IP PBX/cell phone and VoIP-enabled enterprise apps are on tap at VoiceCon
Vendors at this week’s VoiceCon Spring 2007 conference say they want to extend the reach of corporate VoIP technology to mobile users, while making VoIP a more integral part of other corporate applications.
Products on tap from Cisco, Avaya and others promise to tie mobile workers more closely with IP-based messaging, conferencing and call-control servers. The potential benefit is a more-connected, more-mobile workforce – typically revenue-generating or high-value employees, such as sales staff and executives.
Other products at VoiceCon are aimed at linking VoIP more closely with platforms from traditional corporate application vendors, such as SAP, IBM and Microsoft. The payoff, vendors say, is the ability to make workers more responsive to changes in business processes.
The VoiceCon show, which is expected to draw 6,000 attendees and 130 exhibitors, runs from March 5 through March 8 at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Kissimmee, Fla.
The industry is well into migrating from digital PBXs based on TDM technology to IP-based systems. Research firm Infonetics says sales of TDM voice systems dropped 22% worldwide last year, while IP PBX sales grew 18%.
This transition from TDM to IP phone lines has been going on for some time. The products hitting the market now are pushing VoIP and IP communications to a new level, says Jeff Snyder, a research vice president with Gartner.
“There was never really a credible story as to why an enterprise needs IP telephony, other than the fact that this is what all the vendors are selling now,” Snyder says. “We’re finally seeing business cases developing where new voice technologies are helping customers do more important things” than just save money on wiring, long-distance or telecom operations.
Among the VoIP product introductions, Cisco is expected to launch Version 6.0 of its Unified Communications Manager – known previously as CallManager – with new mobility and collaboration features, as well as a VoIP server package for small and midsize companies.
Cisco is introducing its Unified Mobile Communicator client software for cell phones and smart phones, which lets these devices tie into a Cisco-based VoIP infrastructure. The software, based on technology from Cisco’s $31 million acquisition of Orative, runs on cell phones and devices based on Microsoft Windows Mobile, Symbian and Research In Motion (BlackBerry), and enables the devices to act as extensions on a Cisco-based IP telephony network, with regular access to all services and applications – such as conferencing, unified messaging and presence. (Devices are required to have both voice and data service plans, because interaction with Cisco servers happens over cellular data networks; voice connectivity is carried over the standard mobile phone radio network.)
Other Unified Communications Manager 6.0 upgrades include an expansion of presence capabilities, with support for as many as 10,000 users in a cluster of Unified Communications Manager servers. Previous support was 1,000. Cisco is launching Unified Communications Manager 6.0 only on its Linux-based appliance operating system this week. (It announced support for a Linux-based IP PBX server a year ago at VoiceCon.) Support for a Windows-based Unified Communications Manager will come in the next 12 months, the company says.
Avaya is launching a product and professional service, which it says can tightly integrate business process applications, such as SAP and IBM WebSphere, with Avaya’s VoIP, messaging and collaboration infrastructure products. Avaya calls this technology Communications Enabled Business Processes (CEBP). Avaya’s key CEBP product is the new Communications Process Manager, server software that acts as an intermediary between Web services-based applications and Avaya VoIP and messaging infrastructure platforms – such as Communications Manager (IP PBX), Meeting Exchange conferencing and Avaya’s XML voice portal.
The Communications Process Manager uses service-oriented architecture (SOA) protocols, such as XML and Simple Object Access Protocol, and can communicate directly with applications running in SAP’s NetWeaver or IBM’s WebSphere environments. The Communications Process Manager can be used to trigger several kinds of IP-based communication actions based on events occurring with SAP or WebSphere applications. For example, the Avaya server could automatically create a conference call with a predefined set of employees in the case of certain events.
Whirlpool, the appliance manufacturer, is looking into this Avaya/SAP bridge in several of its factory and warehouse operations, as well as in corporate offices. The company’s NetWeaver platform can communicate with the Avaya Communications Process Manager to initiate a conference call with production-line employees if the SAP system reports issues with manufacturing facilities or product quality.
The Avaya server software can be tuned to initiate contacts only under very specific circumstances or extremely critical events, so as not to “nag” manufacturing staff, says Brian Murphy, director of e-services, global development at Whirlpool.
On the corporate level, financial executives or the CEO could be contacted via a call, voice mail, text message or other means, in the event of major shifts in the company’s stock price or other corporate financial news.
Avaya also is offering professional consulting and implementation services for firms that want to build complex interactions between SOA-based applications and Avaya VoIP/messaging gear. The Avaya Communications Process Manager software starts at $88,000, and requires a prebuilt Avaya IP PBX, unified messaging, and conferencing and collaboration with Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) capabilities.
NEC also is expected to announce several upgrades to its Univerge SV7000 – a 50-port stackable IP PBX appliance, which can expand to as high as 16,000 ports. The SV7000 can now interoperate with a Microsoft Live Communication Server (LCS) 2005 and Office Communication Server (OCS) 2007 – a Microsoft server that provides presence, instant messaging, VoIP, collaboration and conferencing features. A new API lets SV7000 users initiate calls, conferences and other links to Microsoft LCS or OCS clients. NEC also plans to announce its Mobile Client software for RIM BlackBerry, Nokia E60/61 smart phones and Microsoft Windows Mobile-based devices. The software enables devices to link to a SV7000 and operate as IP phone clients on the NEC IP PBX.
Also tapping into Microsoft-based presence capabilities is Mitel, which is announcing new features for its line of IP PBXs. It lets users access presence information and other data from Microsoft LCS, OCS and Active Directory systems. Mitel 5330 and 5340 IP phones can now display user presence data, as well as Active Directory and Exchange directory data via the LCD screen on the phones. Mitel also is launching its Your Assistant desktop client – software that combines instant messaging, Web collaboration, and audio and video conferencing in a single interface, which runs off of Mitel’s ICP 3300 VoIP servers.
Other news from the show is to include:
• Nortel is expected to announce LAN switches – the Enterprise Routing Switch 2500 and 4500 – which provide Power over Ethernet and QoS support for IP phones.
• OctWare plans to announce software for users of the open source Asterisk IP PBX platform, which provides additional echo-cancellation features for the system, “a well-recognized problem in Asterisk-based systems,” according to the company.
• Spanlink is expected to introduce its Calabrio software for IP-based contact centers, which provides call-center performance viewing, reporting and monitoring features for Cisco-based Unified Contact Center products.
