Critical Capabilities for Corporate Telephony

Transcription

1 G Critical Capabilities for Corporate Telephony Published: 18 October 2011 Analyst(s): Jay Lassman, Steve Blood, Geoff Johnson This research will help managers who are responsible for planning and deploying telephony infrastructure and applications. We outline and evaluate 11 enterprise telephony systems by focusing on the capabilities that managers should assess when applying these systems in three use cases overall, centralized and distributed. Key Findings All solutions in this research have evolved into mature, reliable enterprise telephony offerings, making it increasingly difficult to differentiate among the solutions. For this 2011 research, the average overall product score is virtually the same as it was in our 2010 research. Eight of the 11 evaluated vendors were rated as having Good viability; two were rated Excellent and one Outstanding (the highest rating possible). Recommendations Use the criteria and vendor rating information in this research to evaluate your telephony migration partners, their directions and their plans. Match your telephony requirements to each vendor's product portfolio and strategic road map, and identify your strategic vendors. Any new investment in telephony should be in Internet Protocol (IP) technology. Use the telephony migration process to evaluate unified communications (UC) capabilities, solutions and road maps supported by your telephony vendors and other UC vendors in the market. Consider a UC deployment in conjunction with telephony projects in phased trials with targeted user groups. Include ease of use, total cost of ownership, availability of support, regional distribution differences, price, licensing policies, investment protection, availability of quality of network monitoring capabilities, vendor viability and customer satisfaction reports. Telephony and UC solutions must support important IP communication standards, protocols and applications, including Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), IM and presence, service-oriented architecture (SOA) and Web services.

2 What You Need to Know This document was revised on 1 November The document you are viewing is the corrected version. For more information, see the Corrections page on gartner.com. This research complements Gartner's corporate telephony Magic Quadrant (see "Magic Quadrant for Corporate Telephony"), because it focuses on product capability and viability, rather than on the key aspects of the Magic Quadrant, which are the broader range of corporate criteria, vision and marketing. It is intended to help organizations define their telephony requirements and select specific products that match their needs. Analysis also focuses on products in North America, EMEA and the Asia/Pacific region. These regions have similar vendors and products, and enterprises in these locations have comparatively similar requirements, despite variations in regional deployment practices. The IP telephony communication market is mature in accordance with the criteria presented in this research, which is why there are many good to excellent solutions. Because there are few differences in capabilities, decision criteria should also include availability of technical support, regional distribution differences, price, investment protection, customer satisfaction reports and overall vendor viability, all of which we evaluate in the Gartner "Magic Quadrant for Corporate Telephony." Ease of use and total cost of ownership are other factors to evaluate. To discern the differences, organizations should write RFPs that require descriptive responses, rather than simple yes or no answers; get at least minimal hands-on experience, especially regarding the user, system and administrative interfaces; and validate interoperability with UC clients and applications (see "How to Develop an RFP for Unified Communications"). Furthermore, require vendors to provide three- and five-year projections for total cost of ownership that include costs for maintenance, ensuring high reliability and upgrades (see "How to Choose a Corporate Telephony Vendor in a Turbulent Market" and "User Experiences Reveal Best Practices for Deploying Unified Communications"). While this research highlights the positives, anecdotal comments from clients often accentuate the negatives. It is highly recommended that Gartner clients use the Gartner inquiry process to speak with analysts who can provide their insights and advice about the best solutions for your organization's specific requirements. Finally, it's important to talk to users from organizations that have deployments similar to yours to best gauge actual customer experiences checking vendor references and using Gartner's Peer Connect service can play a key role in this step of the evaluation process. Analysis Introduction Many Gartner clients are considering the implementation of voice and IP telephony solutions to upgrade and enhance their communication portfolios. Potential benefits Gartner clients frequently cite include infrastructure consolidation, business continuity, centralized management, administration for local and remote locations, a platform for new applications and features, and entry into UC. Voice communication is a key component of a UC strategy, and may be sourced in Page 2 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

3 increasingly different ways (see "Critical Capabilities for Unified Communications" and "Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications"). This research provides an overview of the leading telephony systems and products, and evaluates their effectiveness in addressing organizational needs for a range of use cases overall, centralized enterprises and distributed enterprises. Product Class Definition The vendor solutions in this research basically fall into three classes: pure IP-PBX, hybrid IP-PBX and software-based IP telephony solutions. Other available approaches to voice and IP telephony include hosted and managed IP telephony solutions, but they are not covered in this research. In a pure IP-PBX system, call and application servers and gateways positioned strategically in the IP network (centrally or distributed) support system call processing, a wide range of telephony features, management and administration tools, redundancy options and interoperability with UC capabilities, such as IM and presence awareness. It is often used to replace end-of-life or end-ofsupport PBX systems. A hybrid IP-PBX system can handle IP telephony traffic, in addition to time division multiplexing (TDM) traffic. A hybrid configuration enables the TDM bus in the PBX to communicate with the IP network and supported IP phones. The system typically uses a standard Ethernet 10Base-T/ 100Base-T connection, provides audio processing for multiple voice channels, uses firmware to support downloadable feature updates and provides IP call control. IP trunk cards enable trunk-side connectivity among multiple systems, or between a system and a compatible gateway system, which is typically deployed when customers want to use their existing analog and digital telephones, in addition to new IP telephones. In the simplest terms, a software-based voice solution is an application that leverages software using standard servers and network components, with user capabilities resident in the desktop PC or laptop that are accessible using the graphical user interface (GUI), much the same as applications such as and document creation. One main benefit is that the IT organization can provision, administer and deploy these applications throughout the organization, regardless of a user's location. These systems are gaining popularity with organizations that want to integrate telephony services into a desktop client that also supports UC functions, such as IM, presence, unified messaging (UM) and conferencing (see "Key Issues for Unified Communications, 2011"). Critical Capabilities Definition IP telephony consists of a wide range of features and functions. This research examines eight critical telephony capabilities that enterprises should consider when looking to develop broad IP telephony and UC migration road maps, and when choosing strategic partners. Enterprises can build toward these goals by evaluating IP telephony solutions in one or more of the following specific capability areas: Critical Capability 1 Architecture: This refers to how the telephony system is designed, and how the components interconnect and interoperate. Terms such as "centralized" and Gartner, Inc. G Page 3 of 50

4 "distributed" (see the Use Cases section) are often used to describe the type of architecture supported by the system. Critical Capability 2 Scalability: This is the ability of the telephony system to grow seamlessly in size to cost-effectively accommodate thousands of end users in a single domain. Critical Capability 3 High Availability: This refers to the options and capabilities offered with the telephony solution for provisioning a high level of system reliability and uptime typically % (about five minutes of downtime per year) or better. Options offered can include redundant servers and core system components, local survivable gateways and processors, and public switched telephone network (PSTN) failover options. Critical Capability 4 Administration and Remote : This refers to the diagnostic tools and programs supported by the telephony system for main site locations, as well as remote site offices and locations. These tools and programs can include diagnostic software, as well as remote monitoring and diagnostic tools designed to help support and management personnel anticipate and correct system alarms and fault conditions within the telephony solution before, or soon after, they occur. Critical Capability 5 Mobility: This is the ability of a solution to provide mobile and wireless voice and telecommunications functionality. This includes support for extension-to-cellular features, fixed-mobile convergence, cordless handsets, Wi-Fi systems, softphones, cellular phones and smartphones. It includes in-building and remote access. Critical Capability 6 Open-Standards : Many traditional voice and data standards are supported by telephony systems. The ability for solutions to leverage voice over IP (VoIP) standards for IP telephony systems and UC components and applications is becoming more important as organizations look to integrate communications and business processes. Examples of standards include Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP), H.323, SIP, SIP for IM and Presence Leveraging Extension (SIMPLE), SOA and Web services. Critical Capability 7 UC Integration: This is the ability to integrate the telephony system and applications with UC solutions (equipment, software and services) from a range of vendors that facilitates the use of multiple enterprise communication methods. This can include the control, management and integration of these methods. UC components integrate communication channels (media), networks and systems, as well as IT business applications and, in some cases, consumer applications and devices. Critical Capability 8 Midsize Enterprise : This reflects the suitability of the enterprise product or solution set to cost-effectively support up to 1,000 employees not only in centralized environments, but also in distributed deployments. Examples include branch office configurations, which typically require a smaller scale of investment and less-complexity. Key aspects include ease of installation, as well as simplified management and administration. Use Cases Enterprises develop their communication infrastructures at different rates in response to differing requirements and within the context of differing infrastructure investments. As a result, the Page 4 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

