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IDC recently released a report with some astonishing figures on mobile workers, forecasting more than 1 billion worldwide by the end of 2010. But wait – Google took it one further, with the director of its European operations stating that desktop PCs will be “irrelevant in three years” (reported here in Read, Write, Web). And, as the same report identifies, this sentiment aligns with what Google’s CEO discussed in his keynote at Mobile World Congress, when he made it clear that a primary focus for Google going forward will be on the mobile market.
While three years seems dramatically soon for desktop PCs to disappear, it’s clear that we have reached a tipping point of sorts for advanced communications technology tools and services. There is no denying the impact VoIP has had on this explosion and its role in providing seamless, hassle-free remote access. Many work places have implemented enhanced, formal telecommuting policies and are encouraging employees to take advantage of them. A central part of this equation is unified communications.
We’ve been singing the praises of UC for quite some time, drawing attention to the practical applications and ROI of its integration aspects. For BroadSoft employees, UC was a lifeline during the recent Snowmageddon of 2010, allowing us to maintain productivity and not skip a beat over several days in which none, or few, of us were able to commute into the “office.”
As the world gets flatter and the demand to work remotely increases, we can expect to see a number of trends on the rise (besides more workers going mobile and the end of dinosaur PC’s under cubicle desks), including more businesses turning to SIP Trunking and dramatic increases in hosted UC deployments. A CDW survey, reported by TMCnet supports this, showing that many companies have already experienced increased ROI from UC.
The bottom line to all of this is that in the not too distant future, we can expect almost all businesses to offer telecommuting options, often supported by hosted UC tools and services, just as today they provide employees computers and internet access.
In case you missed the recent news from Alcatel-Lucent, the telecommunications equipment maker is the latest to throw its hat in the applications ring. GigaOm offers a good overview of both the future potential and current shortcomings of this new offering.
From a high-level, the primary benefit is tied to the open APIs that will allow developers to tap the assets within service-provider networks. If all goes according to plan – the groups will then be able to work together to differentiate their applications and build new revenue streams. However at the moment, the options are limited and only mobile location applications are supported.
BroadSoft is quite a few steps ahead in the application marketplace arena. While we both use a RESTful API architecture, that is where the similarities end. With a full 18 months under our belts, the BroadSoft Xtended program has attracted more than 2,000 developers. Plus our platform enables applications that integrate with business-process software, mobile clients, desk phones and other devices to offer a much broader range of applications.
Alcatel’s marketplace-deployment model is also quite different than ours —they give service providers a gallery of applications and then point you to the developer. And as we announced just this past quarter at our annual users conference, we now have complete ecommerce enablement of our marketplace. Consumers can now download apps directly and start using them. Here are a few very cool examples of apps that can be found on the BroadSoft Marketplace, which were unveiled at our annual users’ conference in our always popular “Show Me the Apps” session:
- Microsoft CRM intergration – this full-service CRM app, delivers streamlined communications options for users that enable them to quickly find and communicate with the right person, improving work flow and, more importantly, customer satisfaction.
- Our app that integrates with Mobile Max extends real-time communications to the mobile device with one number, one device, and one address book.
- JoeDevloper’s app transcribes voice messages to text and email,and enables users to search messages by keyword in their inboxes.
In short, our business model is creating integrated, real-time communication options that you can quickly take to market, delivering a superior communication experience to consumers. That’s where apps are more than just the next big thing – they are a real game changer.
IMS has emerged as the industry’s leading architecture for next-generation networks. It has been adopted by the cable, wireline and wireless standards bodies as the reference architecture for all communications applications. Such unanimous accord is a first in the history of the industry.
The value of IMS is in providing a single network for any access supporting multiple services. Given the complexity of communications networks, it’s really the only way to successfully launch new applications and ensure low operating costs.
For BroadSoft and our customers, IMS provides defined interfaces that ensure interoperability in multi-vendor networks and across different service providers. We are seeing service providers using IMS for innovative services on new broadband access.
Where We Are and Where We’re Going
Today IMS is focused on basic services that mainly replicate PSTN services. Looking forward, the true value of IMS is enabling a richer set of services—which will include things like IPTV, messaging, presence and gaming—and driving new revenue streams.
