Customer Care Solutions

Audio conferencing has been slow to pick up, largely because in the past there was the nuisance of having to use a reservation-based system. Still, businesses have found that the ability to conference increases productivity and lower costs and, so, the conferencing industry has grown. 

 

With the advent of reservationless conferencing, the process instantly became immeasurably easier and businesses small and large were driven into the market. Now, adding the features and flexibility enabled by an IP network brings the conference call experience to an even higher plane.

 

Convedia Corporation recently announced that West Corporation, a provider of outsourced communication solutions, will deploy Convedia’s CMS-6000 and CMS-1000 Media Servers at InterCall, a West subsidiary. 

 

Leveraging Convedia’s expertise in media processing infrastructure, InterCall will look to further enhance its VoIP audio conferencing and collaboration services, while providing a versatile, reusable platform for West Corporation’s next-generation IP services.

 

 

InterCall’s Senior Director of product strategy, product management, and product development, Herb Pyles, explained to TMCnet that InterCall is investing in a proprietary IP platform to deliver reservationless conferencing — which, he says, is really what has helped the conferencing industry take off — and a key component of that platform are the Convedia Media Servers that that deliver the conferencing applications.

 

 

The Convedia Media Servers will provide a scalable, IMS-compliant media processing infrastructure to enable reservationless conferencing and collaboration services developed using Session Initiation Protocol (News - Alert) (SIP) and Media Server Markup Language (MSML) protocols to integrate and control the Convedia media servers.

 

InterCall/West undertook a rigorous analysis before deciding on Convedia. The decision was based on several factors, according to Pyles, including TCO and open standards. Using open standards will allow InterCall the flexibility modify applications to change the way solutions are delivered.

 

Also, because the software is upgradeable, there is no need for expensive hardware upgrades as Convedia enhances its offerings. Finally, Convedia’s QoS and its focus on the conference service provider space also factored into the decision. 

 

“We looked at it from a financial perspective, then from a feature functionality perspective, and lastly then from a comparative market perspective,” explained Pyles.

 

“InterCall customers use conferencing solutions for numerous applications beyond everyday meetings, so it is critical that we deliver the best available technology,” elaborated Craig Webster, senior vice president of systems development for West Interactive Corporation.

 

Webster continued: “West and InterCall evaluated a number of IP media server vendors, but Convedia’s reliability, track record, broad range of multi-service processing features and superior economics proved decisive in our organization moving forward with Convedia.”

 

InterCall also favored Convedia because its media servers are IMS-compliant and, with the heavy industry focus on SIP standards and IMS readiness, InterCall, too, ensured it had a product capable of handling an IMS environment when it becomes necessary. 

 

Even now, InterCall can accommodate both SIP and TDM endpoints on the same conference, but Pyles asserted that IMS and SIP are both the way of the future, but the industry is not there yet. Most enterprise customers, for instance, tell InterCall they are at least 9-12 months from looking at connecting SIP endpoints, in fact.

 

Ray Adensamer, Senior Marketing Manager at Convedia, added that many customers have the misconception that you have to use a SIP endpoint or SIP client. “Most of the deployments we’ve done to date have been for conferencing users with traditional desktop phones,” he said. 

 

That said, Convedia’s success has been boosted by conferencing vendors turning to VoIP technology and, to avoid having to install yet another new system later, they also are ensuring their new platforms are IMS-compliant to accommodate future applications. 

 

“Companies like West/InterCall are capping their investment in traditional conferencing bridge technology and are shifting the majority of their new capital purchases towards IMS-compliant technology and IP services,” said Marc Beattie, Partner & CSP Practice Manager, Wainhouse Research.

 

As for those future features, mobility is certainly an issue of which InterCall is cognizant. Because of the tremendous growth in mobile workforces, InterCall is looking to allow its mobile users to have access to conferencing services easily through SMS functionality, entering conferences using only voice commands, and voice validation/authentication, all of which are enabled by Convedia. 

 

These, and other future features that are compatible with Convedia’s Media Servers, will likely be driven by the SMB market. Pyles explains that, while the enterprise market tends to wait until a new technology has been proven successful before it deploys across its organization, SMBs are much more likely to accept the risks of being early adopters.

 

InterCall has begun the test phase of deployment already in its labs and expects to transition is North American customers in August of this year — the transition will be transparent to the customers, other than having support for some additional feature functionality. 

 

Even by August, however, it is anyone’s guess as to how the IP Communications world may change. Recognizing that, InterCall has, “to that end, ensured it has a foundation that can deliver to a dynamic, changing marketplace in an IP-enabled world.”