The many faces of Unified Communications customers
A recent feature article on the Cisco website grabbed my attention: “What goes Down Must Come Up: Preparing for Recovery” includes a quote from a Cisco channel partner on their view of how companies are dealing with the recent economic challenges. Ettienne Reinecke, Dimension Data CTO and group executive, cites three types of customers, each distinguished by their reaction to the recession: those focusing almost exclusively on cost cutting, those using the downturn as breathing room for cleaning up projects and those leveraging economic turmoil to drive into new markets.
As I read the interview, it struck me these customer profiles are broadly applicable, in any economic environment. Unified Communications customers have widely divergent requirements and objectives for their deployments. Some customers have basic requirements, and are driven by the need to reduce costs by consolidating resources on a converged network. Other customers are implementing innovative new communications capabilities as part of a strategic plan to drive into new markets and achieve competitive advantage.
And there are customers who are a hybrid. Quantum Chemicals, Ltd., as an example, has a blended profile, simultaneously praising the advantages of 4-digit dialing plans while at the same time deploying more advanced mobility and presence capabilities as part of their strategic plan.
Cisco’s success in Unified Communications is due in part to our ability to span these divergent user requirements, from basic to very strategic communications. Our UC 7.1 system release is a great case in point: for basic telephony users, we introduced a new series of basic telephones, the Cisco IP Phone 6900 Series and Cisco Unified Workspace Licensing Entry Edition for basic voice and messaging applications. For more advanced UC requirements, we introduced Cisco Unified Video Conferencing 7.0 with high definition video processing, the ability to press a single button on a Cisco Unified IP Phone to joining a Cisco WebEx collaboration session, and a new client services framework that allows Cisco’s core enterprise call processing capabilities to be extended to a variety of software clients, including Cisco WebEx Connect and Microsoft Office Communicator.
The Cisco UC portfolio has the breadth and depth to meet the needs of the many faces of the UC customer. The Cisco UC portfolio has the breadth and depth to meet the current and future needs of the many faces of the UC customer. The proof is in the millions of users deploying Cisco solutions in widely varying applications, many of which are detailed here.
Steve Slattery
Vice President, IPCBU at Cisco
Posted by Doron Aronson at 02:24PM PST
Somchai Jobs Dec 3, 2009
Personally I prefer mobile applications of Cisco Unified Communications to other applications because them reduce telecom costs in my organization which there are a lot of branches around the world.