Glimpsing Communications Nirvana

Posted by Brian Riggs, Current Analysis | Dec 19, 2007

As an industry analyst tracking the business comms sector I am often treated to glimpses into what’s coming down the ol’ pike communications-wise. SOA architectures creating building blocks that embed multimodal communications into otherwise non-comms oriented apps. Business applications that initiate communication sessions when inventory is low. The ability to initiate a phone call from links in most any office productivity application.

So I am always a bit shocked when my very pedestrian business communications situation goes kerflooey. This happened to me just last week. It started when a company I regularly interact with could receive calls but not place them. Not very long ago it was the other way around. And before that calls would connect, but only the person on the far end could hear anything. This company uses Covad for its VoIP service and seems to send out “phone service down,” “phone service restored” emails with shocking regularity. I don’t know enough about the overall quality of Covad service to say what’s going on, but on again-off again service issues like this are not exactly giving VoIP a great name.

Then there was the conference call hell to which I was twice consigned. This time it was not a technical issue, but human error. The person setting up the call sent out a bridge number. Then sent out another different number. Then a third. There were only three or four of us on each of the calls, but we were all dialing into different bridges and then firing up different communications sessions with IM, SMS, mobile phone, and office phone trying to figure out where the others were. It was absolute chaos.

A few days later I participated in a multimedia conference. Click the link in the email, log on to the site, enter your phone number to have the system call your landline, and view the presentation as the speaker clicks through the deck. Everything worked like a charm until the “view the presentation” part. The thing never loaded and no matter how much the presenter coaxed them, the slides remained stubbornly on the presenter’s laptop. And here’s the part that kills me. In these last two experiences my conference call was with companies that develop voice conferencing software. If the expert can’t set the dang things up right, what chance do the rest of us have?

So where’s this little gripe fest heading? Nowhere I suppose. It was just a reminder that while I occasionally catch glimpses of an upcoming communications nirvana, I often feel stuck in the mire of a decidedly unenlightened communications experience.