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.
Posted Wednesday, July 29, 2009 by
Nancy Colwell
Today was “one of those mornings.” My alarm didn’t go off, I forget to set the automatic drip coffee maker and my cat did what long-haired cats do on the hallway floor.
All of these things conspired to make me late for work, but one thing that thankfully wasn’t a problem was my DiVitas phone. Despite the fact that our IT department had performed a major upgrade to the DiVitas Server the night before, and I was temporarily unable to use my DiVitas mobile client to communicate my situation, I was only out of pocket for 45 seconds. Until I upgraded my client, I was not able to check my colleagues’ Presence and Status, or send them IM. Nor could I eyeball my Visual Voicemail to see if any important voicemails were waiting in my inbox for that same 45 seconds.
Yes, I was left stranded without business communication for only 45 seconds.
Seriously, the inconvenience of having my mobile phone offline lasted less than a minute and getting back online was a matter of clicking “OK” a few times.
DiVitas Mobile UC uses an automated Over the Air (OTA) process to upgrade every DiVitas client by prompting end users through a series of questions. The IT staff doesn’t need to hold anybody’s hand because OTA is very efficient for all parties – including us non-technical folks in the marketing department.
Once I get the message (as I did this morning) “The current version is incompatible with the server. Upgrade? “No” will exit”, I know the drill.
I simply click “yes” a few times (until the questions stop coming) and I’m back online. I’ve done this several times by now, and the experience, and outcome, is the same every time – painless and predictable.
Having to upgrade my DiVitas smartphone first thing in the morning was a no brainer, and it was over with so fast that I was able to change my Presence to “available by phone” and my Status to read “on my way, running late.” So everybody at DiVitas knew that although I was still on my way in to the office, I was available for a phone call (no IM exchange while driving).
If only my DiVitas phone could also set my alarm, make coffee and clean up after my cat. That would be the ultimate in perfection.
All of these things conspired to make me late for work, but one thing that thankfully wasn’t a problem was my DiVitas phone. Despite the fact that our IT department had performed a major upgrade to the DiVitas Server the night before, and I was temporarily unable to use my DiVitas mobile client to communicate my situation, I was only out of pocket for 45 seconds. Until I upgraded my client, I was not able to check my colleagues’ Presence and Status, or send them IM. Nor could I eyeball my Visual Voicemail to see if any important voicemails were waiting in my inbox for that same 45 seconds.
Yes, I was left stranded without business communication for only 45 seconds.
Seriously, the inconvenience of having my mobile phone offline lasted less than a minute and getting back online was a matter of clicking “OK” a few times.
DiVitas Mobile UC uses an automated Over the Air (OTA) process to upgrade every DiVitas client by prompting end users through a series of questions. The IT staff doesn’t need to hold anybody’s hand because OTA is very efficient for all parties – including us non-technical folks in the marketing department.
Once I get the message (as I did this morning) “The current version is incompatible with the server. Upgrade? “No” will exit”, I know the drill.
I simply click “yes” a few times (until the questions stop coming) and I’m back online. I’ve done this several times by now, and the experience, and outcome, is the same every time – painless and predictable.
Having to upgrade my DiVitas smartphone first thing in the morning was a no brainer, and it was over with so fast that I was able to change my Presence to “available by phone” and my Status to read “on my way, running late.” So everybody at DiVitas knew that although I was still on my way in to the office, I was available for a phone call (no IM exchange while driving).
If only my DiVitas phone could also set my alarm, make coffee and clean up after my cat. That would be the ultimate in perfection.
Posted Thursday, July 23, 2009 by
Richard Watson
You know something is big news when so many analysts are blogging on it that No Jitter is forced to create a separate category around the topic, and Avaya’s $475 million “stalking horse” bid for Nortel is no exception.
One angle, however, analysts have yet to focus on in scrutinizing this business deal so closely is: Can the industry’s existing unified communications solutions transparently absorb a merged Norvaya (Nortel-Avaya) customer base?
While I can’t speak for other solutions, I can say definitively that DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC) will be a unifying force among Avaya and Nortel customers.
Our solution currently runs seamlessly in both environments -- and with both TDM and IP PBXs, and will continue to do so when Avaya and Nortel equipment is running side-by-side under the Avaya umbrella.
DiVitas and Avaya already have a strong history, having worked closely together throughout the past few years to guarantee our Mobile UC solution works seamlessly with Avaya Communication Manager to affordably improve enterprise mobility. So much so that DiVitas has earned its place within Avaya’s DevConnect program at the prestigious platinum level by invitation. DiVitas is also the First Fixed Mobile Convergence (seamless roaming)/Mobile UC Partner to be Certified on Avaya's Aura Platform.
In fact, just recently our two companies announced that together, we have solved the time-consuming problem of managing multiple voicemail systems. DiVitas has tightly integrated our Mobile UC solution with Avaya Modular Messaging, which also runs on selected Nortel PBXs. Available today, DiVitas users can now retrieve, listen to and manage their Modular Messaging using visual voicemail on their DiVitas client handset. And because Modular Messaging is able to integrate with other vendor’s IP PBX solutions, this good news is very relevant to a broader audience beyond current Avaya customers.
From a DiVitas Mobile UC perspective, Nortel customers will never need to know that their PBX manufacturer is under new ownership and they will reap the rewards of mobile VoIP.
One angle, however, analysts have yet to focus on in scrutinizing this business deal so closely is: Can the industry’s existing unified communications solutions transparently absorb a merged Norvaya (Nortel-Avaya) customer base?
While I can’t speak for other solutions, I can say definitively that DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC) will be a unifying force among Avaya and Nortel customers.
Our solution currently runs seamlessly in both environments -- and with both TDM and IP PBXs, and will continue to do so when Avaya and Nortel equipment is running side-by-side under the Avaya umbrella.
DiVitas and Avaya already have a strong history, having worked closely together throughout the past few years to guarantee our Mobile UC solution works seamlessly with Avaya Communication Manager to affordably improve enterprise mobility. So much so that DiVitas has earned its place within Avaya’s DevConnect program at the prestigious platinum level by invitation. DiVitas is also the First Fixed Mobile Convergence (seamless roaming)/Mobile UC Partner to be Certified on Avaya's Aura Platform.
In fact, just recently our two companies announced that together, we have solved the time-consuming problem of managing multiple voicemail systems. DiVitas has tightly integrated our Mobile UC solution with Avaya Modular Messaging, which also runs on selected Nortel PBXs. Available today, DiVitas users can now retrieve, listen to and manage their Modular Messaging using visual voicemail on their DiVitas client handset. And because Modular Messaging is able to integrate with other vendor’s IP PBX solutions, this good news is very relevant to a broader audience beyond current Avaya customers.
From a DiVitas Mobile UC perspective, Nortel customers will never need to know that their PBX manufacturer is under new ownership and they will reap the rewards of mobile VoIP.
Posted Wednesday, July 22, 2009 by
Nancy Colwell
Siliconindia’s July 2009 issue focuses on the “emerging enterprise wireless” space, and includes an article contributed by DiVitas on this topic.
In this article we describe the ongoing trend among universities to use Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC), a mobile social networking solution (Mobile Presence and Status) that integrates voice and mobile Instant Messaging (IM), to tighten the campus community. Mobile UC runs on any web-enabled smartphone i.e. iPhone, Blackberry and Android to mak faculty, staff and students more accessible to one another, leading to a deeper level of collaboration.
Following is an excerpt from Silconindia’s Universities Deploying Mobile Unified Communications to Keep Campus Connected:
“…In bygone days, students relied on dorm phones and university-supplied email addresses to contact one another. Today, however, students are primarily reachable by using a hodgepodge of private, unpublished cell phone numbers and email addresses. They also blast their whereabouts, and read about what their fellow campus dwellers are doing, using one of the many social networking applications like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.
Given this variety of communication mediums, it can be difficult to find contact information for a fellow student in, say, your math class. Individual, private contact information simply isn’t managed and published by universities. And this lack of a standard platform for phone and or text-based communication has contributed to undermine the social structure at a university, which by nature is a collaborative environment.
Secure social networking running on iPhone, Blackberry and Android devices (via Mobile UC) is changing all this. It is helping universities overcome the digital divide to recreate a sense of campus community.”
Read more about how the DiVitas's Mobile UC running on a iPhone, Blackberry and Android devices supports a full range of communications by combining mobile social networking applications (Mobile Presence and Status) with IM, voice and a university phone number, university directory contacts and Visual Voicemail.
In this article we describe the ongoing trend among universities to use Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC), a mobile social networking solution (Mobile Presence and Status) that integrates voice and mobile Instant Messaging (IM), to tighten the campus community. Mobile UC runs on any web-enabled smartphone i.e. iPhone, Blackberry and Android to mak faculty, staff and students more accessible to one another, leading to a deeper level of collaboration.
Following is an excerpt from Silconindia’s Universities Deploying Mobile Unified Communications to Keep Campus Connected:
“…In bygone days, students relied on dorm phones and university-supplied email addresses to contact one another. Today, however, students are primarily reachable by using a hodgepodge of private, unpublished cell phone numbers and email addresses. They also blast their whereabouts, and read about what their fellow campus dwellers are doing, using one of the many social networking applications like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.
Given this variety of communication mediums, it can be difficult to find contact information for a fellow student in, say, your math class. Individual, private contact information simply isn’t managed and published by universities. And this lack of a standard platform for phone and or text-based communication has contributed to undermine the social structure at a university, which by nature is a collaborative environment.
Secure social networking running on iPhone, Blackberry and Android devices (via Mobile UC) is changing all this. It is helping universities overcome the digital divide to recreate a sense of campus community.”
Read more about how the DiVitas's Mobile UC running on a iPhone, Blackberry and Android devices supports a full range of communications by combining mobile social networking applications (Mobile Presence and Status) with IM, voice and a university phone number, university directory contacts and Visual Voicemail.
Posted Wednesday, July 1, 2009 by
Nancy Colwell
Anybody second guessing the benefits of telecommuting is in for some enlightenment. Networking giant Cisco – and the $10 million annual savings it’s enjoying by letting employees work from home – is proof that telecommuting works as advertised. It helps reduce mobile telecom costs.
According to a recent NetworkWorld article, Cisco Sends Employees Home to Work, the networking giant has already realized productivity savings of $277 million thanks to its 18-month-old telework program. The company based its productivity savings on the “number of billed hours at an average of $91 per hour.”
