A UC Solution That Service Providers Can Offer To Any Size Business

By Art Rosenberg, The Unified-View/ UC Strategies Expert

Although multimodal communications (UC) software first began to appear, we all were excited by its ability to make us more productive; keeping us more efficiently and flexibly connected.  However, in some respects, it has also made business communications more complex. While legacy telephony was simply device-to-device calling, UC is more than person-to-person contacts at desktops or with mobile devices, it’s also about interactions with online applications and timely, proactive notification messages from business process applications. And, as my colleague at UC Strategies, Blair Pleasant describes, UC-enabled software is moving quickly to the “clouds.”

The big challenge facing any size organization is how to migrate from their legacy telephony systems to new “cloud” based UC software services that exploit multimodal Internet connectivity, rather than just the legacy voice PSTN. After all, why buy something new and get the same functional services? To date, most of the traditional service providers have not really offered a differentiated approach, making UC implementation and adoption slower than it could be.  However, GENBAND, a major vendor for service providers (they acquired Nortel’s carrier business in 2010) as well as large enterprises requiring carrier grade technology, has come up with a UC solution that might just increase adoption in both those big enterprises and SMBs.

GENBAND’s SMART OFFICE 2.0

GENBAND has just announced one of the first WebRTC-compatible UC solutions, SMART OFFICE 2.0. By focusing on browser-based clients they are opening up a new way to connect more than just people to people. The browser is already where we go for so many of our business self-service apps, along with all that e-mail and social media.  You start to see how organizations can leverage HTML5 and REST APIs to embed multimodal communications into the heart of business process workflow.  GENBAND says they are still working with partners on their approach to supporting multimodal customer service “Interaction Centers,” which will be highly dependent on WebRTC capabilities for flexible, “click-for-live assistance” options directly and contextually from online and mobile customer service apps.

In discussing GENBAND’s announcement of SMART OFFICE 2.0 and their Generation Enterprise framework, they indicated that they are using different channel partner strategies for different market segments. So, although not a familiar enterprise vendor name, they have come up with two channel partner approaches to support SMART OFFICE 2.0 implementations:

·      Enterprises and SMBs primarily interested in hosted UC can turn to their 700 service providers/carriers

·      Large multisite enterprises that want premises equipment or a tailored hosted solution can connect with their enterprise reseller channel.  That channel is already working with GENBAND to supports about 300 very large legacy Nortel customers that had carrier-class solutions deployed

Service Providers

GENBAND has a long history of supplying carriers with new networking technologies, including SIP Session Control and SBC’s for SIP Trucking/PSTN connectivity. What we see with SMART OFFICE 2.0 is a stronger move into communication application software, including Intelligent Messaging applications on their EXPERIUS application server. It supports multi-tenant requirements for cost efficient hosted/managed unified-messaging services in “public clouds.” So, GENBAND is ready to support their service providers to move gracefully from PSTN telephony services to multimodal UC offerings for any size business.

Installed Base Customers

Because GENBAND supports a significant number (300+) of very large Nortel enterprise customers, they had to create a solution that will avoid requiring massive replacement of existing desktop phones.  They had to complement those desktops with new mobile device interoperability and “mobile apps.” In addition, they can now offer WebRTC connectivity via the WAN and Internet, rather than just give users PSTN connections.

So, for their installed base of large customers in higher education, government, financial markets, and health care, GENBAND has come up with a cost efficient migration plan.  They are giving their channel partners a way to replace core communications hardware without having to replace all existing end user desktop telephones. Once that core hardware is in place, it is now open to exploit new software in private, public, or hybrid “clouds” for very cost efficient UC interoperability benefits.

The Convergence of Enterprise and SMB UC With Consumer Services

It will be interesting to see how these two channel partner strategies will work out, especially in extending GENBAND’s role of interoperability between enterprise-run technology and technology supported by the carriers for smaller businesses and, of course, consumers. I see the future “Interaction Center” for mobile customer services as a big bridge between the two domains, and I expect GENBAND to partner with leading, innovative contact center technology providers like Interactive Intelligence, to make such things happen in the new world of cloud-based, mobile, IP-based communications, that will exploit WebRTC. 

Copyright © 2014 The Unified-View, All Rights Reserved Worldwide

Multimodal Business Conversations In The "Cloud"

By Art Rosenberg, The Unified-View/ UC Strategies Expert

It is becoming very obvious that sharing and exchanging information, not just conversation, is what business communication is really all about. That means that people need to have access to relevant information in real time, while actively involved in a real time voice or video discussion. Telephony never could do that in the past, but moving communications to a "cloud” service is enabling that need to be fulfilled.

Regardless of who the end users are, whether internal employees, business partners, or even consumers/customers, but there will always be a need to dynamically reference and share common information by the parties involved in any kind of real-time conversation. Now that mobile smartphones and tablets have bridged the gap between person-to-person communication contacts and access to online apps, the path to information-enabled voice conversations between people has been opened.

