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Press Release by TECHtionary.com in Technology: Telecommunications
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VoIP The Killer Application It’s not what you think it is Or Why Business Customers Are Buying VoIP
View all releases by TECHtionary.com
This press release is about: business, integration, communications, customers, voip, features, technology, more, voice, according, network,
2006-01-30, TECHtionary.com - By Thomas B. Cross – Technology Columnist and CEO of TECHtionary.com
This speech is available for executive presentation or speech.
For more information on VoIP, go to http://www.techtionary.com
Nearly every decade searches for the “killer application” that will drive the next-generation of business and innovation. Two decades ago it was the LAN -- local area network, or rather the laser printer, which drove the need to share via LANs. The last decade it was the internet. This decade has been languishing for some new technology that will “lift all boats.”
Now that we are in the second-half of the decade it seems that VoIP-Voice over Internet Protocol is finally catching the wind of businesses of all sizes. While this article is not about consumer VoIP, we can all thank Vonage for spending a vast fortune on hyping the technology. This article is also not about the technology but about what is getting businesses excited enough to open their purses to spend money on it. If you want to know more about the technology, see Figure 1 for a short tutorial on it.
Figure 1 - http://techtionary.com/members/slides/v/voip-four-up.swf
Double-Double-Double
Leading to an exciting ramp up, Rich Grange, CEO of NGT (www.ngt.com), is smiling all the way to the bank. “We started the year with a forecast of 30,000 seats (like sets) and ended the year with 60,000,” he said. Chuck Griffin, co-CEO of iPath (www.ipath.net), a Master Distributor of NGT, expects similar growth in 2006, with “more and more VoIP, we see double/double and double again as customers see the benefits and getting much more for far less money.
Bob Speers, EVP of Idacomm (www.idacomm.com), sees something more like “double-maybe double and half-double.” Speers added, “Customer demand and interest is very high. Not everyone is a prospect, but there is a significant market share being carved out as we speak.” Steve Robinson, Product Manager OneFlex, Hosted VoIP for Qwest (www.qwest.com) noted, regarding market opportunity, “Successful VoIP providers will differentiate themselves in the marketplace through converged product portfolios consisting of an integrated platform of voice, data, & IP solutions.”
Features-Features-Features
About “why-buy,” Rich Grange of NGT sees the reasons as:
1- TCO -- Total Cost of Ownership, which is 20-30% less than what they now pay
for voice, long distance, high-speed access, and MAC -- moves-adds-changes
2- Management control of features: call logs and ease-of-administration
3- Messaging integration with fun features such as click-to-dial, answering and
dialing, fully integrated – “toolbar” integration inside Outlook, simultaneous ring –
rings anywhere and everywhere until you answer the phone and others.”
If there is one feature that “rings the bell” according to all those surveyed, it is the “visual” interface for email, voice mail, FAX, contact management, and all other applications. This provides improved productivity and prioritizes the calls. Or as “Doug Hanson, CEO of Evolve With Us (www.evolvewithus.com), says, these are “huge time savers.” Mike Barca, Director of VoIP Marketing for AT&T (www.att.com) added, “The little guy has greater integration needs – what are they integrating with and want is tighter and tighter integration with a CRM -- Customer Relationship Management (contact manager like ACT, Goldmine, etc.) package.” He emphasized that “They are more interested in integration, whereas the larger customers will build it, manage it and control it themselves.”
Bob Speers of Idacomm noted, “People will actually pay more for the productivity gains. There are more features available today than we can synthesize into applications or solve needs and quarterly upgrades with new features at no cost.” According to Bruce Grant, Assistant GM of NEC (www.necunified.com), “Rules-based routing – rules based on who’s calling with synchronization to Outlook bring real communications power to end-user, not just the higher level executive.” Grant added, “VoIP reduces transaction time and increases the call performance and benefit to customer caller, not just the person making the call.” Steve Robinson of Qwest also said that “the end user has the ability to configure a VoIP system to individual needs in terms of findme/followme features, web-based voice mail retrieval, & integrated messaging.” Rich Grange of NEG summarized it best: “VoIP gives users total mobility to travel anywhere-anytime and have all their features they want it to have (be) with them.”