5 telephony market is driven by a wide range of user needs and environments. However, enterprises typically address one of three use cases: Overall: This means "in general" or baseline, and is intended for organizations that do not closely match one of the other use cases. This is not equivalent to the evaluation criteria used in the Gartner "Magic Quadrant for Corporate Telephony," which includes factors such as service support, regional distribution differences, pricing and vendor road maps. Centralized Enterprises: This typically applies to large or very large organizations looking for telephony vendors and solutions that have concentrated support requirements. It involves the consolidation and provisioning of telephony and voice infrastructure at a main site or data center, where an organization can centrally manage and administer a single system image; or from a few experienced regional locations, for a large number of end users distributed across many sites. In contrast, a global telephony system uses a network that connects sites in multiple countries. Distributed Enterprises: In this case, a midsize or large enterprise is looking to provision its telephony and voice infrastructure in a geographically dispersed configuration. In this deployment, an organization has numerous sites and locations distributed across a wide geographic area. There are usually one or two main locations, along with a large number of smaller sites with small numbers of end users that may be managed and administered centrally or locally, and share common components, including directory databases and a network infrastructure. In these scenarios, there is little reliance on the WAN to provide either VoIP or real-time connectivity, because it is possible to have a backup link to the PSTN or IP networks via a remote, survivable gateway. Table 1 presents the ratings for the three typical use cases. Gartner, Inc. G Page 5 of 50

6 Table 1. Weighting of Critical Capabilities in Use Cases Critical Product Capabilities Overall Centralized Enterprises Distributed Enterprises Architecture 20.0% 20.0% 20.0% Scalability 1% 1% 12.0% High Availability 1% 1% 12.0% Administration and Remote 10.0% 10.0% 10.0% Mobility 10.0% 10.0% 10.0% Open-Standards 10.0% 10.0% 8.0% UC Integration 1% 1% 13.0% Midsize Enterprise % % 1% Total 100% 100% 100% Source: Gartner (October 2011) Inclusion Criteria We have included telephony solutions based on the following criteria: Significant global market presence must occur in four or more of the eight critical capabilities outlined in this research. Global market presence can be demonstrated in one of two ways by significant market share across two or more geographic regions worldwide, consistent with Gartner market share research, or by differentiating innovation. Sufficient sales, revenue and operational presence must support global market objectives. Providers must demonstrate an enterprise-premises telephony portfolio and products with substantial and noteworthy customer references. Vendor solutions must enable a full IP telephony product portfolio, even if components are offered via partnerships. Vendors Added There were no vendors added to the Critical Capabilities research this year. Page 6 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

7 Vendors Dropped HP was dropped this year because it no longer sells new VCX systems (which HP had acquired from 3Com), and thus does not meet the inclusion criteria. Critical Capabilities Rating Each of the telephony systems that meets our inclusion criteria has been evaluated on several critical capabilities (see Table 2 and Figure 1), on a scale from 1.0 (lowest ranking) to (highest ranking). The following vendors/products are included in this review: Aastra MX-One Alcatel-Lucent OpenTouch Avaya Avaya Aura Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM) Digium Asterisk and Switchvox Microsoft Lync Server Mitel Mitel Communications Director NEC Univerge SV8500 and Sphericall ShoreTel ShoreTel 12 Siemens Enterprise Communications OpenScape Voice Toshiba IPedge and Strata CIX Gartner, Inc. G Page 7 of 50

8 Table 2. Product Rating on Critical Capabilities Product Rating Aastra Alcatel-Lucent Avaya Cisco Digium Microsoft Mitel NEC ShoreTel Siemens Enterprise Communications Toshiba Architecture Scalability High Availability Administration and Remote Mobility Open-Standards UC Integration Midsize Enterprise Source: Gartner (October 2011) Page 8 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

9 Figure 1. Overall Score for Each Vendor's Product Based on the Nonweighted Score for Each Critical Capability Product Rating Chart Avaya Cisco Siemens Enterprise Communications Alcatel-Lucent Aastra NEC ShoreTel Mitel Microsoft Toshiba Digium Architecture Scalability High Availability Administration and Remote Mobility Open-Standards UC Integration Midsize Enterprise Source: Gartner (October 2011) To determine an overall score for each product in the use cases, the ratings in Table 2 are multiplied by the weightings shown in Table 1. These scores are shown in Table 3. Gartner, Inc. G Page 9 of 50

10 Table 3. Overall Score in Use Cases Use Cases Aastra Alcatel-Lucent Avaya Cisco Digium Microsoft Mitel NEC ShoreTel Siemens Enterprise Communications Toshiba Overall Centralized Enterprises Distributed Enterprises Source: Gartner (October 2011) Page 10 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

11 Product viability is distinct from the critical capability scores for each product. It is our assessment of the vendor's strategy and the vendor's ability to enhance and support a product throughout its expected life cycle; it is not an evaluation of the vendor as a whole. Four major areas are considered: strategy, support, execution and investment. Strategy includes how a vendor's strategy for a particular product fits in relation to the vendor's other product lines, its market direction and its business overall. includes the quality of technical and account support, as well as customer experiences with that product. Execution considers a vendor's structure and processes for sales, marketing, pricing and deal management. Investment considers the vendor's financial health and the likelihood of the individual business unit responsible for a product to continue investing in it. Each product is rated on a five-point scale from poor to outstanding for each of these four areas, and it is then assigned an overall product viability rating. Table 4 shows the product viability assessment. Gartner, Inc. G Page 11 of 50

12 Table 4. Product Viability Assessment Vendor/Product Name Aastra Alcatel-Lucent Avaya Cisco Digium Microsoft Mitel NEC ShoreTel Siemens Enterprise Communications Toshiba Product Viability Good Good Excellent Outstanding Good Excellent Good Good Excellent Good Good Source: Gartner (October 2011) Page 12 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

13 The weighted capabilities scores for all use cases are displayed as components of the overall score. Figures 2, 3 and 4 show the three uses cases: overall, centralized enterprise and distributed enterprise. Figure 2. Overall Use Case Overall Use Case Avaya Cisco Siemens Enterprise Communications Alcatel-Lucent Aastra NEC ShoreTel Mitel Microsoft Toshiba Digium 0.00 Worst Fit to Use Case Best Fit to Use Case Architecture Scalability High Availability Administration and Remote Mobility Open-Standards UC Integration Midsize Enterprise Source: Gartner (October 2011) Gartner, Inc. G Page 13 of 50

14 Figure 3. Centralized Enterprise Use Case Centralized Enterprise Use Case Avaya Cisco Siemens Enterprise Communications Alcatel-Lucent Aastra NEC ShoreTel Mitel Microsoft Toshiba Digium 0.00 Worst Fit to Use Case Best Fit to Use Case Architecture Scalability High Availability Administration and Remote Mobility Open-Standards UC Integration Midsize Enterprise Source: Gartner (October 2011) Page 14 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

15 Figure 4. Distributed Enterprise Use Case Distributed Enterprise Use Case Avaya Siemens Enterprise Communications Cisco Aastra Alcatel-Lucent NEC ShoreTel Mitel Microsoft Toshiba Digium 0.00 Worst Fit to Use Case Best Fit to Use Case Architecture Scalability High Availability Administration and Remote Mobility Open-Standards UC Integration Midsize Enterprise Source: Gartner (October 2011) Vendors Aastra See Table 5 for product details. Gartner, Inc. G Page 15 of 50

