Covergence is a provider of scaling, securing and controlling VoIP and other real-time services based on the Session Initiation Protocol (News - Alert) (SIP). The company’s product line spans the needs of the Fortune 2000 up to the most demanding service provider requirements. Covergence connects users to IP-based voice over IP, instant messaging, shared workspaces and conferencing applications, giving users instant and reliable access to SIP services they expect while giving organizations control and visibility. I recently had the chance to interview Ken Kuenzel, CTO and co-founder of the company, who will be participating in the “Deploying UC” panel at ITEXPO (News - Alert), which will be held Sept. 16-18 in Los Angeles.

KK: Covergence (News - Alert) built its session management solutions to address the needs of the enterprise marketplace. One of the most exciting things for Covergence this year has been to see the marketplace catch up in terms of demand for the solutions that we have built. We feel that we have laid the foundation and now we are beginning to harvest the efforts of this work and help Fortune 1000 companies launch unified communication solutions and VoIP and do it in such a way that they are seeing a measurable and impactful ROI.

RT: What can we expect to see from your company for the next 12 months?

KK: We will continue to focus our efforts on the enterprise market. Enterprises are looking to launch the next generation of real-time services and wring out costs associated with traditional TDM and traditional PBX (News - Alert) environments and they need solutions from companies like Covergence so they can safely, securely and reliably do this at scale. Large organizations are moving more quickly to initiate these kinds of services because they see the potential for a tremendous and immediate ROI but there is a lot of work to be done to simplify this transition. Covergence is focused on making it less complicated.

 

Over the next 12 months, Covergence is going to be a company to watch. Look to us for some very disruptive new solutions and models. Over the next two quarters we plan to roll out several new products that will significantly affect the current communications marketplace and enable enterprises to quickly and fully achieve ROI on their unified communications deployment. We believe it is going to be a watershed moment for the industry.

 

KK: Both enterprises and service providers are developing or extending applications that include real-time services to give users the best combination of wireless, wireline, and IP communications. This move beyond voice to real-time services has opened the doors to new markets for Covergence. As a company that architected its solutions to meet enterprise-grade security, quality and reliability measures, Covergence is uniquely positioned to help organizations secure, manage and control IP communications and the resulting enhanced business processes.

 

By bringing together diverse applications, devices and communication processes, the Session Initiation Protocol (News - Alert) (SIP) is transforming the world of communications. The convergence of real-time applications including voice, video and other multimedia services is delivering a powerful, new set of capabilities and features. By enabling unified communications, SIP is driving organizational cost reduction, revenue generation and productivity enhancement.

 

As users demand networks that provide access to a new wave of real-time services, organizations are shifting away from simply building VoIP networks and giving access to basic services to finding ways to connect users to a broad range of services across different networks. In order to deliver these securely and reliably, organizations must standardize on SIP and focus management and scaling practices along the access edge.

 

KK: BlackBerry (News - Alert)

 

KK: RIM has the corporate market cornered but that is a small market compared to the so-called “pro-sumer” market – the professional consumer who wants to be able to tap into their work applications. The current battle is being waged upon this issue and whoever wins will be in a good position. However, both companies comprise a relatively small percentage of the overall smart phone market so there is a lot of room for both companies to grow – at each other’s expense. I think the battles will rage on and the victor will remain unclear.

 

KK: The communications landscape is going to appear markedly different in five years. You can see this now as we are beginning to build the foundation for what is to come. We are entering the next phase of the evolution of real-time communications. Rich, multi-modal, IP-based real-time services are reaching all the way to end-users. Large corporations such as Google (News - Alert) and Microsoft (News - Alert) are extending full force into the IP space. Over the next five years, offerings will become increasingly intertwined such that real-time communications, business applications, web development, etc. will be deployed simultaneously from a single provider. Consumers may no longer have to go to several providers for different business and communications-related services. Playing a role in this transformation is important to Covergence and tremendously exciting. We look forward to introducing innovations that will allow enterprises to leverage our session management solutions to reduce telecommunication costs, deploy unified communications or initiate other projects such as contact center consolidation. We will continue to develop solutions which help our customers to overcome complex business/communications problems; our primary concern is customer satisfaction and meeting next-generation IP needs.

 

KK: I will be participating in “Deploying Unified Communications (News - Alert) (News - Alert)” on Wednesday, Sept. 17, at 9 am PT. I am looking forward to discussing ways to intelligently evolve the communications infrastructure in a way that will enable organizations to quickly deploy UC and realize immediate ROI and myriad benefits.

 

KK: Enterprise that are looking to deploy VoIP, real-time services or unified communications and service providers who sell to medium and large-sized enterprises in search of revenue-generating services will benefit from attending this session.

 

KK: What sets Covergence apart from its competitors is that its solutions were specifically built to address the needs of the enterprise market. Companies that are choosing Covergence are finding an immediate, measurable ROI associated with their contact center consolidation, unified communications and VoIP initiatives.

 

KK: My prediction is that you will see organizations begin to phase out PBX systems in favor of a unified communications platform that integrates VoIP with other forms of communications, including instant messaging, conferencing and e-mail. The next generation of office workers will interact with a rich set of presence-based real-time multimedia services, both fixed and mobile. Voice will be one application in an expanding multimedia communications toolbox. These toolboxes will be custom tailored to fit the needs of the worker – whether they are contact center agents working from home, sales traders making morning calls or store managers working in an international franchise.

Rich Tehrani is President and Group Editor-in-Chief of TMC. In addition, he is the Chairman of the world’s best-attended communications conference, INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO (ITEXPO). He is also the author of his own communications and technology blog.

Edited by Eve Sullivan