We are already seeing service providers using IMS to deliver rich services, and expect this to become the norm, in the very near future. This will look something like this:
- Voice moves to rich media including high-definition voice, video, enhanced messaging, presence and content-sharing.
- Fixed broadband moves to fixed-and-mobile broadband—all access is IP, and the applications are access-independent.
- Basic service moves to a set of advanced, integrated services that offer a seamless user experience.
- All siloed networks move to a single core network for all access types.
IMS is quickly migrating to multimedia and multiservice applications with end users taking advantage of feature-rich, high-value services.
BroadSoft Tackles IMS’s Toughest Challenges
This evolution is putting some IMS design principles to the test. Specifically there are two key challenges: 1) service orchestration and 2) service data management.
Today’s standard service orchestration model is very basic and very limited—well suited for loose integration of some applications but ill suited for more complex blending of services. Most service orchestration issues aren’t apparent until integration—a point where it may be too late to address them.
We’re working closely with service providers and third-party application vendors to simplify service orchestration for common-use cases that we’ve experienced and those we expect to see in the future.
Service-data management also poses some tough challenges in multi-service offerings. If every application requires its own data and exposes a separate provisioning interface, the need to maintain multiple subscriber databases drives up operating costs.
Many service providers are now looking toward centralizing their subscriber provisioning and service data. In this scenario all user-centric application data is hosted on the home subscriber server (HSS).
We have a number of key customers who are designing network architectures in which all user profile and service data is stored in a central repository.
BroadSoft is the leading IMS application server vendor. By focusing on the hard problems and working closely with our customers, we will continue to lead the industry’s evolution.
With a 10X increase in transmission speeds and a significantly lower cost per bit, Long-term Evolution (LTE) represents a tremendous opportunity for operators given the prospect of converting more than 4 billion mobile subscribers worldwide to 4G or fourth-generation technology. The evolution in wireless communications is driving operators to change the way voice services are delivered.
Voice over LTE is an important topic for providers today. LTE is all about data so trafficking circuit-based voice services onto IP networks is a big issue. There are a number of technical and business challenges associated with Voice over LTE. While there are questions over when Voice over LTE will be deployed, one of the big technical impediments until recently was a unified standard.
A few weeks ago a consortium of service providers, equipment vendors and device manufacturers came together in support of a standard for delivering voice and SMS services on LTE networks, One Voice. The One Voice specification will use components of the existing IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) framework (which already defines how to provide data, voice and multimedia content over IP) to route voice calls between circuit switched and IP networks…meaning LTE mobile calls will become VoIP calls.
Prior to One Voice, a competing approach — the VoLGA (Voice over LTE via Generic Access) initiative — was put forth as an interim LTE voice solution using existing circuit-switched networks …instead of IMS. VoLGA supporters claim this would allow operators to get there sooner rather than later. While we understand the problems VoLGA attempted to address, we think they’re greatly exaggerated. Since the One Voice announcement, many in the industry are now questioning the livelihood of VoLGA.
In our opinion, VoLGA’s time has passed. Here’s why…
- T-Mobile is the only operator backing VoLGA. Now compare that to the list of heavy hitters behind One Voice…AT&T, Orange, Telefonica, TeliaSonera, Verizon, and Vodafone.
- The addressable market for VoLGA is minuscule compared to that of One Voice. Handset manufacturers and network equipment vendors follow the lead of service providers. Given the first point, it is obvious where the opportunity is.
- Given VoLGA is a temporary solution, vendors are not likely to invest in it — innovation will occur with One Voice though.
- IMS is MORE mature than what VoLGA proponents pushed. BroadSoft has more than 50 live IMS deployments worldwide and with an inside view of 450+ providers’ network roadmaps, we can validate this is real. Many carriers in the US and most European providers have already deployed IMS.
As providers continue to lose landline assets and look to collapse their networks into one, IMS is critical. Since IMS simultaneously serves broadband wireline and LTE wireless networks, this provides operators with a path to service convergence. Fixed-line providers have been moving in this direction for some, and now converged and mobile operators need to follow suit. This is huge opportunity for them.
