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Since BroadSoft completed its acquisition of iLinc Communications, Inc. last fall, you’ve heard us boast about the extensive web conferencing capabilities of our new addition. Whether hosting internal meetings with remote colleagues, conducting large training sessions or holding informative webinars, iLinc provides services to a broad range of industries and bolsters BroadSoft’s Unified Communication services.
Customers who have experienced the benefits have become some of the strongest advocates for iLinc’s services. For instance, Arizona State University’s Alliance for Construction Excellence (ACE) speaks of iLinc’s virtual training and webinar technology capabilities that drive revenue and expand its –offerings.
Demand Management, Inc. searched for a WebEx™ replacement to reduce overall Web and audio conferencing costs, decrease travel, and expand conferencing usage to new areas of the business. Discover how iLinc helped:
In addition to seamlessly integrating with Salesforce.com, Outlook and social networking sites, iLinc’s web conferencing services include more unique benefits compared to other web conferencing services, such as WebEx™ and GoToMeeting. iLinc customers can take advantage of interactive collaborative features such as whiteboarding, web sync and media capabilities and enjoy a solution that works without a PC third-party plugin.
Currently, iLinc offers a 30-Day FREE TRIAL with access to professional-grade web collaboration tools. Let us know what you think!
Artificial Intelligence, The Terminator, Post-Humanism, Bionic Limbs, Singularity…As the power of technology continues to surpass human ability in new and rapid ways, our fascination and often fear of machines ask us to question the boundaries of human interaction and the artificial. While predictions and theory vary and even contradict one another, there seems to be a consensus on a need for balance. We see this need often today; whether it is a customer caught in a calling queue or a caller sent to a desktop voicemail over a live mobile human. When it comes to a business’s call center offering, the quest for balance takes front-line.
Service providers must answer the call for an innovative solution to the growing struggle between human response and mechanical communication. As an integral piece of any business’s customer service offering, we believe the move toward hosted call centers offers the flexibility, functionality and visibility required to move end-customers quickly to a live voice without wasting time or resources. Today, service providers leverage hosted communication services to boost human communication through productivity features and on-going application integration, all while minimizing human and environmental risk with automatic maintenance and business continuity.
More and more, we see the end-customer seeking an intuitive call center solution that allows optimal, live customer service while taking advantage of hosted unified communication technology. Micah Solomon, entrepreneur and customer systems innovator, writes for Fast Company on the growing need for live support as organizations place more services in the hands of technology:
Online customers are literally invisible to you (and you to them), so it’s easy to shortchange them emotionally…This lack of visual and tactile presence makes it even more crucial to create a sense of personal, human-to-human connection.
Following such demand, BroadSoft’s own BroadWorks® Call Center application recently released new enhancements allowing service providers the scalability to extend their hosted call center offering into enterprises with higher call volumes and more complex reporting requirements. Taking full advantage of the benefits of a hosted solution, such as low-upfront cost and scalability, the BroadWorks® Call Center application opens new revenue streams from premise-based platforms.
To explore the benefits of hosted call center solutions, read on http://bit.ly/broadsoftcallcenter or request a sales representative contact you.
This New Year BroadSoft celebrates over 13 years of a singular focus developing the most advanced communications applications software for IP networks. As BroadSoft continues to develop and deploy a robust set of communication services, our community, and the market at large, prospers from the path of rapid growth and innovation. Stepping foot into another year of change and growth, we would like to share our view of five major changing market dynamics alongside our vision for BroadSoft in 2012.
- #1 – We will innovative and deliver solutions that leverage the growing abundance of mobile broadband.
Quality broadband is a key enabler for real time communication in the cloud. As we rapidly move from a world of scarce to abundant broadband, those in the market have the opportunity to build completely new value propositions surrounding visual communications and collaboration. While such movement will spur emerging industry players, BroadSoft will meet this challenge by continuing our innovative product development. In the New Year, BroadSoft Service providers customers will have the opportunity to leverage the explosive growth of 4G and LTE deployments to fundamentally change the way we communicate.
- #2 – We will introduce new, quick and easy to deploy, cloud services that deliver our unified communications solutions
Cloud services have evolved from simply placing enterprise applications in the cloud to true multi-tenant applications with open APIs. For instance, the highest levels of security and management have allowed enterprises to customize and integrate services into their operating environment. The growing adoption of cloud services by the enterprise has powered a growth in specialty cloud applications and a deprecation of cost in cloud deployments – two trends we expect to see continue through the New Year. BroadSoft has harnessed the power of the cloud to rapidly deploy and innovate our BroadCloud implementations. In 2012, BroadSoft Service providers will leverage value-added solutions resulting from BroadSoft’s continued investment in these applications and their open APIs, as well the integration of BroadSoft’s real time communications services into other applications.
