Get Your Layers Straight
Vendors such as Avaya, Cisco, NEC, and Siemens highlight the UC capabilities of their IP PBXes as a major selling point. However, while an IP PBX combines voice, data, and video at Layers 1 through 3, UC is about integrating those functions up at Layer 7.
Software vendors, particularly Microsoft, are working to push UC forward. Redmond is looking to expand its toolset to incorporate voice and video, and has made major headway in deploying its Lync UC product, formerly Office Communications Server. The most recent version of Lync, released in November, sports telephony elements beefed up to the point where Microsoft feels it can compete toe-to-toe with the likes of Cisco and Avaya. However, the initial version of Lync is focused primarily on desktop installations, and while Microsoft had a mobile client for the earlier OCS version, that client operated on the Windows Mobile operating system.
Nokia recently agreed to adopt Microsoft's new Phone 7 operating system in place of Symbian, and Microsoft in turn is planning a Phone 7 Lync client ahead of developing clients for Android, BlackBerry, and iPhone.
As if the ever-changing platform landscape weren't challenging enough, CIOs also must navigate the evolving nature of policies governing mobile devices. Where in the past, companies provided key employees with smartphones, typically BlackBerrys, and then enforced strict usage rules, more and more businesses are adopting a "bring your own device" philosophy.
Not all the CIOs we work with are on board with this shift, in part because it saddles IT with an unpalatable choice: Maintain a laundry list of applications for various operating systems and releases--there are potentially six versions of Android in circulation, for instance--or adopt a Web-based platform and hope it performs properly with the variety of mobile browsers in use.
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