Inside DiVitas

Finding the 25th Hour

by Prashant Chauhan

You know the Silicon Valley high-tech worker bees - well, I might be a good, or should I rather say a bad, example of that. You know, the type that works at a cool start-up like DiVitas and thinks he needs to be at work round-the-clock to make sure the world gets its "Mobile" phones converged with its "Fixed" phones. Or, to be technically correct, with its "less mobile" phones.

So, I got used to being at work all day and well into the night and to hearing the complaints from my friends and family that they hardly get to see me or talk to me.  Until the day our management decided that we need to "eat our own dog food". Well, it wasn't just food, I must say - it was more like a DiVitas Dog Treat :).

We installed the DiVitas Convergence solution in-house with the DiVitas server running in our corporate network, and the DiVitas client running on the Nokia E-series handsets that all the employees got.

How did that help me? Well, I no longer needed to be at my office to make and receive all of my work calls. With some very useful features provided by the DiVitas Server – like simultaneous ringing and having the ability to toggle between a deskphone and handset combined with Seamless Roaming and Handoff – I could now be reached anywhere, any time with a single number.

Imagine this: We have an important demo going on at a customer site and I am on the phone with our sales/support engineer (known as “Win-Win”) to make sure the demo goes smooth. Win-Win has called me from his DiVitas mobile phone using my 4-digit office extension, and when both my handset and my deskphone rang, I choose to pick up the call on my deskphone.

Now, while Win-Win and I were in middle of troubleshooting something while talking, I get a call from my High-Command - that's my wife. I was reminded that I am running late for a party and should have been home long ago. So, what was I to do? Well, it's quite simple with the DiVitas solution: I toggle my call with Win-Win to my handset (now using Voice over WiFi on my DiVitas mobile phone), pick up my stuff and walk out of the office.

My VoWiFi call with Win-Win gets seamlessly handed off to Cellular before I reach the parking lot. Eventually, it gets handed off back to WiFi (seamlessly of course!) once I reach home, and I finish the rest of the conversation without missing the party!

So, finally I found an answer to Merovingian's question from Matrix Reloaded: "Who has time? Who has time? But then if we do not ever take time, how can we ever have time?"

Well, I just have my 25th hour in a day by using our DiVitas solution, and I am no Neo ;)

I’m a believer: Day in the life of a mobile-convergence end user

by Charisma Machado

I am the Western Region Territory Manager for DiVitas Networks and wear different sales hats; channel sales, direct sales and technology partner sales, so I always need to be available. Furthermore, I need to be able to place a call and receive a call no matter where I am, my home included, leveraging WiFi to save my company money and to practice what I preach. I love, love, love the Nokia E-series handsets and currently use the E61i. I never thought I could possibly love a piece of technology to the point of wanting to burst with excitement when I’m pitching our solution. Our technology really works!

The DiVitas client on the Nokia E-Series handsets is an UNBEATABLE combination. I have replaced my desktop phone with the E61/ E61i and use it for phone calls (leveraging our WLAN here at DiVitas), checking email and checking my calendar. Eating the DiVitas dog food is key to being able to have a true user experience so that I can speak intelligently to our prospects.

In addition to being part of the DiVitas case study, there have been many cases where our solution has helped make me be more available, responsive and productive. Add to that, it helps me sell while I’m speaking with someone on the phone. I have booked many meetings by simply being on the phone and then walking out of the WiFi area and back to show my prospect in real-time that this technology is real and it works. Just this morning I established a call in the cellular network to an interested prospect in Arizona, got in my car, drove to DiVitas, came to my desk and the call handed off automatically and seamlessly to WiFi, and I didn’t have to do anything to make that happen.

At the end of our discussion I said, “I just want to highlight that I returned your call while I was in the car from the cellular network and now I’m at my desk at DiVitas on WiFi. You probably had no idea the call switched over … and notice the call didn’t drop.” He was so impressed and I now have a meeting with him and his team to discuss a pilot.

