Unfortunately though, many large enterprises are unable to take advantage of advances in technology due to old or outdated infrastructure and ICT technology silos. In addition, being locked in to one technology vendor often stymies the enterprise from being able to update the tools necessary to increase employee productivity.
For instance, something as simple as developing and deploying a new app is often a frustrating experience, as the enterprise must submit a request to the technology vendor for a new app to be developed, then wait until the vendor adds it to their development queue before finding out when to expect it. This often takes months, if not longer.
In the meantime, instead of waiting for the new app, many employees take the “shadow IT” route. They download rogue (i.e., non-IT-supported) apps that will allow them to move forward with at least some of the functionality they seek, even without IT support. While this work-around may provide some degree of productivity enhancement for the employee, wouldn’t it be better if the enterprise was able to either plug in existing best-of-breed third-party apps or develop and deploy its own apps without having to wait for a vendor to become involved?
Alcatel-Lucent thinks so, which is one of the reasons our new solution, Rapport™ for Large Enterprise, is generating so much interest. Rapport is a private cloud-based communications and collaboration solution designed specifically for the large enterprise.
With Rapport, the communications network becomes a platform for innovation, enabling the creation of new “contextual communications”, where fundamental services such as voice, chat, video conferencing and sharing become functions available to any application, website or connected object. “Rapport liberates large enterprises from the communications technology silos and proprietary vendor offerings that IT departments need to contend with,” according to Bhaskar Gorti, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s IP Platforms business.
With the Rapport platform, application developers are able to access the rich set of client and network open application programming interfaces (APIs) and simple software development kits (SDKs), allowing quick and easy development and deployment of communications services. This accessibility allows the enterprise to deliver innovative communications features to apps, websites and other connected objects, enhancing them with a communications-enabled, contextual communications experience.
Enabling Contextual Communications
Business today is global and 24/7. As such, employees need to be able to communicate with their peers, business associates or clients wherever they are, on whatever device they are using.
One of the most recent developments contributing to this is contextual communications – essentially, having the communications features you need embedded in the tools you use. However, in order to provide these functions to employees, large enterprises need to be able to quickly develop and launch these new contextual applications. Rapport open APIs make it easy to embed real-time communications functions into devices, applications and websites.
If you’re not familiar with contextual communications, here are a few examples of what they might enable your business to do:
Rapport’s REST-based APIs let applications developers create uniquely differentiated communications experiences, depending on the business requirements. This helps large enterprises better serve their employees and customers by building these communications services into the applications, websites and other connected objects they use.
Rapport also provides the enterprise with the option of either developing and deploying their own apps using the Rapport open APIs, or plugging in best-of-breed apps to help meet the needs of employees for the latest services, whether in the office or on the move. With Rapport APIs, it’s about the future of communications.
Unlock Service Innovation
Because Rapport open APIs provide easy access to rich communication and collaboration features, innovation now becomes part of corporate communications. Use Rapport APIs to add ‘communications as a feature’ to existing services and WebRTC client libraries to extend your services to the web. Create compelling new contextual applications with the quality of service users want. Rapport also offers large enterprises the use of our sandbox, a fast prototyping environment, to pre-validate and demo your application and WebRTC client with our Rapport cloud test platform, leveraging IMS technology.
With Rapport, instead of waiting on a vendor, application developers are able to develop and deploy the new communications features, services, applications and innovations the enterprise needs. By tapping into capabilities such as HD voice and video, conferencing, interactive voice and rich communications, developers can now build compelling new communication-enabled apps, helping to increase employee productivity and user satisfaction.
Summary
As you see, Rapport open APIs help the large enterprise break free of technology silos and vendor lock-in by freeing them to develop and deploy the contextual communications services they need, as they need them – instead of waiting on a vendor to tell them what will be available and when. By using Rapport’s open APIs, large enterprises are now able to develop and deploy apps in a real-time manner. What once took months or years can now literally be done in a period of weeks.
For more information on Rapport for Large Enterprise and how it can help your business, please visit the Alcatel-Lucent Rapport for Large Enterprise website or contact your local Alcatel-Lucent sales office.
Let’s face it, most large enterprises are stuck in a rut when it comes to unified communications and collaboration (UCC) solutions – and a 20th century rut at that. While these enterprises would like to be more in control of their UCC and ICT infrastructure, most are not sure where or how to begin.