Today’s announcement from PanTerra Networks about their Smartbox cloud service offering confirms the benefits of UC implementation as a “cloud” service, since they have carried the concept to a logical, higher level of interoperability in what they describe as “Unified Cloud Services.” PanTerra’s  “SmartBox” service combines UC applications with information content storage and file sharing services that lets users manage, search, and contextually initiate UC-enabled contacts from a single user interface in a single cloud.

Raising The Bar For UCaaS

Everyone is rushing to putting applications, data, and communications into public, private, and hybrid cloud environments, because they are really all becoming software based and serving a variety of multimodal mobile and desktop endpoint devices. So, just as UC is subsuming telephony communications, we are now seeing the next step as “cloud” applications subsume both information storage and UC.

With both information and communications all under one “cloud” roof, it will now be possible for end users to more fully manage all their business interactions and more easily correlate all their information exchanges with other people. So, it won’ be just “person-to-person” contacts that can be tracked, but also managing contact activities based on information exchanges as well.

While we at UC Strategies have always seen business communications increasingly involved with automated business processes (CEBP), the growing role of “cloud" data storage and file sharing, especially for mobile users, makes it practical to exploit UC options for exchanging such information. This kind of capability will be particularly useful when end users are “collaborating” by looking at common information and discussing it in their choice of communications (text, voice, video).

How Many “Clouds” Are Involved?

One of the objectives PanTerra had for developing their SmartBox offering was to minimize any unnecessary friction between communication applications and file sharing activities because of inconsistencies from different “cloud” services. By UC-enabling file sharing in a common “cloud” service, interoperability is simplified and less costly.

We are just entering the “cloud” era of online and mobile access to interactions with both people  and online information, and the standards for interoperability across “clouds” remain to be better defined for maximum efficiency and minimum costs. As service providers begin to offer more access to applications, information, and communications with people, we should see more interoperability develop, as was the case with the legacy PSTN for telephony. In the meantime, PanTerra’s SmartBox offering is a step forward in bringing real-time communications and information access closer together.    

Copyright © 2014 The Unified-View, All Rights Reserved Worldwide

“Cloud” Services Open the Door to Multimodal Business Conversations

January 21, 2014

By Art Rosenberg, The Unified-View/ UC Strategies Expert

It is becoming very obvious that information exchange, not just conversation, is what business communication is really all about. That means that people need to have access to relevant information in real time, while actively involved in a real time voice or video discussion. Telephony never could do that in the past, but moving communications to a "cloud” service is enabling that need to be fulfilled.

Regardless of who the end users are, whether internal employees, business partners, or even consumers/customers, but there will always be a need to dynamically reference and share common information by the parties involved in any kind of real-time conversation. Now that mobile smartphones and tablets have bridged the gap between person-to-person communication contacts and access to online apps, the path to information-enabled voice conversations between people has been opened.

Today’s announcement from PanTerra Networks about their Smartbox cloud service offering confirms the benefits of UC implementation as a “cloud” service, since they have carried the concept to a logical, higher level of interoperability in what they describe as “Unified Cloud Services.” PanTerra’s  “SmartBox” service combines UC applications with information content storage and file sharing services that lets users manage, search, and contextually initiate UC-enabled contacts from a single user interface in a single cloud.

Raising The Bar For UCaaS

Everyone is rushing to putting applications, data, and communications into public, private, and hybrid cloud environments, because they are really all becoming software based and serving a variety of multimodal mobile and desktop endpoint devices. So, just as UC is subsuming telephony communications, we are now seeing the next step as “cloud” applications subsume both information storage and UC.

With both information and communications all under one “cloud” roof, it will now be possible for end users to more fully manage all their business interactions and more easily correlate all their information exchanges with other people. So, it won’ be just “person-to-person” contacts that can be tracked, but also managing contact activities based on information exchanges as well.

While we at UC Strategies have always seen business communications increasingly involved with automated business processes (CEBP), the growing role of “cloud" data storage and file sharing, especially for mobile users, makes it practical to exploit UC options for exchanging such information. This kind of capability will be particularly useful when end users are “collaborating” by looking at common information and discussing it in their choice of communications (text, voice, video).

How Many “Clouds” Are Involved?

One of the objectives PanTerra had for developing their SmartBox offering was to minimize any unnecessary friction between communication applications and file sharing activities because of inconsistencies from different “cloud” services. By UC-enabling file sharing in a common “cloud” service, interoperability is simplified and less costly.

We are just entering the “cloud” era of online and mobile access to interactions with both people  and online information, and the standards for interoperability across “clouds” remain to be better defined for maximum efficiency and minimum costs. As service providers begin to offer more access to applications, information, and communications with people, we should see more interoperability develop, as was the case with the legacy PSTN for telephony. In the meantime, PanTerra’s SmartBox offering is a step forward in bringing real-time communications and information access closer together.    

Copyright © 2014 The Unified-View, All Rights Reserved Worldwide

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