NewVoiceMedia has filed a patent for a product that contact center reps can use to gather customer information from the Internet in real-time, promising a big change in the call center experience. The U.K.-based company said the technology will allow agents to make use of real-time social media information as customer calls come in.

The patent, filed in the United Kingdom by NewVoiceMedia founder Richard Pickering, uses caller data to execute a search query using internal data repositories, partner sources, public services (like Experian) or other external resources like Google or Microsoft Bing. Results are then used to deliver targeted information to the receiving agent.

"This integration... will enable our customers' agents to quickly access huge amounts of callers' data from internal databases and the Internet," said Pickering. "Since many major social networks are now accessible to search engines such as Google and Bing, recent social media comments from or about the calling customer could be used to identify potential issues and opportunities enabling agents to be one step ahead of the game and offer a truly unique customer experience."

NewVoiceMedia's ContactWorld is an enterprise-class contact center based in the cloud. It counts customers in 14 countries on 5 continents.

For more:
- see this release

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Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Apps for Business has been making waves recently--it just announced a major deal with GM and its Apps for Government has become something of a darling among federal and state agencies looking to go to the cloud to reduce expenses--but one stumbling block for many enterprises has always been its lack of customer support.

The company this week took the support layer deeper than its standard email contacts, offering 24/7 phone support for users who pay a periodic fee for Gmail and Google Appsl.

"Since we launched Google Apps for Business in 2007, we've been working hard to build a global support offering that's responsive to the needs of our business customers," said Jocelyn Ding, VP of Google's Enterprise Operations. "We now provide 24x7 phone support to small, medium, and large Google Apps for Business customers for all issues affecting the core services."

Core services include Gmail, Google Apps and Google Calendar, among others. Customers also can get help through Google's web-based support portal, online help forms and online help center.

Google said that customer satisfaction, measured on a seven point scale at the time it closes a support case, rates 80 percent for business customers and 90 percent for large business customers.

"While we're proud of these ratings, we want to do even better," said Ding. "Our goal is to achieve an overall satisfaction rating of 95 percent."

U.S. tech support can be reached at 87-355-5787; international support is available at 404-978-9282.

For more:
- see this Google post

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Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has had, for lack of a better word, a dodgy relationship with European regulators who have at times bristled at the brashness - and the overwhelming ubiquity - of the American company.

In 2004, European Union regulators hit the software giant with a record $613 million fine for violating EU antitrust laws. It competition commission ruled the company hadn't given rivals the information they needed to compete fairly in the server software market; and, they didn't like that Windows came bundled with Windows Media Player, which they ordered the company to stop doing.

Microsoft was hit with another $350 million fine in 2006for not licensing network communications technology, and smacked with another $1.35 billion fine in 2008 when the EU decided it had overcharged developers for access to Windows protocols in defiance of the remedies agreed upon in the earlier case.

Microsoft also was hit with an antitrust suit in 2007, when Opera Software complained to regulators that Microsoft was again being unfair in bundling a browser with its Windows OS. The company in 2009 agreed to ship a version of the operating system, Windows 7E, sans Internet Explorer 8.

Microsoft itself has tried to use the courts to help its business. In 2007, it supported the EU's investigation into Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) plan to buy DoubleClick.

More recently, in March, Microsoft asked European regulators to look into Google's actions in regards to its handling of online content, accusing the company of engaging in a "broadening pattern of walling off access to content and data that competitors need to provide search results to consumers and to attract advertisers." 

So, it should come as no surprise that Microsoft is facing yet more trouble in Europe.

This time, it's an Italian company that's raising a ruckus, taking issue with Microsoft's proposed $8.5 billion purchase of free VoIP provider Skype, saying again that the inclusion of the technology in its Windows OS is unfair. The company, Milan-based Messagenet, also is a VoIP provider and a competitor to Skype; it filed its complaint Sept. 20.

The company, as you'd expect, wants Skype unbundled from Windows. It's also taken the more unusual step of asking regulators to open up Skype's 124 million-strong Internet phone network to competitors' services by having Microsoft publish the Skype's computer coding to allow services to interconnect.

Messagenet contends that the merger will likely make the software even more interoperable than it is today.

