Cisco Energizes the Channel with User-Centric, Software-Only UC Licensing

Cisco announced some big changes to its UC licensing portfolio last week at its virtual sales conference, GSX, reports Roberto De La Mora, senior director, Unified Communications Platforms & Endpoints, Worldwide Collaboration Solutions Marketing is his blog Stocking the Collaboration Toolbox with the Right Tool for Every Job. The new licensing model is effective with the 9.0 release of Cisco’s Unified Communications Manager (CUCM 9.0), originally announced in June with GA scheduled for Q3 CY2012. The changes are responsive to customer requests for a more simplified, flexible and cost-effective UC licensing structure – one that’s easily aligned with customer’s business models and the way the workspace is changing. In the words of Richard McLeod, Cisco senior director, collaboration sales, worldwide partner group: "Number one, it's user-based in nature," "Number two, it's greatly simplified in terms of partner ability to design and quote. This is very much business-value-oriented. We're putting a lot more value and a lot more capabilities into the same price points we had before."

“Prior to this update,” Roberto De La Mora notes, “getting Cisco UC meant acquiring a license and a Cisco phone. That’s changed; now, Cisco’s UC offerings can be managed and deployed as a true software platform. While many will still choose to start with a hardware phone, others will choose another device, like a PC, a tablet or even a smartphone as their main communication and collaboration tool. It is now up to you.”

Decoupling UC licensing from the phone is great news to the channel. It a game changer because it opens a pathway for partners to have a serious business discussion with business unit leaders about driving higher productivity from their workforce through better collaboration experiences, while protecting and leveraging their current investments. This approach is, of course, fully consistent with the release of the Extend & Connect capability of CUCM, 9.0 which brings third-party phones into the Cisco UC environment. This feature offers those enterprise customers migrating to CUCM 9.0 an opportunity to leverage their existing investments further without compromising the ability of their employees to benefit from new UCC capabilities.

Moreover, according to BroadSoft’s 2011 Mobile Enterprise of the Future Study, 44 percent of the firms surveyed said they have at least one-quarter of their workforce operating solely using a mobile phone. In fact, 73 percent of respondents in the study expect mobile devices to replace office phones, with 60 percent expecting the transition to happen in the next five years.

The Cisco User-Centric Model

Cisco’s licensing stack changes build on the "Jabber for everyone" foundation laid in April wherein customers with release 7.1 and above of CUCM got Jabber IM and presence software at no extra charge. Cisco UC 9.0 licensing includes:

Cisco Unified Workspace Licensing (CUWL) provides the most popular bundles of Cisco collaboration applications and services. It includes soft clients, applications server software, and licensing on a per-user basis. Cisco Unified Communications Software Subscription (UCSS) is required to enable access to major software upgrades.

Cisco User Connect Licensing (UCL) is a per-user based license for individual Cisco UC applications that includes the applications server software, user licensing, and a soft client. Depending on the type of device and number of devices required, UCL is available in Essential, Basic, Enhanced, and Enhanced Plus versions. Cisco Unified Communications Software Subscription (UCSS) is recommended to enable access to major software upgrades.

Cisco will now offer CUCM 9.0 customers a user-centric licensing model offering simpler licensing bundles designed for the way users work and collaborate today. Three worker types have been targeted:

• Mobile Workers – Individuals who have basic UC needs and primarily work from company-provided office locations are the target for the two Enhanced and Enhanced Plus UCL licenses. They each include a soft client, applications server software, and user licensing. Enhanced UCL includes UC applications for a single device ($210), whereas Enhanced Plus allows for two devices ($295). These licenses also provide on-premise IM/P software for the entire organization.
  
  
• Information Workers – Individuals who need to stay connected and occasionally from more than one work location are the target for the Standard CUWL license which includes call control, voice messaging, and unified clients. Licenses are priced at $325 and enable the Jabber mobile and desktop client, Unity Connection Messaging and multiple devices. Jabber IM/P is also included and may be deployed as a one-year subscription in the cloud or as a perpetual license on premises.
  
  
• Power Users – Road warriors requiring the most advanced UC functionality, including realtime collaboration accessed via multiple devices, are the target for the Professional license at $500. CUWL Professional includes all features in CUWL Standard plus WebEx Meetings, the WebEx Social enterprise collaboration platform (formally Quad), and contact center capabilities. Each WebEx solution may be deployed as either a one-year subscription in the cloud or as a perpetual license on premises.

The multiple platform and device attributes of the UC 9.0 licensing portfolio give partners a distinct BYOD competitive edge. They are summarized in the table below.

Cisco Unified Communications 9.0 Licensing Portfolio^*

^*Included, Add-On

Easier access to Jabber and video can be leveraged by partners to upsell accelerated adoption of high value WebEx Meetings, WebEx Social and attendant pro services. Historically, partners had felt that Cisco wasn’t putting sufficient marketing effort behind its collaboration portfolio to get on the social networking radar of their clients. But that changed this past June when Cisco introduced WebEx Social (formally Quad) for Mobile Devices, Email and Business Productivity Applications. The inclusion of WebEx Social in CUWL Professional and its availability as an add-on elsewhere offers partners a great opportunity to leapfrog Microsoft on this important issue.

Enterprise Licensing Manager

Cisco has also added a new management tool – the Enterprise Licensing Manager (ELM) – as part of the CUCM R9.0 platform to do automatic and dynamic licensing management for customers. Enterprise License Manager handles licensing fulfillment, supports allocation and reconciliation of licenses across supported products, and provides enterprise-level reporting of usage and entitlement. The new tool is available to both customers and partners for free. With ELM, customers can easily move, change, and remove existing licenses and order new ones, while keeping an eye on user requirements as their collaboration needs evolve. This new software permits “temporary licensing on demand.” Customers are allowed to deploy more services than they are actually entitled for. They can take care of business and then go back through the normal procurement process to get the required permanent licenses.

ELM saves customers time and money, eases compliance and speeds deployments. It’s unique in the market and a real differentiator that partners can leverage to keep in touch with customers for upsell and cross-sell opportunities.