I ran across this blog by Houston Neal of Software Advice.com, on seven great applications for IP-PBXs in the medical field, which is a good start to laying out what can be done in different vertical markets with IP, particularly in the medical field, which is ripe for transformation. Houston points out, that in his practice of advising companies of free software to help in business, that in the medical field he believes that there is a lot to be gained by integrating IP-PBXs with electronic health records (EHR) and practice management systems. I couldn’t agree more. He then lays out the seven great applications he feels would be the result of combining voice and data using open source technology.

I’ll leave you to read his blog, but here is his list with some of my comments.

• Patient screen-pops - this isn’t just something that would benefit medical practices, in the traditional PBX world, its 21 year old technology that even today is so underused that it has most contact center analysts tearing their hair out
• IP faxing - Couldn’t agree with Houston more. Whereas faxing has gone the way of the Dodo in some fields, in others, such as medical, it’s still a big necessity.
• Appointment reminders - Sure thing, and lots of other outbound reminders, from pre-surgical instructions to education.
• Find me, follow me
• Dunning Voicemails - Hmm. I like this title about as much voicemail jail, and prefer to call it outbound collections or something like that.
• vPrescribing - Otherwise known as automated prescription refill. This is even better when combined with education for the patient about the drugs they are taking.
• Patient-centric recordings - IVR with personalization - extremely hot in the industry right now.

That is enough on my comments on his list. Here are a few I think he missed.

• Radiology dictation using speech recognition packages. I doubt this is open source free at the moment, but streaming dictation reports over an IP Network to a database that is then accessible to all parties that need that information is a great application.
• Unified communications applications other than find-me-follow-me. How about collaboration software, presence, IM, video. All of these can greatly enhance the productivity of medical personnel.
• Expert agents outside the contact center - IP Telephony provides a great opportunity, particularly when combined with UC functionality, of being able to bring in experts into a call with a doctor or patient, that aren’t part of the contact center.

OK, that is my short addition of what I’d like to see. I’m going to go check out some of the other verticals Houston works with.

Tags: Unified Communications by Nancy Jamison
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The pace that technology is moving today never ceases to amaze me.  Some channel partners are still trying to figure out VoIP and now there’s unified communications, virtualization, and the cloud!  It’s enough to challenge even the most visionary VAR or telecom dealer (the community that UCStrategies refers to as “Solutions Integrators”).  And what about the significant number of traditional VARs and telecom dealers whose business model most likely won’t support either the new technology or the current buying strategy of end-user customers?

No matter how we slice and dice it, the world of the VAR and the telecom dealer has already changed dramatically.  Business as usual or TWIWAD (”that’s the way it was always done”) definitely isn’t today’s formula for success.  What’s different today than even just 2-3 years ago?

• The strained economy has finally changed the buying habits of most customers. Although the shift has been in process for a while, today’s situation has brought the change to the forefront. Customers will only spend if they can see a strong ROI. They are avoiding CapEx and are more open to OpEx.
• PBX sales are different. Without the 2 well-known motivators - a company is growing rapidly and has outgrown its phone system or a company is moving and it’s the perfect time to buy a new phone system - even IP-PBX sales are difficult. The PBX often no longer leads the sale but is pulled along as a necessary part of an overall solution.
• Selling security? Trying to sell more storage? These are purchases that will too often have to wait until business is doing better unless they too are part of an overall solution sale.
• Customers trying to do more with smaller staffs have become candidates for managed services, leading to new opportunities for those VARs who have already started drinking the managed services kool-aid (didn’t the telecom dealers invent “managed services”?).

