Avaya’s 2013 Guidebook is the market-leading overview of the collaboration technologies and trends driving businesses of every size. Written for business and IT executive alike, the Guide features in-depth analysis and commentary from industry experts on the innovations that can help you and your organization gain and keep a competitive edge.
Topics in the Guide include:
• Why mobile and desktop videoconferencing are the future of communications;
• How instant messaging is evolving past mere presence to awareness;
• What are the 8 best practices every contact center must follow;
• The steps you must take to secure your Unified Communications deployment.
Contributors to this year’s Guide include leading Avaya executives such as CEO Kevin Kennedy, SVPs Gary Barnett, Marc Randall, Michael Runda, and Brett Shockley, and top analysts from Forrester and Nemertes Research as well as experts from IBM, VMware and other valued Avaya partners.
The Guide also includes 14 enterprise case studies and 28 charts and infographics to create a full picture of how you can create a better, more agile business even in a fluctuating macroeconomic climate.
#Converge2014: Avaya CEO Kevin Kennedy Keynote Speech at IAUG Converge 2014Avaya Inc.
On Tuesday, April 29, Avaya CEO Kevin Kennedy delivered the keynote speech of the IAUG Converge 2014 conference. He shared that Avaya is focusing on simple, open, mobile, scalable network infrastructure and products.
#Converge2014: Opening Keynote Address with Pierre-Paul Allard on Avaya's Tra...Avaya Inc.
Avaya's transformation story took center stage during the opening keynote address at IAUG Converge 2014, delivered by Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Global Field Operations, Pierre-Paul Allard.
Avaya is focused on four key tenets: Services, Mobility, Applications, and Networking.
A simple presentation on UC irrespective of brands or companies. The references and views are taken from different market leaders, vendors & internet search. All Copyrights with their respective vendors.
Cisco vs. Microsoft - Strategic Decisions for a Unified Communications Deploy...Brent Kelly
Many organizations have Cisco networking equipment as well as Cisco voice communications solutions. These same organizations also have Microsoft desktop software and MIcrosoft Lync, which is used by many enterprises for presence and instant messaging.
Both vendors are pushing very hard to have organizations adopt their entire unified communications offering. For Cisco, this means deploying the Jabber client along with WebEx for conferencing and Cisco video solutions. For Microsoft, this means deploying more capabilities in Microsoft Lync, including conferencing and collaboration as well as Enterprise Voice.
In many companies, there are articulate and impassioned people who are sincerely trying to do their best who argue for one vendor's unified communications offering over the other. This often ends up in a "Cisco versus Microsoft" discussion, which may become a heated argument.
What to do?
This presentation looks at many of the issues involved with a Cisco vs. Microsoft unified communications debate. It provides individuals and companies with strategies for eliminating one vendor as well as ways the two solutions may co-exist in the organization.
#Converge2014: Avaya CEO Kevin Kennedy Keynote Speech at IAUG Converge 2014Avaya Inc.
On Tuesday, April 29, Avaya CEO Kevin Kennedy delivered the keynote speech of the IAUG Converge 2014 conference. He shared that Avaya is focusing on simple, open, mobile, scalable network infrastructure and products.
#Converge2014: Opening Keynote Address with Pierre-Paul Allard on Avaya's Tra...Avaya Inc.
Avaya's transformation story took center stage during the opening keynote address at IAUG Converge 2014, delivered by Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Global Field Operations, Pierre-Paul Allard.
Avaya is focused on four key tenets: Services, Mobility, Applications, and Networking.
A simple presentation on UC irrespective of brands or companies. The references and views are taken from different market leaders, vendors & internet search. All Copyrights with their respective vendors.
Cisco vs. Microsoft - Strategic Decisions for a Unified Communications Deploy...Brent Kelly
Many organizations have Cisco networking equipment as well as Cisco voice communications solutions. These same organizations also have Microsoft desktop software and MIcrosoft Lync, which is used by many enterprises for presence and instant messaging.
Both vendors are pushing very hard to have organizations adopt their entire unified communications offering. For Cisco, this means deploying the Jabber client along with WebEx for conferencing and Cisco video solutions. For Microsoft, this means deploying more capabilities in Microsoft Lync, including conferencing and collaboration as well as Enterprise Voice.
In many companies, there are articulate and impassioned people who are sincerely trying to do their best who argue for one vendor's unified communications offering over the other. This often ends up in a "Cisco versus Microsoft" discussion, which may become a heated argument.
What to do?
This presentation looks at many of the issues involved with a Cisco vs. Microsoft unified communications debate. It provides individuals and companies with strategies for eliminating one vendor as well as ways the two solutions may co-exist in the organization.
An Executive Guide to Video CollaborationAvaya Inc.
In the past, video was dismissed as a costly and complex luxury that drained your network and IT resources, while offering limited return on investment. But with substantial reductions in cost and easier deployment, businesses can integrate high definition video - as easy to use as any consumer product - across the enterprise.
Riverbed - Maximizing Your Cloud Applications Performance and AvailabilityRightScale
RightScale Conference Santa Clara 2011: Database and application performance matter little if the application delivery is slow. Companies looking for performance, reliability, and scalability put proven application delivery systems to work in their cloud deployments. Join Raja Srinivasan and Jim Young as they discuss the features and technologies that cutting-edge companies are taking advantage of in their traffic management solutions for rapidly scaling environments. Learn how digital agency, Tenthwave, launched the “Stop Bullying Speak Up” campaign on Facebook using Riverbed Stingray Traffic Manager on RightScale to handle SSL Decryption and optimize cloud performance, and how Riverbed and RightScale have enabled Tenthwave to build repeatable deployments for their online promotions and campaigns.
Slides from our Lunch n' Learn webinar show how a Cisco Business Edition VOIP phone solution and related collaboration technologies deliver immediate and lasting benefits for companies who are not willing to settle for less than what they need to get the job done. We'll even show you some great financing offers to help make the transition even easier on your budget.
Request link to recording at: http://info.ali-inc.com/UnifiedCommunications_WebinarRegistration.html
Building an Adoption Plan: Turning it on(Part 2 of 2)Cisco Canada
Now that you understand what's included in your License agreement, it's time to get your employees excited to turn on the features and start reaping the benefits of your investment. The session will continue our discussion around adoption planning with best practices for employee training & engagement of your collaboration investment. This is a great opportunity to tap into your employees' creativity and empowering them to build new functionalities and applications leveraging devices they already are comfortable with. We will also review how to track utilization and consumption rates so you can reconcile your investment against the productivity gains you will see.
What's New in IBM Web Experience FactoryDavalen LLC
This is an IBM created slide deck shared by Premier Business Partner, Davalen, discussing the new name and features in IBM Web Experience Factory (formerly WebSphere Portlet Factory). "The information on the new product is for informational purposes only and may not be incorporated into any contract. "
The new normal is the world we're living in; Slower economical growth, hyper growth in technology and business innovations and the difficulties to unlearn and change behavior fast enough...
An Executive Guide to Video CollaborationAvaya Inc.
In the past, video was dismissed as a costly and complex luxury that drained your network and IT resources, while offering limited return on investment. But with substantial reductions in cost and easier deployment, businesses can integrate high definition video - as easy to use as any consumer product - across the enterprise.
Riverbed - Maximizing Your Cloud Applications Performance and AvailabilityRightScale
RightScale Conference Santa Clara 2011: Database and application performance matter little if the application delivery is slow. Companies looking for performance, reliability, and scalability put proven application delivery systems to work in their cloud deployments. Join Raja Srinivasan and Jim Young as they discuss the features and technologies that cutting-edge companies are taking advantage of in their traffic management solutions for rapidly scaling environments. Learn how digital agency, Tenthwave, launched the “Stop Bullying Speak Up” campaign on Facebook using Riverbed Stingray Traffic Manager on RightScale to handle SSL Decryption and optimize cloud performance, and how Riverbed and RightScale have enabled Tenthwave to build repeatable deployments for their online promotions and campaigns.