16 Table 5. MX-One Product/Service Name and Description Corporate Telephony Critical Capability Rating Architecture MX-One Version 4 is a Linux-based application platform supporting standard Intel servers, as well as HP ProLiant and HP BladeSystem servers. It can be configured as a centralized high-capacity server, a distributed single-system over a large geographical area or a combination of both. MX-One supports a VMware-based virtualized environment with call manager and UC applications as virtual machines residing on a single host. Although not marketed as a separate function, Aastra MX-One offers session management through its built-in capabilities. Scalability Up to 15,000 SIP endpoints and 15 gateways per server, and up to 500,000 endpoints in a single logical system. High Availability Administration and Remote Mobility Open-Standards UC Integration MX-One Version 4 comes with options like N+1 server redundancy, server and media gateway port "bonding," home location register redundancy (for IP/SIP extensions) with automated user data replication across servers. In a virtualized environment, MX-One supports VMware failover options. MX-One management is handled centrally in terms of operation and maintenance, and the solution is based on principles familiar to an IT operations center. Access to the management suite can be done centrally or remotely to all MX-One and Aastra UC application components in a single interface via the IT network. Secure remote access is provided via a TLS-based HTTPS protocol. There are different levels of authentication, so end users can log in to the Web portal, and manage their personal settings without affecting the rest of the system. Native integration of the mobile extension supports access to key features of the call manager. Aastra's mobile UC solution (Aastra Mobile Client) provides dynamic least coast routing seamless hand-over Wi-Fi/cellular network, directory search, IM, presence federation and security. Used in combination with the mobility extension, Aastra Mobile Client offers a seamless integration of mobile users in the corporate environment with the same services as a normal office extension when they are traveling. Smartphones supported are Symbian, BlackBerry, iphone and Android. Remote extension solutions, through softphones or SIP terminals deployed for teleworkers and "road warriors" also enable remote mobility. Aastra also offers Wi-Fi and SIP Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) for in-building mobility. Introduction of SIP in Release 4 has increased scalability of MX-One. This release also introduced integrated support for CSTA V3/XML. Web services, SOA and XML are supported for external integration. In addition to its own UC suite, MX-One Version 4 has formal certification for direct SIP integration with Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2, Lync and Exchange 2010 UM for voice mail and fax. All integrations include support for encryption between the systems Page 16 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

17 Product/Service Name and Description (SRTP/TLS). It also supports direct SIP integration with IBM's Sametime Unified Telephony (SUT) 1.0 product suite. Aastra has a range of Lync-compliant IP handsets. Corporate Telephony Critical Capability Rating Midsize Enterprise The Aastra 700, a scaled down version of the MX-One with call control manager and a comprehensive range of UC applications preinstalled on a single virtualized server environment, is tailored for the small or midsize business (SMB) market for easy deployment and maintenance. An installation wizard takes the customer data input and automatically runs a script to set up the initial system so that it's up and running in a short time. It can also be a branch office solution in a larger MX-One network. Source: Gartner (October 2011) Gartner, Inc. G Page 17 of 50

18 Key Differentiators: Aastra's strategy has been to acquire companies in the enterprise communications market, which has helped the company expand its geographical presence in the global market and be consistently profitable. However, implications could include higher costs for supporting different acquired product lines. MX-One offers a low cost of ownership in terms of product life cycle, upgrade costs and energy consumption. It also has the MX-One-compatible Aastra 700 for 50 to 1,000 users as a branch office solution. Aastra has completed interoperability testing of all its call managers to support over 40 SIP requests for comments (RFCs). The MX-One and Aastra 700 platforms are available in EMEA, Central America/Latin America, North America and Asia/Pacific. However, distribution in North America is very limited, compared with enterprise platforms from competitors such as Cisco, Avaya and NEC. Alcatel-Lucent See Table 6 for product details. Page 18 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

19 Table 6. OpenTouch Product/Service Name and Description Corporate Telephony Critical Capability Rating Architecture Scalability High Availability Administration and Remote Mobility Open-Standards UC Integration The Alcatel-Lucent OpenTouch Communications Suite 1.0 integrates the OmniPCX Enterprise (OXE) Communication Server 10.0 as a key part of its architecture, either as a preintegrated element of a single server solution, or as the telephony foundation utilizing a large or complex OXE installed base. The platform provides centralized intelligence, unified management and user applications delivered across a distributed hardware configuration on a single site (campus) or across multiple sites. Premises-based and hosted versions are supported. Telephony users can scale seamlessly in any architectural deployment model to 15,000 IP endpoints per server, and up to 100,000 IP endpoints in a single-image network. Enterprises can have any mix of TDM, IP and multimedia users up to the relevant user limits. High-availability options for the telephony within the OpenTouch suite include SIP server, dual Ethernet connection to the communication servers, geographical redundancy, local and remote PSTN, and local survivable gateways and processors. Integrated OmniVista 8770 management suite, along with elements of VitalSuite performance management, provide unified management capability for the implementation and operation of a multimedia communication environment. A single management interface provides all configuration, management, alarm and monitoring, along with real-time network and application performance and service-level management for Alcatel-Lucent elements, as well as other vendors' applications and network elements. Unified user management simplifies the provisioning of UC services such as telephony, UM, IM, presence, video, mobility, audio and Web conferencing. The OpenTouch architectural design also simplifies the rollout of new software releases and patches. Mobility capabilities are native and include ability to seamlessly shift communications from mobile device to any other device associated with the user and vice versa; one-number solution to multiple devices including cellular; UC client on smartphones; cellular bypass with softphone. Extension to cellular capabilities includes software clients for Nokia E-Series, Windows Mobile, iphone, Google Android and Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry. Other capabilities include support for directory services, IM and voice mail to smartphones across cellular and wireless LAN. OpenTouch is SIP at the core and natively supports H.323, H.264, SIP, SIMPLE, SOA and Web services, all embedded within the communications application. The controller for SIP phones and softphones is embedded and also enables CSTA or CSTA over SIP to provide the CTI link. SIP device management is embedded. Integration with Lync, Lotus Sametime 8.5 and APIs for the integration of social networks. SIP federation services is a new addition to the portfolio. OpenTouch integrates within the same platform all the main UC capabilities, all with the same single management application and user experience, providing a multimedia communication collaboration solution with voice, data and video collaboration from a single softwarebased server Gartner, Inc. G Page 19 of 50

20 Product/Service Name and Description Corporate Telephony Critical Capability Rating Midsize Enterprise OpenTouch Business Edition supports telephony, UC and management capabilities with a single, industry-standard server for up to 1,500 users or 3,000 devices. To optimize the costs, the platform is provided in two platform sizes: up to 500 users and up to 1,500 users. Preintegrating all the software within OpenTouch enables customers to access the UC elements they require, but simplifies deployment and management. 4.5 Source: Gartner (October 2011) Page 20 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

21 Key Differentiators: The combined R&D function of Alcatel-Lucent across enterprise, carrier and mobile offers opportunities for sharing intellectual property that may enable Alcatel-Lucent to offer enterprise customer stronger hybrid solutions such as OpenTouch. However, this differentiator is only relevant if the company doesn't sell the enterprise business (see "OpenTouch Strategy in Flux as Alcatel-Lucent May Sell Enterprise"). OpenTouch is a fully integrated communication platform supporting multimedia conversations and rapid session shift across media and devices within the same conversation. Alcatel-Lucent has a strong track record for deployment of scalable and highly available communication systems, and offers incentives for platform migrations. Alcatel-Lucent's historical market share and growth in Europe, strong position in the Middle East and Africa, Central America/Latin America, Southeast and Northeast Asia, China, Australia and New Zealand contribute to its ability to roll out global projects in North America. However, distribution in North America is very limited, compared with enterprise platforms from competitors such as Cisco, Avaya and NEC. Avaya See Table 7 for product details. Gartner, Inc. G Page 21 of 50

