Enterprise Social Networking News

Our toes may be numb from the recent California cold snap, but our hearts are a little warmer after helping out at our local food shelter.

Last night some of the DiVitas gang took a food-sorting shift at the Second Harvest Food Bank which has set a goal for itself to collect $10 million and 1.9 million pounds of food for its annual Holiday Food and Fund Drive.

Our assignment? Tackle the Nabisco section! We tore into 6-foot high palates of Nabisco cookies and crackers, dividing goods into “sweet” or “salty” piles and then packed the items (eight each) into smaller cardboard boxes for distribution.

As an organization, DiVitas likes to get involved in various community outreach events – we get to bond and do a little good at the same time (of course the bonding-highlight last night was a group-dig through the garbage in search of a lost camera, which was thankfully recovered by one determined individual at the end of the sort!). This is our second year helping out with food sorting with Second Harvest, and we will definitely be back again. Second Harvest does a truly amazing job of collecting food and distributing it as needed.

And boy is it needed. According to Second Harvest’s website: “Even as the economy begins to recover, the requests for help continue to grow since joblessness is still on the rise. Last year our multi-lingual Food Connection hotline received more than 40,000 calls, a 44% increase over the previous year. Currently, more than two thirds of requests are from first time callers who have never before needed food assistance.”

Food banks need your help to do their job of feeding hungry people. But if food sorting isn’t your thing, you can simply donate food directly. For example, throughout the months of November and December you can make a donation of the most-needed non-perishable foods to Safeway, Lucky, Save Mart or Food Maxx Store … or check your local grocery store if you live outside of the California region.

Thanks to the folks at Second Harvest in San Carlos for doing such a great job organizing the community in such a meaningful way!

A BYO (bring your own) phone strategy is a win-win for companies and their employees. By letting people use their personal smartphones at work instead of corporate-owned devices, companies save thousands of dollars on overhead (device purchases) while letting individuals enjoy their mobile handset of choice.

The reason why this works is simple: Because we all use mobile phones so heavily in our every day lives, handsets (iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Nokia, Samsung, etc.) have become a very personal choice – more personal than any other business device in history. As a result, “prosumer” mobile phone users have gained an unusually strong voice in certain hardware choices. And they have been overwhelmingly voting with their dollars – for example, last quarter Apple sold its highest volume of iPhone sales.

Combined with web-based apps such as DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC), a BYO strategy makes for an affordable and secure approach to arming the workforce with devices that are business by day and personal by night. Enterprise Social Networking capabilities that keep them in contact with business colleagues are available from a single phone to become part of the mobile workforce.

“Over time, an increasing number of companies have shifted desktop applications targeting HR, sales, governance, and data entry back to Web-based centralized services that don't require a client…” according to analyst Rob Enderle in his article, Bring-Your-Own-PC an Option for Cash-Strapped Enterprises.

Adding to that, Enderle writes, “Employees, particularly executives and younger employees, when they needed a new PC simply bought one (generally a laptop). They used existing polices that provided for system access from a home PC to enable them for work. For those working from home, many have used their own PCs for years.

In addition, with the massive number of layoffs people have increasingly had to buy their own PCs while looking for a job — and when rehired, appear willing to go on using it for business.  Web applications make this possible because IT does not have to load client applications on the individual’s laptop.  

The cost savings is about $300 per employee per month that flows right to the bottom line at a time when profits are elusive for many companies. You can understand why neither the IT organization nor the line organizations that would have to fund a replacement program are eager to fix this.”

There are nothing but parallels between the BYO phone and PC stories. Companies save money by relying on employee-owned devices, and they maintain security and continuity by providing access to web-based clients (i.e. secure collaboration software). Employees get to use their device of choice – most often smartphones such as iPhone – which allows continuity in their communication and ensures they are connected to their colleagues when they are mobile. They reduce miss calls, which increases productivity and further improves the company's bottom line.

DiVitas’ Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC) solution is now available as a nimble web-client that can run on any browser-enabled smartphone, such as iPhone, Blackberry and Android. This move by DiVitas enables companies to implement a BYO phone (bring your own phone) policy in which an employee’s personal smartphone doubles as their business phone.

What does this mean to organizations that are looking for an affordable way to mobilize more of their workforce without over-taxing their busy IT staff? A BYO policy means the as-yet un-mobilized workforce (such as corridor warriors) can use their personal smartphones – such as iPhone, Blackberry or Android – to double as a mobile work phone. And this enterprise mobility magic happens with little-to-no overhead because companies need not purchase a phone for every mobile worker (they are using their own devices). Also, there is no additional burden on the IT department to support individual devices (everything is managed as software at the server level).

This BYO strategy simply takes advantage of a major mobile-communications trend already under way. As much as 90 percent of mobile devices used in the workforce today are already personally owned, with only monthly cell bills expensed to the company. Furthermore, as browser-enabled devices such as iPhone, Blackberry and Android continue to gain in popularity, these mini/mobile-computers are predicted to become the de facto phone for business users.

