Hosted VoIP

 

Convergence (News - Alert) and Unified Communications (UC) is about having a network infrastructure and systems that support multi-modal communications in the enterprise and with customers thru contact centers (voice, text chat, Web collaboration/call back, e-mail, fax etc.). Integrating phone and Web self-service with live agents in the right ways can provide significant business advantages. And customers can now become actively engaged on a Web site thru proactive text chat with an agent or — as discussed in a previous article on phone self-service gets human assist — with live agents working in the background to significantly improve the user experience.

 

For the enterprise, convergence and UC are more about facilitating efficient person-to-person multimodal communications and collaboration across networks among staff and stakeholders. UC can extend from office and groupware applications from companies including IBM, Microsoft, and SAP via Web service and communication consoles for multimedia interactions including document sharing, voice/video conferencing, etc. Modality is determined by each user’s device and presence along with access to shared applications and the preference to use either or both a phone and a PC. Examples include automated scheduling or changing modalities and applications on-the-fly such as going from a text/instant messaging (IM) on cell phone to a group Web conference on a PC. The following are highlights from the AT&T (News - Alert), Lucent, and Microsoft keynotes at Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO.

 

In their respective keynotes AT&T’s Eric Shepcaro and Lucent’s Stan Holcomb focused on convergence. Both companies are incorporating IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) in their network infrastructure to support enterprise requirements as well as personal communications. Essentially IMS extends legacy systems for Internet and enterprise networks to include multimedia communications, end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) and the convergence of wireless and wireline networks.

 

AT&T talked about three-screen convergence (PC, mobile device, and the TV). Lucent’s presentation centered on IMS ‘pipes’ to deliver blended services, applications and content. One example was having Caller ID pop up on the TV screen and how this optional feature would be an additional line item on the consumers’ bill in this new converged world of blended business and lifestyle services.

 

Several companies leading this trend include Siemens, Alcatel (News - Alert)/Genesys, Avaya (News - Alert), Cisco Systems (News - Alert), Nortel, and NEC Unified Solutions among others. The main facilitators for UC are communication portals and clients that integrate applications that are able to launch all forms of communications based on presence at the click of the mouse or other control such as speech.

 

At the conference, Microsoft’s keynote speaker, Zig Serafin, presented their evolving vision and roadmap for Unified Communications to facilitate cross-company learning and simplify ways for people to work together.

 

Serafin began by citing a significant amount of “communication chaos” that exists today — phone tag, voice mail jail, e-mail overload, and too many devices and too little time. Studies have indicated that on average users receive 51 messages a day at seven places. Typical business cards contain three or more addresses.

 

IT departments are challenged due to a disconnected infrastructure and difficulties with integration. Therefore it can be somewhat difficult to align enterprise-wide business process requirements and workflow.

 

In spite of the challenges, surveys indicate that 80 percent of organizations will have Unified Communications deployed by 2010. Microsoft sees that there will be productivity gains by facilitating people-centric communications though a single identity; providing rich, contextual communications that are standards-based; being device and network agnostic; and providing solutions that are secure, robust and efficient to manage and operate. Success factors include integration and convenience (within applications) that are personal and intuitive with the use of presence.

 

In Microsoft’s view, presence provides insight into a person’s availability for efficient communications by finding the right person the first time, connecting the right person in the right way, and using intelligent time management. Outlook will be at the center of their UC roadmap with advanced presence controls. Microsoft’s strategy includes a broad set of partners and developers with a rich set of API’s. On the telecom side, they have formed a close partnership with Nortel including joint development teams.

 

Microsoft will be releasing a new product called Microsoft Office Roundtable. It includes a camera array that provides a 360-degree view of meetings that can be integrated with voice and data. Information and documents are synchronized for archival capability.

 

There were other forward thinking scenarios discussed, but what does this all mean to the enterprise?

 

Infrastructures and Service Oriented Architectures (Java or .Net) vary by company, which has a direct impact on enterprise convergence and UC platforms — and there are many options to choose from depending on your environment and budget.

 

For contact centers, customers are now using multiple channels and media to communicate. And the contact center agent does not typically rely on office applications. What they do require are the tools and applications to enable an efficient and effective flow of customer communications across new modes of communication — which gets back to the fundamentals of aligning the business goals and processes. And IP multimedia, including voice and Web communications have now become business requirements for contact centers which produce significant benefits and ROI.

 

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is a uniform and independent measure of household consumption experience. A powerful economic indicator, the ACSI tracks trends in customer satisfaction and provides valuable benchmarking insights of the consumer economy for companies, industry trade associations, and government agencies.

 

It is primarily a measure of the customer experience, which in part is the customer’s experience with the product or service, but it also includes the customer communications experience. Significantly, research has shown that this score directly correlates with financial performance — the better the score, the better the bottom line results for the company.

 

Figuring out ways to improve your customer’s phone and Web experience, including self-service with a personal touch can make all the difference.

 

Your comments, questions, and ideas are welcome: elabanca@collabgen.com.