye

contact.”

Te company has advanced video collabora-

tion solution: AltraCOLLABORAOR that also

caters to the SME segment; it is a customizable

collaboration solution to be retrotted in existing

video meeting rooms.

Sanjay Manchanda, Director-Microso Busi-

ness Division, Microso India, says, “In today’s

ast evolving competitive global market, SMBs

need cost-eective technologies that allow fex-

ibility and adds value to their organization. As aninitial step towards adopting a UC solution, SMBs

are increasingly turning to Soware + Services

solutions to meet the needs o their businesses.

Keeping these changing trends and requirements

in mind, Microso announced the launch o

Microso Online Services last year in India that

will help ull the communication and collabora-

tion needs o these small businesses. Tis suite

combines services such as email, ability to chat,

work together simultaneously on documents,

have a meeting online and maintain a common

calendar at a cost-eective price with fexible pay-

ment options”

Te online services o the company ensures reli-

able email communication, work and collaborate

“SMES ARE TURNING

TO THESE SOLUTIONS

BECAUSE THEY CAN HELP

THEM IMPROVE PRODUC-TIVITY, HIGHER RETURN

ON INVESTMENT (ROI),

ENHANCE THEIR CORPO-

RATE IMAGE, MAKE BETTER

DECISIONS FASTER, REDUCE

COSTS, ETC”

NEERAJ GILL, MANAGING DIRECTOR, INDIA &

SAARC, POLYCOM

“INDIAN SMBS ARE

GROWING AND ADDING

MORE BUSINESS PART-

NERS NATIONALLY AND

INTERNATIONALLY.”

MINHAJ ZIA, NATIONAL SALES

MANAGER, UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS,

CISCO INDIA AND SAARC

COVER STORY UC



aster with a common library o all documents at

one location, engage and ask or opinions using

media-rich presentations and option to switch

video and audio with multiple parties and nd

the right colleague quickly and chat on messenger,

audio or video.

From the vendors perspective, Siemens is very

ocused on the SME space. As Asheesh says, “We

highly ocussed on it with a comprehensive port-

olio o exclusive UC oerings or this segment.

SEN has a track record o consistent product and

solution innovation or small and medium busi-nesses. Moreover, our marketing and ser vice/sup-

port are aligned rightly to get us an edge on SME

space.”

SEN provides platorms that best suit smaller

business - be it integrating unied communi-

cations unctionality into Microso Outlook,

launching conerencing rom desktop or using

existing inrastructure, such as analogue tele-

phones or entry phones. SEN communications

systems and platorms support small businesses

with up to 500 employees. SEN OpenScape Oce

is the industry’s rst UC application designedspecically or small- and medium-sized busi-

nesses, HiPath 1100 is designed to give high-

perormance telephony to small/medium sized

businesses with up to 140 users and HiPath 3000

is our fexible unied communications plat-

orm that scales rom 20 to 500 users. Te latest

OpenScape Oce MX is an all-in-one, unied

communications appliance built upon reliable,

secure, serviceable, and manageable OpenSmart

architecture with network connectivity that sup-

ports upto 150 users. Among Siemens Enterprise

Communications other oerings are OpenScape

Oce Contact Center, Network Inrastructure

& Security portolio and a whole range o voice/

data/video products and solutions.

Similarly, Cisco also takes SMBs very seriously.

Cisco’s SMB division customizes networking

solutions. Tese products and solutions are under

the umbrella solution-packs o Cisco Small Busi-

ness Pro, Cisco Smart Business Communication

System, backed by a host o service & support, and

nancing oers.

Channel presence and technical support. Cisco

qualies businesses with less than 100 PCs as

Small businesses.

Adil says, “Looking at the current trends, IP

based systems like SIP; IP PBX and telephony sys-

tems are gaining ground. Avaya oers a platorm

specically tailored or SME needs, such as Avaya

IP Oce.”Avaya IP Oce is simple yet sophisticated

platorm which can also scale to provide UC &

CC eatures. SMB customer can start small and

add application later as they grow. He adds, “Avaya

is the worldwide leader in the SME market, with

leadership in both revenue and line share. With

Avaya IP Oce 6.1, the company accelerates uni-

ed communications and contact center technol-

ogies in the SME market, helping SMEs compete

more eectively, but in a cost-conscious manner.”

