Channel Roadmap for Success in Collaboration Services

Transcription

1 WHITEPAPER Channel Roadmap for Success in Collaboration Services Understanding the Current State of the Market, Criteria for Success, & How to Develop a Collaboration Services Roadmap Marc F. Beattie Bill A. Haskins July 2013 Study sponsored by: Copyright 2012 Wainhouse Research, LLC Page 1

2 Contents Executive Summary... 1 Current State of the Unified Communications & Collaboration (UC&C) Market... 2 Criteria for Success in Collaboration Services... 8 Capabilities of a CSP... 9 Audio & Web... 9 How much can I make?... 9 Video Managed Services How much can I make? Considerations for a Business Relationship Channel Attributes Establishing a Collaboration Services Roadmap for your Clients Summary Introducing ACT Conferencing About the Authors About Wainhouse Research About ACT Figures Figure 1 - Instant Messaging by Service Type... 3 Figure 2 - Which of the following UC features have been deployed to >50% of your users?... 3 WR Paper: Channel Roadmap for Success in Collaboration Services. Copyright 2013 Wainhouse Research. All rights reserved. Copyright 2012 Wainhouse Research, LLC Page 2

3 Executive Summary The market for real-time communication and collaboration is undergoing its largest transformation in 100 years. Traditional TDM (time division multiplexing)-based voice is transforming into IP voice. Presence is making transparent both user availability and media (voice, data and video) engagement/activity. Screen and application sharing fosters collaboration for immediate decisions. Video is connecting employees, teams, and trading partners in a very engaging and immersive way that simulates being there. New technology, services, and the quality of the experience for voice, video, and data communications have hit new heights for enterprise use. The question for the enterprise is no longer focused on whether these new services are appropriate or acceptable in quality for use, but rather - how and when they will be deployed? For the partners offering related communication and network services, the question is how to satisfy this emerging demand to gain greater client engagement, without sacrificing the value and quality of your current focus. To ease the burden of selection and speed deployment, and to provide users with an intuitive and highly accessible range of communication tools, unified communication (UC) vendors have assembled some very compelling product suites that seek to sell multiple capabilities under one brand. However, this might not be the best option for all users, or the best option for every organization. In concept, the idea is right: provide clients a unified communication experience. But in reality, not every user, department, or location has the same communication requirements. As a result, many organizations still buy parts and pieces from different suppliers for both on-premise and cloud-based services. So while organizations are moving toward UC, they are also holding on to brand preference and the power of selection it affords. What this means is that the market is rapidly turning toward integrated services with a single-service provider wrap which ensures they meet the requirements of every user. The smart enterprise is seeking partners who can bundle their brand preferences and manage a unified experience. Moving forward, it is likely that most organizations will establish a foundation for presence-enabled communications, starting with voice or messaging, and then build off that, adding more advanced communications, including video, data sharing and other related collaboration services. As the opportunity for hosted Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) emerges, so does the opportunity for expanded collaboration services to run deeper and wider into the enterprise. The reality is that no UC platform meets 100% of every user s communication requirements, or the material challenges that come with planning, deploying, and supporting such services. There is a great opportunity for savvy partners working in alignment with users to combine the best-ofbreed communication services into a unified collaboration experience that suits the differing needs in today s enterprises. Copyright 2013 Wainhouse Research, LLC Page 1

4 This paper seeks to summarize the current state of the hosted UC and collaboration market, offer criteria for success in establishing a collaboration strategy that compliments and expands your current focus, and to provide a roadmap which your organization can use in delivering against that strategy within your target market. Current State of the UC&C Market Criteria for Success in Collaboration Services Establishing a Collaboration Servcies Roadmap Current State of the Unified Communications & Collaboration (UC&C) Market Current State of UC Adoption It s hard to turn around in today s communications market place and not bump into a UC solution. The amount of marketing and the number of UC product updates has become staggering. As a result, it s easy to feel we are much further along in the UC deployment lifecycle than we actually are. The reality: we are still at the beginning of the UC adoption curve. Wainhouse Research tracks several key metrics over time that are helpful in determining the current state of UC adoption. One important metric is the rate of adoption for enterprise IM solutions. These UC capable platforms serving as the base for enterprise IM include Microsoft Lync, IBM SameTime, Cisco Jabber, Siemens OpenScape, Avaya Aura and others UC capable platforms. The number of enterprises who report the use of an enterprise instant messaging solution has grown dramatically over time. However, as shown in Figure 1, we still have not reached the 50% mark in terms of enterprise IM deployments. Copyright 2013 Wainhouse Research, LLC Page 2

