Communications functions are popping up in more and more application software. For example, click-to-call and chat buttons are showing up on consumer websites, and IM and presence functions are commonly available in enterprise-class cloud applications.
Welcome to the rising era of communications-enabled business processes (CEBP).
Gartner coined the CEBP term in 2006 to describe the integration of communications functions into business application software in order to improve productivity. The concept was slow to catch on, but by 2010, major CEBP projects were underway, such as our work with several large financial institutions to embed communications into a range of trading applications and CRM systems. Today, we are seeing CEBP adoption rates increase across all industries, including technology and healthcare.
CEBP: The Opportunity and the Challenge
Why the surge in activity? Several factors have come together to make CEBP projects easier to implement and more effective:
However, deploying CEBP applications is not easy for large enterprises. Most enterprises operate sprawling multivendor communications networks that complicate the application developer's job. Each UC system and IP-PBX vendor offers a different application programming interface (API), requiring that developers design applications to work with each system present in their network in order to ensure wide user adoption.
While it would make life easier for developers and operations staff alike, few enterprises have the luxury of standardizing on a single UC vendor. Even if they could, standardization lasts only until the next merger or acquisition occurs.
CEBP: Meet Middleware
So if the goal is to find a way to deploy a CEBP application that is both fast and easy to maintain, the solution is an abstraction layer, which when added to the UC network provides developers a single API they can use to integrate their applications -- i.e., middleware. This layer offers a familiar Web services interface for developers and provides computer telephony integration (CTI) and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) interfaces that interoperate with popular UC systems. It enables developers to exercise third-party and first-party call control across a multivendor UC network without having to learn arcane programming languages and communications protocols.
Middleware is a general term that can apply to on-premises systems as well as to cloud-based services (see No Jitter editor Eric Krapf's recent article on some of the cool features of the latest cloud-based middleware services). These services enable CEBP apps to control a cloud communications service, instead of a premises-based UC or contact center system. But the term applies equally well when middleware is deployed on premises or in a private cloud.
Many enterprises prefer to deploy their own middleware solution so they can leverage existing infrastructure and services, as well as maintain compliance. The middleware centralizes the interaction between CEBP applications and the network, which can dramatically simplify compliance monitoring and policy enforcement.
When evaluating middleware solutions, developers should consider the breadth of third-party UC systems supported by the vendor. Remember, the next acquisition may change the mix of UC systems in your network. With a UC vendor-agnostic solution, application developers will be able to leverage a single development effort across a wide range of UC systems. This accelerates time to market for new applications and subsequent enhancements.
For now, the deployment of a CEBP project will be defined by how flexible it is in spite of the inflexibility around it -- and therefore, its success may be directly tied to the choice of middleware. By choosing a middleware solution that consolidates programming interfaces across multiple UC platforms, enterprises can insulate developers from underlying network complexities and provide a UC vendor-agnostic approach to integrating applications and communications -- and ultimately gain maximum leverage and ROI from CEBP projects.
Carl Blume is director, enterprise product marketing, Oracle Communications.
