One the arguments against UC written by Nick Jones of Gartner is, "For the next few years UC will be a battleground between mega-vendors like Microsoft and Cisco who want to suck you in to their technological whirlpool where you’ll be trapped paying license fees for a decade."
UC may be a battleground but what defines the fight is the definition of UC and I don't think the battle will be exactly what Nick envisions. The fight I think will be integrating UC clients with communications devices and other platforms. Understanding market demands lends some bending towards these platforms and this means your UC software must work where it's needed and it also means using what’s needed. One size doesn’t fit all and to compare UC clients today from platform to platform, I think shows a plethora of offerings and options.
I don't dispute that technology sucks companies in, because it does. What I particularly like about UC is software focus. Paring down hardware from customer sites has long been on my list. Still, Less hardware is not a bad thing and I think UC can help right-size what customers need. Read it again: don't sell benefits, demonstrate solutions.
Customers will pay fees and they will pay for licenses. There is no free ride but even before UC there was no free ride. Before UC? Can you imagine before UC capabilities? I can't believe I'm asking this question. Customers will pay for software and maintenance when it is fairly priced. Siemens has a new model and Avaya's new model for licensing each lowers customer costs and revitalizes the channel; and if the channel--Dealers/VARS/Integrators--are sleeping, then they will miss out on the opportunity to leverage UC and bundles using these new templates. Clearly, not everyone needs a desk phone or can always be at the desk phone during the workday. UC removes the tether from the worker and workflow, making work process smoother.
Again I agree with Nick in part and that is "trapped paying," only this time around customers won’t be trapped paying for maintenance of as much hardware. And with new licensing models (the new ones won’t be the last), customers are right, paying for their enterprise communications solutions while rightsizing what hardware they have on or off premises. In the old days of IPT there was middleware and today that middleware is UC. Think about that one Nick.