22 Table 7. Avaya Aura Product/Service Name and Description Corporate Telephony Critical Capability Rating Architecture Scalability High Availability Administration and Remote Mobility Open-Standards UC Integration SIP-based architecture enables a centrally managed, enterprisewide UC architecture using physical or virtualized servers. A key feature is session management, which centralizes shared applications that can be deployed based on location-independent individual user profiles. Avaya Aura scales from 250 users with the single-server midsize solution to 100,000 SIP endpoints in a globally distributed Aura Session Manager-based configuration, plus analog, digital and H.323 endpoints, all using the same software. Avaya Aura supports high-availability configurations with many levels of redundancy, including active/active Aura Session Managers, multiple SIP registration paths, automatic application failover through Aura Session Manager, paired feature servers, survivable core server pools, survivable remote servers for branch locations, alternative media paths and alternative session border controllers (SBCs). Avaya Aura System Manager is a standard package with Avaya Aura that provides centralized, browser-accessible administration for Avaya Aura core and surrounding applications, allowing IT departments to incorporate new components and applications under a common management umbrella. In addition to previously included session management, presence services and Avaya Communication Manager, the company has expanded Aura System Manager 6.1 to cover Avaya Aura SBC, CS 1000, messaging, conferencing, media servers and Avaya one-x clients. Avaya Aura supports broad mobility capabilities across simple cell-phones, smartphones, tablets, in-building Wi-Fi and DECT devices, teleworker and office "hoteling" solutions, and UC soft clients. The Avaya Desktop Video Device, with Avaya Flare Experience, supports campus roaming, home and remote site use of voice, video, IM, and other communications. Avaya one-x Mobile 6.1 adds mobile presence, consolidated back-end services and expanded smartphone coverage to now cover newest release for Apple iphone, RIM BlackBerry, Google Android and Nokia Symbian. Any mobile phone can be used for simpler "extension to cellular" mobile functionality, and with Avaya one-x Speech interface. Avaya support for standards includes MGCP, H.323, SIP, SIMPLE, SOA and Web services. Avaya Aura Session Manager provides normalization to a consistent implementation of SIP. Avaya ACE open-standards-based APIs, coupled with prepackaged network adapters, allow simple application integration across a multivendor infrastructure. SIP-based architecture integrates telephony into UC solutions. Application sequencing permits telephony integration with UC capabilities. Avaya ACE extends Avaya Aura UC capabilities to Microsoft Lync, IBM Sametime, CRM software, IBM Business Process Manager toolsets and social business applications, while preserving existing user experiences and supporting device preferences. The Avaya Flare Experience supports multimodal collaboration through a touch-based "spotlight" with consistent presence, context and content for voice, 4.5 Page 22 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

23 Product/Service Name and Description video, IM, , Web and social media. Flare for ipad (available in late 2011) and for Windows (available in early 2012) will add similar functionality to mobile devices and desktop PCs. Corporate Telephony Critical Capability Rating Midsize Enterprise Avaya Aura Solution for Midsize Enterprise 6.1 provides a complete Avaya Aura solution for up to 1,000 users in a single-server package, with a single point of management, which is video and presence/im ready, has built-in voice mail and six-party conferencing, and supports basic UC and mobility clients that can be further enhanced with additional application servers. Avaya B5800 Branch Gateways provide centralized, distributed or mixed-mode operation, supporting local phones, including SIP, IP and legacy digital phones, with local telephony, mobility and selected UC functionality, including "key system" features often required in branches, while simultaneously acting as a SIP survivable gateway for other users with SIP devices connected directly to Avaya Aura Session Manager and centralized applications. 4.5 Source: Gartner (October 2011) Gartner, Inc. G Page 23 of 50

24 Key Differentiators: Global experience and a large market share in telephony and contact centers enable Avaya to support midsize and large-scale deployments for organizations that are looking for a solesource solution, or need to address a heterogeneous environment. Avaya actively markets Aura Session Manager to provide the basis for centralizing applications, dial plan and trunking even across multivendor environments and the ability to assign applications to users based on need, rather than on location. Avaya Agile Communication Environment (ACE) is a SIP-based software platform that enables UC and communication-enabled business applications. Avaya Flare Experience, Avaya one-x Communicator and one-x Mobile clients strengthen Avaya's UC portfolio. Avaya Flare Experience leverages context and information to yield a unique user experience that simplifies collaboration across multiple modes of communication. Enterprisewide, core and remote survivability options can be provided in various combinations for backing up server failures or WAN outages. Cost reduction initiatives appear to have reduced the quality and availability of Avaya's technical support personnel, resulting in lengthened response times, which the company is working to correct. Cisco See Table 8 for product details. Page 24 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

25 Table 8. Unified CM Corporate Telephony Critical Capability Product/Service Name and Description Rating Architecture Scalability High Availability Administration and Remote Mobility Whether Cisco IP telephony is deployed on-premises, via the cloud or via a combination thereof, the same underlying Cisco architecture is utilized, with the same applications supported and same release versions offered. Deploying Cisco Unified Communications applications on virtualized servers supports the same deployment models as when physical servers are used. Also, the integration of physical servers (such as Cisco MCS servers) and Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) virtual servers is supported in many cases. All the call processing deployment models described above are supported over Cisco UCS virtual server platforms, as well as Cisco-certified server options from IBM and HP. A session management version of Unified CM supports a centralized dial plan and call routing in a multivendor environment. Cisco Unified CM is a SIP-based telephony platform that can support up to 40,000 IP phones, with a megacluster capable of supporting a total of 80,000 IP phones. Multiple clusters can scale into the hundreds of thousands. Session Management Edition can be used to interconnect the clusters and third-party PBXs. All Unified CM IP phones get a list of Cisco Unified CMs to register to, and if the one they are registered to fails, they will move to the next one. All connections to TDM gateways can be set up as redundant, and if one fails, another one will be used. Backup servers can be used to avoid single points of failure. They support the Hot-Standby Router Protocol, and the redundancy options on the Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) include in-box redundancy with dual forwarding and control plans, as well as Layer 2 box-to-box redundancy with media preservation. Cisco Enhanced Unified Survivable Remote Site Telephony (E-SRST) and Cisco Unified Survivable Remote Site Voice mail (SRSV) build on Cisco's Unified Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST) product to provide feature-rich survivability at the branch. Feature sets are embedded in the software running on Cisco Integrated Services Routers. For smaller and less complex implementations, Cisco Unified CM includes native tools for monitoring, managing, provisioning and troubleshooting IP telephony. For larger implementations with multiple UC applications and infrastructure components, Cisco's Unified CM Suite 8.6 offers four individually available tools that include the following. Unified Operations Manager provides continuous monitoring, fault management and troubleshooting. Unified Service Monitor provides real-time voice quality monitoring and alerting. Unified Provisioning Manager aids deployment and configuration. Unified Service Statistics Manager provides historical voice reporting, capacity planning and trending. Cisco Unified Mobility gives users the ability to redirect incoming IP calls from Cisco Unified CM to different designated phones, such as cellular phones. Users can also transition active calls between their Cisco desktop and mobile phone without interruption. Cisco Jabber is a UC client for PCs, Macs, tablets and smartphones that provides a single interface for presence, IM, voice, video and voice messaging and conferencing. Not all capabilities are available on all devices. In addition to Cisco Mobile and Cisco Jabber, Cisco offers a variety of solutions for most popular smartphones that let you place, receive and manage calls over your corporate Wi-Fi network Gartner, Inc. G Page 25 of 50

26 Corporate Telephony Critical Capability Product/Service Name and Description Rating Open- Standards UC Integration Midsize Enterprise ed standards include MGCP, H.323, SIP, SIMPLE, XMPP for IM/presence, SOA and Web services. Video transmission protocols are also supported. Unified CM Session Management Edition can be used to aggregate Unified CM clusters and third-party PBXs using SIP, H.323, Q.931, Primary Rate Interface (PRI), Basic Rate Interface (BRI) and QSIG. Cisco supports video calls between a Tandberg Movi client, a Cisco Telepresence EX90 and typical telepresence endpoints. Cisco UC 8.5 offers a full UC suite, as well as a broad range of additional communication functions. Key parts of the UC suite include, but are not limited to, Cisco Unified CM, Cisco Jabber (which includes the desktop client), Cisco Unity Connection, Cisco Unified Presence, Cisco Unified Videoconferencing, Cisco Client Services Framework and a broad range of client and device options. Cisco offers significant portions of its software on VMware, which can now operate under Cisco UCS servers and other qualified servers. Cisco also offers additional communication and collaboration functionality, notably its contact center products, its Quad collaboration portal and the Cius tablet. Cisco partners offer communication-enabled business applications. Integration with Microsoft Lync/OCS and IBM Sametime are also supported. The Cisco Unified CM Business Edition 6000 contains voice, UM, mobility, IM/presence availability, contact center agent support and video capabilities. These features are integrated as an all-in-one system using VMware server virtualization technology, and support a capacity of 1,000 users and 100 contact center agents across up to 50 sites. The Cisco Unified CM Business Edition 3000 is a platform for businesses with up to 300 users across up to 10 sites, preloaded with features like messaging, mobility (single-number reach), conferencing, softphone and auto attendant, along with a management interface. Source: Gartner (October 2011) Page 26 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

