"Unify’s UC acumen combined with Atos’s IT services expertise make the digital workplace strategy a success"

Users are becoming more adaptable in terms of flexible work environment and they are looking out for integrated mobility solutions, which in turn is creating huge opportunities for UC and collaboration providers. Narayanaswamy G., who is heading the Unify business in India & SAARC as UCC – Channel Country Manager in Atos in an interview to VARINDIA shares the company’s experience of how it is catering to its customers’ needs and providing them with the option of cost-effective solutions

How does Unify help organizations to improve on Business Transformation?

As businesses adjust to ever-changing market realities and aim to build for the unknown, we are looking to deploy technologies and solutions that enhance employee and customer experiences and help improve key performance metrics. While knowledge workers have been at the forefront of businesses communications innovation over the past two decades, there exist significant opportunities to deliver business value by creating solutions for frontline workers and vertical markets.
 

Unify’s UC acumen combined with Atos’s IT services expertise have the potential to make Atos’s digital workplace strategy a success as customers seek innovative ways to leverage advanced IT and communications for business transformation. However, Atos acknowledges that it will take time to change and it must avoid disrupting customers in the process. Execution over the next two to three years will be critical to determine if Atos and Unify will secure a strong position in the next-generation UC space.

How evolved is the UC and Collaboration solutions sector in the India?

UC is basically integration of enterprise communication solutions such as instant messaging, presence, information, one number services, mobility, video, audio & web conferencing, data sharing and on top of this you build a platform which integrates all of these together as a means of collaboration services in order to reach to people in the organisation for their utilisation.

The major growth driver in the UC and collaboration sector in India is the shift from traditional TDM to IP where in companies are moving from the old technology to new one.

The second growth factor is the UC market growing at the rate of 10% of YoY basis creating opportunities and hoping for more collaboration services, while TDM is here to stay.

What UC and Collaboration products are your company currently promoting?

Unify is a purely UC and collaboration company with an extensive portfolio, right from traditional telephony to industry based vertical solutions, giving extensive flavour of UC features and seamless customer experiences.

With the current geo political issues, there is a lot of security investments all around. So, you need command control centres, either micro, medium, or large. With Unify OpenScape Xpert solution for Command and Control, we can build emergency services like NG911, all the way to enable an integrated deployment of a command centre with CCTV installations of customers’ multiple sites with a video wall. We connect BMS and other systems for alerting and conferencing and have done deployments for several customers.

We offer solutions from telephony to safer cities with emergency alarm response solution, 360-degree guest experience to smart healthcare with our Hi-Med patient infotainment solution and wrap all of these with our digital transformation services from Atos. We have SMBs to enterprise sized customers, including hospitality, where we target customers of all sizes from two-star hotels to 5-star hotels. We are also looking at making a more concerted push into the medium enterprise segment with promotions and making our solutions more price competitive to our customers.

Which vertical markets are leading in the India market?

In India market, the growing sectors are Hospitality, Healthcare, Banking & Finance, Government and Oil & Gas; we would like to be part of this growth market. There is another vertical which is attracting major attention i.e. smart initiatives. We are also looking to expand our offerings to this sector in terms of more application-based solutions and services.

What competitive edge do your UC and Collaboration solutions offer to your channel partners and their end user customers?

Our competitive edge is that we offer end to end solutions with rich features in the UC space as well as Cloud / collaboration services.

We focus more on value proposition rather than offering a portfolio on a broader level. Our competitive edge is real value for money; Vertical solution incorporated on our UC platform, collaboration solutions and much elaborated end to end voice solutions. The Customer has wide range to select from our industry grade products and solutions across all verticals.

How is your company helping channel partners to identify the right segment to provide your UC and Collaboration solutions?

Unify Extensive Channel Partner Programs, Enablement and Partner education is the key. Partner audit is key to our business; We target selective partners and then take them through the full journey of skill building and enhancement to serve our customers with full confidence. Our extensive portfolio adds lots of value on top of our core UC strategy. Based on partners’ strength and business focus, we complement them with the right set of portfolio and position our products accordingly.

How do you see the UC and Collaboration solutions market shaping up in the next 12 in the India?

The UC & Collaboration solutions market is going to see huge growth, while also there will be more adaptation to vertical based product positioning and services based investments.