“We are at the dawn of the rich, media-connected world,” said Vickie Yohie, Senior Vice President, Multimedia Services Delivery, Alcatel, speaking at the Spring VON conference in Santa Clara, California. But it is not just about VoIP, she said, as VoIP “is just one face of a larger market shift to user centric Multimedia over IP (MMoIP)” — technology that is transforming the way enterprises and service providers communicate.
Why MMoIP? Yohie argues “because we can” and “because there is genuine market enthusiasm to do so.” Over the past few years, the pain points inside most large enterprises have changed — the corporate workers of today complain most about a new set of collaboration challenges, most of which are rooted in the lack of coordination between communications channels. These issues, argues Yohie, can be addressed by user centric business services delivered using MMoIP.
Consumers are also ready for value added services. While last year can be remembered as the Year of the Consumer Bundles, Yohie said tremendous pressure is now building among operators to differentiate those consumer bundles using unified messaging. Among broadband households with a home business, some 60% are interested in unified messaging, according to a survey commissioned by the company..