27 Key Differentiators: Cisco leads in global market share shipments in enterprise telephony, with an effective presence in most countries. The company's large global distribution network includes dealers, system integrators, service providers and network outsourcers, all of which must comply with Cisco's technology specialization and certification programs. For organizations that prefer a single vendor to satisfy their UC requirements, Cisco UC 8.5 offers a full UC suite, as well as a broad range of additional communication functions. Key parts of the UC suite include, but are not limited to, Cisco Unified CM, Cisco Jabber (which includes the desktop client), Cisco Unity Connection, Cisco Unified Presence, Cisco Unified Videoconferencing, Cisco Client Services Framework and a broad range of client and device options. Cisco emphasizes that a network composed of Cisco data gear is required to guarantee optimal Cisco Unified CM performance. Digium See Table 9 for product details. Gartner, Inc. G Page 27 of 50

28 Table 9. Asterisk and Switchvox Corporate Telephony Critical Capability Product/Service Name and Description Rating Architecture Scalability High Availability Administration and Remote Mobility Open-Standards UC Integration Asterisk can be deployed in either a centralized or a distributed environment. In Asterisk 1.8, virtualization is supported that can provide additional deployment options. Asterisk uses clustering to scale the telephony application to thousands of users. There is no specified limit, though a European carrier has scaled a cluster to support 100,000 subscribers. Through a clustered designed Asterisk can be implemented to provide high-reliability/high-availability services. This is inherently built into Asterisk today, and is restricted only by the customer's design and implementation. The command line interface (CLI) is accessible remotely via standard, secure tools, such as SSH and SNMP support for various internal data structures. The Asterisk Management Interface allows socket-based (clear or SSL-encrypted) interactions with the process for status and command interactions. Switchvox has a Web-based GUI that provides access to all configuration, monitoring and diagnostics capabilities of Switchvox. The Extend API integrated into Switchvox enables users to create a custom interface into Switchvox, or to integrate Switchvox directly with their daily business processes. Both Switchvox and Asterisk can be configured and maintained from anywhere an IP connection is available. Asterisk and Switchvox users have the ability to implement a variety of IP endpoints for call termination and delivery. These endpoints can be desk phones (SIP or analog), Wi-Fi IP phones, DECT IP phones or softphones (PC client). Asterisk and Switchvox support single-number reach, which allows the IP PBX to deliver calls to a user's desk phone, home phone or cellular phone. Digium also supports iphone and BlackBerry applications that integrate with Switchvox. Asterisk and Switchvox have been certified by multiple Tier 1 and 2 carriers for interconnection to their SIP trunking. The list of standards supported by Asterisk include SIP, IAX, H.323, MGCP, SNMP, H.263, H.264, Web Services, G.729, G.711, G.722 and the list goes on. Most of these standards are incorporated directly into Asterisk, and others are applications that integrate with Asterisk. Switchvox is Digium's UC solution with one-number reach, visual voice mail, voice mail to , chat, integrated fax server, fax to , presence and UM. Switchvox integrates with collaboration tools such as salesforce.com and SugarCRM. Switchvox Web 2.0 capabilities allow ease of integration of other Web-based business applications. Switchvox also integrates with desktop applications such as Outlook, Office and Firefox to support simple point-and-click dialing. These same capabilities are supported in Asterisk, and are available through a number of Asterisk partners Page 28 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

29 Corporate Telephony Critical Capability Product/Service Name and Description Rating Midsize Enterprise Switchvox is targeted at SMBs, with simplified configuration management through a Web-based user interface. Asterisk support for small to large customers is accomplished via customer-specific solutions. 4.0 Source: Gartner (October 2011) Gartner, Inc. G Page 29 of 50

30 Key Differentiators: While the development of Asterisk takes place in the community of open-source developers, Digium has created its own VoIP PBX solution. Digium is the owner, primary developer and maintainer of the Asterisk open-source project. Digium derives revenue through the sale of telephony interface cards that are installed in Asterisk deployments. Digium also delivers a software-based VoIP PBX, Switchvox SMB, which is deployed on Digium appliances and is sold through channel partners as a commercially supported solution. Since both Asterisk and Switchvox are designed to support open standards, customers are able to implement complementary solutions from other vendors for components such as Ethernet switches, IP terminals and gateways. Although most open-source telephony solutions now effectively embrace UC, the UC solutions typically have more limited functionality than leading commercial proprietary products. Microsoft See Table 10 for product details. Page 30 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

31 Table 10. Lync Server Product/Service Name and Description Corporate Telephony Critical Capability Rating Architecture Scalability High Availability Administration and Remote Mobility Open- Standards Lync Server utilizes a client/server architecture comprising multiple servers grouped in "pools" for redundancy and scalability. Server virtualization using Hyper-V, VMware and other hypervisors is supported for all capabilities in Lync Server. Lync Server supports up to 10,000 users per Enterprise Edition server and 80,000 users per pool. An unlimited number of pools may be deployed in an enterprise. These numbers are based on a full UC traffic model, and include IM, presence, video, application and presentation sharing and conferencing traffic, in addition to voice and multiple endpoints registered per user. Lync Server can be architected for high availability, including options to deploy redundant servers within a pool to account for possible server failure; and redundant pools in single or multiple data centers to account for systemic data center failures. The servers can appear as a single system to registered clients, with transparent failover and essentially no loss of features, or in two data centers appearing as primary and backup systems with transparent failover, but a subset of features available immediately after failover. Local survivable gateways provide PSTN access in the event of a WAN failure, ensure high-quality communications on constrained WAN links, and provide an alternative path when constraint links are oversubscribed. Administrators use the same tools to manage Lync that they use to manage other Microsoft data center elements, including Active Directory, PowerShell, and System Center. Lync Server provides multiple levels of reporting and alerts via System Center Operations Manager to help administrators identify problems affecting organizational communications, including issues with equipment or services other than Lync Server. Alerts are provided for hardware and software components, including gateways, server pools and end-to-end service based on aggregate call statistics and mean opinion scores. The Lync client also visually indicates when network conditions are causing audio problems and when the user audio level is too low, either based on speaker volume or device placement. Lync also provides users with the ability to place test calls on demand to validate end-to-end configuration and quality from endpoint devices through the internal and external network. Lync Server supports remote access for all voice, conferencing, IM and presence functions from a PC. In addition, it includes access to many functions from a Windows mobile phone or some Web browsers. Lync Server includes the ability to configure simultaneous ringing of other devices, such as desk phone or mobiles. for UC and mobile clients will be available by the end of CY11, including Apple iphone, ipad, Android Phones, Nokia, Windows Phone 7 and RIM. Lync Server is based on SIP and conforms to RFC 3261, along with other industry standards, including ICE, STUN and TURN; standard codecs include G.711, G.722, and G The UC Open Interoperability Program enables any IP-PBX, gateway, or SIP trunking vendor to qualify its equipment for use with Lync Server. However, Lync Server supports most standard SIP devices only with the use of third Gartner, Inc. G Page 31 of 50

32 Product/Service Name and Description party user agents to ensure that system users are properly authenticated, but requires additional effort for companies that wish to reuse existing SIP phones. Corporate Telephony Critical Capability Rating UC Integration Midsize Enterprise Lync Server is a complete UC system, which is highly rated in the Gartner Critical Capabilities for UC research. It integrates with IP PBX systems via traditional PBX networking methods, including gateways and SIP, and with other public and private IM systems. This research focuses on corporate telephony solutions that can stand alone. Unlike the other profiled vendors, Lync is not a stand-alone corporate telephony solution that integrates with UC offers from disparate vendors; instead, it is a complete UC solution that makes stand-alone telephony optional. Lync Server offers a single-server Standard Edition solution that can be paired with a third-party gateway to provide full UC, including all the voice features described herein, for up to 5,000 users. Additionally, Lync capability is available for SMBs as an online service through Office 365, providing for simple deployment, operations and management of your entire information worker software ownership Source: Gartner (October 2011) Page 32 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

