Italy is a wonderful place.  It sure seems true that Italians know ‘how to live’.  Architecture is graceful and pleasing to the senses, the food and beverages live up to their global reputation, and the business and social settings are congenial and courteous.  A nice place to visit, I can assure you, and the residents seem pretty happy, too. 

But that doesn’t take anything away from the technology savviness in Italy.  The IT Teams are right on top of their game, based on the enterprises attending the Microsoft UC Road Show in Milan.  We were at the Microsoft offices in the suburbs near the Linate airport.  Many other technology firms’ office signs were also visible from the airport shuttle bus, so pretty much in the high-tech neighborhood. 

The enterprises who attended were across the spectrum.  Some were from manufacturing and distribution firms, some from financial institutions, and some were communications service providers.  All had specific, direct interest in the Office Communications Server Solution. 

For the manufacturing firms, the interest was in the improvement of their customer and supply chain communications.  The discussions revealed some very insightful thoughts about how OCS might keep the firms in closer touch with their partners and customers.  Some had the idea that the OCS software clients, which the customers or partners could download for secure access to calls, meetings, training, or collaboration sessions, would improve information flow while also lowering costs.  Others were pursuing the concept of federation with their major partners who already had OCS installed.

For the financial services firms, the interest was in internal communications for productivity and cost savings.  One interest was in the use of OCS with collaboration tools such as SharePoint to improve internal processes for projects, business planning, and various approval processes.  Another interest was on how to improve communications with branch offices both for training and for linking centralized experts with the branch offices when needed, saving both time and travel expense.

For the communications service providers, the interest was both for internal use for customer services, mobile account teams and business planning teams, and for offering as a service to their business clients.  The concept of UC as a Service is a growing trend around the globe and can be especially attractive for small and mid-market businesses who would prefer a monthly per-user fee to the fixed costs of in-house staff and capital spending for hardware and software. 

At the end of the day, it seemed pretty clear to me that we will see Unified Communications flourish in Italy, with a style and graciousness for which Italy is renowned, but with intensity and energy that assure successful results, perhaps the espresso of UC.    

And, PS, it was snowing when I left Milan, and the airport closed for a while later that day; how unusual is that?  Just one more reason that my visit to Milan will be memorable.

Tags: Unified Communications Information by Marty Parker
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Well, it’s still Winter outside in Toronto, but it was Unified Communications “Spring” at the UC Road Show there.  Toronto really reflects the business climate of Canada.  While Canada is so big that there’s really no way to sum it up in one place, Toronto is a financial center and is the headquarters location for many major Canadian companies.  

The financial crisis is palpable in Toronto, with businesses concerned about revenue declines and consumers and government concerned about the financial markets and mortgage availability.  So, the theme of “Cost and Resource Savings through Unified Communications” was right on target.

The companies in attendance were diverse, but all had important interests in UC opportunities.   An educational course hosting company was interested in how UC might be used to enhance both operations and curriculum delivery.   A major cement and aggregate company was looking to get another notch of productivity in their highly competitive industry (though it was interesting to learn that some of their remote cement mine sites can’t even get a phone line to the property and are way out of cell tower range - not very likely UC sites).  A financial information service firm is about to move to new quarters and was looking for the best office and communications suite for their new facility.   A multi-national, multiple product line insurance company was looking to converge the multiple e-mail and communications environments that had accumulated over the years through mergers and acquisitions.

Quite a diverse set of needs, seems to me.  Yet each company found some aspect of the Microsoft UC Suite that interested them.  Some liked the rich APIs that would enable links into their business processes.  Some could see the immediate value of bringing audio, web and video in-house on a single, economical platform as an immediate cost savings, which could then be linked into SharePoint for enhanced collaboration.  Some liked the linkages and integrations with Microsoft Exchange e-mail so that users had as seamless an experience as possible in their daily tasks.  

Also, most attendees seemed to value the extensibility of the Office Communications Server software; once they had justified the installation with one of the applications mentioned above, the expansion to other areas, such as mobility or enterprise voice communications, was essentially a process of training and perhaps some added serve capacity, but not a new software kit with new or additional or upgraded licensing. 

So, the Toronto event lived up to my expectations.   Got to meet friendly Canadian business people who are intent on advancing their businesses in very pragmatic ways.   I would expect to hear about some new OCS applications or case studies from this group in the not-distant future.

Tags: Unified Communications Information by Marty Parker
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