March 2011
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Analytics.InformationWeek.com
S t r a t e g y S e s s i o n
Into the Fold: Mobile Unified
Communications Within Reach
IT’s been pushing UC and mobility initiatives on separate
tracks. But if either technology is to realize its full potential,
CIOs must make integration a priority. In this Strategy
Session report, we discuss ways to bring smartphones and
tablets into your overall unified communications plan.
By Michael Finneran
Report ID: S2530311
Bringing Smartphones Into the UC Fold
A n a l y t i c s . I n f o r m a t i o n We e k . c o m
S t r a t e g y S e s s i o n
CO NTENT S 3 Author’s Bio
4 Executive Summary
6 Better Together
6 Figure 1: Unified Communications Deployment Plans
8 Get Your Layers Straight
8 Figure 2: Device Distribution Over the Next Two Years
F
10 What Do We Have in Mobile UC?
O
10 Figure 3: Mobile Application Architecture
11 Figure 4: Top Unified Communications Technology Driver
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12 Tablets Enter the UC Picture
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13 Figure 5: Mobile Technology Impact on Productivity
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14 Where To Start
A
15 What Your WLAN Needs to Do Voice
T
17 A Sampling of FMC/Mobile UC Products
18 Related Reports
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2 March 2011 © 2011 InformationWeek, Reproduction Prohibited
Bringing Smartphones Into the UC Fold
A n a l y t i c s . I n f o r m a t i o n We e k . c o m
S t r a t e g y S e s s i o n
Michael Finneran is an independent consultant and industry analyst
specializing in wireless technologies, mobile unified communications and
Michael fixed/mobile convergence. He has over 30 years in the networking field
Finneran
InformationWeek and is the author of Voice Over Wireless LANs: The Complete Guide (Elsevier,
Analytics 2008). His expertise spans the full range of wireless technologies, includ-
ing Wi-Fi, 3G/4G cellular, WiMAX and RFID.
In the consulting area, Mr. Finneran has provided assistance to carriers, equipment
vendors, end users and investment firms in the United States and overseas. His
clients have included AT&T, Sprint, Foundation Capital, IBM, RIM, Prudential
Insurance, McGraw-Hill and Merrill Lynch. He has appeared at hundreds of trade
shows and industry conferences, including Enterprise Connect (formerly VoiceCon)
and Interop; he now serves as the program chair for wireless and mobility at
Enterprise Connect.
Michael is also prolific writer; for 23 years he wrote the Networking Intelligence
column for Business Communications Review. He now contributes on wireless and
mobility to numerous publications. As an educator, he has conducted more than
2,000 seminars on networking topics globally, including the Graduate
Telecommunications program at Pace University and programs at the Center for the
Study of Data Processing at Washington University in St. Louis. His programs are
now offered through Telecom+UC Training. A longtime member of the IEEE and
the Society of Telecommunications Consultants, Michael holds a Masters Degree in
marketing and management information systems from the J. L. Kellogg Graduate
School of Management at Northwestern University.
3 March 2011 © 2011 InformationWeek, Reproduction Prohibited
Bringing Smartphones Into the UC Fold
A n a l y t i c s . I n f o r m a t i o n We e k . c o m
S t r a t e g y S e s s i o n
Executive Summary
The ongoing, if plodding, adoption of unified communications (UC) and
the increased employee mobility enabled by smartphones have been head-
liner trends over the past year. In our most recent InformationWeek Analytics
Unified Computing Survey, 61% of more than 400 business technology
professionals said they were currently deploying, or planning to deploy,
UC. Most cited improved employee collaboration and efficiency as the top
drivers. Meanwhile, in our Mobile Device Management and Security Survey,
87% of more than 300 respondents said that smartphone usage would
grow in their shops; just 8% said they’d be buying more desktops.
On their own, both UC and mobilization have the potential to improve
communications. Users want the same capabilities on their smartphones and
tablets as they have on their desk phones and laptops, and why not? Bring
everything together, and you could transform the way you do business.
Unfortunately, early attempts at mobile UC have failed to gain traction.
While the UC keynote at every conference we attend lauds the importance
of mobility, when you get down to the show floor, just try finding people
with mobile UC applications on their phones. Allan Sulkin of market ana-
lyst firm TEQConsult Group estimates that fewer than 10% of IP PBX sta-
tion users implement the associated mobile UC application. Most other
industry usage estimates are even lower.
The result: Organizations are pursuing these two critical initiatives inde-
pendently, on parallel tracks. There are two primary reasons for this. First,
adoption of UC has been slow and haphazard; our survey respondents
blame this on everything from a lack of employee engagement to stagnant
budgets to aging infrastructures that limit IT’s ability to guarantee QoS.
And, there’s a stunning lack of integration between mobility and almost
everything else that goes on in IT. Smartphones are everywhere, but we’re
behind on security and management, not just UC.
Vendors are making some advances, as we’ll discuss. One thing to note:
Mobile UC evolved out of the concept of fixed/mobile convergence. FMC
4 March 2011 © 2011 InformationWeek, Reproduction Prohibited
Bringing Smartphones Into the UC Fold
A n a l y t i c s . I n f o r m a t i o n We e k . c o m
S t r a t e g y S e s s i o n
Executive Summary
aimed to integrate mobile network services with the wired environment.
When the term “FMC” was coined, the only mobile service that really mat-
tered was voice. As a result, the focus was on delivering office calls to a
user’s mobile device. As the voice market evolved into UC systems that
look at voice as simply one of several communications modes to be inte-
grated, the term “mo