Presence will certainly have an impact on how customers are impacted, and it will be interesting to see how this change has an effect on the composition of contact centers. 

Ken Camp has some interesting perspective on UC from Realtime Community:

Too often the industry leads customers on with a "think of all you can do" sales pitch. If I'm a customer, I don't want to think about that. I'm too busy doing. I'd rather you show me that you know my business and know my industry. I want you to show me how I can rock the world in ways I haven't thought of. That puts some responsibility on you, Mr. Vendor.

 

• You have to work hard to know me and my business. You have to study the market sector I'm in and know how we compete.
• You have to know who my competitors are. You have to know what strategies work and don't work in our fight to be on top.
• You have to be creative, but do it on your own time. Don't use me as an experiment. If we've been working together for a long time and I trust you, I might be willing to try some new things, but if you're a vendor I've never worked with, don't expect me to be your guinea pig. To quote Jack Nicholson in As Good as It Gets, "Go sell crazy someplace else. We're all stocked up here."

Customers don't want to hear unified communications or fixed mobile convergence or realtime collaboration phrases. It isn't time to hype buzzwords. The buzzword hype of unified communications is past. It's time to deliver real business value that solves problems and meets customer needs. Tangible, measurable solutions.

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