Back in the day, it was extremely common for a company to standardize their communications infrastructure on a single vendor. For instance, if I were to walk into a "Northern Telecom shop," I was pretty confident that I would see a Meridian One for call processing, Meridian Mail for voice mail, Meridian ACD for call center routing (the term Contact Center had yet to be coined), Meridian MAX for call center reporting, and a slew of M2616 digital telephones. The same would hold true for Lucent, Rolm, Mitel, etc. There was a sameness to the PBX that started at the core and extended all the way to the handset.
Not only did communications vendors have their own unique software, but everything ran on proprietary hardware. The concept of rack-and-stack servers was completely foreign and, for better or worse, an enterprise had no choice but to put all their eggs into a single basket.
Of course, that was then and this is now. Much of that proprietary hardware is history and most software now runs on off-the-shelf servers. Better yet, virtualization has been widely adopted and a great deal of an enterprise's communications system lives in a virtual server farm. Proprietary gateways still exist, but as the world continues to move to SIP, they too will one day be put out to pasture.
As communications vendors and their products have evolved, so have the people who've traditionally brought them to you -- the ecosystem of business partners that sell, install, configure, and maintain most of the communications systems out there today. The old business models no longer work in a world where software and integration services overshadow hardware.
Speaking of hardware, let's start there.
It would be foolish to think that communications systems have evolved to the point where hardware isn't necessary. Every system produced today requires one to many servers to run everything from call processing to video conferencing. However, the days where you would buy proprietary, vendor-specific hardware to host those services have come and gone. Communications vendors now rely on off-the shelf hardware from companies such as IBM and Dell.
While a company might still buy those servers from its business partner, more and more have opted to procure them on their own. They often have their own relationships with the same distributors that the business partners deal with. One less "man in the middle" lowers costs for enterprises and eliminates a revenue stream from the business partner.
Virtualization takes the hardware shift even further. Now that most communications vendors offer nearly everything as an OVF (Open Virtual Format) file that gets applied to an instance of VMware, software is no longer intrinsically tied to hardware. Most enterprises maintain a virtual server farm, and their communications system becomes nothing more than slices of RAM, processor power, and mass storage.
While a business partner may certainly play a role here, it's a diminished role from what it was when they sold and serviced servers.
As I stated above, enterprises are becoming far more diverse when it comes to their communications. I heard that loud and clear during my Enterprise Connect 2015 session on Interoperability (Thinking Back on Interoperability and EC15). Very few people single source anything these days. It's not uncommon to see a single system made up of products from Avaya, Microsoft, Genesys, Oracle, AudioCodes, Sonus, Cisco, Google (yes, Google), and Apple.
Okay, that was a lot of "what's no longer true." Allow me to turn my attention to the new and improved business partner, and talk about what changes have occurred, are occurring, and how they are making a difference.
First, the successful business partner has evolved from a seller of boxes to a seller of solutions. I like to think of it as a best-of-breed approach, and while there are certainly some communications aspects that work best when they are single vendor (e.g. gateways and their line cards), those areas are quickly evaporating. Anyone who comes in representing a single product should be looked upon warily.
This, of course, means the modern day business partner is actually a systems integrator that understands all the piece-parts and has relationships with all vendors (even the previously mentioned Google). The days of being just an Avaya or Cisco reseller are over. You need to be smart across the board to properly serve your customers. Platinum in Avaya is fine. Platinum in Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft, etc. is essential.
While knowing the products you sell, install, and maintain is certainly important, it's just as important to add additional value to your customers. This means that a communications SI should be well-versed in the APIs (Applications Programming Interface) of those products.
Did you read my article about Web Services (Customizing Solutions with Web Services)? SIs must understand those interfaces and provide both guidance on how they are used as well as value-added solutions that use them. These custom applications can often be the difference between something that works and something that transforms your business.
The silos that previously existed around communications have been taken down, and nearly every aspect of an enterprise's application base needs a voice (literally). The best SIs live and breathe communications enabled business processes and have what it takes to add CEBP to everything from an inventory application to a campus alarm system. CEBP is what makes unified communications unified, and a good SI knows that. A great SI makes it real.
Lastly, while the cloud offers tremendous value to an enterprise, it has been a challenge to business partners. What do you sell when there is no hardware or software? The smart BP knows it's licenses and more importantly, solutions and services. Again, those that have become system integrators will thrive while those that stick with the old ways of doing business will be sidelined.
Change for the sake of change is rarely good, but this reinvention of the communications business partner is one that we can all celebrate. It's good for the customer and frankly, the business partner. We all do better when we all do better, and having more tools in your toolbox benefits everyone.
Andrew Prokop writes about all things unified communications on his popular blog, SIP Adventures.
Follow Andrew Prokop on Twitter and LinkedIn!
@ajprokop
Andrew Prokop on LinkedIn
