FMC, Mobile Unified Communications & DiVitas

By Vivek Khuller Founder and CEO, DiVitas Networks

During the two-plus years that DiVitas Networks has been in business, there has been a tremendous amount of congestion and confusion in the FMC market. Like fans swarming for NFL quarterback Eli Manning’s autograph, literally dozens of companies have flocked into the FMC space, driven by hopes of cashing in on what was once a hot trend. The trend evolved, but a lot of vendors haven’t caught on to this fact just yet.

While DiVitas has some common ground with FMC technology, we’ve comfortably pursued a much more dynamic market. One designated by analysts as a space especially appropriate for companies that possess a balance of mobility and unified communications components.

This market space is called Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC). It blends mobility with key communications-applications by unifying them on a dual-mode phone, which can run on any network (cellular or WiFi).

The DiVitas Mobile UC solution allows a mobile phone to behave like a deskphone. What does this mean to DiVitas end users? They are equipped with just one phone and business number, and they are just as reachable when roaming as when seated at a desk.

True to the Unified Communications (UC) mantra used by Microsoft and other UC players, DiVitas end users are reachable by more ways than just voice. In addition to voice, the DiVitas solution unifies Instant Messaging (IM), text messaging, Presence and PBX deskphone functions (such as 4-digit dialing, call-forward and call-waiting). And it delivers these applications on a dual-mode mobile phone that can be used anywhere in the world, on any type of network.

In short, DiVitas end users have all of these Unified Communications capabilities available to him, but with the added bonus of being mobile. They can roam from the office, to a car, to a WiFi hotspot and back to the office again, and this can all be done with confidence that the DiVitas end user is reachable by the entire bevy of UC tools. Most important, the way DiVitas delivers Mobile UC is automatic and totally transparent to end users (end users most challenging task is probably remembering to keep the phone charged).

Some companies offer mobile email via cellular. Other companies offer roaming over WiFi and cellular – but it’s not seamless because you have to push a button to make it happen. These are some examples of the incomplete band-aid fixes available today, which fall short of helping businesses make their workers more mobile, reachable and productive. These vendors buzzed in with hopes of cashing in on a popular trend, only to find out that mobilizing business voice & messaging applications requires a far more comprehensive strategy.

In contrast, FMC mobility combined with UC tools, like what DiVitas offers, lets companies reach their mobile-communications Nirvana.

Comments

[Gary Hill]

It sounds like you guys are looking to go head to head with the likes of RIM. Considering RIM has this market all locked up, what can DiVitas offer that BlackBerry doesn’t do already?

—Gary Hill, New York

[F. Gator]

I recently read an article with one of your competitors claiming their technology “takes advantage of location.” The implication was that other FMC vendors don’t do this and so now I’m curious to find out more on this topic. I have three questions right now that I’m hoping you can answer.

1- Does DiVitas offer location-aware services?
2- If not, why not?
3- What do you offer instead (and how is it different/better?).

I am a VoIP purchasing decision-maker at a prominent U.S. hospital and planning an FMC deployment in the near future. But I’ll confess that I’m having a hard time convincing myself this location-aware thing is really “real”, much less a deciding factor when choosing among FMC vendors.