Complex infrastructure requirements have slowed SMB adoption of Unified communications. Last month's big deal between Microsoft and HP promises to smooth the path to UC for smaller companies.
Many small and midsize companies have avoided unified communications (UC) systems because they perceived them as difficult to install. There was reality behind that perception, as UC requires extensive underlying infrastructure: networking equipment, IP PBXes, unified communications applications, and management tools. To help change all that, last month two of the industry's leading suppliers paired up to make it simpler for small and medium businesses to use their equipment to deploy such applications.
Microsoft and HP entered into a four-year agreement where they will invest as much as $180 million to enhance their joint unified communications solutions. The two will develop products and services that leverage HP's ProCurve network hardware and Microsoft's Office SharePoint Server, Exchange Server and Office Communications Server software.
While many of the potential products will require further development, the two companies have already revealed a few fruits from their joint work. HP's Business Technology Optimization software will be enhanced to provide real-time Quality of Service (QoS) metrics for Microsoft Office Communications Server voice and video applications. HP will obtain Microsoft's Unified Communications qualification certification for the HP dx9000 TouchSmart Business PC, select smartphones, and new IP desk phones. And the two companies will provide end-point interoperability between HP's Halo Telepresence Solutions and Microsoft's Office Communications Server unified conferencing.
The deal also calls for both companies to work on a number of new consultative services, including assessment, architecture planning and design, implementation, monitoring, management and ongoing support for unified communications software, hardware, network, server, and storage systems. In addition, HP and Microsoft will work to encourage communications service providers to develop hosted unified communications services for small and medium businesses.
Historically, the two companies have done a good job of identifying needs for small and medium businesses and developing products, distribution channels, and service for those companies, and the deal appears to be an opportunity for them to leverage complimentary product lines. HP has been gaining ground in the network equipment space with its ProCurve line, which can be a nice fit for small and medium businesses. But with convergence taking hold in many companies, HP lacked products in the unified communications arena, and Microsoft's suite fits the bill. As evidence of filling in gaps, the announcement included HP's first foray into IP desk phones. Microsoft has been searching for ways to expand its product portfolio and provide more of the infrastructure needed by unified communications applications. With the HP products, it now has access to a key networking piece.
A Challenge To Cisco And Nortel In a larger sense, the new deal may help create a viable alternative to the two company's common foe: Cisco. HP has been trying to grow its market share and break Cisco's stranglehold on the network equipment market. Going forward, that task may have been more difficult without a unified communications story to tell.
At the same time, Microsoft's relationship with Cisco has been deteriorating as the two find themselves banging heads in the marketplace more and more often. Cisco has been branching out of its networking niche into various types of software, with unified communications a key focus for the company. Microsoft has been veering out of the data-only applications market as it moves to support more voice and video networking functions.
Perhaps more significantly, this could pose a big challenge to Nortel. In July 2006, Nortel signed a ballyhooed agreement with Microsoft centering on unified communication product development. The status of that relationship is now unclear for a couple of reasons. With the introduction of its Office Communications Server, Microsoft veered into Nortel's traditional linchpin, voice communications systems. Office Communications Server functions as an IP PBX, which eliminates the need for Nortel's unified communications equipment. Also, Nortel is still grappling with a lot of organizational issues, which eventually forced it to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Nortel has talked about making major changes and shedding several business units, so perhaps Microsoft is concerned about Nortel's long term future. Microsoft and HP have been among the industry's leading IT product and service suppliers. Their alliance seems to fill in weak spots in each's product lineup. While some of their competitors may be threatened, it seems likely that this agreement will benefit small and medium businesses.
See more columns by Paul Korzeniowski.
Paul Korzeniowski is a Sudbury, Mass.-based freelance writer who has been writing about networking issues for two decades. His work has appeared in Business 2.0, Entrepreneur, Investor's Business Daily, Newsweek, and InformationWeek.
Follow bMighty.com on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/bMighty
Put a bMighty gadget on your iGoogle page
Get bMighty on your mobile device
