Nemertes Impact Analysis:

Verizon’s (NYSE: VZ) announcement of new consulting services aimed at helping customers switch to unified communications (UC) highlights growing interest in UC professional services. The offerings include strategic consulting, financial analysis, and operational integration (including design, migration, and project management assistance).

UC adoption grew from 47% in 2008 to 60% in 2009. Organizations continue to move forward with UC, though shifting to from comprehensive strategic deployments to tactical ones where UC makes most sense from a productivity and cost standpoint. Services such as these can help an organization build its business case for UC, which 80% of organizations require.

Impacts::

Enterprises: Evaluate third-party support to ease the transition to UC, including help building your business case and handling integration.

Vendors/providers: Differentiate yourself with a strong UC services portfolio that supports integration.

Investors: This offering puts competitive pressure on UC vendors with a service portfolio including Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Siemens (NYSE:SI) and privately held Avaya, as well as other service providers: IBM (NYSE:IBM), HP (NYSE:HPQ), and AT&T (NYSE:T).

Katherine Trost, Research Analyst

Sign Up To Receive Nemertes Impact Analysis By E-mail

Follow Nemertes Research on Twitter