Inside DiVitas

Unified Communications needs a mobility component to have meaning

by Vivek Khuller

I recently participated in a panel at Interop Las Vegas ’07, Unified Communications: What’s Available Now? For my fellow panelists, the topic must have, at first blush, appeared pretty straight-forward. Just put together some slides about your company’s plans for delivering new UC opportunities, and go!  For me, the panel experience would be different. It was an opportunity to highlight the fact that any Unified Communications story has little meaning if it lacks a mobility component. 

With the sale of laptops exceeding that of desktops, mobile phone penetration exceeding 100% in some countries, and more than 50% of companies adopting WLAN technology, there is increasing probability that a worker is away from his/her desk.

UC has been top of mind for at least a year now, ever since vendors began making a big deal about it at Spring VoiceCon ‘06. The idea behind UC is to increase collaboration, and thus your productivity, by broadcasting your availability and best methods of reachability (deskphone, softphone, cell phone, IM, email, etc.) at any given moment, on any given business day.

But to really work, UC needs to incorporate a mobile solution that allows people to use it wherever they are.

The issues then become: Where are people likely to roam, what devices are they likely to be carrying, and would the mobile solution be worth the cost or the incremental burden on corporate IT? To address these issues properly, any UC solution must work seamlessly in WiFi and cellular networks. This means working with as many different types of handsets possible, supporting the various applications people need while on-the-go and providing IT with maximum control of the mobile-communications infrastructure. Last, but not least, the UC solution must be economical.

DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC) solution is one of the best options available to date to meet the above requirements. The solution facilitates total unified communications given DiVitas Mobile UC's flexibility (supports multiple networks), agility (able to roam seamlessly among disparate networks) and support for a wide range of enterprise applications (email, IM, PBX deskphone functions, CRM, etc.).

Also, Mobile UC takes control of a company’s mobile-communications infrastructure away from carriers. This solution puts management of mobile security, policy, and compliance in the hands of IT administrators. In contrast, a carrier-centric FMC solution keeps that control in the hands of service providers.

Unified Communications without a mobile component begs the question, “If your desktop phone rings, but you’re not in your office to answer it, did it really ring?”

Seamless roaming has finally moved from legend to reality

by Rich Watson

One of the most prestigious testing magazines, InfoWorld, recently ran a review of our solution. By most accounts, the best part of the write-up would be the glowing praises. But secretly, my favorite part was being compared to Sasquatch – the mysterious, gigantic, furry, forest-dwelling creature that has yet to be confirmed as truth or legend.

As a writer, I found this reference to be a clever metaphor for describing a product like ours – one part elusive, one part shockingly real. The DiVitas MMC solution delivers something that, like Sasquatch, has been talked about as a possibility ever since cell phones became something that everyone owns, even my grandmother.

Cellular addiction has led to a lot of greedy, wishful thinking like, “I love my cell phone, but it’s really expensive. Wouldn’t it be cool to roam between WiFi and cellular?” Thoughts like that evolved into, “So, do you think anybody will ever make a dual-mode solution?” And those thoughts eventually led to Sasquatch-esque questions like, “I hear dual-mode is out there, is it true? Does it work?”

Now, this InfoWorld article came out just before Interop and needless to say, piqued a lot of interest. And of course being an actual end user, my thoughts were, “Ha, the sighting has been confirmed and now the world knows we’re real!” The point being that tens of thousands of people read InfoWorld, and that’s a few too many to fit into the demo room all at once! Yes, that was very satisfying and it was a nice way to start Interop.

So this is where it gets more interesting. People don’t always believe what they see or read. No big surprise, considering the countless fake Sasquatch sightings, and the fake videos that have circulated over the years. Therefore, what was really entertaining was the parade of competitors that stopped by our booth to see a demo of our solution. One competitor actually insisted that our solution was all promise (is that an assumption based on the fact that his solution is still in development and isn’t yet real?), and then visibly dropped his jaw open when he saw the seamless roaming in action.

Honestly, from the look on his face, you’d think he’d just had his first Sasquatch sighting.