The crowd is big, and Mobility and SIP Trunking are among the hot topics in early morning sessions.
OK, it begins: VoiceCon Orlando 2010 is under way, and I'm pretty happy. The session rooms are packed, with Lisa Pierce's SIP Trunking session the big draw. After introducing Lisa, I headed over to sit in on Michael Finneran's informal "Coffee Talk" session with attendees on Mobility issues, and what I heard in that room was that enterprise users are using mobility in a big way, but communications managers at those enterprises have yet to get their arms around that usage and fold it into the larger enterprise communications infrastructure.When Michael asked the crowd of over 100 people whether they had begun deploying PBX-integration clients from the platform vendors on any of their users' mobile devices, it was, as they say, crickets. One end user said simply, "Mobility is happening [in the enterprise], but it is happening without their participation," meaning the PBX vendors'. Finneran asked whether any of the attendees felt comfortable maintaining PBX client software on mobile devices, and again, no one raised a voice.
In general, a major concern was simply that there's such a multiplicity of approaches to almost everything when it comes to enterprise mobility integration. When Finneran asked about various forms of dualmode cellular/WiFi, an attendee said, "If there was one way to do it, I think people would do it. The problem is there's 50 ways to do it."
When one attendee complained about carriers insisting that anything they do be at least "revenue neutral," Finneran described how Verizon is focusing on functionality with its Skype integration, meaning they tout capabilities like presence, rather than cost savings--because you still have to pay for Skype calls that use the Verizon network.
When Michael asked about Google--Android OS and Google Voice service--there was a fair amount of interest but not a lot of experience. Attendees said they hadn't been able to get Google Voice accounts, so they hadn't been able to test the service, but one attendee did say he had been looking at Android phones, and while he found the OS satisfactory, the Android-based devices on the market still left a lot to be desired.
To Finneran, the big issue for Android is whether it can remain a flexible, open platform without succumbing to the market "balkanization" that befell Windows Mobile. He pointed out that Microsoft is going to the more tightly controlled Apple/RIM model for the next generation of Windows Mobile.
Mobility looks to be one of the hot topics again this year, so we'll have more on this as the week progresses, and I'm sure Michael will also be blogging his take on the week's sessions here at No Jitter.The crowd is big, and Mobility and SIP Trunking are among the hot topics in early morning sessions.
