Newsletter Articles > The Paradox of Competing Against Microsoft
The Paradox of Competing Against Microsoft
By Jim Hays
A paradox is defined as a “statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth”.
So here is one for you…
“One of the best ways to optimize your sales of Cisco Unified Communications offerings is to embrace Microsoft.”
For over a year now, Microsoft has been making its intentions clear regarding its desires to play a dominant role in the Unified Communications (UC) market. At the VoiceCon event in Orlando this past March, the president of Microsoft’s Business Division, Jeff Raikes, took a huge shot across the bow of Cisco and declared that Microsoft would decrease the cost of business communications systems by 50% over the next couple of years. The technology press has described the positioning between Cisco and Microsoft in the UC market as the new “Clash of the Titans”.
So how does embracing Microsoft help Cisco and its Channel Partners sell more Cisco Unified Communications products and services?
The secret to resolving this apparent contradiction lies in embracing a more customer-centric perspective and looking at several fundamental truths about the current UC market, as well as the overall market for IT.
- Unlike the IP telephony market, the UC market has not taken off and “crossed the chasm” yet with the majority of buying customers
- Customers have made huge investments in Microsoft products like Office and Exchange and are genuinely interested in leveraging those investments to improve their operations
- Despite all the saber rattling from Microsoft, they are at least two years from being anywhere near ready to compete head-to-head against Cisco in the market for mission-critical business communications systems
- Highly-available, fault-tolerant, QoS-enabled, secure networks mattered in the circuit-switched TDM era and they still matter in the packet-switched IP era
- The desktop, while important, is not the end-all, be-all of the business communications world, especially as mobility becomes more mission-critical
- Customer Interaction is perhaps THE most mission-critical of all business applications
The fact of the matter is that Unified Communications sales have not yet hit their stride for one simple reason, confusion. Confusion over just exactly what UC actually means, confusion about what UC’s real business benefits are, confusion over which of the UC vendors to believe.
The reality is that confused customers simply do not buy! Clarity is the key that we need to unlock the potential gold mine of UC sales in today’s market.
Don Van Doren, noted industry pundit and consultant, defines Unified Communications as “communications integrated to optimize business processes.” His definition is one we believe goes to the very core of what matters about UC. Any truly compelling benefits of UC are derived from its ability to impact key business processes in a meaningful way.
For all of us who are selling within the Cisco ecosystem, it is important to understand that Microsoft offerings play a vital role in the support of our customer’s daily business processes. Microsoft Office and Outlook are used on a day-in, day-out basis by millions of end-users. Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint are also similarly vital to the flow of information within and across hundreds of thousands of businesses each day.
Customers want us to be able to explain how they can more effectively leverage the significant investments that they have made in Cisco infrastructure and applications along with the substantial investments that they have also made in Microsoft software.
Because Microsoft is at least two to three years behind Cisco in being able to deliver a complete, scalable, and mission-critical business communications solution, their only real hope is to freeze customer buying decisions in the near term.
The best way to overcome Microsoft’s delay tactics is to provide compelling ways to transform your customer’s business processes with capabilities that the Cisco ecosystem can deliver today. Because your customer’s vital business processes will, in many cases, be at least partially supported by Microsoft applications, it is essential that we help customers understand how they can get all of the mission-critical business communications capabilities that they need today and still get the Microsoft interoperability that they want going forward.
To do that effectively for our customers, we must make certain that we understand and can effectively communicate the current interoperability between Cisco’s and Microsoft’s offerings, as well as the interoperability roadmap for the future.
In the next issue of this newsletter, the ASPIRE! Group’s resident expert on Cisco/Microsoft interoperability, Andy Cadwell, will be giving tips on how to effectively convey the business advantages of that interoperability to your customers.
Stay tuned!
Jim Hays
