Last week Gartner came out with its latest Magic Quadrant for UC. So how do things look in the cutting edge field of unified communications?

Well, it appears that everyone is either a leader or niche player.

The vendors deemed worthy enough to float on the upper-right leaders quad: Microsoft, Cisco, Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent, and Siemens Enterprise Communications.

Most of the others, designated as niche players by the ever politically correct Gartner (as opposed to “non-leaders,” “losers,” or “followers”?) in the lower-left quad, include some usual suspects like ShoreTel, Interactive Intelligence, TeleWare, Toshiba, and Aastra Technologies; but there were a couple of newbies this time: Digium and Huawei Technologies.

Between quadrants challengers (NEC and IBM) and visionaries (Mitel) were only three companies. Notice that the newcomers Digium and Huawei went straight to the niche quad instead of arriving as challengers or visionaries…

And to me that is tragic. Has the UC market place finally settled and its landscape defined?

With Microsoft leading the pack it’s clear that UC is an enterprise software application. Microsoft’s dominance in enterprise software is paying dividends in the adolescent UC market. Plus, its leadership further strengthened with the acquisition of Skype.

I wouldn’t have thought networking giant Cisco to be a close second. My #2 pick would’ve been IBM but alas, Big Blue has never quite figured out “communications” throughout its history.

Interestingly, Mitel is the only visionary in the report. The company has been making waves recently by making its products VM-friendly and exclusive — a “game changer,” according to Dave Michels of Pin Drop Soup:

Today at VMworld in Las Vegas, we learned of a new capability: virtual softphones! Mitel’s US desktop suite, UC-Advanced, includes a softphone (and presence, and IM), and it is now supported on VMware’s View virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). To my knowledge, this is the first time a softphone is truly being supported on a virtual desktop. This is a game changer.

…

So far, this is a Mitel (MCD) and VMware (View 5) exclusive. The companies have not disclosed the secret sauce that makes it work, but it will no doubt be coming to other vendors. VDI is hot! It drives down support and hardware costs while improving mobility. Allowing a softphone to tag along has huge implications, particularly for organizations embracing cloud services. Virtual desktops have the potential to turn all kinds of form factors into legitimate, secure workstations including PCs, thin client desktops, iPads, and ChromeBooks.

Thanks to Eric Krapf over at the No Jitter blog, we learn a bit about the “secret sauce“:

“In the VDI space, the reason why the math works so well is you don’t have a PC for every person in the datacenter; you oversubscribe the resource,” because you don’t have everyone using all their resources all the time, [Mitel CTO Jim Davies] explained. So “even if you solve the latency problem, which is solvable, you still have the math problem.”

Rewriting the softphone application enabled Mitel to solve the latency problem; VMWare created an API for View that lets the Mitel softphone’s media streaming function plug into the thin client on the desktop, while the remaining functions move to the datacenter.

What will the next UC Magic Quadrant look like? I hope to see more dots in the top-left and bottom-right quadrants.

Here’s a roundup of this week’s posts if you were too busy during the week. Remember, you can always follow us via RSS as well as via Facebook (if it can stay up these days!) and Twitter.

Avaya tried to keep the Flare in the headlines with an interview by PCWorld of CEO Kevin Kennedy. Again, the UI experience looks very fluid, but I still cannot see how customers will go for a $2,000 Android-based tablet locked onto Avaya-only products. Not only because there are so many other way cheaper Android tablets out there, but also there are many existing free video conferencing apps with decent quality.

For four lucky startups it’s almost time to put on their game faces for StartupCamp: Comm Edition. The event is co-hosted with ITEXPO West and open to all registered attendees. Mark your calendar for Monday, October 4, and get there early to grab a good seat. Organizers are expecting a very big crowd.

And some good news for Genesys — Gartner’s latest Magic Quadrant report has the CTI company as a leader in Web customer service. The bad news? References are still complaining about Genesys’ technical support. Growing pains? Whatever the reason, there’s no excuse and Genesys should make it a #1 priority to resolve the issues, even if they are perceptions.

Have a great fall weekend!

Genesys has come a long way from just a CTI technology provider to a full-blown customer service technology company (as I’ve covered here and here previously). It’s evident that customer service today means more than just inbound voice calls, or the traditional voice self-service channel. Savvy customers today will also use social media, Web chat, or online knowledge base, or any combination of these, to find the answers they need.

