What We’re Doing
As recognized leaders in deploying and scaling VoIP, hosted PBX and Unified Communications we’ve come together to share research, best-practices, applications and experience, and collectively push these technologies to their limit. In doing so we’re creating a new communications standard – Cloud Communications - and we’re revolutionizing the way enterprises communicate.
Here are a few of the ways we are working together:
1) Nationwide Peering – We are interconnecting our switches and gateways and establishing a nationwide end-to-end service platform capable of delivering:
- HD voice calls from one customer to another without ever touching the legacy PSTN
- End-to-end SLAs
- 4 digit dialing between customers
2) Shared Application Development Platform - Alliance members will be sharing an app development "sandbox" in which 3rd party developers can create unique voice and data features in the cloud and sell those premium services to alliance member end users. The apps will also be accessible via an alliance "app store" and developers will share in the revenue generated with alliance members.
3) Driving Mobile Convergence – Cloud Communications Alliance members are leveraging the intelligence of their all IP cloud-platforms to make communications to multiple end devices, and transparent hand-offs between those devices, a reality. By sharing these technical breakthroughs Alliance members are empowering cell phones and PCs with all the functionality of desktop landline phones - including 4-digit PBX dialing, office message on hold, simultaneous ring and seamless hand-offs between devices - finally making PBX Cloud services work among all customer end devices.
4) Remote Field Technicians – While each member typically operates on a regional basis we often have customers with remote offices located in remote regions. Members rely on one another’s field technicians to conduct installations and support rather than outsourcing to a third party resource.
5) Disaster Recovery – By standardizing equipment and service platforms, and establishing operational familiarity, each member of the Alliance is able to offer disaster recovery support to the other. Members are then capable of backing up each others core infrastructures and well as providing redundancy for individual customers.
6) Joint Product Development – Product managers and engineers from each member collaborate to evaluate new technologies and vendors, develop new products and applications, standardize on the best third party platforms, and jointly introduce new features and services.
7) Shared Best Practices – Regularly scheduled forums allow key engineering and sales teams to share and highlight their most effective platform configurations, vertical solutions, service customizations, and to conduct shared training. The best practices among these are then standardized, documented and rolled out to all members.
8) Thought Leadership – The leadership teams of Alliance members meet regularly across all departments (executive, product, engineering, sales & customer care) to share competitive intelligence, coordinate the steering of vendor requirements, and conduct joint marketing initiatives.
9) Common Support Infrastructure – Several members are consolidating their call center operations to provide faster, more efficient and cost-effective customer care while enabling more rapid and effective disaster recovery.
10) Strategic OSS Alignment - While each member currently operates its own back-office systems our CIOs are actively engaged in aligning development roadmaps and requirements with an eye towards a common platform that can be seamlessly integrated.