33 Key Differentiators: The Lync 2010 experience can start with a voice call, video, call, IM or a conference, and allows the addition of other communication types as needed. That starts with IM and presence, as well as audio, video and Web conferencing, and extends into voice and video through modification of the current session. The user experience can be either desktop-oriented or phone-based, with a range of partner IP desktop devices, with only Lync phones acting like regular phones. As a software company, Microsoft relies on partnerships with suppliers of servers, survivable gateways and devices to provide a complete telephony solution. Lync 2010 is well-suited to a data center deployment, with centralized SIP trunking and centralized edge servers for remote access via the Internet. Compared with its major competitors, Microsoft does not yet have an established direct or indirect channel that is as strong in selling voice and telephony services. Furthermore, the solution has a limited number of enterprise references using Lync as their sole telephony solution, with most organizations retaining some existing PBX systems for contact center and other highly specialized functions. Mitel See Table 11 for product details. Gartner, Inc. G Page 33 of 50

34 Table 11. Mitel Communications Director Corporate Telephony Critical Capability Product/Service Name and Description Rating Architecture Scalability High Availability Administration and Remote Mobility Options Mitel supports an open, flexible hybrid architecture that can be deployed in both centralized and distributed environments. Its Mitel Communications Director software can be deployed on industry-standard servers or in a VMware environment, and it can integrate with thirdparty gateways and applications or its 3300 ICP controllers, which support both TDM and IP communication connectivity integrated within the same system. For distributed architectures, multiple Mitel Communications Directors are deployed, based on site/location across an organization. Mitel Communications Director software scales from 20 users for single-site SMBs to 65,000 users operational as a single domain for large, multisite organizations. A single software stream and hardware family of products seamlessly serves small to large organizations. For clients looking for redundant processors, Mitel Communications Director call control has been qualified to operate on two fault-tolerant servers from Stratus Technologies (2600 and 4500). As well as processor redundancy, these servers provide redundant array of independent disks (RAID)-protected hard drives, dual hot-swappable power supplies and fans, and redundant network connections. A single copy of the software is installed, and in this model it is possible to remove the CPU module from one plane and the server will continue to function. As a basic service for enterprise users, Mitel Communications Director resilience offers the ability to host users from a third processor. This server can be geographically remote from the primary redundant server to offer protection from failures at a single site. Customers can choose to deploy a similar redundant hardware set up in a second data center, or in the case of a highly distributed organization the preference may be to use a Mitel 3300 ICP controller in the local site and offer a degree of security of service in the event of a WAN failure. Inherent within Mitel Communications Director and Mitel UC applications is an integrated browser-based management and provisioning capability; i.e., single-screen provisioning per user for call control, messaging and applications. Also inherent in Mitel Communications Director is an automated database replication capability (called System Data Synchronization). This is a peer-to-peer protocol that is used in multisite configurations, where specific programming or database elements are defined to replicate automatically to all required systems within the network, thereby simplifying the provisioning and ongoing maintenance of common data. Mitel supports a device-neutral approach on its systems, with a high degree of functionality delivered to the mobile user. Mitel Communications Director inherently provides a mobility feature called Dynamic Extension, where up to eight devices, including mobile phones, can be aggregated to a user's service profile, where these devices operate as one from the user's single PBX directory number, for both inbound and outbound calling. All devices ring concurrently on the incoming call. Users can dynamically manage the assignment of devices and numbers against their profile, including automated routing to devices based on simply changing the users' location/status setting. Mitel sells in-building wireless systems from Polycom for Wi-Fi and Ascom for Wi-Fi and DECT applications. Mitel Teleworker capability enables Mitel IP phones to be deployed at home or in remote locations, extensions over the Internet with no virtual private network (VPN) Page 34 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

35 Corporate Telephony Critical Capability Product/Service Name and Description required. Mobile clients, including a Web client, are supported for smart mobile devices, including iphones, ipads and Androids. Integration with RIM BlackBerry/RIM Mobile Voice System is also supported. Rating Open- Standards UC Integration Midsize Enterprise Mitel's IP telephony solution, consistent with its Freedom Architecture, provides open standards to allow partners and customers to integrate custom applications. Open standards include SIP, XML, Web services and CSTA for call control, as well as SMDR, Active Directory, LDAP and CSV import/export and SNMP for management system integration, and a standard property management system interface for specialized vertical application integrations. Mitel Office Link Calling provides the unique ability to allow users to make secure telephony calls directly from their Web and mobile (smartphones/tablets) devices. Calls are controlled by the switch, and are governed by the user's class of service. Protocols supported include SIP, H.323, H.264 and SIMPLE for presence integration. The UC portfolio includes Mitel Communications Director for call control/pbx functionality; Mitel Unified Communicator Advanced for UC desktop client and server-based presence and IM; and Mitel Applications Suite for UM, audio/web conferencing, business analytics, speech auto attendant, mobile integration and basic customer service utilities. Mitel also supports integration with Microsoft OCS and IBM Sametime UC platforms. All Mitel UC applications are certified for implementation on VMware's virtualization platform, and will soon support integration on VMware View for Desktop Virtualization. The Mitel 5000 and Mitel Communications Director portfolio (including 3300 hardware appliances or server implementations) are designed for SMB and branch office implementations. In the case of the 5000, basic UC functionality such as UM and mobility have been embedded directly into the core software, and can be extended with Mitel Applications Suite and its Unified Communicator Advanced client family. The 3300 hardware controllers can also be equipped with an optional processor card, allowing the Mitel Applications Suite or other Linux-based applications to integrate and physically reside on the controller for a single-box UC solution. Mitel Communications Director can also be combined with Mitel UC applications, provisioned on a single server, allowing a complete business UC solution to exist on one server. This can also be deployed with the VMware virtualization platform, enabling a complete Mitel UC solution to coexist with other non-mitel business applications on a single server Source: Gartner (October 2011) Gartner, Inc. G Page 35 of 50

36 Key Differentiators: Mitel telephony solutions are typically deployed for midsize organizations, or in a network of branch operations for larger enterprises. Although some of Mitel's solutions are available only in North America, it also has a globally consistent infrastructure distribution capability, wide choice in telephony applications from its Solution Alliance partners, and commensurate sales and technical support. Mitel supports a wide range of integrated UC applications, including wireless and wired remote access, mobile twining and teleworker applications, data center virtualization, and managed and hosted telephony services. Partnering with VMware and others for communications server virtualization and telephony and UC centralization into data centers has paid off. Its plans to maintain telephony integration with critical UC partners such as Microsoft and IBM are supplemented with its own telephony applications, services and hosting. As part of Mitel's ongoing work to improve its financial position, the company has scaled back some of its customer and channel support resources, which has resulted in some clients reporting a negative impact on channel and customer responsiveness. In May 2011, Mitel executives implemented structural changes within the company, including realignment of resources to improve channel management as a key element to address this. NEC See Table 12 for product details. Page 36 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