Large enterprises typically choose a UC solution vendor based on one primary fact – that the vendor told them they could provide everything they needed. From an enterprise perspective that makes sense. Having only one vendor eliminates additional budget requests and cycles, reduces the number of people involved, and effectively streamlines the operation.
The problem is that choosing one vendor effectively locks the enterprise into a proprietary technology silo with that vendor. Sure, the vendor may be able to provide the tools the enterprise needs, but at what price, using what technology and in what timeframe? Instead of the enterprise choosing the technologies that it needs, the vendor is now effectively in control and dictates which technologies will be used by the large enterprise.
Business in the 21st century is dynamic. New technologies, tools and applications are developed every hour of every day that provide more new and useful UCC features and functions, enabling employees to be more productive than ever before. However, in order to stay competitive, large enterprises need to be able to react quickly to take advantage of those changes.
Being locked in to one vendor does not allow the large enterprise to react or adapt quickly to changes. In addition, older PBX systems are not capable of handling the demands made on them. Due to this, the status quo prevails and enterprise communications and collaboration are stuck in the 20th century, which often results in employee frustration.
To get around these limitations, employees often go outside of the formal IT system and bring/use their own communications devices (BYOD) or use 3rd-party apps that are not supported by IT (aka “shadow IT”). Unfortunately, these workarounds often create even more problems than they were trying to solve. However, thanks to Alcatel-Lucent’s new Rapport™ for Large Enterprise solution, the status quo can now be changed and enterprises can join the 21st century.
With Rapport, large enterprises now have the ability to react quickly to changing business conditions, break vendor lock-in, and provide their employees with the communication and collaboration features and capabilities they really need; when, where and how they need them. The large enterprise takes back control of their own communications infrastructure, eliminates shadow IT, and embeds the communications and collaboration features and functions needed into any Internet-connected device. Rapport effectively places a communications engine in the enterprise data center so that the enterprise now controls their own communications and collaboration and are no longer at the mercy of a vendor.
Rapport allows the large enterprise to replace their existing hardware-based or other type of solution (such as PBXs, audio conferencing equipment, soft clients, etc.) with a private cloud-based software solution. With proven integration of leading, open enterprise soft clients, desk phones and apps for full PBX features and more, Rapport provides full-service telecom network capabilities (including global routing, session management and fully-featured communications services) through one communications backend. The large enterprise manages their ICT infrastructure and uses their own IP trunking (instead of a telco’s) to deliver the unified communication and collaboration services their employees need across the enterprise.
Rapport uses open APIs and SDKs, allowing the large enterprise to easily integrate existing applications or develop and roll out new apps and services in a short period of time. No more submitting a request to a vendor, waiting for them to enter it into their development queue and then finally being told how long it will be before you receive it.
In short, Rapport is what large enterprises have been waiting for – a private cloud-based solution that lets them control the features and functions their employees receive.
For more information on Rapport for Large Enterprise and how it can help your business, please visit the Alcatel-Lucent Rapport for Large Enterprise website or contact your local Alcatel-Lucent sales office.
]]>I crossed the English Channel to spend a few days in Ipswich. Not to explore its beautiful port but to participate in the hackathon organized by BT, hosted by its Innovation Hub in Adastral Park (7th to 9th July).
Hackathons are flourishing these days. These are fast, dynamic, creative
events in which software developers collaborate intensively around ideation and prototyping with specific Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and on dedicated themes such as mobile apps, internet of things, home automation, connected car, etc.
BT leveraged our Rapport APIs and Rapport Sandbox to run their first hackahon. Rapport is our communications software platform, used by service providers and large enterprises to deliver voice, video and messaging.
The first objective of the hackathon was to educate the BT community about the power of Rapport APIs. The second objective was to demonstrate how BT’s Future Voice (FV) platform, equipped with Alcatel-Lucent Rapport APIs and opened up to keen BT developers, can easily create new value added services to improve the user experience and generate new revenue streams. The third objective was to test the process for BT’s external hackathons.
More than 100 BT developers, architects, usability managers and product managers, competing as 10 teams and supported on-site by experts from Alcatel-Lucent, worked for 3 days with passion, energy and a great deal of creativity. Using our Rapport Sandbox’s rich set of WebRTC client APIs and network APIs, the teams defined, designed and delivered many innovative service concept demos and prototypes! The winning teams built a "Safe Home" service prototype which brings together the Internet Of Things (IoT), and more particularly the home connected objects, with consumer communications.