Ironically, the original intent behind Cisco’ Telework program – a program requested by CEO John Chambers and which began with 20,000 employees – was to “… evaluate the social, economic and environmental impacts associated with telecommuting …”, according to NetworkWorld. The actual cost savings, says Cisco, are a bonus.
While Cisco’s productivity savings are significant, just imagine if you were to add DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC), which runs seamlessly in a Cisco environment, to the telecommuting equation. You would begin to see hard cost savings from reduced cellular costs as well.
For example, because a DiVitas smartphone behaves just like a deskphone (carries the corporate phone number and performs call forward, extension dialing, etc.), telecommuters would be reachable by a single device – a mobile phone that runs over WiFi, which would result in several telecom cost reducing benefits:
Cisco’s telecommuting results are very promising in the argument for companies instituting telecommuting policies.
According to NetworkWorld, “91% of the nearly 2,000 respondents to a late 2008 survey [of Cisco] believed the ability to telecommute is “somewhat or very important” to their overall satisfaction on the job.”
Also, “69% of employees surveyed cited higher productivity when working from home and 75% said the timeliness of their work improved.”
Like Cisco, we at DiVitas practice what we preach – we use our own solution to the point that our company can share the news about productivity and cost-savings benefits.
According to a recent NetworkWorld article, Cisco Sends Employees Home to Work, the networking giant has already realized productivity savings of $277 million thanks to its 18-month-old telework program. The company based its productivity savings on the “number of billed hours at an average of $91 per hour.”
Ironically, the original intent behind Cisco’ Telework program – a program requested by CEO John Chambers and which began with 20,000 employees – was to “… evaluate the social, economic and environmental impacts associated with telecommuting …”, according to NetworkWorld. The actual cost savings, says Cisco, are a bonus.
While Cisco’s productivity savings are significant, just imagine if you were to add DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC), which runs seamlessly in a Cisco environment, to the telecommuting equation. You would begin to see hard cost savings from reduced cellular costs as well.
For example, because a DiVitas smartphone behaves just like a deskphone (carries the corporate phone number and performs call forward, extension dialing, etc.), telecommuters would be reachable by a single device – a mobile phone that runs over WiFi, which would result in several telecom cost reducing benefits:
- Free WiFi phone calls - callers benefit from free international calls on WiFi and local calls on WiFi.
- Only one device (a smartphone) needs to be purchased and managed for each telecommuter.
- Companies can discontinue subsidizing home-phone service for telecommuters.
- Costly cellular data plans are only necessary for highly mobile telecommuters i.e. sales; telecommuters working strictly from a home office can place and receive voice calls strictly via WiFi.
- Single Number reach and Caller ID on the DiVitas handset shows the company direct dial number – nobody knows that the individual is working from home.
- Has integrated mobile social networking capabilities such as Mobile Presence and mobile Instant Messaging (IM) and Status message.
- Is integrated with the corporate directory, so placing a call or addressing an email or IM can be done directly from the smartphone interface.
- Supports Dual Persona, which allows personal calls to be routed through a native cellular number (Personal Persona) and business calls to be routed through a mobile phone (Business Persona ); highly mobile telecommuters need only carry one device.
- Supports Fixed Mobile Convergence (seamless roaming), allowing phones calls to hand off seamlessly between WiFi and cellular.
- Has landline-like voice quality over WiFi.
- Is under IT control and supports remote over the air (OTA) installation, configuration and update management.
- Supports Visual Voicemail and Single Voicemail Inbox, allowing individuals to retrieve messages directly from their smartphones and eyeball which messages have priority status.
Cisco’s telecommuting results are very promising in the argument for companies instituting telecommuting policies.
According to NetworkWorld, “91% of the nearly 2,000 respondents to a late 2008 survey [of Cisco] believed the ability to telecommute is “somewhat or very important” to their overall satisfaction on the job.”
Also, “69% of employees surveyed cited higher productivity when working from home and 75% said the timeliness of their work improved.”
Like Cisco, we at DiVitas practice what we preach – we use our own solution to the point that our company can share the news about productivity and cost-savings benefits.
Posted Friday, June 19, 2009 by
Nancy Colwell
I just read an interesting blog posted on No Jitter about the growing demand for Unified Messaging (UM). According to the blog titled Unified Messaging Keeps Chugging Along (and authored by analyst Irwin Lazar of Nemertes Research), “As enterprises become increasingly virtual, with larger numbers of mobile professionals; time wasted by calling to check for messages is no longer tolerable.”
The article continues, stating that UM “offers significant organizational benefits compared with traditional voice messaging, thus saving time, improving flexibility, and productivity of the virtual worker while offering the potential to deliver new services and reduce management and operations costs.”
From a DiVitas perspective, what I found interesting about this article is that demand for UM highlights the need for a subset technology, which is a single “unified” voicemail inbox. The DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC) solution includes this single-inbox feature, and it is a great tool for business users because their deskphone and mobile phone voicemail inboxes become one and the same. DiVitas eliminates the time-consuming practice of checking multiple sources for voicemail messages.
DiVitas also supports Visual Voicemail, giving you the option to see who sent each voicemail and the time or the length of the message. DiVitas users can eyeball messages waiting in their inbox, and listen to voicemail in order of priority. You can imagine, for example, how efficient this is for a user who has just emerged from a meeting, and has had all calls sent to voicemail.
In agreement with No Jitter, today’s highly mobile workforce requires more efficiency and cost saving features from their communication tools. For business users, managing a single voicemail inbox, and relying on Visual Voicemail for prioritizing messages, has enormous time-saving and productivity benefits.
The article continues, stating that UM “offers significant organizational benefits compared with traditional voice messaging, thus saving time, improving flexibility, and productivity of the virtual worker while offering the potential to deliver new services and reduce management and operations costs.”
From a DiVitas perspective, what I found interesting about this article is that demand for UM highlights the need for a subset technology, which is a single “unified” voicemail inbox. The DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC) solution includes this single-inbox feature, and it is a great tool for business users because their deskphone and mobile phone voicemail inboxes become one and the same. DiVitas eliminates the time-consuming practice of checking multiple sources for voicemail messages.
DiVitas also supports Visual Voicemail, giving you the option to see who sent each voicemail and the time or the length of the message. DiVitas users can eyeball messages waiting in their inbox, and listen to voicemail in order of priority. You can imagine, for example, how efficient this is for a user who has just emerged from a meeting, and has had all calls sent to voicemail.
In agreement with No Jitter, today’s highly mobile workforce requires more efficiency and cost saving features from their communication tools. For business users, managing a single voicemail inbox, and relying on Visual Voicemail for prioritizing messages, has enormous time-saving and productivity benefits.
Posted Friday, June 5, 2009 by
Nancy Colwell
We’ve taken the next logical step with the DiVitas Hosted Trial Program – this time letting a journalist try out our Mobile UC solution.
“Two long-time VoIPplanet.com staffers recently got the opportunity to do something we don't normally get to do: try out a sexy, sophisticated enterprise communications application in the real world,” said VoIP Planet’s Ted Stevenson in his recent article Experiencing the Totally Connected Lifestyle. In this post Stevenson describes his week-long test run using DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC) running on a Nokia E71 smartphone. Here are a few more excerpts:
Setup is a snap:
“The beauty of mobile UC is that you can make calls either over the Wi-Fi network (when one is available) or over the cellular network (when one isn't)."
Seamless roaming works as advertised:
“When you're moving across network boundaries, the phone automatically switches to the best available connection, in a move known as 'seamless handover.' Indeed, we were able to move back and forth between cellular and Wi-Fi networks with no human intervention …
The experience of seamless handover isn't really much different from a normal cell phone conversation—except for the little beep that seems to occur when handover takes place—however the voice quality seemed better over the IP network, which is a plus. But the idea of doing something that only a few years ago was beyond the ability of RF technology, is kind of fun.”
The Dual Persona upside:
“… with the DiVitas software, the phone functions with 'dual personalities.' Calls to your desk phone at work ring your mobile phone, but calls to your personal cellular account do also. When you're making outbound calls, the application asks you if you want this to be a business call—in which case it uses the Wi-Fi network (if available) and broadcasts your workplace caller ID. If you opt for personal, the call goes over the cellular network and your personal caller ID is used.”
The upside of Unified Messaging and Visual Voicemail:
“You can also access voicemail from the DiVitas-equipped mobile phone—both work and personal messages come to your single, unified voice mailbox. Since messages have headers that show the name and title of the caller, the date of the message, and the duration of the call, you can sort through them and prioritize which messages to respond to and in what order.”
Broadcasting Presence and microblogging (a.k.a. Status Update):
“The other major piece of UC functionality that Mobile Unified Communications brings is presence and availability. In the DiVitas application, there are two aspects to presence: First is a visual icon that indicates your availability and what modes of communication you're currently able to use (phone and IM, phone only, IM only, and unavailable).
This is supplemented by a short, selectable text message that reads 'In the office,' 'In a meeting,' 'Out of the office,' or 'On vacation.' Any of these can be overwritten with an ad hoc personal message that says, 'On deadline,' or 'Working on presentation for Acme Corp. meeting,' or 'Stuck in traffic; running 10 minutes late,' or whatever information you feel will allow your colleagues to understand what's going on with you at the moment. It adds some nuance to the overall presence information—as well as being an outlet for your personal creativity.
Indeed, folks at DiVitas refer to this feature as the 'micro-blog.' It's easy to imagine posting 'Stuck at O'Hare for the next two hours,' and hoping some of your colleagues will IM you something useful or amusing.”
A positive experience
Stevenson enjoyed his DiVitas Mobile UC experience enough that parting ways was a sad event.
“After living for a week with this wealth of communications functionality—all neatly contained in a sleek, pocketable, 4.5-ounce mobile phone—it's going to be hard to pack it up and send it back. We're guessing that most people who get an opportunity to try out such a system will quickly come to depend on it.”
Read more feedback from other press and analysts who have trialed the DiVitas Mobile UC solution.