- #3 – We will super-charge our go-to-market program
Go-to-market programs in 2012 will focus on the new end user – the end user who wants to decide how, when, and where to communicate. Individuals now expect a variety of optimized and integrated communications options, and they are focused on simplicity and efficiency. BroadSoft’s go-to-market program, along with continued innovation and offerings in UC services, will focus on how people desire to communicate. Whether the real-time services include new innovations in video calling, chat, collaboration and conferencing, as well as non-real-time services such as email and social networking, 2012 service providers will bring to market and package an optimal experience around the user who expects more than just voice.
- #4 – We will provide an industry leading consumer mobile solution that is scalable, reliable and is easy to operate
Some estimates assume that by 2020 there will be 50 billion connected devices. The proliferation of smart devices brings subsequent connections to our global networks and the utilization of operating systems with open application development environments, such as iOS and Android. In such an environment, we believe the most successful services, such as Apple iTunes, Blackberry email and the Skype service, combine an intuitive user experience with powerful cloud applications. BroadSoft Service provider customers in the New Year will capture the power and proliferation of these devices through an intuitive user experience, specifically through leading user interface solutions. By bringing the power of the cloud onto these devices, a focus on the end user will help make each experience personal.
- #5 – We will continue to enhance our unified communications solution with an increased focus on the end user
Why do so many of us have to pick up our phones to send a text message when we are working on our laptops? Why must we use special devices for video calling? Why must we dial into retrieve voice mail? Users in the New Year will not only want, but expect, a unified experience across all of their real-time communication services. As an industry, we have been developing the standards and technology that supports a powerful shift in integrated communication services. So what does this look like?
- Users install applications on their many devices and these devices then register with their cloud communication services.
- These applications ensure a seamless experience across the devices, so that users can establish service from that device.
- The applications provide access to a full range of services including video calling, conferencing, voice mail, text messaging, collaboration, chat and presence.
Service providers in the New Year have the unique opportunity to bring together a rich set of real-time communications services along with the power of social networks, providing a true unified communications experience. Service providers who can take advantage of seamless services will capture this market, while end users will benefit from the freedom to use the right device at the right time for work or pleasure.
To achieve our five objectives, BroadSoft’s community can plan on leveraging our robust set of communication services, including:
In the New Year and beyond, these elements will continue to evolve and provide our community the tools to be successful and deliver even greater value to our customers. Combined with BroadSoft’s leading services, we believe the industry trends support our vision for BroadSoft and sets up the environment for us all to be successful for many years to come. BroadSoft would like to thank you for joining us the past 13 years and we look forward to enjoying a very spectacular New Year with you!
Our community is noticing a growing trend. A user’s ability to interact through the most convenient device interface, whether the interface is on a laptop computer, smartphone or tablet, in our view determines the success of a communications service. At BroadSoft, we are dedicated to ensuring our service provider customers take to market a ubiquitous user experience across the growing variety of communication devices. To deliver on this goal, BroadSoft’s newest product line, BroadTouch™, brings together the power of BroadWorks® and BroadCloud™ and places them in the hands of end-users.
BroadTouch provides easy-to-use interfaces to access unified communications (UC) services across a users’ preferred communications device. In addition to our newly enhanced call center agent and supervisor clients, BroadTouch also includes the Business Communicator. Leveraging a single interface over both mobile and desktop platforms, the Business Communicator brings together voice, video and instant messaging and presence for a superior user experience. At our annual users’ conference, BroadSoft Connections, we were excited to introduce the Business Communicator — you can see a quick demonstration from our show floor here:
Please feel free to share the demo: http://bit.ly/broadtouchdemo and look for more BroadTouch enhancements in the coming months.
Over the last two months, those of us at BroadSoft have been witness to a flurry of activity. With our continued focus on end-user needs, BroadSoft announced the completion of two acquisitions and a number of new additions to our unified communications services designed to ensure our service provider customers remain at the forefront of hosted communications services offerings.
Our newest services include:
- BroadWorks® BusinessLink - A fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) solution for SIP trunking that extends the features of a PBX to a mobile device, such as extension dialing, attendant console and call recording, without the need for a user to upgrade their handset or download a mobile client.
- BroadCloud™ Instant Messaging & Presence - A federated service across BroadWorks-enabled service provider networks that allows users to chat individually and in groups. This service integrates a subscriber’s desk and mobile phone status, allowing users to know if their colleagues are on the phone, in a meeting or away.*
- BroadWorks Meet-Me Audio Conferencing - A high-definition (HD), scalable and reliable conferencing application, that delivers a superior sound quality experience, supports hundreds of users on a single conference session and offers both reservation-less and scheduled conferencing capabilities.
