At Lotusphere in Orlando this week, IBM introduced several new products, as well as enhancements to products that were announced last year. Some of the things that caught my attention were related to social software (also called social media or enterprise social software). While I have a hard time seeing how some of the social software stuff will fit in an enterprise, there are definitely areas where I can see it being a communication and productivity boost (although I also believe that it can be a productivity drain).

One of the biggest new announcements related to social software is the Bluehouse project, which provides extranet capabilities delivered in a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, aimed at companies with under 500 employees. Bluehouse lets workers share, meet, and collaborate, quickly and securely. Built on a collaborative multitenant architecture, Bluehouse lets users manage contacts, share files with people in their organization, initiate online meeting, and more. As a social contact sharing tool for business applications, Bluehouse provides social and real-time applications, letting people share and interact with contacts.

Some of the features and capabilities include File Sharing, which lets users access files easily and quickly without needing to email attachments to each other. Large files don’t have to be stored on individual PCs and can be shared and accessed as needed, without having to email them back and forth. Another feature, Live Charts, lets users take data and create charts in real time, and share the charts and data with individuals within or outside of the company. The service also integrates the “Activities” feature of Lotus Connections, which lets users collaborate and communicate around common tasks and projects in a separate environment. Group members of an Activity get notified when something happens with this activity, such as the posting of a new blog, new contact, new task, etc. This enables users to be better notified about what their team members and colleagues are doing. Web meeting functionality lets every person who is part of Bluehouse have their own meeting room that has a fixed URL and is always available (however, there are no voice capabilities yet, so users still need to use an audio conference bridge). Bluehouse also hosts a Sametime server so that each participant can download a Sametime client and use some of the features of Sametime.

Updates were \ made to the social software products introduced last year, including Quickr and Lotus Connections. Quickr organizes contacts and content library and brings content together in one place where team or project members can find what they need and keep everyone in the loop. Let’s say you’re involved in a new product launch – Quickr gives you a place to post files, such as presentations and press releases relating to the launch. Quickr lets people work in the tools they use everyday. Users can get access to all Quickr documents from Sametime and can chat about the document and share the document with team members. Members can check in documents and review them, adding comments for the author to see. A team blog lets people keep each other in the loop about what’s going on. There are a number of templates, includin a project management template where you keep track of all tasks associated with project and who’s associated with it. A team calendaring feature lets you send out meeting notices to people on the team, which synchs with the user’s Notes calendar. New capabilities added to Quickr 8 include integration to Notes 8, Symphony, and Outlook via an open connector framework. Later this year, it will include integration into FileNet P8 and IBM Content Manager.

Enhancements were also made to Lotus Connections, which was introduced at last year’s Lotusphere. Lotus Connections includes member Profiles, Blogs, Dogear (bookmarking), Communities, and Activities. Everything is integrated together so that when you click on someone’s name, you see a popup with their profile, the communities they’re in, blogs they’ve written, websites they’ve dogeared, Activities they are in, etc. Activities is a multiuser, persistent sharing space where you can present web pages and documents, have discussion threads, assign tasks, and more, providing an integrated collaborative experience. With Activities, you can see your activity dashboard, which pulls in information from various sources and presents your projects, tasks, events, and other items related to a particular activity. The Dogear capability lets users share bookmarks, making it easier to provide useful information to each other. With Blogs, users can recommend entries of blogs they think others may be interested in, see comments on the blogs, and rate the comments. The system can sort the blogs based on the number of recommendations, and notify other users that this may be something they want to read. Communities lets users participate in discussions on a range of topics and projects in real time. Other enhancements include integration to Yahoo! Answers, the ability to link to Facebook and with wikis such as Socialtext and Confluence. The next release of Lotus Connections will support many worldwide languages including Arabic and Russian, and language translation services will be added as well.

Some of the social software capabilities are being extended to IBM’s UC offerings. For example, IBM Lotus is also integrating Sametime with Connections and Quickr, so that a user’s profile card from Connections can be made available across the platform, letting users tap into someone’s shared files and be able to connect with them through Sametime. Community membership lists can be used in Quickr and Sametime, making it easier to contact and reach someone in the community.

Of course there were lots of other announcements, but …

Tags: UC Information by Blair Pleasant
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Over the years, manufacturers have often asked me which channel – voice or data – I thought would be most successful with “convergence” (and now unified communications) products and solutions. My answer has always been the same and now I am seeing an ever-increasing number of “integrators” who support my answer….

It is possible to draw a general conclusion that data VARs will have an easier time understanding and implementing unified communications technology because it is based on hardware platforms and integrating various applications. But data VARs will find it more difficult to sell UC solutions because the sales process has generally been product focused, involving primarily one department within the customer organization – the IT department.

On the other hand, telecom dealers should be better equipped to handle the sales process of UC because they are familiar with more complex decision-making processes involving numerous departments and multiple influencers and decision-makers. But telecom dealers will find it more challenging to deal with the complex integrations involved in UC.

So what’s my answer to “which channel will be more successful”? I don’t believe that it’s in any vendor’s best interest to rely solely on one channel or the other. The successful convergence integrators that I’m seeing are successful, not because they are telecom dealers or data VARs, but because they have a focus and a strong vision. They are making significant investments in hiring and training the right sales personnel and training their technical staff for the more complex environment of UC. It’s all about the vision and mindset of the owner – not where the company came from last year!