“Two long-time VoIPplanet.com staffers recently got the opportunity to do something we don't normally get to do: try out a sexy, sophisticated enterprise communications application in the real world,” said VoIP Planet’s Ted Stevenson in his recent article Experiencing the Totally Connected Lifestyle. In this post Stevenson describes his week-long test run using DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC) running on a Nokia E71 smartphone. Here are a few more excerpts:
Setup is a snap:
“The beauty of mobile UC is that you can make calls either over the Wi-Fi network (when one is available) or over the cellular network (when one isn't)."
Seamless roaming works as advertised:
“When you're moving across network boundaries, the phone automatically switches to the best available connection, in a move known as 'seamless handover.' Indeed, we were able to move back and forth between cellular and Wi-Fi networks with no human intervention …
The experience of seamless handover isn't really much different from a normal cell phone conversation—except for the little beep that seems to occur when handover takes place—however the voice quality seemed better over the IP network, which is a plus. But the idea of doing something that only a few years ago was beyond the ability of RF technology, is kind of fun.”
The Dual Persona upside:
“… with the DiVitas software, the phone functions with 'dual personalities.' Calls to your desk phone at work ring your mobile phone, but calls to your personal cellular account do also. When you're making outbound calls, the application asks you if you want this to be a business call—in which case it uses the Wi-Fi network (if available) and broadcasts your workplace caller ID. If you opt for personal, the call goes over the cellular network and your personal caller ID is used.”
The upside of Unified Messaging and Visual Voicemail:
“You can also access voicemail from the DiVitas-equipped mobile phone—both work and personal messages come to your single, unified voice mailbox. Since messages have headers that show the name and title of the caller, the date of the message, and the duration of the call, you can sort through them and prioritize which messages to respond to and in what order.”
Broadcasting Presence and microblogging (a.k.a. Status Update):
“The other major piece of UC functionality that Mobile Unified Communications brings is presence and availability. In the DiVitas application, there are two aspects to presence: First is a visual icon that indicates your availability and what modes of communication you're currently able to use (phone and IM, phone only, IM only, and unavailable).
This is supplemented by a short, selectable text message that reads 'In the office,' 'In a meeting,' 'Out of the office,' or 'On vacation.' Any of these can be overwritten with an ad hoc personal message that says, 'On deadline,' or 'Working on presentation for Acme Corp. meeting,' or 'Stuck in traffic; running 10 minutes late,' or whatever information you feel will allow your colleagues to understand what's going on with you at the moment. It adds some nuance to the overall presence information—as well as being an outlet for your personal creativity.
Indeed, folks at DiVitas refer to this feature as the 'micro-blog.' It's easy to imagine posting 'Stuck at O'Hare for the next two hours,' and hoping some of your colleagues will IM you something useful or amusing.”
A positive experience
Stevenson enjoyed his DiVitas Mobile UC experience enough that parting ways was a sad event.
“After living for a week with this wealth of communications functionality—all neatly contained in a sleek, pocketable, 4.5-ounce mobile phone—it's going to be hard to pack it up and send it back. We're guessing that most people who get an opportunity to try out such a system will quickly come to depend on it.”
Read more feedback from other press and analysts who have trialed the DiVitas Mobile UC solution.
Posted Friday, May 22, 2009 by
Richard Watson
I read a GigaOM blog earlier this week where the writer was advertising the industry need for a mobile device that will help balance today’s all-too-common 24x7 lifestyle. It was a well-written blog, but I couldn’t help but get a good chuckle out of it. DiVitas addresses every wish on his list – sort of a fairy tale ending to a “Someday My Prince Will Come” themed blog.
According to this blog titled Wanted: One Mobile Device, for a 24/7 Life, the search is on for “a smart device to support my diverse lifestyle, one that doesn’t compromise either my IT department’s sleep schedule or — more importantly — the integrity of my personal data.”
The writer, Balaji Natarajan and senior IT strategist for Capgemini, goes on to suggest a “targeted re-engineering of mobile devices and device management technologies” as the answer to his problem.
This seems a little like taking a wrecking ball to kill a spider (and hence the chuckle when I read it). The industry doesn’t need a bunch of new hardware re-engineering. It simply needs a solution like DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC)– which is here today and leverages existing smartphone technology.
DiVitas runs on smartphones, such as the $99 Nokia E71x, and addresses all of these work/life balance issues. And it does this on a single device and without causing IT headaches. DiVitas also has a plethora of other advantages such as saving money (WiFi calls don’t count against the carrier plan and are free of charge), it fully migrates a deskphone number along with its capabilities to a mobile device and it uniquely supports integrated Unified Communications.
DiVitas Mobile UC:
While Natarajan is correct when he refers to the mobile workforce in his blog. “... as our work and personal lives become increasingly harder to separate, we will become increasingly unwilling to tote around more than one mobile device.
However, I couldn’t disagree more with his statement, “one truly mobile device for a 24/7 life will remain out of our reach.” Mr. Natarajan, that solution is here today and it is offered by DiVitas Enterprise Social Networking.
According to this blog titled Wanted: One Mobile Device, for a 24/7 Life, the search is on for “a smart device to support my diverse lifestyle, one that doesn’t compromise either my IT department’s sleep schedule or — more importantly — the integrity of my personal data.”
The writer, Balaji Natarajan and senior IT strategist for Capgemini, goes on to suggest a “targeted re-engineering of mobile devices and device management technologies” as the answer to his problem.
This seems a little like taking a wrecking ball to kill a spider (and hence the chuckle when I read it). The industry doesn’t need a bunch of new hardware re-engineering. It simply needs a solution like DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC)– which is here today and leverages existing smartphone technology.
DiVitas runs on smartphones, such as the $99 Nokia E71x, and addresses all of these work/life balance issues. And it does this on a single device and without causing IT headaches. DiVitas also has a plethora of other advantages such as saving money (WiFi calls don’t count against the carrier plan and are free of charge), it fully migrates a deskphone number along with its capabilities to a mobile device and it uniquely supports integrated Unified Communications.
DiVitas Mobile UC:
- Supports Dual Persona, which allows personal calls to be routed through a native cellular number (Personal Persona) and business calls to be routed through the DiVitas client (Business Persona).
- Mobilizes the deskphone number, which enables single number reach.
- Is under IT control and supports remote over the air (OTA) installation, configuration and update management.
- Has integrated Mobile Social Networking capabilities, letting you use UC apps such as corporate Mobile Presence and mobile Instant Messaging (IM) directly from your smartphone.
- Supports Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC), allowing mobile phones to perform seamless roaming between WiFi and cellular.
- Supports WiFi calling, which means mobile calls have landline-like voice quality. No choppy cell phone calls when you are in WiFi range.
- Enables free WiFi calls, enabling quick mobile convergence ROI.
- Makes mobile phone behaves just like a deskphone (same number, call forward, extension dialing, etc.)
- Supports Visual Voicemail and Unified Messaging, allowing users to retrieve corporate messages directly from their smartphones and eyeball which messages have priority status.
While Natarajan is correct when he refers to the mobile workforce in his blog. “... as our work and personal lives become increasingly harder to separate, we will become increasingly unwilling to tote around more than one mobile device.
However, I couldn’t disagree more with his statement, “one truly mobile device for a 24/7 life will remain out of our reach.” Mr. Natarajan, that solution is here today and it is offered by DiVitas Enterprise Social Networking.
Posted Friday, May 15, 2009 by
Nancy Colwell
We have a new addition to the list of analysts who have participated in our Enterprise Social Networking hosted trial program. This time we gave Yankee Group’s Zeus Kerravala some one-on-one time with DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC) running on a Nokia e71 smartphone. Blogging on his test-drive with DiVitas secure collaboration software solution, Kerravala says, “I consider [DiVitas] one of the more advanced FMC vendors, so it’s a good litmus test of where the industry is at.”
Here is an excerpt from his blog:
“The seamless roaming worked as advertised although this wasn't much of a surprise. This is a feature they’ve had around for a couple of years and they've always done a good job handing off calls between WiFi and cell service and vice versa. For me, this is a HUGE feature. At my home in the Boston area, my cell phone works like crap in my apartment so I rely on calling over WiFi to make calls. Without it, I'd have to get a traditional home phone (gasp!) and who wants to do that? With the traditional UMA type of software that I have on my T-Mobile phone, the call drops every time I go outside and I get out of WiFi range, so there is some practical applicability to it.
The other big change to just making calls is that the phone they sent was much better. They have the software on a Nokia E71 which is so much better than the older versions of the Nokia phones (E62, E61 etc.). The keyboard and screen are much better than older versions and it actually has a camera too (welcome to 2009, Nokia). I still think the Blackberry Curve is the best smart phone out there, but it's a matter of opinion and this device isn't all that far behind it yet. The other thing Nokia fixed is that it has a real headphone jack instead of some goofy proprietary port that you need a special cable for to connect headphones.
The big feature with the DiVitas software, though, was the unified communications features. Again, I've seen the presence, chat and visual voice mail before, but it was quite different when actually using it. I currently run IBM's mobile Sametime on my Blackberry so I'm sold on the concept of mobile presence. In fact, because I'm normally engaged with another activity when mobile (driving, walking, etc) I think mobile presence is actually more important than desktop based presence.
On the positive side, the experience was great. I was able to set my availability by selecting preset presence icons such as available by voice only, text only, voice or text, do not disturb etc. Because I spend far too much time in meetings or traveling around the world I can see this feature being very handy. Co-workers will not only know if I'm available but how to reach me. What happens now is when I’m mobile, I'll be on the phone and someone will call. I'll then need to grab my other cell phone and text the person back (if they're on a mobile) that I'll call them when my call is over. If it's not a cell phone, then I try and send an email on the other phone (I have two BBs which some people think is overkill, but hey, I like to be fully redundant). Even when in the office, I'm rarely at my desk, so being able to set status when mobile will definitely let people know where to find me (hmm… maybe I don’t want that). The other way I could handle this is to continually update Twitter or Facebook (or both using TweetDeck) but honestly, I get tired of seeing people Tweet stuff like "Enjoying two for one margaritas with Bob and Steph"). My community of people is pretty big now and not everyone needs to see where I am at all times.
The client also lets you create custom status updates, which is kind of mobile microblog. This feature allows me to tell people I'm busy and then maybe text or IM me if they need to reach me.”
To read the entire blog, visit the No Jitter website.
