Poor Visibility and Support
Right from the selection of a vendor to implementation and after sales support, lack of homework done by vendors is evident. "We had considered a number of solution providers for unified communications and there were two of them at least-Cisco and Nortel. We went for Nortel because Cisco was not able to provide the kind of data encryption and voice compression required (is Cisco listening?), says AG Varughese, DGM, the South Indian Bank. Vishwajeet of FCM Travel Solutions did not name the vendor. "Up till now, with the kind of requirement we had, they have done a fair job. But now we are deploying unified communications at a large scale at our call center. We are looking for other vendors, since our earlier vendor would not be able to assure us for the desired kind of commitment and services," he says. Once organizations go for a final implementation, they face a different set of problem that makes them unhappy about their choice. "They do not understand our problems. Also, their response time is low. Once the problem is communicated to them, their response time is not ideal. They don't have proper logistics and resources to tackle the situation with immediate effect. Considering the fact that in a banking environment the downtime requires to be almost nil, we face a bottleneck at times," says Varughese.

"We are in the process of implementing unified communication solution and are experiencing immense benefits at the initial stage. However, one of our specific requirements from an enterprise product like OCS 2007 is the ability to generate statistics on usage. It is necessary to track usage for RoI as well as for finding pockets of under utilization. Currently, the product lacks effective monitoring/analysis tools. Hence, it is a bit difficult to get details of active and past sessions. We get this data by querying the OCS database using SQL, but we would prefer this feature to be incorporated in the base product," says Girish Rao, IT head, Marico Industries. Marico has gone for a unified communication solution from Microsoft. Another company, Kuoni Travels is currently using the unified services from Cisco. The company is all set to go for an enterprise wise rollout of the unified solution across the globe. "We will need more active participation from Cisco at this point," says Dhiren.

Benefits Recognized
Apart from all the issues, unified communication has received praises from various CTOs. "We are satisfied with the services provided by the vendor, primarily through Microsoft consulting from Microsoft rapid deployment program (RDP) support. They have been quick to resolve the issues pointed out during early days of implementation. In fact, based on our feedback, Microsoft has incorporated some features in the final RTM (ready to market) product," says Girish.

Subrata Banarjee, CTO, Vedanta Aluminium, says, "Deploying a unified communication solution for a manufacturing set up was a daunting task, but I am happy with the flexibility and services provided by Cisco. Initially, our project was delayed, but Cisco managed everything. On the services part, they are very proactive. They provide constant upgrades and suggestions." For the South Indian Bank, solutions from Nortel is working fine, except some small issues. "On the whole, Nortel's solution has performed well and as our business grows, we are looking forward to getting more of their services," says Varughese. "It all depends upon right time and approach to deploy a unified communication solution. The user is equally responsible. Given the circumstances, Cisco has more or less done justice with our requirements," says Dhiren.

The Road Ahead
The future seems to be promising for the unified communication solution. According to an IDC report, most businesses are recognizing the importance of an effective unified communications system. The worldwide market for unified communications is expected to reach $1,158 by 2010. The market is going bullish with 18 mn unified mailboxes deployed in the year 2006 and is expected to touch 47 mn by 2010. The market in India is also looking very prosperous for vendors. The fact that all the global unified communication vendors have made their presence felt recognizes the inherent potential of the Indian market. There are certain things which vendors should keep in mind while providing solutions to a variety of customers in India. The vendors require a clarity and efficacy of solution before they approach a customer. The proper understanding of the size and type of business and product designed accordingly will help them penetrate better in the market. The vendor should have the ability to respond, change direction, be flexible, and achieve competitive success as opportunities develop with evolving customer needs and changed market dynamics. "A feasible RoI should be promised from the vendor both in terms of increased efficiency and cost," advices Vishwajeet.

Kumar Anshuman
anshumank@cybermedia.co.in

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