This type of environment, a unification of many communication modalities, provides Visual Conversations (see zkresearch.com) a natural mode of communication more aligned to “real” meetings of old.
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It is Microsoft that is farthest along this road to true communication unification. At their Lync conference 2013 a work / life balance was a central theme of the keynote with phrases like "re-humanization of communication," "bring the living room to the boardroom," and "you're not just a worker" were used often. This consumer-driven theme felt very Skype oriented, but is new to the Lync discussion. Reference points for the future of Microsoft's Lync and Skype evolution all related to a focus on users, minimizing barriers, multiple platforms, and support for mission critical operations. Innovations like WebRTC are clearly key to full unification; currently Lync Web app for browsers lets any user join a meeting from a PC or Mac browser, but requires a plugin for the browser. Once this standard is ratified (and Microsoft is going against the grain with this one) any user on any browser can enjoy the benefits of full Lync / Skype communication modalities with no barriers.
The Lync – Skype integration is central to Microsoft’s UC plans, Skype brings to the Lync ecosystem over 300 million users, targeting a scale of billions of users and transactions. When compared to the number of Lync Enterprise Voice users, 5 million, these numbers are indeed staggering. In addition the importance of the Microsoft Office installed user base isn’t lost on Microsoft with nearly 1 billion Office users out there scope to grow an installed user base for UC modalities is vast.
Microsoft's core value proposition to the Enterprise is not a sea of Skype users it’s an end-to-end communications ecosystem that includes an identity engine and central directory (AD), email (Exchange), content creation (Office), content management (SharePoint), real-time communications including presence, IM, audio, video, data sharing, and conferencing (Lync) all tightly integrated and available across the user's preferred devices. Making it easier and more intuitive to interact across these broad layers of the communications ecosystem is the name of the game. Replicating a familiar experience between Office applications, with which a billion users are familiar, in the Lync environment is a very logical place for Microsoft to focus.
Missing from this picture are the social networking aspects of B2C or B2X communications, a corporate Facebook for collaboration. This is in Microsoft’s plans and comes in the shape of Yammer, a fully established enterprise social network. Expect integration to come with the next major release of Lync – 2014.
Additionally, the advent of the Lync Room System (LRS), and the tight integration it offers between Microsoft Outlook, OneNote, and Lync. The Lync Room System has the potential to eliminate historic barriers that have limited group video as a method of communications, making it easier to schedule, join, and moderate, making content sharing a more natural part of room-based collaboration. The Office and OneNote integration, on the other hand, can make group collaboration more effective making it easier to include traditional best practices such as meeting agendas, notes, and action items.
In summary, Microsoft has a set of technologies and products becoming ever more tightly integrated forming a single identifiable ecosystem, harnessing an existing user base and a new global network with familiar, intuitive, ever pervasive interfaces. How will the balance of power shift in unified communications with over a billion users relying on Lync/Skype for telephony, messaging, conferencing, presence and feeds?
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