Alice in Wireless-LAND

by Rich Watson

My conference call at 2:00pm was important.  However, my morning had been so impacted by other meetings, that I had missed lunch and was feeling a little faint.  My last meeting ended only minutes before my scheduled two o’clock was to start – how was I going to keep my schedule yet get some much needed lunch? Not a problem with my DiVitas unwired phone. 

I called into the conference bridge as I was leaving the office, heading for the coffee shop.  Because I was still in the office WiFi range, the call was originated over WiFi and using the IVR interface, I successfully logged into the bridge as I exited the building.  I began the 2-block walk to the coffee shop and, while talking with the call participants, my phone roamed from the office WiFi to the free metropolitan WiFi.  Cool!  The call continued without the others knowing I was on the move and headed toward my lunch and coffee.  Before I got to my destination, my phone decided to roam again, this time to the cellular network (there are spotty WiFi coverage areas in the public space caused by RF shadows from buildings or other possible interferences. Fortunately, my DiVitas phone is always alert and will seek out and roam to the best service that provides the best voice quality. This is an automatic process and I don’t have to do a thing).

Once inside my favorite coffee shop, I muted the call while I placed my espresso and sandwich order, but while I was listening to the dialog; my phone roamed to the coffee shop’s free WiFi hotspot because it was the strongest signal available and afforded the most cost-effective connection (free!). I settled down at my window table, un-muted the call, and joined the conversation while sipping my coffee. After a few minutes, I got a local alert that my phone had roamed to cell again. I hadn’t moved, but most likely what happened was someone had launched a high I/O demand application (like down loading a movie … it’s summertime and the place was crawling with off-duty students) and caused the WiFi quality to deteriorate.  My call was sustained without dropping and without any loss of quality. 

My call was still in progress as I finished my coffee and sandwich, so I began my trek back to the office. The two blocks back were uneventful as far as the call was concerned, but my phone roamed back into the metro WiFi service as I proceeded. I re-entered the office as we were nearing the end of the call, but not before the phone roamed seamlessly back into the office WiFi network (where we began). The agenda of the call complete and all action items assigned, I terminated my connection to the bridge.

The DiVitas unwired phone let me meet my two objectives during this crunch time:  (1) be an active participant on a critical corporate conference call and (2) get lunch.  Without this technology being available, I had only three choices open to me:  (1) miss the call and get lunch; (2) make the call and be hungry; or (3) make the call with cell phone and rack up lots of costly minutes. 

DiVitas made it possible to achieve the best of all possible scenarios.

Voice Over WiFi gives me work-life balance

by Dan Greenwell

I'm what you call a late adopter, of new technology that is.  I didn't own a VCR until 1988, a CD player until 1995, or a cell phone until 2002, and I'm still using a pre-360 Xbox. I still don't own an iPod, let alone an iPhone. My tardiness to new technology is ironic, given that I document cutting-edge high-tech products for a living. Maybe it's because I'm skeptical that any new product will actually enhance my life all that much or maybe I'm just cheap (my wife would likely affirm the latter). 

So even though my job is to write the DiVitas MMC solution documents, I wasn't the earliest adopter of the technology for my own use. Sure, the various status icons and feature tabs had quickly become my daily companions, but at the end of the day, the handset running the DiVitas client software stayed on my desk--until the latest software release (1.3.2), that is. This is the release when I participated in testing the product, an effort that included making a few work-related calls over the weekend (in a startup company, unconventional work hours are not exclusive to sales people and security guards).

So while testing, I was recently able to participate in a Saturday conference call with the product management team from my dining room table. I wasn't wearing a bathrobe and bunny slippers, but I could have. Even better, as I reported on the quality of the calls I'd made earlier that day, I was able to watch my two granddaughters playing in the garden. They waved and I waved back, and that's when it hit me--the great thing about mobility is that you really can be available and productive, without having to give up the other important things in life.

