discussUC

Authors: Doron Aronson

Authors: Kirk Gregersen

Microsoft News Center posted a piece yesterday featuring research from The World Wildlife Fund that calls out the benefit that increased telecommuting and virtual meetings could have on the environment.

With today being Earth Day, I wanted to take a few minutes to write about the various options that companies and workers...

We are announcing today that Polycom has signed a multi-year agreement with Microsoft, becoming one of our strategic partners to offer integrated solutions in the Unified Communications space. Our goal is to deliver products to help our customers improve productivity, overcome communications challenges, and adjust their structure to the current economic environment, supporting things like: mobile workers, telepresence, and globally distributed teams. Both companies are committed to developing standards-based solutions that are interoperable and that protect customer investments and choices.

As we approach the launch of Microsoft Communications Server “14”,  we are excited to deliver on this milestone. The benefits of our integrated solution are already being seen by our early adopter customers and partners. Many have been testing the new Polycom  IP phones and conferencing phones that will be available at launch.  Their feedback has been very positive. For the long-term, this relationship will bring a roadmap of new technologies centered around 3 pillars:

• New and next-generation Polycom CX series endpoints optimized for Microsoft UC, featuring Polycom’s market-leading HD video and voice  technologies
• New, innovative room-based video systems designed specifically for enabling direct integration with Microsoft Communications Server “14”
• Additional interoperable solutions between Polycom’s existing and future  video conferencing solutions

To help our channel partners, Polycom and Microsoft will provide joint go-to-market components that include an integrated solution selling message , combined sales and marketing support, and joint marketing campaigns, as well as training and technical resources. 

If you’d like to learn more about how Polycom is working with Microsoft, please check out the video interview with Gurdeep Singh Pall (Microsoft Corporate VP, Unified Communications) and Andy Miller (Polycom CEO) on our Virtual Press Room Video Gallery: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/2010office/videoGallery.aspx.

You can also read the official press release on the Polycom website: http://www.polycom.com/company/news_room/press_releases/2010/20100809.html

Kind regards,  

Maura Hameroff

Senior Marketing Manager

Microsoft Communications Server

Authors: IBM

Authors: IBM

Authors: Avaya Insights

This week, Gartner issued a press release in support of their recent PPM and IT Governance Summit entitled "5 collaboration myths." Number one myth on their list? "The right tools will make us collaborative."

Perhaps this sounds heretical from someone working for Avaya, especially as we significantly increase focus on...

Authors: Avaya Insights

"You betcha."

I have arrived in Minnesota for the National Emergency Number Association 2011 annual conference. I've got about 45 minutes to get from the airport, drop my bag at the hotel, shed my dungarees for a pair of dress slacks and get over to the conference center to help the other members of the Avaya team finish...

Authors: Avaya Insights

As Vice President of Emerging Products and Technology at Avaya, it's my good fortune to lead a team that includes Avaya Labs Research, Emerging Software Product development and the Avaya Professional Services software and consulting teams. We have two key responsibilities. First, we invent new communications and...

Among the most critically important functions of government is the communications interface between the organizations that provide public safety services and the civilian population. Predominantly this function is served by the Public Safety Answering Point. The PSAP is the call answering center that receives incoming 9-1-1 calls and either coordinates directly or functions as the communications lynchpin between the public and the dispatch and command and control of police, fire and emergency medical services.

As citizens we might think that this particular function of government would be on the top of the list of priorities for the allocation of government resources. After all it is truly of first line of defense against all manner of disruption to our society and most of us pay specific taxes to support 9-1-1.

The fact is that although this critical government function has served our society well for most of the over 30 years since the 9-1-1 system's inception, in recent years 9-1-1 in North America has atrophied. The system has suffered from decreased investments while at the same time the rapid evolution of communications technologies used by the public has outstripped the ages old system's ability to function. Even though dramatic new technologies for the communication of information have evolved, the 9-1-1 system today remains almost exclusively voice oriented and primarily based on analog technologies.

This is all about to change. Led by organizations including the National Emergency Number Association and the US Department of Transportation a roadmap to Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) has been developed. This visionary future is based on modern communications protocols and a rich environment for potential innovation. Money is beginning to flow and the industry is seeing new Requests for Proposals based on the NG9-1-1 vision emerging all across the country.

Now the hard part: making it real.

One of the key challenges for the 9-1-1 industry is not only that it has fallen behind in technology investment but that it has also fallen out of pace with the many innovations that have swept the commercial world. I have nothing but the highest level of respect for the people and vendors who have created this system and who through many years of challenges have kept it running. The plain fact, however, is that in some ways this is an industry that has been trapped in time. The lack of public investment in the 9-1-1 system has meant that the tremendous innovations we have seen in the commercial world, have in many cases, skipped over the 9-1-1 industry.

Innovation in the 9-1-1 industry had become Balkanized and prior to a recent spate of industry consolidations dominated by niche firms who have solved point problems in serial fashion. An example of the impact of this innovation gap is that basic telephony concepts that drive operational efficiency in linking resources to problems such as Automatic Call Distribution are absent from all but the largest and most sophisticated of operations. The average commercial contact center agent even in the most distant geography has far superior problem solving tools at his or her disposal than the person who is responsible for making sure the ambulance arrives expediently at our home if one of our loved ones is in dire need of emergency services.

Next Generation 9-1-1 is a significant challenge. Much great thought and collaboration between the Public Safety community and vendors both traditional as well as new innovators has been put into the design. I don't mean to say that there is any deficiency there. What I do mean is that sometimes we don't know - what we don't know. There are additional layers of value that if applied, will help to create the emergency safety net of the future that our society deserves.

This is not just a challenge for those most familiar with public safety. We all have a stake in this transition. The change that is coming to the world of public safety communications will only include the best practices that have been developed outside the 9-1-1 industry to link resources to problems if those of us who understand these technologies, operational concepts and implementation of modern contact centers insert ourselves into the public dialog during this time of significant new official interest and investment in 9-1-1.

Avaya has begun to make our voice heard. Will you join the chorus? Please visit the Avaya.com to learn more: http://www.avaya.com/usa/solution/public-safety