As per Sanjay, Business Octane’s immersive

telepresence collaboration suites and customizedcollaboration solution are equipped with a user

interace that allows or simple and elegant use o

all the unctionalities. All the immersive telepres-

ence collaboration suites and specic advanced

video collaboration solution incorporate a new

revolutionary user interace SimpliUSE+ that

incorporates eleconnectWIZARD or connect-

ing multiple locations with extreme ease o usage

and without any external help. In addition, Busi-

ness Octane’s Immersive elepresence empowers

users to collaborate seamlessly with other com-

munication applications. Meeting participants

whether on audio, desktops, and video coner-encing sites can seamlessly collaborate with the

company’s immersive telepresence suites.

As per him, the return on investment with our

immersive telepresence suites is so compulsive

that companies can start reaping returns on their

investment within 3 to 6 months.

On the other hand, Polycom is arming up a

strategy specically aimed at the SME segment.

As a part o this strategy Polycom has recently

appointed a global head or the SME segment. Te

company provides a wide-range o desktop, wire-

less and multimedia communication solutions orsmall and medium enterprises. For example, Poly-

com SoundPoint IP amily o phones leverages the

capabilities o SIP-based VoIP networks to deliver

breakthrough voice quality and advanced eatures

that make calls more ecient and productive.

Polycom SoundStation Conerence Phones are

the industry standard or clear productive coner-

ence calls.

Similarly, Polycom’s recently introduced QDX

6000 is the rst videoconerencing product o its

kind to address the cost-conscious SME segment

that at the same time seeks ease o use and high

quality.

However, the biggest challenge the SMEs

today ace isn’t so much relevant to cost, but the

“BUSINESS OCTANE HAS

GONE AHEAD IN TERMS

OF INNOVATION WITH ITS

CUSTOMIZED RANGE OFIMMERSIVE TELEPRESENCE

SUITES & SOLUTIONS FOR

THE SME SEGMENT THAT

WILL HELP THESE ENTER-

PRISES BENEFIT FROM A

FASTER ROI.

SANJAY BANSAL, CHAIRMAN OF THE

BOARD & MANAGING DIRECTOR, BUSINESS

OCTANE

“OVER THE YEARS,

UNIFIED COMMUNICA-

TIONS HAS HELPED IN

EASING COMMUNICA-

TION HASSLES AND

NOW, EVEN SMES HAVE

STARTED TO REALIZE

THESE ADVANTAGES.”

RAVINDER RAINA, COUNTRY HEAD

– PRIVATE NETWORK SOLUTIONS, NEC

INDIA

COVER STORY UC



complexity o I. Te interoperability is no more

relevant now as most the vendors have addressed

the issue with open standards based solutions.

Te lack o awareness and value perception is

one o the key roadblocks to SME I adoption.

And, these challenges can only be mitigated by the aggressive engagement o partners to play a

consultative role to the customers. Some partners

have already understood the value proposition

some are not. For example GoIP Global Services

is one o the channel partners o multi brands

and understand the market very well. Tey must

have gone through gruelling sessions and have

acquired the knowledge hard way.

Shiv Sharma, Director - Strategy & Alliance,

Go IP Global Services, says, “Unied Com-

munications (UC) has emerged as an impor-

tant milestone in the evolution o enterprisecommunications. UC seeks to break down the

communications silos in the enterprise and add

collaboration unctions. Using a dierent tool

or each communications mode (phone, ax, and

email) hinders productivity, wastes time, and

causes rustration. Business users no longer want

to juggle multiple devices and phone numbers,

multiple message stores, and multiple directories

when instead they can access multimedia com-

munication and collaboration tools in a single

interace on the desktop. UC breaks down barri-

ers and integrates communication and collabora-

tion tools, making them more easily accessibleand saving signicant time and resources.”