"The first effects of the proposed merger will be an even more rigid approach to interoperability of Skype services so to exclude competitors from the market," the company wrote in its filing.

U.S. regulators, citing growing competition to Skype in the form of Google Talk, Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) FaceTime and others, have approved the deal, the largest takeover in Microsoft's history. It was widely believed that the EU would approve as well when it made its decision public Oct. 7.

The Messagenet suit may not totally derail the deal, but the approval by Oct. 7 is now far less certain.

"I would certainly say this kind of complaint, if it raises new issues that the commission has not previously considered, may derail the deal or, at least delay approval," one European antitrust lawyer told the New York Times.

So, will the EU approve the merger next month? Let me know what you think.-Jim

Software-based networking specialist IP Infusion this week rolled out the latest iteration of it ZebOS platform, ZebOS 7.9, looking to enable networking OEMs to more quickly, and at reduced cost, deliver customized and innovative solutions to telecom as well as public and private cloud service providers.

With networking resource use increasing dramatically and the pace of networking communications innovation accelerating, IP Infusion VP of Marketing Sandra Orlando said on-time delivery of new services contributes significantly to revenue and profitability.

"A survey from Amdocs showed 95 percent of telecom providers saw a direct correlation between time-to-market and revenue," she said. That, she contends, requires network evolution to be software- rather than hardware-based.

"We believe the future of networking is going to be software," Orlando said. "It introduces capabilities that will enable network equipment vendors to get to market with innovations faster."

With ZebOS 7.9, IP Infusion specifically addresses the evolving requirements for data center networking, mobile backhaul and Carrier Ethernet.

Among the highlights in the latest version:

• Data Center Networking - It implements the data center bridging extensions to accelerate the transition from Fibre Channel to FCoE in Storage Area Networks (SANs).
• Mobile Backhaul - ZebOS 7.9 provides the Mobile Backhaul Implementation Agreement for Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF)-MBH IA. These capabilities support a wide-range of implementation options with the goal of supporting more cost effective delivery of mobile services by moving from an entirely legacy RAN network to Ethernet.
• Carrier Ethernet - ZebOS 7.9 offers new capabilities to accelerate the transformation to Carrier Ethernet. This includes implementation of the MEF 13 and MEF 20 specifications that define standard services and open the door to interoperability of networking equipment.

"With the telecom market changing so rapidly, OEMs are requiring network solutions that are not only fast and cost-effective but also deliver unique value and capture new revenue opportunities--a tall order," said Ray Mota, managing partner, ACG Research. "Software-centric networking solutions such as IP Infusion's ZebOS can help service providers meet this challenge by delivering networking solutions easily and quickly, which helps them maintain their competitive edge."

For more:
- see this release

The federal government is making a concentrated effort to cut its communications costs, looking to unified communications solutions, VoIP and a variety of web, voice and video collaboration solutions to hulp it cut billions from its budgets.

This week, the U.S. National Institutes of Health issued an RFI to help it evaluate unified communications tools and products to add to the NIH Enterprise Architecture and enterprise standard technologies.

The NIH, which consists of 27 different institutes and centers, said it currently uses a mix of different vendors and technologies to provide communications capabilities to its staff. Some of these capabilities are provided by a staff member's local institute or center, while other capabilities are provided centrally by the NIH. These technologies are generally not unified. It said each has their own unified communications requirements.

"While recognizing that no one technology would be appropriate for the NIH (at this time)," the NIH RFI said, "we are looking for unified communications technologies that would work well within this diverse environment and be able to integrate well with a wide variety of legacy systems."

The NIH specifically is looking at voice and telephony products; voice, video and web conferencing; and email, voice mail and unified messaging.

The NIH laid out the scope of this technical domain as products (equipment, software and services) that facilitate the use of multiple enterprise communication methods including Internet Protocol (IP)-PBX, voice over IP (VoIP), presence, e-mail, audioconferencing and Web conferencing, videoconferencing, voice mail, unified messaging (UM), instant messaging (IM) and various forms of mobility.

