Unified communication and freedom

ESCAUX CEO, Christophe Hendriks on the emergence of unified communications (UC) trends and why the no-nonsense approach works best.

In a nutshell, how do you define unified communications?

Christophe Hendriks. When people talk about UC, they tend to refer to end-user functionalities and the improved communication possibilities resulting from it. Of course, this is very important, however, we go a step beyond: we offer a unified approach to the installation and management process of the unified collaboration environment.

Why did your customers need an alternative type of UC solution to the systems they already had in place?

CH. Many early customers of our solution were no-nonsense companies, looking for efficient and pragmatic solutions. We understood the root cause of their challenge. Their existing solution was based on many servers, operating systems and applications. Every set-up for new applications or new sites had to be manually managed and integrated. As a result they required certified engineers to manage all these interfaces and operating systems. Therefore, the quality of the end-result is highly dependent on people. On top of this, manual integration is a limiting factor as new applications arrive increasingly fast and we don’t always have visibility on how organisations will evolve. Step-by-step our customers made us understand that we really are an alternative in UC.

What is unique about the solution that ESCAUX offers?

CH. We offer on-premises enterprise and corporate solutions. Services are delivered in an industrial way, while keeping full flexibility to configure the services you want for your users. Delivering services in an industrialised way means that they can be re-produced at any time without manual interventions or dependency on certified engineers. Changes or additions - for example new users, applications, software or sites - are done through a unified and systematic approach. At any time, you keep full visibility and control over the solution.  As a result this leads to an important lower total cost of ownership. Our user functionalities work with all types of devices. Mobile devices become a true part of the solution and as a result, there is no longer a difference between a fixed and a mobile device. An example is that an employee can see the status of any colleague who is in conversation on his mobile device.

What do you mean exactly by a unified approach?

CH. All services and applications are managed through a single, unified interface. This also means that administration, back-up and recovery are managed in an identical and systematic way for all applications.  Let me give you an example: with a classical approach, you need to organise the back-up process yourself. You are accountable to make sure it works at any time, on any site, for any application. The risk is that the taking of a back-up is forgotten or is interrupted. And how are you managing to retrieve the correct back-up version and make it work? So, it is a process full of risks. In our unified approach, a systematic back-up is built-in for all your sites and applications, and is always accurate. Therefore, you enjoy a guaranteed recovery of all services in a minimum of time. This is the key difference between a manual and an industrialised process.

Organisations have to manage an increasing level of complexity: multiple sites, new applications and so on. How do you support them with this?

CH. We offer the ICT manager the productised tools to control, replicate and deliver end-to-end services, irrespective of the number and geographical location of the sites. Our technology enables organisations to offer more frequent updates and upgrades to their users.
On top of this, ICT managers can take advantage of an easy-to-use service creation environment. This allows them to create local or in-the-cloud services, through one single interface.  All this results in significant time and efficiency savings.  I’m convinced that the ICT manager’s role will more and more evolve from moving boxes to ensuring services.

We’ve heard some other ICT companies say they are ‘open’. How ‘open’ is the ESCAUX platform?

CH.  ‘Open’ is indeed a very trendy term nowadays and it’s an excellent selling argument.
The majority of the suppliers pretend to be open, based on the argument that they support SIP. However, if you ask them to connect any brand of phone, with auto-configuration and keeping the same functionalities as their own brand, the real answer is ‘no’. They are de facto proprietary and prefer to protect their own, hardware-oriented business. Another thing to consider is whether you can connect any software of your choice. ESCAUX is truly based on open standards. We are a 100 percent software-based company and it’s our mission to remain independent of any software or hardware vendor, at any time.
 
Are there any other benefits from being hardware independent?

CH. All applications can run on the same appliance, whether it is telephony, fax, unified messaging, video, collaboration and so on. For big set-ups, we share the load over multiple appliances, running the same set of applications. This results in a more efficient use of each appliance. Therefore less appliances are needed in the end and customers enjoy a lower investment and maintenance cost. Another benefit of this is that we can offer one single Service Level Agreement, including SLA-reporting.

What about ROI?

CH. As I explained, we breathe and think ‘unified’. In the same spirit, we have reflected this in our pricing, which is based on a fixed price per user and which is all-inclusive. This means, for example, that you enjoy recovery for all applications, have an end-to-end SLA and all future updates and upgrades. How many ICT managers can budget for an annual baseline upgrade, including installation and project cost? When you consider that IT evolutions come faster and faster, up to date systems and a very short time-to-market is key. If these upgrades would now be included in the solution and were frictionless to activate, who wouldn’t want them?

How do you manage to retain customer loyalty in challenging economic times?

CH. We have a proven track-record with customers across Europe, and beyond. They operate in both private and stock-listed companies and public institutions and rank from 10 to 30,000 users, operating on single or multiple sites. During economically challenging times, customers are even more open to consider more cost-efficient solutions. We have a single-minded focus on UC and our sole mission is to excel in this area. Therefore we have developed a customer charter with 10 commitments. Our largest shareholder is a stock-listed investor who has  taken a long-term commitment to support the success of ESCAUX.

How do you see the future of unified communication?

CH. We have been operating in the sector for a while and some trends are obvious. There is no way to stop the evolution towards an IP-based integrated network.  PSTN and ISDN networks are coming to an end very fast. Features will move from hardware-based to a software platform or even merge into the network. We see a new wave of in-the-cloud and web-based applications and a growing impact of professional collaboration networks accessed in a secured way.  As organisations evolve and continue to challenge costs of for example travel, we see a continued growth of collaboration tools, such as video and IM. This will impact intra and extra company collaboration. Therefore, scalable and flexible solutions, like ESCAUX, will become a must.

Biography

Executing a successful strategy starting in a complex market and high-tech environment is Christophe Hendrik’s speciality. Being very results-minded, he is committed to delivering private and public organisations enhanced collaboration benefits and cost efficiency.  Prior to becoming CEO of ESCAUX, he held senior commercial positions in COLT, AT&T and Alcatel.