Business Phone System Reviews | SE Telecom

For the past year, we’ve all been watching the flirtatious feelings that Skype and Avaya have been showing one another. On September 29, 2010, these two companies will finally join forces in a new deal dubbed a “strategic Unified Communications and collaboration partnership.” More details on what this means are forthcoming in a press conference taking place later on.

So why would Skype and Avaya finally come together after a year of dancing around? To start, both companies share the same private owner, Silver Lake Partners. Both of these communication giants focus on different communications technologies, but yet these technologies are very complimentary to one another. Skype is by far the most popular internet based communication service amongst consumers, while Avaya handles businesses and government agencies.

Skype has been trying to break into the business space ever since its original IPO back in August. Skype and Avaya have also been encroaching on one another’s communications space for some time. Skype with their free internet based calling, and Avaya starting to make the push for video teleconferencing. Both of these companies are seeing a continued need to grow in the others dominant space, so it only makes sense to partner up for easier access to that space.

This might be good news for Avaya and Skype fans, but there are companies who are not so happy by this new partnership. Particularly, Cisco and Polycom will have a hard time swallowing this partnership pill. Cisco and Polycom have both made substantial investments into their own video teleconferencing technologies, with Cisco even developing a tablet device geared around this budding technology.

The partnership with Skype and Avaya is only starting, and the benefits will take months to be fully visualized. The benefits to both consumers and businesses could be very substantial with new technologies being introduced into each space. Who knows, maybe Skype services will start becoming an integrated part of every Avaya device

Now that the buzz machine is slowly dying down on all this tablet madness, the sales pitching can kick in full force. Avaya is starting this by bashing their biggest competitor, the Cisco Cius. Here is the lowdown on this marketing spin.

Screen size is the biggest point of contention. Avaya likes to point out that the Cius has a 7-inch screen; comparatively the Flare has an 11-inch screen. All this real estate on the Flare will mean better video calling, more fluid internet experience, and easier to use onscreen keyboard. This smaller screen also fits into the how it will travel category. A 7-inch screen is to big to be crammed into your pocket, yet to small to more easily replace laptops, and/or desktop monitors.

Avaya then takes on the extra features like HDMI, USB ports, and, most importantly, speakers. The Flare design keeps these little features in mind. HDMI can be utilized to connect the Flare to monitors and televisions, USB ports are included to connect external keyboards, and the speakers deliver clean, crisp sounds.

This maybe all well and good, but Avaya and Cisco now have a competitor that is looking to rule them both. The BlackBerry PlayBook made its official debut the other day. This is a tablet geared directly at the business user, carries a tried and true name of Blackberry, and has one major feature that both the Cius and the Flare are lacking: cross platform integration. The issue with the Avaya Flare and Cisco Cius is that they only function on their respective enterprise hardware platforms. The BlackBerry PlayBook will function off the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. This little tidbit means enterprises running a mixture of communication backbone devices can seamlessly integrate the new PlayBook without having to commit to one hardware backbone vendor.

The market is quickly seeing a saturation of tablet devices geared solely at the business user. The next year will be very interesting to see who emerges on top and who sinks to the bottom. Avaya may bash competitors all they want, but in the end, the consumer is the people who will prove what technology is best, and what was missing the mark.

When you take the pulse of the smart phone world, two names are talked about almost exclusively these days. The iPhone and anything on the Andoird platform. However, if Microsoft has anything to say about it, the final fight is far from over.

Today, the Globe and Mail wrote an interesting piece about Microsoft’s re-entry into the mobile phone market. The technology behemoth is gearing up for their launch of Windows Phone 7 operating system, it’s largest such attempt to grab their share of a booming industry.

While doubters may question Microsoft’s ability to engineer and produce anything new that people like, let alone break into a market many people believe already has two clear winners, the Washingtonians seem to think they have the answer.

Microsoft’s secret, even if they’ve lost a step in engineering and ingenuity practices, may be money. The mobile market, estimated to be at nearly $37 billion this year, is a cash cow. And as always, it takes money (which Microsoft has) to make money.