Slides from our Lunch n' Learn webinar show how a Cisco Business Edition VOIP phone solution and related collaboration technologies deliver immediate and lasting benefits for companies who are not willing to settle for less than what they need to get the job done. We'll even show you some great financing offers to help make the transition even easier on your budget.
Request link to recording at: http://info.ali-inc.com/UnifiedCommunications_WebinarRegistration.html
Building an Adoption Plan: Turning it on(Part 2 of 2)Cisco Canada
Now that you understand what's included in your License agreement, it's time to get your employees excited to turn on the features and start reaping the benefits of your investment. The session will continue our discussion around adoption planning with best practices for employee training & engagement of your collaboration investment. This is a great opportunity to tap into your employees' creativity and empowering them to build new functionalities and applications leveraging devices they already are comfortable with. We will also review how to track utilization and consumption rates so you can reconcile your investment against the productivity gains you will see.
What's New in IBM Web Experience FactoryDavalen LLC
This is an IBM created slide deck shared by Premier Business Partner, Davalen, discussing the new name and features in IBM Web Experience Factory (formerly WebSphere Portlet Factory). "The information on the new product is for informational purposes only and may not be incorporated into any contract. "
The new normal is the world we're living in; Slower economical growth, hyper growth in technology and business innovations and the difficulties to unlearn and change behavior fast enough...
This presentation was made at the Future of Work Seminar held as part of the 2015 Vivid Ideas Festival. http://www.vividsydney.com/futureofwork
The topic is the City as a Campus and explores the role that technology is playing in blurring the boundaries between the home, workplace and cities in which we live and work.
Technology has become ubiquitous and the expectations for it's use are everywhere. There is however, a distinct difference between people and companies and not all technology is applicable in every environment. What is important, is to take the time to understand your stakeholders requirements and to identify what technologies are meaningful and will add value to your workplace environment.
When cities begin to think - What happens when buildings talk back?Bruce Duyshart
Presentation for UDIA National Congress 2014.
Imagine a world where the emerging 'Internet of Things' intersects with smart buildings and cities. Today, developers are faced with the rising expectations of people to be better connected and more efficient in their use of technology, yet buildings still remain one of the last bastions for technological change in our modern society. This insightful presentation will shine a torch on a world of possibilities in the use of technology in property and will highlight what lies ahead for those that are prepared to innovate and make a change.
Connected and Smart TVs herald a resurgence of the big screen as the heart of entertainment and information services in the connected home.
But what’s the role of the big screen within a multi-platform service? We share insight gained partnering with the BBC to design a new experience of news.
CIPS CIO breakfast presentation March 5 2009.
Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity – that’s the world we live in – it’s a VUCA world. This talk will explore how IT can provide strategic vision and dilemma management that will enable their companies to maintain sustainable growth during this tumultuous economic downturn.
The process of strategic leadership and decision making is more vital than ever, companies will either succeed or fail and it will happen faster than ever. As leaders, we cannot predict the future, but we can certainly provoke it by using a “foresight-to-insight-to-action” approach in sensing the future to compete in the present.
An educational presentation that explores how technology is changing the way people work together. Learn more at http://www.odesk.com/.
A video version can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8Yt4wxSblc
Dispatches From The New Economy: The On-Demand Economy And The Future Of WorkIntuit Inc.
From delivery, transportation and household errands, to professional services and consulting, the on-demand economy is changing the way people consume goods and services. It is also changing the way people work. Intuit and Emergent Research forecast that the number of people working on-demand jobs will grow from 3.2 million Americans to 7.6 million by 2020. This is a once in a generation opportunity to empower the future of work and a new face of entrepreneurship.
Dispatches from the New Economy: The On-Demand Workforce provides a detailed analysis of the demographics, motivations and challenges of workers pursuing on-demand jobs. The data comes from a study from Intuit and Emergent Research that examined people working via eleven on-demand economy and online talent marketplace companies. Study participants included: Deliv, Field Nation, HourlyNerd, MBO Partners, OnForce, Uber, Upwork (formerly Elance-oDesk), Visually, Wonolo, and Work Market.
Methodology
A total of 4,622 workers who find work opportunities via the platforms provided by the participating partner companies completed an online survey between September 11 and October 1, 2015. The results were weighted to reflect the proportion of workers in each of the following segments: Drivers/Delivery, Online Talent Marketplaces and Field Service/Onsite Talent. The weights were developed using earlier survey work that sized the on-demand economy. The largest weighted share of on-demand worker respondents from any single company is 16%, with most partner companies providing less than 10% of the respondents.
Social Customer Service Lessons LearnedAndrew Maher
Delivered at the Call Center World in Berlin in February 2012. This is a collection of experiences made by myself and colleagues during the last 18 months while working with clients attempting to blend their social interactions with their customer service teams.
Globallogic (Formerly Cubika), es líder a nivel mundial en Servicios de I+D, Consultoría y Desarrollo de Software. GlobalLogic cuenta con más de 10 años en el mercado, más de 150 clientes, 3300 empleados y presencia en Estados Unidos, India, Ukrania, Israel, China y Argentina.
Contamos con una amplia trayectoria en proyectos de desarrollo de aplicaciones basados en nuevas tecnologías en las empresas líderes de la región de las principales industrias (Finanzas, Telecomunicaciones, Manufactura, Utilities, Gobierno, Medios y Entretenimiento).
Nuestro liderazgo en I+D nos permite estar a la vanguardia en IT anticipando los cambios en las distintas tecnologías. Así, protegemos la inversión y logramos ventajas competitivas para nuestros clientes.
Agilität ist in aller Munde – von den einen abgöttisch geliebt und es soll noch andere geben, die sie nicht so gerne mögen. Jedem das Seine. Doch wie sieht die agile Landschaft in der Schweizer IT Community aus? Laden Sie die Agile Trends & Benchmarks 2012 herunter ziehen Sie Ihre eigenen Schlüsse daraus.
금융 서비스 부문은 극적인 디지털 트랜스포메이션을 겪고 있습니다.
경쟁적인 환경 속에서 급격히 변화하는 고객의 기대에 부응하기 위하여, 비즈니스 리더는 고객에게 제안할 새로운 디지털 가치를 혁신하고 개발해야 합니다.
트랜스포메이션을 위한 준비가 되셨나요? 본 가이드북에서 금융 서비스를 혁신하는 6가지 트렌드를 확인하실 수 있습니다.
What are the Innovative Mobility Solutions Driving Customer Interactions in A...Avaya Inc.
Demanding and powerful consumers, increasing competitiveness, and advances in communications technology are forcing FSIs to take a comprehensive approach to customer service. Find out which technologies will reshape interactions for both FSIs and Customers in APAC
What are the Innovative Mobility Solutions Driving Customer Interactions in FSI?Avaya Inc.
Demanding and powerful consumers, increasing competitiveness, and advances in communications technology are forcing FSIs to take a comprehensive approach to customer service. Find out which technologies will reshape interactions for both FSIs and Customers.
4 Crucial Elements of a Safe School Environment Avaya Inc.
One of the top priorities for educators around the world is ensuring the safety of educational environments from any threat - cyber, environmental or physical. Take a look at four concerete ways you can proactively build a safer school.
For more on Avaya Safe School technology, visit http://bit.ly/23cJaOZ
Engage with your customers in the way they wantAvaya Inc.
In this presentation learn why it is essential to have a customer experience management system that enables you to engage with your customers in the right place at the right time. Learn More: http://bit.ly/1ikP7pz
Franciscan Alliance Blazes New Trails in Healthcare DeliveryAvaya Inc.
