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Publisher's Outlook
October 2000

Rich Tehrani  

The Next Next Killer App 

BY RICH TEHRANI

Go Right To: Keeping In Step With A Changing Market

Eureka! I found it -- the ultimate communications ASP killer application. For those of you that may be late to the technology game, the term "killer application" typically describes an application that launches a category or industry. Examples include VisiCalc spreadsheet software on the PC and Aldus PageMaker desktop publishing software on the MAC.

In the September issue of this publication, I wrote about the rapid growth of the communications ASP (CASP) market and how quickly it is evolving. Since that time, there seems to be unlimited interest in this new paradigm as witnessed by the variety of new ASP models and companies I am continually introduced to.

Getting back to the killer application, my sales force at TMC tells me that the best way to get in touch with their contacts has shifted from telephone-based conversations to e-mail. The best way to get a response from a company is to e-mail them. The only problem is that e-mail is less effective than the phone for transmitting emotion and building relationships. The flip side is that my sales team is able to contact many more people through e-mail than they ever could using the phone.

It doesn't take a genius to understand that the reason e-mail generates more responses than voice mail is that it is so easy to reply via e-mail, while the phone requires picking up the receiver and dialing. (Yes, we have become that lazy.) But I shouldn't complain, I'm the same way. Even as I write this article, I am checking e-mail every 5 to10 minutes while in the meantime, I am three days behind on checking voice mail. I'm not proud. But, frankly, e-mail has taken the place of voice mail as my primary message store. Even with unified messaging, which I've had for over a year, voice messages are cumbersome to deal with.

So what is this ultimate killer app that I've stumbled upon? Simple: An application that allows a person receiving an e-mail to instantaneously initiate a voice call between the sender and receiver of the e-mail message. Perhaps this sounds trivial, and it really isn't rocket science, but the plain truth is that this is a great service that we all need. I recently ran into a new communications ASP, etelenet, an early start-up that provides this service and more.

HOW DOES IT WORK?
etelenet provides an embedded e-mail link that initiates the display of a form on a computer. The form asks for a phone number, extension, and e-mail address. Once entered, a POTS call (not an IP telephony call) is initiated between the two parties. The inner workings of this technology are simple. If desired, the person initiating the call is given the option to schedule the call to take place immediately or at a later time. For example, a person can schedule a call on their cell phone to take place when they expect to have some free time. Once the call is scheduled, a status screen keeps you posted in extreme detail on the call's progress from dialing to conversation to termination. As a bonus, the solution generates cookies, so users need enter their information only once.

WHY IS THIS DIFFERENT?
If you have any experience in the Internet telephony market you will recognize that there are dozens of companies that allow you to click an embedded e-mail link and initiate an Internet telephony conversation between users. This is not news. What surprises me is that I am raving about technology that is less technically challenging than a VoIP connection. The reason I am excited and think these types of services have a bright future is that they are based on a phone-to-phone connection. Of course IP telephony is an acceptable way to communicate as well but let's face it, until multimedia computers with telephones connected to them become commonplace, it isn't reasonable to expect our clients to use their PCs to speak with us.

THE NEED
By now, just about everyone has had a chance to buy something online, and it should come as no surprise that the promise of instantaneous e-commerce acceptance was more possibility than delivery. Many analysts projected steadily eroding sales in brick and mortar establishments as e-commerce rapidly became the dominant method of shopping. What has prevented e-commerce from catching on as quickly as it could have is a basic lack of online human support. This is especially evident when you consider the following results from research reports I have seen:

  • Most (90 percent) online customers prefer human interaction;
  • Less than one percent of e-commerce sites offer live customer service and even then, it is usually text chat;
  • Online shopper desire for human contact surges once purchase prices exceed $50.00; and
  • Many (67 percent) Web shoppers abandon their carts.

Some of these stats may be well known to you, as they have been highly publicized as of late. This is probably the reason that a large percentage of communications ASPs are focusing on call center/customer interaction applications for their services; etelenet is no exception.

TREMENDOUS OPPORTUNITY
There really is a huge opportunity in the broader e-sales/s-service market for a variety of ASPs to flourish. By utilizing the above service adapted to the Web, a company can choose not to spend precious resources on the hardware and software needed to add the human touch to their Web sites. The beauty of the ASP model is that it allows customers to pay a fee per transaction. Of course the ASP and customer can choose a different arrangement if they like. Another major issue facing customer interaction centers is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to hire agents that are able to answer e-mail, perform chat functions, and take phone calls. The latest study I've seen estimates that it costs three times as much to hire an agent that can handle Internet interactions versus a traditional call center agent. From this perspective, it is a matter of corporate necessity to maximize the number voice interactions your company receives at the expense of all other transactions.

Revenue?
One can only imagine the various revenue models that can come into play. When I asked etelenet for their model, they did indeed reinforce my feeling that initially it will take time for these companies to figure out the best strategy that will result in win/win arrangements with their customers. Currently, etelenet charges a flat fee for the first five minutes and a per minute charge at that point. This makes sense to me as any customer that stays online for more than five minutes is a great prospect and worth paying a bit more to speak with.

Anyone choosing to use this service will receive added flexibility in the way that they receive their phone calls. etelenet is the originator of the call, so they are able to give you access to a Web page that allows you to customize how you want to receive your calls. You may want to have calls to your company follow you through a list of phone numbers you are likely to answer. This is especially important when a high-value customer calls. You can make sure that VIP callers are always treated appropriately. Of course if you do add your home phone number to the list of numbers, you will want to specify certain times at which you will not want to be interrupted. You are, in fact, able to specify this type of call restriction on your various phone numbers if you desire.

