Inter-Company Visual Collaboration: At the Tipping Point...

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! :)

Consumer Led Market Transitions: Innovations powering mobile and video

“5 Innovations, Implications, and Imperatives from the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show”

1)Skype ushers in Consumer Telepresence

Innovation: Simple and Free Consumer video conferencing

Implications: Conditions the “masses” with easy to use video conferencing from the couch,
The video collaboration market transition has just been accelerated

Imperatives : Accelerates the innovation mandate of both SPs and vendors that sell to them;
It also places a governor on SPs pricing HD video conferencing too high

Interesting: Skype debuted their service with the #2 player from Japan (Panasonic) and
#2 from Korea (LG)

Yikes! as a proof point of Skype mindshare, they called Cisco’s consumer TP a
“super-powered Skype”

2)Mobile Video Conferencing (demonstrated by Intel CEO in keynote)

Innovation: Mobile Video Conferencing

Implications: Increases adoption of video conferencing and expectations of VC service from SPs. Will drive demand for “pro-sumer” svc (integrated, “dual personality”; professional & consumer)

Imperatives: SPs must invest in the capabilities to deliver real time, “wired to wireless”, rich media services. Must develop “inter-cloud “ strategy that includes wireless, content, communities.

Interesting:The Dick Tracy impersonator had a watch that worked! …Valentines Day is coming up!

3)3D HD TVs with Broadband Internet

Innovation: 3D HD TVs with Broadband Internet; enabling Web Collaboration w/video over 50” HD TVs

Implications: With the ability to hold multi-point, HD video web collaboration meetings over the internet, from
your living room, SPs need to rethink their strategies for monetizing residential FTTH services.

Imperatives: SPs need to consider partnerships with web collaboration providers, bundling services,
and integrating social networking (e.g. via partnership with LinkedIn or Facebook)

●

4)Managed Desktop Services powered by LG’s Network Connect; 31 users, 1 PC!

Innovation: LG announces Network Computer; 1 PC supporting 31 users (with monitor and keyboard only)

Implications: Accelerates the adoption of managed desktop services. This platform mitigates many risks
that challenge managed desktop profitability. High relevance in customer care, education,
and government.

Imperatives : Service Providers need to evaluate how best to meet their customers demand for managed
desktop

5)Touch Screen HD TVs with Broadband Internet & embedded hard drive

Innovation: Sony (and others) introduces TouchScreen HDTV with Internet

Implications: Improves the economics of Digital Media Signage which will in turn accelerate market adoption.
The economics improve further when you add the fact that these TVs can also
enable Internet Video Conferencing… your on-demand shopping consultant coming soon!

Imperatives : Service Providers need to invest now in a full suite of InterCompany Video Collaboration services.

Telecom Italia: Profile of Innovating and Leading in Managed Services

Successfully navigating through the economic downturn requires the right strategies, the right investments, and the right partnerships. During a recent visit to Cisco’s San Jose Executive Briefing Center, Telecom Italia‘s senior leadership team shares how they are using this downturn to introduce new managed services and new business models to better serve the Small and Medium business segment and win market share.

Key to Telecom Italia’s success is their partnership with Cisco. Over the past several years, Cisco has helped Telecom Italia design and implement their “Impresa Semplice” managed service portfolio that provides SMBs with services including: managed LAN, managed VPN, managed firewall, and managed unified communications. In this video, Telecom Italia shares their perspective on the market, key success factors, and the power of partnerships to accelerate innovation.

http://bit.ly/5dDDI8

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A bigger sail for partners to navigate the "Perfect Storm"

Cisco has added to its "Navigate to Accelerate" partner enablement arsenal with a series of announcements this week in Boston; less than an hour's drive from Gloucester, MA (where the Andrea Gail and Billy Tyne's ill-fated crew departed for the final time in 1991, inspiring 2007's "Perfect Storm").

The "Perfect Storm" for managed services adoption is well underway (fueled by technology enabling "clouds", the worst economy in 25 years keeping business "underwater", and many providers trying to offer their customers a "lifeboat" with new service pricing models). At the eye of this storm is Data Center Virtualization and the business benefits it will bring (efficiency, scaling, reliability, and new service time to market).

Among the announcements Cisco has made this week are new channel programs to expand its expanding data center partner channel:

Key Take-aways:

* To motivate channel partners to invest in building a unified data center practice, Cisco has expanded its existing Value Incentive Program (VIP) offering for all of Cisco's data center technologies, including unified computing, storage networking, and WAN optimization, as well as for its existing offering for data center switching. VIP is Cisco's flagship profitability program that rewards partners for investing in architecture practices around collaboration, data center virtualization and borderless networks.
* Cisco also announced the new Data Center Channel Solutions Program, designed to help enable and accelerate the sale of tested, validated reference IT solution designs that incorporate products from industry-leading data center vendors, including EMC, Microsoft, NetApp, Red Hat, and VMware.
* Cisco today announced it is opening the Unified Computing opportunity to a broader range of its channel partner community. Cisco is announcing an Authorized Partner Program (APP) to support the new Unified Computing C-Series Rack-Mount Servers. All Cisco DCNI Specialized Partners will be able to sell the new rack-mount servers after completing online training and exam from Cisco.
* The Cisco Advanced Data Center Network Infrastructure Specialization (DCNI) is the fastest-ramping specialization in Cisco's history. Despite the economic downturn, partners have rapidly invested in the specialization since its launch a year ago because of its strategic significance to their business.

More good things to come...

Prepare for the upturn, focus on Talent Development

With the latest Federal employment report just in, The U.S. is inching it's way toward 9% unemployment and 6 million jobs lost since November 2007. And while Fed Chairman Bernanke says that we should see improvement in the economy by the end of this year, he also said that job losses will continue. Estimates have the U.S. inching past 10% unemployment by the end of 2009.

Business is down, but most business leaders plan to lead a recovery that is powered by improved employee productivity coming from increased use of technology, collaboration solutions, training, and talent management tools. I've spoken with several business leaders who are expecting revenues in calendar 2009 to be flat to modestly higher than 2008; this after they've laid off 6-10% of their workforce. This mandate for increased employee productivity has proved to be a boon for solutions vendors selling web conferencing & collaboration solutions, teleworking solutions, and training & talent management solutions.

As we all know, in a recession, people managers are tested. Employees are disillusioned, demotivated, and scared. One strategy to ensuring your employees stay engaged and committed, is to invest in your people and their professional development. So, how do you do this in a tough economy with increasingly slim budgets?

You buy training and talent management solutions "on-demand" from companies such as Taleo, SuccessFactors, or Cisco/WebEx.

Some good perspectives on Taleo's blogsite