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UC at IBM Connect 2013

I spent a couple days last week at IBM's Connect conference in Orlando. As an industry analyst tracking the UC space I was naturally looking for an update on where IBM is in UC. At a product level, IBM UC means Sametime for corporate instant messaging and Sametime Unified Telephony for connecting to enterprise voice systems.

At first it seemed there would be little in the way of UC content at the event--not surprising given that these days IBM prefers to talk about social this and social that. But appearances, as they say, can be deceptive.

Though it's clear that UC and Sametime no longer bask in the marketing department's limelight, it's equally clear that the Sametime product team is pumping considerable effort into enhancing them. I attended every Sametime session I could in my two and a half days at Connect 2013. Here are some of my takeaways from each:

Social Communications Strategy and the IBM Sametime Roadmap. At this session, John Del Pizzo, head of Sametime product management, reminded us of what IBM added to Sametime in 2012 (social network integration, audio and video on iPads, streamlined licensing, integration with third-party video conferencing solutions and Arkadin's audio conferencing service), and what's planned in 2013 (a software MCU; SVC video conferencing; HD video; a Unified Telephony client and multipoint video on mobile devices; cloud-based video conferencing; revamped user interface). The new video architecture is especially significant. "We believe the next version of Sametime will be the only solution you need for desktop video," Del Pizzo told the crowd.


John Del Pizzo providing some of the first details on Sametime enhancements due out later this year

Multi-Channel Communication with IBM Sametime in a Large Banking Environment. Contact center integration isn't a topic you often hear in relation to Sametime, so it was interesting to hear Michael Frericks from IT service provider Finanz Informatik describe Sametime's role in delivering multichannel functionality to Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe's previously voice-only contact center platform. Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, a Germany-based network of more than 400 savings banks, already used Sametime for corporate instant messaging among its 3,000 employees, so it turned to IBM to integrate Sametime with its home-grown contact center platform.

The resulting solution lets customers launch chat sessions from their browsers and have them routed to Sparkasse's 1,000 or so contact center agents, who can address questions about their accounts. At this point the integration is limited to routing chat sessions to available agents, recording the interaction, and ensuring the chat sessions are secure from end-to-end. Sametime is not used to enable video conferencing sessions, something an audience member from France was very keen on learning how to do since his customers have been requesting this. Nor does Sparkasse's Sametime implementation route calls to expert agents outside the contact center or launch chat sessions from customers' mobile devices.

Frericks said that Sametime could enable some of these more advanced customer service capabilities, but Sparkassen's Sametime-based multichannel solution is still very new--it went live just last month. At this point, Sparkassen is more focused on increasing customers' use of the new chat functionality rather than complicating it with video conferencing and other advanced features.


Michael Frericks from Finanz Informatik outlines Sametime's role in a multi-channel contact center environment

Next page: IBM's Mobile Collaboration Strategy

IBM's Mobile Collaboration Strategy. This session outlined the mobility features in the current version of Sametime (8.5.2) and in "Sametime Next," as the next, as-yet unnamed version of Sametime is called. Bharti Patel, director ICS mobile development, described the Sametime Mobile client as "one of our most popular apps," adding, "We have thousands of downloads every week."

She noted that IBM just updated Sametime's iOS and Android clients in January. Added features include geo-location sharing and single-click configuration. For the latter, end users download the Sametime Mobile client from the Apple Store or Google Play, then the IT admin emails a URL that, when clicked, automatically configures the client, as opposed to the end user having to manually enter the server address, SSL settings, etc.

In addition, as you may recall, a couple years back IBM added a basic softphone utility to Sametime Unified Telephony. To date this has been available only on desktops. Patel said that Sametime Next will deliver a version of the SUT softphone for mobile devices as well.

What's Next in Sametime. Marlon Machado, product manager for social communications, started off his presentation with how the design philosophy behind Sametime has changed: "For years Sametime had been developed under a unified communications strategy. As with all things in life, this must pass. We need to get beyond unified communications."

He characterized UC as good at what it does: Lets you communicate with people you already know, let them know you you're available, shows you presence info of people on your contact list. Going forward, Machado said, Sametime will need "to enable and simplify the rich communications experience for your social business." I suppose this means that Sametime will be further integrated into Connections and other elements of the social business strategy that has supplanted IBM's previous UC strategy. For example, the widget that lets users launch video chat from within Connections will be formally released this year.

But a lot of this presentation dwelt on Sametime Next features that I would categorize as traditional UC rather than fancy-schmancy social. For example, Machado mentioned plans to support multitenancy, a new UX with a similar look and feel as Notes 9 Social, and the "next-generation media framework" that makes HD video conferencing native to Sametime Next. All great stuff, but squarely UC in my book.


Marlon Machado's demo of the Sametime Mobile client establishing a multipoint video conferencing session on an iPad

Continental: Unleashing a Smarter Workforce with IBM Sametime for Social Collaboration. Echard Jakobi, head of the collaboration environment at Continental AG, gave an overview of his company's implementation of Sametime for IM and web conferencing. This global tire and automotive components manufacturer has 163,000 employees, 90,000 of whom have access to Sametime, with 60,000 actively using it. Jakobi has integrated Sametime with Notes and Connections, the latter of which he described as the "Business Facebook" that facilitates collaboration for Continental employees around the world.

The first part of the discussion went into a great amount of detail about performance--how to minimize unresponsiveness of applications based on network delays, bandwidth issues, and other infrastructure problems--and WAN acceleration's role in remedying performance problems. But the part that surprised the audience was the customized user interface that has a very different look and feel from the standard Sametime UI.

He ended the presentation by giving IBM a list of things that need to be improved in Sametime, but I'm not enough of a Sametime geek to have fully appreciated most of them. ("Consider replacing or using a different port ... than 1533.") I was disappointed that Continental does not seem to integrate Sametime with its PBX and video conferencing systems...but that's my bias toward UC showing through.

IBM Sametime Mobile Instant Messaging and Meetings. Mid-week 8:30am sessions are always a test of the conference-goer's constitution, so I was pleasantly surprised to see a sizable audience at this breakout. Steve Babin, technical lead for Sametime Mobile, and his colleagues provided yet another live demo of the new mobile video conferencing features. I think this was the fourth demo of mobile video on the Sametime Next mobile client that I saw in three days, but it worked well each time, so IBM has clearly got it working. There was also a live demo of the Sametime Next mobile client sending and receiving voice over an Android tablet's WiFi connection, which drew an "Awesome!" from an excited member of the audience in the back of the room.

So all-in-all, IBM had plenty to talk about at Connect 2013 when it came to Sametime. The Sametime Next features look pretty solid and as far as I can tell IBM is set to deliver on them later this year.

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