Evaluation criteria include:

• Estimated total cost of ownership
• NIH experience with the technology and the use and adoption of the standard throughout NIH
• Fit with existing NIH standards, technologies, and systems
• The breadth of the standard's applicability to multiple NIH stakeholder classes
• The level of effort and complexity associated with the implementation of the product in a production environment
• The use and adoption of the standard throughout industry in general (both commercial and public enterprises)
• The effort and specialized skill sets required to support a technology
• The product life cycle
• The ability and/or effectiveness and fit of the technology within the NIH security environment
• Strategic value/features and functionality
• The health of the product vendor in terms of its stability, projected longevity, and likelihood it will exist in the future to support the product and later versions of the product.

For more:
- see the NIH RFI

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Online videoconferencing provider Nefsis, which in June rolled out dual and multi-monitor support for its service, has been chosen by Secure TeleHealth as the core provider of its Telepsychiatry Platform solution.

The Nefsis platform provides business-grade videoconferencing using off-the-shelf PC-based equipment and an Internet connection to provide clinics and behavioral health practitioners a high quality, encrypted platform for Telepsychiatry.

Telepsychiatry, because it requires no physical interaction, is becoming one of the most successful telemedicine applications. Doctors can connect from anywhere, using a webcam, to provide assessments, therapy and conduct med checks with their clients via the online video conferencing service from Secure Telehealth.

The service has proven not only to be effective, say advocates, but it helps reduce costs, especially in rural or remote areas where travel can sometimes be difficult and time consuming.

"Cloud-based online video conferencing allows behavioral health care providers the ability to increase efficiency, reduce travel costs, and improve the process of providing care, making it a game-changing technology well suited for this market," said Nefsis CEO Steven Peltier.

For more:
- see this release

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Is Dell (Nasdaq: Dell) the next big name to enter the cloud computing fray? The company's Force 10 Networks data center acquisition earlier this year hinted strongly at its interest. Now, the long-time PC retailer is following through on the product and service front, according to eWeek. The publication noted that Dell made new cloud-related announcements this week at both the Salesforce.com Dreamforce event and the VMworld 2011 conference, the latter of which the entire cloud sector appears to have attended.

Dell said at VMworld that it is hard at work on a public cloud offering with VMware that is set to debut sometime later this year, with Dell data centers hosting VMware's vCloud public cloud systems. One of those data centers already is open in Plano, Tex., and several others are in the works. This effort targets mostly the small and medium-sized business market, where Dell has built strong customer relationships.

Dell and VMware also plan to build private cloud infrastructures for other companies, according to the eWeek story. Dell systems already are in place as components of other companies' public cloud services, too, such as those operated by Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN).  In addition, Dell and VMware next year plan to offer Microsoft Azure and open-source public cloud offerings, and continue integrating more Dell software and applications into the cloud. Analysts have been largely supportive of Dell's cloud moves, eWeek reported.

At Salesforce.com's Dreamforce event, Dell and the event's host announced a partnership aimed at offering software as a service application under the brand of Dell Cloud Business Applications. The first of these applications, a new CRM app, became available at the conference from Dell cloud integrator partner Boomi.

For more:
-see this eWeek story

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Polycom (Nasdaq: PLCM) scored a big win this week, selling German pharmaceutical firm Merck on its immersive telepresence solution.

Merck, which recently acquired Boston-based biotech and chemical firm Millipore, said it expects to save money--and wear and tear on its executives--by using the system to cut down on business travel between its German headquarters and the United States.

Merck, an existing Polycom customer, has contracted for the company's hi-def Open Telepresence Experience for its company headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany, and at its Millipore office. The system includes three 65-inch LCD monitors embedded in a unique telepresence room. The FSTVs use Merck-designed, polymer-stabilized vertical alignment liquid crystals, which will save energy, Polycom said.

Merck believes that the new Polycom systems will be amortized quickly because of savings on long-distance travel costs; it said cutting 50 business trips will pay for the new system.

The telepresence and videoconferencing market continues to grow as companies look to contain costs. Expectations are that some 75 percent of companies will adopt some form of videoconferecing or telepresence by 2012. Earlier this year, Infonetics Research said revenues in the segment would increase at least 20 percent in Europe alone. Research firm Ovum, meanwhile, said it expects the videoconferencing segment to be a $3.8 billion business by 2016.

