RADVision - a provider of video network infrastructure and developer tools for unified visual communications over IP, 3G and emerging next-generation IMS networks - recently announced that it is providing integrated video communications for Cisco's Unified Customer Voice Portal (CVP). Cisco Unified CVP will leverage the Scopia Interactive Video Platform's (IVP's) video communications capabilities.

The Scopia IVP is a universal video media server platform that provides processing building blocks and ubiquitous device connectivity and supports the creation of a wide range of video-related applications and services. The video-integrated Cisco CVP solution utilizes RADVision's iCONTACT, a contact center video-enabling software component running in conjunction with the Scopia IVP. Together, Scopia IVP and iCONTACT offer a comprehensive solution that enables system integrators (SIs) and contact center equipment vendors to develop and deploy visual communications services to contact centers.

With RADVision's Scopia IVP, Cisco Unified CVP can support video interactions, including self-service, queuing and agents, and it can provide the following features and benefits to help change the nature of customer interactions:

• Video menus for a more intuitive caller experience
• Video self-service where prerecorded or live videos can be played, enabling richer interactions
• Video queuing where videos can be played while waiting for an agent
• Video agent support, providing a unique customer service experience that builds trust
• Video agents' ability to "push" additional prerecorded or live video content to callers, providing an efficient, standardized method for sharing information and instructions
• Support for 3G video-enabled mobile devices and video kiosks for broad user access and reach

The use of video in contact centers is still embryonic, and there are few applications deployed - but there are benefits for some contact center applications. For instance, it can be useful where live demonstrations or personalized interactions are helpful. Proprietary protocols and technical complexity have limited deployment to consumer environments; however, increased adoption of webcams may increase adoption of this form of interaction. Some examples of use include:

• Financial services - using video by financial services contact centers to assist in credit rating of prospects. Nonverbal cues can contribute to positive or negative decisions on the creditworthiness of the prospect.
• Healthcare - assisting in the assessment of the emotional and physical well-being of homebound patients.
• Retail - using kiosks with video to assist in purchasing decisions (the kiosks may be placed in locations where it would not be cost-effective to have live agents).

Video sometimes is included in interactive voice response (IVR) applications (an area this announcement addresses), enabling users with properly equipped mobile devices to access video. The applications resemble mobile Web/video, except that they are implemented as part of a phone service, rather than a Web service (see "Hype Cycle for Contact Center Infrastructure, 2008" and "Hype Cycle for Enterprise Communication Applications, 2008").

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Before the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games open, Nortel has won the race to be a Tier 1 sponsor for the Olympic Games to be held in London in 2012 (see http://www2.nortel.com/go/news_detail.jsp?cat_id=-8055&oid=100243943&locale=en-US).
Nortel gained this status by donating a huge and diverse stack of communications equipment to the games through BT, London 2012's Communications Services Partner. Following a set of heats, the final matchup, we believe, was between Nortel and Cisco. Nortel most likely won for several reasons. Energy efficiency was important, because sustainability is a key theme for these games. Nortel has made low energy a theme in recent advertising, and it continues to invest to maintain this differentiator. Nortel's close partnership with Microsoft through the Innovative Communications Alliance (ICA) helped, and Nortel's Olympic track record was also important - its network is already up and running for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. But, most of all, we think Nortel won because it wanted it more.

"Greening the Enterprise Network" explains three steps to minimize the environmental footprint of enterprise networks. This research was part of a broader research analysis, "Green IT: The New Industry Shock Wave," which explains how IT organizations have an opportunity to improve the environmental footprints of their IT infrastructures.

"Microsoft-Nortel ICA UC Solutions Are Late But Finally Market Ready" is a recent update on this vendor alliance.

The technology and market forces that are enabling UC are causing significant shifts in legacy stand-alone communications markets, several of which are more than $10 billion. Vendors, including Nortel, must prepare themselves to face new competitors in their existing market strongholds and to compete in the emerging new markets. The London 2012 Olympics give Nortel a great platform from which to showcase its ability to deliver mission-critical communications solutions. But, more importantly, it is a great marketing platform for Nortel to rebrand and position itself in what may prove to be a changed role for communications solutions.

For customers, Nortel's selection for the Olympics is reassurance that - in the presence of good alternatives - their choice of Nortel is sound.

Nortel would not say how much this will cost, but I speculate that it will cost the company several tens of millions in pounds. This will take a big chunk of its marketing budget during the next few years - more reason for Nortel to talk to you about it at every chance it gets.

We have said in the past that Nortel must invest more in marketing, so it would be perverse to criticize it for going for gold at the London 2012 Olympics. All it has to do now is to execute flawlessly.

Gartner "Vendor Rating: Nortel Networks" and "Dataquest SWOT: Nortel, Enterprise Communications Applications, Worldwide, 2008" provide some recent analysis of Nortel.