With DiVitas’ secure Web client running on a personal iPhones, Blackberrys and Androids:

• Personal devices become a mobilized business deskphone – the smartphone carries the business number, eliminating the confusion caused when colleagues are reachable by two numbers (deskphone and cellular).
   
• There is nothing to download, upgrade or delete (the DiVitas app is accessed strictly via smartphone’s web browser) – there is no additional tax on the device or IT department because the application resides on the DiVitas Server.

• The web client can be accessed by a desktop browser.
   
• Companies still subsidize individual cellular costs, but they eliminate hardware overhead (additional device-purchase costs) in mobilizing the entire workforce, including traditionally un-mobilized corridor warriors.
   
• Even though devices are personally owned, they are as secure as deskphones and corporate-liable phones because the Mobile UC server is web-based and under IT control – should a phone become lost or an individual change employers, IT staff simply updates the server to disallow server access by that client.
   
• Individuals have access to smartphone-friendly Enterprise Social Networking capabilities (Mobile Presence and Status) to make them aware of one another's reachability. The ability to scroll through an interface-based directory to see who is available and where they are located is a powerful tool for ensuring colleagues connect on the first try.

A BYO enterprise mobility strategy saves money on overhead (no need to buy additional smartphone hardware for non-mobilized workers.) It also makes your employees happy – and hence more productive – to be using their favorite phone by day (work) and night (pleasure) rather than juggle two sets of phone instructions.

DiVitas CEO Vivek Khuller has walked the enterprise social networking walk, and now it’s time for him to talk the talk – by speaking at next week’s Enterprise 2.0 conference that is.

Vivek is participating in the “Future of Social Networking in the Enterprise” panel at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in San Francisco. Others on the panel include Avaya, IBM, Socialtext, Yammer and Voxeo Corporation.

The panel is described as addressing the following issue: “.. the rapid rise of social messaging services such as Twitter creates challenges and opportunities for end-user organizations. How can end-user organizations utilize social messaging to improve external and internal collaboration? What's the role of social messaging in a unified communications and collaboration architecture and how are UC&C vendors incorporating social messaging into their products? How can organizations embrace social messaging in a way that is consistent with needs for security, governance and compliance? Will the rise of public social messaging services render investments in unified communications moot?”

In context of enterprise social networking, Vivek will be talking about how DiVitas mobilizes the existing deskphone number and integrates it on a smartphone with IM and social-networking applications (Mobile Presence and Status). DiVitas Enterprise Social Networking enables colleagues to stay engaged and to connect with one another on first attempt and in real-time.

"The Future of Social Messaging in the Enterprise" session at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference where Vivek is presenting takes place Tuesday, November 3, 2009 4:15 - 5:00 pm

Want to know how to affordably mobilize your workforce? Implement a BYO phone (bring your own phone) policy in which an employee’s personal smartphone doubles as their business phone. This works for iPhone, Blackberry, Android or any other web-enabled mobile devices.

Let's face it. Popular devices such as iPhone are quickly making their way into the workplace. And a BYO enterprise mobility strategy saves money on overhead (no need to buy additional smartphone hardware for non-mobilized workers.) It also makes your employees happy – and hence more productive – to be using their favorite phone by day (work) and night (pleasure) rather than juggle two sets of phone instructions.

In keeping with this strategy, I read an interesting FierceWireless blog posted by IDC analyst Stephen Drake about what companies can do to best take advantage of this “individual-liable” trend in enterprise mobility.
 
[Note: Drake defines "Individual-Liable" devices as either: 1) Purchased by the user and expensed back, but not reimbursed formally by a company-established policy, or 2) Purchased outright by the individual user, brought into the workplace, and used for either corporate or standalone business applications.]

Says Drake in his article How businesses can embrace individual-liable smartphones, “With the smartphone market expected to outshine the overall mobile phone market for the foreseeable future, the growing influence of new devices and platforms, including Apple, RIM [Blackberry], Android, Palm, etc. … the critical nature of the individual-liable business device is evident.”

In fact, IDC’s Drake predicts the individual-liable business-use mobile phone will experience more growth than corporate-liable devices. Also, the researcher says it’s seeing a trend in which large companies begin to move towards the individual-liable business use device model.

The benefit, he says, is “a slowdown on costs and provides better choice, user control and delivers an image that IT is being progressive in enabling such choice to its worker base.”

“Add that to the growing number of smartphones coming on the market. Certainly the strong popularity of the iPhone, continued consumer push from RIM and  the large Windows Mobile OEM base drives much of the individual-liable business use in the U.S. In addition, devices such as the Palm Pre, Nokia's E Series (in particular the E71) and the new Android tide rolling in all speak to the importance of this individual-liable business use case.”

In his blog, Drake lays out a list of advice-points to be heeded by any company following the BYO phone strategy for enterprise mobility.

As for DiVitas, we recommend pairing the BYO phone strategy with Mobile Unified Communications Mobile UC) web client, which is under IT control and which enables the smartphone to carry the deskphone number. At the same time the device and business number tie in with voice, IM and social networking (Mobile Presence and Status) to help employees connect on the first try – and eliminate missed calls to further reduce cellular costs.