Franciscan Alliance operates 13 hospitals and more than 170 medical practices across Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. Avaya Fabric Networking gave them the bandwidth they need to support future technologies and the flexibility to grow. Learn more: http://bit.ly/1ICcUww
Avaya makes it possible for more employees to use video everywhere with more devices, greater ease of use and low total cost of ownership. New and enhanced high-quality, low-bandwidth video for desktop, mobile and conference rooms help drive deeper relationships and productivity against shared objectives. New endpoints (XT7100, XT4300, H175 HD Video Collaboration and E159/169 Media Stations) extend the reach of Avaya cloud offers including AvayaLive Video.
According to a new networking study authored by Avaya, 82% of network outages are caused by change errors to the core of the network, a byproduct of legacy networking complexity.
In this Avaya infograph, learn how embracing simplicity saves time, and money.
This research set out to investigate the emphasis companies are putting on CEM and what steps, if any, they are taking to address this area. It also aimed to measure where customer expectations currently sit with respect to how they are treated by organisations.
Prairie View Networking Academy (PVNA) Embraces Powerful Avaya Networking Pla...Avaya Inc.
Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU), with an enrollment of some 8,500 students, is a historically African American university located northwest of Houston, TX. For students studying Engineering technology in Prairie View’s Roy G. Perry College of Engineering, the Prairie View A&M University Networking Academy (PVNA) offers skills and knowledge in the areas of telecommunications, computer networks and the data computing — preparing students for an industry that is fast-paced and rapidly evolving.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 3DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 3. In this session, we will cover desktop automation along with UI automation.
Topics covered:
UI automation Introduction,
UI automation Sample
Desktop automation flow
Pradeep Chinnala, Senior Consultant Automation Developer @WonderBotz and UiPath MVP
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
"Impact of front-end architecture on development cost", Viktor TurskyiFwdays
I have heard many times that architecture is not important for the front-end. Also, many times I have seen how developers implement features on the front-end just following the standard rules for a framework and think that this is enough to successfully launch the project, and then the project fails. How to prevent this and what approach to choose? I have launched dozens of complex projects and during the talk we will analyze which approaches have worked for me and which have not.
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and SalesLaura Byrne
Clients don’t know what they don’t know. What web solutions are right for them? How does WordPress come into the picture? How do you make sure you understand scope and timeline? What do you do if sometime changes?
All these questions and more will be explored as we talk about matching clients’ needs with what your agency offers without pulling teeth or pulling your hair out. Practical tips, and strategies for successful relationship building that leads to closing the deal.
Connector Corner: Automate dynamic content and events by pushing a buttonDianaGray10
Here is something new! In our next Connector Corner webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use a single workflow to:
Create a campaign using Mailchimp with merge tags/fields
Send an interactive Slack channel message (using buttons)
Have the message received by managers and peers along with a test email for review
But there’s more:
In a second workflow supporting the same use case, you’ll see:
Your campaign sent to target colleagues for approval
If the “Approve” button is clicked, a Jira/Zendesk ticket is created for the marketing design team
But—if the “Reject” button is pushed, colleagues will be alerted via Slack message
Join us to learn more about this new, human-in-the-loop capability, brought to you by Integration Service connectors.
And...
Speakers:
Akshay Agnihotri, Product Manager
Charlie Greenberg, Host
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
Let's dive deeper into the world of ODC! Ricardo Alves (OutSystems) will join us to tell all about the new Data Fabric. After that, Sezen de Bruijn (OutSystems) will get into the details on how to best design a sturdy architecture within ODC.
Neuro-symbolic is not enough, we need neuro-*semantic*Frank van Harmelen
Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as “predictable inference”.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Key Trends Shaping the Future of Infrastructure.pdfCheryl Hung
Keynote at DIGIT West Expo, Glasgow on 29 May 2024.
Cheryl Hung, ochery.com
Sr Director, Infrastructure Ecosystem, Arm.
The key trends across hardware, cloud and open-source; exploring how these areas are likely to mature and develop over the short and long-term, and then considering how organisations can position themselves to adapt and thrive.
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
4. 43 Amplifying Innovation with Partnerships
An excerpt from ‘Leading with Connections,’ published by IBM
87 Mobile and Web
49 4 Trends Transforming the Unified Communications Ecosystem
Michael Taylor
CTO, Strategic Products and Services (SPS) 88 Bring Your Own Unified Communications
Gary E. Barnett
Senior Vice President and General Manager
for Collaboration Platforms, Avaya
91 The Future is WebRTC
55 Video Collaboration John Yoakum
Consulting Engineer, Avaya
Harvey Waxman
Vice President, Architecture, Avaya
56 Dawn of a New Era in Videoconferencing
Bob Romano
Alan Johnston
Distinguished Engineer, External Standards, Avaya
Vice President of Global Marketing, Radvision, an Avaya Company
94 Case Study: Adding Features, Subtracting Costs
63 The Rise of Video-Enabled Innovation Will Power Corporate Growth
An excerpt from a 2012 Forrester Consulting white paper
Matthews Pierce & Lloyd
97 Case Study: On the Road, Always in Touch
RootWorks, LLC
66 Videoconferencing Goes Viral
Moshe Machline
Vice President of Marketing, Radvision, an Avaya Company
70 The New ‘Rules’ for Videoconferencing
Eric Lai
Editorial Director, Avaya 101 Customer Experience
72 Case Study: Genius of Collaboration
ETH Zürich 103 A Solid Foundation for Tomorrow’s Customer
Chris McGugan
Vice President and General Manager for Emerging Products
& Technology, Avaya
76 Case Study: Truly Unified
CBC (Cologne Broadcasting Center)
110 8 Best Practices for Customer Experience Management Today
Laura Bassett
Director of Marketing, Avaya
79 Innovator’s Corner 116 Would You Call Your Own Contact Center?
Donna Dawson
Psychologist
IAUG Customer Innovation Winners
124 Case Study: Top Customer Service in All Channels
3C DIALOG GmbH
6 | avaya.com avaya.com | 7
5. 127 Case Study: Building for the Multichannel World
Gepin Contact SpA
131 Infrastructure
132 Optimizing Your Private Cloud for the Collaboration Era
Marc Randall
Senior Vice President & General Manager, Avaya Networking
Parag Patel
Vice President of Global Alliances, VMware
136 Border Cop
Gilman Stevens
Director of SBC R&D and the VIPER Lab, Avaya
Gina Odean
National Director of Converged Solutions, NACR
140 5 Traits of Great Communications Service Providers
Michael Runda
Senior Vice President, Avaya and President,
Avaya Client Services
142 The Future of 911
Mark J. Fletcher
ENP, Public Safety Solutions Product Strategy, Avaya
147 Case Study: Weaving the Network of the Future
Leeds Metropolitan University
150 Case Study: Avaya Virtual Networking Underpins
Netherlands’ Schiphol Airport Luggage System
153 Market Data
8 | avaya.com avaya.com | 9
6. LEANING FORWARD
In short, a wealth of new, cost-
effective solutions are available
today, can be deployed quickly, and
TO EMBRACE
can begin delivering measurable
benefits almost immediately.
If people have choices and can see
a realistic path forward, they don’t
INNOVATION
feel helpless to manage change.
In this Annual Guide, we offer what
we believe is some of the best
thinking from outside and inside
Avaya and varied observations on
the choices available to enterprises
The Transformational Edge that refuse to be victims of
circumstance. In the lead article,
of Better Collaboration for example, Brett Shockley,
Avaya’s Senior Vice President and
General Manager of Applications and Emerging Technologies,
examines the intersection and implications of collaboration,
There’s something about a new calendar year that stirs the blood of even the mobility, and cloud technologies. You’ll also find perspectives
most jaded among us. No one who knows me well would call me a wild-eyed from respected research firms; insights from Avaya’s
optimist; I’m a pragmatist at best, even on the headiest of days. Still, I feel more customers, partners, and thought leaders; and even
buoyant about what’s possible for the enterprise than I have in a very long time. an academic view of the behavioral psychology shaping
business collaboration (hint: Technology is necessary but
Admittedly, the headwinds that buffeted us all in 2012 haven’t abated significantly.
far from sufficient).
