Samsung has revealed its ambition to displace market rivals by de-cabling the future of on-premise telephony with the launch of a new all-in-one pure IP wireless telephone system. The on-premise pure IP telephony market must evolve into an all-wireless world rather than continue down the route of cables, according to Samsung, which set the revolutionary ball rolling with the launch of SCM-Compact (an appliance-based version of the larger SCM-Express system) to 100-plus partners at the Belfry on February 24th.
The craving of any competitive business is to identify and champion its difference from market rivals, so telephony vendors should beware of Samsung's latest innovations. Despite its common field of endeavour with the competition, the Korean vendor's wireless primacy is a vivid contrast to the industry standard.
It's hardly surprising. We are living through a time of widespread mobility and according to Samsung it is at the forefront of one of the most exciting periods in the history of communications, bringing to life significant opportunities for resellers. By its own definition, Samsung is a 'wireless communication platform provider' closely aligned to the projections of industry watchers such as IDC which calculates that 75 per cent of the western European workforce will be mobile by 2018.
The persuasive arguments of comms analysts who predict impending wireless domination are reflected in Samsung's rich blend of mobility based on the WE VoIP application. "The workforce is becoming more mobile and there is a requirement for business communications to follow that trend," commented Wilf Wood (pictured), Senior Product Manager at Samsung Enterprise Networks.
"There is growth in flexible working from remote locations, with more hot desks and more people flowing in and out of offices. Organisations must adapt to having a disparate workforce that uses mobile as the main source of communication. The SCM-Compact meets these requirements, allowing employees to work remotely while businesses retain control of call costs, call recordings and call analytics. The system also integrates with smartphones and offers seamless handover from Wi-Fi to GSM and from desktop phones to mobiles."
Samsung appears to have opened a new front in pure IP telephony for SMEs. In large part it lies in articulating the benefits of a wireless-first approach to this segment and unlocking the potential of a significant addressable market. There are 5.3 million businesses in the UK of which 90-plus per cent have less than 250 employees.
The SCM Compact sits comfortably in this space, scaling up from 16 to 512 extensions, its sweet spot being 16 to circa 300 extensions. This means Samsung resellers are able to approach 76 per cent of the UK market. Not bad for a 44m tall rack mounted unit. Its big brother, the SCM-Express, scales to 3,000 extensions, giving Samsung partners access to 95 per cent of the total addressable UK market with just two systems.
The systems are part of a continuum, belonging to the Samsung Communication Manager (SCM) family as a complement to OfficeServ and the vendor's hybrid range. OfficeServ's IP phones and applications all work with the new additions. And resellers will have little trouble installing the system using two bundled starter packs. Their implementation is straightforward and cost-effective for resellers, eased by a configuration wizard and based on a Wi-Fi network with wireless access points and wireless handsets. The outcome is a highly resilient voice and data network and a full UC solution with options for productivity applications, formal and informal contact centre applications, conferencing, messaging, presence, call analytics and call recording (and more).
The starter packs include the chassis, 16 user licences, rack mounted hardware and a power cable. That's it. The second starter pack includes two voicemail licences. Both form the foundation for further deployment options. The system is wrapped by an ecosystem that includes the WE VoIP mobility solution with enhancements, comprehensive security measures, gateway control, expansion modules that support high density analogue extensions, full iOS support and a broader selection of APIs encouraging more feature rich applications from third parties. The system caters for all of the traditional trunks but is natively designed for SIP trunking with support for multiple SIP trunk providers.
Samsung is right to champion wireless not cables. Of course many customer premises are sensitive to the intrusion of cabling, such as listed buildings. And a sensitivity to legacy cabling in many organisations has prevented them from pressing ahead with upgrade opportunities.
Now it's time to play the wireless trump card, again. "One of the main barriers to providing an IP system, especially at the small end of the SME market, is legacy cabling," commented Peter Law, Enterprise Networks Sales Manager. "Installing cabling to support a new IP system can be cost prohibitive, but we have overcome that objection by using wireless connectivity. Smaller companies are starting to connect their telephony through standalone wireless access points. This opens up a new market for dealers. Going wireless means faster installations, the efficient use of engineering time and more productivity."
Law singled out other markets that offer rich targets, highlighting that the new system's design is a crucial determinant of success in small formal contact centres, a segment that also illustrates the extent to which Samsung is prepared to back up its wireless vision with physical action in support of partners.
"There is an opportunity in formal contact centres with Samsung SCM-Compact," he added. "Each agent requires two SIP trunks, as well as trunks for queues. As an example, a 30 agent contact centre would need 60 SIP trunk licences and perhaps another ten for queues. The SCM-Compact has 128 SIP trunks built-in with no licences, representing an immediate cost saving, and there is no need for MGI licences. It's a specialist sale but we will help qualify, demonstrate, sell and close deals, and help install and maintain the systems when needed."
The audience reaction to Samsung's product launch displayed an immediate awareness of its potential, with training courses fully booked by 36 companies within minutes of opening for registration. More training dates will become available, and they come with a clear message that Samsung is also targeting system replacement opportunities with rivals squarely in its sights.•
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