With DiVitas’ secure Web client running on an individual-liable iPhones, Blackberrys and Androids:

• There is nothing to download, upgrade or delete (app is accessed strictly via smartphone’s web browser.)
   
• The web client can be accessed by any device (handsets or desktops.)
   
• Companies still subsidize individual cellular costs, but they eliminate hardware overhead (additional device-purchase costs) in mobilizing the entire workforce, including traditionally unmobilized corridor warriors.
   
• Individual-liable devices are as secure as deskphones and corporate-liable phones because the Mobile UC is web-based and under IT control.
   
• Individuals have access to Enterprise Social Networking capabilities to make individuals aware of one another's reachability.

DiVitas President and CEO, Vivek Khuller has been honored with an Asia America Multi Technology Association (AAMA) award at this year’s 30th Anniversary Gala reception that was held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View on Thursday, Oct. 1st, 2009.

Vivek was chosen on behalf of the AAMA board and management team as one of the ten AAMA up-and-coming leaders of tomorrow.  He was also featured in the AAMA 30th Anniversary celebration video which took a look back over the past 30 years and showcased Asian American business leaders of the past and future --those who have made significant contributions to the development of the high-tech industry and Silicon Valley.

“We were looking to honor young business leaders of the Asian descent who will most likely make an impact in Silicon Valley in the next 10-20 years,” said Anna Mok, AAMA's President and Partner at Deloitte and Touche. “Vivek Khuller was honored by the AAMA this year because he stands out as a leader of tomorrow.”

“Leading a high-tech company that has the real potential to improve people’s lives is as exhilarating as it is challenging,” said Vivek Khuller, President and CEO, DiVitas Networks. "It is an honor and a pleasure to be selected and standing alongside the impressive list of highly successful individuals who have come before me. I look forward to following in their footsteps and inspiring others to take the risks required to make the world a better place to live via technology.”

To read the full release visit our website.


Vivek Khuller, CEO of DiVitas Networks based in Mountain View, Calif. The DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC) solution unifies the deskhone number with voice, IM and  Social Networking (Mobile Presence and Status) on a mobile phone to make it easier for individuals to connect with one another on the first try. With its enterprise mobility solution, DiVitas is using enterprise social networking to help companies affordably create a more mobile workforce.

Expanding on TechTarget’s article, Presence, IM power mobile UC with or without fixed mobile convergence – absolutely! DiVitas agrees that being able to broadcast your Mobile Presence and Status is the best way to ensure you connect with colleagues on the first try. In fact, we’ve developed our Enterprise Social Networking solution around this issue.

However, not all Mobile Presence is created equal. DiVitas’ Presence technology provides a uniquely deep level of information about an individual’s availability. For Presence to be truly useful, it must convey far more than simply “available or unavailable.”

• Mobile Presence is displayed on the DiVitas phone’s interface as an icon similar to Yahoo IM (showing a happy face to say if you are available, not available.) However, DiVitas' Presence icon also shows whether you are reachable by voice or IM chat, or maybe you are temporarily on a call, and you are all together unavailable for communication (in which case calls go straight to voicemail).
   
• DiVitas Mobile Presence also communicates a person’s location, activity and network connectivity. Various Presence components allow people to obtain information about others and use that information to engage in the most efficient and economical way. For example, if I can see via your Mobile Presence that you are in London and on cellular, I would much rather IM you than talk -- to save on international calls. However if I know we are both on WiFi, I could choose to talk instead because the call is a free WiFi call and I might prefer a voice conversation.
   
• Status message is coupled with the Mobile Presence icon on a DiVitas smartphone, which provides an additional level of detail to availability about where you are and what you are doing (i.e. at the airport waiting for a 5pm flight). Indicating the window of opportunity for a call or chat is powerful knowledge and a great contributor in the quest to reduce missed calls and connect on the first attempt.

DiVitas takes the Presence and mobile Instant Messaging (IM) aspect of Mobile UC farther by making it an Enterprise Social Networking platform. By mobilizing the business number onto a mobile phone and tying it to voice, IM and Social Networking - Mobile Presence and Status - DiVitas ensures that the mobile workforce is always reachable, whether individuals are in- or out-of-office.

In her article, TechTarget’s Jessica Scarpati writes: “Mobile unified communications (UC) has become more than just voice over Wi-Fi [and cellular]. Enterprises can improve communication and collaboration by investing in other mobile UC applications, such as presence and IM that can integrate with smartphones, whether enterprises rely on their cellular data networks or fixed-mobile convergence to do so."

(Footnote: The key thing is that these mobile social networking tools must be integrated. Just having a bunch of tools on your phone does not provide total story.)

Agreeing with TechTarget’s Scarpati, Vanessa Alvarez, a unified communications analyst at Frost & Sullivan, is quoted as saying: "…the last [place] you want [employees] to be is behind a desk. You want them on the move, but at the same time you want them connected as if they were in the office."

