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Cisco's OJ Winge: Collaboration from the EndpointCisco's OJ Winge: Collaboration from the Endpoint

Cisco's Enterprise Connect keynoter is bullish on video--and on IP desk phones.

Eric Krapf

March 7, 2012

5 Min Read
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Cisco's Enterprise Connect keynoter is bullish on video--and on IP desk phones.

OJ Winge, who will give a Tuesday keynote at Enterprise Connect Orlando later this month, is in charge of Cisco's products and strategies for the communications endpoint. As a transplant from Cisco's acquisition of Tandberg--and as an executive at a company that says video is the next voice--it's not surprising that when OJ looks at the endpoint of the future, he sees a lot of video. He also sees a future where the BYOD (bring your own device) trend offers promise, not a threat to an end-to-end vendor like Cisco.

I talked with OJ this week about these and other market trends, as well as Cisco's challenge to the Microsoft-Skype deal, and the future of the IP phone.

OJ Winge serves as SVP and GM of Cisco's Video and Collaboration Business, and while his day-to-day responsibilities focus on the endpoint--video, IP phones, the Jabber UC client, and even virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)--he's also a member of Cisco's Collaboration Board, helping to inform the company's overall strategy on collaboration. His bottom line on the future of the endpoint: "We clearly believe that the borders between voice, video, conferencing even, will be very much shattered over the next couple of years."

He conceded that, by taking a combined view of all these media at the endpoints, and putting them under his mandate, "We are moving before the market is moving," but the move is clearly consistent with every message Cisco has been putting out over the last few years.

OJ also told me that when he looks at BYOD, he sees not a threat to Cisco-built endpoints, but simply another piece of the puzzle: BYOD adds to an enterprise's endpoint strategy, it doesn't replace it. The number of devices shipped for BYOD usage is "enormous," but at the same time, Cisco is shipping 2 million IP desk phones per quarter, and that number is growing, he said.

"It's not only BYOD happening," he said. Besides the continued growth of IP desk sets, Cisco is seeing a 30% year-over-year growth in telepresence, he added.

"Am I worried about the Cisco endpoint business? I'm not worried at all," he said.

When it comes to BYOD, Cisco's priority is to have its software on the device. "I don't believe it has to be a Cisco-created endpoint," he said. "I don't care about platform. We just want to make sure our collaboration technology is used."

Toward that end, Cisco has been working on an internal project, code-named "Futurama," that Winge said , "is all around harmonizing and simplifying the experience" for users of Cisco endpoint clients. He noted that at one point, Cisco had 9 different client experiences for its various endpoint interfaces; the focus is on making the Jabber interface the common experience across everything from smartphones to telepresence.

Next page: Why Cisco went after Skype-Microsoft

I was eager to ask OJ about Cisco's recent European Commission appeal of the Microsoft-Skype deal, on the grounds that Skype's proprietary protocols hinder the goal of interoperability across public voice/video systems on the Internet. It turned out, OJ brought up the subject before I even got the chance.

Winge reiterated the points that Cisco made in its public announcement of the appeal: "They have, for the most part, chosen proprietary signaling, a proprietary codec that doesn’t allow interoperability," he said. "Let's make sure we're not creating lack of interoperability in this space." He asked what the reaction would be if people couldn't make calls, say, between AT&T's and Verizon's networks when they use their iPhones.

The new news here is that, according to OJ Winge, Cisco did engage Microsoft to try and resolve the issue, and only filed the appeal when the deadline for doing so closed in on them. "We don't want to do this with lawyers around the table. We tried to get this done in a business to business discussion with Microsoft."

He added: "Those discussions are still going on."

IP Phone Growth
So what about that growth in IP desk phones? I asked OJ what's driving the continued strength of that market, and his answer was basically the same response that people have been giving to this "death of the desk phone" contention ever since it started arising.

"Telephony voice is so important to so many enterprises that they wil say there's no way they will trust the PC or their desktop device for that," he said.

Which is not to say the desk phone hasn't lost some of its luster; OJ Winge said Cisco's IP phone sales are not growing at the same pace as they were when phones were the only option. And Cisco clients and telepresence are growing quicker--admittedly, off a smaller base.

And when OJ Winge talks about the future of the desk phone, he talks about video enablement. He said he believes that, as video becomes a more commonplace way of conducting "calls," people will want to do it from their desks, and they won't want to prop an iPad up there to do an extended video call, or even necessarily go through a PC--especially since Cisco claims we're entering a "post-PC world". So he said Cisco expects to be adding more video displays to its lineup of desk sets.

OJ Winge's Enterprise Connect keynote will take place on Tuesday, March 27, 10 AM Eastern time.

About the Author

Eric Krapf

Eric Krapf is General Manager and Program Co-Chair for Enterprise Connect, the leading conference/exhibition and online events brand in the enterprise communications industry. He has been Enterprise Connect.s Program Co-Chair for over a decade. He is also publisher of No Jitter, the Enterprise Connect community.s daily news and analysis website.
 

Eric served as editor of No Jitter from its founding in 2007 until taking over as publisher in 2015. From 1996 to 2004, Eric was managing editor of Business Communications Review (BCR) magazine, and from 2004 to 2007, he was the magazine's editor. BCR was a highly respected journal of the business technology and communications industry.
 

Before coming to BCR, he was managing editor and senior editor of America's Network magazine, covering the public telecommunications industry. Prior to working in high-tech journalism, he was a reporter and editor at newspapers in Connecticut and Texas.