Unify CMO Bill Hurley Talks Ansible, TransformationUnify CMO Bill Hurley Talks Ansible, Transformation

As the company's rebrand turns 1 year old, Unify looks to major product and channel news next month.

It was almost a year ago that Siemens Enterprise Communications began its metamorphosis into Unify, a process that included a rebranding, the debut of the much-touted Ansible software client, and, finally, the announcement of a major workforce reduction, to the tune of about 50% of the company's employees, with the effect to be felt primarily in Europe. I recently had a chance to talk with the company's new Chief Marketing Officer, Bill Hurley, to get a progress report on what he referred to as Unify's "transformation."

The bottom line is that Unify is on schedule to bring Ansible out of beta and into GA late next month, on the heels of a major early-October announcement regarding the company's channel, which Hurley teased but wouldn't get specific about. He did offer assurances the Unify is committed to the North American market.

Here are some highlights of our conversation:

Ansible
Unify has well over 1,000 users in its Ansible beta, and a beta advisory council of more than 20 members, according to Hurley. The most interesting elements of feedback from users have to do with changes in use of different communications channels, as well as experience with WebRTC (Ansible is the first major-vendor client to be WebRTC-enabled).

When it comes to communications channels, beta users "are all saying the same thing: We do less email," Hurley said. "You're not in your in-box all day, troving and searching: 'When did I talk to her last, she gave me that document....' The way we work in the email world changes with Ansible." Hurley touted the client's ease of switching between modes--voice, video, conferencing--what he called the "non-modal capability of Ansible."

On the WebRTC front, no news has been good news. Hurley described a conversation with a Fortune 100 company about using Ansible, saying, "They were nervous about WebRTC." The trial has proven the technology works: "We're not running into any problems. We're not running into any issues. The technology works the way it was advertised, and we're taking advantage of the capabilities it provides. There is no doubt that it works and works very well."

As for who's the best candidate within an organization to be an Ansible user, knowledge workers are obviously the first opportunity, though Hurley insists that this classification is going to broaden with advances like the Internet of Things. "With Internet of Things, as more inanimate objects become networked, they become part of the conversation. The knowledge worker of today is going to be different from the knowledge worker of tomorrow."

Ansible is slated to go GA on October 28, Hurley said.

The "Transformation"
Unify's June 2 announcement that it would reduce headcount by 50% didn't exactly come as a surprise in an industry that's seen as much upheaval--both technological and financial--as the enterprise communications business. Still, the sheer scale of the move drew a lot of attention.

The announced paring-down is proceeding, Hurley told me. Since much of the reduction is taking place in countries with strong worker-protection laws, Unify has been working closely with governments in these places to comply with local laws as the company reduces its workforce, he said.

Beyond reducing its workforce to adapt to the transition from a hardware focus to being software/services-centric, Unify is attempting to transform its go-to-market model from more direct sales toward an indirect/channel model. As with the workforce reduction, this is proceeding on a country-by-country basis, based on local conditions, Hurley said. As noted, he promised a major announcement regarding the channel early next month.

Unify's most conspicuous strategy for moving to an indirect model can be seen in its executive hires: Both Bill Hurley and CEO Dean Douglas came to Unify from Westcon, a major distributor. In addition, Hurley said the February hiring of Jon Pritchard to be executive VP of worldwide channels has bolstered channel partners' confidence in Unify's commitment to the new strategy. As president of Westcon's Comstor Worldwide unit, Pritchard built a $2.5 billion business operating in 40 countries; Hurley said that resellers are "very very excited about the opportunity to work with someone like Jon."

Commitment to North America, Rebranding
Hurley insists that Unify remains "very focused on growing our North American business..... We're doubling down." The company is focusing on two sets of strategies in North America, he said: Working to bring its products and services into line with customers' business requirements; and highlighting how Unify solutions operate in and are optimized for specific vertical industries.

With the Unify brand now almost a year old, Hurley acknowledged that the rebranding poses different challenges in different regions of the world where the old Siemens name may have had varying levels of brand equity. "This stuff isn't easy, creating a new brand globally," he said.

His assessment: "Am I satisfied with where we are? No. I always want us to be a little further along. But do I think we've done a darn good job? Yes."

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