With corporate headquarters in Paris, it may not have occurred to Alcatel-Lucent that Thanksgiving week may not be the best time to announce a host of new enterprise communications capabilities. (Or maybe it was just me, too busy shopping for and preparing the turkey, eggnog cake and all the other accoutrements to give this announcement its due.) Whatever the reason, it's not too late to highlight one of the interesting capabilities ALU is delivering with what they call their Corporate Communications offer.
Back in February 2008, Alcatel-Lucent launched the Dynamic Enterprise as a way of describing how their products can help business interconnect networks, people, processes and knowledge for greater productivity. Now they have announced new releases of many of their portfolio elements in terms of how they enhance one or another of these elements.
Alcatel-Lucent posits that delivering knowledge (not necessarily just data) to users is accelerated by merging Web 2.0 applications with real-time communications. While a lot of companies are talking about Web 2.0, ALU offered a fabulous proof point during its briefing on the new release.
Abilene Christian University in Texas has been an ALU customer for several years. In February 2008, the university announced its intent to bring mobile learning devices into the classroom. This fall, every member of the freshman class was offered either an Apple iPhone 3G or iPod touch.
In addition to class schedules, maps, access to files required for assignments and in-class, real-time surveys, the university and Alcatel-Lucent are working on adding a customized integration of ALU’s My Instant Communicator and Facebook. My Instant Communicator is ALU's unified communications client. The integration is being accomplished using the XML APIs that Alcatel-Lucent enhanced in this latest set of product releases.
Let’s see. Lots of vendors are talking about:
* Giving millennials tools they can identify with and want to use.
* Using open standards like XML.
* The importance of mobile applications.
Vendors need forward-looking organizations to help them test the limits of new technologies. Kudos to Alcatel-Lucent and Abilene Christian University for working together to begin delivering on the promise of UC.
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