Summary

April AGM summary

Main Points

We had a disappointing turnout for the AGM this year with numbers down 30% on previous year from an end user attendance perspective. We feel that this was a result of the economic pressures and the demands on users time more than anything else and we will be undertaking a members survey to identify what users would like to see from the group in terms of information access, structure of the meetings etc etc going forward. Two more events are planned to 2010, the September Aastra day and a user group meeting in London at the beginning of December. Closed session highlighted no significant technology issues however the group indicated the software assurance topic is still bubbling away and Aastra have not come forth with conclusions from their review brought about by end user and partner dissatisfaction. Whilst Aastra have progressed significantly tackling the quality issues of 2 years ago and the development of the core product functionality they are not communicating effectively the product plans / road maps. Whilst we all understand road maps in a changing market cannot be predicted with any certainty in certain areas of functionality the vendor needs to provide the collateral that clients need to justify their continued investment in the Aastra platform for the long term. A range of presentations were delivered (each presentation can be downloaded / read via the links opposite). We also had a demonstration facility provided by Aastra covering the main product areas of MX-ONE, CMG, Messaging, terminal and Solidus contact centre. The Aastra update gave us a view of the current organisation performance and market position as well as 'their' perspective of the marketplace. They emphasised the point that they were making significant progress with regard to the Gartner magic quadrant positioning for UC. A new UK head has been appointed and they are in the final planning stages of a move to new offices (scheduled for this year). External consultants 4C Strategies gave us their take on the issues and challenges facing end users / partners and vendors today and into the immediate future. They highlighted the considerations in deploying what they describe as integrated solutions from the specification through procurement to ongoing support. Damovo gave us a view of the enterprise trends in the future with a perspective on the cloud, virtulizing everything and the key role mobility has and will play going forward. Telent focused on a real deployment project of a Solidus contact centre for West London Mental Institute, giving us a step by step view of how the project was deployed. The first Aastra presentation focused on the flexibility of deployment / upgrade options on the MD110/MX-ONE. Lots of choices, investment protection, lower operating costs and migration at the clients pace (migration, new deployment or a combination of both.  One box messaging 5 was presented by AVST and focused on providing some examples of the technology usages as well as the comprehensive functionality and the enhancements brought in by version 5.  Practical Mobility covered all aspects of the Aastra options associated with mobility, this included all aspects of a flexible worker not just a worker equiped with a mobile device. The objective was to show clients the options they had and the benefits associated with them. It also covered the UC components necessary to integrated to other back office systems e.g. OCS using the CMG suite. The Weston Group focused their presentation on the roles and responsibilities that need to be understood to successfully deploy a integrated solution. This presentation was very much geared at an audience and does not lend itself to be be captured in a pdf form (copies can be obtained from Westons if required). Their message was that they are a solution provider when it comes to OCS integration and are working on a number of projects currently.   The general conclusion drawn is that Aastra have lots of products and choice available for clients but are light on the customer centric information currently. Aastra need to work on more effective business benefits communcation, this is particularly the case in the UC, UM  and mobility areas where there is overlap of products is still leading to some level of confusion.

Core Product Areas

MX-One V4 Launched formally on the 14th December. As we reported back in December Good feedback from the Beta trials undertaken by Damovo - Damovo view "that this was the best yet". No current feedback from any installed sites on version 4 in the UK. Remember however ..... Aastra offer We were informed in September that DNA was not supported on version 4 and that anyone with DNA would be required to migrate to CMG. We have concentrated 2 of the presentations on clarifying what CMG is about and what exactly is involved in migrating. See the slides from the December meeting. In the last meeting we also highlighted that taking the upgrade to version 4 should not carry a cost penalty associated with what is in effect replicating an existing DNA deployment (includes extension manager) with a CMG equivalent version. Aastra offer that a version 4 upgrade  taken before June 2010 Aastra will provide the equivalent CMG licenses for free. What won't be free is the implementation and training required from the partner. You will need to ascertain exactly what they will be in negotiations with the partner. Next planned release end of Q2 will be One Box Messaging 5

Partner program Aastra have highlighted they have revamped their partner program (see the Aastra Update from September for more details). Now the status of the partners will be  Elite, Premier, Select and Certified. Damovo became the only Elite partner of Aastra in theUK.  No further progress has been reported on channel partner additions at the enterprise level. We await a formal indication from Aastra the partner status for the UK. Current choice for now remains the same for existing enterprise customers (Damovo, PNM, The Weston Group, DV02, NCS). The user group will seek updated status infomation from the partners to publish as we have had little directly from them and Aastra over the last 12 months during the transition.

Marketing Information UK specific

Aastra indicate in their presentation that the Gartner position is improving and the UK operations are expanding in 2010 with new offices and demo facilities and they continue to invest in their UK team. They have now replaced the MD and head of marketing in the UK. Aastra kicked off their consultants programme in January. The plan is to engage with the consultant community to enhance reputation and improve visibility within the large enterprise UK marketplace.  Aastra have announced that they have been chosen by Microsoft along witth Polycomm to be the suppliers of end points for Microsoft OCS. Solidus wins an contact centre award from Frost and Sullivan.

 

 

NOTE Important...

Watch out for the Aastra User Group Survey, and don't forget to respond!