Seamless mobility isn't just about being able to continue a phone call when you leave your WiFi network. It's about being able to do your job and still maintain the continuity of your life. Of course, it doesn't hurt any that the call was over my home WiFi and didn't put one extra red cent into a cellular carrier's pocket!

Evolving from VoIP to VoWiFi … Seamless roaming can cut costs to nil

by Chief Blogger

I started using one of those VoIP phone services about two years ago. There are many VoIP-doubters out there who like to bash these consumer services, whether or not they’ve ever tried a VoIP phone. Never mind them, the end user (that would be me) was really pleased with the service. The cost was the bomb. The voice quality was equal to that of a landline, which is important because one of my two lines was actually for business.

For the low-low price of just twenty-five bucks a month, per line, I was able to make unlimited phone calls. I work from home most of the time, which can easily translate to a hefty phone bill, even though my calls are almost strictly to call-workers. I’m not the only one who loved my VoIP service … my company was pleased as punch that my monthly phone expenses never exceeded $25.

Rave reviews aside, I recently ditched my business VoIP line because I’m getting a much better deal for unlimited calling. One that’s 100% free-free-free and also rivals the voice-quality of a landline.

So what’s changed? I became a DiVitas end user and started taking advantage of the fact that I work within WiFi range 99 percent of the time.

My DiVitas-enabled dual-mode device is the only business phone I use these days, even when I’m in the office. My deskphone has been disconnected and carted away for lack of use. My cube is wire-free. Frankly speaking, I don’t miss using a deskphone whatsoever. My DiVitas device behaves pretty much how it would if it were one of those regular 5-pound, wired-to-the-wall business phones. For example, I can simply dial a four-digit extension to reach a co-worker, I can transfer a call or I can put a call on hold.

At $00.00 per minute for intra-company communications, I think my DiVitas unlimited “phone service” is a pretty good deal. For personal use, my VoIP phone line is still holding its own. But truth be told, if not for my family’s need access to a telephone when my DiVitas-phone and I have roamed away from home, I’d ditch that one too in a New York-minute.

Converged mobile communications: WiFi kicks in when cell fails

by Gordon Young

I recently faced a unique challenge in which my mobile phone was both the problem and the solution.

Here is the dilemma I faced: What do you when you’re invited to the Riverbank Hotel in London for a presentation to six prospective partners? And you discover that the meeting room you’re using is three floors underground? And there is no GSM signal?!

Oh, and add to that, the topic you’re discussing is “mobility” and you need a functioning mobile phone because it’s part of the act?

Such were the conditions I was recently handed when I arrived at the Riverbank to give a sales presentation. Fortunately, I’m not the kind of guy to let something trivial like the absence of cell-coverage slow me down. I stood in front of the room and pondered, how am I going to show this?

The wheels were turning… my brain was hurting.

The first thing I said to the audience was, “Can somebody please phone this lady?” And then I rattled off a phone number. Everybody looked at me like I had three heads and responded, “Hey, we’re underground, we can’t make cell calls from here.”

Always one for a bit of drama, I whipped out my phone, which had already picked up the hotel WiFi, and placed the call. 

For the record, this act was totally raw. I didn’t even know the person whose number I was dialing – it belonged to the secretary of one of the delegates I was courting with my presentation.

My DiVitas phone worked like a charm. After completing the connection to this poor unsuspecting secretary, I made my greetings and put my phone, and her voice, on loud speaker and then slid the phone to the middle of the table so everybody could hear. The connection was seamless, the sound quality was perfect and the room was totally stunned.

That completely unrehearsed performance makes a good war story, but in truth what I did that day was effortless because the phone simply performed as advertised. I dialed a phone number and the DiVitas solution did its thing and found the optimal connection (in this case WiFi). Fortunately the lady I dialed –the only true risk in the demo – accepted the call, and she was kind enough to play along and have a conversation on loud speaker.