Here is an excerpt from his blog:
“The seamless roaming worked as advertised although this wasn't much of a surprise. This is a feature they’ve had around for a couple of years and they've always done a good job handing off calls between WiFi and cell service and vice versa. For me, this is a HUGE feature. At my home in the Boston area, my cell phone works like crap in my apartment so I rely on calling over WiFi to make calls. Without it, I'd have to get a traditional home phone (gasp!) and who wants to do that? With the traditional UMA type of software that I have on my T-Mobile phone, the call drops every time I go outside and I get out of WiFi range, so there is some practical applicability to it.
The other big change to just making calls is that the phone they sent was much better. They have the software on a Nokia E71 which is so much better than the older versions of the Nokia phones (E62, E61 etc.). The keyboard and screen are much better than older versions and it actually has a camera too (welcome to 2009, Nokia). I still think the Blackberry Curve is the best smart phone out there, but it's a matter of opinion and this device isn't all that far behind it yet. The other thing Nokia fixed is that it has a real headphone jack instead of some goofy proprietary port that you need a special cable for to connect headphones.
The big feature with the DiVitas software, though, was the unified communications features. Again, I've seen the presence, chat and visual voice mail before, but it was quite different when actually using it. I currently run IBM's mobile Sametime on my Blackberry so I'm sold on the concept of mobile presence. In fact, because I'm normally engaged with another activity when mobile (driving, walking, etc) I think mobile presence is actually more important than desktop based presence.
On the positive side, the experience was great. I was able to set my availability by selecting preset presence icons such as available by voice only, text only, voice or text, do not disturb etc. Because I spend far too much time in meetings or traveling around the world I can see this feature being very handy. Co-workers will not only know if I'm available but how to reach me. What happens now is when I’m mobile, I'll be on the phone and someone will call. I'll then need to grab my other cell phone and text the person back (if they're on a mobile) that I'll call them when my call is over. If it's not a cell phone, then I try and send an email on the other phone (I have two BBs which some people think is overkill, but hey, I like to be fully redundant). Even when in the office, I'm rarely at my desk, so being able to set status when mobile will definitely let people know where to find me (hmm… maybe I don’t want that). The other way I could handle this is to continually update Twitter or Facebook (or both using TweetDeck) but honestly, I get tired of seeing people Tweet stuff like "Enjoying two for one margaritas with Bob and Steph"). My community of people is pretty big now and not everyone needs to see where I am at all times.
The client also lets you create custom status updates, which is kind of mobile microblog. This feature allows me to tell people I'm busy and then maybe text or IM me if they need to reach me.”
To read the entire blog, visit the No Jitter website.
Posted Monday, April 20, 2009 by
Nancy Colwell
When defining Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC), it’s the sum of the parts that makes the whole ecosystem. This enterprise-class application is comprised of several components, many of which are offered as individual products by individual vendors.
“Fixed Mobile Convergence” (FMC), for example, is typically offered as a product by vendors who focus on seamless roaming between WiFi and cellular. Similarly, “Unified Communications” is offered by vendors that develop Presence, Instant Messaging, Visual Voicemail and Unified Messaging.
It is only when FMC, UC and the deskphone number + features are combined, and accessible by a single GUI on a smartphone, that a Mobile UC solution results. Mobile Unified Communications is therefore an umbrella term for an enterprise-class application, which is comprised of several individual technologies: Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC), Unified Communications (UC), smartphones, PBXs, WLANs and the carrier’s cellular network.
The remaining components in the Mobile UC ecosystem – smartphones, WLANs, PBXs and cellular network – comprise the infrastructure over which communication takes place.
While individual Mobile UC components can be developed and marketed in their individual space (i.e. FMC, UC, smartphone, WLAN, PBX, carrier plan), it is only when they are working together in a common ecosystem that they comprise a Mobile Unified Communications solution.
“Fixed Mobile Convergence” (FMC), for example, is typically offered as a product by vendors who focus on seamless roaming between WiFi and cellular. Similarly, “Unified Communications” is offered by vendors that develop Presence, Instant Messaging, Visual Voicemail and Unified Messaging.
It is only when FMC, UC and the deskphone number + features are combined, and accessible by a single GUI on a smartphone, that a Mobile UC solution results. Mobile Unified Communications is therefore an umbrella term for an enterprise-class application, which is comprised of several individual technologies: Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC), Unified Communications (UC), smartphones, PBXs, WLANs and the carrier’s cellular network.
- FMC unifies fixed-line and wireless (WiFi and cellular) voice on a smartphone, which enables seamless, uninterrupted roaming between WiFi and cellular networks. FMC is only a single component of the Mobile UC umbrella set of technologies – as a standalone technology, it is not considered to be the equivalent of Mobile UC.
- UC is a set of integrated applications intended to unify, and therefore simplify, communication thereby increasing productivity in the workplace. Voice, Presence, Instant Messaging, email and voicemail are accessed by a single interface, on a device most convenient to the end user (desktop, deskphone, laptop, smartphone, etc.). As an application set existing without a mobile (FMC) component, it is not considered to be the equivalent of Mobile UC.
- Deskphone number and features (extension dialing, call forward, hold, etc.) are features that make a smartphone behave like a deskphone. Extending the deskphone untethers office workers from their desks by offering single-number reach (the phone carries the same number as deskphone), and the availability of deskphone functions means individuals have in-office-like capabilities necessary for efficient business communication, regardless of their location. This capability is required for an existing solution to be considered as part of the Mobile UC category.
The remaining components in the Mobile UC ecosystem – smartphones, WLANs, PBXs and cellular network – comprise the infrastructure over which communication takes place.
While individual Mobile UC components can be developed and marketed in their individual space (i.e. FMC, UC, smartphone, WLAN, PBX, carrier plan), it is only when they are working together in a common ecosystem that they comprise a Mobile Unified Communications solution.
Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 by
Nancy Colwell
We are doing something in marketing that could be a career limiting move in most high tech companies: We are letting experts loose with smartphones running our Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC) software. They are testing out how it feels to use Enterprise Social Networking to become more reachable and productive.
The analyts' phones were hosted by our customer Sawtel, a mobile VoIP carrier in Hartford, CT which has rolled out a hosted Enterprise Social Networking service based on the DiVitas Mobile UC solution.
The experts participating in our testing project are located across the U.S., and they are able to play with the full range of DiVitas features: seamless roaming between WiFi and cellular, deskphone number and features (extension dialing, call forwarding, call waiting, etc.), voice, (mobile Instant Messaging) IM and social networking (Mobile Presence and Status.)
They use their DiVitas phones to first check status of their colleagues, and then place calls or chat straight from the directory of contacts that is accessible directly from the smartphone's interface.
The idea behind our hosting project is to let some experts in the Mobile VoIP (mVoIP) space get a real-life feel for the mobile social networking solution – without having to lay down cold hard cash. The goal is to help them better understand how DiVitas enables enterprise mobility. DiVitas Mobile UC is real (vs. vaporware), it works … and judging by the feedback we’re receiving, it works great. We’ve gotten kudos for the voice quality (powered by the DiVitas Voice Quality Engine), the easy-to-use GUI, the convenience of Visual Voicemail as well as single number reach (smartphone carries same number as the deskphone).
And they now understand – first-hand – how DiVitas really is a mobile extension to the deskphone, but with collaboration and productivity Enterprise 2.0 tools that improve the way mobile workers can do their jobs.
First up are several analysts. We’ll post blogs from all of our testers as they roll in, letting our readers live the DiVitas experience vicariously through them.
Testing Divitas' MUC - I Want One (Craig Mathias, Farpoint Group)
DiVitas Test Drive (Michael Stanford)
Voice Quality Rings True (Brent Kelly, Wainhouse Research)
Forrester Gets First Hand DiVitas Experience (Chris Silva, Forrester Research)
Current Analysis Takes DiVitas for a Test Drive (Kathryn Weldon, Peter Jarich, Rob Arnold and Brian Riggs, Current Analysis)
My Mobile FMC Experience (Zeus Kerravala, Yankee Group)
Experiencing the Totally Connected Lifestyle (Ted Stevenson, VoIP Planet)
But watch this space for more. We our confident about our secure collaboration software, and want the media to have an opportunity to experience what we here at DiVitas get to experience every day as far as enterprise mobility. Staying continuously connected through single number reach, Mobile Presence, Status Updates and IM increases collaboration, making us more productive.
The analyts' phones were hosted by our customer Sawtel, a mobile VoIP carrier in Hartford, CT which has rolled out a hosted Enterprise Social Networking service based on the DiVitas Mobile UC solution.
The experts participating in our testing project are located across the U.S., and they are able to play with the full range of DiVitas features: seamless roaming between WiFi and cellular, deskphone number and features (extension dialing, call forwarding, call waiting, etc.), voice, (mobile Instant Messaging) IM and social networking (Mobile Presence and Status.)
They use their DiVitas phones to first check status of their colleagues, and then place calls or chat straight from the directory of contacts that is accessible directly from the smartphone's interface.
The idea behind our hosting project is to let some experts in the Mobile VoIP (mVoIP) space get a real-life feel for the mobile social networking solution – without having to lay down cold hard cash. The goal is to help them better understand how DiVitas enables enterprise mobility. DiVitas Mobile UC is real (vs. vaporware), it works … and judging by the feedback we’re receiving, it works great. We’ve gotten kudos for the voice quality (powered by the DiVitas Voice Quality Engine), the easy-to-use GUI, the convenience of Visual Voicemail as well as single number reach (smartphone carries same number as the deskphone).
And they now understand – first-hand – how DiVitas really is a mobile extension to the deskphone, but with collaboration and productivity Enterprise 2.0 tools that improve the way mobile workers can do their jobs.
First up are several analysts. We’ll post blogs from all of our testers as they roll in, letting our readers live the DiVitas experience vicariously through them.
Testing Divitas' MUC - I Want One (Craig Mathias, Farpoint Group)
DiVitas Test Drive (Michael Stanford)
Voice Quality Rings True (Brent Kelly, Wainhouse Research)
Forrester Gets First Hand DiVitas Experience (Chris Silva, Forrester Research)
Current Analysis Takes DiVitas for a Test Drive (Kathryn Weldon, Peter Jarich, Rob Arnold and Brian Riggs, Current Analysis)
My Mobile FMC Experience (Zeus Kerravala, Yankee Group)
Experiencing the Totally Connected Lifestyle (Ted Stevenson, VoIP Planet)
But watch this space for more. We our confident about our secure collaboration software, and want the media to have an opportunity to experience what we here at DiVitas get to experience every day as far as enterprise mobility. Staying continuously connected through single number reach, Mobile Presence, Status Updates and IM increases collaboration, making us more productive.
Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 by
Nancy Colwell
DiVitas is rolling with the social networking trends, adding Facebook to the list of venues letting you know what we’re up to (i.e. website, blog and newsletter).In addition to providing you with lively (news and fun!) information about DiVitas and its team, our Facebook page will keep you posted on what's happening in the Mobile Unified Communications industry.
About DiVitas
DiVitas offers Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC), an enterprise-class application, which is comprised of several individual technologies:
- Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) for seamless roaming over WiFi and cellular networks.
- Unified Communications (UC), which enables Presence, Status Update messages (micro-blogging), Instant Messaging (IM) and Visual Voicemail.
- Smartphones such as the Nokia ESeries (E71), devices that carry the business (deskphone) number and enable single-number reach when mobile.
- Integration with the corporate PBX, which enables smartphones to behave like deskphones (extension dialing, calll forward, call hold, etc.).
- WiFi support (corporate, home office or public hotspot), which enables free WiFi calling (domestic and international).
- Support for cellular networks, which means deskphone functions and UC apps available via DiVitas smartphones are extended to mobile workers, regardless of location (in the office or on the road).
Posted Monday, April 13, 2009 by
Richard Watson
Mobile Presence is a cornerstone component of Unified Communications (UC). It is also one of several UC features that set Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC) apart from Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) solutions. UC and Mobile UC focus on applications, whereas FMC primarily offers seamless roaming between WiFi and cellular networks — no UC capabilities.
Mobile Presence has become an important application to businesses today because it helps mobile-colleagues stay apprised of one another’s availability. Using Presence to broadcast and read a Status message (i.e. available by phone, text or currently on the phone), individuals can make more intelligent communication choices and eliminate time wasted making and/or returning missed-calls. Individuals in a highly mobile workforce can connect with one another on the first try.
Whether they are in the office or on the road, Mobile Presence ensures that voice or text-based conversations will be processed in the most efficient manner. And when combined with microblogging (a.k.a. your Status Update message), Presence is elevated to the level of “mobile social networking” that provides the ability to broadcast specifics about an individual.
For example, an individual’s Presence may show “available by text” and his micro-blog Status Update could say “in a customer meeting until 2:00 pm”. Broadcasting Presence and a Status Update message together says it all — how to best reach an individual and a personal message that indicates where they are, what they are doing, and/or how long they will be unavailable.
However, not all approaches to Mobile Presence are created equal — it’s not enough for Presence to simply register a user as online or offline. For Presence to be an effective bi-directional tool — and efficiently inform you about a colleague’s availability to accept a call or read/reply to mobile Instant Messaging (IM) or e-mail — this application requires several capabilities:
Presence becomes more critical to effective enterprise mobility and mobile communications, the required information richness must go beyond simple “available” or “not available”. This comes into play when the secure, collaborative Enterprise 2.0 capabilites of DiVitas are the underlying platform.
Mobile Presence has become an important application to businesses today because it helps mobile-colleagues stay apprised of one another’s availability. Using Presence to broadcast and read a Status message (i.e. available by phone, text or currently on the phone), individuals can make more intelligent communication choices and eliminate time wasted making and/or returning missed-calls. Individuals in a highly mobile workforce can connect with one another on the first try.
Whether they are in the office or on the road, Mobile Presence ensures that voice or text-based conversations will be processed in the most efficient manner. And when combined with microblogging (a.k.a. your Status Update message), Presence is elevated to the level of “mobile social networking” that provides the ability to broadcast specifics about an individual.
For example, an individual’s Presence may show “available by text” and his micro-blog Status Update could say “in a customer meeting until 2:00 pm”. Broadcasting Presence and a Status Update message together says it all — how to best reach an individual and a personal message that indicates where they are, what they are doing, and/or how long they will be unavailable.
However, not all approaches to Mobile Presence are created equal — it’s not enough for Presence to simply register a user as online or offline. For Presence to be an effective bi-directional tool — and efficiently inform you about a colleague’s availability to accept a call or read/reply to mobile Instant Messaging (IM) or e-mail — this application requires several capabilities:
- Needs to broadcast ALL scenarios: On voice and text; On voice only; On text only; Not available (a.k.a. Do Not Disturb); or On the Phone. Note: Available/Unavailable is not sufficient; without these additional functions, there is no indication of a missed voice or text message.
- Needs to be displayed as an icon on the smartphone client GUI. Note: Without client GUI display, the end user is often forced to manually peruse a PC based contact list.
- Needs to enable individuals to directly call, email or send mobile Instant Messaging (IM) straight from the smartphone client GUI. Note: Forcing end users to toggle between smartphone and PC or deskphone to complete communication is inefficient and clumsy.
- Needs Twitter/Facebook-like option for writing a customized Status Update message (i.e. working at home, in a meeting, at the airport, running late, on a coffee break at Starbucks, etc.) to supplement the presence status state. Note: Pairing a Status Update message that tells “how” you’re available with a mobile Presence icon that broadcasts “if” you’re available means that fewer calls will be missed, less time will be wasted listening to voicemail and returning missed calls, and fewer meetings will be interrupted by a voice call when a simple IM will do the trick.
- Needs to be federated in order to display entire corporate contact list and individual’s availability. Note: Avoids the manual task of checking each “buddy’s” online/offline status.
- Needs to combine forces with other UC applications, including mobile Instant Messaging (IM) and Visual Voicemail. Note: Without complementary UC applications, it is nearly impossible achieve the goal of efficiently completing the communication cycle.
- Needs mobilized business number so the deskphone is moved onto a smartphone and all productivity apps are unified with secure collaboration software features. This enables single number reach in order to make individuals more reachable in ordre to enable companies to reduce missed calls and reduce cellular costs.
Presence becomes more critical to effective enterprise mobility and mobile communications, the required information richness must go beyond simple “available” or “not available”. This comes into play when the secure, collaborative Enterprise 2.0 capabilites of DiVitas are the underlying platform.
Posted Friday, April 10, 2009 by
Nancy Colwell
Avaya, DiVitas Partner on Mobile Unified Communications, Modular Messaging
As you already know, DiVitas and Avaya have worked closely together throughout the past few years to guarantee our Mobile UC solution works seamlessly with Avaya Communication Manager. So much so that DiVitas has earned its place within Avaya’s DevConnect program at the prestigious platinum level by invitation.
Just recently the two companies announced that together, we have solved the time-consuming problem of managing multiple voicemail systems. DiVitas has tightly integrated our Mobile UC solution with Avaya Modular Messaging. Available today, DiVitas users can now retrieve, listen to and manage their Avaya voicemail visually on their DiVitas client handset. And because Modular Messaging is able to integrate with various heterogeneous IP PBX solutions, this good news is very relevant to a broader audience beyond current Avaya customers.
But we are not stopping with Modular Messaging – stay tuned as we have more integrations on the way.
DiVitas and Avaya Team to help keep CSX rolling
Several news items followed the Avaya-DiVitas announcement, but one of the most exciting was our joint customer, CSX. Freight-rail giant CSX turned to Avaya and DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications to help reduce cellular calling costs, eliminate multiple handsets used by train operations personnel – and keep them continuously reachable.
DiVitas is on Facebook!
DiVitas is rolling with the social networking trends, adding Facebook to our list of venues letting you know what we’re up to (i.e. website, blog and newsletter). Be sure to visit our Facebook page and become a DiVitas fan.
InfoWorld Reviewers Give DiVitas Thumbs Up
In this Test Center article, InfoWorld’s Brian Chee reviewed the latest version (2.0) of our Mobile Unified Communications Solution. Like previous reviewers, Chee was impressed with our execution, saying “This new version of DiVitas has made leaps beyond the FMC (fixed to mobile convergence) system we tested two years ago. It now offers a mobile workforce a unified communications handset that could possibly eliminate the need for a full deskset.”
Also, read TechWorld's review here.
Use DiVitas to Eliminate Conference-Call Bridge Fees
Did you know you can use DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications to create an in-house conference calling center and eliminate your bridge vendor? DiVitas is already doing this and we are saving at least $7,000 per month on bridge fees.
Vivek's Restaurant Review
I’ve had a dinner date on the books for several months now. I am scheduled to be in D.C. on the same day as a friend of mine from my University of Maryland-days – and the plan is to hit Ben’s Chili Bowl for some good ol’ American eats. Talk about a small world. The headlines have been all about “Obama the foodie" and how he gave Ben’s Chili Bowl (my upcoming destination) a major endorsement when he took the fam there for dinner. As a fellow foodie, all I can say is, the man’s got taste. I am looking forward to eating my chili cheese dog later this month. I only hope we can find two empty seats.
As you already know, DiVitas and Avaya have worked closely together throughout the past few years to guarantee our Mobile UC solution works seamlessly with Avaya Communication Manager. So much so that DiVitas has earned its place within Avaya’s DevConnect program at the prestigious platinum level by invitation.
Just recently the two companies announced that together, we have solved the time-consuming problem of managing multiple voicemail systems. DiVitas has tightly integrated our Mobile UC solution with Avaya Modular Messaging. Available today, DiVitas users can now retrieve, listen to and manage their Avaya voicemail visually on their DiVitas client handset. And because Modular Messaging is able to integrate with various heterogeneous IP PBX solutions, this good news is very relevant to a broader audience beyond current Avaya customers.
But we are not stopping with Modular Messaging – stay tuned as we have more integrations on the way.
DiVitas and Avaya Team to help keep CSX rolling
Several news items followed the Avaya-DiVitas announcement, but one of the most exciting was our joint customer, CSX. Freight-rail giant CSX turned to Avaya and DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications to help reduce cellular calling costs, eliminate multiple handsets used by train operations personnel – and keep them continuously reachable.
DiVitas is on Facebook!
DiVitas is rolling with the social networking trends, adding Facebook to our list of venues letting you know what we’re up to (i.e. website, blog and newsletter). Be sure to visit our Facebook page and become a DiVitas fan.
