The virtual Microsoft desktop running on my Mac is getting a proverbial workout. Maybe I should make a disclaimer that I'm not trying to sell you Lync. I'm not, however if you do want hosted Lync, I'd love to someday be the guy getting the deal. This is how I feel after being given the opportunity to evaluate hosted Lync on its merits for the SMB.
While I'm not yet ready to sell Lync to our customers, it is a viable alternative for call-ins that we get demanding a hosted solution. We've even entertained hosting our own wares, but it comes down to what I've already written about: There are plenty of others hosting what they call voice solutions that are banking on racking up subscribers to keep the cash flowing and the pipeline greased. These are not voice solutions, they are lures to snag customers to provide what anyone can provide. Not all voice hosted providers are like this, but it will be obvious by the ones that are that they will cause resistance to viable hosted solutions (customer attrition), disruption to business (lack of support tools in the right places), and no value add to their customers. This isn't the kind of service that I want to offer my customers.
Hosted Lync is a different story, not without weaknesses that I mentioned before in the way of onboard tools and local support, but in the way of delivering key differentiators. Lync provides value, integrates with applications and offers a safe (Proprietary-solution) and scalable (pay-as-you-go) buying decision.
So, is it possible that I've changed my tune and just can’t live without Microsoft, and am ready to dump my IP-PBX? Is Lync really a "PBX Killer?"
Did I write, "You’d have to pry my PBX from my cold dead hands?" Of course I love Mac and almost all things Apple. There are things about Microsoft that I really want too. I've said before that Apple, Microsoft and Open Source applications should reside in the cloud and be capable of running on any machine or device the user wants to utilize. It may never reach that perfect harmony, but it's closer than before.
Apple and Microsoft are seemingly headed in different directions, with Apple chasing the consumer and Microsoft holding to business. Side by side, the elements of software and services provided by each company are basically the same, and the differences remain in how users arrive at their destinations when completing their work.
Again, I have to give Microsoft credit for Lync, they have stuff in the cloud including voice. Apple is ignoring the boat ride, and sales of hardware and software licenses will not last forever, simply because they are not sustainable in the current model. Sure, I could argue "green" all day long but this is beyond green environmental concerns. The cost of maintaining PCs or Macs isn’t cheap. Rightsizing by the month is the normalcy that my IT buddy tried to tell me, but I just didn't connect it. Here’s basically what he said. "Matt, I want predictable costs, I don't want to screw around with guesswork each month (about phone costs) and this is why I want hosted voice." I've written about this too, only it didn't strike me over the head until I started testing Lync.
Predictability, rightsizing, buying each month what I need for a fixed price. These are key words and demands that help businesses smooth out those peaks and valleys that I wrote about in SMB Failures. Reducing those spreads are exactly what a professor drilled into my brain years ago when he said to dump those 30 or so PBXs you are supporting and go to a model of Good, Better, Best; meaning sell three lines and no more. Many VARs and Interconnects are still in that mode, only that mode is threatened with obsolescence.
With hosted Lync, I don't see PBXs getting replaced but I do see PBXs getting displaced or disrupted. Hosted voice in the SMB space provides an alternative for many companies seeking basic voice services, value, and limited "traditional" features. When these same companies consider email and UC and evaluate their internal and external communications processes, they will want hosted Lync over most hosted voice services that only provide voice across the Web. What customers will shun soon enough is the buying choice of small, medium or large when it comes to hardware. Their guesses are sometimes better than the vendors but in most cases, customers over-buy or under-buy a solution, and this is hosted Lync's key differentiator over a PBX. Sometimes the factory guys don’t understand that I don't want three or four hardware platforms from the same manufacturer, these are simply too costly to maintain. Then, when customers can move IT and voice into the cloud, significant infrastructure costs are removed from the premise and customers gain a true sense of scalability along with options for expansion or contraction of the business.
Hosted Lync hits on old-fashioned management. Maybe the newer-younger hustle/bustle crowd doesn’t get management or really understand Peter Drucker, but they do get accessibility. As companies' communications processes improve, so will metrics and profitability. I don’t want to keep anyone hanging, but when it's easier to communicate internally and externally and accomplish the core mission of the company, then shall you see improved metrics such as customer satisfaction, retention and profitability. The same is true with employee satisfaction, retention--and of course, they too will want more money because they will become empowered when enterprises of any size achieves this happy medium. The communications flow within and out of a company reflects this. Companies that don't get it, won't thrive and may even fail to survive.
A few days ago, a customer called me asking for help with her Outlook 2003 version--and yes, I love it when they call me "their IT guy." Anyway, 2 GB of mail stored away in her personal folders generated the error messages preventing her from using her email as a massive file cabinet (messages since 2006). I didn't "roll the truck" and I thought what a great time to test out a Lync feature of desktop sharing and control. Of course, I stumbled through it and my customer was not a contact shown on my Lync client, but after 5-6 minutes she was sharing her desktop and then relinquished control so I could see what was happening. A truck roll to her office is one hour each way and it doesn’t matter what short cut I take.
It's easy to dismiss this as no big deal, but it is a big deal to the numerous SMBs that don't have dedicated IT staff and yet need to connect to one of their remote offices or employees working in a home or remote location. Truck rolls aren't an exclusive in telecom, and across all industries, similar issues of having the time or making the time, plague business decision makers everyday when they try to prioritize resources.