The economic climate, especially in North America and Europe, is still profoundly
uncertain. Technology spending overall remains cautious, and in many parts This book itself is a collaboration, evidence of what we
of the U.S. federal government, spending is still sharply constrained, sending at Avaya call The Power of We™. I am convinced that
ripples through a wide network of partners, suppliers, and end users. Inside the the most successful enterprises will be built on an open,
enterprise, employee mobility and geographic dispersion continue to expand, mobile collaboration platform—the more diversity, energy,
while the “consumerization of the enterprise” is an irresistible force. and creativity we bring to the conversation, the richer the
outcome will be. No one has a monopoly on insight, but
In spite of all that, I’m detecting a shift in customers’ attitude. There’s a renewed
if we bring the right people together at the right time with
sense of empowerment, fueled by a surge of market innovation. Instead of
the right information, we can quite literally change the world.
feeling victimized by tight budgets, our customers see new ways to reduce
I hope you find these perspectives valuable, and I invite you
bandwidth costs, accelerate time to productivity, and enhance the user
to continue the conversation with any of us at Avaya.
experience. For example, midsize enterprises no longer need to devote weeks
to deploying a new UC platform—new midmarket solutions can be configured Sincerely Yours,
in half an hour. In contact centers, our speech pattern recognition and natural
language chat software can improve a company’s productivity and Net Promoter
Score® in just weeks. Business-grade video scales from conference room to
desktop to smartphone, with up to 83 percent lower bandwidth requirements
and up to 71 percent lower TCO than competing solutions. In fact, low-bandwidth,
high-definition business video on your consumer mobile device can pay for
itself with the first business trip you eliminate, and the second eliminated trip Kevin J. Kennedy
contributes directly to the bottom line. President and Chief Executive Officer
Net Promoter Score is property of its respective trademark holders.
10 | Introduction Introduction | 11
7. MEGATRENDS
“Unity is strength … when there is
teamwork and collaboration,
wonderful things can be achieved.”
—
Mattie Stepanek, Poet
12 | Megatrends Megatrends | 13
8. Today’s real-time communications
tools can be too much of a good thing.
Here are 3 trends that will help you
and your business regain mastery.
For centuries, the speed of information flow has increased. And for all that
time, people have complained of information overload. The 17th-century
German philosopher Leibniz bemoaned the “horrible mass of books which
keeps on growing.” Technology has accelerated matters. One hundred fifty
years ago, it was considered a miracle when the Pony Express delivered a
letter from New York to San Francisco in a mere 10 days. Today, we have
numerous modes of real-time communications at our disposal. But we are
still afflicted by information fatigue and lost productivity.
Fortunately, there are trends in communications and collaboration solutions
on the horizon that may help us regain control over our working hours.
Here are three that I personally consider the most important.
1. CONTEXTUAL AWARENESS IMPROVES PRODUCTIVITY
We crave being up-to-date. Who can resist clicking on the “new mail”
icon? This need to know is not new. It’s just never been easier to sate
(temporarily). Whether it be stock prices, sports scores, friends’ activities,
or inventory levels, there is a good chance the information is ready
and waiting.
AWARENESS. Yet, being hyperconnected is not as satisfying as it might have once been
envisioned. The connections can feel shallow, or out of sync with our
thoughts or needs.
SIMPLICITY. “We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating.
And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection,” wrote
CUSTOMERS.
futurist Sherry Turkle in the New York Times in April 2012.
Being connected without appropriate filters can also be exhausting.
Not long ago, our biggest productivity complaint was email overload.
To solve the problem, we created other modes of communication.
But those have splintered. It’s the rare person who actually has only one
email or one social network to keep track of. Between work and personal
accounts, it isn’t uncommon for people to check 10–30 accounts in a single
By Brett Shockley,
day. The problem, rather than getting better, has worsened. >>
Senior Vice President and General Manager,
Avaya Applications and Emerging Technologies, Avaya
14 | Megatrends Megatrends | 15
9. Business communications will also become
It is more than sources and modes, far more effective. Not long ago,
but devices as well. Mobile devices secretaries applied contextual simpler—and more powerful—through
have made text (SMS) messaging awareness to determine when to route software that allows us to dynamically shift
ubiquitous. Some applications are calls or to take a message (though
desktop-only. Others are tablet- they would’ve likely called it common between text, voice, and video. Even the
only. And don’t forget the physical sense). In this era, new technologies
‘power phone’ of the future will be less about
mailbox. You can spend all of your will be contextually aware, and aid us
time checking and monitoring in routing, filtering, and prioritizing. the number of buttons and more about
conversations. Our appetite for
information and communication Context hastens productivity just as a screen size.
has paralyzed productivity. map becomes more useful when you
know at least roughly where you are.
Too much openness turns out to Context filters the relevant information
be its own cage. Urgent messages for given situations, allowing us to
can arrive from anywhere, requiring quickly find the right people and
diligent surveillance among all of our right documents as well as monitor
communication tools since there is activities across modalities. The
no easy way to filter the interruptions. technology will evaluate relationships
Our tools are not working for us— and contacts, conversations, and
they put us to work. information and event streams across
devices and locations.
A temporary degradation in
productivity was reasonable.
As Internet, VoIP, and other forms 2. SIMPLE IS AS SIMPLE DOES
of IP communications exploded, Remember the thick manuals that
each required some experimentation. came with pagers? Or the hefty
Now, it’s time to get back to business. instruction booklets that came with
The menu of modes and options fax machines? These were complex
isn’t going to shrink, but the focus devices as evidenced by their
will shift to managing them in a complex manuals. But as our devices
smart way. In other words, business become more powerful, the manuals
communications must start to are shrinking and disappearing.
emphasize productivity over novelty. Consider the relatively thin pamphlet
you probably got with your latest
Spam filtering saved email from smartphone, tablet, or TV.
uselessness. But filtering real-time
communications is a much harder nut Intuitiveness and ease of use now
to crack. Simple filters, based on caller becomes as important—more
ID or keywords, are not sufficient. The important—than any individual
next big focus will be real-time filters feature ... and not just for end
with contextual awareness. users. Enterprise technology is now
following this simplified approach. It is
Context separates Paris, France, the key theme to many priorities and
from Paris, Texas, and Paris Street projects underway and will continue
(in Denver). Our documents, activities, to be so. Today’s organizations are
locations, and contacts will provide much less tolerant about complexity
cues to determine context. Awareness (and the training it requires). >>
of context will make communications
16 | Megatrends Megatrends | 17
10. Urgent messages can arrive from anywhere, requiring Users’ Future Plans for UC&C Tools Over Next 12 Months, North America, 2012
diligent surveillance among all of our communication tools.
1.
Our tools are not working for us—they put us to work. 42% 48% 6%
2. 34% 64%
3. 32% 63%
31% 58% 10%
4.
30% 66% 5%
5.
30% 64%
For example, the wave of enterprise across locations. Location will (and 6.
26% 59% 11%
virtualization was initially motivated now should) be completely invisible 7.
by the cost savings of being able to customers and colleagues. 8. 24% 65% 9%
to run fewer servers. But the true 9. 23% 59% 16%
value lies in the simplification of Simplification is also behind the
rise of software. As tech investor 10. 21% 69% 10%
operations, even as powerful features
such as high availability and disaster Marc Andreessen famously put it, 11. 17% 72% 6% 6%
recovery are extended across multiple “Software is eating the world.” He
n Plan to use more extensively n Expect decreasing use
platforms and services. It’s a far cry points to the industry and segment n Plan to use at same capacity n Plan to discontinue use
from yesterday’s dedicated servers leaders that, under the covers, are
and their dedicated cabling. Desktop actually software companies:
1. Enterprise social
4. Videoconferencing 8. Instant messaging
virtualization (VDI) is also simplifying Amazon.com, Netflix, Apple’s iTunes,
media tools 5. Web conferencing 9. obile soft client
M
the management of PCs and mobile Spotify, Pandora (entertainment), 2. Unified communications
extension applications
6. Shared/collaborative
devices while supporting freedom Pixar, Google, and LinkedIn. Even client team spaces 10. Audio conferencing
of device and operating systems for Wal-Mart, a real-world retailer, 3. nified messaging/
U 7. PC-based softphones 11. IP PBX
uses software to win a competitive visual voicemail
end users. It’s becoming the antidote
to the “bring your own device” advantage in logistics and distribution. Base: All respondents (n=263). Source: Frost Sullivan analysis.
