Moving Corporate Solutions Into the Cloud

Posted: 09/1999

Moving Corporate Solutions Into the Cloud
By Pamela Thompson

Enhanced services typically have been structured as independent service offerings by separate business units within a single service provider. In a PTT, for instance, it is common for the wireless, Internet and wireline providers to each have implemented their own enhanced services solutions. These legacy-enhanced services are offered independently by auto-nomous business units and are not integrated as a single enhanced service.

Initially, this approach made sense because legacy-enhanced services platforms lacked the flexibility to run multiple applications, were unable to run on multiple networks and determined customers based on network types. Individual business units within the service provider organization chose the platform provider that best suited the needs of their users. Consequently, service providers replicated investments and expenses with redundant platforms and personnel. Additionally, end users of more than one of their service offerings, which recently has become a fast-growing number, were not well-served--receiving messages into separate mailboxes, with access limited to unique devices. As a result, many of these enhanced services offerings have resulted in increased end-user churn, rather than increased end-user loyalty, through the creation of new value.

Add to this market diffusion the fact that enterprises have invested heavily in their own enhanced services infrastructure and personnel. Enterprises saw themselves as running a captive telecommunications operation, buying only basic bandwidth from the public network. The public network could not serve the enterprise well due to its closed, proprietary solutions aimed at mass-market deployment. The lack of unification, interoperability and extensibility resulting from these incompatible enhanced services solutions limits the effectiveness and reach of today's messaging services.

When both service providers and enterprises can get the solutions they need from a single enhanced services platform, they will realize significant reduction in redundant costs. Furthermore, if these new platforms also provide mechanisms that facilitate gradual migration from legacy platforms, it is only a matter of time before they are unified and brought into the cloud.

Assessing the Opportunity

The spate of recent investments in next-generation networks based on Internet protocol (IP) has created ample opportunity for significant changes in the telecommunications infrastructure. One example is the eventual displacement of the traditional enterprise private branch exchange (PBX). These next-gen network investments in the telecommunications infrastructure ultimately will result in their change from being largely closed and proprietary to open and standards-based, much like the PC industry. With this openness will come the rich features, flexibility and control demanded by enterprises. In addition, openness will enable the extensibility required for gradual migration to the full benefits of unified messaging. Finally, the resulting cost reductions will make outsourcing a compelling and cost-efficient consideration.

Once these technical and financial hurdles are addressed, change is inevitable--slowed only by organizational inertia. However, as evidenced by the corporate adoption of Internet or intranet messaging, motivated mainly by attempts to overcome the challenges created by multinational branch offices, the inertia can be overcome. The needs of mid-level end users have driven the move to Internet and intranet solutions. These users could envision the added benefits of broader communications reach. Many today, however, enjoy a broad communications reach from a feature-rich enterprise solution in the workplace and a different and often limited solution at home.

The goal of next-gen messaging applications is to "unify" complicated messaging applications, thereby reducing redundant cost. Users can access, respond to and be notified of voice mail, e-mail and/or fax mail messages through common interfaces, using myriad devices, across a wide variety of networks.

In practice, this type of flexible messaging is what really matters to end users. The most effective way to deliver this next-gen messaging is to provide end users with the messaging applications that best meet their individual needs, based on the kind of devices/messaging applications/usage patterns they desire. Following are just a few of the benefits that end users can expect from next-gen messaging, as well as some of the factors carriers should consider in providing these solutions.

Understanding the User

First, it is crucial to understand the various user groups--their characteristics, telecom usage habits and purchasing patterns.

* Home Office/Consumers (1-4 people)--There is a greater awareness of public messaging services and, accordingly, a growing demand for improved messaging, due to the explosive growth in wireless voice and Internet services. Consumers in single-line homes recognize traditional telephone answering machines do not activate while accessing the web. They also are cognizant that public messaging is a promising alternative to a second line. While emphasizing simplicity and low-bundled or "pay-as-you-use" pricing models, consumers require a messaging service that is both wireline- or wireless-phone accessible, and, if they are heavy Internet users, web-accessible, also. Finally, these users value "hands-free wireless" and multidevice "message-waiting indicator" features. They have a lower urgency and complexity to their communications needs relative to business users. They tend to be more voice-centric and either directed to family and/or business associates, or externally directed and highly varied. Therefore, white/yellow pages along with a unified address book spanning an array of messaging and real-time communications devices are essential.

* Small Business (5-50 people)--Small-business users have similar needs to the home office/consumer user, however, their communications are more internally directed, so a basic company directory with distribution list features is key. In addition, small-business users require e-mail solutions, with basic calendar collaboration. Since business e-mail users retain messages as a history or information base to track their business interactions, it is essential to have disaster recovery backup services for all business segments.

