Laurie Dack, UC and Voice Sales Specialist

As consumers living in an ever-evolving world, we expect access to information nearly every waking moment of our day. Many of us carry a cell phone, laptop and tablet to and from work each day. Some of us may even have another cell phone and computer at home. While all of these devices may seem  necessary, are we using them all to their full potential? Can they be shared devices and used both at work and home?

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is an increasingly popular trend in which enterprise users are connecting their devices of choice to the company network. While this does increase virtualization and mobility for employees, BYOD can bring about challenges to a company’s network security.  Make sure the necessary precautions are taken to make sure your network is robust and information is kept secure.

Take advantage of BYOD and utilize the tools available to increase your mobility and connectivity with colleagues. There are many popular apps and tools that can make your mobility much easier. Avaya’s Flare Communicator app, announced earlier this year, simplifies your communication tools and keeps you connected from virtually anywhere with WiFi or 3G access.  This app is only available for the Apple iPad at the moment, but Avaya does plan on releasing the app for other consumer devices before the end of the year. The app provides voice, instant messaging with presence and email integration to users.  Connecting with your network’s Avaya Aura, the app allows one to manage call history and contact management, answer calls, receive voicemail, and stay connected and updated with instant messaging and emails. Check out the Avaya page for a video demo of this product. The application is available for download through the Apple App Store.

As you or your employees decide to add their own device to the company network, take full advantage of added mobility but remember to keep the company’s network, infrastructure, and private information protected.

Laurie Dack, UC and Voice Sales Specialist

Many of us take for granted our visual and auditory cues from our environment, but for those with visual, hearing or speech impairments, it is not always easy to pick up the phone and exchange information with others.

According to the US Census Bureau, 7.8 million people have difficulty hearing a normal conversation with 1 million of those unable to hear at all. Nearly the same amount has difficulty seeing words in an ordinary newspaper with 1.8 million completely unable to see. It is true that laws and regulations protect the rights of people with disabilities, but as businesses helping to support our communities we should all do better to provide equal access to technology to people with disabilities.

Text Telephone terminals (TTYs) are commonly used by those with hearing or speech impairment to communicate over telephone lines. While these machines work well when matched with the right receiver, there are complications when connecting to an automatic messaging system that is not TTY-compatible.

Another convenience sighted people experience are the visual cues provided on each call such as: caller ID, call forwarding, incoming call indicator and available on-hold lines. For those individuals with visual impairments it’s not so easy. Communication-centric jobs for those with visual impairments can be extremely difficult without the correct software to alert them of these notifications.

Check out Avaya’s Accessible Communication Solutions document here to learn about what is available to individuals with disabilities. Many of the solutions are free downloads and phone system upgrades that help make your business a more user-friendly and open environment.

•  Laurie Dack, UC and Voice Sales Specialist

This past year we have seen outstanding growth and development with communications in the workplace, and as we kick off 2012, we can only expect the trends to continue. In my opinion, here are some of the key trends to watch this year:

Continuous connectivity in the workplace. Employees want the freedom of mobility to work from home and beyond while also having full access to voice, e-mail, and corporate servers.

Evolution of contact centers. Take advantage of available technology and discover how you can raise your contact center ROI to control costs and delight customers with quicker responses utilizing less costly email, chat and text communications. As we discussed here , end-users are now responding through social media avenues. Avaya’s Social Media Manager is a strategic tool companies are using to sift through information posted about their particular brand.

SIP. While SIP has been a growing trend for several years, companies need to protect their voice networks with a Session Border Controller. Adding a SIP Trunking trial to your 2012 initiatives is a great way to learn the benefits of the robust and affordable trunking options available.

Managed Services.  Let SKC help your company keep your Avaya firmware updated, support downloads current and investigate and clear minor and major alarms. We can also assist by managing the day-to-day maintenance issues while you and your team can focus on the future.

Want to read more about what’s in store for 2012? This whitepaper digs deeper into their topics – and more.

Laurie Dack, UC and Voice Sales Specialist

As you may have seen in our Techno Talk earlier this month, Avaya has acquired Sipera, a Unified Communications security applications provider.

This is great news for all businesses who are planning to trial SIP trunking in the near future. When adding SIP trunking to your network, it is always recommended to include a Session Border Controller on your premise that protects your voice network. Sipera provides an affordable Session Border Controller that was designed for enterprise businesses of all sizes, but offers many of the redundancy and features of a more expensive carrier-grade Session Border Controller. Sipera’s SBC works with ALL types of enterprise voice systems and SKC has the technical skill to design the best SBC solution to work with your Cisco, NEC, Avaya or other voice provider. SBC functionality is scalable, compatible in environments of 20 to 10,000, with much lower costs for its small capacity SMB offering as well.