He adds, “UC solutions, such as Microso Lync

Server 2010 typically combine several traditional

communications unctions (including presence,

instant messaging, real-time voice and video

communications and unied messaging) into

an integrated, unied solution. UC can improve

productivity, accelerate inormation transer, and

reduce costs. UC solutions, such as Lync Server

2010 and Microso Exchange Unied Messaging,

can also replace traditional PBX and messaging

systems in remote oce locations.”Cisco’s SMB market strategy involves help-

ing customers create a sustainable competitive

advantage, improve their operational eciencies,

increase their employees’ productivity, and ulti-

mately boost their returns and protability. Te

strategy includes ocusing on new customised

SMB products/solutions and nancing schemes

like the Easy Lease program, and the 0% nance

oering or SMBs. o increase awareness o its

products and programs among these businesses,

Cisco will continue to invest heavily in partner

enablement and innovative marketing initiatives

such as the Network on Wheels and the Sales and

Marketing Services Organisation.

Cisco is developing domain specic solutions

to help SMB customers in each sub-vertical,

which will help them plan, design and operate

business critical networks more eciently.Te Company has also launched a small busi-

ness partner protability program. Cisco also

makes available a lot o product literature and

support material to partners to support their sales

eorts. In act Cisco has a separate division called

the Sales and Marketing Support Organisation

(SMSO) that takes care o the marketing collateral

needs o the channel partners.

Similarly, Avaya in India has been moving

towards a High-ouch, channel centric (HCC)

sales model. Tey now have two national level dis-

tributors in Redington and Bharti eletech help-

ing the company reach out to the SMEs across thecountry. Tese distributors urther sell to a large

set o System Integration (SI) partners, across

geographies in India & SAARC.

Te company has a antastic Channel Partner

Program called “Avaya Connect”, which helps SI

partners take advantage o enhanced technical

and marketing benets. Tis in turn helps them

build capability on Avaya echnologies and serve

customers better.

Te company is gung ho about 2011 and has a

slew o marketing initiatives in the pipeline, one

o which is already rolled out. Tat is the 6 city Experience roadshows to showcase the integrated

product roadmap and Avaya technologies to the

customers and partner community.

Te company is investing heavily in the chan-

nel partners, by way o partner enablement,

Demo Gear, Ex-Stock product availability, Solu-

tion bundles, oll ree Support line or Pre-sales

& Post-sales, Partners Rewards & Rebates. Avaya

has ambitious plans on marketing online, print,

road shows or SMB partners who are certied

and invested in Avaya.

SEN’s indirect channel structure is extensive

and so is its reach. Te company has over a hun-

dred partners with pan-India presence, including

tier II cities. Te company has also an excellent

partner program that ocus on their empower-

ment in terms o knowledge - trainings & certi-

cation, engagement - partner communication,presence & messaging - marketing and branding

support, reerences and rewards & recognition.

On global level, the company has programs like

‘Go Forward’ that are meant or channel empow-

erment and recognition.

Polycom is also working on a strategy to reach

bigger number o SME throughout the country or

which they are appointing more channel partners.

Tey have 3 distributors and more than 50 chan-

nel partners spread across India. Te company

will soon appoint some more channel partners to

reach out the wide spread SMEs in India. By rst

quarter o 2011, Polycom will launch “PolycomChoice Programme” or its channel partners,

which will encompass certication, growth and

dening the channel partners.

NEC’s channel network or PNS (Private Net-

work Solutions) is pretty strong including the

names like Enkay echnologies, Syntel and Intel-

licon. Very recently they have tied-up with Avaya

Global Connect Networks as its national distribu-

tor or the PNS solutions.

Finally…

Te entire assortment o opinion says that mosto the vendors are ready with SME solutions and

they have addressed the pricing and interopera-

bility issues with due care. Te only thing they are

struggling waiting is the educating the customers

about the utility and R0I o the UC solutions. Tis

is surely a challenge and the large vendors should

take the oot orward by engaging the customers

in various platorms explaining them about the

benets, which will include aggressively engag-

ing with the partners. Another trend - hosted

communication services or cloud services - is

also picking up in the market which is very much

relevant to the SME market and it is waited to be

seen how the things are panning out. But the sen-

timent is UC is high with the SMEs.

“UC SEEKS TO BREAK

DOWN THE COMMUNI-

CATIONS SILOS IN THEENTERPRISE AND ADD COL-

LABORATION FUNCTIONS.

SHIV SHARMA, DIRECTOR - STRATEGY &

ALLIANCE, GO IP GLOBAL SERVICES

COVER STORY UC















































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