Voicecon: Going Forward, Vision Matters

I spent the better part of Voicecon talking to vendor executives about their companies' UC visions. In many cases, these were centered around some vague notion of making communication easier by bonding voice, video and chat into a unified whole. Frankly, they are all skinning the same cat, which is fine, but I don't see video-conferencing being able to sustain excitement for too long. Sure, it's all shiny and new when you first see it, but on a daily basis it becomes just another medium. Vision has to capture the imagination and propel people into action. In this sense, according to my unscientific survey of vision on Voicecon, Avaya is the clear winner.

Ok, I know that buyers don't purchase vision, they purchase products. But vision tells you where a company is going, which is important to know when you are going to invest in their products. Through the use of their products (or a competitor's), a company's vision can open up ideas and opportunities that you hadn't thought of. If you think vision is only for analysts and the press, you're missing the boat. The problem with a lot of vision is that it is lifeless and dull, not that it is useless altogether.

When I talked to Avaya, they didn't want to talk about their products or partnerships much. (Well, Aura being a notable exception as the SIP integration point for Avaya's and partner's product lines.) They wanted to talk about what can be done with unified communications that went far beyond video-conferencing. Unified communications is more than voice and video to Avaya, it's a platform with unexplored opportunities.

They described a use-case in a hospital, a pilot project actually, called Code Blue, which ties in with a hospital's location and communications system. When an emergency happens, like a cardiac emergency, rather than everyone running to the room to assist with carts and other equipment, attempts to locate the people with the required skills, proximity and availability to the room, as well as necessary equipment, better ensure a positive outcome. That's a pretty powerful vision.

Now, take that similar case to your business. If you're customer-facing, and you get a customer who is having trouble and is getting frustrated, if you could identify the problem and quickly source the expertise to solve their problem efficiently, what would that do for customer retention and satisfaction? Think about your usual support interactions.First, you go through first-level support. Click this, push that. If you are lucky and get through the menu of actions, you might get kicked to second-level support. You will probably have to repeat everything you just did, but if you are lucky, you might get some help. If the problem is more difficult, then the second-level support has to consult an expert. Can you hold please? We have some music to amuse you. How much time do you waste on support? How much time does your support staff waste with customers? If the customer's problem gets fixed, their happiness has as much to do with being finished with your support as much as they have a fixed problem.

So let's cut through that red tape. In your ERP system you have employee information, like their expertise, recent product training, etc. In your UC system, you know the modes of how to reach them, voice, video, IM, etc, as well as their availability. In your support system, you might know if a particular person has interacted with the customer already and might have something of a relationship with them. You also have customer data in the CRM. Can you see a way to combine those sources of information in order to quickly bring together the right set of people to deal with a customer problem quickly and efficiently the first time they call? You'd save time and money and customers will be much happier. Now that's cool.

Implementing an integrated system to deal with customer support goes well beyond voice and video conferencing. It's using unified communications a component of a larger business process to be more effective and efficient. What if you could create a similar integrated process on the pre-sales and sales side by matching up your employees skills, location, availability and context with the potential customer with a new sales opportunity? What if you could marshal the employees and resources for a project without having to identify individuals, identify availability, schedule meetings, etc. Would you?

Of course, you have to be able to implement that vision at some point, and there are plenty of vendors that offer the products and services to do that. You have to be willing to spend the time to perform the business analysis to find where you can optimize your processes, and you have to be able to show demonstrable results. But big vision that meets your company's needs is going to get your executives-the people who ultimately have to  commit the resources to these projects-excited.