small business

Avaya Muddies the UC Waters

Unified communications is a hot technology. It is all the rage and businesses around the world are scrambling to understand what it is and what it means for them. Will unified communications deliver value? I suppose that could depend on how you define unified communications. As of yet, there is no agreed upon standard per se for what components make up unified communications.

It is generally agreed upon that unified communications should ‘unify’ different types of communications. Ultimately, a single client with a single inbox that can be reached from any communications source would seem to be the goal. Unified communications may mean combining email and voicemail, establishing presence, instant messaging, online audio/video conferencing, and more.

Avaya is one of the big players in the UC market. Their marketing use of the term ‘unified communications’ for their Unified Communications for Small Business product line may be confusing to businesses trying to understand UC though. The product line does integrate some unified communications functionality, but is primarily unified telephony- delivering a converged method of making and receiving phone calls combining office phones, mobile phones, and PC based softphones.

The communications bundles offered by Avaya are solid products and certainly have the potential to provide value for customers. I’m just not sure that the term ‘unified communications’ applies to all of them and think it is unwise of Avaya to muddy the waters and confuse customers about what unified communications really is.

Are You Ready For UC?

What does that even mean? I think you have to at least get a grasp of what the essential concepts of unified communications are, how they might impact your organization, and what the potential benefit is to justify the upfront investment.

However, even after you address those issues and make some decisions about how to move forward with a unified communications deployment, there are still some fundamental questions to answer in terms of what your current network infrastructure can handle. The audio and video components of unified communications are bandwidth intensive and sensitive to things like latency and jitter. Building UC on a weak infrastructure is a recipe doomed for failure.

This article from Computing SA addresses this question specifically from an SMB point of view. What is the value or benefit of unified communications for small or medium businesses? In the end, the author poses a different question: “have you realised that you need it?”

Book Review: Microsoft Response Point Primer - Cut The Strings

Bottom Line:
Microsoft’s Response Point phone system is like a quiet revolution in small business communications. Harry Brelsford has been an integral part of the Microsoft community and the small business community, and has been involved on some level with Microsoft Response Point since it was but a concept. Harry is passionate about Microsoft small business solutions and passionate about Microsoft Response Point and it shows in this book. Whether you are a Microsoft partner that wants to learn about Microsoft Response Point, or a small business owner or manager that wants to understand how Response Point can help you, Microsoft Response Point Primer - Cut The Strings is a great investment of your time and money.

My Review:
Small and medium businesses have traditional analog or simple VoIP budgets. They want more features and functionality, but they can’t afford a dedicated PBX or IP PBX- never mind the personnel with the skills to implement and maintain them.

Microsoft understood the needs and budgets of small and medium businesses when they developed Response Point. Response Point provides features and functions normally reserved for enterprise systems, combines them with some basic unified communications capabilities, and delivers them at a price that SMB’s can swallow.

The cover of the book says “For Partners and Consultants”. I agree that this is the primary audience and the group that will get the most value from this book. However, customers who have Response Point or are interested in learning more about Response Point will also benefit from reading Harry’s book.

Beginning with a brief history of Response Point (and how he almost missed the meeting that got him involved with the Response Point group) and a recap of its basic features, Harry provides detailed information about how to deploy and configure Response Point, as well as how to maintain and troubleshoot the system. He provides some real-world case study scenarios and discusses advanced capabilities such as the auto-attendant and music on hold.

Beginning with Chapter 6 the book is certainly aimed more at partners and consultants. Harry talks about who the customer market is for Response Point and talks extensively about tips and advice that Microsoft Partners and consultants can use to effectively sell Response Point to their customers.

The book goes on with an overview of the available hardware options for Response Point, and the VoIP providers that are currently working with Microsoft on Response Point. It then wraps up with a discussion of the future of Response Point and a collection of valuable Response Point resources the reader can use to dive deeper and learn more. In addition, Harry has filled the book with little trivia factoids- there is a new one on almost every page.

I am perhaps not quite the evangelist that Harry is for Response Point, but I am an evangelist nonetheless. Response Point is nothing short of awesome. The features and functions it delivers with the simplicity of use and affordable price have no comparison or competition. Microsoft Response Point Primer - Cut The Strings is an excellent resource and a worthy investment to learn about this fantastic solution.

Features and Facts:
Title: Microsoft Response Point Primer - Cut The Strings
Price: $59.95 (available from Amazon.com for $41.97)
Published: 2008 by SMB Nation, Inc.
ISBN: 0-9770949-8-7 (ISBN-13: 978-0-9770949-8-1)
Pages: 396