Unified communications (UC) is a concept that has long suffered from a surfeit of differing definitions, but many channel figures are claiming the benefits of investing in it are becoming clearer for businesses across the board.

Virtually all the major voice and data vendors, as well as niche players, have thrown their hat into the UC ring and a report from communications consultancy Infonetics Research revealed the global UC and IP contact centre market is now worth $1bn annually. But industry insiders have struggled to define what UC represents.

Maren Bennette, UC forum leader for industry body the Communications Management Association (CMA), claimed confusion around the meaning of UC had hindered its development.
“For resellers, one of the biggest problems is there are so many definitions of UC and an almost infinite number of products,” he said.

Lacking in knowledge
“My advice would be to listen very carefully to what your customers want to buy, make sure that what you are offering meets those requirements and, most importantly, do not over estimate the capabilities of the products and services.”

Research carried out a year ago by the CMA and sponsored by VAR Dimension Data revealed that at that time, more than 15 per cent of senior communications experts lacked a good understanding of UC. Additionally, a lack of skills, security concerns and cost barriers were cited by between 10 and 20 per cent of respondents as obstacles to implementing a UC platform.

Scott Nursten, managing director of reseller s2s, admitted he initially struggled with UC. “Go back two years and I struggled to sell UC and to articulate the benefits because they were not really there. It was not doing much more than telephony over IP,” he said. “Now we have all the elements and are deploying that technology. With true collaboration, the benefits are clear.”

Simon Paton, UK managing director of UC software vendor Communigate, is one of a number of channel figures to claim UC has been misrepresented in the past. “Unless the value of better and more efficient communications is there, it is just nice technology. UC used to be just a sexy new technology, but now people are seeing the benefits.”

Explaining the advantages of investing in UC to the SME market has become a priority for many vendors. ShoreTel’s EMEA managing director Mark Swendsen claimed the adoption of UC had become viable for many smaller firms. “It depends on the organisation; I would characterise it as horses for courses,” he said.

“If you have two or three people running a chip shop or a launderette, the benefits of UC are difficult to illustrate. But if those people are lawyers, technology consultants or are a branch office for an American multinational corporation, those tools could be of real benefit.”

Stuart Wells, Avaya’s president of global communications solutions, claimed UC products could be used to good effect even by micro-businesses. “We sell SME products and firms want easy install and easy management. A UC voicemail system can give a one-man business a personal assistant.”

The journey ahead
Justin Turner, head of product management for distributor Comstor, said his firm was making an effort to bring traditional voice and data resellers up to speed on the intricacies of selling UC.

“For data resellers, we see their journey from a skills point of view as less traumatic than the telephony VARs, but the challenge for them is gaining a foothold in the market.”

Nursten claimed channel players could cash in if they had the skills in place to sell UC, particularly in the current economic climate. “VARs have been getting away with selling the piece of kit they want to sell, but the customer is becoming king again. Resellers should be getting under the skin of businesses; their business requirements, their technology requirements and, most importantly, the budgets.”

Turner said VARs should climb on the UC bandwagon quickly. “If a traditional telephony VAR is not thinking about UC now, they have a problem.”