Many senior BT executives visited the hackathon, including Karl Penaluna, President of 21C Global Networks and Computing Infrastructure at BT. Tim Shaw, BT's Director of Voice & Multimedia said "The Hackathon has been a great success. We have driven a change in our understanding of the potential of communications and have built working prototypes that demonstrate the power of APIs. We will use this understanding to drive the value of our propositions to truly exceed what the customer expects from how they communicate."
Thanks to Liam Connors from BT for the outstanding organization of the event! We are now looking forward BT’s next hackathon for external developers.
From left to right:
G. Duboué (Alcatel-Lucent)
K. Penaluna (BT)
T. Shaw (BT)
R. Baker (Alcatel-Lucent)
M. Duffy (Alcatel-Lucent)
L. Connors (BT)
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While the Internet and all of the technologies that have stemmed from its creation have served to make our lives easier in many ways, they can also be very confusing and frustrating at times. In these times, people have traditionally turned to call centers to get customer support. In today’s increasingly digitized world though, fewer people are relying on this form of assisted service. Contacting a call center tends to be time consuming and, often times, frustrating. Traditional customer support is not very well-suited to handling the millions of very specific questions that arise during device usage every day. Enter mobile self-service.
There are few areas of our economy today that haven't been touched by the growing self-service industry. Many, it seems, prefer to resolve their issues themselves. People relish the ability to “do it themselves” because it affords them a certain level of control over their devices and services that was previously not attainable.
A recent consumer survey commissioned by Nuance Enterprise found that a majority of respondents thought positively about self-service. More specifically, 72% of smartphone users surveyed said that they have a more positive view of a company if they have a mobile self-care app, and 81% will tell others about a positive app experience. In terms of what motivates them to use a mobile app, 35% said that effortless transition to a live agent from a mobile app is the feature most likely to drive usage, while 48% want more functionality.
It’s not just customers who are embracing self-service though. Many CSPs are hopping on the bandwagon and offering web-based portals and mobile applications that standardize the customer experience across fixed and mobile device platforms. These tools provide customers with a personalized, contextual experience for diagnosing and troubleshooting configuration and performance issues related to access networks, home LANs, devices, applications, and Wi-Fi.
Why are both customers and service providers adopting self-care so enthusiastically? From the customer’s perspective, self-service is valuable because it is convenient and flexible. It provides an “autonomous communications channel enabling customers to obtain ongoing support on an “anytime” basis”[1]. Users are able to address the issue from wherever they are using whatever channel is most convenient for them, whether it be a smartphone, a tablet, a laptop, the Internet, or within a website. This is being enabled by new technologies like WebRTC and VoLTE, which make it easy to strike up a conversation from anywhere. For CSPs, self-service not only reduces the cost of interaction with customers, but also allows them to collect more customer information to deliver a more personalized experience. This, in turn, drives higher customer retention, increases revenues, and positions their brand as being a provider of a comprehensive and personalized customer experience.
It is critical to implement these self-care initiatives without compromising customer satisfaction in return for the cost-savings associated with an automated self-service system. The self-service tools that are provided must be valuable to consumers in order for them to adopt them wholeheartedly. They must empower customers to transact how they want, when they want.
At Motive, self-service is something we have long been interested in. Our dynamic and innovative self-care products, like Motive’s Self-Service Console, empower CSPs to reduce support costs, accelerate problem resolution and exceed customer expectations. These tools also allow customers to pay their bills, access their accounts and schedule maintenance, all without having to involve an intermediary. After making Motive’s self care options available to a large European operator, 88% of customers that used its PC-based troubleshooting application were able to avoid a call to the help desk altogether.
Due to the increasing amount of human-computer interaction in our world today, many people are much more comfortable accessing an account via a self-service portal. Customers feel empowered when they are able to avoid bypass the middleman and just resolve their problems themselves. On the flip side, CSPs are able to cut costs, get a better view of their customers, and provide more personalized service. That’s a win-win if I’ve ever seen one.
[1] Gupta, B., Johnson, R., & Pramidi, S. (2005). The Challenge of Customer Self-Service in Telecom. Infosys.
