Truly Powerful Collaboration Deployments Do Not End at Lync:

Transcription

1 Truly Powerful Collaboration Deployments Do Not End at Lync: Considerations to Extend the Value of Lync A Frost & Sullivan Market Insight Sponsored by Acano

2 frost.com Introduction... 3 Adoption Trends in the UCC Market... 3 Considerations to Extend the Value of Lync... 5 The Acano Implementation... 5 Microsoft Lync Integration at Vodafone... 6 Conclusion... 6 contents

3 Truly Powerful Collaboration Deployments Do Not End at Lync: Considerations to Extend the Value of Lync INTRODUCTION Microsoft s prowess in the IT domain is well known. The company owns dominant market share in a number of IT and business applications categories. Many organizations are building on their existing investments and familiarity with Microsoft technologies to enhance their communications capabilities. They expect to accomplish this by deploying Microsoft Lync. Lync provides a robust set of voice, video and data-driven communications applications in a tightly integrated platform. With these capabilities business leaders are expecting to improve the way users communicate, collaborate and share information, effectively enhancing productivity and organizational agility. However, Lync alone is proving unable to address all the legacy communications issues customers are striving to resolve. In many implementations, existing investments need to be leveraged alongside Lync, and a notable Lync for a best of breed strategy. This article discusses solutions to help organizations get more out of their Lync investments, add value to the platform, and resolve legacy issues that Lync by itself does not fully address. ADOPTION TRENDS IN THE UCC MARKET Market-leading mind-share, functionality enhancements and expanded deployment options have helped to drive Lync adoption by organizations of all types. Already the established market share leader in enterprise it was the third-ranked enterprise voice platform in terms of total global IP telephony line license shipments and held the leadership position in the global on-premises web conferencing market. and intuitive interface - from which a range of voice, video, messaging, presence, conferencing and other more users across their networks. Exhibit 1-Enterprise Communications User Endpoints, Plans for Future Use by Company Size: United States and Europe, % 55% 52% 63% 56% 48% 56% 63% 44% Total Sample Small Medium Large 41% 30% 33% 29% 25% 14% 15% Smartphone for business Tablets for business UC Client Base: All respondents (n=1,028) Which of the following technologies do you expect your company will be using three years from now? Business-grade softphones Source: Frost & Sullivan 3

4 frost.com enable users of different clients and devices to communicate together effectively. deployed or plan to place high priority on other communications endpoints. Customers recognize that a variety of interfaces and devices is required for differing user preferences, roles, tasks and environments. There is a clear and growing need to enable users of different clients and devices to communicate together effectively. the ability to integrate with existing investments, and other criteria. With the prevalence of standards-based technology, customers are truly in charge. The same Frost & Sullivan survey found that end user organizations Exhibit 2 - Communications Infrastructure, Current and Future Usage: United States and Europe, 2013 Multiple products from multiple vendors that are not integrated 27% 38% Tightly integrated multi-vendor solutions 36% 44% End-to-end single-vendor solution 26% 29% Current Future Base: Filtered respondents, those who use communications infrastructure technologies (n=770). Which of the following best describes your company s current communications infrastructure (from a communications software point of view)? Which of the following best describes what your company s communications infrastructure will likely be two years from now (from a communications software point of view)? Source: Frost & Sullivan

5 Truly Powerful Collaboration Deployments Do Not End at Lync: Considerations to Extend the Value of Lync CONSIDERATIONS TO EXTEND THE VALUE OF LYNC whether interacting with parties inside or outside of the organization. For Lync users this means preserving the Lync experience while extending its robust capabilities to non-lync users. Given Lync s current capabilities and implementations of industry standards, the recommended approach to enable such an environment is through deeply integrating Lync into multi-vendor solutions. When breaking or avoiding silos decision makers must consider which Lync features they wish to preserve as well as which ones they would like to add or enhance. Lync users prize the platform s client for its powerful IM, presence and click-to-communicate capabilities. The best approach to preserve these and other features is by tightly integrating Lync with third-party platforms. THE ACANO IMPLEMENTATION Acano unites disconnected audio, video and web collaboration silos, including in Microsoft Lync multivendor environments. The Acano platform offers a rich and tightly packaged set of multi-media collaboration between Lync and non-lync users. Acano provides deep integration through the following capabilities: IM & Presence Federation: Lync and non-lync users add each other to their IM contact lists, unilaterally share their presence status and availability, as well as communicate directly via instant messaging. Multi-media Conferencing: Lync users create ad-hoc conferences with non-lync users with the same intuitive and dynamic drag/drop functionality they are familiar with. Acano adds value to Lync with robust and intuitive scheduled and persistent multi-media conferencing that is natively accessible from the Lync client. Content Sharing: In most implementations today, non-lync users cannot share content in Lync Meetings. Acano allows bi-directional content sharing which enables all participants to contribute equally. Universal Access: A wide range of meeting access options is critical to prevent communications currently provides. Scale: Acano adds greater scalability. For example one telecommunications company uses Acano 5

6 frost.com MICROSOFT LYNC INTEGRATION AT VODAFONE Vodafone encourages employees to share new ideas that will propel the company into the future, and looks for technologies that will help foster this innovation. The company ranks among the world s largest integration at scale. With the functionality and scale of the Acano solution Vodafone will be able to offer the Cisco Telepresence room systems. Employees will be able to enter cospaces and use audio, web, video, Lync, and tablets on a massive scale, this gives teams the freedom to choose how they communicate. CONCLUSION Technology should not get in the way of how and when people meet and share information. Although many organizations have invested in Lync, the platform was initially designed for internal communications amongst business decision makers should consider enhancing the value of their Lync investments through tight integration with best-of-breed technologies. Innovative companies such as Acano are meeting these requirements. 6

7 Auckland Bahrain Bangkok Beijing Bengaluru Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Colombo Delhi/NCR Detroit Dubai Frankfurt Houston Iskander Malaysia/Johor Bahru Istanbul Jakarta Kolkata Kuala Lumpur London Manhattan Miami Milan Mumbai Moscow Oxford Paris Pune Rockville Centre San Antonio São Paulo Seoul Shanghai Shenzhen Silicon Valley Singapore Sophia Antipolis Sydney Taipei Tel Aviv Tokyo Toronto Warsaw Silicon Valley 331 E. Evelyn Ave., Suite 100 Mountain View, CA Tel Fax San Antonio 7550 West Interstate 10, Suite 400 San Antonio, TX Tel Fax London 4 Grosvenor Gardens London SW1W 0DH Tel +44 (0) Fax +44 (0) GoFrost myfrost@frost.com Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today s market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the Global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Is your organization prepared for the next profound wave of industry convergence, disruptive technologies, increasing competitive intensity, Mega Trends, breakthrough best practices, changing customer dynamics and emerging economies? For information regarding permission, write: Frost & Sullivan 331 E. Evelyn Ave., Suite 100 Mountain View, CA 94041