Alcatel-Lucent has outlined a strategic vision for its enterprise market group, describing a transition from a business world build on communication to one built on 'conversation'.
"The business context in which we're working is one that we all know has been tremendously economically challenging and has a lot of sociological evolution," Vice President Mark Turner said. "We now know that 50% of the world's population is under 30 years old and that is driving disruptive business models. We are phrasing how businesses should address their customers under the term 'conversation'."
Turner cited internal research suggesting that 81% of consumers have interacted with a business across multiple channels in the past year. The ability to develop and integrate third party applications like Skype will be vital, he said, and pointed to the growth of mobile internet access globally as indicative of the way customers will want to talk to companies in the future. "Customers have the right to expect a seamless experience," he said.
The message is a complex one for resellers to take to market, Turner admitted, but said the company will be working with partners to demonstrate how they can benefit from the strategy. "The next phase of work we have to do is to empower the network of Alcatel and Genesys partners," he added.