For more:
- see this release

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Dan Burrus

The use of virtualization and cloud computing is growing quickly among companies of all sizes. Currently, 30 percent of servers are virtualized, and surveys show that by 2012, that number will grow to 50 percent.

Virtualization and cloud computing go hand-in-hand, and virtualizing servers is just the tip of the iceberg. The trend to virtualize everything from servers to processing power to software offerings actually started years ago in the personal sector. In the recent past, it was common for individuals within major organizations to use virtualized services or cloud computing when at home, but at work they weren't using those services at all. Why? Because corporate IT didn't trust the lack of security of the cloud, and they weren't sure it was a hard trend--something that was definitely here to stay. Today, we know better.

In order to fully understand how virtualization and cloud computing will transform the business world, let's first look at the evolution of these capabilities.                 

Cloud Computing

When talking about virtualization, cloud computing is a natural component. Cloud computing, which refers to companies using remote servers, which can store data and allow users to access information from anywhere, takes three different evolutionary forms.

The first is a public cloud. This could be something like Google docs to store data or Flickr to store photos. Basically, you're storing files somewhere else other than your hard drive and in a place accessible from any device, at any time, as long as you have an Internet connection.

The second form of cloud computing, i.e. using a private cloud, is emerging rapidly. A private cloud exists when a company wants added security with cloud computing, while allowing its employees to have access to bigger files and larger databases from any device, anywhere. Since it is private, it is secure, and the public does not have access to it. Companies are now beginning to establish private clouds.

The third iteration of cloud computing is the private/public cloud--also called a hybrid cloud. In this configuration, you have a private part of your corporate cloud, which is secure and only accessible by employees, but you also have a part of the cloud that is public where strategic partners, vendors, and customers can access limited content.

Virtualization

Virtualization can take many forms aside from servers. For example, you can virtualize a desktop--meaning your desktop is stored virtually in the cloud and can be accessed anywhere. You also can virtualize your operating system. That means you can be using a Mac yet running the latest Windows operating system on the Mac; or you can have a PC and have three different operating systems running all at the same time. That's the power of virtualization.

Software as a service (SaaS) is another element of virtualization. Decades ago, we started with software that you had to buy, install, maintain and update. Thanks to SaaS, this software is now in the clouds, so you no longer buy it; you simply buy time to use it. It is a cost-effective way for companies of all sizes to have access to enterprise level software.

Similarly, we're also starting to see virtualized processing power. Think of this as accessing a supercomputer in the clouds and having that supercomputer's processing power available on a smart phone or tablet. In February 2011, the TV game show Jeopardy pitted IBM's supercomputer Watson against human contestants. Watson beat the humans on Jeopardy because it knew what its strengths, and it focused on those categories. With virtualized processing power, you're basically getting a Watson on your phone. That means you and your employees can make informed decisions quickly about many things.

One of the ways Watson has been used since Jeopardy is looking at MRI scans. When Watson reviews an MRI scan, it can detect anomalies and see things a human doctor can't see. Watson can also analyze many variables in an effort to help the human doctor make a better diagnosis faster. It's about allowing professionals rapid access to vast amounts of information and knowledge that can help them work faster and smarter.

Let's use healthcare as an example. Could people who do sales, R&D, purchasing, delivery, sourcing, shipping, accounting and a host of other functions benefit from a mobile Watson-like supercomputer? Yes. Could it make them work smarter, better and more effective? Most definitely!

The Game Changer

Part of this evolution of virtualization and cloud computing is that we can now virtualize various components of IT. In the near future, we'll start seeing IT as a service (much like how SaaS became popular). This means that much of the IT department will be virtualized and running in the cloud.

The benefits of IT as a service are immense. Not only will it save money, but it will also increase speed and agility. Since your servers aren't used 100 percent all the time, the efficiency varies. With IT as a service, a company will be able to scale in real-time as demand dictates by the nanosecond. As sales increase, the system will instantly self-configure. As sales decrease, it can act accordingly. Now you're only paying for what you're using. In this case, you'll be able to benefit from dynamic resource allocation, so you're able to maximize what you have and what you're paying for at all times.