37 Table 12. Univerge SV8500 and Sphericall Product/Service Name and Description Corporate Telephony Critical Capability Rating Architecture Scalability High Availability Administration and Remote Mobility Univerge Sphericall Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C) architecture has a distributed and multitechnology integrated architecture that includes the Sphericall and SV8500 product lines. Univerge SV8500 is an IP-based telephony system that can be deployed to midsize and large organizations. The system can also apply to small branch offices by integrating and networking with NEC's small system such as SV8300 and SV8100. NEC Univerge SV8500 IP communication server supports existing NEC systems, as well as analog, digital and IP terminals. Systems can be networked using NEC's signaling protocols Fusion Call Control Signaling (FCCS) and Common Channel Inter-Office Signaling (CCIS), as well as QSIG for multisite large network support. Sphericall can scale linearly in a single domain to 30,000 endpoints in a single system. The SV8500 supports 4,000 endpoints per server, up to 16,000 endpoints in a single system, and up to 192,000 in a networked environment. SV8500 redundancy is supported using hot standby for CPU and switch memory, power supply redundancy and optional survivable remote media gateway controllers. Using FCCS enables multiple SV8500 systems to be installed in separate locations, and to maintain call control via a secondary route if the primary control node is lost. Sphericall's distributed architecture allows also for high availability by utilizing multiple servers running Sphericall software, which can be installed in different parts of the network to allow for dynamic load balancing. Integration with some media gateways allows for remote survivability when connection to the main site is lost. NEC's Enterprise Manager (Univerge MA4000) is a Web-based management system for SV Series systems that administrators can use to manage large networks from a local/remote site. Using LDAP, it also supports an autoprovisioning system that helps retrieve user ID information from the corporate directory. Sphericall provides centralized graphical administration as part of the system's open Web services. Both Sphericall and the SV-based system have most mobile support capabilities. Terminals supported in the mobility solutions are IP- DECT, Wi-Fi phone, cellular and smartphones, which include iphones with client applications. Mobility solution support includes in-building extensions to cellular convergence and fixed-mobile convergence Open-Standards Protocols and interfaces supported include SIP, CSTA, SOAP, H.323, LDAP, SIMPLE, XML, Web services, TAPI and XMPP. 4.0 UC Integration Sphericall provides the service infrastructure for UC and collaboration services. This architecture integrates various kinds of UC functionalities inside, as well as SV8500 capabilities, and provides various standard interfaces to integrate third-party systems. SOA and rich 4.0 Gartner, Inc. G Page 37 of 50

38 Product/Service Name and Description Internet application technologies used for application delivery enable easy integration with third-party and business Web applications as well. NEC's UC for Enterprise (UCE) suite of applications enables SV8500 integration with OCS and IBM Sametime. The UCE application platform supports a full range of UC functionalities: presence, status, UM, IM, mobility, collaboration and voice/videoconferencing. Corporate Telephony Critical Capability Rating Midsize Enterprise The Univerge SV8100 and SV8300 target midsize businesses. They can be networked with the SV8500 for larger organizations that have many remote sites. Sphericall can adapt to midsize business environments. For the branch office, remote configuration can be provided. A systemwide management tool is provided to reduce the complexity of the branch office management. 4.0 Source: Gartner (October 2011) Page 38 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

39 Key Differentiators: NEC's telephony platforms scale to meet the needs of small, midsize and large organizations. Users must now evaluate the relative merits of Univerge and Sphericall solutions, depending on their plans for basic or enhanced voice applications or more complete UC implementations and integration into IT applications. Buyer preferences will depend on the availability of NEC distribution channels and support, which can vary by region. Univerge SV8500 is highly compatible with NEC's previous generations of appliance-based telephony. This preserves many options for NEC to migrate its large installed base of customers to server-based IP telephony and Sphericall, NEC's software-based communications platform for UC. NEC is poised to benefit from its early development of virtualized telephony and UC environments in data centers and cloud solutions with VMware and Hyper-V. Although NEC maintains its strong abilities in telephony infrastructure, its focus on competing with other telephony vendors is based on ensuring integration with UC suppliers like Microsoft, IBM and Polycom for messaging, collaboration and videoconferencing. NEC has an established channel and offers dealer certification programs to sell NEC's IP, PBX and UC systems. However, not all dealers have the same level of experience supporting large corporations. ShoreTel See Table 13 for product details. Gartner, Inc. G Page 39 of 50

40 Table 13. ShoreTel 12 Corporate Telephony Critical Capability Product/Service Name and Description Rating Architecture Scalability High Availability Growing ShoreTel system capacity for software, trunks and users is accomplished by adding switch appliances that can be administered collectively from a single Web-based centralized interface, regardless of where the switches are physically located. The rack-mounted design enables users to increase the capacity of the system from four ports to 20,000 ports by adding stackable switches in a single image. An N+1 distributed switch architecture supports telephony services in the event of a WAN or switch failure, with continued availability of core voice services Administration and Remote System management and user provisioning tools are standard with an intuitive Web browser user interface. 4.0 Mobility Open-Standards UC Integration Midsize Enterprise The acquisition in 2010 of Agito Networks adds a seamless automatic hand-off between enterprise Wi-Fi networks and service provider cellular networks for most popular smartphones. Mobility features include simultaneous ring and midcall moves to mobile devices, and support user interfaces resembling smartphones' native dialing application. Solution can also emulate Shore- Tel's desktop UC client, as well as those from other providers. ShoreTel supports popular standards, including SIP trunking, and third-party SIP telephones. ShoreTel's newest phones support MGCP and can support SIP. All future phones will exclusively be SIP-based. Integrated UC client supports IM, video, conferencing, presence and click to call. Interoperation with Microsoft Lync and IBM Sametime is also supported. The same ShoreTel system that scales from 10 to 20,000 users in a single system image can cost-effectively support midsize organizations with centralized or distributed deployments Source: Gartner (October 2011) Page 40 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

41 Key Differentiators: ShoreTel switches are independent appliances, with software that supports built-in gateway and server functions. Growing system capacity for software, trunks and users is accomplished by adding switch modules that can be administered from a centralized interface, regardless of where switches are physically located. Gartner clients consistently report ShoreTel's low total cost of ownership, ease of installation and administrative simplicity. ShoreTel scales to 20,000 users without foregoing any initial investments, all on a single platform. ShoreTel has been successful growing its share of the North American enterprise voice communications market. However, while revenue in EMEA and APAC are up substantially, distribution outside of these regions is lagging behind. Siemens Enterprise Communications See Table 14 for product details. Gartner, Inc. G Page 41 of 50

42 Table 14. OpenScape Voice Product/Service Name and Description Corporate Telephony Critical Capability Rating Architecture Scalability High Availability Administration and Remote Mobility Open-Standards OpenScape Voice is designed as a software application that is optimized for a data center environment, and is deployed on any commercially available server. The architecture is inherently multitenant, enabling OpenScape Voice to support private, hybrid or public cloud deployments, and supports session management. The full OpenScape Suite can be virtualized on VMware or any open virtualization format (OVF) compliant hypervisor. A signal OpenScape Voice system can be scaled seamlessly up to 100,000 users per system, making it ideal for on-premises, private or public cloud deployment. Scaling of users is achieved via software licensing. OpenScape Voice is provided as a dual-server cluster in an Active/Active configuration with no single point of failure. The Active/Active configuration is engineered for 100% failover support with no loss of active calls, call detail records, etc., even when the server nodes are geographically separated. Redundancy can operate in a single data center, as well as across two data centers that are geographically dispersed. Local office survivability is available with OpenScape Branch. OpenScape Management Suite provides a unified set of applications that manages and administers OpenScape UC Suite and HiPath platforms, based on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Network Management Model. A common set of services and Element Managers is integrated into the OpenScape Common Management Platform, providing unified access for integrated management applications or third-party solutions. The OpenScape Common Management Platform provides SOA-based open interfaces to third-party systems, as well as complementary enhanced applications offered by Siemens Enterprise Communications. OpenScape MobileConnect supports roaming between cellular (GSM) and Wi-Fi networks using one dual-mode device. Popular dualmode devices from Nokia, Windows Mobile and RIM/BlackBerry are supported. OpenScape UC Application supports one-number service using any device of the user's choosing including analog devices such as Symbian, Windows Mobile, RIM/BlackBerry, iphones and Android clients are currently supported. Various wireless LAN (WLAN) and DECT cordless handsets, as well as soft clients are also supported. Mobile users with iphones, ipads, the ipod touch or any other smartphone device can easily participate in an OpenScape Web Collaboration Web conferencing session from anywhere via the OpenScape Web Collaboration Mobile Client. The OpenScape UC Suite of applications supports a wide range of open standards, including SIP, SOA, Web services, CSTA, SNMP, quality of service support, G.7XX series codecs, Open Virtualization Format, MGCP, PKI, TLS, SRTP, HTTPS, SFTP, SOAP, XML and many others Page 42 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