It doesn’t matter if you’re a reseller (Solutions Integrator) or a vendor depending on the reseller channel for revenue - the old ways don’t work anymore!  In a recent white paper, “Survival of the Fittest”, I discussed in detail the changing reseller profile and the impact on vendors.  Happily there are Solutions Integrators who are doing very well right now and will continue to do so.  Many of them have been in a long process of evaluating their model, their customers, the market and technology trends - and making significant changes to their business as a result.  As I talk with thriving Solutions Integrators, the changes that are most common among the group include:

1. Moving from generalist to specialist - whether it be focusing on a specific industry, solution or market segment
2. Painfully shifting the entire organization from product selling to solution/consultative selling
3. Hiring a marketing specialist or outsourcing marketing, i.e. making it a line item in the  budget
4. Networking with other Systems Integrators to fill gaps in expertise or geography
5. Developing strong relationships with key vendor partners
6. Resellers - take a look at this list and if you can’t check off even one of the five changes, you’d better get busy!

Vendors - it’s time to assess each of your channel partners as the first step in determining how you can best help them as they’re making the necessary changes to be thriving partners, not just surviving partners.  It’s amazing what we’ve learned with the channel assessment tool that we developed - and it’s scary too!

Remember, vendors - just have a meaningful dialogue with members of the channel and you’ll agree that TWIWAD doesn’t work anymore!!!!!

Tags: Unified Communications by Pam Avila
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There’s been a good discussion about the role and future of the IP PBX in a mobile world and as we become more dependent on our mobile devices.

Dave Michels wrote an interesting blog that asked the question, if you had to do without a phone for a week with minimal disruption, which would it be: the PBX/office phone or the cell phone? He noted that, “The vast majority of the people I’ve spoken to say they could do without the PBX phone.” You can find his blog at http://pindropsoup.blogspot.com/2009/01/pbx-needs-to-change-or-die.html

As I wrote in my UC eWeekly newsletter last week, http://www.nojitter.com/blog/archives/2009/01/mustdos_for_uc.html#comments, the switch vendors need to find ways to add value to their products and remain relevant. Mobile phones and services are becoming the predominant means of communication within the enterprise – even while working at the desk - and unless the switch vendors find ways of proving their value, they will be relegated to limited uses that mobile devices do not currently provide. Extending UC capabilities to mobile devices has been one of the key focuses of UC vendors but, on the downside, the value of desktop phones and, to some degree, the PBX/IP-PBX, has been greatly diminished.

One reader responded, noting, “I think the IP-PBX is still handling the bulk of the load today, and into the future. Cell phones and wireless devices are adding a lot of variety to the mix, but no one is pulling out their PBXs and going totally wireless.  What I see happening is greater diversity in the mix of devices and networks that have to all play together nicely; however, it is not an either/or situation with cell phones and IP-PBXs.  They will peacefully coexist and long into the future.  The real key is providing the real linkage points between the wireless LAN infrastructure, the cellular network and the wired LAN infrastructure.  This provides interoperability between cell phones, desk phones, PCs and handheld wireless devices.  People want to use their “tool-of-choice”, no matter where they are or how they are connected.  It is a tremendous challenge, but the real gem of UC.”

I agree with these comments, and certainly the IP PBX is still handling the bulk of voice communications, and will continue to do so. But there are lots of worker (not companies, but workers) who don’t use their desk phones at all, and just rely on their mobile devices. The PBX is still needed for many (and most) functions, but we all know that the mobile device can replace some or much of that functionality today (not all).

Another reader responded to the newsletter, noting: “I’m curious to understand what UC functionality app vendors need to provide beyond what the smart ones have done already. This is primarily by exposing more services and making their software generally more open and web based. Just not sure what specific UC functions they need to build. Technically the comm vendors add all of that functionality already as long as their architectures allow for mashing together of their respective offerings.”

Of course, integration with unified communications capabilities like single number service, screen pop, unified messaging, etc. is one way the IP PBXs have been adding more value for years. There are basic functions our cell phones can do that our office phones can’t – such as view missed calls and simply press a button to reply (although this can be made possible through UC), or have different ring tones for different callers.

