With the holidays now well behind us, and the New Year underway, it’s an opportunity to assess the state of the UC market generally, and to look at what’s likely to happen in 2008.

Being on the leading edge of an emerging market is a great place to be, but creating visibility as a market and thought leader is a challenge. This is especially true in a rapidly emerging field like unified communications (UC) and communications-enabled business process (CEBP) where the noise floor created by the 800 lb gorillas is absolutely deafening.

Gartner Group is a firm that has built a huge amount of credibility and cachet over the years, largely on the back of the “Magic Quadrant” and its “Technology Hype Curve”, both of which are approaches that I find very useful, and which I have used on many occasions. Unfortunately, a relationship with Gartner requires deep pockets and discretionary funds, and for a growing company, like Objectworld, most of its cash flow goes back into R&D and in growing a support organization. But as I was reviewing the Microsoft UC presentations from the OCS launch, I was excited most by two analyst quotes. First, from Gartner Group:

“Through 2010, 80% of businesses that have deployed communications enabled business processes will obtain significant competitive and revenue differentiation because of it.” (Gartner 2007)

Reading on, IDC is quoted as suggesting that:

“It (UC) will define the next decade of the entire IT and communications industry” (IDC 2007)

Wow.

Objectworld has been proselytizing the business value inherent in the automation of processes, in the value of placing synchronous communications in context, in order to increase workforce effectiveness while lowering operational costs. Objectworld has known for years that UC is revolutionizing the way that people communicate and the way companies do business. Objectworld’s customers know this and for many, is their best kept secret, their competitive advantage.

To start the year knowing that you are at the intersection of a major market shift is exhilarating, but getting heard above the noise floor is our biggest challenge. You can help by telling two friends about this ISV that has delivered a software-only, out-of-the-box CEBP solution for years now, and they’ll tell two friends, and so on…

Happy New Year – and be careful out there!

Martin Suter