(BYOD) trend which has complicated Hardware-based solutions are rigid.
matters regarding data security and Software-based solutions work hard
protection in the name of employee underneath to generate context that between text, voice, and video. about $1.50 per automated IVR
choice. VDI offers effective, non- makes things appear simple to the Desktop phones will become simpler (integrated voice response)
obtrusive management, encryption, end user. You can see this in television and more contextual. The “power interaction to more than $4 per voice
and control. sets, which even today feature phone” of the future will be less call, according to 2011 estimates
remotes that resemble oversized about the number of buttons and published by callcentres.net. That’s
Communications infrastructure can more about screen size. Or you sometimes perceived as too costly.
candy bars arrayed with buttons.
also benefit from simplification. can skip the desk phone and use Many organizations have streamlined
The Apple TV remote, by contrast,
By centralizing communications an intuitive application on a desktop interactions, trading customer
is mostly software. It only has a few
equipment and operations, or tablet. No more esoteric satisfaction and experience for profits.
buttons. But by generating contextual
organizations reduce the number of commands like “flash.” But competing on price is increasingly
and intuitive on-screen menus, users
servers, administrators, and other difficult in a connected world where
can easily navigate through a much
resources needed. This also simplifies greater array of content with little 3. HE RETURN
T customers can easily switch to an
the setup and operation of remote need for instruction. alternative. Customer satisfaction and
offices and remote and mobile
OF CUSTOMER
loyalty become key, and great service
workers. And workers benefit because Business communications will CONVERSATIONS
can build and maintain it.
there is no longer a disparity in the also become simpler—and more We all know customers are the
features available to individual offices powerful—through software. key to a successful business. Customer satisfaction used to be
or locations, nor any technical barriers Software applications will allow But interacting with customers is difficult to measure. Today’s customers
to something as simple as voicemail us to dynamically and easily shift inherently costly, ranging between are willing to share their opinions
18 | Megatrends Megatrends | 19
11. Non-Users’ Future Plans for UCC Tools Over Next 12 Months, North America, 2012
1. 22% 12% 21% 45%
2. 14% 18% 20% 44%
3. 14% 16% 26% 44%
4. 14% 21% 30% 35%
13% 17% 28% 42%
5.
13% 21% 25% 41%
6.
13% 18% 26% 43%
7.
12% 20% 33% 34%
8.
12% 16% 25% 47%
9.
11% 15% 18% 56%
10.
11. 10% 14% 29% 47%
n Plan to implement within next 12 months n Plan to implement within next 2–3 years
n Considering, but no plans yet n Not considering
and experiences more than ever in place to monitor services more
before. Unfortunately, they are sharing quickly, before matters get out of
this information publicly via social hand. Strong customer service backed 1. Audio conferencing 5. Videoconferencing 9. hared/collaborative
S
networks that empower them. by agile, proactive organizations 2. Instant messaging 6. Web conferencing team spaces
The balance of communications will succeed in the social era. Social 3. nterprise social
E 7. obile soft client
M 10. IP PBX
power has shifted to the customer. networks remain important to media tools extension applications 11. PC-based softphones
monitor, not as a means of satisfying 4. Unified messaging
8. nified communications
U
For decades, the contact center was a customer—but as a feedback visual voicemail client
identified with cost and repetition: mechanism to satisfy all customers.
checking balances, changing Base: All respondents (n=263). Source: Frost Sullivan analysis.
passwords, ordering parts, etc. Self- In response, the contact center needs
service solutions are changing the to evolve. Rather than simply a forum
nature of contact centers. Many—if not for resolution, today’s contact center Live conversations with customers are These three megatrends are reshaping
most—customers prefer automated needs to be proactive, not reactive. a great place to foster relationships organizational communications.
telephone or Web-based technologies Real-time diagnostics and monitoring
and build perceptions. Organizations They are powerful forces resulting
for simple tasks. When a customer tools allow contact center agents
are rediscovering the value of in improved productivity, commerce,
actually makes the effort to call, it to identify satisfaction issues before
customer interactions: that they and growth. Most organizations
is because the self-service solutions they become angry tweets or
are a privilege, not an obligation. can benefit from addressing them
have failed them, and they have a Facebook posts. Social networks
That means the agent of tomorrow in their strategic plans. One thing
legitimate need for human interaction. allow an organization to get
will be better trained, more that has never changed is that
This shouldn’t be viewed as a cost or near-real-time feedback on activities
empowered, and backed with more communications continues to offer
burden, but an opportunity. such as advertising and promotion.
effective and adaptable support a means for businesses to gain
Whereas customer satisfaction was This means that agents need to be systems. These agents will not be not a competitive advantage. •
well-versed in organizational tools the “order takers” of the past, but key
once just a matter of retention, now it
and systems, and have the ability to organizational resources.
is also a matter of reputation, growth,
and brand. Customers now have a easily resolve a broad array of issues.
global and efficient voice, and the And in cases where they can’t, they
potential exists for their opinions need effective and instant means of
and experiences to cascade virally. finding the resources that can. With
Listening to and monitoring social products, quality is measured against
media is not enough, nor is it scalable. specifications. With services, quality is
Brett Shockley is Senior Vice President and General Manager for Avaya Applications
Instead, mechanisms need to be measured by customer perception. and Emerging Technologies. He is an industry veteran with more than 25 years of thought
leadership in the telecommunications and contact center markets.
20 | Megatrends Megatrends | 21
12. HYPERTEXT TO
HYPERVOICE
LINKING WHAT WE SAY TO WHAT WE DO
By Martin Geddes,
Consultant on Future Telecoms Business Models and Technologies
Imagine a world where computers Until now, the free-form nature of
enrich our voices with superhuman voice communication has left it
powers; where voice is integrated disconnected from the mainstream of
into our social media just as text our daily digital lives. Machines are
and images currently are; where adept at processing stored symbols,
our voice can be used as a not spoken syllables. As a result, we
communication tool at its full have skewed our patterns of
capacity: simple, powerful, and communication to favor media that
rich. This is the world of hypervoice, can be easily structured and
where voice on the Web is as native processed by machines.
and natural as hypertext.
Voice captures our creativity and You can tag a moment in the speech
If Web 2.0 was about transcending so much else of our essence that
place, enabling us to become more
as easily as the piece of text you have
makes us different from machines.
interactive and social online through Our most emotive and memorable typed. Indeed, any and every digital
text and images, Web 3.0 will be conversations are vocal. Even
about enriching conversation Spielberg’s E.T. didn’t fax home;
gesture can be tied to its moment
through the human voice. instead, he found his voice. in the spoken context.
