In Melanie Turek's post: More Trends from Frost & Sullivan's Telephony Markets Research, Melanie wrote that, "telephony providers have been searching for new revenue sources, such as advanced capabilities, maintenance fees, and extended warranties." The telephony providers need listen to their dealers and VARs in their collective channels.
Access and Control: How many people does it take to screw in this light bulb?
Answer: Too Many
Solution: Move the integration to the telephony platform and not just "normally open contacts--we need power and relays combined; less hardware, less systems, less vendors. Someone called it convergence.
Overhead Paging: The paging manufacturers are still thinking like TDM box movers. Why do I need to buy ALL your stuff when my IP-PBX or other platform already has some stuff?
Answer: Because we don't want to converge (give up anything) or don't have the resources too.
Solution: Move the integration to the telephony platform and software is your new revenue stream, and don't forget maintenance. Some of your hardware can be redesigned to become a 1U or even a blade in IP-PBXs or servers.
Network Cameras: You know how cool the solution is and so do the customers when popping screens with camera images from door phones to the desktops. What about when the workers go mobile on campus?
Answer: DECT and IP proprietary handsets paired with desk phones are great to answer these calls but they don't get an image to their proprietary DECT mobile handset.
Solution: Add a small screen! Okay, I know designing new molds are expensive so just use iPhones instead.
Centralized Voice Mail/Auto Attendant/UC: Which is better: build your own platform in the data center, buy the factory's solution or put back in the cloud?
Answer: It depends.
Solution: I think hosted providers have an opportunity to serve the masses by hosting various platforms; keep any-eye licensing like Siemens because that changes the renewals and support costs (OPEX) and if competitiveness heats up then look for lower cost solutions (CAPEX) from the factory guys. Eric nails this down in Call Control in the Cloud.
Since reading Melanie's post, these are just the first thoughts that came to mind because customers asked and because we’ve had ongoing debates about the amount of money it costs for these opportunities and we ultimately end up with more gear on customer premises. This means collaboration between vendors and giving up competitive space and that requires more than interoperability--not just making two boxes or platforms talk to one another. I’ve already made my say about the industry and the carriers being numb to supporting true single number concept. All these requests have similar meaning--customers want to call and rely upon fewer vendors; they want less stuff on their premises; and they still want to lower their upfront investments and decrease their monthly/annual OPEX. You may conclude that customers just want it all--but it's nothing new.