InfoWorld Reviewers Give DiVitas Thumbs Up
In this Test Center article, InfoWorld’s Brian Chee reviewed the latest version (2.0) of our Mobile Unified Communications Solution. Like previous reviewers, Chee was impressed with our execution, saying “This new version of DiVitas has made leaps beyond the FMC (fixed to mobile convergence) system we tested two years ago. It now offers a mobile workforce a unified communications handset that could possibly eliminate the need for a full deskset.”
Also, read TechWorld's review here.
Use DiVitas to Eliminate Conference-Call Bridge Fees
Did you know you can use DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications to create an in-house conference calling center and eliminate your bridge vendor? DiVitas is already doing this and we are saving at least $7,000 per month on bridge fees.
Vivek's Restaurant Review
I’ve had a dinner date on the books for several months now. I am scheduled to be in D.C. on the same day as a friend of mine from my University of Maryland-days – and the plan is to hit Ben’s Chili Bowl for some good ol’ American eats. Talk about a small world. The headlines have been all about “Obama the foodie" and how he gave Ben’s Chili Bowl (my upcoming destination) a major endorsement when he took the fam there for dinner. As a fellow foodie, all I can say is, the man’s got taste. I am looking forward to eating my chili cheese dog later this month. I only hope we can find two empty seats.
Posted Thursday, March 19, 2009 by
Nancy Colwell
Earlier this month Avaya made a major announcement, naming DiVitas as its preferred dual-mode solution. This is exciting news for the Mobile Unified Communications space given Avaya’s size (number one in North America’s PBX market) – and given the fact that DiVitas is a startup company in an hot market.
And if that news wasn’t exciting enough, we already have a joint customer to talk about – a leading railroad company based in Jacksonville, Fla. – to demonstrate how the integrated Avaya-DiVitas solution can save companies $10,000+ dollars per month in cellular costs. Free WiFi phone calls go a long way toward reduced cellular costs and creating affordable telecommunications.
Freightrail-giant CSX has turned to Avaya and DiVitas to help reduce cellular calling costs and eliminate multiple handsets used by train operations personnel who roam the workplace and communicate frequently on urgent events.
For more than five years, Dori Meade, senior telecom architect for voice systems at CSX, sought a wireless dual-mode solution to reduce communications costs and eliminate the need for users to carry multiple mobile devices. One long-standing business need has been to enable rail operations employees at the Jacksonville train dispatch center to be instantly reachable to help resolve urgent problems that might slow on-time arrival or reduce safety margins. Routine duties in the dispatch center often cause key personnel to be away from their desks.
CSX supported these workers with both desk phone and cell phone, but cell coverage was spotty in the hardened facility. In the late 1990’s, CSX deployed a carrier-based in-building cellular antenna system to solve the problem. Then five years ago when the in-building cellular system was no longer supported, CSX began to explore the possibility of dual-mode capabilities. At the time, a stable dual-mode solution was not yet available and CSX adopted a 900-Mhz in-building only voice solution instead. Handling multiple devices and contact numbers remained a nuisance for the users.
From a cost-control perspective, users did not always use the lower-cost 900-Mhz handset and expensive cell minutes were still consumed in-building. Besides adding cost, the multiple systems did not provide a seamless mobile communications experience or the unified communications (UC) functionality that CSX was looking to adopt.
Last year, a solution meeting Meade’s goals became possible. As CSX standardized and began to deploy a popular wireless LAN offering, she also learned about the dual-mode telephony capability of DiVitas Networks’ Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC) solution. At the same time, upgrades to Avaya Communication Manager were underway, which will eventually support more than 5,000 Jacksonville employees.
They linked to the DiVitas Mobile UC solution via Avaya’s SIP Enablement Services and the result is that Avaya user extensions are transparently supported on a dual-mode mobile phone. The Mobile Unified Communications solution gives mobile users the ability to access corporate enterprise voice communications via WiFi on CSX premises with a single device via a single number. The solution further enables WiFi access from home or potentially from any WiFi hotspot and takes advantage of seamless roaming between WiFi and cellullar to avoid call interruption.
Today users at the dispatch center connect to the system through Nokia dual-mode E-51 and E-71 handsets loaded with the DiVitas Client. When dispatch managers are on the move, DiVitas automatically makes roaming decisions between WiFi and cellular networks to sustain the call, using the best voice quality and least-cost connection available. Meade identifies a potential rollout to hundreds of campus employees over the next two years as the Avaya Communication Manager upgrades are completed.
Savings from reduced cellular minutes: With dual-mode communications, cell plan minutes can be substantially reduced for on-campus mobile workers and even more so for field-workers. CSX calculates it has the potential to reduce cellular calling costs by ten to thirty percent, and foresees that a single user community within the company could alone generate savings of up to $10,000 per month.
Mobilized deskphone, Presence and Instant Messaging: The DiVitas Mobile UC solution gives access to Avaya Communication Manager features including call transfer and conferencing, as well as access to CSX’s low-cost long distance and international calling plan. The DiVitas solution also includes Unified Communications capabilities such as mobile Presence and mobile Instant Messaging (IM) to provide yet more options for improving reachability and productivity among mobile workers. Visual Voicemail is another feature users can take advantage of in their quest for affordable mobile telecommunications and a fast Fixed Mobile Convergence ROI.
One number for all your calls (single number reach): CSX professionals can manage their availability when away from the office and can receive their calls via their corporate number on their DiVitas dual-mode handset. Callers don’t need to know CSX workers’ cell numbers or home numbers, enhancing privacy, security and work-life balance. When calls are unanswered, the call is delivered to the corporate Avaya voicemail system, not the cell phone voicemail. This eliminates the wasteful (time and money) practice of missed calls and having to check multiple locations for business messages.
CSX is an innovator when it comes to being a green transportation company, and it makes it a priority to reduce its footprint on our planet. Now CSX is following this same green strategy with it's cost-reducing mobile-communications strategy.
And if that news wasn’t exciting enough, we already have a joint customer to talk about – a leading railroad company based in Jacksonville, Fla. – to demonstrate how the integrated Avaya-DiVitas solution can save companies $10,000+ dollars per month in cellular costs. Free WiFi phone calls go a long way toward reduced cellular costs and creating affordable telecommunications.
Freightrail-giant CSX has turned to Avaya and DiVitas to help reduce cellular calling costs and eliminate multiple handsets used by train operations personnel who roam the workplace and communicate frequently on urgent events.
For more than five years, Dori Meade, senior telecom architect for voice systems at CSX, sought a wireless dual-mode solution to reduce communications costs and eliminate the need for users to carry multiple mobile devices. One long-standing business need has been to enable rail operations employees at the Jacksonville train dispatch center to be instantly reachable to help resolve urgent problems that might slow on-time arrival or reduce safety margins. Routine duties in the dispatch center often cause key personnel to be away from their desks.
CSX supported these workers with both desk phone and cell phone, but cell coverage was spotty in the hardened facility. In the late 1990’s, CSX deployed a carrier-based in-building cellular antenna system to solve the problem. Then five years ago when the in-building cellular system was no longer supported, CSX began to explore the possibility of dual-mode capabilities. At the time, a stable dual-mode solution was not yet available and CSX adopted a 900-Mhz in-building only voice solution instead. Handling multiple devices and contact numbers remained a nuisance for the users.
From a cost-control perspective, users did not always use the lower-cost 900-Mhz handset and expensive cell minutes were still consumed in-building. Besides adding cost, the multiple systems did not provide a seamless mobile communications experience or the unified communications (UC) functionality that CSX was looking to adopt.
Last year, a solution meeting Meade’s goals became possible. As CSX standardized and began to deploy a popular wireless LAN offering, she also learned about the dual-mode telephony capability of DiVitas Networks’ Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC) solution. At the same time, upgrades to Avaya Communication Manager were underway, which will eventually support more than 5,000 Jacksonville employees.
They linked to the DiVitas Mobile UC solution via Avaya’s SIP Enablement Services and the result is that Avaya user extensions are transparently supported on a dual-mode mobile phone. The Mobile Unified Communications solution gives mobile users the ability to access corporate enterprise voice communications via WiFi on CSX premises with a single device via a single number. The solution further enables WiFi access from home or potentially from any WiFi hotspot and takes advantage of seamless roaming between WiFi and cellullar to avoid call interruption.
Today users at the dispatch center connect to the system through Nokia dual-mode E-51 and E-71 handsets loaded with the DiVitas Client. When dispatch managers are on the move, DiVitas automatically makes roaming decisions between WiFi and cellular networks to sustain the call, using the best voice quality and least-cost connection available. Meade identifies a potential rollout to hundreds of campus employees over the next two years as the Avaya Communication Manager upgrades are completed.
Savings from reduced cellular minutes: With dual-mode communications, cell plan minutes can be substantially reduced for on-campus mobile workers and even more so for field-workers. CSX calculates it has the potential to reduce cellular calling costs by ten to thirty percent, and foresees that a single user community within the company could alone generate savings of up to $10,000 per month.
Mobilized deskphone, Presence and Instant Messaging: The DiVitas Mobile UC solution gives access to Avaya Communication Manager features including call transfer and conferencing, as well as access to CSX’s low-cost long distance and international calling plan. The DiVitas solution also includes Unified Communications capabilities such as mobile Presence and mobile Instant Messaging (IM) to provide yet more options for improving reachability and productivity among mobile workers. Visual Voicemail is another feature users can take advantage of in their quest for affordable mobile telecommunications and a fast Fixed Mobile Convergence ROI.
One number for all your calls (single number reach): CSX professionals can manage their availability when away from the office and can receive their calls via their corporate number on their DiVitas dual-mode handset. Callers don’t need to know CSX workers’ cell numbers or home numbers, enhancing privacy, security and work-life balance. When calls are unanswered, the call is delivered to the corporate Avaya voicemail system, not the cell phone voicemail. This eliminates the wasteful (time and money) practice of missed calls and having to check multiple locations for business messages.
CSX is an innovator when it comes to being a green transportation company, and it makes it a priority to reduce its footprint on our planet. Now CSX is following this same green strategy with it's cost-reducing mobile-communications strategy.
Posted Friday, March 13, 2009 by
Nancy Colwell
To: Michael Finneran
From: DiVitas Networks
Dear Michael,
I enjoyed reading your article about the DiVitas-Avaya partnership.
In your announcement recap you talked about the basics of what our relationship with Avaya will offer to mobile users (seamless roaming across WiFi and cellular networks; Presence; single-number reach; mid-calling features associated with deskphones; and Unified Messaging via integrated access to Avaya voicemail such that message-waiting indication, Visual Voicemail and the ability to download corporate voicemail messages will all be available on DiVitas mobile phone).
