The Evolution of Mobile Unified Communications

Transcription

1 The Evolution of Mobile Unified Communications by Zeus Kerravala September 2008 Executive Summary Today, the enterprise is undergoing a significant transformation to a more global Anywhere Enterprise TM. Enterprise mobility has been a crucial component in starting this evolution. However, historically, enterprise mobility has been about untethering a worker from a fixed location. Although this has been a critical step in truly forming an Anywhere Enterprise, it is only the first step in achieving it. Yankee Group defines mobile unified communications as the coming together of fixed-mobile convergence (FMC), wireless integrated communications and communications-enabled business processes. As the mobility evolution continues, it is imperative that companies of all sizes begin to look at mobile unified communications as a strategic initiative. The integration of unified communications and advances in wireless technology have created opportunities for companies to integrate mobility into the organization (see Exhibit 1). The further integration of communications and mobility into business process as well as advancements in wireless technologies have created an opportunity for organizations to deploy mobile unified communications that will bring productivity to new heights by enabling workers to communicate in more ways from more places. Exhibit 1 The Evolution of Mobility Source: Yankee Group, 2008 Holistic Mobility Number of Employees, Assets Opportunistic Mobility Point solutions Addresses specific employee classes Limited extendibility Strategic Mobility Addresses large subset of mobile workers Common architecture for mobility "Policy-driven" approach Sophisticated administration Integrated into most business and IT processes Influences work behaviors Ubiquitous connectivity Internal and customerfacing activities Communications enablement Today to 3 Years 3 to 10 Years 10 Years and Beyond Time/Company Evolution This custom publication has been sponsored by Siemens. This Yankee Group Report is published for the sole use of Yankee Group clients. It may not be duplicated, reproduced or transmitted in whole or in part without the express permission of Yankee Group, Prudential Tower, 800 Boylston Street, 27th Floor, Boston, MA For more information, contact Yankee Group: info@yankeegroup.com; phone: All rights reserved. All opinions and estimates herein constitute our judgment as of this date and are subject to change without notice.

2 Table of Contents I. Introduction II. The Evolution of Mobile Unified Communications Enterprise Mobility Advancements in Wireless Networking Unified Communications Mobile Unified Communications III. Enterprise Benefits of Mobile Unified Communications IV. What to Look for in a Solution V. Conclusions and Recommendations I. Introduction Yankee Group s vision of an Anywhere Enterprise is an organization where workers can access any information from any device over any network. As the Anywhere Enterprise becomes more mobile, it uses connectivity to compete. Historically, enterprise mobility addressed primarily the corporate professional and field service workers; but today the variety of mobile workers has become increasingly diverse (see Exhibit 2 on next page) and redefines their technology needs. In parallel with the enterprise mobility evolution, enterprises have been undergoing a transformation in communications. Unified communications (UC) is the next wave in this transformation. We use UC to describe the unification of all forms of all multimedia communications that can be controlled by an end user for business purposes. This includes the integration of fixed and mobile voice, IP-based voice, and unified messaging, instant messaging, web conferencing, audio and video conferencing, whiteboarding, voic , faxing, presence, Web 2.0 and potentially other communications tools. UC is an ever-expanding category as the industry continues to deliver more collaborative tools. Enterprises face many mobility challenges today, including: Manual convergence of mobility: Mobile workers generally have many connectivity methods available to them and many corporate tools that enable them to work out of the office. However, the convergence of these tools is generally done by the user. Users often must choose between cellular service and Wi-Fi, laptops and smart phones, web clients and fat clients, and other technologies to determine the best way to work. Poor UI: For the most part, the UI on a mobile phone was not designed to use multiple modes of communication. It s not intuitive, which makes it difficult for mobile workers to effectively and efficiently use the forms of communications available to them. Lack of corporate applications: Applications generally available on desktops are not normally provided on mobile devices. Mobile workers often feel frustrated because they don t have access to them. Technology innovation has removed many of these barriers in today s environments. Incorporating mobile UC as a strategic part of a company s road map can address many of these issues. 2