Rather than adding specific functions or capabilities, what I should have said is that vendors need to make the switch more useful by providing vertical applications that are useful and relevant. It’s really a matter of finding useful applications that leverage the capabilities that are already built into the switch – including automated attendant, IVR, speech access, etc.  For example, One example Michels gives is “a simple K-12 demo, where the phones were the bell system, intercom, PA, text messaging system, attendance system, safety system, resource system (press 4 for projector reservation), confidential system (enter code to see important message from principal), training system, and work request system (press 2 for janitor).”
These capabilities already exist and it’s just a question of developing the applications based on the functionality PBXs/IP PBXs provide. And it’s hard to know what should be in the network versus on the switch - simultaneous language translation, for example, is probably better as a network service rather than a function of the switch.

I don’t see the death of the IP PBX (not for a while, anyway), but it’s important for the vendors to get creative and innovative.

Tags: Unified Communications Information by Blair Pleasant
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It’s finally completed and published! After months and months of research and writing, I’ve just released my new UC market study, Unified Communications Market 2007-2012. I’ve been writing analyst reports for a long time (ok, a really long time), but this was probably the most challenging report I’ve written. For one thing, forecasting the UC market is no piece of cake - everyone defines UC differently, vendors are not yet providing UC shipment data to analysts, and there’s no simple way of counting and measuring the market. How I yearn for the old days when it was simple to count voice mail shipments - a voice mailbox was a voice mailbox and it was easy to count how many voice mail ports were shipped (yes, we counted in ports). With UC, there’s no easy way to count shipments or revenues. Some vendors (I’m not naming names) include all of their IP PBX shipments in their UC data. But there’s no way of knowing if those IP PBXs are being used as part of a UC solution or not. I’ve seen analyst and vendor forecasts for UC that include all the IP PBX revenue, plus all the revenues associated with unified messaging, conferencing, instant messaging, etc., all added together. This is fine for getting an understanding of the total potential UC opportunity, but it doesn’t provide a realistic picture of where the real UC market is or will be. Since there’s no agreed-upon way of defining the “UC market” and counting UC shipments, I did what any good analyst would do - I made one up. Actually, I made up several ways to define and count the market - the total or “UC Capable” market, the net or “true” UC market, the sub-segment of UC that is requisite for a UC solution, and more.

Another reason this report was so hard to complete is that the market is so dynamic and constantly changing. The vendor profile chapter, which covers the leading UC vendors’ products, direction, etc., had to be continually updated, as the vendors added new products, packaging and bundling, on what seemed to be a daily basis. Just when I thought I completed one vendor’s profile, they made a new announcement about a new UC offering, or a new strategic partner, or something else. By the time you read this, some of the vendor profiles may already be out of date.

I’ll be posting some of the key findings on here on www.ucstrategies.com, but if you want all the detailed information (all 150 pages!) about UC in general, trends, challenges, market adoption, forecasts, etc., then you need to buy the report. If you’re interested in purchasing the report, or if you have any questions, feel free to contact me at bpleasant@commfusion.com.

Tags: Unified Communications, Unified Communications Information by Blair Pleasant
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Mobile unified communications took a shot in the chops this week when FCC Chairman Kevin Martin announced in a speech at the CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas that he will oppose Skype’s petition to open up existing wireless carrier networks to outside devices. “In light of the industry’s embrace of this more open approach, I think it’s premature for the commission to place any other requirements on these networks,” Martin told the audience. Not surprisingly, his comments were met with loud applause from an audience dominated by cellular carriers whose view toward openness I have already compared to the KGB.

In a classic column in Business Communications Review in 2005, my pal Dave Passmore of the Burton Group raised the call for a Carterphone for Wireless. Industry veterans (“gray-haired” veterans) will recognize a reference to the 1968 Supreme Court decision that forced the Bell companies to permit non-Bell devices to be connected to the public telephone network. The Carterphone ruling created the interconnect industry, which in turn gave rise to a burst of creativity in business telephone systems that led to lower prices, better technologies, and eventually IP PBXs and unified communications. Skypehad been pushing for a similarregulation to force mobile operators to allow the connection of any device that doesn’t harm the network.

Given the cellular industry’s status as “the new Bell System”, it appears that Mr. Martin’s viewpoint may be geared toward snagging one of those lucrative jobs in the cellular industry when his tenure at the FCC comes to an end.

Tags: Unified Communications Information by Michael Finneran
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