That’s why it’s noteworthy that Genesys is now considered by Gartner to be a leader in Web customer service (WCS), according to its latest Magic Quadrant report. Other peers in this quadrant include RightNow and eGain, which makes things a bit more interesting as RightNow is also a Genesys BFF (however, the middle “F” being “frenemy“).

Of course, to me the best part of the report is actually in the “Cautions” section of the company profile:

• The legacy knowledge management solution from Genesys is not very strong: therefore, the partner has partnered with InQuira to fill this product gap. Genesys does, however, provide Tier 1 support for the InQuira product, and there is no multivendor contract necessary, because you can buy the InQuira solution from Genesys.
• Genesys does not have a virtual assistant solution, but has partnered with Oddcast. Unfortunately, no references were using the Oddcast virtual assistants on top of the InQuira knowledge base in a Genesys environment, so this combination is still unproved.
• Multichannel recording and playback functionality has been as strong as some of the other WCS providers, but Genesys concluded an agreement with Zoom International at the end of January 2010 to provide Internet Protocol (IP) recording and quality management functionality, and is busy extending the product capabilities to capture Web activities, with a targeted release later in 2010.
• Customer references still reported challenges with engaging the correct people for support in the Genesys organization, but Gartner expects that a key initiative on the way in customer management should help service difficulties disappear toward 2011.

I’m surprised that InQuira got mentioned in the report but not Lithium Technologies which has been more publicized in recent news coverages. And it was odd that Oddcast made it into the report when no references were using its product.

Not surprised at the quality management bit since that’s always been a weakness of Genesys. The good news? It’s doing something about it. The bad news? It requires a partner (or maybe this is good news too).

Also not surprised about the technical support frustrations still felt by its customers. This is still a challenge? It was already frustrating dealing with Tech Support when I implemented my first Genesys project more than five years ago. The fact that it’s still being reported — even by Gartner research — is somewhat disappointing. The irony remains that this customer service tech company has customer service problems. This ought to be the top priority for Genesys for the remainder of this year simply because it’s gone on for far too long.

Here’s the press release:

Paris, September 22, 2010 — Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced that its Genesys customer service solution has been placed in the leaders quadrant of the recently published Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Web Customer Service,”¹ authored by Johan Jacobs. The report evaluates the maturing market for Web-based customer service offering which includes serving multichannel customer service strategies.

Customers increasingly rely upon the Web, mobile and growing social media channels. The Genesys eServices suite offers an expanded solution for customer service and sales. These products, built upon the Genesys G8 platform, enable cross channel conversations and deliver a consistent experience as customers transition across voice and non-voice channels.

“Businesses today are aware that engaging with customers across multiple channels is key to growth and exceeding expectations. The Genesys solution embraces and integrates the variety of ways customers communicate, delivering the ability for enterprises to drive cross-channel conversations with their customers,” said Nicolas de Kouchkovsky, Chief Marketing Officer, Enterprise Applications for Alcatel-Lucent.

According to the Gartner report, “leaders demonstrate market-defining vision and the ability to execute against that vision through products, services, demonstrable sales figures, and solid new references for multiple geographies and vertical industries. Clients report that the vendors deliver a high level of value and return on their commitment. The development team has a clear vision of the implications of business rules, and the impact of WCS on customer service requirements. A characteristic of a leader is that clients look to the vendor for clues as to how to innovate in customer service. The vendor does not necessarily drive a customer toward vendor lock-in, but rather provides openness to an ecosystem. When asked, their clients reply that this product has affected the organization’s competitive position in their markets and helped lower costs. Leaders provide functionally diverse and rich WCS suites that can be deployed and supported globally, and have at least five of the seven WCS framework components supported as an OEM solution.”

Gartner’s “Magic Quadrant for Web Customer Service” report is available compliments of Genesys at the following link: http://www.genesyslab.com/news/analysts-coverage

More information about Alcatel-Lucent Genesys eServices solution is available online.

¹Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Web Customer Service” by J. Jacobs. September 10, 2010.