Additionally, Sipera’s Secure Access Proxy allows companies to confidently and safely extend their UC applications to any supporting endpoint in any location over any network. Using the Secure Access Proxy can save companies thousands of dollars by avoiding traditional trunking methods. SKC recommends trialing SIP trunking on a smaller scale before transitioning your entire voice network to SIP trunking. The Sipera e-SBC has a scalable solution that can be sized for a smaller trial, while growing to fit your entire SIP trunking network in the future.

Rich Wisneski, Director of Engineering

While planning new conference room integration projects, many of our customers have complained that their previous audio systems failed to cancel background noises, which disrupted their conference calls. One of the main goals for our design team has been to eliminate background noise and feedback to create an audio experience as true to a conversation as possible.

The importance of a high-quality audio system is often overlooked when planning A/V room integration projects, resulting in meeting interruptions when part of a conversation is inaudible because of the background noises or poor audio quality. Rooms which you are implementing to be used for audio/video conferencing can quickly find themselves only being used for “local” presentations because of inadequate audio equipment.

We’ve created a foundation for success with Biamp audio processing equipment. Its products most effectively reduce background noise and provide crisp and clear audio that sound as real and pure as if everyone is in the room with you. We have successfully implemented this foundation in single conference rooms to hundred plus student wired lecture halls, the equipment is completely scalable so it is very cost effective based on the situation. Because SKC has the most Biamp-certified technicians in the country, our design, installation and support is the best in the industry.

Jeff Holton, Vice President of Technology

Security
There are a number of security issues with Skype, including hackers’ ability to find the location of users through the IP address used to log in. Here’s an example.

Quality
With true HD at the desktop, small conference room, large conference room, and Immersive Telepresence, video from SKC partners offer a much clearer picture than you receive using Skype. Combined with the higher bandwidth used for these video calls, you’ll have less interruptions due to choppy video or audio.

Richie Harris – Customer Service Representative

A very popular request in the headset market has just been answered by Plantronics with the release of the MDA200. While the recent release of the Savi 700 series provided the 3-in-1 headset connecting mobile devices, computers and desk phones, the Plantronics MDA200 goes a step further. This new item allows headset users to have the ultimate 3-in-1 experience from any location. One headset does it all.

The MDA200 headset adapter has a sleek and simple design that connects your computer and desk phone. Your headset of choice joins the MDA200 via a USB port. For corded headsets, it’s never been this easy to connect to two devices at the same time. A simple hookswitch cable connected to your desk phone gives you the added convenience of automatic answering.

For the ultimate headset experience, combine the MDA200 with the B230 headset. The B230 is the second generation of the Voyager Pro UC, and is a Bluetooth headset with multi-connectivity. This connects to your Bluetooth compatible cell phone as well as a second Bluetooth device. If the second device isn’t Bluetooth a USB dongle connects easily to adapt. Like the Savi 700 series, using the MDA200 and the B230 together connects you to all your devices with one headset. The difference between the two systems is that the Savi 700 series cannot leave the office while the B230 and MDA200 combination can be used both at your work or home office and along the commute.

Put your headset on in the morning and automatically connect to your smart phone. There is no pairing or syncing with this combination because the B230 remembers devices and simply connects once in range.

Lastly, the MDA200 addresses the issues left behind from the Voyager 510’s discontinuation. The base for the Voyager 510 system and Voyager 500A allowed for hearing aid users to connect to desk phones via Bluetooth. The MDA200 with the BUA100 USB adapter allows for this solution.

The MDA is a great option for any user who wants to simplify their communication. For anyone who loves using their B230, put it on and stay connected.

Paul Lively, Collaboration Engineer

As engineers, we design systems from a simple display on a wall to highly complex integrated rooms involving many components that all connect and work as a unit. Of all of the components, the LCD display is one that seems to prompt the most questions from customers.

Typically, customers are using their experiences with consumer grade LCD displays as a cost baseline when comparing quotes that include commercial displays. While cost is certainly an important factor, it is not the only factor that should be considered in regards to displays.

Commercial displays are engineered differently than consumer grade displays. Generally, commercial displays are designed to stay on for most of the day, they support many more PC input resolutions and RS-232 (serial) control, as well as possessing a three-year warranty.

