Lync, BYOD, and video were among the major highlights from the show.
Well, another Enterprise Connect is in the books and its time time to reflect on what we learned, what surprised us and what we would like to see next year. Before I get into that though I want to give some overall thoughts on the event. The energy level this year was fantastic, attendance appeared to be up and every session I attended or was a part of had a great audience that interacted well and wasn’t afraid to ask any questions. But without further ado, here are my thoughts:
Lync was front and center Although Microsoft didn’t announce anything, Lync was well represented. Considering the position of being THE show in enterprise communications, I thought Microsoft would announce something major here, but they didn’t. However, that didn’t stop Lync from grabbing some headlines. The good news for Microsoft is that in almost every session there were a number of users that were moving forward with Lync, with a few of them using it for voice. The bad news is that many of them were having some sort of challenge with it. Microsoft does appear to be well on their way with Lync though. I did think that we might see some sort of hinting or alluding to Wave 15 of Lync. Wave 15 is rumored to have better call handling, mobile support and video integration, but the company has been tight lipped about it.