I should mention that several partners signed on that day. They were blown away by voice quality and equally stunned that I could make a call in the first place. Their business calls had to wait until the after the meeting when they could make the journey back to expensive GSM-ville.

Real-life cellular-Wifi seamless roaming

My DiVitas phone helps me sell

By David Smith

Being a sales guy, it goes without saying that I am by definition a big mobile-minute user. I’m one of those 4,000-minutes-per-month types. Adding to that, I’m a sales guy at DiVitas Networks, so it also goes without saying that I am a big user of our mobile-convergence solution.

A lot about being a mobile worker has improved dramatically since we deployed our solution internally and I officially became a DiVitas end user.

For starters, my DiVitas phone saves me countless cell minutes, especially when you consider that for years, my primary contact number has been my cell phone number. Regardless of whether I am on the road, or sitting in my home office, inbound calls primarily get placed to my cell. Every call is at least one cell minute spent. The minutes can quickly add up.

When I’m working at home – which I often do because I’m Atlanta-based and a couple of thousand miles away from the DiVitas HQ – those calls are now placed and received via WiFi. This means I am now spending way less time on the cellular network and simply enjoying the benefits of my $50 Linksys wireless router that was initially installed to extend my home network to include my family. Talk about fast ROI!

The other big benefit from being a DiVitas end user is that I get to show off the goods. Cutting costs is important to the folks running DiVitas, so I’m very glad for that. But for me, the sales guy, being able to put my money where my mouth is, well, priceless.

ust doing my job translates to an easy-but-effective live demo that I perform on a daily basis. I use my DiVitas phone when communicating with my customers on a daily basis, and I make sure they know that I’m using it.

Here’s the routine, and I literally do this all the time: I make the call and walk out to my back yard and then back to my office again. I tell the customer “I’m going to do a presentation … I’m going to tell you when I roam to cellular and then back to WiFi, and just know that I’m not doing anything to initiate it.”

It gets them every time. They think it’s cool as heck and now the solution is pretty much selling itself. Everybody we talk to wants it, no exception. This is absolutely something they need.

FMC matures to become Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC)

A day in the life of a mobile-convergence end user

by Vivek Khuller

Here at DiVitas, we’re eating our own dog food. We’ve deployed “Project Alpo” throughout our Mountain View, Calif. headquarters, and now nearly every DiVitas employee is a mobilized worker who is benefiting from the very solution our company has worked so hard to develop.

Eating the dog food serves a variety of purposes. Alpo end users provide valuable, real-world feedback to the product development group. We’re a vocal bunch that continually dishes out suggestions for improving upon the DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC) experience. We tell them what’s working, what’s not and we point out any nifty features that we think future DiVitas end users will appreciate. We are helping produce one extremely fine-tuned product!

Better yet, being an Alpo user allows us to realize first-hand how being mobilized can make you a better worker. From marketing to sales to engineers to executives running the company, the DiVitas Mobile UC solution is making us more available, productive employees. 

This blog is a case-study dedicated to providing a glimpse into the life of a DiVitas end user and highlights real-world use-cases for our Mobile UC solution.

Joy of one number

by Kamesh Velu

As an SQA Lead in an energetic startup like DiVitas, I have a job that is both demanding and interesting, and it’s typical for an average successful startup! With this semi-workaholic lifestyle, I find myself away from my home phone most of the time. I was really missing the fun of talking live with my friends. As I was so wrapped up with my work at the office, most of the time communication with them was just returning their voice mails, and receiving theirs back. Most of the time it was just droopy chit-chat like, “hi, how-are-you and bye.”

To overcome my social issue, I tried configuring my home VoIP phone to simultaneous ring my home and cell phone. This way I could pick up the call from either one. I had kind of solved my problem, but it wasn’t the greatest solution because of my patchy cell coverage. You know, notoriously bad in-building cellular reception interfering with the conversation. The other downside is it impacted my cell bill big-time because now most of my calls were being routed to my mobile phone vs. home phone. Every call cost me at least one minute of airtime.

