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Now is a critical time to grab the bull by the horns, read the market, change direction and deliver what the market wants. “The reality is that virtualisation will take off,” added Turner. “One of the problems is that we just haven’t started doing it. We know the road has to be driven.”
Although a decision of major importance, the shift to a virtualised business model for both partner and customer need not be seismic. “With Mitel’s solution the customer can buy CPE knowing that the voice application can be virtualised when required. That’s where we are flexible,” said Bevington. “Customers go through a process at their own speed that reflects their comfort with our technology. Virtualised voice is a progression for them. There will be a point when customers won’t want to buy servers.”
The market opportunity for virtualisation is just 15 per cent penetrated, and according to Gartner 89 per cent of all virtualised applications across the globe are run on VMware. “These are mostly in large data centres delivering public services,” pointed out Adam Knight, Strategic Technologies and Partnerships Manager for EMEA, Mitel. “The rest is left to play for.”
Most companies have virtualised just 20-30 per cent of their estate, calculates Mark Newton, Regional Director for UK and Ireland, VMware. “One of the challenges we have is furthering the penetration of virtualisation into the overall IT estate and the SMB sector. If you
look at our channel, for every pound spent on virtualisation software they generate an extra £5-£10 in services, storage, security, all the other pieces. The major thing we are seeing is the whole virtualisation of the desktop. And SMB is a valid proposition for us, where we can simplify the hardware story they are trying to host. Telecoms companies have a big opportunity.”
According to Marcus Jewell, Director of
Enterprise Sales at Mitel, the technology is just ahead of the business model, but poised to overtake. “In our point-based solution market collaboration between suppliers and partners has not been good. As soon as we get into virtualised applications the challenge becomes a question of partnership. On top of this complexity is a changing business model for the reseller and manufacturer. Although a global player, Mitel is small enough in terms of revenue streams to make bold decisions on how much revenue we can afford to give up for the bigger picture. Could our competitors give up all the hardware for an end- to-end virtualised solution? We don’t think so.”
Jewell highlighted that IPT didn’t deliver on the promise in the early years, and be believes that UC has not taken off due to cultural issues around education. However the inevitable journey towards ‘destination virtualised
world’ has been well mapped out by Mitel as it plans to become a software-centric business, offering a clear path to the future of business comms. “We’ve been careful not to turn anything off in our portfolio,” said Jewell. “Our core software is the same and can be deployed however the reseller sees fit. That’s a pragmatic approach. It’s hard for existing channels to make those steps in a wholehearted way. We need to work with partners, make them understand that they don’t need onsite engineers to deploy virtualised voice. We need to encourage companies to work with virtualisation. Vendors that don’t transition to software-only will eventually disappear.”
With the market turning on its head as organisations look for best value, it is clear that resellers will need to build on their expertise and work with customers at the strategic level. Bevington added: “Every time we have a change it’s supposed to be the death of the channel. In reality the voice channel has been the most adaptive progressive group in the world. If the channel is not asking customers about their virtualisation strategy, they’re missing out.”
Retrenching sales staff into a different proposition is a small mountain to climb, said Denny Meijer, CTO, Scalable Communications. “It’s not difficult to change the focus,” he stated. “The
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challenge goes back to whether a sales person in a pre-sale environment understands the business and the vertical. Given that the world is converging the proposition becomes broad. It’s not just about voice, there are many other applications such as security, DR, the LAN etc. A way forward is to verticalise heavily and replicate that depth of knowledge.”
Turner added: “Being virtualised is truly looking at the product and exactly what people want, putting real meaning into the hackneyed phrase ‘bespoke scenario’. We’re trying to say this is an intelligent managed service, designed and managed to the extent that people are only paying for what they are using. We’re offering the ability to control the ICT estate. That’s what we’re looking to build into our proposition. This is about us adding value to our customers with confidence in what we’re saying, and with a spring in our step.”
To say that unprecedented cost reductions are a key business driver for virtualisation would be to greatly understate the significance of end user money savings. “I’m concerned with having an organisation that’s fit for purpose within a tightening financial envelope,” commented Ashford Borough Council’s Rob Neil. “The infrastructure that is put in place is almost irrelevant so long as it delivers that value. I believe firmly that the virtualised route for data and voice will deliver those financial savings. We are doing this because I need to deliver services for less.”
News brief
END user demand for combined business applications and real-time comms applications in a
virtualised environment is set to grow significantly, and blazing the trail for virtualised voice is Mitel which has leveraged technology designed for VMware. According to Paul Butcher, Mitel’s President and COO, these are ‘unprecedented times’, saying that the way businesses communicate will change phenomenally.
Key to survival, he noted, is finding a way to transition from a hardware and maintenance-centric business model to one based on software. “The cheapest way to deliver applications is to centralise the infrastructure,” said Butcher. “IT buyers want functionality at the best price. The big change from IP Telephony to SaaS is inevitable as we move out of propriety environments to a software-only one. There will be a philosophical difference in how we sell our products.”
He notes a real drive for FMC, SIP networking and cloud telephony, all run in a virtualised environment. “This is a priority topic for IT buyers, so make sure you’re involved,” he urged. “The comms channel is well placed to take advantage, by leveraging investments in IP and UC skills.” n
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