3 II. The Evolution of Mobile Unified Communications Although the concept of an Anywhere Enterprise is top of mind for many corporate leaders, it remains a vision for most organizations. However, a number of trends are merging together that allow companies to implement mobile UC to enhance or even create new business processes. Mobile UC will drive organizations toward the vision of an Anywhere Enterprise. Enterprise Mobility Enterprise mobility has gradually become more strategic to organizations. A few years ago, mobility was typically only important to field service and traveling professionals, and mobile devices were only given to C-level executives. There was very little or no corporate mobile strategy, and devices were provided on a case-by-case basis. Most organizations deployed an ad-hoc strategy, which was for employees to purchase their own devices and plans, and then expense them back to the organization. As a result, a number of different devices ended up on the network, which was a nightmare for IT managers. Furthermore, it was difficult for organizations to manage the usage of these devices. Today, mobility has exploded and mobile workers now include campus workers, corridor workers and many other constituents who would not have been considered mobile before (see Exhibit 2). As devices evolve and connectivity becomes ubiquitous, mobility will only continue to grow. Organizations will look to mobility to enhance productivity, improve employee morale and facilitate a faster time-to-market. It will be important to develop and implement a comprehensive corporate mobility strategy to reap the benefits of enterprise mobility. Advancements in Wireless Networking Afew years ago, companies had to choose between wired networking, which was fast, reliable and secure, and wireless networking, which provided greater mobility, ease-ofuse and flexibility but was much slower, insecure and unreliable. Exhibit 3 (on next page) shows that, over the years, wireless networking speeds have grown rapidly, bringing the wireless world on par with the wired world. Where wired networking has gone from 100 Mbps to 1,000 Mbps a tenfold improvement in speed n is approximately 30 times faster than b. Exhibit 2 Mobile Worker Diversity Source: Yankee Group Anywhere Enterprise Large: 2008 US Fixed-Mobile Convergence/IP Communications Survey Specialty/Other 15% Faculty Delivery personnel/ couriers/drivers Physicians/clinicians Public safety/public service Factory/production staff Construction/tradespeople Other 3% 2% 1% 3% 2% 3% 1% Field Force 31% Field salesforce 17% Field service 14% technician/ engineer Mobile Workers by Category Mobile Professional 54% IT Managers Senior executives Consultants Other knowledge workers/staff 16% 12% 12% 6% 8% Furthermore, n addresses the challenges of speed, reliability and security. Despite the hype of Gigabit Ethernet, less than 10% of wired networks capacity is utilized today in most organizations. Many companies have recognized this and are working toward having completely wireless offices n makes the network fast enough to combat the speed issue, while at the same time providing the flexibility needed for mobile workers to be productive. If configured correctly, organizations can run high-quality VoIP over wireless technology and even video services. 3

4 Unified Communications The market for UC has been driven by hype since its introduction. To date, enterprises have deployed a limited set of UC applications (see Exhibit 4), but they are planning to more aggressively deploy many more. One challenge facing UC is the difficulty in determining ROI and TCO. However, communications-enabled business processes (CEBPs) and application integration are helping to make the business case for UC by integrating the technology into business processes, similar to the trend following enterprise mobility. Understanding that having communications embedded into the fabric of business processes can quantify ROI as well as increase customer satisfaction and employee productivity is an important criterion in determining the value of UC. Recently, solution providers have also focused on the mobility aspect, understanding that mobility will be a catalyst that drives UC adoption. As enterprises become more mobile, the ability to have communications applications on a mobile device at the click of a button is crucial. An easy-to-use and clear, integrated user interface will be a critical component. Developing and implementing a holistic UC strategy, of which mobility is a core component, must be a strategic initiative for an enterprise of any size. Mobile Unified Communications The holy grail of enterprise mobility will be the seamless convergence of enterprise mobility, wireless technology and UC (see Exhibit 5 on next page). Although one of the main value propositions of UC is the ability to reach any user, anywhere over any communications medium, desktop UC limits the true value of it. Much of what is done with desktop UC can be done through human convergence of the different UC components. Although converging these tools manually on the desktop is inconvenient, many workers manage to be fairly productive as the task of converging these manually is not all that difficult on the desktop. However, when mobile, the task becomes significantly more difficult to the point of being impossible in some situations. Users could be in motion or in some other type of constrained environment, making it imperative that the user has access to all contacts over any communications medium through one integrated interface. Exhibit 4 UC Applications Deployed Source: Yankee Group Anywhere Enterprise Large: 2008 US Fixed-Mobile Convergence/IP Communications Survey What kind of the following UC solutions do you play to deploy? In-house audio conferencing Web conferencing Exhibit 3 Wireless Evolution Source: Yankee Group, 2008 Room-based video conferencing Unified messaging (one inbox for , voic , fax, etc.) Corporate instant messaging n (300 Mbps-30x faster than g) Telecommuter solutions VoIP applications runningon an IP phone (e.g., a trader's application in the financial services industry) Soft phones (PC-based phones) Desktop video conferencing Speed (in Mbps) b (11Mbps) g (54 Mbps backward-compatible) a (54 Mbps) Location-based services Mobile phone integration Desktop applications with voice or communications integrated into them Tele-presence Other presence-base applications (other than IM) Speech recognition applications 19 Evolution (Time) Percent of Respondents 4

