Unified Communications without Web 2.0 is just a Walled Garden of a Different Color
John Furrier at BroadDev asks, I think, the right question:
Is Web 2.0 Going To Trump Unified Communications?
Are the Unified Communication’s vendors missing the Web 2.0 boat? Will the UC platforms have what users are looking for?
I think what we’re still seeing in the market is a (mistaken) impression that Unified Communications is still a PBX/Premise solution. In that mindset, people assume you buy your all-in-one UC system from a traditional PBX vendor, but it’s pretty much just a beefed up PBX with new bells and whistles and toys. And then if you follow that logic, well, of course smart guys like John are going to wrinkle their nose and note that this doesn’t really make any sense….if you’re getting all your UC solutions from one company, isn’t that really just the same walled garden problem that caused the traditional telecom equipment providers to get smacked around when they tried to offer closed IMS solutions with only their App Servers?
But - I think John’s overlooking a key point.
UC doesn’t have to be a closed premise solution. Clearly we’re seeing a move towards “Hosted Unified Communications”, where businesses are going to get their UC “in the cloud”. And just as clearly, in that model, it’s much more clear how Web 2.0 business apps and Hosted Unified Communications are really just complementary and co-existing.
Which is as good a time as any, I suppose, to plug BroadSoft Xtended, BroadSoft’s Web 2.0 APIs for application innovation and integration. Whether the market decides that the key UC app is CRM integration, Social Networking, or something else – with Hosted Unified Communications and business services in a SaaS model – you’re not making an “either UC or Web 2.0″ choice…they’re fundamentally the same thing.
- Alex Doyle
Tags: Unified Communications, Web 2.0, Xtended
July 17th, 2008 at 7:37 am
Alex,
Great post. My point exactly. I am suggesting that UC shouldn’t be a closed solution from one vendor. In fact I see it that the hosting piece is critical for the customers to define their service modules. Having a bolted on fully integrated services isn’t the future. The hosting side is very exciting.
Web 2.0 is not fully understood but from a practical perspective the ‘lock-in’ in UC isn’t viable long term.
BroadDev blog picked the categories to cover UC, Virtualization, Security, and Web 2.0 because to me UC cuts across all those areas. We are so beyond PBX solutions in this arena.
Companies shouldn’t be forced into a choice they should choose the best for their environment.