Behind A New Unified Communications Experience

Unified Communications and the future of communications in general are passions of mine and the core subject of my blog series. Much of what I've been discussing here has taken shape in some new products recently announced. 

The Avaya Flare™ experience and Avaya Desktop Video Device(ADVD) were announced on 9/15/2010 and changed the game and face of business communications. There are many sources for information on the Flare experience and the Avaya Desktop Video Device. I won't focus on the complete feature description or the demonstrations. A great starting point for that is to visit the guided tour demo if you haven't already.

The development of the Flare experience and the Avaya Desktop Video Device (ADVD) was quite an experience to be involved in; starting with the early concepts study, the definition of its capabilities and objectives, and through to its first phase of fruition.  I'd like to share some perspective and background on that experience and some of the influences behind it.  Much of this influence has been through many of you!  Others writing and tweeting about Unified Communications and future communication trends.

Trends In Communications Today
To recap just a little bit.  There were many conversations, studies and observations that influenced or validated what my, the development team, project sponsors and others concept of what the Flare™ experience and the ADVD needed to include and address.  One of the ways I engaged in conversation and validation was through blogs on the future of Unified Communications here at my personal blog.  

These blog posts, engaging others in the industry, and the interactions I've had with people were a major form of validation that I used in product definition discussions with the team. Unified Communications, gadgets, smart phones, collaboration, video, conferencing, and social networks in the enterprise were the main subjects and use cases on the Flare and ADVD landscape and the evolution of communication in general.

A few major themes surfaced from these conversations, and other forms of validation. These themes and trends have driven the need for a fundamental change in what Enterprise class communication and collaboration needs to be.

Changing communication preferences - Do we ever "talk" to one another anymore? 
Admittedly that may be a bit extreme but there's no denying that "communication" is far more than voice these days. Our social communication behavior is shifting. Mobility, smart phones, social networks and being connected 24/7 have been major drivers in the communication modes we're using. There have been numerous studies and reports indicating that "texting" is popular and preferred especially in the younger age groups and moving up. Much of this has to do with being able to have non-dedicated or asynchronous communication unlike what voice or video conversation requires. Social networks are another form of asynchronous communication. Again, studies are showing that use of these nets continues to increase and that it's moving up in age demographically.

Social Networks For The Enterprise
If communication preferences are changing in personal communications, shouldn't we expect them to change in the Enterprise as well? There is a place for social network integration into enterprise communication.  Productivity potential is key with proper support and policies.

Flare included social networking, allowing enterprise employees to communicate with customers, business partners, professional contacts as well as personal contacts and family. Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, are not just for personal conversation. I validated that first hand when using them to monitor and engage in conversations on topics related to concepts we were considering for Flare and ADVD.

The Expanded Meaning of Contacts
Supporting the changing preferences in communication modes required that the definition of what a "contact" is had to change. The old view of name, phone numbers, and email addresses no longer meets enterprise or personal needs. A more complete people-centric view of who the contact is and how to reach them were key influences.

Flare expands the meaning of contact to include social networks, IM, and video choices along with presence information. The main objective was to make it easier for the user to see what options are available to reach a contact along with providing presence information to assist in choosing a communication mode most likely to reach them. The touch screen interface of the ADVD makes navigating through these choices a snap, getting you connected with ease!

Another key attribute around contacts was the ability to blend them all into a dashboard view regardless of source. It gives the user a searchable single total view of who they know, their last interactions with them, and a one touch visual view of communication modes and available to reach them. My personal and business worlds can be blended making it easy to find my golf buddies or my professional colleagues with expertise in user interface design.

Call History
Many of us are used to the traditional call log or history; calls made, received and missed. Since communication is far more than voice, Flare evolved the call log to be a communication and contact history. I can see my recent communication with that person, be it email, IM, or social network, providing me better context on why I communicate with that person. I think of it as my personal screen pop similar to what contact center agents see about a callers contact history as they answer the call.

HD Video

Video has been around for years and up until recently wasn't being adopted as a major communication mode. That's changing now for a few reasons starting with more use in the consumer space. Another is that businesses are becoming more global in nature. This demands a more engaging form of communication and collaboration than voice conferencing alone. Cognitive presence is a key factor in long distance communication effectiveness increasing the importance and adoption of video in the enterprise.

The Flare experience and ADVD bring point to point and video conferencing into the mainstream with easy one-touch call establishment, drag and drop conference formation, HD quality video right on the users main communication device. The ADVD form factor (screen size) was chosen to support high quality video and overall user interface experience.

There's a lot more I can discuss and I will in future posts. I'd appreciate hearing your comments on Flare and the Avaya Desktop Video Device. What do you like, and why? This is just the beginning. What else would you like to see to better support your communication and collaboration needs and use cases?

Michael Killian
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Virtual Conferencing And Collaboration – Where It Fits

A few weeks back I had a chance to try out Avaya web.alive™ with a friend from Active Port and some Avaya colleagues. In short, it's a web-based application that provides a good "3D" virtual representation of people via avatars, the meeting place/room , and displayed materials.