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Tandberg (www.tandberg.com), a global provider of telepresence, high-definition videoconferencing and mobile video solutions, and Barco (www.barco.com), a global provider of display and visualization solutions, recently announced their first jointly developed product - a telecollaboration solution with 1080p high-definition (HD) video. The large-screen format of this solution enables organizations to visually collaborate and analyze complex sources of data in real time. Organizations that scrutinize large amounts of rich data and collaborate in real time among multiple locations will benefit from the integration of Barco's multiwindowing display systems with Tandberg's HD video solutions. Remote or distributed expertise can be brought in through a common interface from any standards-based video system for live analysis and discussion.

With this telecollaboration solution, multiple desktop applications and productivity software such as SAP can be integrated with telepresence to deliver complete situational awareness. In addition, the flexibility to resize image windows that contain rich-media content enables experts to focus on a particular scenario at any given point in a collaboration session. The new custom solution includes Tandberg's C90 Telepresence Engine and HD cameras integrated with Barco's XDS Control Center software suite. The multiwindowing software runs on a variety of Barco platforms, including LCD panels, projectors, and single-channel or multichannel projection systems. The new telecollaboration solution will be available in 3Q08.

The data collaboration piece of videoconferencing and telepresence solutions is one that tends to get overlooked by customers and underemphasized by vendors. But this is increasingly becoming a key requirement for a lot of organizations that need more than just the provisioning of high-quality video and audio in their telepresence solutions. As telepresence and HD-based video filter down into the workgroups of organizations, the need to be able to mix an HD-based data component from a variety of different sources and applications (such as SAP and CAD) with the video session is becoming more critical for meeting everyday business requirements and for significantly increasing the utilization rates of these solutions - which is an especially key metric in justifying an investment in high-cost telepresence (see "MarketScope for Video Telepresence Solutions, 2008").

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Microsoft has long had an on-again/off-again relationship in the enterprise telephony market. The company now has a leadership position in the still-evolving unified communications (UC) market through it Office Communications Server (OCS) product. Presently, OCS can be integrated with partner IP PBX vendors, such as Nortel, Siemens and Cisco, to supply voice functionality.

Microsoft has been making announcements throughout 2007 that it intends to extend the functionality of OCS to include IP telephony (IPT). This would essentially obviate third-party IP PBXs and potentially reduce costs for an integrated UC/IPT solution. Microsoft has certainly been accruing voice expertise through its partnerships with Nortel and Siemens.

However, Microsoft IPT penetration into the enterprise market faces numerous hurdles. Details of the Microsoft IPT functionality are still not widely known, and it will take at least a year of additional beta testing before the product is available for deployment. Many enterprises will be skeptical about adopting Microsoft telephony given the reliability and security issues of other Microsoft products, notably operating systems. But the largest obstacle will be channel and technology partners. Microsoft will have to develop a deep ecosystem of partners to market, sell, install, integrate and maintain IPT.

It will therefore be at least two years and take considerable resources before Microsoft can expect to make its mark in the IPT market. However, its chances are improved given the various financial and organizational vulnerabilities of many IPT market players (for example, Siemens, Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel, Avaya and NEC). Cisco is the only competitor as visible and financially robust as Microsoft.

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A few weeks ago, we sadly reported that AppForge had ceased trading, and hoped that someone might pick up the pieces so that the Crossfire technology would remain viable. For readers unfamiliar with the product, Crossfire was a cool development tool that allowed you to write applications using Microsoft compact .NET APIs and Visual Studio, but run them on a range of non-Microsoft platforms.

At that time, we said it was too early to panic. Now, however, it looks as if the time has come. The good news is that the AppForge technology has been acquired by Oracle. The bad news is that Oracle appears to have purchased it for internal use and has no plans to support AppForge or its customers. The Oracle Web site states:

"Oracle's acquisition of AppForge's intellectual property did not include the purchase of the company as a whole, or the purchase of other AppForge assets including its customer contracts. Accordingly, Oracle does not plan to sell or provide support for former AppForge products going forward."

Organizations previously using Crossfire now need to redefine their tool strategy. There is no mature equivalent to it. The closest is a product from Red Five Labs which is incomplete, is still in preview form and supports a limited range of platforms. While it might eventually evolve into a useful tool, the developer - Red Five - is a very young South African company funded on venture capital and probably not yet mature enough to become a part of anyone's strategic tool portfolio.

The sad fact is that this will force some organizations to make difficult platform decisions. The short-term path of least resistance for many will be to drop support for non-Microsoft devices until they can redevelop their products. Good news for Windows Mobile, bad news for Nokia, Palm and Symbian. In the longer term, this might paradoxically be bad for Microsoft; because organizations looking for a cross-platform development tool may be forced toward J2ME. Although J2ME is far from ideal for corporate applications and requires a radical change in skills, at least it's available, somewhat portable, and strategically less risky.

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Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) held its annual Enterprise Forum in Paris, early in February, for Alcatel's enterprise customers. This year, the first since the Alcatel-Lucent merger closed, the new Enterprise management team set out its story.

