Esna Technologies Focuses on Cloud, Collaboration and Communication

The way businesses and consumers communicate is completely changing. Tools are available in the cloud that improve productivity and collaboration, and new technologies like video enable real-time interaction.

I caught up with Lee Ho, VP at Esna Technologies (News - Alert), to talk about the company’s latest version of its cloud-based solution and the top trends impacting enterprise communication and collaboration today.

Version 5 of Cloudlink for Cisco (News - Alert) focuses on better collaboration between Cisco and cloud applications, and it integrates Cisco collaboration products with Google, Salesforce and Jive. It’s focused on contextual understanding, usability, improvements to UI and seamless collaboration. For example, in a Google (News - Alert) Doc or using Google Drive, users can see who all the collaborators are, interact with them and move everyone from a doc into a WebEx meeting. Because everything is in a browser, there’s no software.

Esna focuses on providing cloud-based communications solutions. Breadth and depth are the company’s differentiators; it supports well over 200 different PBXs and brings a level of knowledge you have to have for multiple backends and integrating them with the cloud. Its strongest suit is helping people move or live in the cloud, enabling them to access communication and collaboration tools they’re used on a desktop and maximize their productivity.

Video, shifting industry players, remote workforces and user experience are all hot topics in the industry right now, Ho says, that Esna is paying attention to and that is generating a lot of conversations this week at Enterprise Connect (News - Alert). The idea of a distribute workforce is growing, and companies are looking for ways to provide the same level of work-life intimacy with the company so you’re still a part of the organization. Ho explains you need to give employees the same experience and same tools they would normally get inside the office.

“We’re focused on user experience. Nobody is going to use a tool if they don’t understand it,” he said. These solutions need to become a natural part of how people operate, he explained.

He also says cloud-based applications will become more robust and sophisticated as more people get used to the cloud as part of their day-to-day lives. Customer demands will grow in terms of moving apps and processes to the cloud, because they want accessibility. People should be able to go to any machine, log in and have the tools they need readily available.

That’s the idea fueling Esna’s integrated solutions. Tying together a function like Web conferencing with an application like Salesforce means improved productivity.

“We want to help people make their day a little bit easier,” Ho said.

As these solutions become more pervasive, the use cases will become more creative and targeted. In healthcare, for example, a choice of video, voice or chat will become a natural way patients and doctors communicate. Video will also play a critical part of ecommerce – consumers will be browsing on a site and want to speak to a sales rep or customer service agent, and technologies like WebRTC make that possible.

Expect to see more video-enabled solutions, WebRTC and communication-enabled apps and processes from Esna in the future. It’s exhibiting with Cisco and Google this week at Enterprise Connect in Orlando, Fla., demonstrating the capabilities of Version 5 and its other communication and collaboration solutions.