In the past few days, I've been involved in a number of conversations about the phrase unified communications and what it means.

A couple of days ago, Art Rosenberg posted What Will Business People Call "UC?". Here's an excerpt -

Everyone may agree that "UC" and IP Telephony will be gradually swallowing up traditional voice telephone communications in both the business and consumer markets, but it has not exactly become a useful term for end users, nor yet created any viral demand from end users. There are practical reasons why this is so, including:

· UC technologies are still evolving and not as a single "package,"

· Communication functions are becoming more software based and device-independent, and therefore evolving differently from different technology providers,

· New multimodal devices are offering a variety of different form factors for UC capabilities and flexible user interfaces (visual, speech) through 3G mobile "smart-phones (e.g., Apple iPhones), desktop PC "softphones" and IP screenphones,

· New interoperability standards for end-to-end network contacts are still being defined, especially for person-to-person, real-time presence and availability ("federation"),

· Technology staffs are getting reeducated and consolidating their responsibilities for supporting IP telephony and data applications.

[Read Art's full post]

As always, Rosenberg makes some salient points that cut through the marketing babble and hype that's surrounded UC for far too long. Unified communications is simply not a useful term for end users and customers. It hasn't created viral demand for one simple reason - nobody really knows what the heck it is. Unified communications simply is not a product that you can write a check for.

Solution providers selling unified communications would do themselves and their customers a great service if they'd simply step away from the buzzwords and ask one question - What problem are you trying to solve?

Too often we get caught up in the technology and overlook the basics of business. Customers who implement technology solutions are most often not in the technology business. Their core business lies elsewhere - health care, finance, insurance, real estate, manufacturing, etc.

Having spent over thirty years in the technology sector I've seen cycles of business come and go. Selling technology has always been the single most unsuccessful approach, yet every few years the industry shifts into selling buzzwords and technology stuff. It's neat. It's cool. It has so much potential.

Too often the industry leads customers on with a "think of all you can do" sales pitch. If I'm a customer, I don't want to think about that. I'm too busy doing. I'd rather you show me that you know my business and know my industry. I want you to show me how I can rock the world in ways I haven't thought of.

That puts some responsibility on you, Mr. Vendor.

• You have to work hard to know me and my business. You have to study the market sector I'm in and know how we compete.
• You have to know who my competitors are. You have to know what strategies work and don't work in our fight to be on top.
• You have to be creative, but do it on your own time. Don't use me as an experiment. If we've been working together for a long time and I trust you, I might be willing to try some new things, but if you're a vendor I've never worked with, don't expect me to be your guinea pig. To quote Jack Nicholson in As Good as It Gets, "Go sell crazy someplace else. We're all stocked up here."
  

Customers don't want to hear unified communications or fixed mobile convergence or realtime collaboration phrases. It isn't time to hype buzzwords. The buzzword hype of unified communications is past. It's time to deliver real business value that solves problems and meets customer needs. Tangible, measurable solutions.