BroadSoft believes One Voice is the best approach for delivering voice and SMS services on LTE networks and will help accelerate the process of moving to all-IP. Providers should not be sidetracked with an interim solution that doesn’t address the primary goal.
UPDATE – It’s really dead now – Ericsson leaves VoLGA Forum, from Unsprung: http://bit.ly/4nSnAI
In the coming months, cloud-based enhanced services like Google Voice are poised to fundamentally change the landscape of the communications industry. This presents both a threat and opportunity to traditional, mobile and fixed line carriers, faced with decisions about adjusting their strategies in this new environment.
BroadSoft sees several possibilities:
- Resale – The traditional service provider engages in a resell arrangement with Google for Google Voice.
- Replicate – The traditional service provider replicates the Google Voice functionality and delivers a comparable offer.
- Differentiate – The traditional service provider combines the concept of Google Voice with assets that are unique to them.
The last option is obviously the one we recommend…. because there is a clear path for providers to pursue. Here’s why: while Google Voice certainly has a number of things going for it – the Google brand and the free factor being the most compelling, as well as integration with Google apps –there are a number of ways in which it falls short.
The most obvious is the need for a new phone number—an obstacle for both businesses and consumers. Another hurdle for both groups is the clunky factor—created by the fact that most Google Voice activities (voice call and SMS) need to be initiated through the web portal. The solution also lacks several important business features such as auto attendant, attendant consoles and corporate directories.
When you put these factors together and then consider the existing strengths that providers bring to the table – the trust factor, a proven track record of reliable service, and a traditional customer support model – service providers are well positioned to use the buzz and demand that Google Voice is creating to their own advantage.
Google Voice is not a passing fad – it’s going to catapult the market into wanting and soon after, needing enhanced VoIP services delivered from the “Cloud”. But who better to deliver on this promise than the service providers who have been doing this in small pockets for a more than a decade?
If you are not familiar with super blogger Andy Abramson’s Voice 3.0 Manifesto – I recommend you take a look at an interesting blog post from Alec Saunders’s SquawkBox that crisply captures the premise. At a high-level, the concept centers on three main tenets – the given being that carriers will survive. Second – they must change, even more than they have, what they offer customers. And lastly – and perhaps most importantly is that they need to see their platform – as just that – a foundation for applications that enhance both business and personal communications. This means it’s time they boost their interest in working with and supporting the third-party developers who bring these applications to market.
The good news is that many providers are already embracing this – not just the newer next-gen service providers– large Tier 1 operators like Orange have been early adopters in this area.
However getting to the next level will take work and several significant commitments on the part of carriers. First, they must open their networks, then they need to create channels that provide an easy path for developers to connect with them, and lastly, they must make the user experience the top priority. Let me expand on each point.
Open Carrier Networks — This is a critical requirement. A carrier network can’t be a platform unless it’s architected as such, obviously. BroadSoft supports the “carrier is the platform” requirement via the technology leg of the BroadSoft Xtended program. Fully-documented RESTful APIs built into the core platform allow a BroadWorks-powered service provider to enrich their offer with external applications.
Linking Developers and Service Providers — Linking developers and service providers is also of great importance since very few providers will have the time, resources or interest in developing all of the apps consumers and businesses are demanding. Some providers, like Comcast, are acquiring applications (see their Plaxo acquisition), others have the internal R&D staff to write their own applications, but the reality is that because of limited engineering resources and lack of domain-specific knowledge, most service providers will need to partner with third-party developers to bring apps to market.
BroadSoft supports this ‘meet up’ of service providers and developers through the second and third legs of BroadSoft Xtended – a Developer’s Program that gives developers all the code, documentation, and test beds needed to build innovative apps, and an e-commerce-enabled Marketplace that allows service providers to launch their own apps stores with third-party apps sourced through the Xtended program.
The User Experience — Finally, the user experience is ultimately what drives success…it’s not the technology mash-up. What BroadSoft brings to the table is not only Xtended-powered integration into the Apps service providers’ customers use every day (Microsoft Office, Salesforce.com, Sametime, and on and on), but also integration into the Devices their customers use every day (video phones, mobile phones, smartphones, IP phones, televisions, and cool new devices like the ‘fourth screen’ by Openpeak shown at Connections). Our ecosystem, and unique relationships with device vendors, means we’re committed to making sure innovative communications apps aren’t web-only, but are tightly integrated into the myriad of devices used today…to ensure a seamless user experience.