“You could buy your way in, if you are Microsoft,” Morgan Stanley analyst Ehud Gelblum told the Globe. “This is a market where a deep balance sheet will help Microsoft determine where they want to go.”

Gelblum predicted that come 2012, Microsoft will be able to make its mark. He says at that time, Android will lead the pack with 30 per cent market share and Apple will have 25 per cent. RIM, Microsoft and Nokia will each take about 15 per cent.

Microsoft’s new phone system will boast features like Bing search, Exchange email sync, support for all Office programs, and maybe even its own app marketplace. Microsoft is expected to launch the new operating system amid a barrage of advertising, using their vast resources to accelerate growth in the sector.

It will be interesting to see how the battle for space in the mobile world will shake out. Although Apple and Google have a head start with iPhones and Android phones, respectively, Microsoft has too robust a technological history, not to mention bank ledgers, to be counted out so soon.

On this blog, we talk frequently about the evolution of the cell phone culture, describing the gadgets and applications that keep our culture on their devices more-or-less 24/7. While we often talk about this era in a positive note — allowing all people the ability to stay more connected and productive — a recent study sheds a different light.

According to a study published in the Globe and Mail, people who were distracted by talking or texting on their phone while driving killed 16,000 in a six-year period. The study ranged from 2001-2007, even before the smart phone craze really took off.

What’s more, the study showed that these dangerous drivers were more often than not under the age of thirty. Young people, it seems, are both more susceptible to being on their phones while driving, and less experienced controlling their cars under all circumstances.

“Our results suggested that recent and rapid increases in texting volumes have resulted in thousands of additional road fatalities in the United States,” wrote researchers Fernando Wilson and Jim Stimpson in the American Journal of Public Health.

Previous studies have shown that any sort of cell phone usage distracts people from the task of driving. Talking on a cell phone, especially with a hands-free headset, is only moderately more dangerous. But texting while driving, because it requires your focus, eyes, and hands, is much more detrimental to you and those around you.

“Since roughly 2001-2002, texting volumes have increased by several hundred per cent,” Wilson said in a telephone interview to the Globe and Mail. “Since [then] our model predicts that about 16,000 people have died that we attribute to the increase in texting volume in the United States.”

“Distracted deaths as a share of all road fatalities increased from 10.9 per cent to 15.8 per cent from 1999 to 2008, and much of the increase occurred after 2005… approximately 1 in 6 fatal vehicle collisions resulted from a driver being distracted while driving,”

This study is another reminder that like any societal change, the advent of do-it-all devices has both a positive and negative side. While we encourage all people to take advantage of the latest in telecom technology and service, we also need to make a commitment as a culture to use this technology in the safest way possible.

Two-year contracts can be such a headache. Compounding this issue is the cell phone does not hold up on its end of the deal. Consumers, being the finicky group they are, often look for ways to cut their bills every way they can. Enter the pay-as-you-go cell phone.

Pay-as-you-go phones are not a new concept. Many secondary cell phone providers have provided this type of phone for years. What is changing is how the bigger players are now starting to take notice of this trend. Verizon and AT&T are both making offerings in this growing market space.

A major reason for this new attraction to pre-paid phones is the shift in how people communicate. A shifting from voice call to text messages, Facebook updates, Twitter posts, and many other databased methods of communicating are on the rise. Pre-paid data plans are often cheap, and more importantly, unlimited plans. Maybe this is why data plans are starting to cost every bit as much, if not more, as voice plans.

Early termination fees are also to blame for this shifting. Fees that once started out in double digits are now almost as high as a house payment. Consumers are also growing leery of being locked into one carrier for a designated point in time.

The big players are noticing this shift so well; they are now beginning to offer more popular headsets on a pre-paid plan as well. Phones on the prepaid plans now include the ever-popular Blackberry and Android based cell phones. The days of owning a second-rate phone are fast diminishing.

