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ITExpo: Showcasing VoIP On the Brink of Change
2007-09-14
Let’s start with the first point. It appears that unified communications and convergence are top of mind lately, with “IP communications” becoming less and less about voice and more and more about data, video and voice coming together in a blended fashion. The evidence? Take Surf Technology, for instance, a company that enables the triple play for service providers. At the show its renewed focus is on mobile television and IP video, with nary a whiff of standalone VoIP. CosmoCom meanwhile was on hand to discuss “Consolidation 2.0,” an IP-based communications architecture for contact center functions, “creating unified customer communications and turning an entire enterprise into a contact center, independent of geographic location, hardware and software.” And Comverse meanwhile announced the launch of MyCall Converged Communications for the American market, a solution for service providers aimed at fixed-mobile convergence.
"By integrating MyCall, service providers can develop three-screen strategies – mobile, PC and TV – and offer truly integrated converged communication services customized to consumer lifestyles and delivered over multiple access networks, which can lead to stronger customer relationships,” said James Colby, vice president of marketing of Comverse Americas. “This is an important strategic direction many operators are taking to enhance their competitive positions."
Open-source pioneer Digium’s founder, Mark Spencer, keynoted the event and mentioned in his address that unified communications, an idea that’s been around for a while, is clearly now coming into its own. That’s because people are expanding their concepts of what IP communications means, and how it can be applied. For instance, he mentioned a project called “Botanicalls,” which calls you if your houseplants need something — water, fertilizer, music, etc.
Meanwhile, on the more traditional VoIP front, the SMB may be poised to become the primary target segment for IP telephony, a radical shift from the licensed, enterprise-focused model we’ve seen to date. Several companies are honing in on this market.
For instance, M5 Networks was talking up its concept of Voice as a Service (VaaS) — the combination of hosted phone system software and an IP network optimized for voice. And hosted VoIP provider Vocalocity, which targets offices with less than 20 employees, has kicked off a new partner program for VARs wanting to sell its VocalocityPBX offer. Other announcements abound: Spanlink introduced managed VoIP services, Epigy announced an SMB offer and VoSKY unveiled VoSKY Exchange, a PBX gateway for SOHO and small businesses that pre-integrates with Skype.
Mitel CEO Norman Stout delivered an ITExpo keynote echoing the trends. The industry is "primed for upheaval,” he noted, mentioning that SMBs with 500 people or less account for 95 percent of businesses North America, and they’re crying out for good, unified solutions that give them the tools large enterprises have enjoyed thus far. If end users fulfill this buzz, the face of VoIP opportunities could be indeed very different in a few years.
By Tara Seals
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