But what really grabbed my attention is your market analysis. You talked about Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC) and how DiVitas is a dominant player in this market … and you talked about an ongoing seamless roaming technology debate (location aware vs. environment aware architecture) in the Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) space that would “bore the finish off a table.”
To this comment I say, you are absolutely right! Seamless Roaming discussions are nothing more than technology-implementation debates. What is more important to discuss is what business benefit does this cool (or finish-removing) technology deliver? This discussion is what differentiates FMC-only from Mobile UC (a combination of FMC + Unified Communications) solutions. Most FMC vendors have nothing more to talk about than seamless roaming because this is pretty much all they do. A solution-comparing conversation simply cannot “roam” to topics such as Presence, Instant Messaging, Unified Messaging and Visual Voicemail because FMC-only solutions don’t support these UC apps. So when these vendors compare themselves with DiVitas Mobile UC – by definition the conversation can only become a seamless roaming debate.
In light of that boring, table-finish eroding discussion on seamless roaming I’d like to suggest we spice things up. Let’s add Unified Communications apps and the ability – or inability in the case of FMC-only vendors – to offer features such as Presence, Instant Messaging, Unified Messaging and Visual Voicemail within a single environment … on a mobile phone. I fear that there might be deafening silence on the FMC side.
Don't you wonder how FMC vendors plan to differentiate themselves from one another beyond the question of “whose seamless roaming” is better?
I am interested to hear your thoughts.
Sincerely,
Nancy Colwell
From: DiVitas Networks
Dear Michael,
I enjoyed reading your article about the DiVitas-Avaya partnership.
In your announcement recap you talked about the basics of what our relationship with Avaya will offer to mobile users (seamless roaming across WiFi and cellular networks; Presence; single-number reach; mid-calling features associated with deskphones; and Unified Messaging via integrated access to Avaya voicemail such that message-waiting indication, Visual Voicemail and the ability to download corporate voicemail messages will all be available on DiVitas mobile phone).
But what really grabbed my attention is your market analysis. You talked about Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC) and how DiVitas is a dominant player in this market … and you talked about an ongoing seamless roaming technology debate (location aware vs. environment aware architecture) in the Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) space that would “bore the finish off a table.”
To this comment I say, you are absolutely right! Seamless Roaming discussions are nothing more than technology-implementation debates. What is more important to discuss is what business benefit does this cool (or finish-removing) technology deliver? This discussion is what differentiates FMC-only from Mobile UC (a combination of FMC + Unified Communications) solutions. Most FMC vendors have nothing more to talk about than seamless roaming because this is pretty much all they do. A solution-comparing conversation simply cannot “roam” to topics such as Presence, Instant Messaging, Unified Messaging and Visual Voicemail because FMC-only solutions don’t support these UC apps. So when these vendors compare themselves with DiVitas Mobile UC – by definition the conversation can only become a seamless roaming debate.
In light of that boring, table-finish eroding discussion on seamless roaming I’d like to suggest we spice things up. Let’s add Unified Communications apps and the ability – or inability in the case of FMC-only vendors – to offer features such as Presence, Instant Messaging, Unified Messaging and Visual Voicemail within a single environment … on a mobile phone. I fear that there might be deafening silence on the FMC side.
Don't you wonder how FMC vendors plan to differentiate themselves from one another beyond the question of “whose seamless roaming” is better?
I am interested to hear your thoughts.
Sincerely,
Nancy Colwell
Posted Friday, March 6, 2009 by
Nancy Colwell
Avaya made a major announcement this week, naming DiVitas as its preferred dual-mode solution. As you can imagine, this is exciting news for us given Avaya’s size (number one in North America’s PBX market) – and given the fact that we are a startup company in an emerging market.
But it’s also big news for Avaya due to DiVitas’ leadership in the Mobile Unified Communications space (emerging or not, Mobile UC is a hot market). A key reason that Avaya selected DiVitas is our Mobile UC solution offers much more than our FMC counterparts (who focus primarily on seamless roaming between WiFi and cellular). In addition to seamless roaming, DiVitas users also get Presence, Visual Voicemail, single-number reach and mobilized deskphone (phone number and mid-call functions). And we are now extending these capabilities to Avaya users in an integrated package.
As one analyst (FierceVoIP’s Doug Mohney) put it, Avaya’s “Mobile UC partnership with DiVitas Networks smacks of bigness for both parties, given Avaya's market share and DiVitas' solution.”
Bigness aside, together we are providing the promise of helping mobile workers do their jobs just as though they were seated at their desks – without having to juggle two phone numbers (desktop and cell) or spend an arm and a leg on cell bills (thanks to free WiFi calls).
This is a snapshot of how an Avaya user’s dual-mode world looks as a result of the Avaya-DiVitas partnership:
Avaya is considered a leader in traditional UC, which is their core business. And we are the leader in Mobile UC. Therefore, this is a story of “Traditional UC” teaming up with “Mobile UC”, and in this story Avaya and DiVitas are making history.
But it’s also big news for Avaya due to DiVitas’ leadership in the Mobile Unified Communications space (emerging or not, Mobile UC is a hot market). A key reason that Avaya selected DiVitas is our Mobile UC solution offers much more than our FMC counterparts (who focus primarily on seamless roaming between WiFi and cellular). In addition to seamless roaming, DiVitas users also get Presence, Visual Voicemail, single-number reach and mobilized deskphone (phone number and mid-call functions). And we are now extending these capabilities to Avaya users in an integrated package.
As one analyst (FierceVoIP’s Doug Mohney) put it, Avaya’s “Mobile UC partnership with DiVitas Networks smacks of bigness for both parties, given Avaya's market share and DiVitas' solution.”
Bigness aside, together we are providing the promise of helping mobile workers do their jobs just as though they were seated at their desks – without having to juggle two phone numbers (desktop and cell) or spend an arm and a leg on cell bills (thanks to free WiFi calls).
This is a snapshot of how an Avaya user’s dual-mode world looks as a result of the Avaya-DiVitas partnership:
- Roam seamlessly between WiFi and cellular (more minutes spent on free WiFi vs. expensive cellular).
- The same number as their deskphone (single-number reach means mobile workers are easier to reach and they waste less time returning missed calls).
- Mid-call functions i.e. extension dialing, call forward, conference calling, etc. (business calls are handled the same way as when they are using a deskphone).
- Their dual-mode phone and deskphone share a single mailbox thanks to the tight integration between DiVitas and Avaya’s Modular Messaging voicemail system (reduces frustration wasted-time checking multiple mailboxes).
- Avaya voicemail messages can be eyeballed and individually played according to each message’s individual priority (no more time wasted listening to low-priority messages before getting to the urgent stuff).
- Their Presence status is broadcasted (indicating if you are available by voice and/or text, or if you are unavailable for communication at that moment maximizes the ability to be reached).
Avaya is considered a leader in traditional UC, which is their core business. And we are the leader in Mobile UC. Therefore, this is a story of “Traditional UC” teaming up with “Mobile UC”, and in this story Avaya and DiVitas are making history.
Posted Thursday, February 26, 2009 by
Nancy Colwell
To: RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie
From: DiVitas Networks
Dear Mr. Balsillie,
We are writing to you as a fellow player in the mobile communications market – not as a RIM competitor, but as your future Mobile UC partner.
After reading your recent interview with the Financial Times – and learning how RIM is responding to Blackberry competition from the likes of Apple’s iPhone - we feel compelled to extend an important message: Let’s unite Blackberry devices with DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications.
RIM is a proven winner in the market for enterprise smartphones. And DiVitas is the leader in Mobile Unified Communications. You stated the need to offer this technology to your customers in your interview with Financial Times' Ingrid Lunden. Why reinvent the wheel? Integration between DiVitas and Blackberry will enable you to quickly deliver a competitive edge in a cutthroat market.
We are convinced this would be a win-win for both parties. And judging by your comments about discussions with CIOs, you probably agree. “There is a “real urgency” around wanting more mobile unified communications … having the ability to integrate the BlackBerry devices with their existing PBXs,” you told Ms. Lunden.
Your perceived demand among your customers for Mobile UC/PBX integration makes perfect sense to us. We know CIOs want to reduce their mobile communications costs. At the same time, they want to make their employees more reachable. Mobile Unified Communications (Fixed Mobile Convergence technology combined with Unified Communications apps) lets companies reach these goals (cost cutting and increased mobility) by providing several capabilities:
1- WiFi calling to reduce monthly telecom bills (WiFi minutes don’t count against the cell plan):
2- Mobile workers carry a single device and a single number to make them consistently reachable:
3- Companies leverage their existing communications investment:
4- Taking advantage of productivity gains through Unified Communications applications:
Sincerely,
DiVitas Networks
From: DiVitas Networks
Dear Mr. Balsillie,
We are writing to you as a fellow player in the mobile communications market – not as a RIM competitor, but as your future Mobile UC partner.
After reading your recent interview with the Financial Times – and learning how RIM is responding to Blackberry competition from the likes of Apple’s iPhone - we feel compelled to extend an important message: Let’s unite Blackberry devices with DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications.
RIM is a proven winner in the market for enterprise smartphones. And DiVitas is the leader in Mobile Unified Communications. You stated the need to offer this technology to your customers in your interview with Financial Times' Ingrid Lunden. Why reinvent the wheel? Integration between DiVitas and Blackberry will enable you to quickly deliver a competitive edge in a cutthroat market.
We are convinced this would be a win-win for both parties. And judging by your comments about discussions with CIOs, you probably agree. “There is a “real urgency” around wanting more mobile unified communications … having the ability to integrate the BlackBerry devices with their existing PBXs,” you told Ms. Lunden.
Your perceived demand among your customers for Mobile UC/PBX integration makes perfect sense to us. We know CIOs want to reduce their mobile communications costs. At the same time, they want to make their employees more reachable. Mobile Unified Communications (Fixed Mobile Convergence technology combined with Unified Communications apps) lets companies reach these goals (cost cutting and increased mobility) by providing several capabilities:
1- WiFi calling to reduce monthly telecom bills (WiFi minutes don’t count against the cell plan):
- WiFi calls placed or received on-campus calls are free.
- International calls are free when placed or received over WiFi.
