Bandwidth.com is unveiling FlexNetwork , its nationwide IP voice service that it built from the ground up, making it arguably one of the most significant VoIP investments in the past decade. Most IP voice networks grow by acquisition, which can mean inheriting legacy systems that require significant upgrades. Bandwidth.com built FlexNetwork at a fraction of the cost compared to IP voice networks built earlier in the decade. Sponsor By building its own network, FlexNetwork can feature the latest IP voice technologies such as HD Voice. What's HD Voice? It's a high quality voice service that takes away some of the quality issues that encumber traditional VoIP services. Here's a video that explains HD Voice and Phonebooth , its cloud-based telephony service. VoIP Heroes Episode 2: Phonebooth OnDemand from Bandwidth.com on Vimeo . Application developers in the new world of Voice 2.0 may be the biggest winners with the FlexNetwork. These service providers often need the network to uniquely support what they're building. Most network providers simply aren't that flexible. Serving application developers is working out pretty well. The network is now on pace to deliver almost 4 billion minutes and 1 million numbers this year. The savings for a small business can be significant with VoIP. FlexNetwork looks like it could be quite a disruptive force in the telecommunications market by providing a service that is reliable, more affordable and a haven for application developers. Discuss
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FlexNetwork: The Nationwide IP Voice Network from Bandwidth.com
Google Apps is adding Google Groups to its enterprise suite of applications, another example of Google's commitment to developing an online application environment that is compelling enough for users to move off the Windows platform. Google Groups has to this point been a consumer service. As part of Google Apps, it now integrates with Google Docs, Google Calendar, GMail, Google Sites and Google Video. Sponsor Adding Google Groups is another shot across Microsoft's bow. Striking is the speed in which companies like Google can innovate with web-based applications, compared to Microsoft's long development cycles. Designing for the browser is so much more efficient that you have to wonder how much of a lead Microsoft can hold in face of the fast development cycles from Google and others in the enterprise collaboration space. In 2007, Google Apps had three products: Gmail, Google Docs and Google Calendar. Today, Google Apps includes 24 products. The cost for Google Apps is $50 per user/per year. In the current Microsoft desktop model, the costs to develop products make it seemingly impossible to keep licensing costs as low as Google Apps. The customer investment is magnified by the technology investments that IT departments need t make in order to keep desktop applications running inside the enterprise. This not to say that Google is lacking any weaknesses of its own. The addition of Google Groups adds another level of functionality to its enterprise suite. Still, the features are fairly simple, compared to the Windows platform. Features Google is adding groups to address the challenges for both the IT administrator and the user. In Google's view, managing groups is a significant administrative burden for IT. The user, in turn is dependent on IT to create the groups. Google's answer is to create a group environment that can be controlled by the user or the IT department. The IT department can control all groups that are created or it can give complete control to the user. This will all sound familiar if you have ever set up your own Google Group. The process is pretty straight forward. The time it takes to set up a group is minimal. You give the group a name and create a group email and web address. You then add a short description and set controls for who has access. Members are added by sending an email with an invitation. Google Groups for the enterprise is designed for users to collaborate on projects. For example, Google Docs and shared folders may be added to a group as can mock ups from Google Sites. Calendar items can be added or a testimonial using Google Video. Dependence on email is its weakness. All changes or additions are sent through email, just as in the consumer version of Google Groups. The saving grace is Google search, which makes it easier to find information in the email. Activity streams are all the rage and seem like they would potentially fit if the groups were designed differently. But you can see why email is the default. Google Groups on the consumer side is designed for email as a distribution mechanism so it makes sense it would be the same for the enterprise. In Conclusion Adding Google Groups is not a dramatic improvement to Google Apps. But it will be compelling to watch how the collaboration market unfolds in 2010 in the face of rapid feature enhancements from Google and a host of competitors competing for a piece of the enterprise market. Discuss
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Google Groups the Latest to Join Google Apps in the Battle for the Enterprise
When you look at Enterprise 2.0, you can see the hype pretty clearly but what is not so evident is how social computing efforts are faring within corporations and large organizations. That's what's striking about the report from the 2.0 Adoption Council . The group did a web survey of its 100 members with 77 responding. That may seem like a small number to use for any quantifiable conclusion about the state of Enterprise 2.0. But the people who responded lead or help lead Enterprise 2.0 efforts at some of the largest organizations in the world. Thirty-four percent of the respondents work for companies with more than 10,000 employees. Twenty-five percent work for organizations that have more than 100,000 employees. Sponsor These people have solid footing into how social enterprise technologies are being adopted. Let's get to to the results: Manufacturing Has Surprising High Adoption It's not surprising to see high tech companies as leading the way in uses of Enterprise 2.0 technologies. But it's interesting that manufacturing businesses are proving to be adopters. These are companies with roots deep in the industrial age that are showing that they see it as important to bring social computing into the work of its employees. No Surprise About Early Adoption It should be no surprise that Enterprise 2.0 is still in the early adopter phase. Budgets Are Healthy Budgets are less than $500,000 in most organizations but 52 percent of the respondents have budgets between $500,000 and $5 milliion. Projects Are Well Under Way Enterprise 2.0 is not just a concept any more but a reality in the enterprise with 34 percent saying they have multiple projects underway. We are curious about five percent having Enterprise 2.0 technologies fully ingrained into their work places. These must be more service oriented companies that do not rely on deeply entrenched technologies like ERP software. Who's Driving The Efforts We often use terms like "groundswell," to describe the phenomena around social applications in the consumer world. In the enterprise, it's a different story. Adoption is often user driven but management is dictating a lot of the efforts. ROI is Hard To Define The one weakness that Enterprise 2.0 faces is the abstractness of its return on investment. It's important to note, though, that 55 percent of the respondents are very satisfied with their Enterprise 2.0 efforts. Another 26 percent of respondents are somewhat satisfied. Conclusion The 2.0 Adoption Council survey results unquestionably show that Enterprise 2.0 is well becoming a core part of organizations. The challenges will come as more scrutiny is placed on how the organization benefits from Enterprise 2.0. What really is the ROI? We expect this question will answer itself as more advanced analytics provide more detailed views about how the efforts are faring. A Final Note In addition to its survey research, The Council has also released its first "how-to" report, "A Framework for 2.0 Adoption in the Enterprise," which gives additional insight into how to successfully implement Enterprise 2.0 technologies within organizations. Discuss
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Enterprise 2.0: Study Shows Adoption is Real
