No surprise here that the consultants are not partial to by open source solutions; a resounding 83% said no to this question. Some reasons why: "Too much trouble to maintain and risky. Requires a lot of staff time and expertise with complete and thorough knowledge of Linux" and "Only University wonks seem to have time for this kind of solution and all of the patch support required."
Almost an even split as slightly more than half (52%) said yes. One consultant wrote "I have a couple of clients who are using Presence Mgmt and desktop clients." Several comments were from consultants who have not worked on an UC installation: "Not yet, although the idea is finally mainstream and we will in the next six months;" "Still trying to find a compelling sales case to do so."
Less than one fourth (23%) said they did engage on a CEBP project. The following comment is probably representative of those consultants that answered no: "Lots of interest, feasibility discussions, but no takers thus far." CEBP is still in its infant state and customers today may find it a too-risky undertaking, especially when budgets are being squeezed by most companies.
SOME CLOSING COMMENTS
There is, of course, a strong correlation between the grades the system suppliers received from the consultants and the strength of their market presence, although Interactive Intelligence received several very good grades that belie this assertion. Cisco and NEC appear to have the strongest CLPs and the best relationships with the consultants. Both also received good product ratings (discounting Cisco’s poor contact center grades). The consultants may be highly favorable toward Avaya’s product offerings, but feel there is room for improvement when personal relationships are an issue.
Several other prominent organizations also have clear areas to work on in this regard. Siemens should interpret the survey results as a signal to increase its consultant marketing efforts, because some of the product grades it received were lower than I expected based on my strong knowledge of the offerings. Although Nortel has been in the news recently for its financial difficulties, the consultants still assigned strong grades to their products and personal interactions. Nortel’s future, however, is in some doubt, but that is mostly out of the hands of the Enterprise Solutions organization.
ShoreTel's results have improved from the past survey, which is a good sign. Establishing a full time CLP will help them continue to improve in the future. Although Interactive Intelligence is among the smallest competitors, it has strength in several product areas and a strong reputation among the consultants for what it does. Alcatel Lucent, despite beginning its tenth year since re-entering the North American market, continues to receive many low grades despite global market leader status. Its North American market position is tenuous and demands increased marketing.
Several organizations have challenges. As cited above, a major reason for the poor grades received by Aastra was the absence of a CLP. The new Aastra CLP will have a hard uphill climb to turn around consultant perceptions. Adding to the difficulty is the addition of the Ericsson product line to the mix: Ericsson’s grades in previous consultant surveys were also poor.
3Com's viability in North America is at stake, at least based on the survey results. Its corporate focus on the Chinese market and networking does not bode well for its voice communications business. Toshiba's grades are likely affected by minimal presence in the intermediate/large system market, the line size segment in which most consultants operate. I know that its products deserve better grades than received and that its position in its chosen target markets at the lower end of the line size spectrum is stronger than reflected by the survey results.
Allan Sulkin, President, TEQConsult Group, was a long time contributor to Business Communications Review and is currently a Contributing Editor to No Jitter. He is often recognized as the leading enterprise communications market analyst, has consulted for many of the system suppliers included in the survey, and will again present his annual IP telephony system RFP tutorial and market review sessions at VoiceCon Orlando in March 2009.
