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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!
This week we caught up with Vince Margiotta from XO Communications to learn more about their new Enterprise SIP Communications Solution for Multi-Location Businesses. Vince talks about what makes this new offering compelling to large companies in today’s market. He expands on how it streamlines, simplifies and reduces costs to enable businesses to better implement and manage their communications platforms. Please click the link below to listen to the interview.
At this time of year we’re all evaluating the current year’s results and planning how best to move forward in 2010. Overall IP communications growth has been very positive.
I’m sure that many of you have seen the Infonetics report indicating significant growth in VoIP and unified communications – with revenue exceeding $21 billion in the first half of 2009. They forecast that the second half of 2009 will top $22 billion—7.3 percent growth in just six months.
Many of us have experienced similar growth rates in our businesses. We are all well positioned to leverage this growing demand for IP-based communication services.
At BroadSoft we are very pleased with where we’ll end 2009—most likely up 26 percent year-over-year in shipped lines. More encouraging is comparing that result to PBX shipments, which are down about 20 percent.
These statistics reflect a shift in the communications industry. End-users are seeking more interactive, advanced communication solutions. BroadSoft has kept pace with solutions that are designed to delight the end-user.
As we prepare for 2010, it’s a good time to share our thoughts on the current environment and our strategies for moving the communications industry forward. There are key indicators that IP communications solutions are the future of our industry.
Our mutual growth starts with broadband adoption. Fixed broadband penetration is about 440 million subscribers today, and it is expected to grow to more than 600 million by 2013. Today VoIP is provided on approximately one-third of all broadband lines.
Broadband penetration will continue to grow at a rapid pace. There will be exponential growth of mobile broadband and new devices. As rich communication options become available, they will require broadband access to ensure a superior user experience.
As end-users quickly embrace IP and hosted communication services, service providers are well positioned to focus on innovative services and applications that deliver greater value to consumers. We must all ensure that we evolve our network architectures so that products and solutions easily integrate with new applications that can be delivered quickly and inexpensively.
To build on our business success, BroadSoft will focus on four key areas going forward:
- Smart Devices – new innovative multimedia, always-connected devices
- Personalization – the ability for users to customize communication services for their devices and preferences
- Rich media – moving beyond voice to video, messaging and content sharing
- Mobility – communications anywhere, anytime and any device
Our goal is to enable service providers to integrate a set of smart devices with network services to maximize the user experience. You will see BroadSoft define solutions in which BroadWorks services complement our partners’ smart devices. We are working on end-to-end solutions that are pre-integrated with partner devices to ensure that service providers can take them to market quickly. As the penetration of smart devices increases and end-users have multiple devices, it becomes more important to ensure that service data end management is centralized.
Storing data directly on devices is problematic due to the need to synchronize the data between the devices—for example, the problem of synchronizing contacts across two mobile phones. It’s better to provide an end-user with a service profile in the network. A single service profile will work across all of the end-user’s devices—their desk phones, soft clients on a netbook, IP media phones, smartphones, connected consumer electronics and so forth. With a network-based service profile, end-users can configure their social interaction or communication preferences. Basically they can define the how, when and where rules for their communication services.
BroadSoft’s strategy is to transform BroadWorks from a VoIP platform to a multimedia, real-time communications platform. The goal is to provide a comprehensive set of user and group features that work independently of the medium. For example, simultaneous ringing should work for voice calls, video calls, text messages and content sharing. Smart devices working together with hosted services will deliver a superior user experience.
It is good to talk about where we are going, but it is always better to SEE where BroadSoft is focused. We just demonstrated more than 25 innovative new solutions at our recent users’ conference. Here are two applications that will give you a sense of the evolutionary trend.
Hosted Home Monitoring . See how a home monitoring system can be converted to a surveillance tool to care for your home and watch over family members.
The Mobile Office. Imagine a more flexible and productive work environment through UC solutions for the Mobile Business.
So our strategy on the user front is to enable a smart user experience, which will be critical to success. Our focus is on communication services that are intuitive, easy to use and available from any device.
An important part of the Obama Administration’s $787 billion stimulus package is $7.2 billion for grants and loans designed to expand broadband access in the United States.