On the other hand, consumer displays are designed for the home user who watches TV or video. Normally, these displays are created to be powered on for no longer than eight hours per day and they support a limited amount of input resolutions. Consumer displays also do not offer serial control and have a one-year warranty, which is void as soon as you install it in a business.

Several other differences exist between the commercial and consumer displays. Orientation, daisy-chaining capabilities, network support, locking infrared, overall construction and the ability to tile multiple displays are some of these variances.

Overall, purchasing a commercial display results in a better built display that will last longer, perform better and possess a stronger warranty. As long as you understand what you will receive for the price, the cost difference is almost always justified.

Jeff Holton, Vice President of Technology

The consumer market is increasingly driving what products we are using in businesses – a movement our industry is calling “consumerization of the enterprise.” More and more employees are finding a way to translate products they use at home into their work life. We want to use devices that we want to use – not what our company says we can use. This has been true even for me. I’m a Mac user but my company primarily uses PCs, which can cause some compatibility headaches at times. Apple users seem to be an under served population in the enterprise when it comes to business communications.

Macs aren’t limited to schools and ad agencies anymore, and the iPhone… can you walk a block without seeing someone who has one? It’s the most popular and hyped mobile device on the market. Then there’s the iPad: that one caught everyone off guard. A device you never knew you needed until you started seeing other people with it.

But why is it so difficult at times to merge these popular consumer products with our business applications, especially when your company has typically been running with PCs and Blackberries?

Avaya recognized this pain point. Earlier this year, they released one-X Mobile SIP for iOS. This software adds the capability of Voice over Wi-Fi on a corporate wireless-enabled Avaya Aura SIP environment. Now your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad device can access your corporate directory, sync to your desk phone and work voicemail, and make calls on the company’s wireless network (which avoids costly cell phone minutes.)

Polycom’s CMA desktop video collaboration solutions for Mac OS X also offers seamless interoperability with existing Polycom CMA desktop for windows – further enabling video collaboration with anyone, any time, and on any device.

Polycom also just recently announced its RealPresence Mobile app. It’s a free application on iTunes that gives you enterprise-grade video communications on your iPad 2.

These are a couple examples of how our industry is adapting to demands and keeping their promises of interoperability and open standards. Now with new iPads and iPhones on the horizon, we expect to see solutions focused on Apple products continue to evolve in the next 12-18 months.

Note: As I completed this entry, I read – on my iPhone – about the passing of Steve Jobs. His impact on the industry I call home has been incredible, and his legacy will carry on for generations to come.

Jeff Holton, Vice President of Technology

Phil Edholm, Avaya’s vice president of technology strategy and innovation, recently gave a keynote address at SKC’s annual Technology Summit in Kansas City. The summit brings together more than 25 manufacturers and 400 of SKC’s clients to learn about the latest Unified Communication and Collaboration technologies.

Phil’s keynote gave an interesting viewpoint on collaboration coming from a predominate voice provider in the UC space.

The idea of business collaboration being people-centric instead of device-centric was the main theme of Phil’s keynote address.

First, customers are demanding more ways to communicate with companies. Particularly in contact centers, there are exciting new capabilities that allow these customer service teams reach their customers in the way the customer prefers. Contact centers need to have the capabilities to connect with customers over a live phone call, IM, text, or social media. Avaya and SKC can help contact centers implement the technologies that allow this, while still keeping the workflow simple for the agent.

Secondly, Phil identified a new trend called “context-aware communications” – where software applications examine and react to a user’s changing context in order to help promote and mediate people’s interactions with each other and their environment.

“We need to remember context before, during and after a conversation,” said Edholm.

This technology can intelligently decide things such as:
People: who do you need to know?
Documents: which documents are most relevant to this conversation?
Conversations: which threads are most important?
Events: what’s next on the schedule?

It creates something called predictive PILLARS, inferred from communication activity, relationships and relevant databases.

Avaya’s flagship context-aware product is the Avaya Flare Experience, which is software for the desktop but can also be used in the form of a tablet. Avaya Flare eliminates the need to use different interfaces and different directories to communicate across various types of tools.

Although Avaya has historically been known for its VoIP and SIP voice solutions, it’s become a visionary in the future of complete unified communication solutions.

About Phil Edholm

Phil Edholm is the vice president of technology strategy and innovation for Avaya. He is responsible for defining the vision and strategic technology directions for Avaya GCS and the GCS portfolio architecture, strategy and design/user experience. He has extensive experience working for Nortel, Sytek/Hughes LAN systems, and Silicon Valley start-ups. He currently has ten granted patents with 12 patent applications pending.