Alvarez also says: “… as [presence] evolves it'll state what you're doing and the best way to reach you.”

Well, Vanessa, Mobile Presence has evolved and it is here today.  Welcome to DiVitas.

Possibilities for Windows Mobile smartphone users took another giant step forward this week thanks to our strategic partnership with Samsung. At CTIA in San Diego, DiVitas and Samsung announced availability of the first Mobile UC solution that unifies business voice with IM and Social Networking on Samsung Windows Mobile Smartphones (available for both CPE-based and hosted deployments.)

This news is significant because it shows how leading mobile phone makers – i.e. Nokia, HTC and Samsung – are continuing to come to the Mobile UC table to enable better enterprise mobility.

With DiVitas, Windows Mobile end users can use Mobile VoIP to make and receive calls using their business extension, IM one another, broadcast personal or departmental status, and use Mobile Presence to inform colleagues about availability, location and network connection. The DiVitas Client provides a consistent experience on all leading smartphones, so usage does not vary among individuals regardless of which handset they are using (Windows Mobile, Symbian, etc.)

The DiVitas Server also easily interoperates with any existing company PBX or carrier voice-switch, and the solution allows complete IT control over user and application management leading to completely mobile workforce.

This announcement comes two months after Samsung and DiVitas anounced a joint collaboration effort to advance Samsung’s software developer kit for developing Windows Mobile applications for Samsung smartphones.

DiVitas CEO Vivek Khuller recently sat down with editors from the San Jose Business Journal to talk about our company.

Explaining how DiVitas enables Enterprise 2.0 social networking capabilities on a mobile phone running Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC) to affordably create a more mobile workforce.

“… DiVitas sells software that enables businesses to mobilize employees’ deskphones onto their smartphones. DiVitas is differentiated in two ways: First, the product combines voice with familiar social networking tools such as instant messaging, status updates and presence on either device. Second, DiVitas allows users to roam freely between cellular networks and WiFi hotspots without dropping calls.”

He also highlighted a few of our mobile VoIP customers who have benefitted from reduced missed calls and reduced cellular costs, as well as improved enterprise mobility.

“…the U.S., the rail giant CSX Corp. uses DiVitas to keep its rail operations personnel accessible on mobile phones in areas without cellular coverage. VoIP carriers Sawtel Inc. and Clearfly Communications Inc. use DiVitas to mobilize their existing VoIP fixed lines and offer new services. In Finland, midsize company SGN Group uses DiVitas to make all its employees accessible via company desk-phone numbers and instant messaging using mobile”

To read the complete article visit the San Jose Business Journal.

My 11 year-old-nephew Tommy asked me an interesting question last night: “What does DiVitas do?”

I had to ponder a moment about how to answer this question about enterprise mobility. Keep in mind that although Tommy has an email account, he never uses it claiming that “I’m not an email kinda guy.” Nor does he use Facebook, Myspace or Twitter (although I later realized he has vague knowledge of how those consumer Social Networking apps work based on what he reads and hears.)

As it turns out, it took about three seconds to explain how Enterprise Social Networking works to him – far less time than I spent pondering what to say and how much base knowledge I was working with.

Here’s how I did it: I turned on my phone and updated my mobile Presence icon to show "available" and typed in my Status message to read, “showing my nephew how DiVitas works”. Then I scrolled through my contact list, explaining to Tommy that my Presence and Status can be seen by all of these folks on my list – and likewise we are able to see all of their Presence and Status.

Apparently this was very easy to grasp.

His first question: “So this is kind of like Twitter?”

Me (a bit stunned by the connection): “Yes. I can edit my Status message (“What are you doing” in Twitter lingo”) to tell others what I’m up to.

Second question: “So everybody on that list can see what you are doing, but nobody else because it’s private?”

Me (again surprised by his astuteness): “Yes. This list is restricted to people at DiVitas.”

He continued down his quizzical path, asking what kind of companies would use this and specifically asked if, for example, Walmart would use it.

Me (interested by where he is going with the questions): “Yes” and I went on to explain how a boss could look at his phone to see what Joe-employee is doing in order to know if he’s available for a particular task. But if Joe’s Status message reads “cleaning up spilled milk on aisle 3,” I explained, the boss knows that Joe will be busy for awhile and he should find somebody else for the task at hand.

Excited by an idea of how he could use DiVitas Enterprise Social Networking, enabled by Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC), Tommy then went on to apply what he learned to a scenario that he is familiar with. And that is Rollercoaster Tycoon – a computer game in which you can build an amusement park.

One of the tasks with Rollercoaster Tycoon is that you have to manage/maintain the park and so when, Tommy explained, if somebody gets sick by a ride, you have to find an employee to go attend to it (he was actually a bit more graphic in his explanation but I will spare you the gory details). This type of clean-up task is apparently a very big deal in this game because it is every kid’s goal to create the most stomach-turning rollercoaster possible. Hence streamlining the cleanup/delegation process is a key productivity element.