5 28% 26% 22% 19% 18% 32% 28% 35% 29% Consumer 16% 13% 43% 32% 4% 37% 30% 31% 5% 9% 43% 41% 41% 8% 33% 39% 40% 5% 5% 24% 27% 38% 46% 7% 7% 19% 18% Enterprise Other None Figure 1 - Instant Messaging by Service Type 1 The adoption of enterprise IM, however, only shows one important piece of the puzzle. The next logical question is, What UC features beyond IM have been deployed? Survey data shows that instant messaging is, by far, the most widely deployed UC solution. When asked, Which UC features have you deployed to more than 50% of your organization? all but IM fall short of a 40% response rate. Instant messaging 63% P2P App sharing 39% P2P Audio 39% Audio conferencing 33% P2P video 30% Web conferencing 30% Video conferencing 27% PBX 26% B2B Federation 17% Mobile integration 16% Integration with room video 15% Contact center Integration 13% Custom integration 10% Figure 2 - Which of the following UC features have been deployed to >50% of your users? 2 1 Source: Wainhouse Research WebMetrics 1H Source: Wainhouse Research UC Enterprise Survey 2013 Copyright 2013 Wainhouse Research, LLC Page 3

6 Features such as audio conferencing, video conferencing, and telephony / PBX drop off quickly after the IM feature. This said, WR believes we are approaching an inflection point in deployment of advanced UC features. In the same survey, the number of enterprises integrating UC telephony have more than doubled yearover-year, from 11% to 27%. This data point is reinforced by direct feedback received during enterprise consultation engagements; many organizations are working to enable advanced communication features within their UC platforms. There are several key trends fueling this transition that must be highlighted: 1. There are many old, failing PBX s out there, and it s time to replace them. This is a common theme amongst organizations who are getting serious about their UC roadmap. Old, iron-clad TDM PBXs have worked so well for so long that it s been easy not to invest in replacing them. For those enterprises that are not flush with extra cash (e.g. most enterprises), investing in upgrades for working, albeit aging, telephony systems has not been a priority. However, this party can last only so long. When an enterprise realizes that it has end-of-life equipment supporting a key feature like telephony, and worse, when those systems start failing, it s time to get serious about an upgrade. 2. Enterprises are viewing their communications needs holistically. Telephony is no longer viewed as a stand-alone experience. Instead, IT teams see voice as one mode of real-time communication within a larger stack of communication modes. Text (IM), voice, video, and content sharing are logically bundled together to create a real-time communications experience that users apply to different interactions as appropriate. It s not by happenstance that UC vendors have provided tools that allow users to escalate up and down between these modes, turning an IM into an audio call, adding video, and sharing desktop content with ease. However, the smart IT teams are not stopping there. This real-time UC experience is but one section of a broad communications ecosystem that includes , content creation and management, social networking, group video, event conferences and more. While UC accounts for a percent of the enterprise s interaction, it s just that a percent. Progressive enterprises are asking, How does my UC platform interact, support, and integrate with the solutions I need to meet all of my end-user s communications requirements? 3. Mid-to-large enterprises are facing a long march towards a full-featured UC environment. The common barriers facing an enterprise looking to deliver UC audio and video to the desktop include costs associated with network upgrades, new headsets and / or desk phones, and new computers, not to mention training for IT support and end users, licensing, etc. While there are a few large companies who have IT budgets that can absorb these incremental costs without flinching, most are looking at 5, 7, even 10 year roadmaps in order to deploy all features to all employees, based purely on available capital. Copyright 2013 Wainhouse Research, LLC Page 4