Voice: Gift or Demand? However, there is a tension in voice
Our Western culture is dominated by between being creative and
visual media. Nevertheless, the disorganized. Nevertheless, we want
human voice remains a precious and to structure voice so it is amenable to
powerful form of communication. It is the tools that amplify our effort and
the easy and spontaneous mode in make it relevant to our personal and
which we account for our day, make work lives. Too often, the use of voice
important statements, and express becomes a demand, rather than a
our feelings and beliefs. gift; it seems that there is too much
22 | Megatrends Megatrends | 23
13. In the same way that hypertext did
for text, hypervoice brings voice
into the era of the Web.
cost involved to create a structure, rendezvous and synchronous manipulating stored information, the totality of a voice recording into
and yet without some helpful communications. They are over- voice is by its nature live and text, purely to record and share a few
structure there is too little benefit. demanding of participants’ time, synchronous; we speak and await an key parts of a conversation.
given the customary practice of immediate response. Historically, as
Tempo and Timing attending the entire call. Typically, a result of technological constraints, Voice is Missing
though, many participants are barely voice has also been ephemeral. Now From Hypermedia
A conversation calls for the
present to the conversation; that computers can readily make and
participation of at least two people. We have thus far failed to understand
conference calls often run as store records of what we say, recorded
As the number of parties to a and work with the natural dynamics
background noise while executives voice as a feature allows us to
conversation increases, so does the of voice communications. Indeed,
look at their emails, giving the group increase the number of parties to
cost and complexity of making that the Web was conceived without
conversation the status of a sort of a conversation in a way that is freed
interaction live and synchronous. voice being a part of it:
corporate soap opera. from the time constraints of “needing
Despite our valiant efforts on
to have been there.”
conference calls, the quality of the HyperText is a way to link and
By contrast, we want voice to be
interaction appears to decline with access information of various
alive, to feel alive, and to allow and Hitherto we lacked adequate means
additional participants. kinds as a web of nodes in which
encourage wide participation in to index, search, filter, and forward
the user can browse at will.
conversations. Ideally the interested voice conversations. This has turned
Voice communication remains Potentially, HyperText provides
parties would be free of the every recorded voice artifact into a
patterned on telephony, with a single user-interface to many
obligation to be present for the liability rather than a digital asset,
its model of interruption. “Live” large classes of stored information
original conversation. We want a fast with the result that very few recorded
voice is seen as the ideal, and voice such as reports, notes, data-bases,
tempo, and functional engagement, calls are ever listened to or create
recording is presented as a managed computer documentation and
without the trouble of timing. value. Furthermore, our spoken
failure mode that is bolted on as an on-line systems help ... A program
words are often stuttering and
afterthought. This leaves us with the which provides access to the
dismal experiences of dictating or
Inclusion and Exclusion provisional. Key information or
hypertext world we call a browser.
decisions take up only a small part
receiving voicemail messages. In the past, the mix of computers and — . Berners-Lee, R. Cailliau,
T
of the conversation. Yet, we often
chatter has been unsatisfactory. 12 November 1990, CERN
Conference calls perpetuate take on the burdens of transcribing
Whereas computers are adept at
these problems of
24 | Megatrends Megatrends | 25
14. In the same way that hypertext did for that can arise from
text, hypervoice brings voice into the a true integration
era of the Web. However, Web of voice and text.
technologies like WebRTC or VoIP
are neither necessary nor sufficient As we organize the gestures and
to achieve this. It’s the content that responses that are our business
matters, not its delivery mechanism: conversations, we believe we have
How do you organize and flow value a choice of space travel versus time
around voice? travel. With “hypervoice” we
transcend that limit: We can associate
Adding Voice to what is said with what is done using
when, not where.
Our Activity Streams
Conversations are sequences of
How Hypervoice Works
“gesture-response,” and these moves
create an activity stream. These Hypervoice turns voice into a native
gestures and responses are much Web object, rather than trying to
richer in their forms than merely convert it into a text object. It works
spoken interactions and interjections, by tying together all the gestures
Our recorded conversations since we can also make parallel digital and interactions made during a
gestures—such as pulling up Web conversation into a unified whole.
remain impossible to index, The basis of the linking structure
pages and advancing shared
search and use. That leaves presentations. We make digital is the relative time in which gestures
our voice artifacts as liabilities, responses, such as taking notes after and responses occur.
rather than digital assets. someone else’s spoken comment.
When you make a note during an oral
Critically, these parallel activities are
separated from their voice context, conversation, the words you type are
with the result that there is no cross- connected to the words that have
relation between what is said and been spoken. Your typed note is
what is done. important, and therefore forms
relevant searchable context for the
The management of our digital voice. You can tag a moment in the
artifacts does not yet extend to live speech as easily as the piece of text
or recorded voice. Voice gestures you have typed. Indeed, any and
aren’t captured at all, or are captured every digital gesture can be tied to its
as whole recorded conversations that moment in the spoken context. These
have little value because they cannot hypervoice conversations can be
be searched, navigated, or integrated given fine-grained permissions for
into our workflow. And who has the sharing, searching and syndication,
time or the impetus to plow through resolving the privacy issues around
an hour-long recording in real time, in coarse-grained voice recording.
search of a crucial but tiny snippet?
To progress, we must create a unified If you have an agenda for the
activity stream, and enable richer conversation, this provides structure;
conversations and the collaboration as you advance through the agenda
26 | Megatrends Megatrends | 27
15. Mobility
items, the relevant people can be in our lifetimes will ever rival a
included (if not already present), and human voice’s capacity to convey
those transitions are noted in the rich and complex social and
activity stream. Those agenda items emotional meaning.
can also be rich objects, tying the
voice to its context. For instance, an Just as hypertext breaks and
agenda item might be a customer reconnects the place metaphor for
help desk request, drawn from a text, hypervoice separates and links
ticketing system; the voice segment the time elements of spoken
on that trouble ticket can then be conversation. As has become the
directly linked to the discussion case for all manner of text material,
about its resolution. voice will no longer be left to
languish in the limited context
Thus, hypervoice is a natural of its origination.
extension of the fundamental Web
TODAY’S 5 BIGGEST
construct of linking both to and from Hypervoice allows other non-voice
the conversation object, in a manner metadata and digital gestures and
that is suitable for voice. responses to provide the structure
COMMUNICATION
around voice, as a natural byproduct
There is value to the user in creating of our online behavior. By making
metadata for hypervoice, as it is a voice easy to navigate using these
TRENDS
natural byproduct of what people structures, it makes voice recordings
do anyway, and it transforms the useful for those who are not present
voice into a digital asset. This in at the live event.
turn makes voice material easy to
share, consume, and distribute, and Hypervoice is like being hyper-
there is no learning curve, no barrier present. It’s “better than being
to utility, no friction. By unbundling there” as it augments and enriches
voice from synchronous telephony our conversations. The need to collaborate is driving everything
(or telephony-like unified
Hypervoice is like being hyper- from social business to video.
communications services), voice,
intelligent. You can access
too, can become an “anytime,
everything ever said, with One of the first questions we ask the IT leaders who give us their time is, “What’s
anywhere” asynchronous medium.
unbounded working memory. the hottest area that you’re focusing on now? What’s keeping you up at night?”
Hypervoice is at the Hypervoice is like being hyper- 1. Mobility is always at the top of that list. When you look at budgets, about
Core of Communications organized. You retain the link 68 percent of the companies are increasing their spending on mobility, with
Why put hypervoice as the between recorded words or images an average increase of 20 percent a year. They’re spending money on data
central plank of your collaboration and their spoken context. services, they’re spending money on mobile device management platforms,
strategy? Because the conversations and they’re spending money on integration and getting unified communications
that really matter are conducted The future of voice is hypervoice. • applications out to those mobile devices. They’re trying to enable a much more
in the voice channel. No computer open model where employees can bring in their iPhone, they can bring in their
Android device—whatever phone they want to use—and IT can potentially
support it.
Martin Geddes is a consultant on future telecom business models and technologies.
He provides speaking, advisory, training, and innovation services to telcos, equipment
vendors, cloud services providers, and industry bodies. This article was adapted from a 2012 By Irwin Lazar
white paper written for HarQen Inc. Please download the full version at hypervoice.org. Vice President and Service Director, Nemertes Research
28 | Megatrends Megatrends | 29
16. much personal contact with others.
A social platform can give you some
of that. People are also starting to
see social as part of their overall
collaboration environment. If I’m
looking up someone’s social profile
and reading their likes and interests,
shouldn’t I be able to click on their
name, see if they’re available and
immediately send them an IM or
call them?