- BroadCloud Text Messaging - Enables users to send or receive text messages using a fixed-line, work or home number, through an easy-to-use application on iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Text messages sent from the application will appear as messages originating from a user’s work or home phone number; giving users a single number for both voice and text.** (North America only)
- BroadCloud Web Collaboration - BroadCloud Web Collaboration offers service providers a cost-effective, feature-rich web collaboration service that tightly integrates with their UC capabilities, extending their brand value, increasing customer loyalty and reducing churn. By leveraging web-based service management tools, service providers can efficiently provision and bill UC services.
We continue to extend our UC capabilities to ensure end-users can communicate using the service that best meets their situation, whether voice, text messaging or conferencing, keeping them connected from anywhere.
* Commercially available December 2011
** Commercially available November 2011
BroadSoft Connections 2011 took place in the heart of the Arizona Sonoran Desert this October at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort. Following eight invitation-only BroadSoft Connections executive users’ conferences, there were high expectations for 2011 to crush it as the largest attended event to-date and as the “premier service provider event in the industry”(Polycom).
Attendance Records:
Last year, BroadSoft Connections 2010 attracted more than half of BroadSoft’s 450 global customers. This year, the conference continued its track record of growth, with early statistics indicating over 935 attendees, from over 30 countries, service providers individuals, sponsors and partners, network equipment providers, web developers and IP device manufacturers.
The Agenda in Action:
Each year, BroadSoft has attempted to fit even more industry leaders, emerging technologies and ideas into roughly three days and one space. How it played out this year:
- Educational Insight: We believe BroadSoft Connections has earned a reputation for attracting the leading innovators in the industry. Led by BroadSoft’s own thought-leaders, 2011’s session breakouts worked through strategies to crush key solution provisions, technical services, and go-to-market strategy. Showcasing the expected all-star cast of entrepreneurs, the agenda also included insight from BroadSoft leadership, a keynote from Gary Hamel, author of The Ultimate Competitive Advantage, as well as a Locknote presented by Guy Kawasaki, entitled Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions.
- Showcase Technologies: Attendees had access to a dynamic Solution Showcase demonstrating the newest offerings from over 60 exhibitors. Customers and partners released first-ever services and initiatives and reported them live via the Connection’s news room and through the 2011 Connections LinkedIn group (registered attendees only). Events such as IP:Live and the Industry Experience Pavilion catered demonstrations to specific business needs on in-demand niche offerings.
- Fun & Networking: BroadSoft Connections has become famous for sneaking memorable activities into the traditional conference agenda. 2011’s events included: a networking pool party, trap and skeet shooting, mountain bike riding, while also drawing inspiration from global cultures to offer attendees impressive social events, cuisine and entertainment.
How We Will Keep Crushing It!
BroadSoft leaves the event optimistic both our returning and new attendees have come away with a renewed and focused vision on the key trends and insight invaluable to sustaining momentum along with the platforms and services needed to do so.
Finally, thank you for all those who attended! We look forward to seeing you again next year.
Mobile devices. Mobile storage. Mobile connectivity. Our culture today is consumed with the idea of mobility – and for good reasons. Relying upon the freedom of mobile communications has powered the productivity behind our daily lives and our businesses. In such a mobile world, we might be surprised to find how much further we can and will go mobile.
Having spent those agonizing minutes watching a mobile web page load, we have all been victim to the soon-to-be prehistoric speed of an overloaded 3G network (see: http://bit.ly/fgnF5a). As such, we have also realized our dependency, as well as the need for, the high speed capabilities, reliability and services we experience from our grounded technologies. As LTE networks continue to launch, and even faster and more reliable networks are continually pushed to market, we believe these networks and services will continue to drive a shift toward an even deeper reliance on our mobile devices and the range of services and applications which will now be possible. Welcome to a new true mobility.
Already, only nine percent of adult Americans are “gadget-less” (AFP, 2011). We believe those in the communications industry now have to meet this new range of needs for a truly mobile consumer and workforce – one with more devices, faster speeds and a demand for a broader range of mobile services. In response to this demand, BroadSoft recently announced its BroadWorks® telephony application server (TAS) to meet the requirements of the GSM Association’s (GSMA) IR.92 specifications for delivering Voice over LTE (VoLTE). To further enable the seamless expansion of mobile communication offerings, BroadSoft additionally announced the availability of MobileMxD™ – an integrated suite of consumer and Unified Communications (UC) services optimized for 4G networks.