IT as a service is a game changer. Because you now have components of the IT department existing in the cloud, you're freeing your in-house IT staff to shift from a maintenance mode to an innovation mode. As such, your IT department can focus on achieving business goals, creating innovative solutions and driving sales rather than upgrading individual user's computers and firefighting everyday problems. It allows the IT department to really look at industry trends unfolding so your company can give customers the products and services they'd ask for, if they only knew what was possible.

It's Time to V-Enable the Organization

In terms of implementing virtualization and cloud computing options, organizations are now starting to move quickly. Virtualization received a big push in 2009 and 2010 because of the recession, which prompted many companies to cut their IT budgets. Companies realized that one way to save money is through virtualization. For example, virtual desktops alone lower costs by about 15 percent.

Now in 2011, the factors that are increasing an organization's interest in virtualization are speed and agility. Virtualization enables you to do things faster, thus making your company more agile. Instead of delivering a new service in two months, companies are able to do this in two days.

As virtualization and cloud computing become more prevalent, companies are going to need to form new strategic relationships as existing relationships may not have the core competencies needed to drive fundamental change. At this point it would be good to ask yourself if you have the relationships you need to move forward given this shift? Do your current strategic relationships understand the shifts taking place, and are they embracing the things you know will happen?

Realize, too, that the wrong question to ask is, "What should we buy?" Rather, you have to look at the bigger picture of what you're trying to accomplish in this transformational time. How can you use virtualization and cloud computing as game changers for your company based on where it's evolving? The key is to understand the new capabilities; in order to know what to buy or what to do, you first have to know what is possible.

2011 is the year for companies to begin sticking their toes in the waters of virtualization and cloud computing. It's the year organizations realize this isn't a fad that's going to disappear. Virtualization and the cloud are hard trends that provide transformational opportunities and will continue to rapidly evolve. The time to embrace this trend is now.

Daniel Burrus is the founder and CEO of Burrus Research, a research and consulting firm that monitors global advancements in technology driven trends to help clients better understand how technological, social and business forces are converging to create enormous, untapped opportunities. He is the author of six books, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal best seller Flash Foresight: How To See the Invisible and Do the Impossible as well as the highly acclaimed Technotrends. For more information, please visit: www.burrus.com.

Network subscriber and application awareness are two of the ways that IP networking can be extended beyond Layer 2 switching and Layer 3 routing. This expanded networking functionality is driven on the demand-side by service providers' need to differentiate their services from both competitors and among internal lines of business where service cannibalization is a serious problem; and on the supply-side where more flexible hardware architectures make it possible to combine transport, switching, routing and DPI capabilities in the same system chassis. Industry Voices

Talk about a turnaround. Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO), which just a couple of days ago was setting new 52-week lows on what seemed like a daily basis, today has rebounded some $2.39 (as of late morning) and popped above $16 for the first time since a brief bubble for a few days in July.

What a difference a "not-bad" earnings report makes (see related story).

Cisco yesterday said it earned $1.2 billion, 22 cents per share, in Q4, and had sales of $11.2 billion. Take out the roughly $1 billion in restructuring costs and adjusted earnings came in 2 cents above Wall Streets expectations of 38 cents per share. None of it was ground breaking in any sense, but they were better than analysts expected.

During Cisco's earnings call, CEO John Chambers didn't spend a great deal of time talking about how great a job the company had done in selling its routers and switches during the quarter. Instead, he focused on what the "next Cisco" had to do to keep ahead of its prime competition, HP and Juniper Networks, which have been nipping at its heels and taking share from it in both of its core business segments.

"Since the last quarter's conference call, we've made solid progress on our comprehensive action plan to position ourselves for the next stage of growth and profitability, what we will call the next Cisco," Chambers said. "In terms of Q4 FY 11 overall guidance, we accomplished what we outlined in our Q3 conference call, achieving a little bit more in revenue growth and earnings per share than consensus' expectations."

Chambers said the company had "moved very rapidly" on its plan to simplify and focus its business, reorganizing its sales, engineering, services and operations organization, providing clear line of sight, accountability, and accelerating the speed of decisions.