3. Another trend is the rise in managed
and hosted services. We define that
as any kind of third party you’re
using to support IT, whether it’s
professional services for architecture
and build-out or managed services
Managed and Hosted Services
for day-to-day operations. Almost
90 percent of companies tell us
they’re doing something hosted. And
look at the plans for growth! Forty
Social Business percent are adding more services:
lower level application integration,
mobile device management, social
integration, unified communications
That has been easily the largest can lose a lot of time if they start integration, etc. We’re starting to see
overall trend. playing games on their smartphones IT trying again to position itself much
and tablets. So, “Can I lock that device more strategically. The drivers are the
IT departments themselves have down so they can’t play those games, complexity of IT and finding staff.
slightly different priorities. Data or can only do it on their own time?”
If you haven’t really looked at managed
security is top of mind. What happens
services carefully, our advice is: Take a
if the person leaves the company? Can 2. Social business is about taking how
hard look. When we measure success,
I remotely wipe their applications? If people collaborate and communicate
a device gets lost, will company data through Facebook and bringing it
we look at things like cost of IT per Video
employee, revenue per employee, and
be taken away? The second part is behind the firewall. Building a social
IT spend per employee. Better metrics
integration with other applications. platform that your employees, your
in these areas all tend to correlate
Counselors with the
How do I make someone’s single partners, and your customers can all
positively with higher use of managed Veterans Administration
phone number ring their mobile use to collaborate and communicate.
phone as well as their desktop, or Being able to set up groups around
services. Companies that outsource are checking for symptoms
day-to-day support operations of their
enable them to quickly move calls projects, “Like” different things,
applications tend to spend less per
of PTSD in soldiers recently
back and forth or participate in video suggest ways of finding information
sessions? The third is kind of a gotcha. to others, form communities of
employee and have higher success returned from Iraq, using
metrics. In this day and age, when easy-to-set-up desktop
When people start bringing in these interest, etc.
talent is so hard to find, being able to
devices, they hammer the wireless videoconferencing.
The biggest driver is collaboration: leverage third-party services seems
network in the company.
improving the way people work to show some significant financial and
One question that does come up a lot together. The secondary driver is this operational benefits.
participate in room-based meetings.
is, “How do we keep our employees age of telework where people work
4. With video, the focus is on giving So I don’t have to go to an office and
from playing Angry Birds?” Employees from home and they don’t have as
people at their desks the ability to find a videoconferencing center,
30 | Megatrends Megatrends | 31
17. DO COLLABORATION TOOLS
BOOST WORKPLACE
COMMUNICATION?
A REVIEW OF THE ACADEMIC RESEARCH
SIP Trunking
I can sit in an airport, in a hotel room, that a lot of the vendors go to market
or in my home office and participate with the idea that if we just make it
in a video call with people who are cheap enough and easy enough to
in conference rooms. That’s the killer use, everyone will use it and it will
app right now. replace phone calls. That’s not really
what we’re seeing.
One of my favorite examples is the
Veterans Administration (VA), which 5. The final trend is SIP trunking.
implemented videoconferencing for This often gets confused in the
soldiers returning from Iraq. Soldiers market. When we say SIP trunking,
download a high-quality, high-definition we’re talking about how you connect
video app on their desktop and and make calls outside your company,
then have a videoconference with not how you connect devices internally
a counselor to determine if they have through SIP. What we see with SIP is
any PTSD (post-traumatic stress that costs aren’t really the big drivers
disorder) -related issues. The counselors anymore. What is getting people
interested in SIP is some of the things
can now see many more patients per
you can do with it. I can have a whole
day. They can help out remote areas
lot more control over how calls get
that were understaffed. And they
to me. I can route them to failover
can read body language and see the
centers. I can load-balance calls
attitude of the person with whom
across facilities. I can implement
they are talking.
SIP as part of a disaster recovery
Video is extremely attractive for scenario. Plus, I can take advantage
such applications. The challenge is
of SIP services in the cloud. •
Irwin Lazar is Vice President and Service Director at Nemertes Research, where he
oversees research on unified communications, contact center, and social business.
Nemertes is a leading research-advisory and strategic-consulting firm specializing
in emerging technologies. This article is adapted from a 2012 presentation by Lazar By Dr. Charles Law,
sponsored by Avaya. Assistant Professor, Penn State University
32 | Megatrends Megatrends | 33
18. Should organizations continue to rely on text-based,
asynchronous communication when research
overwhelmingly indicates that there are better options?
Anyone in the working world knows 126 emails a day in 2006, up
this: Meetings are as hard to kill off as 55 percent from 2003. Employees
a supervillain in a James Bond film. were spending 26 percent of their
Despite the mainstreaming of email time managing email. That was
and other collaboration technologies predicted to grow to 41 percent
in the past decade, senior managers of their work day in 2009. This
still spend about 23 hours per week enormous increase in usage has
in face-to-face meetings (Rogelberg elevated the cost of supporting
and colleagues, 2007). Seventy-two email to $17 billion annually today.
percent of those managers said they
spend more time in meetings than 2) mail wastes time. Jackson and
E
they did five years earlier. colleagues (2003) found that
employees are interrupted by email
The move toward globalization and about every five minutes, hurting
the reality of geographically separated the productivity of both sender and
teams is accelerating the move receiver (Wilson, 2002). Source: The New Yorker.
toward new forms of communication.
Recent research has shown that this 3) Email is not good for urgent
is beneficial for group task cohesion decisions. A sender doesn’t know if Here’s how it might work in real life. work hard to finish and send their
and performance (Shin Song, the receiver is available, nor if he or “Zestion” is a large Denver-based work to everyone a couple days later.
2011). Will emerging collaboration she will read the email in a timely telecommunication company. Sophia,
technologies continue to offer the manner (Luor, Wu, Lu Tao, 2010). who is the marketing director of However, neither Theodore nor
same benefits? In this paper, I’ll review Zestion, recently initiated a process Luciana respond. Theodore was
4) Email is not rich. It is not real-
action team to better understand sick and thought that Luciana had
the academic research on the impact
time, lacks verbal and non-verbal how customers use its products. The replied to Sophia, while Luciana
of email, instant messaging (IM), and
cues, and conveys emotion badly team included two members from the was waiting for Theodore’s return
video on business collaboration, and
(Cameron Webster, 2005). The corporate office (Sophia and Oliver), to reply. After three days, Sophia
suggest the good and bad things that
use of emoticons can help, though two members from the Houston office emails asking if they had received her
the use of virtual avatars and social
only if they are positive, as negative (Juan and Theresa), and two members initial message. Luciana immediately
networking might bring.
emoticons tend to be disruptive from the New York office (Theodore becomes concerned that Sophia is
(Luor, Wu, Lu Tao, 2010). and Luciana). They have three weeks angry at their lack of communication.
Email: Convenient, but Limited to complete their project and present She forwards the message to
5) Email increases the number of
Theodore, who still doesn’t respond.
Cartwright and Kovacs (1995) it to management.