7 One side-effect of these extended deployment scenarios is the hybrid environment. Invariably, these enterprises are looking at some percent of users who will be stuck on the old desk phone or traditional conferencing service until their local network is capable of supporting the new service, as an example. Therefore, IT must determine how best to support a user community over time that is distributed across multiple technologies and solutions. 4. The enterprise migration to the UC cloud is happening. Albeit, not as fast as many of us expected. However, the year 2012 saw a material number of very large seat counts arriving in UC providers' data centers. While there are a number of key drivers behind this cloud migration, the rate of change within the communications ecosystem is a primary catalyst. In early 2013, Microsoft announced many changes to its Lync program, including a faster, more agile development process. Cisco, Avaya and Polycom, who traditionally provide hardware-oriented solutions, have recently communicated new software-oriented solutions, allowing for faster and more frequent updates. For the IT team looking at a 5+ year UC deployment plan, the challenge of rolling out a service while continuously upgrading and evolving the solution poses an almost insurmountable challenge. But offloading the upgrade process, maintenance, and support to a hosted provider allows the IT team to focus on its core responsibility providing users with the best technology available to meet their business requirements. These trends, and the general enterprise march towards a full-featured UC experience, are having a profound effect on hosted collaboration solutions. Hosted collaboration providers traditionally focused heavily on audio conferencing as a stand-alone service, and most now include web and video conferencing services as well. The enterprise demand for a more holistic collaboration experience has pushed the service provider to expand its portfolio. Some providers have accomplished this by acquiring hosted voice and IT solutions, while others have developed competitive solutions that meet the multiparty collaboration requirement. However, it can be a challenge for these providers to account for every requirement currently demanded by the enterprise. Therefore, many providers are working to establish a network of partnerships that provide everything from sales engagement, deployment, and end-user support across a broad spectrum of communications experience. UCaaS, Audio, Web (data), Video and Streaming market opportunity analysis Market Size and Emerging Growth There is a large unaddressed need for hosted UC and collaboration services in the market today. WR estimates the 2013 worldwide total addressable market (TAM) of knowledge workers for collaboration services is 280 million, growing to 314 million in In 2013 it is estimated that 84 million users will be using services (there were an estimated 73 million in 2012). Therefore, the unaddressed opportunity is 196 million users in 2013 (280 million less 84 existing users). Copyright 2013 Wainhouse Research, LLC Page 5

8 The market for audio, web and, video collaboration services integrated into unified communications and other related voice and network services is just emerging, is forecast to grow at 67% compound annual growth through 2017, becoming greater than 30% of the market by Given the unaddressed market and the transition to new unified communication services, there remains a large opportunity in the market, but it requires new channels to capture that opportunity. UC as a Service (UCaaS) The number of UC licenses delivered via a hosted provider exceeded 8 million in 2012 and accounted for approximately $1.2B in revenue on a worldwide scale. WR believes we are at the beginning of a large growth curve, and forecast UCaaS revenues to grow at a 47% compound annual growth rate through While the catalyst behind this growth includes the enterprise drivers noted above, there are several additional market dynamics worth mentioning. The majority of the UCaaS licenses within WR forecast are delivered by Microsoft Office 365 and do not include a telephony service. The average sales price (ASP) for these licenses is very low, averaging $6 per seat / month. While the number of telephonyenabled UCaaS licenses is relatively low, they command a much higher ASP of $38 per seat / month. WR projects the percent of telephony-enabled UCaaS seats will increase dramatically over the next 5 years, driving a higher revenue opportunity for UCaaS providers over time. Audio Conferencing Audio conferencing volume exceeded 100 billion minutes in 2012 and is expected to more than double by Until recently, the vast majority of audio conferencing minutes have been carried via circuit switched PSTN. Unexpectedly, commodity Internet VoIP (for business conferencing) has grown rapidly due to the availability of quality VoIP services offered in personal web-based collaboration. While we will explore personal web-based collaboration below, the draw for users has been the option of both PSTN and VoIP available in one service. As organizations retire TDM PBX s and move toward IP PBX s, there has been strong interest in trunking IP and SIP directly to professional audio services. A key benefit in direct trunking to the audio service provider is both toll bypass, which results in cost savings and often a higher quality service as all the call legs are on the same QoS-enable network. Web (data) Conferencing Web conferencing the ability to share a presentation or your PC screen - has grown from a fringe service to mainstream in last 5 years. WR estimates the number of registered seats grew over 60% in Cisco WebEx, the largest provider of web conferencing services, grew seat counts from 4.8M in Q to 8.1M in Q4 2012, with much of the growth coming from channel sales. Annual licensing fees for web conferencing revenue have grown to over $2B worldwide, and the adoption rate by audio conferencing users has grown to over 25% (greater than 250B minutes of web conferencing used with audio conferencing). WR forecasts web conferencing will be part of 75-85% of all audio conferences by Additionally, users are adopting a wide range of web conferencing services based on price, need, Copyright 2013 Wainhouse Research, LLC Page 6

