Wifi Revolution

WiFi (News - Alert) adoption – with its ability to support a wide range of devices, including those for office employees – becomes its own worst enemy, as IT departments struggle to ensure secure and effectively manage enterprise communications, officials with an Atlanta-based provider of managed communications told TMCnet in an interview.

 

According to Frank Grillo (News - Alert), executive vice president of marketing at Cypress Communications, WiFi should be everywhere, as the technology’s reduction of cables cuts down on the costs of network deployment and brings the Internet to more devices.

 

Yet WiFi adoption is hindered by its own flexibility, Grillo told TMC President Rich Tehrani (News - Alert) in an interview (printed in full below), as well as by its limited range and high power consumption.

 

“As new technologies are developed to remove these roadblocks, we’ll see more widespread use of WiFi and similar technologies,” Grillo told Tehrani.

 

During their interview, Grillo – who is speaking during ITEXPO West 2009 in September – also talked about his session titled “Hosted UC Alternatives for the SMB.”

 

SMBs want to compete with larger enterprises on a level playing field, Grillo said, deploying advanced video, hosted IP, presence, cloud computing, real-time and streaming video services, but without the cost and complexity of premise deployments.

 

Grillo talked about how he’ll use case studies to show how a hosted solution must address and show attendees how they can leverage hosted UC to decrease their overall telecom spending.

 

Their full exchange follows.

 

Frank Grillo: For Cypress, the current economic mindset has more enterprise, both small and large, switching from premises-based communications to a hosted unified communications solution. As their phone systems reach end-of-life and the large capital investment required for upgrading, we’re seeing more and more companies come to us for a turnkey hosted solution that includes the phones, hardware, as well as communications and collaboration technologies.

 

 

FG: Let’s face it; we live in an always-connected society. Generally speaking, WiFi should be everywhere, with the obvious benefits: The lack of cables reduces the costs of network deployment and expansion and the ability to deploy WiFi in places where cables cannot be run, such as outdoor areas and historical buildings, adds a dimension of flexibility.

 

However, even with all of its benefits, WiFi adoption is hindered by its own flexibility. With its capacity to support a wide-range of devices – including employee and vendor-owned – IT’s ability to cost-effectively manage, support, recover and secure the enterprise is threatened. Limited range and high power consumption also present additional challenges. As new technologies are developed to remove these roadblocks, we’ll see more widespread use of WiFi and similar technologies.

 

 

FG: Current research indicates that the North American hosted IP Telephony and unified communications market represents a $1.2 billion revenue opportunity. Businesses are enthusiastically embracing hosted unified communications, attracted by predictable cost structure. Cypress will continue to focus on our U.S. markets as we begin our expansion into Europe and the Middle East.

 

 

FG: While I believe it’s too early in his presidency to judge President Obama’s effectiveness, the broadband adoption initiatives included in the economic recovery plan are a step in the right direction. And if the President’s leveraging of Internet, Facebook, Twitter, and so on, is any indication of his support of the technology markets, then the next 4 years may be the equivalent of the industrial revolution in the technology arena.

 

FG: I don’t go anywhere without my iPhone (News - Alert).

 

 

FG: Ultimately, the only thing that matters is the user experience: Can the user make and receive calls quickly? Are the programs applicable to the user’s needs? Does the user have a lengthy wait while an application loads? No matter how many bells and whistles you add, the user still wants an efficient tool that makes their life easier an helps them to be more productive.

 

 

FG: I’ll be speaking on hosted UC alternatives for the small and mid-sized business. SMBs want to compete with larger enterprises on a level playing field, deploying advanced video, hosted IP, presence, cloud computing, real-time and streaming video services and the like, without the cost and complexity of premise deployments.

 

Today’s hosted solutions offer a means to an end – enabling SMBs to cost-effectively deploy UC services, without the headaches associated with traditional CPE deployments. Using case studies, I’ll discuss critical issues a hosted solutions must address and show attendees how they can leverage hosted UC to decrease their overall telecom spending while benefitting from technology that can help their business not only succeed, but thrive, even in a down economy.

 

 

FG: Our hosted UC solution allows our customers to avoid a CapEx expenditure, leverage our expertise in managing complex technologies and a level of business continuity that’s virtually impossible for an SMB to achieve on their own.

 

In 99.9 percent of situations, customers will lower their total communications spend when them move to a hosted Cypress solution. There’s no ongoing maintenance costs, no charges for moves, adds or changes, free interoffice calling, and free local and long distance, and multimedia and collaboration tools such as audio and Web conferencing. The customer gets the latest greatest in UC technology and new handsets. We’ll even buy back their old phones.

 

As for justifying the expense, Cypress has developed a TCO tool for just that purpose. Just plug in the numbers and the TCO tool does the rest, calculating each customer’s savings for each unique situation.

 

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