But once we deployed the MCA solution internally, my social life changed for the better! I now have all of my numbers routed to one phone – my DiVitas handset – and now I am back to having all those lively buddy-buddy talks with my friends. What did I do? It was kind of similar to what I had done previously with the simultaneous ring, but this time I configured my home phone to simultaneously ring my DiVitas MCC number on my dual-mode phone instead of my personal cell number. The best part is that DiVitas uses WiFi when ever it is available so my cell bill has pretty much evaporated, and the voice quality is great.

And although being “always available” was originally motivated for personal reasons, having a DiVitas device has made me a more productive worker (this is a good thing as this is why DiVitas issued the phone to me!). Whenever I step away from my office, say, to a coffee shop, I don’t have to worry about missing important work calls because the MCC seamlessly roams to cell once I’m out the door and beyond WiFi range.

Now I have my home number, cell number and my office number follow me where ever I go!! I’m always within reach, whether it’s a friend, family member or co-worker trying to get a hold of me.

DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications in action

I love what we do!

by Jenni Adair

I'm soooooo excited to have the ability to bring my desk phone with me when I am on the road. This means I don't have to miss important press calls anymore when I'm not in the office. And it means no more surprises each month when I open my cell bill. It means I can check my email from the road and transfer a misdirected call to a co-worker’s 4-digit extension.

Of course having a desk phone in my pocket doesn’t necessarily mean I will answer the phone every time it rings. Like most people, I may be wrapped up with another work matter … or taking some personal time. I just like having the option.

Here’s an example of the convenience my new DiVitas-enabled Nokia E61 mobile phone gives me. I was driving to lunch the other day to meet my buddy, who is one of the founders and president of Voce Communications (a 40-person PR agency in Palo Alto), and I was running late. So.......what did I do? I clicked through the contact list on my E61 (while driving I might add), found my buddy’s number, and simply did ‘click-to-call’ to tell him that I would be late.

As recently as a week before that, the only mobile device I had was my personal cell phone, and I don't have his contact info – or many business contacts, for that matter – plugged in there. So I couldn't have called him to let him know I was running late. That was very cool!

I also picked up a phone call early this morning. It was a vendor calling from London (not a call I would normally pick up before work hours, but I thought what the heck). The call quality was crystal clear. It was amazing. Later this morning, I dialed my co-worker’s four-digit extension and chatted about a meeting … while driving to work and then walking up the flight of stairs to our office to get to my cube.

In a nutshell, what I’m doing is roaming seamlessly, and saving my company a bunch of money on cell costs. When I’m on my home WiFi, my phone communicates over the wireless network (basically a free call). If I walk out the door, the phone automatically switches to cellular once we are out of WiFi range, and my call continues without dropping and without any intervention on my part. My DiVitas-enabled Nokia does all the work for me while I gab away. Should I reach the office, still engrossed in my phone conversation, DiVitas will work its magic once again by automatically making my call roam over to WiFi again.

I know you can’t love an inanimate object, but I really love (having) this phone. It’s making my job so much easier and it was really easy to set up (this is huge, considering it’s coming from a person who still can’t return a text message).

Granted I’m surrounded at work by the engineering geniuses who created the DiVitas technology, and they’ve been super helpful with tips and tutorials to get me started. But when I’m home, I’m on my own. Logging on to my personal WLAN was pretty much a 1-2-3 process and I only needed to do it once.

Now I can take that call from London, walk out the door to my car (my call automatically roams to cell and I don’t have to do a thing to make that magic happen), and continue the conversation with safe lane-changing as my biggest concern.

As an end user, I’ve really enjoyed every moment made easier by this handy, versatile phone. But even as much as I’m glad that I will miss far fewer calls and messages, and that my phone conversations are guaranteed to roam with me wherever I go, my company is really the big winner here. I am way more valuable to DiVitas if I’m more available and therefore more productive.