The bulk of the funds — $4.7 billion — will be distributed through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and the rest through the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) program out of the Dept. of Agriculture. The government is making a very clear statement — broadband is so essential that funds will be made available so telecommunications service providers can expand access and reach every citizen in the country.
As you might guess from the name of our blog, we think this is an extremely valuable and important investment in the country’s future. It significantly impacts millions of Americans, service providers and our company as well.
We believe the stimulus bill will help service providers — both fixed and mobile — expand their footprint and speed up the deployment of broadband, especially in the Tier 2 and 3 rural markets. Wireless carriers welcome the stimulus dollars since it helps them support ongoing investment in so-called 4G networks, which will provide much higher broadband speeds to the smartphones of the future. And the millions of Americans who gain access through the investment will help keep those networks busy.
For providers, the stimulus bill will create new and significant revenue streams. In addition to providing access, providers can layer on value-added services, e.g., VoIP, IPTV, etc.
Some would say it’s about time we had a national broadband policy. (Actually we’ll officially have the national plan in 211 days, when the FCC is required to publish it.) The U.S. has fallen behind many industrialized nations in offering broadband to citizens, as measured per capita by population size. A report published by the International Telecommunications Union showed that the U.S fell from 11th to 17th from 2002 – 2007. That slide represents millions of people shut out from the communication and productivity tools provided by broadband access.
Broadband powers a new wave of multimedia communications, including video and mashups that marry VoIP with Web 2.0 — these are revolutionizing how consumers and enterprises connect, communicate and collaborate. VoIP technology makes possible features like unifying voice mail and email, “find me, follow me” calling and integration into business applications like Salesforce.com and social networks like Facebook.
What does the bill mean for BroadSoft? More broadband deployments = greater opportunity for more advanced, multimedia communications over IP. Entirely new business models have emerged thanks to broadband, such as cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS). These new models help make advanced communication services available to businesses of all sizes, and residential consumers as well.
BroadbandIgnite will return to this important topic on a regular basis. The expansion of broadband to every American citizen is overdue, and is vital for maintaining the productivity and competitiveness of America in the 21st century.
Welcome to BroadbandIgnite, the voice of BroadSoft. Through BroadbandIgnite we will share our insights not only about the possibilities of VoIP, but the communications industry as a whole, which has expanded to include integrating communications services with web-based applications and broadband-enabled devices.
For those of you who may not know us, BroadSoft is the undisputed global leader in VoIP applications, with a proven track record of driving innovation of communication services delivered over broadband or IP networks, to advance voice, video and data convergence. We developed a SaaS approach to telephony long before companies like Salesforce.com made the approach sexy.
Our software sits in the network of telecommunications service providers, who then offer advanced calling features from their “cloud.” Telecommunications service providers around the global have invested substantially in building out their IP networks, and BroadSoft powers the ability of more than 450 of them to manage and deliver voice calls and other communication services over their networks. This benefits both businesses and consumers looking for their latest, innovative communications service.
A company of any size can take advantage of BroadSoft’s innovative features. Our technology is particularly beneficial to small and medium sized businesses (SMBs), which now have access to advanced telephony capabilities, once only available to larger players. Until now they were the only ones who could afford to build intricate and costly internal PBX telephony systems.
SMBs are clearly understanding the benefits of a hosted VoIP service, as indicated by adoption rates and analysts forecasts. The mantra for this crowd is — “I want the cost savings and efficiency increases, but you deploy the technology — you make it happen.” They want all the capabilities, but don’t have the technical resources or desire to learn the ins and outs of developing a telephony network, nor should they.
We also continue to invest in advancing residential communications, designed to keep us connected and in-control given our demanding, on-the-go lifestyles. You’ll hear more from us about the hottest new residential services in the coming weeks.
We hope BroadbandIgnite will open the doors of communication, so be sure to join our discussions often to share your insights, ask questions and provide feedback.
Michael Tessler
Scott Hoffpauir
Leslie Ferry
Alex Doyle
Curtis Hartmann
Shirish Andhare
Paul Adams