Chambers also delivered on his vow in May to chop operating expenses by $1 billion; the company will use the savings to fund innovation and "achieve value for our shareholders."

But the normally upbeat exec also used the call to prepare analysts for what he called an uncertain economic environment, one he thinks the company is now in a better position to deal with than some of its competition.

"Many of our peers are now experiencing the same challenges in network capital spending, the public sector and the macro environment," Chambers aid. "We believe the changes that we implemented well ahead of our peers would now be a competitive advantage for us as we go forward in this uncertain macro environment."

And, he said, the company plans more changes through the year.

"It would be very easy to rest upon the changes that we've already made and continue to gradually evolve our company for the future," he said. "That is clearly what we will not do. We will continue to accelerate and drive through the simplification process at an even faster pace. We believe that this is an ongoing process in terms of our simplification goals, not lasting several quarters but several years."

Cisco has been losing share to HP and Juniper Networks, its products have been criticized as being over priced, and its business criticized as being unfocused.

But not everyone had given up on the company, even before its earnings report.

Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Jankowski in July went against the tide, telling customers "Cisco is not a broken franchise." Similarly, Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu wrote in a research note that "Cisco's market-share losses have been overestimated."

Whatever the case, the networking giant appears to have at least made enough of an impact yesterday to earn another quarter of support, but perhaps it is too early to start celebrating a "Turnaround of the Year" award. Or not.--Jim

Video conferencing specialist Vidyo announced a major win today, landing Ontario Telemedicine Network, one of the world's largest telemedicine players. It's a feather in the cap of the New Jersey-based personal telepresence company that has been nipping at the heels of the big boys, Cisco (Nasdaq:CSCO) and Polycom (Nasdaq:PLCM), and leading a pack of hungry wannabes.

The deal will allow OTN to expand its existing telehealth network into patients' homes using the Vidyo platform and interoperate with OTN's existing telemedicine system.

All of Ontario's hospitals, as well as a large number of other health care locations in the Canadian province, already are equipped with telehealth centers, and helped conduct 134,000 consultations last year. The system includes 1,175 sites and more than 3,000 health professionals as users. The system has Cisco and Polycom devices as its backbone and runs on a private network.

OTN plans to place the Vidyo network in thousands of additional locations, from offices to homes, over the next three years.

"The hardware based systems work fantastically well, but the major challenge is they cost anywhere from $5,000 up to $25,000 to deploy a unit," Dr. Ed Brown, CEO of OTN told InformationWeek Healthcare. "What we are now seeing is a groundswell of new mobile devices. Everyone's got an iPad, a laptop and a smartphone and the Internet has improved in quality so we just have a great opportunity to disrupt the more expensive model and implement the more cost efficient and ubiquitous model."

Vidyo's rich APIs allowed an easy integration with OTN's existing scheduling and telemedicine workflow software. Vidyo was also able to provide seamless operation on both OTN's private and public networks, as well as firewall traversal capabilities, which made Vidyo "service provider ready," secure, scalable, and simple to manage and deploy.

Canada is a leader in the telehealth push, counting more than 5,700 telehealth endpoints in 1,175 communities. A recent study said that healthcare providers conducted more than 250,000 consultations in Canada.

"Across the country, use of telehealth is growing rapidly, bridging the distance between patients and their care providers," said Dr. Jennifer Zelmer, SVP of Clinical Adoption and Innovation at Canada Health Infoway. "Canadians do not have to travel as often to receive care, and the study reports improvements in access to care, quality and productivity valued at millions of dollars last year."

For more:
- see this release
- see this Technology News & Gossip post

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Well, we knew all that VoIP growth had to be coming from somewhere. Looks like XO Communications has been doing their part. They've just announced that they've surpassed one million business VoIP end-users using their services.

The XO IP Flex VoIP service which was launched in 2005 has hit one million users securing its position as one of the most widely deployed business VoIP services in the industry. According to Frost and Sullivan's North American VoIP Access and SIP Trunking Services Market Report, XO is the market leader in business VoIP end users with over 22 percent of the market.

A fun fact mentioned in the release: when you consider the U.S. population 1 in 300 people uses XO VoIP services. Not bad!

For more:
- read the release

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