Confused by the available information and websites covering hosted/cloud communications services? Most organizations are in the same position. Several buyers' guides have been published that provide little information, except contact URLs, on hosted/cloud based communications services.
Back in November 2010 I posted the blog "Hosted Voice Communications Providers Don't Communicate". I complained about the poor websites for many of the hosted/cloud communications providers. I know have found through my survey that many providers never replied to the survey or have opted out or do not want to be listed. (I don't know why.)
Delphi, Inc and Webtorials.com are completing a sourcebook with the survey information details on the providers and recommendations on how to consider and select a hosted/cloud based provider. The survey was sent to 210 providers of hosted/cloud communications services. The free sourcebook will be delivered to www.webtorials.com subscribers in mid March. If you want a copy of the 100 page sourcebook, go to http://content.webtorials.com/2011-uc-services-sourcebook to reserve a copy.
The survey does not cover the cost of the services but covers:
* What services are provided--IVR, PBX, call center, UC (21 choices)
* The geographic coverage for the service (inside and outside the continental 48 states)
* Did the provider sell their own service or were they a reseller?
* The customer size, 25, 100, 1000, 1000+ phones/seats
* Solution type--on premise, remote hosted, cloud based
* Network access technologies
* Device support (IP phones, legacy phones etc.)
Some of the initial survey results are interesting. So far about 60 have replied to the sourcebook survey. 100% of the respondents have business services in the continental 48 states. About 1/4 of the respondents also offer consumer services. However, 88% have service in Alaska, and 94% have service in Hawaii. 90% have service in Canada and 84% offer service to Mexico. So, if you want to consider hosted/cloud services, not all providers offer service outside the continental 48 states. Service coverage outside North America ranged from 68% to 80% of other countries depending on the provider.
Some of the confusion about the hosted/cloud based communications services starts with what the provider calls their service. The names of the service seem to all over the map. One provider calls it "Hosted Unified Communications" and another calls their service "Cloud Based Unified Communications SaaS (UCaaS)". As can be seen from the table below, some providers use more than one name for their service. One of the benefits of the sourcebook is the definition, with diagrams, for all the business models that are used by the providers. Here are the more common names used by the responding providers:
The sourcebook survey also presents a list of 21 services that could be offered by providers. A sample of five of the services is shown in the table below:
One surprise is that less than 2/3 of the providers offer UC services. Only about 1/2 the providers offer mobile support. Both of these and the table entries indicate that the enterprise needs to look carefully at each prospective provider. The enterprise should create an RFI which includes all the services that are and will be needed in the future. The RFI responses will help to eliminate some providers and provide a clearer picture of the offerings.
Most enterprises are assuming that the access to the services is through the Internet. 95% offer this form of access. There may however be voice quality problems with Internet access. The services can also be accessed through MPLS, Frame Relay, ATM and private lines, according to the survey. The enterprise should be aware of the demarcation point for the Service Level Agreement. The demarcation point may be further away than anticipated and will probably not include the network access.
The enterprise should be careful not to make assumptions about what is offered with hosted/cloud based communications services.
I expect to post a full article at No Jitter, covering the survey results, in late March. If you are a provider organization and want to be a part of the sourcebook, e-mail [email protected] to request the survey.