The craze for WebRTC grows louder as its realization in the market begins to be marked with high profile adoptions such as in Google Hangouts, Amazon Mayday, and SnapChat’s AddLive solution. The formal standardization of WebRTC began in 2011. Early implementations by Google and Mozilla, on Chrome and Firefox respectively, followed shortly - beginning in 2012. And with the availability of developer versions of WebRTC on Chrome and Firefox, an ecosystem of proof-of-concept and early commercial products and solutions quickly emerged. Open source plug-ins are filling the gap in browsers that do not yet support WebRTC e.g. Internet Explorer. There is also clear progress being made in WebRTC standards for ORTC. Given this, we expect that WebRTC ORTC will likely be natively available on Microsoft’s Internet Explorer within the next 18 months.
Craze@Alcatel-Lucent
This is exciting to witness after having initiated Alcatel-Lucent’s WebRTC work in 2011. Since then we have come a long way:
In June 2013 we launched a complete WebRTC solution for telco and enterprise markets including client Javascript libraries, the WebRTC Border Controller and an ecosystem of partners with a sandbox providing a fast prototyping environment for WebRTC apps,
We played a key role in driving standards for WebRTC including the current 3GPP IMS WebRTC specification work, IETF MSRP Data Channel integration and ATIS ORCA Javascript WebRTC APIs for 3rd party development. Our ORCA API implementation covers basic VoIP/video call control, advanced VoIP/video call control, and RCS over Data Channel and is available through our Web Developer Portal and via github. The solution makes it easy to embed real-time communications into applications, websites and the browser,
We are also engaging with 3rd party app partners, building a vibrant ecosystem of developers, who are integrating their innovative apps with our ORCA APIs and backend system, opening up new opportunities for service providers to capitalize on existing network investments and to enhance the customer experience.
Craze@Telcos
With the growth in IP communications deployment and adoption of VoLTE services, discussions with telcos and enterprises have intensified. Many of these conversations are taking place at WebRTC dedicated public events such as Upperside’s WebRTC Expo Conference, Informa’s WebRTC World Summit and more recently TMCnet’s WebRTC Conference & Expo and IIR’s Next Generation Service Platform where Alcatel-Lucent hosted a VoLTE Innovation Hackathon providing an on-site virtualized platform with support for developers.
What’s clear is that service providers are now prototyping, trialing and integrating WebRTC gateway and services into their existing IP communications. This is happening even while open questions are still pending regarding use of plugins, building of WebRTC apps native to the device as well as in the browser, use of transcoding, federated versus island solutions, and technology maturity in areas of QoS, codecs, identity management, browser support, etc. And there are several reasons for this.
As mentioned by Stephane Cazeaux from Orange Labs during UpperSide’s WebRTC Expo Conference, the telco’s approach to WebRTC is primarily to pursue “access webification”, i.e., WebRTC enabling web access to existing telco services and improving the telco’s brand experience. An example is the New Conversation APIs enhanced version of the SIPPO Web Application Controller from Quobis, which won the first ever “fast tracking innovation” contest at the Conversations 2014 conference. It highlights the value of a common WebRTC client for legacy as well as new WebRTC-enabled services such as collaboration, B2C click-2-call, Gmail plug-in, etc.
But WebRTC doesn’t only make it possible for service providers to leverage the web for telco-based consumer and enterprise services (including B2B, B2C). Talking business strategies and opportunities at the UpperSide conference, Fabrizio Caffaratti from Telecom Italia differentiates the WebRTC retail model -- where WebRTC as a framework enables WebRTC distinctive and enriched retailed services -- from the WebRTC wholesale model -- where the service provider capability is to leverage the web ecosystem for the benefit of telco services (B2B2C) and to monetize telco WebRTC APIs exposure to third party developers. As an example, Apizee’s Web Call Center application integrates Alcatel-Lucent New Conversation APIs allowing RCS service continuity on the web.
The potential of WebRTC to positively impact IP communications is high. There are many use cases and business models being explored in both the consumer and enterprise markets. These scenarios leverage WebRTC for VoIP, video, and data channel-supported services. They include the use of WebRTC in browser as well as WebRTC implementations native to the device – providing a consistent approach to facilitate the realization of the vision for IP communications enablement of all IP connected devices, the Internet of Things. The possibilities are truly exciting and the craze is not stopping!
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Recently in Munich, Alcatel-Lucent ran a 12 hour Hackathon that pitted the industry’s best and brightest developers against each other. The mission: build the most original, compelling and marketable app using New Conversation APIs.