A key message from Hubert de Pesquidoux, president of ALU's Enterprise Business Group (EBG), is that Alcatel-Lucent is one company. No surprise there. ALU EBG intends to leverage assets from the former Lucent in order to strengthen its position in North America, which was a key weakness for the former Alcatel Enterprise Solutions Division (ESD).

Since Alcatel acquired Genesys in 2000, Genesys has fiercely defended its independence from its parent company and maintained a clear focus on the contact center. This has been key to Genesys establishing a reputation as a leading and innovative player in the contact center marketplace, with strong integration into other vendors' switches, which is reflected in the relevant Gartner Magic Quadrants:

• "Magic Quadrant for IVR Systems and Enterprise Voice Portals, 2006"


• "Magic Quadrant for Contact Center Infrastructure, North America, 2006"

At the same time, Alcatel ESD failed to establish a strong market presence and brand in North America. One option for ALU is to leverage the Genesys go-to-market capabilities and brand more than Alcatel ESD did. It has shown this intent with Alcatel winning a deal worth US$300 million for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's communications infrastructure and applications (announced 6 November 2006). Alcatel won this deal despite strong competition from the incumbent vendor, Cisco.

Leveraging Genesys to win large deals in the U.S. makes sense if ALU EBG successfully establishes itself as a top-tier player in the U.S. However, breaking into the U.S. enterprise market is tough, and ALU EBG will need to do more than leverage Genesys if it is to succeed. First, it needs to map out its proposition more completely, to better differentiate its offering from those of the incumbent vendors. Second, if it is to scale, it needs a stronger go-to-market strategy, including strengthening its direct presence in the North American enterprise communications market.

Merely leveraging Genesys risks being insufficient to fully establish ALU EBG as a top-tier player in North America. It may also damage the independence of Genesys and its clear focus on contact centers and customer interaction management, as well as erode the advantages of Genesys.

For Gartner clients, in the short term, this concern does not warrant re-evaluating suppliers - yet. However, in the longer term, if Genesys becomes more integrated into ALU, companies should evaluate the offering based on the strength of ALU, rather than the strength of an independent Genesys.

ALU EBG needs to provide a more convincing story.

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A recent announcement from Silicon Valley's HP - to the effect that its IT employees will have to work most of the week in one of 25 designated offices - has sent a ripple of surprise around the teleworking community, especially since HP was a founding member.

On initial inspection, this development appears to completely buck the trend for flexible working. However, further examination serves to add weight to Gartner's long-held belief that successful teleworking requires a well-structured program where expansion is controlled and monitored and where any necessary adjustments made (see "Gartner's Telework Maturity Model Defines the Stages Toward Telework Effectiveness"). When you put together the description of HP's telecommuting as having "morphed" with the suggestion that "a lot of" its less experienced employees aren't performing well, you get closer to the real problem. If you don't build suitable checks and balances into the system from the start, then your problems can only grow alongside your teleworking community.

In addition to the immediate problem created by expecting key IT staff to relocate within reasonable commuting distance of a designated office, there is the wider issue of how the implied failure of telecommuting in the company's IT department will affect HP's wider teleworking community - whose success will stand or fall on the effectiveness of round-the-clock service and support. Coming down heavily on the teleworking community to solve what may really be a personnel and management issue smacks of kicking the cat when you've crashed the car!

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On the surface, voice over IP (VoIP) seems to be just another way to cut costs. But thinking of VoIP only as cheap voice is to miss the real opportunity for your business. In the early days of the Web, people thought of cheaper information access as an end in itself, as if it was only meant to save a trip to the local library. However, the free information access spawned all sorts of unintended and disruptive consequences, like e-commerce, communities, wikis and software as a service - consider Amazon, eBay, MySpace, Wikipedia and YouTube.

Now a similar thing is happening with voice communications. Voice capabilities not only are part of all the major instant messaging clients, but also are being melded into a variety of business applications. Take the way Salesforce.com has integrated Skype, allowing users to create conference calls on the fly, right within the application. The simple goal is to speed up communications, close deals faster and accelerate business. We call this intersection of business applications and communications systems "communications-enabled business processes."

All the tools to enable communications-enabled business processes are falling into place - from IP telephony, to unified messaging and unified communications, to enterprise voice portals, to Web conferencing. An increasingly mobile workforce is going to adopt these technologies, either on their own or with IT's help: Already a third of Skype's customers are business customers, many of whom are acting independently of IT.

Cheap voice and advanced tools are the enablers, but they're not what really matter. The hard part is understanding how your business can benefit from the as-yet-unknown effects of these new solutions. To make them work for you, you have to know what users are doing, consider how they might employ integrated communications capabilities in their jobs and then get them to actually use the solution. Established practices are deeply entrenched, and changing them requires changing behavior. In some cases, it also requires changing the business process itself.

For an explanation of how to identify opportunities and measure success, see "Achieving Agility Through Communication-Enabled Business Processes".

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