The important point here is that Tommy was able to connect the dots and apply DiVitas secure collaboration software benefits to a business process (of sorts) that is relevant to him.  Tommy said that our Mobile Presence and Status would be excellent for amusement-park management. The park manager, he explained, would have the mobile phone with him at all times, so he could simply look at his mobile phone instead of having to go back to his office and monitor everything from his computer.

He could also use a GPS locator and an automated program to locate and contact the employee who is nearest to the job location, and who is available to do the task. This is key benefit to enterprise social networking on a DiVitas mobile phone - you are able to assign tasks and simultaneously benefit from the ability to reduce missed calls.

Here is what struck a cord with me:

• I mentally struggled with explaining DiVitas’ Enterprise Social Networking solution because I assumed Tommy, being 11 and unfamiliar with Facebook, wouldn’t get it. Completely untrue. But after a brief explanation and seeing a demo, he understood Enterprise Social Networking in a split second.
  
   
• Tommy is in sixth grade, and while he’s a smart kid, it’s not like he’s a child prodigy skipping high school and heading straight to university. So if your basic 11-year-old can get what we do in five seconds or less, I feel confident that an adult purchasing-decision maker in an IT department can too. You may not work in an amusement park but if you are anything like me, your job often takes on the feel of riding a rollercoaster. But having my DiVitas smartphone, I am connected to my collegues at all times, making that ride less frequent than it otherwise would be.

The more we communicate, the better off we are as a planet – words uttered earlier this week by an analyst that I respect very much.

He made the comment during a discussion about Enterprise Social Networking and how this new dynamic of communication stands to impact the world as we know it.

After all, consider the fact that the cell phone market only hit critical mass in the past ten to fifteen years. And yet today we live like we’ve always had them. Likewise, email took off during that same relatively recent timeframe, and now you simply must have an email address to be a functioning part of society.

In both of these cases, cell phones and email, the consumer has played a pivotal role in the market’s lift-off. The more accustomed we become to a certain behavior in our personal lives, the more the habit of using or needing it seeps into the other part of our world – the business part. Yes we use phones and email at our jobs, but it’s our personal use – those tasks that we do because we want to and not because we have to – that creates the hungry habit that must be fed.

For example, the projected popularity for iPhone's use among enterprises is not based on current sales. Rather it’s based on iPhone’s current market share among consumers, and the fact that people want to use the same mobile phone at work as they do in their personal lives.

We are in better communication as a planet because of mobile phones and email, but there is more to come. The latest frontier, Social Networking, is gunning toward the stratosphere, with Facebook claiming to have turned its first profit and Twitter taking a pivotal role in events such as the recent Iranian elections.

Social Networking’s Mobile Presence capability (i.e. Status update a la Facebook’s “What’s on your mind?” or Twitter’s “What are you doing?”) is proving to show tremendous value to businesses for enabling enterprise mobility.

And so the business counterpart to consumer apps, Enterprise Social Networking (enabled by the DiVitas Mobile UC solution), is now being used to provide that same Presence information on a mobile phone to improve reachability, productivity and collaboration in the workplace. By making Enterprise Social Networking available to you a smartphone, and tying it directly to your mobilized business number, DiVitas increases the probability of being reached on the first try to improve producivity and reduce telecom costs.

In your personal life, being able to quickly get in touch with somebody is nice to have. In the business world, it’s a must-have. Enterprise Social Networking is the next logical step for end-to-end global communications and worldwide connectivity.

Enterprise Social Networking (enabled by the DiVitas Mobile UC solution) is meeting the business need for voice combined with secure IM, Presence and Status, in a single solution that runs on your smartphone.

Popular consumer Social Networking apps such as Facebook and Twitter originally helped educate millions of users on how to use Presence and Status in their daily lives. By updating and reading personal Status messages, Social Networking users continually inform one another about what they are doing and where they are doing it.

This same status info has value in the workplace. And now the business counterpart, DiVitas Enterprise Social Networking, is being used to provide that same status information to improve reachability, productivity and collaboration in the workplace. The DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC) solution provides an Enterprise Social Networking environment that integrates business voice with Presence, Status and IM to increase the probability of reaching others on the first try.

There are several articles written that addressthe Enterprise Social Networking capabilities of DiVitas Mobile UC: 

• Letter to Obama: Enterprise Social Networking Let’s You Securely Enjoy Collaboration
   
• Facebook Mobile for Consumers, Enterprise Social Networking for Mobile Business Users
   
• Mobile Presence Makes Every Call Count

• Enterprise Social Networking Poised for Growth
   
• Enterprise Social Networking - An Appropriate Alternative for Businesses Struggling with Consumer-Based Social Networking Security Breaches

Customer service is a top priority at Finnish importer/exporter/wholesaler SGN Group. And the company is already benefitting from its DiVitas Mobile UC deployment; especially in its quest to improve customer service by making employees continuously available while at work.

Editor Bob Emmerson's article on No Jitter talks about how the company worked with ProVAD, Avaya’s and DiVitas’ preferred value-added reseller in Finland, to deploy DiVitas Mobile UC.