5 Mobile UC will provide a much stronger ROI than desktopbased UC. Mobile UC, the next natural step for mobility and UC, addresses processes where there is a high degree of human latency surrounding communications between one or more mobile workers. Mobile UC allows for many of these processes to be streamlined by removing part or all of the human latency, bringing workers to a new level of productivity. Weaving mobility into the fabric of an organization s business processes will bring about unlimited productivity and benefits. III. Enterprise Benefits of Mobile Unified Communications Mobile UC yields many benefits. As mobile workforces grow, providing them with the appropriate mobile communications tools will ultimately increase employee productivity. This will result from: Faster response time between collaborating users: When mobile, users spend a large amount of time just trying to understand how to communicate with other users. This could mean leaving several voic s, sending s to separate accounts or sending text messages. The user on the other end also needs to check all of these systems to understand who is trying to connect with him or her and then prioritize the calls accordingly. This can lead to frustration for all involved in this communications chain. Better use of time when mobile: There are many moments of dead time in a worker s day, such as when waiting for other workers, commuting and traveling. Mobile has helped workers fill much of this dead time; but to achieve a higher level of mobility, workers need access to a broader set of corporate applications. This presents the opportunity to eventually remove the distinction between being in the office and out of the office. Exhibit 6 shows that the productivity of mobile workers is currently suboptimal. According to the Yankee Group Anywhere Enterprise Large: 2007 US Mobile Professional Blended Lifestyle Survey, productivity is very low when workers are mobile outside of the office and home. Mobile UC will enable workers to perform more tasks in more places, bringing users closer to optimal productivity levels everywhere. By making mobile UC a strategic imitative, workers will eventually be able to remove the phrase I ll take care of this when I m back in the office from their vocabulary. Single number or find me/follow me: With communications modes increasing, having a single contact number for all modes of communication is important particularly for mobile workers who generally need the number quickly. Exhibit 6 Mobile UC Can Move Workers Closer to Optimal Productivity Source: Yankee Group Anywhere Enterprise Large: 2007 US Mobile Professional Blended Lifestyle Survey How productive are you in the following locations? Closing the Gap Exhibit 5 Mobile UC: The Integration of UC, Enterprise Mobility and Wireless Source: Yankee Group, 2008 Office Home Hotels Enterprise Mobility Customers' Office Airports Coffee Shops Optimal Productivity Airplanes 16 Mobile UC is the sweet spot. Commuting Others 15 1 Unified Communications Wireless Technology n 500 Level of Productivity (in Percent) 5

6 Faster information access: Access to information is crucial, particularly for mobile workers who are decisionor revenue-makers. Mobile UC can help workers make the correct decision with the most information available in the shortest time required. This creates a significant competitive advantage for workers and companies with these capabilities. Cost savings from seamless roaming between cellular, Wi-Fi and fixed networks: The ability to roam across networks will provide significant cost savings as mobile phone calls can utilize corporate and personal wireless LANs rather than the costly cellular network. Better use of telephony, UC and mobile infrastructure: During the past 5 years, organizations have spent billions globally upgrading corporate phone systems and networks, but the returns have been minimal. The integration of mobility and UC will provide much more bang for the buck already spent. IV. What to Look for in a Solution The vendor landscape is filled with companies that claim to be mobility, UC or mobile UC solution providers. For IT managers currently making a purchase decision, the myriad of options can often be confusing. As IT managers search for an appropriate partner to work with, they should ask the following questions: How broad is the vendor s solution? Can the vendor provide solutions for all the critical components of an endto-end mobile UC solution? This includes voice, video, UC, wireless technologies and fixed-mobile convergence. Does the vendor have a robust UC portfolio? As mentioned earlier in the Report, UC solutions vary greatly from provider to provider. Can the vendor provide all of the critical components of UC including voice, conferencing, mobility, presence and other key areas? How long is the vendor s history in communications? High-quality, real-time communications is not simple especially over mobile and IP infrastructure. A long, successful history in communications can give customers confidence that the solution will work as promised. Does the vendor adhere to industry standards? No single vendor can provide all elements of a mobile UC solution. This makes adherence to industry standards critical. Many vendors use proprietary protocols to release products to market a little quickly, but ultimately this removes any flexibility from the customer. Can the solution integrate into both IBM and Microsoft desktop environments? IBM and Microsoft provide the majority of desktop-based presence and . Integration with both vendors is very important. Does the vendor have a broad set of global professional and managed services to help with planning and deployment? The complexity of UC and mobility will require enterprises to seek vendors that can help them to navigate this transition. This requires a robust set of professional and managed services around the globe to be a complete solutions provider. Can the solution provider help create the vision of the all-wireless office? Despite the advancements in wireless technologies, many network equipment vendors position wireless as an augmentation to a broader wired network to keep the revenue stream from wired infrastructure intact. There is no reason that companies should not have a road map to a totally unwired office in place. 6

7 V. Conclusions and Recommendations The convergence of high-quality mobile devices, IP networks, near-ubiquitous wireless access and UC has created a perfect storm scenario similar to that of the internet age. Mobile UC is positioned to be the next game-changing technology innovation that enables companies to reach new levels of productivity. By completely untethering a worker from the shackles of the corporate office, there will come a time when workers never again utter the phrase I ll take care of this when I m back in the office since the office will move with the worker. With that vision in mind, we make the following recommendations: Put mobile UC on your short-term must-havetechnologies list. With mobile working exploding and the advancements in technology, there is no reason for organizations to not begin deployments now. Companies can enjoy immediate cost savings benefits while redefining business processes around mobility and communications. Look for processes that have a high amount of human latency. Mobile UC can remove much of the delay caused by human intervention. Targeting business processes where the delay is based on human behavior can provide more bang for the buck. Use professional services to guide you through deployment and consider managed services for ongoing support. When organizations that have implemented either a UC or mobile deployment are asked what they would change if the deployment were done again, most would have used more help up front and to redefine operational procedures. 7

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