9 and personal preference e.g. one service for training, another for marketing campaigns, and another for general meeting use (3-5 people). Video Conferencing Use of video conferencing has made two significant turns in the last few years. One major turn is the transition from self-management of video bridges, room scheduling, call setup, help desk, and video endpoint management toward 3rd party managed services. Due to constrained IT resources and budgets, organizations are realizing 3rd party managed services result in better quality of service and greater utilization rates by users. 3rd parties have professional process and protocols that result in consistently higher service and an economy of scale amortized across their larger client base which results in a more comprehensive service at a lower overall cost. Only 10% of group video units are under management today, and WR estimates units under management will grow 30-40% with associated revenue growing 15-25% each year through 2017 (revenue does not directly correspond to unit growth due to decreasing prices). The second major turn in video conferencing is the tremendous uptake in personal web-based HD video. WR estimates client seat licenses grew 75%-100% and revenues grew 50-75% for personal business video conferencing in While consumer services like Skype work well some of the time in some locations (based on the number of peer networking points), businesses now understand they need high quality services that work consistently well. New video codecs (coders/decoders), HD cameras, and QoS enabled services often make these personal services on par with the quality many have come to appreciate in the expensive immersive group video conferencing rooms. Personal video is being deployed as both a standalone software application, and as a service integrated into personal webbased collaboration (audio, web, and video as one integrated service). Webcasting & Streaming Where web conferencing is typically used between 3-5 people in a highly interactive session; webcasts are typically 2 or 3 presenters broadcasting out to hundreds of participating viewers Webcasting and streaming has grown from occasional use for special events to regular use and has become part of the larger collaboration strategy for most organizations. In 2013, WR estimates the market to be over $500M for business-to-business use and growing 20% annually. This segment of collaboration is also in transition, driven primarily by premium "high touch" webcasting services adding self-service elementsproviding powerful production and call-control features for their customers - and secondly, driven by many web conferencing service providers extend the products to webcasting with self-service. Organizations are now taking a two-pronged approach by keeping high profile webcasts with professionally managed services and increasing their use of lower cost self-service platforms for regular marketing and training sessions. There has been a pent-up demand for the use of webcasting services and now with the enhanced ability to match the service type and cost with the criticality of the event, the market is growing rapidly. Copyright 2013 Wainhouse Research, LLC Page 7

10 The Emerging Demand for Personal Web-Based Collaboration Missing in the market has been an easy-to-use service that combines all the best elements of audio, web, and video conferencing. The response to this void has been the emergence of Personal Webbased Collaboration (PWC). PWC takes the need for sharing presentations and information on your screen, the desire to create an intimate sense of presence with high-quality video and, using existing audio solutions (PSTN or VoIP), integrates all of them into one bundled service whereby each element can be used separately or together. The best of these services provides an easy-to-navigate, natural interface that creates a strong sense of presence among the participants. PWC is emerging in two ways: a) existing web conferencing providers are adding features to bolt on to their existing products to make them into PWC services and, b) new market entrants are organically creating new services from the ground up as a purpose-built service to enable seamless integration of audio, web, and video. Users have their preferences some enjoy the familiar look and feel of their existing web conferencing solution that now has new capabilities, and others prefer the organically created services that often provide a friendlier interface and greater sense of community for the participants. Registered users of PWC have been growing at a rate of more than 50% annually and revenues have realized both strong growth and stable prices. Unlike audio conferencing which is typically sold per minute, and web conferencing that is often sold as an organizational use license, PWC is sold per seat and the all-in-one nature of it as a collaboration solution appears to have greater resistance to competitive offers, creating a sticky service that customers stay with longer. PWC is fundamentally changing how collaboration services are offered, bundled, and used. They hold the promise to provide more features and better value than standalone services. And, because more users are using all media types audio, web, and video more frequently, it is a natural transition for users to move to PWC. Current State of the UC&C Market Criteria for Success in Collaboration Services Establishing a Collaboration Servcies Roadmap Criteria for Success in Collaboration Services When seeking a partner for collaboration services, it is important to define the criteria for success. While selling these services can be fairly straightforward the benefits are obvious and most clients value them however, high quality services, seamless delivery, and ongoing support are the reasons a client increases their use of services and stay with one provider over another when faced with a competitive offer. Below we outline the criteria to consider when selecting a collaboration services provider (CSP) from two perspectives the capabilities of a CSP, and the business relationship. Copyright 2013 Wainhouse Research, LLC Page 8

