Consilium Software is developing unified communication applications from a Cloud perspective. By Mehak Chawla
For an organization that is contemplating the move to the Cloud, having Cloud-ready apps marks the beginning of its roadmap. Consilium Software, a Singapore-based company, is looking to take away the pain points from Unified Communications (UC) apps and ready them for a smooth transition to the Cloud as and how the organization takes the plunge.
Since everything, right from data center planning to disaster recovery, is occurring on the Cloud in the background, Consilium aims to make Unified Communication ready for the Cloud as well.
While the Singapore-based company made its Indian debut back in 2007, it was more from a system integrator mindset wherein it joined hands with Cisco, especially from the customer interaction management perspective. Though the strategic alliance with Cisco still goes strong, Consilium’s focus on India has undergone a shift. Today, the company is looking to establish itself as a UC product company with expertise running across services and system integration.
Deepak Bhatia, Director, Global Alliances and Business Development, Consilium Software, said, “We want to be established as a dedicated Unified Communications product company that also diversifies into services. We also want to have a clear focus on the OEMs that we support. Cisco comes at number one but we do support other OEMs. We have been one of the smallest partners to have achieved an ATP rating from Cisco.”
Cloud Gaps
Bhatia felt that, though there were many enterprises talking about the Cloud and delivery through the Cloud, there was a big gap for an enterprise that has been traditionally operating in an on-premise environment. For such a company, shifting to the Cloud would entail a major change, not only in the application infrastructure but also in the mindset. “A lot of large companies such as Microsoft, Amazon and Cisco have started offering Cloud services and, while they are providing good services, they are limited in providing multi vendor capabilities,” said Bhatia.
Moreover, while the TCO vis-à-vis the Cloud is clear in India, as is the upgrade to the latest technology that the Cloud can steer in an organization, Bhatia argued that the last mile wasn’t quite clear for enterprises as they moved to the Cloud.
“People want to go on to the Cloud but there are a lot of challenges around managing it, monetizing it and provisioning resources in it. Managing a hybrid environment is also something that is bothering IT heads since some apps will always be on premise whereas others will move to the Cloud.”
When it comes to applications built around UC, Consilium is looking to develop apps for enterprises that are still operating in an on-premise environment but want to prepare themselves for eventually embracing the Cloud. “We come with the advantage that, while we are developing a product for UC, we are also ensuring a seamless movement from on-premise to the Cloud. The advantage is amplified because we also have a services group. It is not about giving a product in isolation but developing it keeping in mind the roadmap of the enterprise.”
Right from the product development to product integration to the journey on to the Cloud, Consilium is positioning itself as a UC lifecycle management company.
Bhatia also believed that the Cloud was a game changer for Indian organizations as, with the Cloud, organizations were increasingly leapfrogging the technology curve. “We have traversed times when enterprises used to first attain maturity within the enterprise environment and then move to an external service,” he added.
Growth from Cloud and Mobility
Though the Cloud might figure in a company’s roadmap, it is the current IT needs of a company that occupy the immediate mindshare of the IT heads. That is why, according to Bhatia, the onus is on vendors to deploy those applications today that can be seamlessly moved into a Cloud environment tomorrow. “Tomorrow, if an organization has to switch to the Cloud, they would not have to worry about our application,” he added.
On the product side, Consilium’s flagship offering is UniAgent, a product that offers a single interface for different CRM systems. “We also have some readymade adapters available, which are certified by OEMs. So, for instance, if someone is looking for a Salesforce connector, they can go to the Cisco market place and get our product,” elaborated Bhatia.
The company also offers a UC reporting tool called UniInsight for providing real time and historical reporting. Its latest offering, UniCloud, offers UC as a Service from both the Cloud and an on premise setup. It supports both UC and Contact Centre provisioning, virtualization and multi-tenancy as well as third party applications for service providers and system integrators.
The other area where Consilium is looking to carve an edge is with regard to customized communication apps, which they build on demand for customers. “Most large SIs are not able to fulfill the demand for customized apps and that’s where we come into the picture. We are predominantly a product company but we do service extensions and we have a group that is catering to direct opportunities as well,” detailed Bhatia. There are several large accounts across ASEAN such as LG that Consilium is handling directly.
Bhatia explained that, though the Indian marketplace was quite mature in terms of knowledge about UC, Indian companies lagged in terms of adoption because of cost and security considerations. “The challenge with the Indian market is that the lifecycle is pretty huge. First, you have to talk about the product, build awareness and conduct lots of POCs. What we are doing to combat this is that we are trying to contain the cost by ensuring that all development is happening within India. Though our big focus is international customers, we are also on the lookout for working with large customers in India.”
Apart from Cloud-ready applications, the other big trend that Consilium is looking to capitalize upon is that of mobility. It was amongst the first partners to implement Cisco Jabber and is working with development of applications around Jabber as well.
It also has applications for Android that can pick data from Cisco devices and works with other OEMs in this sphere.
Aspirations
Although Consilium’s partnership with Cisco remains its most strategic alliance, the company is also working with some Chinese vendors in the UC domain. They also have a fairly large presence in some of the big strategic deals with SIs and are working with the likes of Dimension Data and HCLT amongst others.
Apart from that, vendors like Cisco and Salesforce are positioning the UC product developer around their specific client requirements.
Coming to verticals, Bhatia said that IT/BPO was definitely the main target but, once the security concerns regarding the Cloud are addressed, BFSI and government could prove to be huge verticals for Cloud-ready UC products as well. The company is already in discussions with NIC for an agreement at the data center level.
“There are challenges with the public Cloud because of various regulations promulgated by DoT about doing voice in the Cloud. Once those hurdles are cleared, a lot of voice applications could end up moving on to the public Cloud,” opined Bhatia.
Consilium is aiming to clock revenue of $20 million dollars by 2014 and it is looking at 20-25% growth in the coming year. Bhatia felt that its growth could even be better than that.