Mitel Goes Heavier on BlackBerryMitel Goes Heavier on BlackBerry

Cisco may have been first with the preferred MVS 5.0 interface, but Mitel is raising the bar--or at least describing a higher bar.

In Monday's post I described the new enhancements to the BlackBerry MVS with Version 5, specifically the ability to support dual mode Wi-Fi/cellular BlackBerry devices in the Cisco Unified Call Manager environment. The other major element of that announcement was a developer platform that will allow IP PBX and UC vendors to more tightly integrate their products with the MVS. The key to that tighter coupling will be a SIP back-to-back-user-agent (B2BUA) interface between the MVS and the call manager.Mitel announced that they will be taking advantage of the new open environment for MVS 5 integration with a product introduction by the end of this year. Mitel has joined the BlackBerry Alliance as an Elite Member, and they will be enhancing those MVS capabilities with their Dynamic Extension and UC Advanced Mobile Portal.

The Mitel MVS implementation will include a couple of important enhancements. In the Cisco version, in-progress calls can be moved from the mobile device to the desk phone, but not the other way around. That means the most likely user scenario, a user on a desk call that has to leave, will have to either transfer the call or hang up and call back on the mobile. Mitel's Dynamic Extension can accommodate those transfers by including the BlackBerry smartphone as one of the devices in the user's personal ring group.

The other element will come from using the Mitel/MVS 5 solution in conjunction with Mitel's UC Advanced Client for BlackBerry. As the BlackBerry clients for Microsoft OCS and IBM Sametime will provide access to OCS/Sametime presence, Mitel's UC Advanced Client for BlackBerry will provide Mitel-based UC capabilities as access to the corporate directory and presence. They have also incorporated performance optimization features like having the mobile store any number from the corporate directory locally once you dial it.

Probably the most interesting addition is the Mitel implementation is the incorporation of location-based presence using either the GPS or Bluetooth interfaces in the BlackBerry. I've been talking about using location to adjust presence status for some time, but this is one of the first products I've seen that actually puts it into practice. The basic process is the user can record locations that they visit regularly (e.g. office, home, Chicago office, etc.). When the user stores a location, they name it, and then define status and call preference (e.g. ring desk phone, mobile, home office phone, etc.) for whenever they return to that place.

From a marketing standpoint, there is a danger for Mitel (and for everyone else who takes this path) in that you will be promoting your mobility solution side-by-side with MVS. Inevitably you wind up with one solution and one set of capabilities for the BlackBerry environment and something else for the rest of the mobile devices. Mitel tries to put the best spin on that by saying "it's all good, but the BlackBerry implementation is just a little better". However, it's hard to do that and not sound like you're trying to apologize for the deficiencies of your product when compared to the BlackBerry implementation.

Cisco may have been first with the preferred MVS 5.0 interface, but Mitel is raising the bar--or at least describing a higher bar. While you do pay an additional SIP license for the associated BlackBerry, you can make it act like the user's primary phone and dispense with their desk set altogether. At the end of the day, the measure of success will be user satisfaction and acceptance. The key feature of the MVS is its integration with the BlackBerry smartphone interface. Add on smartphone clients like Mitel's UC Advanced Client have met with minimal acceptance; we will have to see if the new functionality will sufficient to have users accept it.Cisco may have been first with the preferred MVS 5.0 interface, but Mitel is raising the bar--or at least describing a higher bar.