New Conversation APIs make the rich functionality of IP Communications simple to mash up into applications. By enabling developers to easily integrated voice, video, data and contact information into any app, service providers can innovate faster – providing entirely new communications experiences to end users from any screen, device and network. They enable operators to explore new opportunities for enhancing retail services and to pursue new wholesale markets through application partners (web, verticals, M2P, M2M…).
For the Hackathon, Alcatel-Lucent provided on-site the virtualized, commercial grade IP communication platform and APIs access through its WebRTC Border Controller, Converged Telephony and Rich Communication Servers. But the real stars were the developers, whom powered by pizza, beer and caffeine, brought the adrenalin, ingenuity and drama.
The Hackathon did not disappoint. The developers delivered highly original, compelling and marketable apps that run on IP communication serving as the foundation for today’s LTE network and VoLTE services. A panel of global telecom industry analysts, developers and operators had the tough task of choosing a winner.
Ultimately, judges named PhoneDeck the winner. Its developers used New Conversation APIs and WebRTC technologies to deliver an app enabling the seamless mobile integration into CRM Salesforce. The app significantly improved the work experience of sales representatives through a screen-pop displaying relevant information about the customer calling on the mobile; call whispering providing information from a previously scanned customer business card stored on the CRM; click to call back on the sales representative’s browser; mobile, multi-device call handover; and mobile call reporting.
Hackathon finalists included:
Such competitions ultimately benefit end users like you and me. It provides a path to creating a world where communications is more dynamic and compelling – one that connects all contacts and communications in the online and real worlds to make the act of communicating simpler and more meaningful.
]]>Businesses are always looking for new and better ways to reduce costs and boost productivity. For decades, they’ve relied on customer premise systems that are increasingly inflexible and costly for today’s needs. Now, voice over LTE (VoLTE) and cloud changes that old scenario, enabling the enterprise CIO to implement a mobile-first strategy that includes an ever-changing application mixture. It gives enterprises a way to cut costs dramatically for employees who are on the move — while setting the stage to enhance all employees’ productivity.
This opportunity is a generational shift for Enterprises and Service Providers. I’ll discuss the mobile aspect in this blog — the second in my three-part series on the value of VoLTE. You should also check out Bryan Davies’ blog series to hear his ideas on how you can meet the changing needs of the enterprise.
Who needs a desk phone?
That’s the crucial question in today’s enterprise. More and more employees are on the move. And they’re not just on the road, visiting customers, visiting work sites and handling cases. They’re also working from home much more, hoteling when they’re at work, or otherwise moving around the campus.
So why is the enterprise paying for all those desk phones — which don’t offer much support for this growing level of mobility? If their employees are like me, the desk phone is for the rare occasion when I’m in my office. And for the rarer occasions that I remember to check its voice mail.
Implementing VoLTE with cloud gives CIOs a way to address this growing inefficiency, so they can do more with tight budgets. They can implement it with a Service Provider, or by acting as an MVNO in partnership with a Service Provider. First, those costly, limited desk phones are eliminated for any employee who benefits from mobility. Second, it adds rich IP communications, creating multi-device (including web) conversations that blend HD audio, video, and modern messaging. Third, it equips the enterprise with an ever-changing mix of applications, where Communications as a Feature (CaaF) puts the conversation inside the IT application. The result is employees get more work done, wherever they are, while the CIO cuts costs. When analyzing that first step for a current enterprise customer, we calculated that VoLTE reduces their communications IT costs by 17 percent.
To get an idea of just how VoLTE contributes to productivity, let’s look at how I would use it on an average work day.
Simplicity, mobility and speed
Doing more things on the move
Once the groundwork for lower costs and higher productivity is established, VoLTE supports a variety of ways to communicate and use IP-based business capabilities. I think of this as an ever-increasing array of “cool stuff” that VoLTE enables. While that cool stuff was previously the domain of so-called “Over the Top” or alternative providers, VoLTE equips the enterprise and the Service Provider to innovate, because VoLTE combines cloud-based communications with nifty radio optimizations. It combines innovation with a simply great user-experience.
By providing versatility, economy, high performance and new ways to support employees on the move, VoLTE plays a crucial role in helping the enterprise cut the cord. The process can be as nuanced as the CIO wants it to be, because VoLTE’s cloud communications platform also supports fixed enterprises and unified communications. Or for a small enterprise, they might want to mobilize the whole staff and move directly to VoLTE. They’d simply be following in the footsteps of so many consumers, who have already benefited by cutting the cord.
