Finally! The market conditions have come together to rapidly accelerate broad adoption of inter-company visual collaboration! Everyone in our industry has discussed benefits of inter-company collaboration (unified communications <=> videophones <=> desktop video conferencing <=> web conferencing <=> Telepresence) but implementations have been limited to "early adopters" and "C-suites" of the Fortune 500.
Although announced in November 2009, Cisco made a splash yesterday as it re-announced its
Intercompany Media Engine which gives people business-to-business communications capabilities over any IP network. It’s a new solution that enables boundary-less communications between organizations, including business partners, customers, and suppliers. The idea is to make communications between separate companies and organizations as effortless as it is within a single organization.
With the Intercompany Media Engine, communications travel over an IP network or the Internet, but you use the phones you are already using, the numbers you are already dialing, and the contact lists you have already entered. It doesn’t even matter whether you’re working within or outside of your company. The ease, efficiency, and overall experience of communicating with each other will be exactly the same.
One important benefit of the Intercompany Media Engine is reduced costs. Instead of using the PSTN, the communications path for business to business communications is going to be an IP network or the internet. Because you are using more efficient IP network connections, you can potentially reduce the number of PSTN connections you need.
The relevance of Intercompany Media Engine cannot be understated. IME is positioned to be a "Force Multiplier" in accelerating InterCompany Visual Collaboration which service providers are counting on to drive demand of QoS enabled premium IP network services.
Visual collaboration, after years of constant challenges, became a technology that businesses regarded as difficult and unlikely to be used on regular basis. However, a perfect storm of technological, economic, and environmental developments has brought visual collaboration to the forefront again. To capitalize on this prospect, vendors should be aware of their customers’ applications and requirements in order to develop products, which fulfill clients’ needs. They should also focus on leveraging relationships with strategic channel partners who are successful in providing visual collaboration equipment.
New analysis from
Frost & Sullivan, World Visual Collaboration Managed Services Markets, finds that the market earned revenues of $82.7 million in 2008 and estimates this to reach
$938.3 million in 2015, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of
162%.
“A driver that is most likely to contribute to the growth of the visual collaboration market is the reduction of travel required by a company,” notes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Iwona Petruczynik. “This can create significant cuts in business costs and help improve productivity levels; employees can conduct their businesses without the need to meet face-to-face with their clients or partners. New models offered by service providers that do not require up-front capital expenditure (CAPEX) by customers are also adding to the widespread adoption of visual collaboration services globally.”
In addition to Cisco, more storm clouds are on the horizon as Avaya, Skype, and others are rumored to be releasing similar solutions soon. The democratization of visual collaboration - I'm a very happy camper indeed! :)
Posts