43 Product/Service Name and Description Corporate Telephony Critical Capability Rating UC Integration Midsize Enterprise OpenScape Voice and OpenScape UC Application are integrated as part of the OpenScape UC Suite of applications, running on top of an OpenScape UC Server shared-services software foundation. OpenScape UC Application supports the full range of UC capabilities, including presence, IM, UM, conferencing, Web collaboration and mobility/one-number service. It supports a wide variety of clients, including PC (both a stand-alone application and a Web client), telephony (DTMF), mobile (smartphone). It can be integrated into popular thirdparty Web collaboration, IM, groupware and social media applications through preintegrated plug-ins. OpenScape Fusion packaged integrations embed voice and UC into multivendor scenarios, and integrate with third-party environments, including Microsoft, IBM and the Google Apps suite. OpenScape UC Server Xpress specifically targets midsize businesses (350 to 1,000 users). UC applications are preconfigured and preintegrated. OpenScape UC Server Enterprise, which is a voice and UC solution, targets midsize and large businesses. OpenScape Branch is the survivable branch office option. 4.5 Source: Gartner (October 2011) Gartner, Inc. G Page 43 of 50

44 Key Differentiators: OpenScape Voice is an enterprise-class platform with application software running on industrystandard servers that can scale to meet the needs of very large enterprises. Utility-based pricing for software is an option. OpenScape Voice is part of a UC application suite, running on the OpenScape UC Server shared-software service platform. While the Siemens Enterprise Communications presence in Europe and Latin America is substantial, its historical market share and growth in North America continues to lag behind others. Toshiba See Table 15 for product details. Page 44 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

45 Table 15. IPedge and Strata CIX Product/Service Name and Description Corporate Telephony Critical Capability Rating Architecture Scalability High Availability Administration and Remote Mobility Open-Standards Toshiba IPedge and Strata CIX systems work well in either a centralized or distributed configuration. For connection of remote users to a centralized site, all users and their endpoints operate the same no matter where they are located. For networking of multiple sites, they operate together with a uniform numbering plan and feature transparency with the same functionality as one big centralized system. IPedge servers currently support multiple applications in an optimized environment, serving a similar purpose as virtualization. Multiple applications supported include concurrent call processing, voice mail/um, centralized administration and Toshiba Call Manager UC. Toshiba also released audioconferencing and Web collaboration functionality as part of this solution. Toshiba's IPedge EM and Strata CIX1200 support up to 1,000 users per server. Both scale cost-effectively from about 100 users. For more users, either in the same location or in a distributed multisite configuration, up to 128 IPedge and/or Strata CIX systems can be seamlessly networked to support thousands of users. IPedge and the Strata CIX provide survivability for IP telephones and Toshiba SoftIPT softphones with the ability to reregister to a secondary system if the primary system fails. Outgoing and incoming calls automatically follow the IP telephones to their new location on the secondary system. Survivability is scalable from one IP telephone to some or all IP telephones in the primary system. Enterprise Manager for IPedge and Network emanager for Strata CIX are browser-based management applications that provide centralized administration of all sites from any location. Enterprise Manager and Network emanager consolidate management, administration and control by enabling simultaneous login to all systems or any combination of systems for simultaneous backups, system changes and upgrades to all systems in the network. This ensures data consistency across all networked systems, and eliminates the need to manage each system separately. SoftIPT softphone clients can be used on voice-enabled laptop PCs and PDAs to provide local access via WLANs and remote use via Internet. The umobility solution enables mobile workers to remotely make and answer PBX calls from their smartphones. Wireless IP telephones from Polycom and Motorola provide on-premises WLAN mobility. While not open to as many standards as are available with larger-enterprise platforms, IPedge and Strata CIX systems use MEGACO+ (similar to MGCP) as the IP protocol for proprietary Toshiba IP telephones. SIP is also supported for mobility devices and third-party IP desk telephones. SIP is used for application support, such as SIP trunking, Strata Net multisystem IP networking and connection of UC applications to the Strata CIX Gartner, Inc. G Page 45 of 50

46 Product/Service Name and Description Corporate Telephony Critical Capability Rating UC Integration Midsize Enterprise Media Application Server supports presence, IM/chat and PC call control and UM. IPedge and Strata CIX integration with OCS 2007 provides remote call control from the OCS client and enhances presence applications with telephony presence. The Strata Call Manager client provides PC call control, presence and IM. Toshiba's main market focus is on SMBs, but it also targets markets that include large distributed organizations with sites that utilize stand-alone platforms, which can be networked. IPedge and Strata CIX branch office distributed location networking capabilities are an important part of Toshiba's national accounts strategy to sell larger-enterprise customers. 3.0 Source: Gartner (October 2011) Page 46 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

47 Key Differentiators: The IPedge series is a pure IP solution built on a Linux-based platform. IPedge features telephony, voice mail, UM, IM, presence and SIP trunking capabilities in a single-server architecture. In the U.S. and Canada, Toshiba centrally manages a unique national accounts program that offers uniform pricing of products and services for applications that require deployment across multiple sites. This will appeal to organizations with retail locations and branch offices. Multiple Strata CIX and IPedge systems can be networked, and an optional AudioCodes gateway can automatically reroute incoming calls to an alternative system in the event of a failure. North American customer acceptance of Toshiba's technology and reliability is enhanced by the company's offer of a seven-year extended warranty. Recommended Reading Some documents may not be available as part of your current Gartner subscription. "Magic Quadrant for Corporate Telephony" "Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications" "How to Develop an RFP for Unified Communications" "How to Leverage SIP Trunks, Session Border Control and Session Management for Cost Savings and UC Deployment" "Developments in UC Mean It's Time to Update Your IP Telephony Road Map" "Critical Capabilities for Unified Communications" "Vendor Rating: Cisco Systems" "Vendor Rating: Avaya" "Vendor Rating: Alcatel-Lucent" "Vendor Rating: Siemens Enterprise Communications" "Avaya's Aura Architecture and Session Manager Focus on Facilitating Deployment of Unified Communications Applications" Evidence Our research is based, in part, on: Gartner, Inc. G Page 47 of 50

48 Feedback derived from Gartner inquiries, which amounts to more than 900 end-user client discussions per year More than 100 face-to-face meetings with clients Vendor responses to detailed questionnaires specific to this research Interviews with vendor references Periodic vendor briefings during a 12-month time frame Generally available information, news and data in financial and industry publications Attendance at vendor analyst conferences and industry tradeshows Discussions with Gartner peers during research communities Gartner management critique, peer review and vendor review and confirmation In addition, the authors of this research meet regularly with clients in face-to-face meetings, as well as on the phone. The authors are also the authors of several reports that require speaking with vendors and their references. These reports include the UC and Corporate Telephony Magic Quadrant reports, and a report on case studies of Lync deployment best practices. See the list of Recommended Reading for more research references. Critical Capabilities Methodology "Critical capabilities" are attributes that differentiate products in a class in terms of their quality and performance. Gartner recommends that users consider the set of critical capabilities as some of the most important criteria for acquisition decisions. This methodology requires analysts to identify the critical capabilities for a class of products. Each capability is then weighted in terms of its relative importance overall, as well as for specific product use cases. Next, products are rated in terms of how well they achieve each of the critical capabilities. A score that summarizes how well they meet the critical capabilities overall, and for each use case, is then calculated for each product. Ratings and summary scores range from 1.0 to : 1 = Poor: most or all defined requirements not achieved 2 = Fair: some requirements not achieved 3 = Good: meets requirements 4 = Excellent: meets or exceeds some requirements 5 = Outstanding: significantly exceeds requirements Page 48 of 50 Gartner, Inc. G

49 Product viability is distinct from the critical capability scores for each product. It is our assessment of the vendor's strategy and its ability to enhance and support a product over its expected life cycle; it is not an evaluation of the vendor as a whole. Four major areas are considered: strategy, support, execution and investment. Strategy includes how a vendor's strategy for a particular product fits in relation to its other product lines, its market direction and its business overall. includes the quality of technical and account support as well as customer experiences for that product. Execution considers a vendor's structure and processes for sales, marketing, pricing and deal management. Investment considers the vendor's financial health and the likelihood of the individual business unit responsible for a product to continue investing in it. Each product is rated on a five-point scale from poor to outstanding for each of these four areas, and it is then assigned an overall product viability rating. The critical capabilities Gartner has selected do not represent all capabilities for any product and, therefore, may not represent those most important for a specific use situation or business objective. Clients should use a critical capabilities analysis as one of several sources of input about a product before making an acquisition decision. Gartner, Inc. G Page 49 of 50

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