Tags: UC Information by Pam Avila
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Word is out that Cisco is introducing the Cisco Unified Personal Communicator (CUPC) client with native support for the Apple MacIntosh and Leopard. According to a blog post by M. Michael Acosta, manager of Cisco engineering, the latest version of CUPC is a fully native Mac application with a user-interface developed specifically for the Mac.

Why am I not surprised? For one thing, Chris Thompson, Senior Director, Solutions Marketing for Cisco’s UC group, has been carrying around his Mac at every conference, noting how Cisco doesn’t care what system or desktop you use – it’s all about the network. Once I saw Chris, who is often the spokesman for Cisco UC, with his Mac, and learned that Macs are an orderable laptop option for Cisco employees, I knew that Cisco would come out with a UC client that would support the Mac. Chris told me that there are about 7000 people at Cisco on Macs and that Cisco recognizes that people are increasingly working in environments that are “not standard,” which is why Cisco is embracing an inclusive strategy to make the UC experience portable across devices, operating systems, network topologies and business applications.

Also, as I noted in a previous column (http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-strategies-views/cisco-sets-its-sights-on-collaboration.aspx), Cordell Ratzlaff, formerly of Apple, has been leading a new Cisco team focused on providing a consistent user experience across devices. As Director, User-Centered Design, Ratzlaff and his group are working to redesign all of Cisco’s UC products to have a common look and feel. Is it a coincidence that Ratzlaff used to work at Apple? I think not.

Avaya already made the move to welcome Apple into the enterprise by supporting the Apple iPhone with its Avaya one-X Mobile, “offering direct access to sophisticated features found on your Avaya office phone.” Other enterprise vendors will follow suit by supporting both the Apple iPhone and Macintosh computing system. While Apple currently has a miniscule share of the enterprise market, this could change in the near future. We’ve seen consumers driving evolution in the enterprise – bringing in social networking, IM, and other consumer-related offerings. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of these consumers do the same for Apple products, which are clearly more popular in schools and homes than in the enterprise. Remember, a large portion of college students use Macs, not PCs, and as they enter the workforce, they may bring their Macs with them.

While Apple will never take over Microsoft in the enterprise, I would expect to see more and more individuals, followed by departments within the enterprise, slowly move toward worker-driven options such as Apple products, including the Mac platform and the iPhone. This means that enterprise UC vendors need to take a look at how Apple fits into their integration and alliance strategies. And for those of you competing head on with Microsoft, remember the saying: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Nuff said.

Tags: UC Information by Blair Pleasant
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It’s that wonderful time of the year when people around the world make their New Year’s resolutions – things they’ll do differently, bad habits they’ll quit, good habits they’ll start, and so on. Here are some New Year’s resolutions related to unified communications that I would like to see in the coming year.

Vendors working together toward federation: One of the biggest obstacles to UC success is the lack of federation, or the ability for one vendors’ UC/IM/presence offering to work with another’s. While we’ve seen some good success stories of UC helping companies internally, the number of situations where companies can use UC to interact with customers, partners, and suppliers using different platforms and different vendors’ products is limited. If I’m on a Cisco UC system, I can’t see the telephony presence of my customer on an Avaya UC system, for example. Federation is number one on my wish list.

Vendors, analysts, and consultants agreeing on a definition of unified communications: We’ve all been harping on this for a while, but there are still multiple definitions not only of UC, but also of Communication Enabled Business Processes, which is confusing to enterprise customers.

Analysts and vendors agreeing on a way to measure the UC market: As an industry analyst one of my jobs is to analyze and forecast the UC market. I’ve been an analyst for many years, analyzing several different markets – the unified communications market is by far the most difficult market I’ve had to measure. There is no agreement within the vendor community as to what constitutes the UC market, and they have not been forthcoming in providing market data that could be used in a market analysis (most likely because we’re still in the early stages of the market and the shipments have been limited).

Vendors and resellers providing sales and shipment data for their UC solutions: While PBX market analysts can easily count the number of PBX lines that have been shipped, or in the email market we can count the number of email licenses sold, there is no single element to count in the UC market. I resolve to develop a way to measure the UC market, but I need future buy-in from vendors and resellers who will need to provide the necessary market data.

Resellers being more receptive to selling UC solutions, rather than “boxes”: I know it’s a hard transition for many resellers who have been successful selling telephony or convergence products, but the time has come to embrace UC, which means a new sales approach. This approach may involve taking a vertical focus or a longer-term solution focus, but it is necessary. Some resellers are making the transition more easily than others, but vendors will be changing the way they compensate partners, so these partners will have to accept this and get on board.

My personal resolution: I resolve to be more open to other people’s definitions of UC and CEBP – this is an evolving market, and it is too early to say what it will look like in a few years. Even though I have firm ideas about what makes a UC solution, there are others with different beliefs, and many of these should be taken into account. I resolve to listen to these other ideas and integrate them into my own when appropriate.

If we as an industry can make and keep these resolutions, it will go a long way to helping the Unified Communications market grow.

Tags: UC Information by Blair Pleasant
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