11 Capabilities of a CSP Flexible to Your Business Needs Every business is different. A key attribute of a CSP should be having the flexibility to adjust programs and services to the unique needs of your business and having the flexibility to adjust those offerings as your business grows and changes. Understanding your business and where collaboration services fit in is the first component to a business engagement. Local & Global Even the smallest businesses operate globally today, selling and buying products and services around the globe. A CSP should have global networks with local country dial-in numbers (toll or toll-free) from most major countries. To maintain both call quality and customer satisfaction there should be a country-level, robust service overlay for operations, sales, and support. Local operations and support should be able to accommodate local languages and provide 24/7 follow-the-sun operations in support of time zones for most major countries. Future Technology Vision & Ability to Execute Communication services are undergoing their largest transformation in 100 years. Customers are being bombarded from vendors and service providers with the latest technology. But what matters most? Mature CSPs balance today s technology alongside emerging technology in order to deliver reliable and cutting edge services. It is vitally important that CSPs understand and hold a vision of where new technologies can take them, and then have the discipline to integrate these into their service wrap. Design Integration Expertise Increasingly communication services are unified into a single interface and require the integration of different services based on client brand preference. It is common for clients to use multiple communication services. A good partner will be able integrate their audio bridging services with client IP and SIP voice services, create single user sign in for different audio and web services, and offer open API s for audio and web integration into marketing Audio & Web How much can I make? Audio Conferencing: $15.50 per user, per month 1x meeting per week (4x/mo.) 5x participants Average meeting: 55 minutes Average rate per minute: $ meetings/mo. X 5 participants x 55 minutes x $0.035/min. = $38.50 per mo. x 40% commission rate = $15.40/mo. Web Conferencing: $3.80 per user, per month $19.00 average revenue per user, per month Unlimited meetings per month for up to 8 people $19.00 x 20% commission rate = $3.80/mo. Personal Web-based Collaboration: $18.00 per user, per month $45.00 average revenue per user, per month Includes audio, web, and personal video for up to 15 users $45.00 x 40% commission rate = $18.00/mo. campaign and CRM solutions. Design integration expertise becomes important as clients move toward unified communications and collaboration. Copyright 2013 Wainhouse Research, LLC Page 9

12 Provisioning, Training, User Adoption, and Support Expertise Onboarding a new customer is where potential meets the promise. During the sales process, clients are assured the CSP can meet all their needs and provide a smooth transition into the new service. However, reality hits during service cutover, user training, and during implementation of user adoption programs. Expertise is the combination of knowing what to do and the experience of doing it well. End-to-End Offer Clients use more types of collaboration services than ever before. Depth-of-service offerings often become the critical decision factor for many clients. Is there a full range of audio services to accommodate lower cost ad-hoc meetings and fully managed events? Do web conferencing services enable the most popular features for presentations, screen share, polling and voting, and web cameras? Do video services encompass the need for room rentals, device management, scheduling and call setup, and network assurance? Does the CSP offer a full range of services allowing clients to grow into using new technologies? Permanence Finally, working with a CSP that has an established record of successfully offering services and working with partners over time is the critical test whether this will be a reliable partner. There is no better indicator than a track record of success to provide the assurance of a capable partner. Considerations for a Business Relationship Channel Attributes Fulfilling Client Needs The best relationships are those where the partner fulfills either an active or latent need. While active needs are obvious latent needs are needs your clients have, but have not yet voiced to you, or don t yet understand themselves. The best relationships are those where the partner bridges the gap, fulfilling a need for your Video Managed Services How much can I make? Video bridging service: $ per HD meeting room 1x meeting per week (4x/mo.) 3x sites Average meeting: 1 hour Average rate per hour: $ meetings/mo. X 3 sites x 1 hour x $50.00/hour = $ per mo. x 40% commission rate = $240.00/mo. Single codec device management: $ per device, per month $ average per device, per month $ x 40% commission rate = $120.80/mo. Multi-codec device management: $ per device, per month $1, average per device, per month $1, x 40% commission rate = $603.80/mo. Video bridge device management: $ per device, per month $2, average per device, per month $2, x 40% commission rate = $905.60/mo. client - either active or latent - which you would not otherwise be able to fulfill. A good CSP will help you, your sales people, and your client to satisfy both active needs (e.g. the need for a low cost, global Copyright 2013 Wainhouse Research, LLC Page 10

