Lync The Elephant in The Room How to Win advocating For, Against or With Lync Kevin Kieller Partner, EnableUC kkieller@enableuc.com @kkieller
What do you want to do? Do you sell or install Lync voice and UC solutions today? Do you want to sell Lync voice and UC solutions? Do you want to compete against Lync voice and UC solutions? Do you want to integrate Lync with another PBX solution? Who thinks Lync can be a PBX replacement?
Me and my biases I help organizations get the most from UC &C in three ways: By leading UC strategy engagements Overseeing implementations Developing complementary products (primarily for Lync) And I bring these biases with me while I do this A software developer at heart; therefore pragmatic: I ll believe it when I see it, touch it and beat on it Originally video games for Commodore 64 Recreational, educational and business software for hundreds of thousands of users worldwide Now add-ons for Microsoft Lync environments Author of NoJitter.com Living with Lync column
Recent strategies Avaya vs Cisco Avaya MSFT vs Cisco Cisco MSFT vs Mitel pilot Mitel Mitel vs Lync Lync General Lync Cisco and Lync replace Lync with Jabber
Lync Experience Migrated 60 offices representing 9,100 users to complete Lync voice in past 18 months 5 ; PRI and SIP SBAs, Gateways, SBSs, SBCs, SIP direct Mediation Server Two languages Largest office had 1,200 people Smallest office had 2 people 4,924 DIDs migrated in one evening 8 offices migrated over a weekend Complete Cisco UC deployment including 2 contact centers
Lync adoption is growing Lync adoption is growing, including Lync as the voice solution 5 million enterprise voice seats deployed (according to MSFT) Our data shows Microsoft is making inroads in the IP telephony market. Forty percent of participants are moving, or planning to move to a new telephony platform, with 13% of those going to Lync; equal to that of Avaya, though trailing Cisco (at 23%). Irwin Lazar, Nemertes Research almost 60% of enterprises (500+ seats) surveyed are deploying or planning to deploy Lync, including enterprise voice, up from 45% last year Microsoft is now shipping more enterprise voice lines than any other technology company in the world. BJ Haberkorn, Microsoft Peter Hale of MZA reported at Enterprise Connect 2014 that Lync now ranks third among IP PBX vendors in North America in organizations with more than 100 extensions.
Winning The easiest path to winning is matching your solution with the objectives of your customer See The Goldilocks Approach: 7 Steps to Get to 'Just Right on NoJitter.com 1. Define and document requirements--by interviewing or surveying actual end users. 2. Define multiple viable options--but prune as early as possible. 3. List Pros/Cons--show your work and base ratings on the documented requirements 4. Provide budgetary costing for each option--"show me the money 5. Make a Recommendation--don't be afraid to make a point-in-time decision 6. Pilot--to validate technical interoperability, but more importantly user adoption.
Winning with Lync Opportunities Large mindshare, growing adoption Strong ROI if displacing hosted audio conferencing Users typically adopt Lync desktop client organically; federation between companies is very strong driver Ability to sell Lync IP sets, PSTN gateways and Lync Room Systems for additional revenue Lync provides a very strong (VPN-less) remote experience for nomadic users Obstacles Ease of deploying Lync for IM may cause organizations to underestimate complexity of voice Some IT led Lync project teams have insufficient voice expertise and experience Requires integration with many other Microsoft infrastructure elements (AD, Exchange, etc.) Office 365 version of Lync lacks enterprise voice features May not be able to sell software licenses or enterprises may already have sufficient licenses
Winning Lync Strategies Pilot Sell to IT Push business case for on-premises audio conferencing if customer is currently using hosted Very good for organizations with remote or nomadic users Good fit when customers want UC not just voice
Winning Against Lync Opportunities Lync has difficult time scaling down to organizations with fewer than 200 or so users Cisco, Avaya and other traditional IP PBX solutions may be seen as lower risk to existing telecom group Ability to sell complete hardware and software solution may mean higher top-line revenue Non-Lync vendors have stronger experience and track record especially in contact center Support model may be more straightforward Obstacles May need to displace (replace) existing Lync IM solution for full integrated UC experience Integration with Microsoft Outlook/Exchange and Office may not be as strong as provided by Lync Margins may be lower May be more difficult to integrate with line of business applications (if this is required) Licensing costs for UC components (e.g. conferencing, mobility) may be higher
Winning against Lync strategies Customers looking for voice only < 200 users Telecom leading selection Customers not using AD, SharePoint or Office Customers resistant to change FUD Support complexity Redundancy, reliability Lack of voice features Lots of servers
Winning With Lync Opportunities Theoretically provides a best of breed UC experience with call control on more traditional platform and Lync used as desktop client Can be positioned as an add on to what organization already has as opposed to a rip and replace More likely to receive support if the telecom team is selecting solution May be able to position integration as a stepping stone to final UC architecture Obstacles End-user experience when Lync used primarily for IM with click to call integration is generally found to be confusing Supporting two disparate unsynchronized releases can be challenging as patches and version upgrades are released Remote users will not necessarily have access to Lync voice features (click to call will ring office phone) Limited number of deployments / case studies
Winning with Lync Pitch as two phases Phase 1: Build voice platform + IM platform Phase 2: Integrate Emphasize best of both worlds, best of breed Works better if this is a transition plan SBC in front of PBX and Lync can work Also ok if Lync used for some users/locations and PBX for other users/locations
Final thoughts One fish, two fish, red fish blue fish.
Thank you. & Enjoy UC Summit 2014. Kevin Kieller Partner, EnableUC kkieller@enableuc.com @kkieller Feedback welcome.