Through these offerings, mobile, fixed and converged operators can now capitalize on mobile communication applications across all major smartphone and tablet operating systems (iOS, Android, etc.) and 4G enabled devices. MobileMxD will initially feature several in-demand services, including:
- MxDFamilyCenter - A web-based application that enables individuals to personalize their communication services and will allow families to stay connected and informed
- MxDCallCenter - Call Center capabilities, including video calling, which will enhance the customer experience and improve customer satisfaction
- MxD Instant Messaging and Presence - Smartphone and tablet access to business contacts from an integrated corporate directory, as well as mobile presence & location indicators
- MxDMeeting - Web collaboration capabilities, including desktop sharing and the ability to initiate, manage and control and participate in meetings, from a smartphone or tablet
- MxDProVideo - Video-calling and conferencing anytime, anywhere and from any mobile device
Do you have an opinion on the future of mobile and unified communications? Please let us know your thoughts below, on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter.
Sources:
AFP. (2011, February 04). 85 percent of us adults own cellphone: survey. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i8G0TD-JN7TA8gWgRUIbI80eNwKQ?docId=CNG.f7e7d21b588872cfa9a0189c30680503.751
Are you always the last to hear office gossip? Always seem to stumble over what-seemed-to-be good ideas in business meetings? Do work associates make jokes about your tie (“it’s just too trendy for them, right?”)? Well, now it’s your chance to be part of the in-crowd with BroadSoft’s Trend Watch 2011 report. Be the first to know what’s hip, what’s fresh, and what the great ideas are before they happen, as the worldwide leader and innovator of IP technology hands you a sneak-peak into what we think the telecommunication “do’s” of 2011 will be.
Do’s (2011) versus Don’t (2010):
- The Connected Consumer vs. The Mobile Consumer
Tablets and smartphones were on everyone’s hot list this holiday season. As we wind our way through 2011, we believe emerging devices will proliferate across the realm of operating systems- offering utilitarian technology benefits in speed and performance as mobile platforms battle. Whether reading an e-book, listening to a family member’s music playlist, or getting directions, we expect trendy consumers will not only seek out these mobile devices –they will find a seamless connection between their connected devices a must-have for 2011.
- Business Applications vs. Consumer Applications
On average, the U.S. downloaded about 3 million of the top 300 apps per day in December. In our view, 2011 will continue to be a year of mobile app craze; however, businesses will quickly become the new consumer. Already one of the fastest growing categories in the App Store, the business app category was up (+186%) in 2010, according to Distimo. We expect to see “in” service providers catching onto the craze by offering value-added applications for every business’s both niche and universal needs, such as: Productivity apps, Communication & Collaboration, CRM, Mobility, Business Process Integration (Act!, Lotus Notes, etc), and more.
Watch how:
- HD Video Conferencing vs. The Traditional IP Deskphone
Did you just click through your in-box as you talked to your business partner over the phone? That’s so 2010! Offering a cost-effective method to add value to your communications experience, we anticipate that truly trendy businesses and consumers will use HD video from the cloud in 2011. Offering an always-on virtual bridge, trend setters connect to business prospects, partners, and peers in HD Video from the cloud — a must for 2011 for the rich communications experience everyone deserves. Apart from this new staple, consumers have also caught wind of the trend and are using the up-and-coming technology to stay in touch with relatives and friends with family center.
2011’s Hit or Miss: UC from the Cloud
If you were on the fence in 2010, you’re already on the “miss” list as the New Year begins. We see hip businesses – large and small –taking advantages of UC services from the cloud in 2011. While even water-cooler dropouts are mostly likely “in” on the productivity and economic benefits of UC, we expect those service providers in-the-know to offer a continuation of UC perks for business offerings this year plus, now, the advantages of the new BroadCloud offerings. These include HD video, web-based collaboration, integrated message & presence features, and VoIP management solutions for the forward-looking service provider who can offer always on, effective communication services.
Don’t be a victim of the trend police this year. Follow the advice in this Trend Watch report and subscribe to this blog roll for continued in-the-know news, opinion, and advice on the latest in communication technology. Have something to add to the list? Disagree with a trend? Let us know below.
At our annual executive users’ conference in October, I talked about three ways the BroadSoft ecosystem can “connect our networks” in order to deliver the superior user experience and communication services being demanded today. In my opinion, our ecosystem needs to:
- Create the largest, innovative developer network
- Share our successes in order to grow awareness of hosted communication solutions
- Connect our networks to deliver ubiquitous high-definition voice and video
Let me share more on how you can drive growth and productive conversation in each of these areas.