13 audio conferencing service), and latent needs (e.g. greater utilization of video conferencing systems through an actively managed service). Business Synergies The best synergy in a relationship between a CSP and a channel partner is created when there is a close affinity between your offering and the CSPs in the client s mind. Fortunately, as communication services become more integrated, clients understand that voice, presence, , scheduling, team workspaces, and audio/web/web conferencing are all part of enterprise collaboration. And while they do not expect one provider to have all the technologies, increasingly they do value providers that can integrate these and make them work seamlessly (or in unified manner). For channel partners, combining the best of what you have with the best of what a CSP offers, creates a powerful offering. Branding & Customization Further to a successful relationship is flexibility in the business model and how your two businesses engage with one another. Explore what branding is available, what can be customized to your product set, and whether the CSP is adaptable to specific localization needs you have. Branding goes beyond just adding your logo to the service, and includes full customization to the look & feel of sales collateral, quoting tools, service, and billing. Service localization is often critical too, with the need to provide local language support to the full spectrum of marketing, sales, service, and support. Many CSPs position their products as customizable. However, the actual depth of customization varies by partner. Customization should allow for changes between CSP and channel partner as well as those requested by your client. The CSP s technology must support this, via an open communications platform, established APIs, and a flexible billing solution. As, or more importantly, the CSP must be willing to support custom requests. A channel partner should ask is the CSP willing to make changes to its product catalogue for me? Will they create new products that support my unique direction or differentiation? Or are we really talking about feature tweaks at the end of the day? Minimize Channel Conflict Channel conflict exists in many areas. Most CSPs have both a direct and indirect channel. This strategy inherently opens the opportunity for channel conflict. Within the indirect channel many CSPs are selling to numerous resellers and agents are you the largest one? If not, it is likely you will have a cost disadvantage against both the direct channel (your partner s) other channel providers with the same service. A clear and documented channel strategy one that typically favors the indirect channel over the direct is the first step to a successful selling relationship. Additionally, what can you and your partner do to differentiate your service so there is a clear distinction between your services and all others? Copyright 2013 Wainhouse Research, LLC Page 11

14 True Partners Finally, a true partnership involves regular communication and full engagement in roadmap strategy, cooperatively creating new and compelling co-marketing campaigns, and exploring ways to more deeply integrate your services together (e.g. API into back office services, etc.). A fully fleshed out roadmap - including, yet beyond feature development - specifically defining what it means to differentiate in the marketplace, will create a partnership that runs deeper than just the next deal. Current State of the UC&C Market Criteria for Success in Collaboration Services Establishing a Collaboration Servcies Roadmap Establishing a Collaboration Services Roadmap for your Clients Many IT teams find the creation of a UC&C roadmap daunting. Therefore, it s critical that a service provider add value up front, helping its clients carefully plan and successfully deploy against a well thought-out UC&C roadmap. While no 2 roadmaps are the same, the roadmap process should include the following high-level elements 1. Assess the current environment. Understanding what technologies are in place today, what skillsets the IT team has, and what the current state of the infrastructure is will ensure the team understands what is required from start to finish. 2. Assess the current user experience. Helping the client understand its end-users' needs is a key, and sometimes overlooked, step in the roadmap process. It is easy for an IT team to jump quickly to a technology deployment conversation. Assessing the end-users needs can be as simple as holding a series of interviews with key staff members, or as formal as running an organizational survey to quantify the current experience or a combination of the two. Regardless of the approach, it is critical to understand what tools the end-users rely on, and what tools are missing, to ensure that the planning process starts off on the right foot. 3. Define solution bundles by role. Not every user, nor every function will require the same communication tools, hardware, and solutions. It is important to segment the user population by role and common communication requirements. Functional examples could include: - Administrative Assistant - Standard Cubicle Employee - Manager Copyright 2013 Wainhouse Research, LLC Page 12