* Mid-Sized Business (51-500 people)--The needs of mid-sized business users are similar to that of the small-business group. However, they have a greater need for internal communications, therefore they require advanced company directories and distribution lists and enhanced calendar and public folder collaboration. Their pricing model typically is a capital decision, so they generally are less price-sensitive. They have a higher proportion of e-mail messages, with a greater complexity to their messages. They are entrenched users of enterprise e-mail solutions, and invest in their own information technology (IT) and telecommunications infrastructure. To that end, outsourcing IT services requires a new pricing model and a seamless migration path that allows for gradual replacement of current assets.

* Enterprise (501+ people)--With similar needs compared to those of the mid-sized business, the enterprise also must deal with the additional challenges created by serving multilingual, distributed multinational, branch and home offices. They are users of enterprise e-mail solutions who own their IT and telecommunications infrastructure, which often are integrated directly with their business processes. Therefore, line organizations typically are reluctant to consider alternatives to their corporate messaging applications. They are the least price-sensitive of the categories, and their pricing model to date has been a capital decision.

Selecting a Unified Messaging Provider

The desire to simplify messaging for users of voice mail, e-mail and fax makes it prudent to look for next-gen messaging solutions. It also is imperative to simplify messaging for all users of telephony, computing, cellular phone and next-gen devices (wireless devices with sophisticated graphical user interfaces [GUIs]), by providing a single mailbox with common interfaces for all types of messages, accomplishing:

• Minimal change in end-user behavior, which is necessary when dovetailing with familiar e-mail/Internet messaging services. For consumers, this may mean voice mail integrated with web portal-based e-mail. For the business user, it might mean the integration with Microsoft's Exchange Server or IBM Lotus Notes;
• Intuitive telephone interface design--real-time adaptation, knowing when users need help or streamlining as they require less;
• End-user provisioning--a primary benefit of unified messaging to service providers;
• Unified personal address book--facilitates broader communications reach; and
• Interoperable/message networking using industry standards--for gradual migration.

Evaluating Solution Types

When deploying public unified messaging solutions, service providers need to understand the implications of client-integrated vs. server-integrated vs. server-unified messaging solutions. There are a number of solution options available, which need to be considered from the context of providing tiered offerings and moving enterprise solutions to the cloud.

* Client-integrated solutions provide a unified view of messages for the client. This allows the end user to use his or her current e-mail client, while accessing voice and fax messages, too. However, it does not permit the end user to access e-mail via the telephone user interface. It can make message notification more complicated, since it needs to be activated on two servers. This solution allows the end user to pay for the level of sophistication he or she desires by unbundling the e-mail from voice and fax messaging solutions. This can be a low-cost solution, which is an excellent approach for targeting the more price-sensitive consumers (home office and small business users) who may not need telephony access to e-mail.

* The server-integrated solution offers similar benefits to the client-integrated process, but it also provides a unified view of all message types via both the telephone user interface and GUI of their existing e-mail client. This solution permits use of current e-mail solutions, yet also results in some compromise to collaboration and messaging notification.

The server-integrated solution also can be accomplished as a web-integrated server, using custom web pages and supporting popular thick and thin browsers. This may be a viable alternative for customers who want the benefits of a server-integrated solution such as mobile users, next-gen device users or price-sensitive customers.

* The server-unified solution results in a single message store, which means all messages can be accessed by both graphical and telephone user interfaces. Careful consideration of evolving capabilities is required to ensure the solution scales with availability. Enterprise solutions bring rich collaboration and message notification. This is a feature-rich, bundled, high-end solution, proficiently targeted for mid-sized business and enterprise users.

The server-unified solution also can be accomplished as a web-unified server, using custom web pages and supporting popular thick and thin browsers. This may be a viable alternative for serving highly mobile users, next-gen device users or price-sensitive customers who want the benefits of a unified message store.

These three solution models can be distributed using industry Internet standards to provide a smooth path for the enterprise to migrate gradually.

Pushing Interoperability

The lack of a universally open, unified or interoperable enhanced services platform has resulted in a great deal of unnecessary redundant cost. Solving these problems will allow public service providers to provide the feature richness, flexibility and control required by enterprise users. A compelling business justification for moving enterprise solutions to the cloud can be made by the significant increase in communication breadth and reach, coupled with the significant reductions in cost.

There is a tiered segmentation that exists primarily by business size. Each of these business segments prefers not to lose its existing e-mail. They can adjust to a different telephone user interface, provided the interface helps them to navigate through change. The different methods by which e-mail can be incorporated into the unified messaging solution provide a tiered offering that allows the use of familiar e-mail solutions at varied price points with tradeoffs in functionality. The use of Internet standards enables interoperability required to gradually migrate from current legacy solutions to new solutions in the cloud.

Pamela Thompson is vice president of marketing for PulsePoint Communications, Carpinteria, Calif., a Unisys company. She can be reached by phone at +1 805 566 2091 or e-mail at pam.thompson@plpt.com