Market Research and Consulting on Communications Convergence

Blair Pleasant

President and Principal Analyst, COMMfusion LLC Co-Founder, UCStrategies.com

Blair Pleasant provides consulting and market research analysis on Unified Communications (UC) and voice/data convergence markets and technologies, aimed at helping end-user and vendor clients both strategically and tactically. As co-founder of UCStrategies.com, a website portal providing information and analysis on the growing Unified Communications market, Ms. Pleasant publishes articles and blogs, and participates in executive interview podcasts with leading UC players. She is also a regular contributor to nojitter.com and has been featured in numerous webinars and podcasts, presenting insights, analysis and research on UC and related industries.

Prior to COMMfusion, Ms. Pleasant was Director of Communications Analysis for The PELORUS Group, a market research and consulting firm, and President of Lower Falls Consulting.

With over 20 years experience, her primary areas of focus are Unified Communications, contact center software, Unified Messaging, computer telephony integration (CTI), voice processing, and communications convergence applications.

Blair has authored many highly acclaimed market studies, and provides market research analysis and consulting services to both end user and vendor clients. Multi-client research studies include:

Unified Communications Market, 2007-2012, June 2008, published by COMMfusion LLC
Unified Communications End User Productivity Study, May 2008, prepared and published by COMMfusion LLC/UCStrategies.com
Worldwide Unified Messaging Applications for Enterprises 2006-2010 Forecast and 2005 Vendor Shares: The Road to Unified Communications, published by IDC
Enterprise Unified Messaging Market 2005-2010, November 2006
Voice/Data Recording: Markets, Products and Suppliers, May 2004, published in conjunction with Tern Systems.
Unified Messaging Usurps Traditional Voice Messaging Market, August 2004, published by In-Stat/MDR.
Convergence Technology Resellers Expectations and Vendor Relationships, October 2000, prepared and published by The IN-Fusion Group, a consortium of independent analysts.

Multi-client industry market studies researched and written by Blair and published by The PELORUS Group include:

Unified Communications for the Service Provider Market, March 2001
Carrier Class Contact Center Applications, September 2000
Unified Messaging CPE: Moving to Unified Communications, March 2000
CTI: The Path to Mixed Media, October 1999
Unified and Integrated Messaging, August 1998
The Future Of Computer Telephony Integration, September 1997
The Future of Call Center Software: Business Opportunities And Market Strategies To 2001, August 1996

Blair has also authored many white papers for a variety of companies in the Unified Communications, contact center and unified messaging markets, which include descriptions of market trends, technology insights, and specific product descriptions.

Custom research reports for a variety of clients include:

Assisting UC vendor in marketing and strategic direction
Providing market overview and analysis to help large, multinational vendor develop its UC strategy
Unified Communications vertical market analysis, identifying the “pain points” for specific lines of business in various vertical markets and recommending UC solutions for those pain points
Analyzing contact center best practices for a large, multi-site national insurance company, and assessing the company’s distributed contact centers to help the company better retain current customers and increase new customers
Multi-media contact center technology tutorial for sales teams
Competitive Analysis of Specific Vendors in the Outbound/Call Blending, and Intelligent Call Routing Markets
Consulting next-gen switch vendor on the features and capabilities needed for contact center applications
CTI, contact center, and UM vendor competitive analysis
Unified messaging end-user research
Evaluating and selecting a contact center platform and knowledge base vendor for a large university
On-going consulting with leading unified messaging vendor regarding partnerships and product direction
Providing consulting services and market positioning to a collaboration start up vendor
Contact center pricing analysis
The Market For Network-Based Intelligent Routing System
Speech Recognition Technology Assessment
On-going/ad-hoc consulting with leading contact center vendor
On-going Competitive Analysis of Call Center/CTI Market, responding to various inquiries on a monthly basis
Preparation of marketing plan for CTI start-up company

Ms. Pleasant has authored several articles for various trade magazines, and is a frequent speaker and moderator at conferences. She has also organized and managed several conferences, including developing the content, agenda, selecting and working with the speakers, in addition to serving as moderator for the 2-day events.

Ms. Pleasant received a BA degree in Communications from Albany State University, plus an MBA in marketing and MS in Broadcast Administration from Boston University.

New Market Update on Unified Messaging

COMMfusion LLC’s Evaluating Unified Messaging Solutions 2008 helps companies evaluate the various enterprise UM product offerings available today. This market report provides an evaluation of vendor positioning based on “completeness of solution” and “ability to lead market,” focusing solely on unified messaging products and offerings.

Evaluating Unified Messaging Solutions 2008 provides critical insights and recommendations for companies considering moving to unified messaging, and looks at key issues companies need to consider when implementing UM solutions. Profiles of 17 of the leading UM vendors are presented, along with a vendor product matrix, identifying features and capabilities for their most recent UM offerings.

For more information on this research or to purchase this study, the report price is $995, contact bpleasant@commfusion.com.

COMMfusion LLC releases New Market Study: “Unified Communications 2007-2012

COMMfusion LLC and UCStrategies.com are pleased to announce the publication of a new market study, “Unified Communications 2007-2012.” Filled with the most up-to-date information on unified communications - the market, the players, the challenges, and the future, this report is a must-have for vendors, enterprise organizations, resellers, system integrators, and anyone interested in UC.

Click here to download the Executive Summary and Table of Contents. To find out more or to purchase the report for $3,495, contact Blair Pleasant at bpleasant@commfusion.com 2007-2012 UC Market Survey Executive Summary and Table of Contents (pdf)

UC End User Productivity Study

In the second quarter of 2008, Blair Pleasant and Nancy Jamison of the UCStrategies.com team conducted a UC end user productivity study, focusing on how end users use UC and how it impacts their productivity. We surveyed and interviewed the real end users who use UC to find out how, or even if, UC is helping them be more productive and effective in their day-to-day jobs.

UC End User Productivity Study Final (pdf)

ADTRAN Adds to its UC Capabilities

Tuesday, December 06, 2011
Two years ago, ADTRAN acquired ObjectWorld, and now offers a family of UC solutions for SMBs. The company has made a good deal of progress in the past two years, adding new capabilities to enhance its UC offerings.

Cisco Continues to Help Customers Transform Their Business

Monday, November 28, 2011
At the recent Collaboration Summit, I got an update about Cisco’s Customer Business Transformation Group and how they’re developing a number of use cases and proof points about how real customers are experiencing real benefits using Cisco collaboration solutions, while transforming their businesses in a variety of ways.

UCStrategies Experts Discuss the Cisco Collaboration Summit

Monday, November 28, 2011
In this Industry Buzz podcast, the UCStrategies Experts discuss the Cisco Collaboration Summit. Blair Pleasant moderates the discussion, and is joined by David Yedwab, Nancy Jamison, Marty Parker, Jon Arnold, Don Van Doren, and Art Rosenberg.