WebRTC

Rapport Open APIs Increase Employee Productivity

Edited By Peter Bernstein on August 31, 2015

By: Richard Hatheway, Director, Enterprise Communications Product Marketing, Rapport for Large Enterprise, Alcatel-Lucent

What is one of the biggest factors affecting employee productivity today? Recent studiesby the National Business Research Institute and the Pew Research Center indicate that not having the right technology tools to do their jobs is one of the most critical. From something as simple as having a cell phone to as advanced as having a customized app, having the right tool provides employees with a productivity boost.

Unfortunately though, many large enterprises are unable to take advantage of advances in technology due to old or outdated infrastructure and ICT technology silos.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.

Posted in Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Business Talk, Customer Experience, Enterprise, IP Platforms, Next-Generation Communications, WebRTC

UCC for the 21st Century

Edited By Peter Bernstein on August 10, 2015

By Richard Hatheway, Director, Enterprise Communications Product Marketing – Rapport for Large Enterprise, Alcatel-Lucent

Let’s face it, most large enterprises are stuck in a rut when it comes to unified communications and collaboration (UCC) solutions – and a 20^th 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.

Posted in Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Customer Experience, Enterprise, Next-Generation Communications, WebRTC

BT leverages the power of Rapport™ APIs to drive service innovation in a 3 days hackathon

Edited By Peter Bernstein on August 4, 2015

By: Gilles Duboué, Marketing Director, Communications and Collaboration, IP Platforms, Alcatel-Lucent

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 (7^th to 9^th July).

ALU.8.4.15.a.jpg 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.

Posted in Alcatel-Lucent Corporate News, Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Customer Experience, IP Platforms, Next-Generation Communications, WebRTC

Helping Customers Help Themselves: The Era of Self-Service

Edited By Peter Bernstein on December 8, 2014

By: Jessica Verbruggen, Integrated Marketing Assistant at Alcatel-Lucent Motive

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.

Posted in A New Conversation Experience, Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Customer Care, Customer Experience, Mobile Marketing, Next-Generation Communications, VoLTE, WebRTC, Wireless

The WebRTC Craze

Edited By Peter Bernstein on July 21, 2014

Blog post is co-written by Anne Lee, Chief Technology Officer of IMS Innovations at Alcatel-Lucent and recently recognized by the industry as a WebRTC pioneer and by Gilles Duboué, IP Platforms Innovation Marketing at Alcatel-Lucent.

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.

Posted in A New Conversation Experience, Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Business Talk, Enterprise, Next-Generation Communications, VoLTE, WebRTC

Hackathon Generates New Conversations, New Applications and Potential Revenue Opportunities

Edited By Peter Bernstein on June 24, 2014

By: Gilles Duboué, IP Platforms Innovation Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent

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…).

Posted in A New Conversation Experience, Alcatel-Lucent Corporate News, Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Business Talk, Customer Experience, Enterprise, Next-Generation Communications, VoLTE, WebRTC

The Secret Value of VoLTE -- Helping Enterprises Cut the Cord

Edited By Peter Bernstein on April 25, 2014

By Ed Elkin, Director, IP Platforms Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent

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.

Posted in Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Broadband, Business Talk, LTE, Next-Generation Communications, VoLTE, WebRTC, Wireless

The Secret Value of VoLTE

Edited By Peter Bernstein on April 10, 2014

By Ed Elkin, Director, IP Platforms Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent

At Mobile World Congress, I discovered that many network providers still aren’t aware of the broader business values of voice over LTE (VoLTE). Most knew it readily includes HD voice for clearer calls and reduced background noise, which lets you feel like you’re standing right next to the other person. Most didn’t realize that, in unexpected ways, VoLTE helps them earn more money and increase efficiency.

Posted in A New Conversation Experience, Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Business Talk, Mobile Data, Mobile Marketing, Next-Generation Communications, WebRTC, Wireless

WebRTC Event Highlights the New Era of Communications

Edited By Peter Bernstein on July 23, 2013

By: Ed Elkin, Marketing Director, Advanced Communication Solutions, Alcatel-Lucent

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.

Posted in A New Conversation Experience, Bell Labs Innovation, Customer Experience, Next-Generation Communications, WebRTC

WebRTC: Where Telecom Meets the Web

Edited By Peter Bernstein on June 11, 2013

By Ed Elkin, Marketing Director, Advanced Communication Solutions, Alcatel-Lucent

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.

Posted in A New Conversation Experience, Alcatel-Lucent Technology News, Next-Generation Communications, Social Media, WebRTC

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