NEC – Expanding Their UC Vision

By Stephen Leaden June 1, 2015 Leave a Comment

Introduction

During the week of May 17, NEC ran their annual NEC Advantage conference, this year in Phoenix, bringing together dealers, consultants and analysts to a common forum. I had the privilege of being the first day’s keynote speaker at the conference. Prior to and preparing for my talk entitled “It’s a New Season (Era) in Communications,” I invested considerable time with NEC engineering and leadership as to what was “coming” regarding new offerings from NEC at the NEC Advantage conference.

What I uncovered with the NEC staff was what I would entitle as “spot on” with where their extensive product line is and how it can integrate across multiple borders to Unified Communications. NEC as a company has invested in next-gen vision and applications that could very well make them in the near future “the” key contender in the highly competitive UC space today.

Four Key Strategies

From my discussions with NEC, my takeaways was their focus is on four key areas:

1. Software Defined Networks/SDN – NEC believes that the future of the complex world of UC will require robust networking requirements, and NEC sees SDN as one the key areas going forward. This strategy is borne out of the NEC’s strategy for data analytics tied to biometrics tied to UC. SDN growth, according to IDC, has grown from $1B in 2014 to a projected $2.3B in 2015, and then to $3.7B in 2016. This is a significant growth in any IT market segment, and NEC’s play to build and release new product in an SDN environment plays to the market growth and the new demands for UC coming. Their new SDN-based platform was announced at the show and will be available shortly in their first official release.

2. Secure The Environment – In today’s market, security has become a key concern for enterprises. SIP trunking, for example, requires Enterprise SBCs to manage possible DOS/DDOS and other possible threats from outside the enterprise for SIP trunking external voice traffic. SIP trunking, an IP-based network offering, is subject to the same vulnerabilities as any public data network, different than the proprietary digital PRIs available for over 10 years in today’s market. SIP trunking is the going forward public voice and video platform and needs to be protected.

In that same way, NEC’s U3C platform is one of the few manufacturers available that is Department of Defense JITC certified, providing a highly secure UC environment for the enterprise. Of course, enterprises must also follow best overall security practices, be compliant in HIPAA and PCI compliance in respective healthcare and financial services markets (to protect patient and customer data), leverage best practices for VPN access remotely. And now NEC has introduced facial recognition as a baseline for surveillance and other supplications integrated to UC.

3. Data Analytics – NEC believes that capturing data on multiple levels will provide the necessary metrics for tracking trends and helping make enterprises more aware of demographics, possible security concerns, and trends for security and customer service purposes.

4. Biometrics and Facial Recognition – NEC as a corporation sells more than UC products. NEC provides monitors, surveillance equipment, and facial recognition products that go beyond traditional UC borders. By including these additional products and services in NEC’s UC portfolio, NEC’s strategy can now include the breadth of its technology portfolio and integrate them with its UC suite of products.

These four areas, or themes, in my opinion, become the baseline for creating new UC applications that are both exciting and robust.

A New End Point, New Applications

In 4^thQ 2-14, NEC announced as GA its UT-880 end point, an integrated 7-inch android tablet and phone that NEC deems as its flagship end point. Although on the surface this end point appears relatively simple, the possibilities for applications are significant, for example:

When utilized as a phone, it’s really a “phone app” built into the “phablet” with multiple lines, conference, transfer, speakerphone, speed dial keys and more
As a security end point, the UT-880 can monitor real-time up to four surveillance cameras on its screen in key designated areas tied to surveillance cameras and integrated with the NEC’s security systems
As a UC integrated device, it can run UC applications and can utilize the built-in camera to recognize the state of an individual’s presence and modify the presence automatically from “away from desk” to “at desk,” or “available” without any manual intervention on the user’s part
The NEC UC platform includes those UC applications we have come to expect from the manufacturers (and then some), including IM, presence with calendar integration, click-to-contact and directory integration, multiple device management, mobility access, unified messaging, web collaboration, video communications & collaboration, collaborative content management, interactive call screening via a virtual personal assistant, can move calls between devices seamlessly, and biometrics integration at the device level (UT880).

Significant Applications

NEC’s announcement around these four key areas tied with the UT800 flagship end point helps create some compelling applications and vision as to what NEC sees as some of the future possibilities of Unified Communications. My discussions with NEC’s engineering team provided several significant examples of utilizing these technologies and strategies, including:

UC Presence – Facial Recognition Software can identify an employee as they enter a building and change the UC presence status from out-of-building to in-building. By recognizing the individual at their desk the presence status can now change from away-from-desk to at-desk. The same software can create analytics regarding the employee’s status and can be a vehicle for facilitating productivity.
Facial Recognition in Public Facilities – The same facial recognition software can be used to not only identify employees, but can also be used to identify possible suspicious individuals tied to security databases. Data analytics can be used for tracking such possible activity.
RFID Tag Integration – For workers that are highly mobile, healthcare as one example, RFID tags can be used for UC presence-aware models for physicians, nurses, support staff, and can be used for identifying staff and locations at any given moment, offering key location-based metrics regarding activity and fulfillment. Any possible theft tied to infants can be minimized with such RFID tags while at a hospital facility.
Retail – In a retail setting, facial recognition software can identify demographics within a store at any one time, providing a mechanism for creating on-the-fly “sales” at a store location for a specific period of time, say the next hour, to stimulate purchases based on a the majority demographic that is in the store at that location.
Concierge Services – In hotels, the same facial recognition software can be used to create a significantly more personalized greeting of a guest entering the facility. The software can recognize and

Help staff “meet and greet” customers as they enter the building
Create signage that can personally welcome the individual as they enter the facility
Create a “screen pop” so that staff member will know quickly about the individual’s stay and any special needs (no need to ask the individual for the member # and other data)
Have basics such as “keys ready” as they approach the front desk(s), thus improving the time to register a guest and help manage FTE staff during peak periods.

Let’s Not Forget The UC Cloud

NEC is committed to the UC cloud and offerings that will help drive the channel forward and embrace the cloud as the market evolves from CAPEX -centric to OPEX-centric. NEC’s program includes a robust redundant and resilient Data Center model, with financial benefits to the channel that can help them financially with the market transition to the uCaaS cloud.

Summary and Conclusion

This an exciting time for NEC. At NEC Advantage they embraced traditionally non-UC products and services and now integrating them into the NEC UC product portfolio. They have introduced an application-centric Android 7-inch “Phablet” end point with multiple applications available (phone, UC presence, and security monitoring to start), integrated biometrics and facial recognition software with UC, managing these with data analytics, and securing enterprise clients with a DOD JITC certified secure UC platform. They are leveraging a forward-thinking SDN platform for new forward-thinking robust applications. Congratulations NEC on a conference that embraced all attendees and provided a message that is forward and future thinking.

All indications point to a larger NEC with significant applications and strategy, on a platform ready for growth. Will it excite the NEC dealer base? Will it move NEC’s market share ‘needle’? Only time will tell. Let’s see what happens in 24 months. From my vantage point, don’t be surprised if you see the “needle” moving forward.