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Another Viewpoint on IP Phones

John Geise, who's with Avaya, wrote me a very perceptive note in response to my posting on IP phones, and he agreed to let me share it with you:

I'd like to take you to task on your line of thinking re "The Phone is going away because I can use my PC".

That, in fact, could be true IF the PC worked like my Phone.

But, let's face it, the PC does NOT work that way...in fact, it--or some part(s) of its "supporting cast"--often doesn't work AT ALL. Sometimes it's out of whack for 15 minutes, sometimes it's out for an hour and sometimes it's out for a couple of days (that's how long it takes IT to get a replacement PC to a virtual or mobile worker in a large Organization).

Sometimes I work for a year to get that ONE call from a Prospect that later turns into a large Order. I want to know my phone will work when that call comes in. And, no, neither Microsoft nor anyone else has the right to say "Well...OK...just use your Cell phone". Let's face it, Cell Phones don't work everywhere, or all the time, either, and often the voice quality is substandard to what my Client or Prospect deserve. There are several days each week when I'm on Con Calls for anywhere from 5 to 7, even 8 hours. Want to try that from a Cell phone?

I don't get it, we're all wrapped around the axle about getting rid of $200 desk phones that work perfectly well in favor of having to spend more than $200 to bulk-up a PC, to have to rework a ton of Software and Apps, retrain the Teams that will Admin the new infrastructures and dramatically increase the Lifecycle Management workload, just to end up with an endpoint of lower quality with fewer features and subject to catching the equivalent of the Swine Flu (Viruses) any day of the week.

Huh?

We can all have our cake and eat it, too, btw...use whatever IM Client we want on the desktop to make Click-to-Communicate easy for the User, ubiquitous within the Enterprise and simple to Admin--while keeping it Scalable, Reliable and Feature-rich, simply by gluing two solutions (e.g. OCS + Avaya) together in a true "Best-of-Breed" fashion.

That, in fact, could be true IF the PC worked like my Phone.

But, let's face it, the PC does NOT work that way...in fact, it--or some part(s) of its "supporting cast"--often doesn't work AT ALL. Sometimes it's out of whack for 15 minutes, sometimes it's out for an hour and sometimes it's out for a couple of days (that's how long it takes IT to get a replacement PC to a virtual or mobile worker in a large Organization).

Sometimes I work for a year to get that ONE call from a Prospect that later turns into a large Order. I want to know my phone will work when that call comes in. And, no, neither Microsoft nor anyone else has the right to say "Well...OK...just use your Cell phone". Let's face it, Cell Phones don't work everywhere, or all the time, either, and often the voice quality is substandard to what my Client or Prospect deserve. There are several days each week when I'm on Con Calls for anywhere from 5 to 7, even 8 hours. Want to try that from a Cell phone?

I don't get it, we're all wrapped around the axle about getting rid of $200 desk phones that work perfectly well in favor of having to spend more than $200 to bulk-up a PC, to have to rework a ton of Software and Apps, retrain the Teams that will Admin the new infrastructures and dramatically increase the Lifecycle Management workload, just to end up with an endpoint of lower quality with fewer features and subject to catching the equivalent of the Swine Flu (Viruses) any day of the week.

Huh?

We can all have our cake and eat it, too, btw...use whatever IM Client we want on the desktop to make Click-to-Communicate easy for the User, ubiquitous within the Enterprise and simple to Admin--while keeping it Scalable, Reliable and Feature-rich, simply by gluing two solutions (e.g. OCS + Avaya) together in a true "Best-of-Breed" fashion.