UC as a Virtuous EllipseUC as a Virtuous Ellipse

UC's initial functionality was that of a presence/managed-availability portal. The newer term, UCC, indicates that the concept has moved on to embrace collaboration (the second C), and more recently the industry has been talking up the integration of real-time communications with mainstream business processes. (A few years ago the term "the real-time enterprise" was used for this integration development, but it’s gone out of fashion.) More recently Mobile UC has become a center stage requirement. Pull it all together and you end up with a scenario in which everything that's related to communications is unified, as visualized in the virtuous ellipse that Alcatel-Lucent depicts in Figure 1.

Figure 1 Alcatel-Lucent's view of a UC experience is a "Virtuous Ellipse:" a four-sector blend of complementary and interoperable applications/services. The company focuses on carriers that want to offer these services as managed solutions to their enterprise customers. The elements were designed as a set of off-the-shelf components in order to simplify the sales process and eliminate the need for systems integration.

The UC scenario has evolved very rapidly, and there are indications that it has been too rapid for most IT departments to take on board. While the baseline benefits are considerable, the uptake has been relatively slow, a subject that’s been covered in various No Jitter articles. The linked article is worth reading because it also indicates the "Ready-Fire-Aim" approach to UC that some companies have adopted, i.e., UC is being implemented without a strategy and without a financial justification.

Businesses can't function without efficient communication services, but these are part of a much bigger picture that includes the Level 2/3 VPNs, network services on which the services and applications run, and the customer interaction center (also known as call center or contact center) that many enterprises employ. Enterprises rely on service providers (SPs) to provide those Level 2/3 managed network services, but given the size and complexity of the big picture, there is an obvious opportunity for SPs to extend their service portfolios and thereby offer both managed business communication services and managed customer interaction services.

Alcatel-Lucent's research indicates that the total service revenues of all three sectors of the managed services market — Business Networking, Business Communication and Customer Interaction — could reach 64 Billion euros (US$92 B) by 2012 (see Figure 2). The managed business communication sector (UC/UCC) has the highest growth (26.6%). These figures may change given the economic climate, but it’s clear that enterprises will be strapped for capital expenditure cash, nor can they afford long ROIs. What they want is a lower cost of ownership. Therefore managed services fit the bill, particularly those that come from carriers who have a proven track record outside the traditional "pure connectivity" network sector.

Figure 2 The financial figures come from August 2008, so 64 Billion euros may turn out to be somewhat optimistic, but the potential of the additional services is clear. Moreover, the network sector goes flat in the 2011-2012 timeframe, so SPs need to expand their portfolio now in order to survive.

Making It Work

The key word in A-L's virtuous ellipse concept is interoperability. The various components in each of the four sectors must interoperate not only with each other, but also with those in the other three sectors. Historically, these applications and services represented a set of stovepipes. This does not mean that carriers should not be able to market independent components, since many companies will want to pick and mix and expand over time. Interoperability also enables innovative functionality, e.g. direct dialing to phone numbers embedded in emails.

The ability to implement UC and UCC as a series of steps is attractive; more than 100 SPs are current customers of components located in A-L's Enterprise Communications sector, but at the same time A to Z interoperability with components in other sectors must be proven. One example is Telecom Italia, which implemented a nationwide VoIP service for Poste Italiane (the national postal authority). Out of the total of 14,000 locations, more than 11,000 small sites are served with IP Centrex (Virtual PBX), whereas the larger sites are served with hosted and managed IP PBXs. The difference between these two approaches has become somewhat blurred. IP Centrex is a single multi-tenant application that is shared among a number of different enterprise customers, whereas a hosted IP PBX (supporting x lines) is dedicated to a particular enterprise. Typically, IP Centrex is used for the smaller enterprises; hosted IP PBX for larger ones, particularly if there is a security concern.

A Voice VPN ties all the sites together to create a true virtual enterprise. At the application layers there is interoperability between VPN-IP Centrex, a media servicer (for announcements), A-L's My Teamwork collaboration software, voice mail and a fax server. Legacy application integration includes Microsoft Live Communications Server (the predecessor to the current Office Communications Server or OCS) and video from Polycom. A key benefit is the fact that everything functions as a single virtual network.

A to Z interoperability is illustrated in Figure 3. This is the architecture that enables seamless support for VoIP and TDM telephony as well as the Web community. It also incorporates open interfaces to all popular applications, e.g. MS Exchange, Facebook, etc. If IMS has been implemented in the SP’s network, then SIP is used to consolidate all the information and thereby facilitate interoperability.

Figure 3 INAP extracts information from the PSTN, CAMEL (Customized Applications for Mobile network Enhanced Logic) performs the same function for cellular networks, as does SIP for IP networks. This allows one application to make decisions across other networks. This is the functionality that underpins the virtuous ellipse, which in turn brings legacy terminals (TDM and 2G) into the UC equation.

Keep It Simple: Make It Customizable

The UC/UCC portal runs on a standard browser, which means that the experience is the same on notebook PCs and mobile devices. Features such as click to dial, select individual voicemails, arrange ad hoc conference calls based on presence and availability are standard these days; however, A-L's GUI also incorporates IM and SMS. As a next step, these capabilities can be mixed and matched in the main portal with the end user’s preferred widgets. For example, the buddy list could be based on MS Messenger, which, as illustrated in Figure 4, appears on the left-hand side. Other widgets can be placed underneath the UC portal.

Figure 4 Portals that are easy to use get used. Portals that are over-engineered (a core engineering competence) may be packed with functionality but they miss the point. We are talking about a communications tool that saves time and boosts productivity. In this model there is a baseline Inbox; additional functionality comes via widgets that the user selects and arranges according to individual preferences.

Managed Services Come in Different Flavors

The plain vanilla flavor is that of a vendor selling products and services to carriers (a CAPEX model) who then sell managed services to enterprises (an OPEX model). However, A-L can also host managed services in their data centers, so now the model for both carriers and enterprises is the same, i.e. it's OPEX. Carriers would rebrand those managed services before offering them to their customers. In the U.S., Sprint rebrands a business VoIP service that is hosted by A-L.

A-L also has a mixed model whereby products such as IP PBXs are sold to enterprises via a business partner, e.g., a carrier or systems integrator. In addition, products and solutions such as optical and IP gear are sold direct to very large enterprises as well as public sector organizations. The last flavor is one whereby the A-L takes responsibility for running the network of an enterprise or a carrier.

Conclusions

Carriers have been talking about value-added services for a decade or more, but nothing much happened, as we all know. Development took too long and they lacked the requisite know-how of what the market wanted as well as the marketing expertise to deliver it. In addition, the focus was on consumers — the big numbers — so the business sector was neglected.

Outsourced managed services that come in proven bundles, and the ability to interoperate with desktop devices and mainstream business processes, are gaining traction—A-L had around 100 carrier customers at the end of 2008. And they do match the needs of the market, e.g. minimize CAPEX and TCO. However — and this is a personal opinion — I find it ironic that some carriers are outsourcing the management of their network. One would assume that running a network was the core competence of a network operator.

One also has to consider the ability of carriers to market these services. Alcatel-Lucent has designed them as off-the-shelf components so the sell should be easy, but they are also employing a push-pull model, i.e. talking to enterprises (the pull side) about the business benefits as well as the carrier (the push model) that the enterprise is using for network services such as IP VPNs. Fine if it works, and it does appear to be working, but one has to question the added value that carriers are really bringing to the market.

Bob Emmerson is a Freelance Writer & European Editor of No Jitter. He is based in the Netherlands.