Communication with collaboration, in this event using Lync desktop sharing, showed my customer exactly what I looked at and changed. Putting out a fire before it escalates is always a good thing. While we could use an alternative, the Lync attraction is that the feature is included in the subscription and it’s therefore one less vendor to maintain. A key word that we all know--convergence--is what I said before has to happen with software, and this is necessary to make the costs of operating a business sustainable in the future. Let me make my point a different way: Which of you (readers) don't have gear and software stuffed away in your company closets, attics or storage?
Another key feature of hosted Lync that I observed is the ability to maintain groups of users on the client. These clusters are people listed in different groups. While most UC clients do this already, let me explain my excitement. We built and maintained a network solution for a client that provided medical dictation services. Their staff, primarily consisting of 400-500 at-home workers across the country, lacked consistent communications glue. Their collaboration was email-focused and lacked key tools, and users often required face-to-face capabilities. Lync fits a business like this perfectly, especially with Exchange and the value add of having the one and same business reaching those 400-500 people across the country.
Beyond the basic arguments of avoiding CAPEX and growing the OPEX, there lies more merit in hosted Lync. The key concerns in the SMB space reach further than just buying or leasing a box to run a solution. The value comes into play when companies find the right product mix that minimizes cost, effort and continues working as an effective tool to help the organization accomplish its core mission.
Early IPT songs were about big savings on moves-adds-changes, and this is somewhat true. The larger benefit is avoiding the migration process of upgrading or replacing. Hosted Lync can absorb email and voice into the cloud and customers can manage their "costs" and trim their subscriptions each month. In other words, seasonal employees don’t need a seat 12 months a year. In the PBX or server world you try to right size your purchase and hope that it lasts many years before upgrading to a bigger/newer system. In the hosted environment, these decisions become easier and very manageable. The significant cost controls are in having the ability to scale as needed on a monthly basis with little effort. Bandwidth may need an adjustment and more PoE ports may be required, but this is still much easier than the alternative process.
In another key area of every business, there are the physical moves that companies often make. In the past, these moves were prompted by growth, a need for improved locations/facilities, reduced costs or the ability to make fast contractions. Moving an office in the past meant either replicating the infrastructure and services or moving key components from the old infrastructure to the new. In the SMB space, companies do move and these moves are expensive and time consuming. Hosted Lync doesn’t negate all moving costs, but they will be less and less disruptive compared to moving a PBX and mail/Exchange servers.
In getting back to the delivered customer experience, this I think is where Microsoft can improve Lync. Apple and Microsoft provide the same tools and the key difference is really user experience. Apple is easier and intuitive. Microsoft hinges on solutions built by techs for tech. The past couple of weeks testing hosted Lync in an all-Microsoft virtual environment has me at an "almost persuaded" moment.
For businesses that Lync fits, hosted Lync can give you an edge. Still, Microsoft must make Lync sexy. It must deliver the similar user experience that Apple delivers. I think the dashboard of the client can use an overhaul, but my key concern is having the product be more intuitive. It is familiar, meaning anyone that uses Microsoft Live should see similarities, and familiarity is always a good thing.
Now, for entertainment purposes, I want to share a YouTube video (Microsoft Lync with Digital IP) that I watch frequently, just because these guys (actors of course) make me laugh at myself. Too bad the key characters names aren’t Dave and Matt.
Onward, to elaborate on the above questions!
Is it possible that I've changed my tune and just can't live without Microsoft and am ready to dump my IP-PBX?
Answer: I love hosted Lync because it removes the complexity from me to the data center. This is where I get to become just like the everyday user--they don't see the IP-PBX or Server or gizmos in the data center. They just want their tools to work and the right tools to work with. Complexity drives people away. Microsoft has an opportunity to become "sexy" just like Apple.
As for my IP-PBX, it's paid for, besides I have too many relics connected to it that maintain my comfortable identity with the past. Technology that doesn’t advance in the user's best interests, kills itself. Don't misunderstand me, this applies to PBXs too. I look forward to a Microsoft makeover of the Lync client, and so long as it's not a Vista experience, I think Lync will attract more sweet-spot SMBs seeking more than just cheap voice across the web.
Is Lync really a "PBX Killer?"
Answer: Lync could be the PBX’s best friend. The reality is, it's about turf, sales and control of the market and product lines. Wouldn't it be cool if all PBX manufacturers just integrated with Lync? This would open a lot of currently un-federated doors. I do believe that people will get in the way of federation and until federation across platforms is transparent to users, we won't see my dream of Star Trek Communicator badges being the norm.
Hosted Lync supports some hardware (SIP, USB) and other key features such as Automated Attendant, Call Center, call recording, ActivSync and SharePoint Enterprise.
Below are the requirements for hosted Lync clients.
Minimum PC Requirements:
* 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) CPU [Preferred 64-bit (x64) processor]
* Preferred Windows Vista SP2 or later operating system
* 2 GB of system memory (RAM) [Preferred 4 GB]
* 15 GB+ of available hard drive space
* Support for DirectX 9 graphics at 1024 x 768 or higher resolution
* Microphone & speakers/Headset/Phone
Remote Single User Bandwidth Requirements:> * DSL or Cable modem with a minimum of: --Downstream Speed: Up to 3.0 Mbps [Preferred 6.0 Mbps +] Upstream Speed: Up to 512 Kbps [Preferred 768 Kbps +]