SGN is an importer/exporter/wholesaler specializing in recreation, sports equipment, agriculture, lawn and garden and industrial products.

Dear Mr. President,

I wasn’t at all surprised to see the online inquiry your office made about the DiVitas Enterprise Social Networking capabilities this week.

Everybody is well aware of how hard you lobbied to keep your Blackberry smartphone after you took office. After all, in this era of on-the-go communications, even Presidents can feel the addiction of having mobile email and texting capabilities. And then there’s Twitter, which played a major role in your Presidential campaign.

Let’s face it. You are a person who likes to stay connected, and you are one who appreciates, and takes advantage of, apps that keep friends, fans and colleagues in the loop.

At the same time, as President, you understand the need to balance Social Networking with security. Blasting out your Status to eager followers or sending a text message to your campaign staff is one thing. But when that text message reveals info that could threaten national security – which pretty much describes a president’s sphere of information – it’s time to rethink the information-sharing strategy.

And this is why your office needs, and is apparently seeking, a secure application for collaboration and Status-sharing within the presidential community. So I can absolutely understand your interest in investigating DiVitas Enterprise Social Networking capabilities.

While Twitter and Facebook are ideal for consumer use (and hence run the risk of information security breaches), Enterprise Social Networking included in DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC) is appropriate – and secure – for business. Through DiVitas, organizations like the presidential office can send secure IM or broadcast status information to a pre-defined community like “The Joint Chiefs of Staff.” Once your community is defined, you can be confident that information is contained within that specific group.  Hence, there is no worry associated with information getting into the wrong hands.

Organizations deploying DiVitas enjoy the benefit of business voice (deskphone number) combined with Social Networking (Mobile Presence, mobile Instant Messaging (IM) and Status message) and placed onto a smartphone – without sacrificing information security. This is because DiVitas limits access to a specific, and secure, group of people (colleagues within your organization).

Addressing the need for Enterprise Social Networking, Mobile UC:

• Has a customizable Status message to broadcast exactly what you are doing at a given moment – a must-have when you need to know if a colleague is reachable. Personal Status messages such as “meeting with congress about healthcare” or, “about to board Air Force One” speak volumes when you need to let authorized colleagues know your whereabouts.
   
• Uses Mobile Presence to broadcast your status to your entire community (users within your organization i.e. the presidential office.) One glance at the directory displayed on your DiVitas smartphone and you can see who is available (by voice and/or text) or unavailable at any given moment.  
   
• Enables Instant Messaging (IM) so that colleagues can discreetly send each other brief text messages – handy when you are meeting with foreign leaders and a voice conversation isn’t appropriate, convenient or necessary!

If you or your executive staff were to use DiVitas Mobile UC instead of consumer apps such as Twitter or Facebook for Social Networking, your office could set aside fears of security breaches. At the same time, individuals in the organization would be able to take advantage of the productivity-enhancing collaboration and sharing benefits offered by social media.  

And you could even add The First Lady to your community, enabling her to easily and securely send you an IM asking you to pick up a quart of milk on your way home from the office.

Facebook Mobile has gone from 20 million to 65 million users – a more than threefold gain – in just eight short months, according to ZDnet. But the reason why that’s interesting for purposes of the DiVitas blog is not because Facebook is a meaningful tool for enterprises.

It’s because a 200% increase is a valuable statistic demonstrating how important it has become to have access to Social Networking apps while on-the-go. And this is true because Mobile Presence and Status info becomes even more significant when users are wanting to, or needing to, let contacts know where they are and what they are doing – despite the fact that they aren’t hunkered down in front of a computer. Mobile Presence and Status are two key components of Enterprise Social Networking and help improve enterprise mobility while reducing mobile costs.

If you’re wondering why your Facebook friend, Fred, hasn’t answered your email, or why he’s not online to chat, just check his Mobile Presence (a.k.a. “What’s on your mind” in Facebook lingo). If his status is posted using a mobile device (evident by the associated mobile phone icon) and reads, “taking my kid to the zoo,” then Fred’s lack of response quickly makes sense. He’s otherwise occupied.

Translating that to a business scenario, workers have become highly mobile, and thus have a greater chance of missing a communication, whether it’s a phone call, email or IM. Being able to first check a colleague’s Mobile Presence from a smartphone, before initiating any communication, is the best way to increase the probability of connecting on the first try.

Individuals within companies that use DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications (deskphone number, social networking, voice and IM) have come to rely on the practice of checking Presence before placing a call, or sending email or IM. You never know where your colleagues are at a given moment, or if they are available for communication at all. Checking Presence first avoids wasting time calling and getting voicemail, or waiting indefinitely for an email or IM response.

For example, let’s say Fred (who is also a co-worker) is using DiVitas Mobile UC and his Presence icon shows he is “available by text only” and his Status message reads “in a meeting until 2pm.” Instead of having my call go directly to visual voicemail and waiting until 2pm for a voice response, I would send a brief IM (using mobile Instant Messaging) that he can discreetly read, and respond to, from his DiVitas smartphone without interrupting the meeting. It doesn’t matter where either of you is located, because the communication is entirely by smartphone.