Bob Speers, Executive Vice President of Sales at IDACOMM, listed the top-10 reasons why customers buy:
1. VoIP is hot and cool
2. Integration with Outlook
3. Simultaneous ring to cell and other phones
4. Records voicemails on email
5. Logs on calls
6. Software is based features instead of buying a PBX
7. Self administration of system MACs
8. Empowers the IT people
9. Transfer of calls among offices
10. Take VoIP phone home or have second phone and it’s just like being in the office
Number 4 mentioned above is “simultaneous ring,” more than your phone ringing everywhere. It changes the way business is conducted. Combine numbers 4 and 10, and you have a new business paradigm. For example, you are sitting in a meeting at a customer location and your phone rings on your “softphone” on your PC and you can “see” who is calling, have a “screen pop” from the contact manager to see “why” they are calling, and are able to send an IM -- Instant Message -- or email and go back to your meeting. Underlying all the interviews was that enduser customers are not just ready-to-buy but eager to upgrade.
Even concerns regarding the impact of voice on customer data networks seem to be resolved. Robinson of Qwest said, “We require customers to set QoS -- Quality of Service -- on edge and premise routers to prioritize voice over data traffic.” This means that voice traffic will always get the bandwidth over data traffic, which is reduced dynamically by the router. Qwest also gives customers planning guidelines depending on the network. For example, Qwest recommends no more than 13 concurrent telephone calls with G.711 CODEC -- Compression-DECompression -- and no more than 25-40 concurrent calls with G.729 over a T-1 circuit. In addition, for the multi-location customer, “fail safe” features become not a want but an absolute requirement.
Features such as RAF-- Redundant Access Function – are available. This means if the local VoIP host server/system cannot communicate with the phone (terminal), a change-over of the control function should occur. When a phone determines that it cannot gain access to any IP resource, it will hunt for any available local gateway to the PSTN -- Public Switched Telephone Network -- for local trunk access. Another concept is called survivability. According to Bruce Grant of NEC, “multi-site survivability is the ability when a failure occurs that all other sites within the network are notified and automatically change the dialing pattern of the network, providing connectivity regardless of the state of the data network.” See Figure 2 to see both of these and other backup features.
Figure 2 - http://techtionaryna.com/00/nec-next-gen.swf
The Softside of Hardware
Another trend is clear: “softphones” will replace desktop phones. There is no doubt that all those surveyed see the need. Many use softphones today but may not be quite that optimistic about all users. Certainly those asked saw softphones to be the dominant voice or rather communications interface in ten years, though some see this as five. Mike Barca of AT&T says that “softphones will dominate the marketplace in five years because it’s always with you. Soon dual-mode-cell/software phone – the cellphone (will) become the hardphone using Bluetooth for software integration.” Pingtel’s Brisard added that “customers often require softphones (soft client) for many of their users, then admit that all users are not quite ready and still need a hardphone.” Idacomm’s Speers noted that “techies are today softphone only and others will follow.”
Some of the other key concepts that VoIP creates are an “open source” programming approach to “building your own.” According to open source communications enterprise developer Al Brisard, VP of Marketing, at Pingtel (www.pingtel.com): “This is not a voice PBX but a real-time communications platform based entirely on SIP. We can route IM -- Instant Messaging, video, web collaboration and video over the same platform, not just voice.” Security, E911, QoS -- Quality of Service -- was mentioned by respondents, but none of them see them as impediments to progress or even slowing the purchasing process.
New Business Model Not Just New Technology
Nearly all those surveyed saw VoIP creating an underlying new business dimension. Mark Sharp, co-CEO of iPath, said: “We have seen this technology improve every year and we would like to use this infrastructure to open new possibilities in their company and their business model.” Chuck Griffin, co-CEO, said that it “better get onboard what is or be left behind – really next gen – early adopters can accelerate their business model. Four years doesn’t make it a harden service, but its coming a lot faster than exponentially increase – jump on the train now.” According to Al Brisard, “SIP -- Session Initiation Protocol -- standards and open source gives you a new business model that adds real value to customers – as opposed to legacy systems approach of vertically integrated business models that support VoIP. It’s the same business model except for a new module.”
Not VoIP But CoIP -- Communications over IP
As we try to end this “pep rally” for VoIP, what have we learned? After struggling along for nearly a decade beginning as CTI -- Computer Telephony Integration -- and more “false-starts” than any football game, VoIP or rather CoIP will double-double-double for the next five or more years, ending the decade as the dominant and pre-dominant internet application. Mike Barca of AT&T said it succinctly: “One of the interesting things is that the amount of control from the telecom manager to the end user is increasing dramatically. With find me-follow-me applications integration – you schedule a meeting with 10 other people. This adds real meaning to “click to call” which really means “click to control company communications globally.” VoIP has struggled for many years. Now it is poised to grow exponentially. As with many things, five years from now it will be something completely different.
Source: PR Web™
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