Brent Kelly of Wainhouse Research knows Microsoft's OCS/Communications Server 14 as well as anyone out there. For several years, Brent led a VoiceCon tutorial on OCS and IBM Lotus SameTime. Now that the big news is Microsoft's third release of its flagship Unified Communications product--now just “Communications Server 14” or CS 14--many of you have already seen and had a chance to read our extended, in-depth look "under the hood" of CS 14 from Brent, who recently attended Microsoft's Tech Ed event and got the full picture.
The article has a wealth of detail that I won't even try to summarize; instead, I want to discuss a portion of Brent's conclusion that isn't directly related to a review of the new product.
Every year, Wainhouse surveys its enterprise client base about its attitudes toward UC—what these users have actually deployed, but also where their thinking and preferences are about the different vendors and systems for prospective future deployment. It's an excellent "mindshare" snapshot, and Brent includes the key chart from the 2009 edition of this survey in the conclusion of his CS 14 feature.
The 2009 findings are significant. Just about one-third of those surveyed--32%--are already using Microsoft OCS. Now, the new CS 14 release is all about making OCS a PBX replacement, and there's no indication that prior-generation OCS users—such as those surveyed last year by Wainhouse--have made that transition. We're talking about enterprises that have deployed OCS mostly alongside existing PBXs, and use OCS primarily for instant messaging and related UC functions.
In the Wainhouse 2009 survey, OCS far outstrips all other vendors' UC systems—next-highest in deployments is IBM SameTime with 16%, followed by Cisco UPC at 11% and Avaya UC Suite at 9%. OCS even outpaces Skype, which has 17%, and “public IM clients” at 22%. In these two cases, it's conceivable that there's overlap with vendor clients--i.e., your enterprise could have deployed OCS, SameTime, or whatever, but also allow Skype or public clients. For that matter, I guess you could be using multiple vendors' UC clients, though nobody wants to do that if they can help it.
The opportunities for vendors come in Wainhouse's "considering/not considering" responses, and once again, Microsoft has a clear edge here. Here are the numbers:
* Microsoft: 37% considering/13% not considering * IBM SameTime: 6% considering/51% not considering * Cisco: 40% considering/27% not considering * Avaya: 18% considering/48% not considering * Skype: 7% considering/53% not considering
So clearly, this survey shows Cisco to be Microsoft's main competitor for UC mindshare. IBM seems to be doing a respectable job holding its Lotus Notes base but shows little prospect for gaining market share in the next generation; the same could be said of Avaya. Skype seems to have maxed out.
As I noted at the top, Wainhouse is one of the best research houses out there and Brent Kelly is really a go-to guy on Microsoft's bid to grab UC market share. Wainhouse is now conducting the 2010 version of this survey, and if you're an enterprise, your help will make the data even better and the results even more valuable. You can go take the Wainhouse survey here; then we can all wait to see what the emergence of CS 14 has done to the marketplace.