We expanded on these concepts at our executive users’ conference last week, Connections 2009, demonstrating how the integration of Web 2.0 technology, independent developers, and devices result in compelling apps and a unified user experience. In our coveted Show Me the Apps session, we brought this to life showcasing several innovative solutions, including a new hotel hospitality application from Ingenius and a powerful doctor’s office prescription management application from DiamondPhone. Both are practical examples of the integration that is possible as a result of the Xtended-powered linkage between developers, BroadSoft and service providers.
It’s day two of our seventh annual users‘ conference, Connections 2009, and today we raise the curtain on an initiative we’ve been trying to keep under wraps for some time now – the monetization phase of our Xtended program.
The Xtended initiative was launched in 2008 to open up the BroadWorks platform to third-party innovation and the Web 2.0 in particular. We picked the best practices of Web 2.0 – open standards, RESTful APIs, forums, and an online presence for our community in the form of a developer portal and marketplace for them to post their creations. Today, with a developer community of 2,000 strong, we take another big step forward – adding ecommerce functionality to the Xtended marketplace. Now, any BroadSoft-powered operator (more than 450 worldwide by the way) can distribute third-party apps, sourced from the Xtended developer community, in their own custom-branded online store.
Think of it like the Apple App Store for IP Communications apps with a twist. Every BroadWorks-powered service provider can pick and choose from the eCommerce-enabled marketplace and create their own mini app store. This is a big deal not just for service providers that have a new revenue-generating channel, but for consumers and businesses who will have fast, easy access to a diverse array of solutions online and available for download in one click. Plus third-party developers in the Xtended community stand to benefit with online stores where they can shop their apps to more than half-a-billion people.
Several BroadSoft-powered service providers including Comporium, SimpleSignal, Telesphere and WorldxChange will be launching their apps stores in early 2010. And when they do, a number of developers will be at the ready to hit upload including:
- Spinvox, which offers a ‘Voicemail to Text’ app
- JoeDeveloper whose Quickset Pro application manages a host of call functions such as Sequential Ring, Speed Dial and Remote Office
- Mobile Max’s Enterprise Edition a unified communications client that allows access to all call functions – Do Not Disturb, Call Forward – from a mobile handset
Of course, we think this is game changing – but don’t take our word for it. See for yourself here.
Avaya Labs recently demonstrated a prototype application that integrates call-control with Facebook, with the nifty moniker “FacePhone.”
Doug Mahoney from Doug on IPComm calls it a “UC Killer”:
Built using Facebook’s APIs, Avaya’s FacePhone is an enterprise app that loads into Facebook and is designed to enable social networking functionality within the enterprise, on a business-to-business basis, and on a business-to-consumer basis and enables voice, video availability, as well as the stock Facebookness of chat and IM. … doesn’t this sound a whole lot like UC?
Hmmm… it’s like UC, but it’s built on a common platform and is built to leverage social media with both call center features (consumer to biz, biz to biz), as well as enable communications within the large enterprise. Smells a lot like “traditional” UC solutions, but at a MUCH LOWER cost of implementation. Since users are already familiar with and using Facebook for communication, this app fits right in.
I’m going to respectfully disagree with that.
I think Doug’s argument relies on the assumption that UC solutions are ‘closed’ systems – so, therefore, if you can get UC-like functionality from places like Facebook, which are outside of the closed UC system, then you’re ‘killing’ the UC solution.
But…really, isn’t the whole point of a UC solution that it’s open? That’s certainly our philosophy: when it comes to CRM, you can integrate BroadWorks into salesforce.com, or ACT, or Microsoft Dynamics; when it comes to business messaging/presence solutions, you can integrate BroadWorks into Microsoft OCS/Exchange, IBM Sametime, or Google Apps….or even Facebook – something our BroadSoft Xtended team demonstrated about 18 months ago.
So – if you’re bringing a ‘closed’ UC solution to market –if your UC solution is basically an “all-in” PBX on steroids – and yes, there are plenty of “PBX in UC clothing” boxes out there – then Doug’s absolutely right: Facebook is going to be a threat to you. But if you’re a Service Provider delivering UC off of the BroadWorks platform – a platform that’s committed to application integration – then Facebook, salesforce.com, mint.com – these are all assets to you, not threats.