Does virtual collaboration have a place in the collaboration communication landscape or is it just another interesting technology and communication mode to further complicate our communication choices?

The major choices for real time collaboration include audio conferencing (with or without web conferencing), video conferencing, physical presence in the conference room and now virtual conferencing. There are differences in the capabilities and experiences that give each a place in the collaboration toolkit. The benefits of physical presence, whenever that's possible, are generally accepted so my focus here will be on the multi-location /remote real time situations.

1) Audio/web conferencing
This technology and experience allows teams to collaborate via voice as well as view/edit materials in real time. White-boarding is typically included. Sidebar communication is provided via instant messaging or some form of chat.

In general this is fairly effective but there are potential drawbacks depending on your point of view. Among them are;
a) Attendees are less likely to be fully engaged and following like they would (should) in a physical setting. It's very easy to disengage and multi-task. The assumption here is that we still feel it's socially rude to be seen not paying full attention. It's debatable as to if this is a drawback or not. See more about the changing social communication behavior at social impacts.
b) lack of physical connection to one another and the conversation - the cognitive presence. Several studies have been done on cognitive presence. Here's one and another. In short, face-to-face has a benefit.
c) difficulty determining who is speaking
d) limited capability for sidebar "conversation" compared to physical presence and voice.
e) Some solutions are not that effective at showing who is in the conference not to mention getting attendees there on time. See meeting productivity and who joined please.

2) Video conferencing and collaboration 
Over and above the audio/web experience, the video experience provides additional advantages including;
a) Visual presence which should increase attention and engagement by at least some amount. For those of us that feel social pressure not to multi-task, you're more likely to give close to full attention. If not, this won't have much impact
b) Added emotional connection in the communication and environment - the cognitive presence
c) Face to go with a name. Many attendees may have never physically met
d) Most solutions can be set up to show who/where is speaking

There are some areas of resistance to the use of video. Some of the key inhibitors I hear include, in no particular order;
a) Inhibits multi-tasking, which, depending on your point of view, is negative or a social expectation.
b) With the global nature of business, many attendees may be participating out of hours and not want to be seen outside their normal business environment.
c) Not wanting to be seen in general. I still hear this frequently. Despite that, this is changing. The increased popularity and use of Skype™ and other "free" and enterprise video tools, and the recent introduction of dual camera smart phones/tablets with video chat features are bound to increase the use and acceptance of video. More here.
d) The video solution is more demanding on bandwidth and client device power than the other communication modes. Some are still viewed as too complex to set up. That too is changing.

3) Virtual Collaboration
With physical presence, audio/web conferencing and video conferencing and collaboration, the bases are all covered, right? Maybe not. Virtual collaboration is somewhere in between and offers benefits. Rather than provide video of the individuals or the conference rooms, a virtual representation is provided. You don't "see" the actual participants or the environment that they're in. I encourage click here for a first hand look.

Where does an environment like this fit in the collaboration and communication landscape? Why would I use it?

The capabilities that I found the most interesting in Avaya web.alive™ include;
a) The representation of people as avatars and virtual meeting rooms provides a stronger cognitive presence in the collaboration than with audio alone. The feeling of presence and participation was enhanced despite it not being true video.
b) Not having to be "seen" to achieve a sense of presence better than audio. This is an asset in those off hour situations. Think of it as being pseudo-seen.
c) Less demanding on the communication device and bandwidth than the full video solution.
d) Lower capital expenditure than telepresence solutions
e) Supports discrete multi-tasking better than video yet improves engagement and focus compared to audio alone. I personally tend to multi-task. I found that using video or this virtual environment tends to significantly reduce the level of it. I found myself paying closer attention to, and being aware of the presence of the avatar of the person(s) I was conferencing with. It is surprisingly similar to true face to face behavior.
f) With virtual rooms, the meeting environment is no longer restricted to the individuals and conference rooms in the video call and caught in the range of the cameras. Multi-room events can be supported. I could move from room to room or from conversation to conversation.
g) Not restricted to pre-set meeting times. You can set up an "always on" virtual water cooler for those unplanned conversations that otherwise don't occur across locations or for remote workers. Another variation of this is the "always on" materials or multiple sets of materials posted in the room(s) for users to come in and browse and/or add to. A bit of the Google Wave claim for offline and asynchronous collaboration.
h) The 3D audio is quite effective in conjunction with the rest of the capability. It provides the sense of being closer to or further from conversations for the cocktail party effect. Imagine attending an event remotely and still being able to mingle during breaks as if you were there? It also provides the ability for a voice sidebar conversation. Walk up to who you want to speak to and then walk together into a distant place or another room for your conversation.

The differences and added capabilities possible with a virtual conferencing and collaboration environment give it a place in my bag of communication tricks. It's a viable communication mode choice for me. Audio/web and video certainly remain important choices. Different environments, situations and/or communication devices available to me at any given time give all three a place. Give it a try and let me know if and how it fits for you.

Michael Killian

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