UCStrategies Experts Discuss Impact of Free Cisco Jabber

By Phil Edholm May 3, 2012 5 Comments

The UCStrategies Experts discuss the announcement by Cisco making the Jabber client for IM free if you have Cisco Unified Communications Manager. The discussion is moderated by Phil Edholm. The podcast also includes Kevin Kieller, Don Van Doren, and Art Rosenberg.

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5 Responses to "UCStrategies Experts Discuss Impact of Free Cisco Jabber" - Add Yours

Laurent Dinard 5/4/2012 12:42:10 PM

Thank you for covering this great topic. I wanted to update the readers on ShoreTel's direction for Instant Messaging and Presence

We recognized years ago that IM would become strategic for most organizations. We acquired the core XMPP server technology to embed natively into our system. XMPP (compared to SIMPLE- SIP for IM) scales in a very economic fashion and thus fits perfectly with our low cost of entry and low TCO goals. To our knowledge, only 3 UC vendors have a true standard-based (SIP or XMPP) IM based server: Microsoft, Cisco and ShoreTel. This technology is key to be able to expand the basic IM functionalities with future federation standards. Most other vendors have to use to third party technology to deliver IM functionalities, most notably Avaya with their Avaya Presence Server partially built using OEM technologies from… Jabber, Inc, now Cisco.

ShoreTel 12 was the first release with built-in IM technology, in addition to audio conferencing and application sharing. This functionality offers a very cost efficient option to customers who want to boost collaboration without having to deal with Lync deployment complexity. A significant number of prospective customers looked at Lync for IM or collaboration, but the combination of our pricing structure, simple appliance-based model and integrated management led the majority of them to choose our built-in collaboration functionalities.

On the other hand, we addressed the Microsoft IM server install base by allowing our UC desktop clients to leverage an existing Microsoft IM infrastructure. So you can use our Communicator client for call control, visual voicemail, video, softphone and IM by leveraging the MS Lync server. We have been shipping this functionality since 2008.
We intend to continue to invest in these two approaches: an IM open strategy with MS Lync or the alternative IM solution built into our UC system.

We will be making a major announcement around IM enhancement next wee

Laurent Dinard 5/4/2012 12:43:07 PM

(continuation of previous):

We will be making a major announcement around IM enhancement next week at Interop Las Vegas and more IM announcements will be made over the summer. Stay tuned…

Laurent Dinard
Senior Product Manager
ShoreTel, Inc.

Kevin Kieller 5/4/2012 6:40:50 PM

Laurent,

Thank you for your comments and information.

If indeed Shoretel IM is provided at zero cost to the user then I understand many users electing to stay with, what you call, the "built-in collaboration functionalities" -- provided the Shoretel UC solution meets their business requirements. Often organizations are best served by choosing a single vendor UC solution.

Multi-vendor integrations are easy in theory -- they always look good in PowerPoint :-) But the reality is they are generally messy, provide a less than ideal user experience and are difficult to support over time.

Shoretel to Lync integration is also challenging. While Shoretel supports an RCC solution, this means Lync is only providing IM and presence features, and some customers have "expectations" beyond this. A Lync to Shortel integration based on Direct SIP or a T1 connection is possible through gateways but not currently supported, see www.technet.com/ucoip, at least from the Microsoft side. Does Shoretel plan to certify your solution with Microsoft?

In terms of a pure Shoretel solution, it is important the the customer can federate as required. This may not be a requirement, but as per my recent article https://www.nojitter.com/post/232901446/federation-is-the-game-changer-for-unified-communications federation can sometimes be a key requirement and of great business value.

I believe Cisco is trying to make it easier (and cheaper) for customers to adopt the entire Cisco UC stack. In my mind, consistent with Shoretel's "simple" marketing focus, if you can make it even easier than you have a good chance at gaining marketshare and pleasing customers. Microsoft's "bundle" approach that they have successfully proven with Microsoft Office, is also seeming to gain traction in terms of UC.

Kevin

Kurt Kruger 5/7/2012 11:11:49 AM

Kevin,

Thanks for responding to Laurent. As the Manager of Integration Products here at ShoreTel, I wanted to expand on the Lync integration options for ShoreTel customers. For more detail on our Lync integration, check out the Microsoft UC integration page at https://www.shoretel.com/products/open_integration/biz_processes/Microsoft_OCS.html.

The Lync RCC integration via the ShoreTel CSTA Server provides Lync 2010 client users with 100% of the telephony controls that Microsoft implement, and that includes ShoreTel telephony presence injected into the Lync presence service and visible to all contacts in the organization and those federated with the organization. Laurent already highlighted our presence and IM integration with Lync 2010 Server for those who deploy ShoreTel Communicator on the desktop instead of the Lync 2010 client.

And as you noted, the ShoreTel to Lync integration for tie line / PSTN access currently relies on a Direct SIP interconnect via Microsoft-certified gateways such as the AudioCodes Mediant series. AudioCodes is certified both with ShoreTel through our Innovation Network technology partner program https://www.shoretel.com/partners/tech_developers/ecosystem/AudioCodes_Media_Gateways.html and with Microsoft through the UCOIP. Microsoft's Direct SIP gateway certifications don't note what's on the other side of the gateway, which is why you don't see ShoreTel's name listed on the UCOIP site.

Kurt

Kevin Kieller 5/8/2012 4:04:22 AM

Kurt,

Thank you for the detailed response.

1. The issue typically with all Lync RCC (remote call control) integrations, not only the ShoreTel one, is not so much a technical one but rather related to customer expectations. Customers often seem to expect more functionality than the solution provides. For instance, RCC does not address remote softphone requirements. As always, it is very important to document and prioritize customer business requirements and then match a specific solution's technical capabilities to the defined business requirements.

2. The link you provided to the ShoreTel + Microsoft integration page does not seem to be working.

3. I have had good success with Audiocodes gateways and you are correct Audiocodes gateways are Microsoft certified and often act as a good "bridge" between Microsoft Lync and existing voice systems such as ShoreTel. Once again, clearly understanding customer business requirements (and expectations) ahead of a multi-vendor integration is very important.

Kevin