It’s easy to say you have high-quality anything – but how many companies can unequivocally back such a claim up with proof? Well, BroadSoft can. We recently earned the prestigious TL 9000 and ISO 9001:2000 certifications.
While this is a significant accomplishment we are proud of, the purpose of this post is more than chest-beating, it’s about why putting proof behind quality claims are important across the industry, beyond the issue of integrity.
Quality of Excellence for Suppliers of Telecommunications (QuEST) Forum’s TL 9000 defines measurements as an industry standard way of benchmarking various products. Results are sent monthly to QuEST and compiled along with all other companies in the same product category. Measurements include indicators for things such as the number of software defects in a product, the reliability of a product in terms of outages, quality of software fixes delivered for defects and on time delivery, and how fast product issues are resolved.
TL 9000 also means a company can CONSISTENTLY meet a set of quality expectations that parallel rapid technology changes and customer expectations. Consistency is so important here because it proves a long-term commitment to quality, not something that a company can adjust products or services to quickly achieve.
A committed team at BroadSoft, spearheaded by Vice President of Engineering Bob Weidenfeller, invested over a year in the certification process (although creating a culture of quality has been a company focus since inception). The investment paid off as the team reviewing the audit noted that our business practices went above and beyond the compliance requirements. An interesting thing to point out was that BroadSoft Engineering and our Technical Assistance Centers (TAC) already had most of the processes in place and documented and were following them in our day-to-day routine.
TL 9000 is not only important to telecommunications providers who demand products and services with ever increasing quality. It benefits the industry as a whole by enabling technology providers to be more efficient and deliver innovative products to market in a shorter time frame. This supports business growth and provides end users access to better, more reliable products sooner. In today’s need-it-yesterday society – these are values coveted by companies. However, very few can attest to this level of commitment, BroadSoft is one of only three U.S.-based, and ten worldwide to have been certified in the 1.2.7 application server category. So to use a cliché… quality really does count.
As I’ve mentioned previously, there’s been a lot of excitement about cloud communications recently. We’re seeing an inflection point beginning with wide spread agreement about the ROI of hosted solutions and continual increase in awareness of this value.
Nick Carr, author of “The Big Switch,” a best-selling account of the transformative effects of cloud services and cloud computing has a great low-tech historical analogy for this, comparing the shift in our industry to a similar shift 100 years ago in how business and factories obtained power.
He talks about how in the 19th century, factories or mills would be built on a river. Owners would then have large waterwheels made to generate power for the factory. In essence, every business would need to invest in, and maintain its own local power production. That’s a complex, and costly undertaking, and resulted in mill owners spending more time on complex hydraulics and drive shafts than on their core business.
Of course, this model sounds ridiculous now. Within a few years of the turn of the 20th century, these premises-based production systems were abandoned, left to decay, a historical anomaly – because now businesses were getting their power from “the cloud” – from new, centralized ‘electric companies’ that revolutionized manufacturing:
“Manufacturers came to find that the benefits of buying electricity from a utility went far beyond cheaper kilowatts. By avoiding the purchase of pricey equipment, they reduced their own fixed costs and freed up capital for more productive purposes. They were also able to trim their corporate staff, temper the risk of technology obsolescence and malfunction, and relieve their managers of a major distraction. Once unimaginable, the broad adoption of utility power had become inevitable….the age of the private power plant was over. The utility had triumphed.”
The above is an excerpt from Mr. Carr’s astonishing book, a best-selling account of the transformative effects of cloud services and cloud computing. Mr. Carr is the keynote speaker at this year’s BroadSoft Connections Users’ conference, which is shaping up to be our best Connections event ever. I’m very much looking forward to Mr. Carr’s keynote, and certainly excited about seeing as many of our customers and partners as possible as well – as it’s our customers who are building the solutions that will eclipse today’s ‘waterwheels’ .
Michael Tessler
Scott Hoffpauir
Leslie Ferry
Alex Doyle
Curtis Hartmann
Shirish Andhare
Paul Adams