15 - Executive - Road Warrior Depending on the organization s size and complexity, adding specialized roles may be appropriate, such as: - Heavy collaborators i.e. training teams, project managers - Secure collaborators i.e. legal and financial teams - Technical collaborators i.e. IT and operations teams Once collaboration roles are clearly defined, hardware and services can be associated with each group. For example, cubicle employees may receive headsets, while managers (or other office workers) receive desk / speaker phones. Heavy collaborators may receive host accounts on high-touch web conferencing services, while everyone else leverages the UC data sharing experience. A key point to remember in this step: not one size will fit all. Accounting for the niche users who require non-standard solutions is as important as providing a standard communications solution. This is especially critical for those functions that regularly interact with people outside of the enterprise often HR, procurement, and sales teams. The IT teams who attempt a one-size strategy invariably find rogue solutions popping up as end-users attempt to solve their own communications needs, often with unsanctioned and consumer-oriented solutions. 4. Promote, deploy and train. Deploying a new service is often the easiest roadmap task for most IT teams. However, ensuring the end-user adopts the solution successfully can be hit or miss. Therefore, the pre and post deployment activities must include successful and concerted promotion, deployment, and training phases. - Promotion: the most important step in promoting a new solution is to engage the business as partners in the communication. The most successful rollouts include a heavy dose of executive engagement find the right executive sponsor, and ensure that cross-functional leaders are involved in early pilot stages. An end-user is much more likely to start using a tool when it s the best way to communicate with her boss than when the IT team sends her an . - Deployment: the actual deployment process will vary widely by organization. Many will start at core sites and move out to smaller sites over time, while others will focus on sites with aging or dying equipment. While the tactical rollout will vary, a key step is to communicate use-case and real-life examples as part of the deployment. - Training: the most important element in user adoption is a successful training program. A combination of on-demand and instructor-led sessions will provide an option for every employee. This is often a critical value-added service delivered by most hosted providers, as training is often a necessary core competency to ensure their solutions are adopted successfully. Copyright 2013 Wainhouse Research, LLC Page 13

16 - Continuous Promotion: end-user communication on a new service should not end when the training program is complete. On the contrary, research shows that users require 5 impressions over 30 days to successfully change their habits. Engaging the users frequently, via newsletters, contests, and other promotional activities will help ensure the new solution is adopted successfully. 6. Measure, monitor and adjust. Now that the enterprise has rolled the service out, it must monitor usage to understand what is being used, by who, and how frequently and as or more importantly, what is not being used? Adding a quantified view of the user behavior will allow the IT team to make critical adjustments to the service. Perhaps a site has a problem with their local LAN and is unhappy with the new video experience - without taking a macro and quantified view of the new traffic pattern it will be difficult, if not impossible, to ensure the user s expectations are being met. 7. Establish a collaboration steering committee. The age of user-driven IT has taken on two distinct flavors: there are those organizations who are seeing IT budget subsumed by the marketing, HR or other functional teams who are purchasing their own IT related solutions, and there are those who are successfully engaging the business to formally turn feedback into solutions that hit squarely on the end-users requirements. Fostering a cross-functional, user-oriented steering committee is an excellent approach to engage the end-users and ensuring that collaboration solutions evolves with their needs in mind. A collaboration steering committee should include key representatives from the business and IT team, and will be responsible for gathering feedback and requirements from the business. It also should include a forward-thinking element, acting as a technical advisory board responsible for staying in touch with emerging trends and advancing solutions in the collaboration industry. Summary A number of fundamental changes are occurring in the UC&C market. Users are realizing that their service providers need a strong team of partners to meet all of their needs. Client-facing service providers realize that multiple-user preferences for service and brand require partnerships with other leading service partners. Correspondingly, service partners realize the criticality of delivering seamless integration and feature-rich services to support a truly unified experience. Unified communications and collaboration is not one product or one service, but rather an ecosystem of integrated services. The criteria for success in selecting a collaboration service partner will be led by a business relationship that is synergistic truly a partnership - as well as the comprehensive capabilities of the CSP. On the capabilities side, product breadth, global support structure, and integration expertise is critical. Copyright 2013 Wainhouse Research, LLC Page 14

17 Wainhouse Research believes the time is right for organizations to re-evaluate their strategy for unified communications & collaboration. After taking the organization s particular situation and needs into consideration, a UC&C roadmap can be established towards implementing a better fit. Group collaboration does not occur naturally. It needs to be managed, monitored, and measured. Helping your clients with a roadmap will distinguish you as a partner and drive use of your services within your client. Data indicates there is a new market emerging for collaboration services in alignment with next generation unified communication. New growth will be built off the foundation of the current $6B+ collaboration services market. Understanding market dynamics and opportunity will be key for channel partners to assess their role with their clients and their need for supporting partners. How will you capitalize on this opportunity? Copyright 2013 Wainhouse Research, LLC Page 15

