Last week Forrester came out with a report entitled "The Four Stages of Enterprise Managed IP Communications (http://infoworld.com/4130)." When I see a title like this, I immediately start wondering what the stages are. Denial's gotta be one, for sure. Longing. Maybe despair and then resignation? Actually, in this case the stages aren't as important as Forrester's fundamental premise, which is that enterprises must be thoughtful and proactive to successfully navigate the coming wave of utility-priced IP-based communications services.
Forrester based its report on a survey of European service providers that are trying to help large enterprises integrate communications applications -- basic and advanced telephony (contact centers), audioconferencing, point-to-point and multipoint video, voicemail, and unified messaging -- into a common infrastructure and operational framework. This convergence, notes Forrester, will be enabled by new innovations such as SIP, service-oriented communication apps, and higher capacity IP networks.
This new "IPC" world, according to Forrester, will offer lower costs, more business-friendly functionality, and a new unified control layer for better management. But enterprises are struggling to implement IPC because of long ROI payback periods and confusion about how service providers' offerings fit together. "Business cases for IPC projects don't stand a chance of approval by the IT budget committees," says Forrester, given the current state of affairs.
Enter the four stages, according to Forrester: 1) visibility, 2) transformation, 3) end-to-end service management and 4) self-service.
First enterprises must take a thorough inventory of all the communications 'islands' in their existing environment (good luck). Then they must switch to utility pricing models and add workflow improvements, focus on security and also do plenty of organizational handholding (good luck). Once they've transformed, they should make sure they can do automated end-to-end service management, and use portals to let their users self-provision service (ditto).
Sounds like a tall order... but wait, there's more. Don't forget long-term road-map planning with your IPC vendors, including subcontractors, Forrester counsels, and use a balanced scorecard of KPIs to govern service management.
My guess is that with this many moving parts, a lot of enterprises will opt for continuing with the good old fashioned non-IP dial tone until the landscape becomes clearer. Except those who can really gain competitive advantage in their markets by using IPC to better leverage call centers, branch offices, knowledge workers, or whoever else is doing the key customer-facing work. Forget SIP -- just get me to a rep in under a minute!
Is Microsoft losing it? Microsoft got a spanking from Wall Street last week for announcing it would divert an extra couple billion of its gushing profits to bulk up against Google in the online advertising space. While there's a legitimate debate about whether online advertising has anything to do with the future of software, the beating Microsoft took was so bad that it implies one of two things: 1) Investors don't believe Microsoft should be betting so heavily on future, speculative products, but should instead save its money for a rainy day; or 2) Investors believe Microsoft will blow the extra money on sodas and cigarettes, because it's lost its ability to truly innovate. What do you think?