In my next blog, I’ll talk about how VoLTE offers you the opportunity to reset the market with your consumer customers.
Past articles in this series:
Click here to subscribe to our series and for more information on IMS, VoLTE and NFV. To join the discussion, connect with Ed on Twitter and follow #VoLTE.
This blog launches our three-part series focused on the value of VoLTE. My next two blogs will look at how VoLTE benefits your enterprise and consumer customers.
Generating higher revenues
How does VoLTE help you earn more money? By opening up revenues in four ways.
1. You gain more capacity for data and voice, using existing spectrum.
A VoLTE network has up to 3 times more voice and data capacity than 3G UMTS — and up to 6 times more than 2G GSM — and that extra capacity helps you sell more data services. Nearly everybody understood that part. What most didn’t know is that VoLTE’s packet headers are smaller than unoptimized VoIP/LTE, so that more bandwidth is available for data services. For instance, in a cell with 200 VoLTE calls, 4.4 Mbps is freed up for data services. VoLTE also reduces the consumption of each cell’s control channels, so the cell can serve more users and increase throughput for non-voice data services.
2. VoLTE encourages your customers to use more data.
Forget about charging more for voice or RCS. Rather, VoLTE allows your enterprise and consumer customers to easily use 4G LTE data services by maximizing their time on LTE. This difference helps business employees stay connected and work at LTE speeds. For example, they can keep their existing laptop or tablet, tether it using WiFi or Bluetooth to their VoLTE smartphone, and talk & work anywhere, without the old desk phone’s limitations or ongoing operational costs. Consumers can multi-task, talking and browsing simultaneously. As a result, VoLTE fits perfectly into today’s demand for faster mobile broadband.
3. You can offer rich IP communications right now, including video calling and content sharing.
Video provides engagement and immediacy. It’s as easy to use as voice or messaging, so your customers can use it at the jai alai game or for closing on that sales call without the hassles or variable clarity of OTT video. Or those expensive enterprise room systems. And content sharing helps your customers use media (files, pictures, videos, location, etc.) just as simply and broadly as texting. Instead of heading over to email or DropBox, simply move the content within the call itself, whether it’s to your fishing buddy or to your conference call. And thanks to WebRTC, your customers can do this with anybody, not just other VoLTE subscribers.
4. VoLTE sets the stage for distinctive apps and services.
You can also develop a full portfolio of differentiated applications and services that give you a competitive edge. Our adjacent MWC demo showed just how easy it is, for you or your application partners, to build engaging new services using New Conversation APIs and WebRTC.
With Cloud Communications, these offerings help move your organization fully into a data-centric ecosystem. It supports a data-centric pricing strategy that lets you put the focus on data plans, reduce consumer churn with bundled communications and grow your enterprise business by helping companies cut the cord on legacy customer-premise systems.
The bottom line
What’s the result, when you add up all the business advantages of VoLTE? As the video highlights, you can make a strong case for moving fully to 4G LTE — and doing away with split-network operations and cumbersome services.
In my next two blogs, we’ll take a closer look at the advantages you can offer your consumer and enterprise customers. Your 4G communications service becomes the one that people use, when communication matters. Meanwhile, Jean Jones’ upcoming new blog series offers crucial tips for improving your VoLTE deployment, based on interviews with Alcatel-Lucent experts who have first-hand experience with major service implementations.
Click here to subscribe to our series and for more information on IMS, VoLTE and NFV. To join the discussion, connect with Ed on Twitter: @EdElkin1 and follow #VoLTE.
]]>Sure enough, upon arriving at the WebRTC Conference and Expo, it’s clear this is the same stretch of Cobb Parkway where I came every few weeks to the AT&T SDN Control Center – for 1993’s version of SDN. Then as now, better enterprise communications were needed. In 1993, the substance of the WebRTC’s conference was a dream, which now becomes 2013’s reality because of two decades’ investment in terrific devices, convenient broadband access and dynamic network cores.
This was a hot conference, full of diverse views and ideas. At our live demo table, variation was the norm. Visitors spanned from numerous service providers (AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Cox, Orange, NTT, etc.), to a variety of startups such as Dvisor Hypermedia who are applying gaming’s threaded media to communications, to industry notables such as Intel checking out WebRTC for consumer media units. Not many enterprises were visibly present, which is a concern because WebRTC will boost their business process efficiency (internal and external) and they need to prepare for how it affects their competitiveness.