This shift does not come without a bit of caution though. AT&T and Verizon may sound like good deals until you look at the overall plan prices. Buying a phone off contract can cost consumers upwards of $500 more than buying the same phone on contract. The other issue is that the plans themselves are often not that much cheaper than a contract-based calling plan.

The last quarter of 2009 saw almost 65% of new cell phone activations take place in the pre-paid market. Maybe big cell phone providers will take more notice and give better incentives to those who are willing to sign a two-year contract.

Last week, Avaya launched their own answer to tablet devices from Apple and Cisco, among others, rolling out the ‘Flare’ that integrates phone, video, email, and more in one slick device. When we wrote our own blog post about the new device (you can find it here), this is some of what we said:

“The Flare starts out with an 11.6-inch HD touchscreen, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HD video camera, and Harman Kardon speakers. The Flare goes even further by including an Ethernet jack, two USB ports, and support for 3G/4G broadband card… Avaya’s Flare will also come rocking the Avaya unified communications software, [allowing] users to seamlessly integrate with their existing Avaya devices and services

…The question on all of this fancy new hardware is pricing. Avaya has announced that this new hardware will come in at around $2,000. Let that sink in for just a moment. The iPad retails for a fraction of that price. Cisco has hinted their tablet will retail for under $1,000. Laptops can be had for even less than all of these devices. Has Avaya priced themselves out of the market before dipping their feet into the pool?”

Pricing remains a valid question, and even though Avaya themselves haven’t provided an answer, the tech blog Technorati has their own idea: Avaya should target the health care industry with their new tablet. And if we don’t say so ourselves, it’s not a bad idea.

As we pointed out, the price of the tablet is too high for the consumer market. Even with phone capabilities, it would be a stretch for people to buy the Flare for more than twice what it costs for Apple’s iPad. Despite a few executives and other high-payed employees, Avaya’s new Tablet needs to find other niche markets.

The health care industry is almost the perfect example. The tablet would provide capabilities that allow doctors and nurses to communicate even when not in the same location, and allow doctors to remotely treat their patients. Plus, of course, the Flare is portable, allowing on-the-go medical professionals to stay connected 24/7.

Lastly, the health care industry can afford it. While $2,000 might be nearly impossible for the average consumer to shell out, it’s nothing compared to the $100,000 machines the medical profession routinely purchases and maintenances. Think about it Avaya… you might just have found your new marketplace.

Avaya is really pushing the marketing machine behind their new Flare. For those that have been on a long lost island the past week, the Flare is Avaya’s answer to the growing tablet market. This new device is now being touted as making business communication more fun with a hint of green in a few ways:

Reducing the need to travel

Avaya makes a case of travel reduction by spinning off their big push for video teleconferencing. As they continue to push this technology out to businesses, the need to travelling across states is becoming a business practice of the past.

Video teleconferencing is nothing new. It is just becoming easier. As this technology matures and spreads, businesses can now conduct meetings, collaborate, and accomplish major goals without ever having to leave the office. This may bother those few people who loved getting copious amounts of frequent flyer miles every month.

Environmental impact

The reduction in travel means less CO2 emissions from all that travel. Executives will not need to drive to an airport, fly on planes, and then drive around in a new city looking for a hotel. Travel is one of the biggest impacts on CO2 emissions. Avaya is providing more solid solutions to help businesses conduct their affairs without ever having to leave on a jet plane.

Bringing on work-life balance

Work-life balance is definitely improved with all of this new Avaya technology. When you don’t have to travel all week, you can enjoy the things that bring you the most joy in life. Businesses are starting to grasp that travel is expensive, time consuming, and all kinds of stressful on employees. Thanks to Avaya, these employees can relax at home and still accomplish business that otherwise might have required days away from the office.

Video teleconferencing still has a long way to go before it saturates the market. Avaya, and it’s ever growing list of certified partners, is working hard to make this technology a reality. The benefits are there, the technology is maturing, and businesses are adapting. Who knows, in ten years travel maybe an antique way of doing business all together.