UC interoperability is both a hot topic and an oxymoron, it seems. Anecdotally, frustration with the inability of vendors and their products to work together seems as high as ever; and now we also have some data that suggests the enterprise is inclined to move toward single-vendor solutions.
Enterprise Connect and No Jitter recently collaborated with Nemertes Research to survey enterprise IT and communications decision-makers about their attitudes toward the marketplace, products, technologies, and their own organizations. One of the questions had to do with planned investments, specifically whether the respondents intended to move toward single-vendor UC suites. The answer that came back was a strong Yes.
Nemertes asked about current plans for migrating to a single vendor, and what those plans would be in 2018. Here's what they found:
Clearly, the desire for single-vendor UC suites is strong. But is this single-vendor state likely to actually materialize?
Here's another data point: By far, the most popular post on No Jitter this year is one that Jim Allen wrote last February: "Lync vs. Jabber: Do You Really Have to Choose?" This post draws strong traffic every day, even 9 months after it was first published. Clearly, faced with a choice between their two largest strategic vendors in this space, many enterprise decision-makers are hoping to choose both, rather than either/or.
I'd suggest that the Nemertes data and the popularity of the Jim Allen post are two sides of the same (antique) coin: A dissatisfaction with the state of interoperability and overall ability to wrangle vendors. The Nemertes data suggests that the solution to this dilemma is to pick one vendor so that you don't have to worry about interoperability. Conversely, the popularity of the Allen article--given its optimistic-sounding title-- suggests a hope that, this time, with UC, things might be different. The hope is that the answer to the question, "Do you really have to choose?" will be "No, you don't. They can co-exist."
I have to admit I'm generally pessimistic about the ability of next-gen UC systems to work together very effectively, and I'm not too convinced that enterprises will achieve their desired goal of moving to a single-vendor suite for UC--though I am convinced that the desire is real. The problem is that moving to a single vendor means terminating relationships with other vendors--relationships upon which various people's careers within your enterprise may be built. The other problem is that M&As and other changing business relationships can upset even a well-plotted transition toward a single-vendor approach.
The other solution is middleware that lets different vendors interoperate at least to some degree. This is an emerging product area, at least as relates to UC, so I think the jury's still out as to whether it will be both appealing and practical as a solution to the interoperability problem.
Interoperability in enterprise communications is one of the strategic issues we'll be spending a lot of time on at Enterprise Connect Orlando next March. We've got sessions on the new generation of middleware, as well as our UC mock-RFP session, and strategically-focused sessions that will help you gain an understanding of the vendor landscapes, strategies, and roadmaps. I hope you can join us the week of March 16, 2015 for a deep dive into these and other critical issues.
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