WebRTC attracts innovative web developers, because it is part of a broader move towards a more capable web experience, as discussed by conference keynoter Google. Our WebRTC solution attracted its fair share of these innovative web developers, because we enable them to more easily use broadband carriers’ distinct value to reach the developers’ target audience.
A shining example of this attraction came from our friends at Vobi. Mark Castleman (CEO, Vobi) joined us at the conference in order to show his company’s contextual collaboration app. By ourselves, neither of us could accomplish what was shown. But together, we showed a sweet demo of how the carrier can answer the critical question, why do people talk?
In this case, Vobi’s app shows how to conveniently share curated content during the course of conversations. Face it; we all have enough email “conversations.” It’s far better to enjoy a new conversation experience that uses new technology to solve this problem of how people collaborate during their conversations. Check out the demo’s WebRTC video.
Mark’s team at Vobi used Alcatel-Lucent’s WebRTC solution. More personally, the way the folks at Alcatel-Lucent helped Vobi, is because we both have a passion for helping people communicate and we both know the carrier can deliver a more natural and fluid conversation. Check out this WebRTC opportunity video.
]]>WebRTC is giving apps a voice and operators new revenue opportunities.
I communicate all day long, but it’s always bifurcated between voice and the web. Last December's Consumer Electronics Show, however, showed me these two worlds will soon be merging thanks to a new technology called Web Real Time Communications (WebRTC).
Technically, WebRTC equips a browser with a standardized structure for communications clients, consisting of native functions for audio, video, and data exchange -- and that’s cool for the side of me that enjoys technology. Appealing to my business side, WebRTC is a catalyst for innovation because it reduces the heavy work of interworking clients between devices and browsers, and because it avoids the tedious download and installation of thick, heavy clients. That combination of technical and business niceties explains why fast movers in the industry are excited by WebRTC.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) coordinate the WebRTC standards, which have strong engagement across established companies and startups, including browser manufacturers, app developers, service providers, and network vendors. Already Google Chrome includes it as of Release 23, and Firefox begins to include it as of Release 20. WebRTC is happening, and it’s happening fast.
At CES, WebRTC was highlighted in a smartphone trends panel (on which I was a panelist) and in Alcatel-Lucent’s booth where I met with service providers and application developers. In our booth, demonstrations melded several third-party applications with our network technology, creating new service concepts by which service providers can earn new revenues.
When talking with service providers, their key question to me was how to stimulate the app developers. So I explained that during tradeshows two years ago, it was a big challenge for folks who weren’t intimately familiar with IMS and SIP. Yet, this year, I could easily point to five of our 12 demos where app developers used New Conversation APIs and WebRTC to simplify how their apps used voice, video, presence, and messaging.
The result was that these specialized app developers (who understand and have neat ideas about healthcare providers, proximity radio apps, digital signage, and fleet management) were freed to create a great app while easily incorporating advanced communications from an IMS service provider.
When the Smartphone Trends panel’s discussion turned to WebRTC, it was all about breaking down barriers. I think WebRTC will remake smartphones, blurring the boundary of how we communicate on phones and consumer electronic devices. Already I see that a key smartphone feature is the network to which it is connected, with LTE boosting usage and speeding the mobile broadband ecosystem’s innovation cycle.
The next step that distinguishes smartphones’ capabilities is the core network’s service control that bridges telecom and web. Networks that have it will enable users to readily communicate across any of their devices, apps, or websites, using the fuller human dynamic of seamless voice, video, and messaging.
When I look to the future, I see that that the service providers who can bridge telecom and the web are those that use an IMS that is equipped with developer-friendly network server APIs and WebRTC. Those complementary technologies turn a regular IMS into a platform for rapid innovation. With WebRTC, that innovation is extended from things that look like phones to any consumer electronic device that has a browser. The result is a remake of the service providers’ competitive field, enabling them to re-engage consumers, enterprises, and app developers. That’s the excitement, and it’s driving a lot of fast movers.
Bridging telecom and the web is a challenge, but the rewards are huge because it moves communications from being a traditional service to communications as a feature inside of apps, websites, and browsers, changing the way we think about communications altogether.
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