VON: New world of unified communications on display

BOSTON--FirstHand, Allworx and D2 Technologies were among several companies at the VON show in Boston this week touting new technologies that allow users to move between calling networks and reduce their contact numbers to just one.

D2 Technologies, which focuses on commercial applications and software platforms for IP communications, announced its new embedded mobile convergence software solution, which will enable mobile handset manufacturers to deliver fixed mobile convergence functionality over dual-mode mobile phones. This embedded VoIP software, which is an upgrade to the company’s vPort MP VoIP product, will power the next generation of multimode mobile communications devices, the company said.

The system is able to support any protocol, including SIP, XMPP and MSN, enabling converged multiservice and multisession communications across many different service platforms, said Doug Makishima, vice president of marketing and sales for D2. Users can make calls from Skype, VoIP, GoogleTalk and MSN Messenger and over WiFi. The phones also support the voice call continuity protocol, which allows users to move from WiFi to the mobile cellular network to a landline without missing a beat.

FirstHand Technologies, which focuses on transforming smart cellular phones and dual-mode WiFi/cellular phones into full-featured business communications devices, announced its Enterprise Mobility Solution for unified communications this week. The solution is designed to work with solutions from IP PBX manufacturers and value-added resellers supporting standard SIP interfaces.

“Our focus is to take everything your desk phone does and a lot of what your desktop PC does and remote it to a dual-mode phone or a singular-mode phone on cellular, anywhere in the world,” Hattey said. “And we’re doing it with a friendly user interface and in such a way that you have single number reachability, full call control and call routing from your cell phone, a single voice mailbox, integrated collaboration in terms of conferencing, messaging, presence, and bring it all together for the enterprise.”

Demand from the operators is being driven by demand from consumers for unified communication, Hattey said.

To illustrate when this solution might come in handy, Hattey pointed to the doctor making patient follow-up calls, which take up a significant amount of his time. He can make the calls from his cell phone – whether he is in the office or out on the golf course – without having to divulge that number to his patients.

Another example Hattey cited is companies whose customers have grown used to contacting the salespeople on their mobile phones. When a sales person, for example, leaves the company to work for a competitor, it is likely she will take the customer – who is still calling her cell – and the customer’s business with her. With a single number, the company can retain the business and seamlessly transition the customer to the new salesperson.

According to Allworx CEO George Daddis, this goal of treating a cell phone as if it were a true extension of the office phone is a primary objective of Allworx’s as well. Among a slew of announcements about new alliances for interoperability testing, including with Broadvox, Excel, nexVortex and VocalNet, the company announced this week that it is enhancing its software release with new unified communications capabilities that will let consumers move seamlessly between communication devices.

Allworx, which was recently acquired by Paetec to help them reach the small and medium-sized business market, designed its product with its SMB customer in mind. Daddis described his customers as every man’s small businesses – the local pizza shop owner, hardware store, Laundromat – customers who don’t necessarily follow the jargon but want a better phone service. This market also includes those who work from home or rely on their cell phones for business.

“We have a lot of remote workers working from home that don’t want to be making long-distance calls from the home phone,” Daddis said. “By using our remote phone, they can make the phone call from their main office, allowing them to put the charge on the office and have the caller ID of their office even if they are working from home.”

Allworx’s philosophy for these customers is simple: “Give them the same price point, the feature set they’ve been used to, and allow them to transition at their own pace,” Daddis said.

Daddis added that, to date, companies have not done a good job of offering a seamless solution that works all the time in the realm of VoIP and unified communications. All three of these companies reiterated their commitments to quality and supporting their customer-base – whether it be Allworx in the SMB market, FirstHand in the enterprise market or D2 in wireless handset market.