Another intriguing feature is the database that you are able to amass as your customers enter their phone numbers and e-mail addresses in order to be contacted by you. There are many cases when I start to call a company with the intention to buy a product and something sidetracks me. As a customer I would be entered into a database of callers who didn't connect and I could be contacted later to see if I am still interested in purchasing a product.

I am really pumped about the communications ASP market for the following reason: Software-based service models are just so easy to augment and adapt to different markets. This makes the underlying services less costly which means users will be offered a plethora of inexpensive customizable options that are simply unattainable through any other means! Just take a look at some of the other functions etelenet is able to perform that are all very different from what we have discussed above while remaining similar in basic design.

A great example of another potential application of this technology is the auction market, where you are able to auction products and have interested parties contact you without ever giving out your phone number. If someone tries to initiate a call when you aren't available, the caller can be notified that they will be called as soon as you are available. You should almost never lose the impulse buyer. So the key point here is anonymity and this is not the sole application that benefits from anonymous conversations. There are many other applications for this technology in personal and classified ad sites. A Web portal can easily host classifieds and or personals and can charge either or both parties when a call is initiated between the two.

Portals are great applications for these types of communications services. Imagine portals that allow you to initiate GUI-based conference calls or one that allows users to keep an online directory and initiate calls with a single click. Better yet, you can set the service to initiate a call based on criteria that is predetermined such as a stock price hitting a target or some other information you deem trigger-worthy.

Perhaps the ultimate testament to the growth of the communications ASP market is the fact that our newest sister publication, Communications ASP has received tremendous industry interest... We are deluged with subscribers as well as vendors who are providing new and extremely innovative services for us to write about. If you are interested in more information on this market, please subscribe online.

Although etelenet is not yet implementing IP telephony, it is important to note that that about 98 percent of all CASPs that are not in the wireless space are utilizing IP telephony. For years, we have reported that the future of IP telephony is in enhanced services: It is now obvious that a new breed of service provider -- the communications ASP -- will be the one to supply the majority of these services.

[ Return To The October 2000 Table Of Contents ]


Keeping In Step With A Changing Market

Nothing is more constant in the communications market than change. Whether you are a service provider or enterprise decision maker, rapid technology advancements affect the decisions we make on a daily basis. What is most impressive about many of the latest communications technologies is how they are able to adapt to meet business needs in a matter of months. Consider Internet telephony. Many service providers initially considered this technology a plaything, suitable for the hobbyist community. Of course while these service providers avoided learning about the potential of the VoIP market, other more enlightened providers did in fact read up on the latest IP telephony developments. Fast-forward several years, and IP telephony has become a critical service provider tool enabling these providers to leverage the sale of a variety of enhanced services at a reasonable cost. And as with any technology, those service providers that kept up with the education process now enjoy a huge lead over their competitors.

The situation is similar in the enterprise market. A few years back the PC PBX became the first device to take proprietary enterprise communications functions and package them on an open systems platform. Today, the IP PBX is the leading edge in corporate communications. Those that have installed IP-based PBXs are experiencing dramatic increases in productivity and decreases in maintenance and support costs. Beyond that, these companies are able to enjoy single click (no accidental hang-up) conference calls, easily implemented telecommuting, and collaborative computing.

In an effort to make it easy to learn about all of the advances taking place in the communications market, we have spent a tremendous amount of time developing a truly objective and in-depth conference program at Communications Solutions Expo, December 57 at the Sands Exposition Center in Las Vegas, NV. Registration is a simple mouse-click away at www.csexpo.com.

As always, the editors of INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine as well as its sister publications have worked together with the TMC Labs engineers and myself to come up with conference sessions that are entirely relevant to you. We feel that we have encompassed every major trend the market has to offer. So that you can get an idea of all the potential courses available to you, I offer a sampler of the most relevant of the nine separate power-packed tracks that are available to you.

  • Corporate Solutions
  • Customer Contact and CRM Solutions
  • Next-Gen Networks and Services
  • Internet Telephony
  • Enabling Technologies and Development
  • Wireless Solutions
  • E-Sales/E-service

Although there are tracks targeting all facets of the market from the enterprise to the developer, for the sake of brevity, I'll only list the service provider oriented tracks here. Please feel free to get more details online. I truly look forward to seeing you at the show.

  • Creative Decomposition: Evolution of the Next-Gen Network
  • Till the Bandwidth Comes... Relieving the PSTN of Internet Traffic
  • Beyond Cheaper Minutes -- The Value-Added Services Imperative
  • The Rise of The Telephony ASP
  • Defining Service Level Agreements
  • A Balm for the Network, a Switch So Soft
  • Signaling Gateways: Intelligence in the IP Cloud
  • Don't Knock the NOC: Management Solutions for Service Providers
  • Like Cream Rising to the Top: The Emergence of a Distinct Services Layer
  • Cable, xDSL, and Other Broadband Telephony Access Options
  • IP-Centric Provisioning and Subscriber Management
  • Next-Gen Telco Billing Options
  • * It's All about Priorities: QoS and Policy-Based Networking
  • *H.323 and SIP: A Distinction Without a Difference?
  • *Value-Added Countdown: The Top 10 Enhanced Services

P.S. I almost forgot! Our show hotel at this event is the Venetian -- perhaps the nicest hotel in all of Las Vegas. Couple this with the fact that we were able to secure wonderfully reasonable rates for the Venetian and our show airlines and you can see why this is a must-attend event.

[ Return To The October 2000 Table Of Contents ]







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