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What Will Cisco Do with Two Telepresence Solutions?

Ever since Cisco finally wrenched the last stock certificate from some Tandberg investor's firmly clenched fist, the question in my mind has been what it will mean to Cisco and Tandberg's respective product lines.My assumption has been that Tandberg's Maestro MXP, Edge MXP and Quick Set C20 high-definition video solutions on the one hand, and the E20, 150 MXP, 1000 MXP, and 1700 MXP personal video conferencing systems on the other will more or less slot into Cisco's product line. After all, Cisco really has little like these in its own portfolio, so it would make sense to let them to breathe new life into the company's end point and Unified Videoconferencing portfolios.

But whither Tandberg's telepresence solutions? Unlike the HD video solutions, which by and large had no meaningful corollaries in the Cisco product line, the Tandberg Telepresence T3 and Telepresence T1 systems compete head-to-head with Cisco's own immersive video solutions--TelePresence System 3200, 3000 and 1300. Cisco will have completely duplicate sets of telepresence solutions in its portfolio.

Because the acquisition has not closed, we can't possibly ask Cisco and Tandberg to comment on the future of their respective immersive video solutions post-takeover. Or can we? In a press release issued this week, Tandberg tried to tip its hand a bit. In describing the two companies' immersive video products, Tandberg explained:

The flagship Cisco TelePresence System 3000 series, including the Cisco TelePresence System 3000/3010 and Cisco TelePresence System 3200/3210, will continue to serve as the optimized experience for scalable deployments. The TANDBERG Total Telepresence Solution, including the T3 and T1, will serve as the adaptive experience for a range of solutions including customized deployments. (Emphasis added.)

OK...I'll be honest and admit I haven't a clue what most of this means. Optimized experience? Adaptive experience? Cisco TelePresence is scalable...so Tandberg's isn't? Tandberg telepresence is for some unnamed range of solutions that Cisco TelePresence won't address? It's all so very cryptic. Speaking to Tandberg didn't really clear things up, but I didn't really expect it to. "We cannot comment on any positioning post-close," I was told...though the opaque wording of press release is doing just that. "I would not read too much into those adjectives."

The press release is meant to reassure customers and resellers--both Cisco's and Tandberg's--that it's safe to continuing investing in T3, T1, CTS 3000, and CTS 1300 systems.

I can see Tandberg's point...but agree with it only to a certain degree. To my thinking, the two solutions sets would initially co-reside in the combined portfolio, just as Tandberg says. No reason to start things off by miffing one set of customers or another. Then recently demonstrated three-screen telepresence interoperability, based on Cisco's Telepresence Interoperability Protocol, would be made generally available. "On day one, all Cisco [telepresence] end points will be able to talk to all Tandberg [telepresence] end points," as Tandberg told me.

This should allow Cisco to sell TelePresence 3000 systems to T3 customers, and vice versa. They will be able to set up and manage a mixed networks of Cisco, Tandberg, presumably LifeSize, and possibly even Polycom and HP telepresence solutions (given that Tandberg has long delivered interoperability with these without needing any newfangled Cisco-sanctioned protocols).

But the expense of actively developing, marketing, and otherwise supporting two extremely high-end immersive video conferencing solutions on a long-term basis--this will surely take a toll on even Cisco's deep, deep pockets. Much better--from Cisco's perspective - to in the long term focus R&D and sales efforts on one or the other. That's my gut feeling in any case. If it turns out I'm way off ... well, it's easy enough to have Eric strip this blog from the site while I disavow all knowledge of it. ;-)

Along a similar vein, it was fun to watch Melanie Turek's prediction that the Cisco-Tandberg deal would benefit Polycom came to pass. Tandberg technology partners who directly compete with Cisco at one level or another have flocked to Polycom in recent weeks. Broadsoft signed with Polycom despite previous work with Tandberg on a jointly developed hosted video conferencing solution. Siemens Enterprise Communications, which signed a global reseller deal with Tandberg this past September, sidled up to Polycom as well. And Juniper has teamed up with Polycom in a move aimed at helping it better compete with a combined Cisco-Tandberg. That's a lot of business that could be thrown Polycom's way...and it leaves me to wonder at the chaos that will erupt should Polycom be acquired next. *** Follow me on Twitter!