Fire the Phone Company: A Handy Guide to Voice Over IP

I have discussed some of the converged features available today with VoIP technologies, especially those available with softphones. Not content to rest on their laurels, the purveyors of this converged nirvana are working diligently to offer even more features and functionality.

Unified softphones

Softphones offer some of the most potential for dramatically converged systems. Being software, these devices are inherently flexible and can be plugged into larger systems to offer features we can only imagine today.

IM Convergence

The pulver.Communicator is a good example of the convergence coming to this area (Figure 10.5). This application is already capable of managing contacts and messaging among Skype, MSN, Yahoo!, AOL, and ICQ. It can also manage news feeds from blogs and online news sites by using Really Simple Syndication (RSS), a protocol for publishing information about new articles. As products in this area mature, look for tools that integrate voice calling, video calling, e-mail, voice mail, video mail, and instant messaging in one universal communications tool.

Remote Presentation and Remote Control

Products like Microsoft NetMeeting have been offering remote presentation and control for a number of years now. Other companies, such as WebEx and Go2MyPC.com, are offering products in this area as well (Figure 10.6). As these products integrate VoIP functionality, expect to see the equivalent of video/voice conference calls with remote control and whiteboard sharing.

Business convergence

Businesses using IP telephone systems can use the features of IP phones to integrate their business systems with their phone systems. Having the ability to initiate calls from within a contact manager or sales application not only makes it easier to initiate calls, but also eliminates the potential for misdialed numbers.

Other efficiencies are being realized in call-center applications that bring up a customer's profile as that number is being autodialed. Help-desk operators are able to get up-to-date information on a client's computer configuration as the system looks up customer data from caller ID information fed into the system by the incoming VoIP call. As a result, they can quickly tell whether there are performance issues related to insufficient hardware.

Microsoft Outlook

Many VoIP providers offer integration with Microsoft Outlook. This continues on the business side of VoIP, with business phone systems offering similar integration. Calls can be initiated directly from Outlook and taken by softphone or VoIP desk phone. Voice mails can be viewed as e-mail and answered by e-mail or by phone.

Custom Integration Solutions

As programmers get a good look at the capabilities of IP phones, they are designing custom applications that use the features of this medium (Figure 10.7). This integration is becoming evident in revolutionary new products and systems that improve business competitiveness and profitability (hint: CEOs love those buzzwords).