18 Introducing ACT Conferencing ACT Conferencing is a global meeting provider with nearly 25 years of experience connecting businesses. We enable more productive meetings through our communication and collaboration tools, including audio, web, and video conferencing products and services. Whether it s a routine meeting or a challenge that requires a complex solution, ACT is committed to providing the best technology and logistics, freeing businesses to focus on their objectives. Large enterprises, telecom resellers and unified collaboration solutions providers turn to ACT to increase revenues, improve productivity, reach new markets and outperform the competition. They leverage ACT s robust solutions, industry expertise, flexibility and superior support, which contribute to a unified communications experience that is globally consistent and culturally localized. ACT connects people efficiently and effectively, anytime and anywhere, with these capabilities: ACT Global Partner Program: Complement your suite of business solutions with audio, web and video conferencing services. Broaden existing customer relationships and attract new customers, especially those who operate globally or in multiple locations. ACT s comprehensive partner program includes dedicated account managers, training, marketing and sales support, branding and customer migration planning. TeemMeeting TM Audio-Web Conferencing: TeemMeeting is a comprehensive audio, web and video conferencing solution that transforms meetings into true collaborative events. TeemMeeting is a cloud-delivered unified communications platform that allows participants to collaborate face-to-face and share documents seamlessly. TeemMeeting makes meetings universally simple by leveraging the best of audio, video and web conferencing. A cloud-delivered platform for seamless meetings on one unified communications platform, TeemMeeting lets you talk face-to-face, share documents and work faster. Premium Video Conferencing Services: Meet face to face in high definition with your one-stop source for video conferencing services. There is simply no substitute for visual communication, and our expert professional services team ensures your experience is streamlined, professional and glitch-free. ACT provides managed services and bridge hosting services, including a cloud-based video conferencing service that allows participants to connect on any video-enabled device and standards-based platform. We help connect people in your video conference rooms or in one of ACT s Proximity video suites. Premium Audio Conferencing Services: Enable people anywhere in the world to easily join a call. ACT s reservationless self-managed audio conferencing provides local access (in 65 countries) or tollfree telephone numbers. Mix and match features to achieve your meeting objectives and choose from service tiers for varying levels of operator support and customization. Premium Web Conferencing Services: Add visual impact to meetings by turning your presentation into an interactive, engaging event. ACT has the web conferencing services you need to collaborate, share and present your content. Whether you need web conferencing for everyday meetings or want to present to thousands, webinars and webcasts are a cost-effective way to present your content and important messages. Proximity Network: Eliminate the cost and hassle of long-distance travel by renting a video conferencing suite with pay-as-you-go convenience. With over 4,000 rooms, Proximity from ACT represents a large global network of video-enabled facilities. Search by location and reserve suites online to host your professional business meetings. For more information, visit Copyright 2013 Wainhouse Research, LLC Page 16

19 About the Authors Marc F. Beattie is a Sr. Analyst at Wainhouse Research where his area of expertise is hosted and managed collaboration services. Marc is a member of Gerson Lehrman Group's The Councils of Advisors and Vista Research's Society of Industry Leaders through which he advises worldwide financial clients on technology companies and trends. He has authored public and private reports on product strategies, distribution structures, emerging technologies and industry applications. He is a featured speaker and moderator at industry conferences and private company events - specializing on the future impact of current technology developments. He regularly consults with end users, established vendors, emerging companies, and the financial community. Prior to joining Wainhouse Research Marc was an early member of PictureTel and Polycom - holding positions in product management, business development and sales management - and spent 13 years working within the industry. He has been an independent analyst and consultant since He can be reached at mbeattie@wainhouse.com. Bill Haskins is a Senior Analyst at Wainhouse Research with a strategic focus on unified communications products and services. Bill has over 15 years of experience supporting, delivering, and designing converged collaboration services in a global communications environment. He has authored multiple white papers and articles detailing the keys to a successful UCC implementation and delivered various UCC presentations, highlighting his experience integrating collaboration solutions into business process and enterprise applications. He can be reached at bhaskins@wainhouse.com. About Wainhouse Research Wainhouse Research, is an independent market research firm that focuses on critical issues in the Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C), including applications in distance education and e-learning. The company conducts multi-client and custom research studies, consults with end users on key implementation issues, publishes white papers and market statistics, and delivers public and private seminars as well as speaker presentations at industry group meetings. Wainhouse Research publishes a variety of studies that cover all aspects of UC&C, and the free newsletter, The Wainhouse Research Bulletin. About ACT ACT Conferencing is a global provider of audio, web and video collaboration solutions. ACT creates a unified communications experience that is globally consistent and culturally localized. Our solutions integrate seamlessly into diverse operating environments. Our service assurance controls maintain the superior levels of quality and responsiveness required by national and multinational clients who value solutions that are easy to use, less costly to deploy and accelerate decision making. See: Copyright 2013 Wainhouse Research, LLC Page 17