Volcanic Disruption

Now the dust has settled (literally) on the Icelandic Volcanic disruption it got us thinking about people being stranded in a remote country for some time.

With modern VoIP systems and Unified Communications users could easily work from their remote location assuming they had Broadband access then they would have a VoIP Client, Voicemail and email access – in fact was there any reason for them to rush back

In the last few months with the Snow problem and now the volcanic ash we can see compelling reasons to have remote access to the office.

Fax is Dead…

We hear this term used a lot and from our experience it is far from dead, we sell Unified messaging solutions that combine Voicemail, email and Fax and we are still continually surprised by the number of users who still opt for the fax option.

With the march of VoIP solutions we see a big problem as VoIP networks were never really designed to carry Fax and so the old basic form of communications struggles on modern networks. For many businesses this is a real issue as certain types of companies will only accept fax communication and not email as a legal document.

We saw a really interesting article over on the FierceVoIP website Fax is Dead…Long Live FoIP! – FierceVoIP. by Marc Robins SIP Forum Managing Director entitles Fax is Dead…Long Live FoIP and in the article he discusses the challenges faced by VoIP networks and what the SIP forum is doing to try and sort this problem out – have a look as it makes interesting reading.

Implementation Problems for VoIP or Unified Comms

We saw a great article over at processor.com that descibes problems and pitfalls to watch out for if you are implementing VoIP or Unified Communications – the key points listed are:

• Converged Network Woes
• Ageing Networks will not fly
• Business Issues Bog Down Process
• Beware the UC Promise
• Network Threats Plague Voice Systems

We have discussed many of these points in the past but it is useful to see the warnings laid out in a single article – the key points to watch for are:

Voice data is far more sensitive than other network data, in turn requiring specific planning and troubleshooting to avoid latency, jitter, and other quality related problems inherent in VoIP and UC technologies.

Because IP based voice systems reside on the same architecture that can suffer traditional network based attacks, it’s imperative to ensure that these systems are included in the overall enterprise security policy.

See the article Here

VoIP Destroying the Planet or Saving it ???

We always love the way a business can use a particular hot topic to help promote sales, and right now saving the planet is a real leading news item so a lot of companies have latched onto this to help promote sales.

The part we particularly like is the different angle companies are taking on this depending on their products – lets look at a few different examples on this.

Mitel are promoting their green credentials based on the fact that VoIP and Unified Comms means less travel and more home working and of course less travel is good for reduced carbon emmissions. Mitel states ‘Consider that a roundtrip from New York to Chicago produces 0.35 tons of carbon and flying the U.S. coast to coast accounts for one ton of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases per person. In this regard, teleworking helps spare the environment 3.6 tons of pollutants per teleworker per year.’

OnRelay states that the 25 million IP desktop handsets projected to be purchased in 2008 will consume 1.6 billion Watts of power. They say replacing the majority of those IP desk phones with mobile phones should result in a 74 percent savings in power costs. On Relay also state it is also important to note, that the business transition to mobile phones does not increase the total amount of energy used by mobile phones, because most business people already carry at least one mobile device. Indeed, OnRelay MBX’s ability to separate personal and business in the same mobile device can serve to reduce the number of mobiles carried and charged.

Finally we have Citel who manufacture a legacy desk phone to IP PBX gateway and they say this is a more eco-friendly solution than ripping out old handsets and cabling to install new Cat 5 and more expensive IP phones.

For us here at Iridiacom anything that reduces emissions and waste has got to be a good thing but we leave it for you to decide who is making the best arguements.

FMC is dead long live….???

We are starting to see reports now that Fixed Mobile Convergence is dead and the new King in town is Mobile Unified Communications (MUC ???)

So what does that mean ? – there has been a lot written about FMC and what it can or cannot do, essentially FMC brings the mobile user into the business enterprise by offering single-number access, dual mode phone (GSM/WiFi), VoIP calls on WiFi within the enterprise to reduce the cost of calls. We can compare this with UC that relies on Femtocell technology that extends the reach of the mobile cellular network within the home by using a special mini base station plugged into a home broadband connection, this has the advantage that a regular GSM handset is used.

It will be interesting to see which flavour emerges as the strongest – many FMC applications and handsets are starting to be implemented but we see this is heavily driven by businesses in the enterprise sector on the other side of the coin the Femtocell technology is now being trialled heavily and we see this being driven more by the cellular providers as a method to protect future revenues.