Create the largest, innovative developer network
At BroadSoft we have spent the last 18 months investing in the design and development of our Xtended program, which is comprised of three elements: 1) RESTful APIs, 2) a robust developer program & 3) an e-Commerce enabled marketplace. We have committed both time and financial resources to all aspects of this program, enabling our customers to open their networks and mutually benefit from the investments of third party developers.
BroadSoft’s global service provider customers deliver communication services to over half a billion individuals in both their work and personal lives. A uniquely attractive audience to third-party developers, the desire and capabilities to build innovative applications will only increase as our ecosystem encourages this growth. Integration of communication services with additive innovative offerings and web-based applications, such as CRM services, increase the value of our IP-based networks, helping us retain our existing customers and attract new customers. So I am asking the BroadSoft customer base to:
- Open the Xtended APIs on their network
- Customize and launch an Xtended Marketplace and
- Join the community in recruiting new developers and promoting their applications
Everything that is needed to get started has been built and tested. Since BroadSoft Connections, I have personally reached out to several of our service provider customers who appreciate the value of BroadSoft Xtended. They have agreed to lead the charge in this effort – I hope you will join them.
Share our successes in order to grow awareness of hosted communication solutions
Another way we can jointly drive the adoption of hosted communications is by connecting our networks in terms of combined marketing power. By sharing our successes and detailed case studies, we help better define the value enterprises and individuals are experiencing through hosted communications. Through the global communication of such value, we will mutually drive the increased adoption of hosted unified communications, which has reached its highest growth level since 2008 (Dell’Oro Group, 2010).
While the awareness has grown significantly, we have a long way to go. We want every business owner and decision maker to realize they have a choice: to use a hosted service versus tying up people and capital on deploying out-dated enterprise based systems. I personally hear from our customers amazing and motivating success stories that they have helped enterprises succeed in their primary business purpose when they are no longer worried about their communication services. They are entrusting the experts in telecommunications to keep their businesses running.
I am asking all BroadSoft customers to share these success stories. In order to facilitate this openness, we introduced a new Web site, Xcelerate, with the single goal of helping you become more successful in launching and selling hosted UC. There are many great resources available on the site (Marketing Campaign Tools, Sales Battlecards, Demonstration Videos, and much more) and I encourage all BroadSoft customers to use these tools, while also contributing to the group.
Connect our networks to deliver ubiquitous high-definition voice and video
For a number of years, we have talked about the connection of our networks over IP to enable global high-definition voice and video. With the tremendous interest in high definition audio and video, we must connect our individual islands if we are to benefit from this growth. As I travel around the world, the interest level around SIP based video is exploding in both fixed and mobile networks and the time to interconnect is now. There are several companies, such as PCCW Global, focused on enabling this interconnectivity. I encourage everyone to talk with these companies in order to find ways to bridge our islands and take the upmost advantage of this unique opportunity before it passes us by.
The delivery of high-quality, superior communication experience, is our business. We cannot let others erode it. Let’s start by connecting our networks in these three ways. Please let me know what you think by commenting below.
The FIFA World Cup craze has even hit the US. And with over a billion people from across the globe tuning in to watch the tournament being held for the first time in Africa, many pundits expect this to be the most exciting and memorable World Cup ever staged.
Off the field, the World Cup is expected to generate more revenue through advertising and associated sponsorship than any other sporting event on the planet. It’s also the first global sporting event that will truly capitalize on digital technology, with games being viewed across a wide range of platforms, from traditional broadcast television and radio, to Internet TV and mobile phones. Football (soccer for us Americans) is a unifying force and people the world over are communicating seamlessly.
For football fans who can’t make the journey to South Africa, we all have more opportunities than ever before to watch, and interact, with the matches. It’s possible to catch games, highlights and commentary on multiple platforms – from cell phones, laptops and computers – to the big screens. Moreover, supporters will have the chance interact with each other – regardless of location – using social networking platforms like Twitter.
As the World Cup is a quadrennial event, it offers a perfect benchmark against technology. Putting things into technological perspective, the last World Cup, Germany 2006, coincided with the invention of Twitter and the general public launch of Facebook. Technology is fast paced. When viewers the world over are sitting down to contemplate matches at the World Cup 2014 in Brazil – imagine how we will all stay connected.
Personally, I can’t guess at what the next communication sensations will be. If I could, I’m pretty sure I’d be out securing venture capital funding to cash in! What I will say is that unified communications will be at the heart of those new social media communications channels. Will you?
Michael Tessler
Scott Hoffpauir
Leslie Ferry
Alex Doyle
Curtis Hartmann
Shirish Andhare
Paul Adams
