I had a chance to sit down with Betsy Frost, general manager for Microsoft unified communications, at VoiceCon SF 2008. With the recent release of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 I thought this was the perfect time to post my notes from our VoiceCon chat.
For those who missed VoiceCon, Betsy gave one of the keynotes and focused on the value from unified communications. She had a few friends come up for Q&A and gave one of the best, concise keynotes I’ve seen in a long time. Sheila McGee-Smith at NoJitter was impressed as well saying “I give the round to Microsoft”. Then again, Microsoft was going up against aren’t-they-dead-yet Avaya. UC is without a doubt the future and vendors not embracing a converged strategy are sure to be at a severe disadvantage.
During our chat, Betsy stressed UC as a significant cost saving measure and that Microsoft’s internal IT operations, (Microsoft Information Technology — MSIT) expects to save $10 million a year in reduced travel and improved efficiencies. Savings related to in-sourcing conferencing is their biggest cost savings. This translates well for customers who often see large voice and data conferencing service bills each month.
Betsy also discussed UC bridging the generation gap. It offers a younger generation of employees great flexibility in where and how they work and how they interact with peers. Gen Y’ers want a different communications toolset than older generations. Ad-hoc communication like txt messages and chat is more important to them than voicemail.
Despite the economy I’m still seeing a lot of companies interested in UC. The key is cost savings. Even when IT orgs have no budget, it’s not too difficult to find money for a UC project that has an ROI of just a few months. Saving money while delivering more services is the fastest way for a CIO to endear themselves to the CFO.
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