- WiFi calls placed or received from hotspots (home office, airport, coffee shop, hotel, etc.) are free.
- Mobile users can additionally create their own WiFi hotspot in any hotel room with WiFi – they can place free calls via WiFi and use their laptops simultaneously.
- Bridge vendors (who can charge thousands of dollars per month) can be eliminated by using DiVitas for free, in-house bridge lines for conference calling (international and local).
2- Mobile workers carry a single device and a single number to make them consistently reachable:
- Support for the Single-Number Reach capability makes a mobile device behave like a deskphone. This means mobile workers are available by a single phone number – the deskphone number – which results in fewer missed calls and helps eliminate the waste of expensive cell minutes
3- Companies leverage their existing communications investment:
- Deploying voice over the existing WLAN gives companies more bang for the WiFi buck.
- PBX integration provides support for existing deskphone features (call forward, extension dialing, call waiting, etc.).
- Mobile workers are available as if they were seated at their desks, regardless of where they are located (on-campus, in cellular mode or in a WiFi hotspot) when they place or receive calls.
4- Taking advantage of productivity gains through Unified Communications applications:
- Presence ensures that mobile workers are consistently reachable by allowing them to broadcast their availability and how best to be reached (phone, text, not available, etc.).
- Micro-blogging provides status details about where the mobile worker is and what they are doing (in a meeting, catching a flight, in the office, at the dentist, etc.).
- Instant Messaging (IM) can replace expensive text messaging for brief, discreet communication … but at no additional cost (provided there is a data plan).
- Visual Voicemail allows mobile users to eyeball messages sitting in their inbox, and decide which should be read first. This saves expensive cellular minutes and time.
- Single Voicemail Inbox Management means that mobile workers have only one voicemail inbox to manage -- the corporate mobile phone and corporate deskphone inboxes are one and the same.
Sincerely,
DiVitas Networks
Posted Monday, February 23, 2009 by
Richard Watson
By Prashant Chauhan
If you are one of the myriad organizations feeling the brunt of this economic downturn, it seems like you should be able to qualify for an Economic Stimulus Package. But you can’t qualify unless you are part of the elite: A cash-strapped bank who gave out bad loans, an automaker who totally took its eye off the ball, a local or state government whose tax revenues just dried up. Or you need to be in the business of creating a green revolution, in the business of curing the incurable...
But if you are just trying to run a decent enterprise that is forced to control costs and increase productivity to survive this downturn, sorry, you are on your own. There ain't no Economic Stimulus Package to bail you out. The average Joe-Enterprise has to bail itself out in order to survive and emerge out of this downturn.
If this describes your organization, it's very likely that you are making the tough choices of downsizing your workforce and of lowering your other operating costs. You know that you've got to live with this economic mess for some time to come. And amid all this, you have also come to realize that the only way you are going to maintain and grow your customers and revenues is by making the most of your surviving employees. In short, you must learn to use the double-edged sword of cutting the costs while maintaining, or increasing, productivity.
But things are not as impossible as they seem. At least not when it comes to controlling your telecommunications cost. There are some valuable tools out there to help you cut your enterprise communication cost while actually increasing your employee productivity in the process. And the Mobile Unified Communications solution from DiVitas Networks, for one, has the right ingredients to help make this happen. DiVitas provides an enterprise with several means for slashing costs while still unleashing employee productivity:
1- Free WiFi calling to reduce monthly telecom bills:
2- Taking advantage of productivity gains through Unified Communications applications:
3- Companies leverage their existing communications investment:
4- Mobile workers carry a single device and a single number to make them consistently reachable:
DiVitas doesn’t yet have President Obama’s ear, so we don’t have control over where the U.S. government’s economic-stimulus dollars are spent. But we do offer a bailout … Silicon-Valley style. Companies deploying the DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications solution can dramatically reduce their cell phone bills without sacrificing productivity. And they can realize ROI in a matter of months. Now that’s some stimulating news!
If you are one of the myriad organizations feeling the brunt of this economic downturn, it seems like you should be able to qualify for an Economic Stimulus Package. But you can’t qualify unless you are part of the elite: A cash-strapped bank who gave out bad loans, an automaker who totally took its eye off the ball, a local or state government whose tax revenues just dried up. Or you need to be in the business of creating a green revolution, in the business of curing the incurable...
But if you are just trying to run a decent enterprise that is forced to control costs and increase productivity to survive this downturn, sorry, you are on your own. There ain't no Economic Stimulus Package to bail you out. The average Joe-Enterprise has to bail itself out in order to survive and emerge out of this downturn.
If this describes your organization, it's very likely that you are making the tough choices of downsizing your workforce and of lowering your other operating costs. You know that you've got to live with this economic mess for some time to come. And amid all this, you have also come to realize that the only way you are going to maintain and grow your customers and revenues is by making the most of your surviving employees. In short, you must learn to use the double-edged sword of cutting the costs while maintaining, or increasing, productivity.
But things are not as impossible as they seem. At least not when it comes to controlling your telecommunications cost. There are some valuable tools out there to help you cut your enterprise communication cost while actually increasing your employee productivity in the process. And the Mobile Unified Communications solution from DiVitas Networks, for one, has the right ingredients to help make this happen. DiVitas provides an enterprise with several means for slashing costs while still unleashing employee productivity:
1- Free WiFi calling to reduce monthly telecom bills:
- WiFi calls placed or received on-campus calls are free.
- International calls are free when placed or received over WiFi.
- WiFi calls placed or received from hotspots (home office, airport, coffee shop, hotel, etc.) are free.
- Mobile users can additionally create their own WiFi hotspot in any hotel room with WiFi – they can place free calls via WiFi and use their laptops simultaneously.
- Bridge vendors (who can charge thousands of dollars per month) can be eliminated by using DiVitas for free, in-house bridge lines for conference calling (international and local).
2- Taking advantage of productivity gains through Unified Communications applications:
- Presence ensures that mobile workers are consistently reachable by allowing them to broadcast their availability and how best to be reached (phone, text, not available, etc.).
- Micro-blogging provides status details about where the mobile worker is and what they are doing (in a meeting, catching a flight, in the office, at the dentist, etc.).
- Instant Messaging (IM) can replace expensive text messaging for brief, discreet communication … but at no additional cost (provided there is a data plan).
- Visual Voicemail allows mobile users to eyeball messages sitting in their inbox, and decide which should be read first. This saves expensive cellular minutes and time.
- Single Inbox Management means that mobile workers have only one voicemail inbox to manage because the corporate mobile phone and corporate deskphone inboxes are one and the same.
3- Companies leverage their existing communications investment:
- Deploying voice over the existing WLAN gives companies more bang for the WiFi buck.
- PBX integration provides support for existing deskphone features (call forward, extension dialing, call waiting, etc.). Mobile workers are available as if they were seated at their desks, regardless of where they are located (on-campus, in cellular mode or in a WiFi hotspot) when they place or receive a call.
4- Mobile workers carry a single device and a single number to make them consistently reachable:
- Support for the Single-Number Reach capability makes a mobile device behave like a deskphone. This means mobile workers are available by a single phone number – the deskphone number – which results in fewer missed calls and helps eliminate the waste of expensive cell minutes.
DiVitas doesn’t yet have President Obama’s ear, so we don’t have control over where the U.S. government’s economic-stimulus dollars are spent. But we do offer a bailout … Silicon-Valley style. Companies deploying the DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications solution can dramatically reduce their cell phone bills without sacrificing productivity. And they can realize ROI in a matter of months. Now that’s some stimulating news!
Posted Thursday, February 5, 2009 by
Richard Watson
One thing we’ve learned about demoing our solution – it goes over really well with savvy users. By this I mean folks who already use Instant Messenger (IM) and other Unified Communications apps in their daily lives.
This was the case with Forrester analyst Chris Silva, a big IM fan who demoed our solution as part of the DiVitas Hosted Solution Program. In this demo, two Forrester analysts were able to play with DiVitas phones for a few weeks. They interacted with each other as well as some of us here at DiVitas, using all of the bells and whistles (IM, Presence, seamless roaming, visual voicemail, etc.) in order to get the full user experience.
Using Instant Messenger and Presence as an integrated feature of his mobile phone was definitely a unique experience, says Silva. Fixed Mobile Convergence solutions today don’t typically support UC apps. Conversely, UC solutions today don’t integrate with mobile phones. His conclusion? Using a UC-enabled mobile phone could make users more productive than they are with voice alone.
“After the demo, I didn’t think of it as a voice client. I thought of it as a collaboration platform vs. a voice platform,” said Silva.
Silva was also impressed by the DiVitas voice quality and seamless roaming. The voice experience, he said, was like talking over a landline. And the calls didn’t drop when handing off between WiFi and cellular. He was able to sustain a call as he roamed between the two networks, which was interesting to experience first-hand, and in his work environment, he said.
Moreover, Silva was up in running within five minutes of opening the phone package from DiVitas. “We were able to get populated out-of the box, and we were able to get in touch right off the bat,” he said. “Everything worked as advertised.”
This was the case with Forrester analyst Chris Silva, a big IM fan who demoed our solution as part of the DiVitas Hosted Solution Program. In this demo, two Forrester analysts were able to play with DiVitas phones for a few weeks. They interacted with each other as well as some of us here at DiVitas, using all of the bells and whistles (IM, Presence, seamless roaming, visual voicemail, etc.) in order to get the full user experience.
Using Instant Messenger and Presence as an integrated feature of his mobile phone was definitely a unique experience, says Silva. Fixed Mobile Convergence solutions today don’t typically support UC apps. Conversely, UC solutions today don’t integrate with mobile phones. His conclusion? Using a UC-enabled mobile phone could make users more productive than they are with voice alone.
“After the demo, I didn’t think of it as a voice client. I thought of it as a collaboration platform vs. a voice platform,” said Silva.
Silva was also impressed by the DiVitas voice quality and seamless roaming. The voice experience, he said, was like talking over a landline. And the calls didn’t drop when handing off between WiFi and cellular. He was able to sustain a call as he roamed between the two networks, which was interesting to experience first-hand, and in his work environment, he said.
Moreover, Silva was up in running within five minutes of opening the phone package from DiVitas. “We were able to get populated out-of the box, and we were able to get in touch right off the bat,” he said. “Everything worked as advertised.”
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