When I spoke with Thomas Beck, Director of Marketing & Business Development over at TEO (see Tone Commander Systems Offers TEO), we discussed their platform, their customer base and their move forward as a company. TEO 4 is now their newest version of their UC platform offering several new features and more than 200 product enhancements.
User upgrades:
* Teo Softphone Updates: Users can now access all UC tools within the Teo Softphone via tighter integration with the Teo User Portal.
* Call Swipe: The Call Swipe feature enables Teo UC users to seamlessly transfer calls from device to device without interruption or disruption to other people on the call, further enhancing the mobility of users.
* Schedule-based Auto Attendants: With the addition of this feature, users can set different Auto Attendant behaviors based on settings such as time of day, day of the week and more.
Administrator upgrades:
* Improved Dial Plan Manager: Teo's Dial Plan Manager is more user-friendly and intuitive.
* Refined Mass-Provisioning Capabilities: With this upgrade, administrators can provision and configure all settings for thousands of users and devices as quickly as they can provision a single user or device.
So what is it that differentiates TEO from any other of the number of platforms?
TEO manufactures their desktop telephones, softphone and mobile client. While many will argue that open standards is a great thing, implying that any gear using open standards should work well, there remains the reality that someone has to manage the disparate manufacturers of what forms a solution. According to Thomas, their customers find TEO user-friendly and intuitive to use. The other reason they cite is that TEO 4 uses a simplified and streamlined licensing model. In the past, I've stated my concerns about Microsoft being vulnerable in this area. Then, I've also stated that user experience is key, and seemingly, some folks want to argue that branding is key.
Thomas also provided comments made by one of their customers in a media release:
"Teo UC 4 provides us with a robust UC solution that is extremely easy to use and intuitive," said Deanne Butler, director of accounting at QVD Aquaculture, a world-class leader in sustainably raised seafood and a Teo customer. "Increased integration between the user portal and our Teo Softphones, as well as the Call Swipe feature, gives us a level of mobility that we would never be able to achieve without Teo. All of that, combined with the company's streamlined licensing model and superior service and support, makes us confident in Teo as our long-term communications provider."
A key concern that I have with UC solutions is how they are driven, meaning, who’s driving the need, improvements and direction of the solution? According to Thomas, TEO is very customer driven and customers want fewer complications. TEO acts on customer requests and is essentially a user driven company. This goes in what I think is a tradition for the former Tone Commander and now TEO as a company.
I also asked Thomas what benefits they cite to their prospects. Please take note, when I see "eliminate delay" as shown below, my wheels start to spin. Of course the benefits can arguably be soft and some seem harder when talking about travel costs. Enterprise may be ignoring the value. IM is faster than placing a call, consumes less bandwidth than voice and allows the user to multi-task (good or bad).