“social loafers” and “free riders.” Worried about the reaction from
identified three advantages to email:
The former describes someone What happens if they use only email? Sophia, Luciana decides to do all
It is quick, it is convenient, and it is
who reduces his/her own individual Sophia and Oliver complete their of the work herself. The result?
inexpensive. However, as email has
effort when working in a group portion and email their work to the Poor communication, hurt feelings,
proliferated, researchers have begun
with the assumption that others will other team members during the first and a “free rider” (Theodore).
to note its disadvantages.
make it up. The latter is an extreme week. Juan and Theresa “reply all”
1) Email is no longer cheap. According
example of a social loafer (Karau as soon as they get the email and Although email use has been steadily
to the Radicati Group (2007), Williams, 1993; Lantane and indicate that they will be done with declining among university students
employees received an average of colleagues, 1979). their portion soon. Juan and Theresa since 2005 (Judd, 2010), the number
34 | Megatrends Megatrends | 35
19. The Good and Bad of Email The Good and Bad of Instant Messaging
Advantages Disadvantages Advantages Disadvantages
Easy-to-use Asynchronous Richer, synchronous communication Potential privacy concerns
Almost universally adopted Disruptive Cost-effective May be disruptive
Convenient Social loafers/free riders Indicates “presence” Potential drop-off in usage
Easy to send/receive documents Expensive to support Interoperability
of email users will still grow from for 5 percent of workplace What might have happened if the
IM-Using Workers (Millions)
2.1 billion in 2012 to 2.7 billion in 2016 interruptions (others being Zestion team had used IM instead of
(Radicati). While antiquated to some, 140 telephone calls, email, face-to-face (or in addition to) email? Sophia could
email clearly remains one of the most communication, and meetings). IM the “available” team members with
120
important ways that organizational her and Oliver’s portion of the work,
members communicate. 3) bandonment. Birnholtz (2010)
A and follow up by email with those
100
studied 21 IM users who had that were unavailable. When Luciana
80 adopted and then abandoned IM. receives the email, she sends an IM to
Instant Messaging: They believed that IM left them too
60 Theodore letting him know about it.
Getting Closer available (privacy) and that they He sends a message back to Luciana
In 2007, more than 67 million people 40 were often interrupted by people letting her know that he is sick, but
used IM at work, up from only 11 million with whom they did not want to will try to be back to work in a few
20 talk, or had a hard time finishing
in 2004 (Shiu Lenhart, 2004). While days. Meanwhile, Luciana sends an
data hasn’t been recently collected, 0 IM conversations. IM to Juan and Theresa in Houston
Radicati (2007) estimated that over 2004 2007 2011 letting them know that Theodore is
120 million people would be using IM
Source: Radicati Group.
in the workplace by 2011.
IM has several advantages. It’s real-
time. It’s richer than email. And it could be saved and forwarded to
lets users easily switch to even richer others. Those employees were also
mediums, such as voice or video over concerned that IM logs could be
the Internet (Anandarajan et al., 2010). saved and retrieved at some future
IM users can also know the presence time, leading to problems with
of the people with whom they are misinterpretations. Some were even
communicating. Finally, IM can be concerned that their “available”
more cost-effective than telephone, status could be used as evidence
email, and travel (Peslak, Ceccucci that they weren’t being productive.
Sendall, 2010). 2) nterruptions. Cameron and
I
Webster (2005) found that over
What are the potential downsides?
half of the people they interviewed
1) Privacy. Patil and Kobsa (2004,
indicated that IM interrupted
2005) interviewed employees their work. However, more recent
who use IM and found they were research indicates that might be
uneasy that their IM conversations overstated. Ou and Davison (2011)
found that IM only accounted
36 | Megatrends Megatrends | 37
20. The Good and Bad of Videoconferencing
Advantages Disadvantages
Decreased travel costs May decrease task participation
Effective in information gathering, Junior employees may find it
training, brainstorming, and difficult to participate
distance collaboration
Rich communication medium Potential privacy concerns
Synchronous May result in less participation
sick, but that she is working on their other meeting participants, and this
portion of the project. helps make you feel more connected
to them.”
But when Juan doesn’t answer
her initial IM, Luciana sends No medium is perfect, of course.
several subsequent messages. Olaniran (2009) interviewed
Juan perceives this as pushy and employees at a large governmental
domineering. Annoyed, he forwards organization. While 88 percent
a copy of the messages to Sophia thought videoconferencing was more
as a record of what he considers “convenient” than travel, 85 percent
“harassment” by Luciana. When had problems dialing, 71 percent
Sophia tells Luciana, Luciana is angry believed that videoconferencing
at the violation of privacy. So what attendees sometimes “lurked”
IM giveth, it also taketh away. rather than participated, and others
Newer technologies might assuage worried that videoconferencing
these problems. would completely replace travel.
Still other workers view
Videoconferencing: videoconferencing as a way for their
Richer and Richer bosses to track their participation.
Much of the attention on Indeed, some workers do clam up
videoconferencing has focused and participate less, whether due
on its ability to decrease travel to shyness in large group meetings
costs. But as collaboration among (Boutte Jones, 1996) or, according
geographically separated team to Nandhakumar and Baskerville
members requires audio and/or (2006), due to senior-level managers
visual cues (Bekkering Shim, 2006; exerting their authority in a way that
Wegge, 2006), videoconferencing makes it hard for subordinates to
may be the primary tool to which participate or contradict senior-level
organizations turn. It provides a managers’ ideas. This can be
very rich, real-time medium with counteracted. One way, according
much of the intimacy of face-to- to Yoo and Alavi (2001), is for
face communication. As Alavi and participants to have a rapport
colleagues (1995) put it, “You based on a pre-existing history
can see the body language of the of teamwork.
38 | Megatrends Megatrends | 39
21. It should be pointed out that existing well as make work more dynamic and The Good and Bad of 3-D Immersive Environments
studies are based mostly around engaging, and collaboration more
room-based videoconferencing effective. 3-D immersive environments
environments, not newer PC or mobile may also motivate and interest users Advantages Disadvantages
video chats. As videoconferencing more, as well as produce a deeper Decreased need for communication Learning curve
moves from the performance art understanding of subject matter
Rich communication content Increased need for network
of the boardroom to the intimacy of (Jonassen, 2004).
bandwidth, computer processing
one-on-one conversations, it’s unclear Decrease in social loafers
power, and graphics cards
whether these same issues will apply. 3-D environments seem to help high- and free riders
performing teams most, because they
are adept at using the environments
3-D Immersive Environments to read each others’ non-verbal with Sophia being present might collaboration. Similarly, mobile
In a 3-D immersive environment, cues and gestures (Montoya et al., also be decreased. There are some collaboration and video offers the
a computer generates a space in 2011). They also encourage equal hurdles: training, Sophia’s fear of new convenience of rich, synchronous
which participants can interact participation in teams, especially high- technology, and Juan’s insufficiently collaboration anytime, anywhere.
through the use of an avatar, or performing ones. Avatars aren’t able powerful PC. While these problems
virtual representation of oneself. This to “free ride,” just as workers in small can be overcome, they do pose As collaboration continues to go
mimics face-to-face communication teams can’t loaf off in real life. significant issues for managers. global, organizations will increasingly
(Montoya, Massey Lockwood, 2011) seek new technologies to ensure
by enabling non-verbal cues like How would this work for Zestion? that their employees can effectively
Theresa, who is shy and doesn’t The Future and efficiently communicate across
direction of gaze and gestures
(More, Ducheneaut Nickell, 2007). want to be on video, might feel more By 2009, computer-mediated time and distance. While it may
comfortable as an avatar. Theodore, communication accounted for be impossible to predict exactly
Others like Reeves, Malone, and who is recovering from his cold, can 30 to 50 percent of employee which technology organizations will
O’Driscoll (2008) found that participate from home and not be interactions (Johnson, Bettenhausen embrace, it is likely that the trend
immersive online games may promote concerned about the appearance of Gibbons, 2009). Face-to-face toward a richer, more synchronous
collaboration and communication, as his red nose. The power differential interaction is already in the minority communication medium will continue.
for many organizations and Will email and IM fade away into
employees, and may already be obscurity anytime soon? Probably not.
in the minority overall today. But should organizations continue
to rely on text-based, asynchronous
In addition to the technologies communication when research
discussed above, there are other overwhelmingly indicates that there
emerging tools. Take social are better options? Clearly, there are
networking. While Facebook can better ways to communicate and
hurt worker productivity (Nucleus collaborate if organizations are willing
Research, 2009), it—along with to evolve and adapt, and it is likely that
the business-focused LinkedIn—
offers huge potential for business
successful organizations will do so. •
Dr. Charles Law is an assistant professor at Penn State University and President of SMART
Consulting. He received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the United States Air Force
Academy and his Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology from Rice University.
40 | Megatrends Megatrends | 41