Joe Burton, Cisco's CTO for Unified Communications, used his keynote address here to outline three market transitions that Cisco anticipates: 1. Endpoints everywhere 2. Custom applications 3. Disruptive consumption models.
Joe Burton, Cisco's CTO for Unified Communications, used his keynote address here to outline three market transitions that Cisco anticipates:1. Endpoints everywhere
2. Custom applications
3. Disruptive consumption models.
On that first point, Burton said, "We don't see endpoints converging; if anything, we see endpoings fragmenting even further," thanks to ever-cheaper and more powerful silicon.
In the future, Burton said, there will be voice-enabled endpoints embedded in digital cameras, picture frames, refrigerators and just about anything else you can think of. Why would this be useful? Burton's hypothetical: Suppose you're taking a photo of a sunset, but you need help setting the shutter speed to get the best results. You push the camera's Help button and are connected to the manufacturer's contact center, where a helpful agent sets the correct speed remotely.
Cool idea, though my boss Fred Knight had the comeback of the day during Q&A: If the camera maker's contact center is like so many that we call, by the time you get through to an operator, you'll be taking a picture of a sunrise.
Nevertheless, there's little reason to doubt Burton's larger point, that "you're going to be swarmed by endpoints."
On custom applications, Burton said people's desktops will use multiple applications, residing in multiple networks. People won't think of an application as coming from a software vendor, Burton said. (Wonder which software vendor they won't be thinking of, in the future that Joe Burton envisions.)
The disruptive consumption model follows from the custom applications point. Burton suggested that people will build their personal applications from combinations of functions residing in a mixture of public and private networks--he summed this up with the Cisco-friendly concept: "The Network is the Platform for Collaboration."
While Burton's talk was a bit futuristic, he had an interesting real-world example, from Cisco customer Coca-Cola Enterprises. Traditionally, warehouses such as those run by Coca-Cola Enterprises used printouts of orders and relied on forklift drivers to move about the warehouse, picking the specified inventory and bringing it to the dock for shipment. Working with Cisco, Coca-Cola Enterprises has begun automating this process, such that the forklift driver relies on step-by-step instructions on a wireless headset to fulfill the orders. The result has been an increase from a 78% accuracy rate in picking inventory, to 99.8% accuracy.
Furthermore, not only are the drivers directed more efficiently and accurately, but the traffic of forklifts around the warehouse can be optimized. "This isn't a forklift operating system; this is an air traffic control system," Burton said.
It was an effective way for Burton to close. As enterprise budgets get tighter, the big question is whether an enterprise can deliver an ROI case for UC. It seems as though Coca-Cola Enterprises has met that challenge.Joe Burton, Cisco's CTO for Unified Communications, used his keynote address here to outline three market transitions that Cisco anticipates:
1. Endpoints everywhere
2. Custom applications
3. Disruptive consumption models.