About the Magic Quadrant
The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted September 10, 2010 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Alcatel-Lucent Genesys
Genesys software solutions from Alcatel-Lucent manage customer interactions over phone, Web and mobile devices. The Genesys software suite handles customer conversations across multiple channels and resources – self-service, assisted-service and proactive outreach – fulfilling customer requests and optimizing customer care goals while efficiently using resources. Genesys software directs more than 100 million customer interactions every day for 4,000 companies and government agencies in 80 countries. These companies and agencies leverage their entire organization, from the contact center to the back office, while dynamically engaging their customers. For more information, go to www.genesyslab.com.

About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is the trusted transformation partner of service providers, enterprises, strategic industries such as defense, energy, healthcare, transportation, and governments worldwide, providing solutions to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP and optics technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivalled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130 countries and the most experienced global services organization in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 15.2 billion in 2009 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com, read the latest posts on the Alcatel-Lucent blog http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/blog and follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Alcatel_Lucent.

Alcatel-Lucent Press Contacts

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It is somewhat refreshing to hear a Gartner analyst jumping away from the UC bandwagon. After all, UC is probably the second most used acronym in communications these days; the first being VOIP, of course.

Nick Jones, a VP and Distinguished Analyst at Gartner, rains on the jolly UC parade:

UC looks to me like an ill-assorted mix of technologies that vendors want to sell in a single bundle because it’s convenient for them, rather than because they’re what your employees actually need. UC is a dinosaur in a world of fast-moving little furry mammals; the leading edge of communication and collaboration is happening in the consumer space driven by companies like Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Fring, Nimbuzz and dozens more. These are better, cheaper and more fashionable than UC and there is no way the so called “enterprise” vendors can keep up with their rate of evolution.

He has a good point there. I also believe that Big Telecom ran out of things to sell (there’s a limit to the excitement level in selling a PBX) and creatively (yes, I’ll grant them that) cooked a stew of various communications parts, slapped on a licensing model, and asked salespeople to constantly mention the buzzworthy product.

Hmmm, these telecom vendors have done this before…

Aha! Remember the VOIP migration projects? What did you gain going from TDM to VOIP? The answer is most definitely not “crystal clear calls.” Hopefully after going VOIP the call quality is enough to rival that of TDM, but it’s still a phone call. The function of establishing a communications channel between two parties — that remains unchanged.

But I digress. To me UC seems more of a gamble for these vendors. It’s about them (trying) thinking outside of the box. It’s about them demonstrating they know a thing or two beyond phones. It’s about them riding the wave of ubiquitous communications.

Have they succeeded? Well… that’s also up for debate.

In the meantime, UC adopters past and present are also in on the gamble. And as in all games of chance, you’d rather be lucky than good…

Boston-based Holly Connects, a voice platform software vendor, announces Holly5 5.1, with major improvements:

The web-based reporting and analytics capabilities of Holly5 have been completely revamped in version 5.1 to provide greater versatility, easier customization, and increased speed. New trending reports can track system metrics over minutes, days, or months. New comparison reports can display differences in system metrics based on server, application, or even caller behavior. “Holly customers have some of the largest, most complex voice platform deployments in the world, so they generate tremendous volumes of call data,” said Ray Teale, Chief Technology Officer for Holly Connects. “The new telco-grade reporting and analytics tools in Holly 5 make sifting through that data easy and efficient, quickly identifying opportunities to improve operations and perfect caller interaction.”

Many functional areas of Holly5 have been enhanced in version 5.1 to support innovative applications. The wide selection of speech technology supported has been expanded to include the latest products from Cepstral, Loquendo, Nuance Communications, and Vlingo, plus applications now can incorporate utterance re-recognition using multiple grammars to improve accuracy. New configuration options more efficiently blend inbound and outbound applications. Optimized call recording now can be enabled on all channels while maintaining full system capacity. VoiceXML access to SIP header fields, a simplified vendor-agnostic CTI interface, and improved whisper transfer facility enable a superior caller experience by tightly integrating Holly5 applications with other call processing elements. “Companies at the forefront of voice automation seek out Holly knowing we can meet their novel business and engineering challenges even when others cannot,” said Lance Berks, Chief Executive Officer of Holly Connects. “Numerous improvements to Holly5 are the direct result of discussions with our visionary customers and are being provided in anticipation of mainstream market trends.”

Holly Connects was included in Gartner’s IVR Visionaries Quadrant in 2008 for its unique voice platform solution. Holly5 is available for Solaris, Red Hat Linux, and CentOS.