When you stop to consider that Mobile Facebook users (consumers) are the same people who use Mobile UC (business users), a 3-fold increase in usage demonstrates a clear need for Mobile Presence and improved enterprise mobility. People in your inner circle, whether it’s business contacts or personal friends, have a need to know your availability and the best way to contact you.  And Enterprise Social Networking's Mobile Presence capability provides this benefit toward affordably creating a highly mobile workforce.

Facebook Mobile has gone from 20 million to 65 million users – a more than threefold gain – in just eight short months, according to ZDnet. But the reason why that’s interesting for purposes of the DiVitas blog is not because Facebook is a meaningful tool for enterprises.

It’s because a 200% increase is a valuable statistic demonstrating how important it has become to have access to Social Networking apps while on-the-go. And this is true because Presence and Status info becomes even more significant when users are wanting to, or needing to, let contacts know where they are and what they are doing – despite the fact that they aren’t hunkered down in front of a computer. Presence and Status are two key components of Enterprise Social Networking.

If you’re wondering why your Facebook friend, Fred, hasn’t answered your email, or why he’s not online to chat, just check his Presence (“What’s on your mind” in Facebook lingo). If his status is posted using a mobile device (evident by the associated mobile phone icon) and reads, “taking my kid to the zoo,” then Fred’s lack of response quickly makes sense. He’s otherwise occupied.

Translating that to a business scenario, workers have become highly mobile, and thus have a greater chance of missing a communication, whether it’s a phone call, email or IM. Being able to first check a colleague’s Presence from a smartphone, before initiating any communication, is the best way to increase the probability of connecting on the first try.

Individuals within companies that use DiVitas Mobile UC have come to rely on the practice of checking Presence before placing a call, or sending email or IM. You never know where your colleagues are at a given moment, or if they are available for communication at all. Checking Presence first avoids wasting time calling and getting voicemail, or waiting indefinitely for an email or IM response.

For example, if Fred (who is also a co-worker) is using DiVitas Mobile UC, and his Presence icon shows he’s available, and his status reads “working on slides,” then you definitely know it’s not a good time to talk on the phone. Instead, you can send him an IM. And it doesn’t matter where either of you is located because the communication is entirely by smartphone.

When you stop to consider that Mobile Facebook users (consumers) are the same people who use Mobile UC (business users), a 3-fold increase in usage demonstrates a clear need for Mobile Presence. People in your inner your circle, whether it’s business contacts or personal friends, have a need to know your availability and the best way to contact you. And Enterprise Social Networking's Mobile Presence capability provides this benefit.

DiVitas and Samsung announced this week that DiVitas Mobile UC, including key Enterprise Social Networking apps (Voice combined with Mobile Presence, Status message and mobile Instant Messaging (IM)), will be tightly integrated with Samsung’s Windows Mobile smartphones. Both GSM and CDMA Windows Mobile devices will now support DiVitas Mobile UC.

The companies worked closely together to enhance the APIs in the Samsung Mobile Innovator’s SDK, allowing a Mobile UC solution for the first time to take advantage of the Social Networking capabilities offered by the Windows Mobile operating system.

Enterprise Social Networking included in DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC) is a secure alternative to popular consumer Social Networking apps, such as Twitter or Facebook, for the workplace in order to improve enterprise mobility. Organizations deploying Mobile UC enjoy the benefit of business voice (deskphone) that is combined with Social Networking (Presence, IM and Status message) and placed onto a smartphone. But by limiting access to a specific group of people (colleagues within your organization), Mobile UC lets organizations take advantage of the real-time communication benefits of Social Networking without compromising security. With Enterprise Social Networking, the risk of accidentally leaking sensitive information to the masses is eliminated.

This week’s announcement represents a major breakthrough for organizations waiting to deploy Mobile UC on a Windows Mobile smartphone. This is especially true for enterprises that have standardized on CDMA, the network which represents the lion’s share of U.S. cellular lines.

The supported Samsung Windows Mobile devices include the Epix, Saga, Jack and the Omnia (CDMA) in the U.S. and the Omnia (GSM) globally.

Related news articles:

Among the press and media outlets covering the Samsung/DiVitas WinMo partnership was NetworkWorld blogger and analyst Craig Mathias. In his Aug. 18 column covering the announcement “by Mobile Unified Communications (MUC) leader DiVitas” he sums up his analysis saying:  

“Bottom line, though - this is likely to be a very significant announcement for all concerned  … Mobile converged/unified communications will be a key driver of handset sales and corporate mobility strategies alike for a nice long stretch into the future.”

