A couple of weeks ago, I explored the migration to Unified Communications and gave my point of view about how the migration is somewhat determined by economics and the fact that enterprises have already set in place communications systems that have been paid for and work.  But let’s say that you as an enterprise have determined the time is right to move to UC.  Should it be premise-based or cloud-based?   Some enterprises are worried about losing control and want on-premise equipment.  But for many enterprises, UCaaS is the way to go as long as they are satisfied with the Quality of Service (QoS) and security.  And by now, so many enterprises have moved to cloud-based UC that there are more than enough use cases and proof points that QoS and security issues have largely been overcome.

Like many others, I’ve been watching the adoption of video as it goes from a novel curiosity to a mainstream means of communications.  As humans, we are naturally drawn to images, especially moving images.  As a techie, I’m also drawn to automation systems and the Internet of Things.  What happens when you bring IoT and video together?

“Before beginning, plan carefully,” quoted Cicero, a Roman lawyer and toga aficionado from a couple thousand years ago. While he may not have been thinking about Visual IVR development when he coined that phrase, he was still spot on.

It’s strange to be writing about a next generation SBC, given that it seems only yesterday that SBCs came to the fore.  But alas, SBCs have been around for over 15 years now. The original SBC functions that were there to support peering for IP – IP networks, such as connectivity in the form of IPv4-IPv6 interworking, NAT traversal, and SIP protocol translations and security in the form of DoS support, toll fraud, signaling encryption, and packet protection are still very much important, but the SBC has been asked to do more these days.  So if you have an SBC from the “old days” it’s likely not pulling its weight.

71% of consumers want the ability to solve most customer service issues on their own, according to a 2016 Aspect Consumer Experience survey. And they want the customer care experience to support that.

Everyone is talking about UC these days.  But what is it?  And why hasn’t everyone deployed it yet?

First of all, UC is a murky topic.  Unified Communications at it’s most basic level is voice, email and presence/IM capability in an application.   And some companies are very particular about saying they have UC apps because they have the basic ones.  But UC can also mean voice conferencing, video conferencing, text messaging, collaboration / document sharing, and fax.   And this contributes to different price points and target market fit. 

At last week’s TechXLR8 in London, I was listening to Paul Wilkinson with Tesco talk about the various initiatives his company is exploring to improve the customer's buying experience through technology and innovation.

One of the challenges with any customer care is integrating the mobile application experience with a live agent interaction.   Today’s dis-integrated environment has consumers using their mobile applications to initiate transactions, but if a live agent gets involved, things get messy.   In most cases, that live agent experience requires repeating a host of identity verification questions, often stumping the consumer and causing confusion and frustration.

The intersection of real-time communications applications, analytics, and intelligence opens the door to innovative solutions that provide value added capabilities for both businesses and consumers. Artificial and augmented intelligence and machine learning techniques consist of applications that replicate human capabilities as well as enhance them.

Back in March, I wrote a blog about the PSTN sunset. But in reality legacy technologies are still in use.  I know this since we still sell them. Certainly, IP is growing and SIP Trunking is growing, but for most companies this means a gradual transition, not a full scale wipeout of existing technology.