Unified Communications: Clash of the Titans
Don't know if you've noticed, but all the big boys are now very interested in conferencing services. They don't call it conferencing; the new term is "Unified Communications". Regardless of what you call it, ACT is in the business of enterprise communication and collaboration - and that's a space that is being eyed by Microsoft, Cisco, HP, Citrix, and IBM (among others). How will we survive this clash with the titans? Make no mistake; we intend to not only survive, but to thrive in this new world of Unified Communications. My thoughts on the subject - we must accommodate, innovate, and integrate.
ACT has always been a "high-touch" provider of conferencing services. Our employees are more akin to those in the hospitality industry than those in the telecommunications industry. We need to maintain this intense focus on customer service. This extends beyond delivery of the phone conference or video conferencing service to every aspect of customer experience. That means billing our customers as they want to be billed, not as our systems want to bill them. It means changing pricing structures so that they are more rational and predictable; and it means allowing customers self-service options for account management. Count on all of this from ACT.
In addition to maintaining and improving our high-touch approach, ACT must bring new innovative products to market. Technology has created the opportunity for significant improvements in the way we all communicate and collaborate with our colleagues and customers. The economy has recently forced companies to focus heavily on cost savings; traditionally travel is one of the first expenses that the Fortune 500 cut back on. Powerful mobile devices such as the Blackberry and iPhone are ubiquitous. All of these factors are creating the perfect storm for innovation in communication and collaboration. We are starting to see some amazing new products released such as HP's Halo Telepresence service. Over the next 5-10 years we'll see even more exciting innovations. Products which will make us all more productive and believe it or not - even more plugged-in than we are currently. ACT plans on being in the thick of this innovative environment. Currently, we're retooling so that we can innovate rapidly and deliver exciting new solutions to market in 2010.
Finally, ACT must seamlessly integrate into existing enterprise infrastructures. The desktop battles may be over or they may be starting anew, that's not our concern. What is certain is that one productivity application is enough for anyone. If you use MS Office, you want your communication & collaboration functions integrated into Outlook. If you use Lotus, you want those functions there. If you use a Mac or Linux, you want these connectivity features plugged in to your productivity tool of choice. No one wants to learn how to use another tool. ACT doesn't have a horse in the desktop race - we don't care what productivity suite you use - plan on us integrating with them all.
What makes ACT different from the new goliath vendors in the conferencing space is that we are agile and we enjoy close relationships with our Fortune 500 customers. These differences are our core strengths - enabling us to deliver customized conferencing solutions for the needs of our enterprise customers. So what do you want to see from ACT? What problems do you face when communicating and collaborating today? What problems can ACT solve for you? Send me an email at nbobbin@acttel.com.