Also following the Samsung/DiVitas news was VoIP Planet. In his article DiVitas, Samsung Partner for Mobile UC, VoIP Planet’s Adam Stone quotes DiVitas CEO Vivek Khuller as saying:

"'The target market in my mind is the information worker—the knowledge worker, who is on the road, even if that is within their own buildings. It’s someone who is not tethered to their desk,' Khuller said. He estimates most workers can be found at their desks less than 30 percent of the time these days. Put the full phone system in their pockets, and productivity is bound to increase.”


Other coverage of the DiVitas/Samsung announcement includes:
 

• TMCnet European Editor Bob Emmerson’s article Windows Mobile Gets UC Boost.
  
   
• Analyst Peter Brockmann writes Samsung Boosts Mobile UC with Win Mobile SDK Update.

I love it when new research about enterprise mobility and an affordably mobile workforce comes out that helps validate my point of view on an important topic related to business productivity. So imagine how good it felt to read all the research pouring in that shows the benefits of Social Networking for business – and how enterprises  are making use of these tools. We have been blogging about mobile Enterprise 2.0 for a year now, so it’s nice to see the research catching up – and helping to illustrate this enterprise need.

In this week’s news, Wainhouse Research says it has expanded its Rich Media Metrics survey coverage to include the Enterprise Social Networking (a.k.a. Enterprise 2.0) space. In a survey series, the company found that while fewer than 25% of the respondents had Enterprise Social Networking capabilities in place today, more than 90% said they would deploy Enterprise Social Networking eventually.

Also, according to Wainhouse, business-community oriented sites such as LinkedIn are predictably popular among enterprise users. But consumer-oriented, “outward facing” sites such as Facebook are making inroads. So not surprisingly:

• LinkedIn was the public social networking site most used by those surveyed for personal use (67.3%)
• Facebook was a close second (58.9%)
• YouTube not far behind the leaders (50.9%)

But to me, the survey’s most interesting findings is the fact that 32% of respondents considered inward-facing Enterprise 2.0 (what Wainhouse considers to be tools used by a known population, such as employees) “to be extremely or very important for the value it delivers to the enterprise.”

According to Wainhouse, Enterprise Social Networking benefits include “improvements in collaboration, teamwork, productivity and time to market.”

This finding is significant because it shows that while apps such as Twitter and Facebook are ideal for consumer use, Enterprise Social Networking, which is integrated into DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications (deskphone number, social networking, voice and IM integrated onto a mobile phone), is more appropriate for the workplace - and for affordably improving enterprise mobility.

By limiting access to a specific, and secure, group of people (colleagues within your organization), Mobile UC lets organizations take advantage of the real-time communication benefits provided by secure social networking, without the risk of accidentally leaking sensitive information to the masses.

I’m looking forward to coming weeks and months to see what other new research will back DiVitas’ theory about the business advantages of Enterprise Social Networking and mobile Enterprise 2.0. Bring it on!
 

While many U.S. businesses may feel defeated by this past year’s struggling economy, DiVitas CEO Vivek Khuller has a more positive outlook.

Vivek recently sat down with TMCnet CEO Rich Tehrani to talk about how “the down economy, and resulting microscope on discretionary spending, have served to filter out those who are merely playing with technology from those who are more serious about turning to IP communications for cost-savings.”

In large part, Khuller attributes Enterprise Social Networking for Mobile UC’s appeal during the current economic crisis – being more connected and available during the business day makes us more engaged and productive.

Following are a few excerpts from this interview:


RT: What has the economic crisis taught you, and how has it changed your customers?

VK: People have become much more thoughtful about what they are buying. They are buying things they actually need, so they are reducing discretionary spending. We are getting interest from customers who are truly serious as opposed to those who are just playing with the technology.


RT: In what ways is President Barack Obama helping or hindering the technology markets? What more can he do?

VK: Obama’s stimulus package clearly seems to be working as we are seeing strong demand for our product and services from the educational and government sectors.


RT: What’s the strongest segment in the communications industry?

VK: Wireless and mobile. Take Verizon, AT&T, Apple and RIM for example. All four have posted solid results in spite of the poor economy.


RT: Why should customers choose your company’s solutions? How do they justify the expense to management?

VK: First and foremost the DiVitas solution increases employee accessibility and responsiveness. In addition to voice, DiVitas offers the newest enterprise social networking applications – such as IM, Presence and Personal Status – on a smartphone. People are more accessible, responsive, and therefore they are more productive.


To read the full interview, visit TMCnet.

FierceVoIP’s Pete Wylie has some interesting things to say about our CEO Vivek Khuller, and about Mobile UC.

In his blog DiVitas: a mobility perspective on unified communications Wylie refers to Vivek as the CEO who offered “far and away the most philosophical definition of unified communications of those surveyed.”

According to Vivek: Enterprise communications is no longer just about being able to make a phone call. Unified Communications should allow enterprises to engage more efficiently with customers or suppliers, and to increase productivity.

Wylie also got Yankee Group’s Zeus Kerravala to weigh in on the importance of Mobile UC.

According to Zeus: "I'm a big believer in UC. Mobile UC provides more bang for your buck and value when it allows for seamless movement across communication mediums."

To read the full article visit FierceVoIP.