iscoord

iscoord announces official interoperability certification of its is-phone UC software client portfolio with Metaswitch Networks

2011-03-09T12:27:00.000-08:00

Best of breed UC softphone clients now available for Metaswitch customers

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND and ALAMEDA, USA. March 9, 2011 – iscoord ag, a leading provider of award-winning Unified Communications (UC) software clients, and Metaswitch Networks, a leading provider of carrier systems and communications software solutions, announce is-phone SIP phone product line has successfully completed interoperability testing with Metaswitch and is now Partner Certified. is-phone products enable Metaswitch’s customers to leverage their enterprise-class telephony capabilities with UC softphone clients seamlessly integrated in their company business tools like Lotus Notes/Sametime or Outlook/Messenger, to benefit from important TCO savings, higher productivity and simpler communication.

Full press release with quote (pdf)

is-phone finalist for IBM Lotus Awards 2011 and officially certified with BroadWorks

2011-01-29T20:52:00.000-08:00

is-phone selected as finalist for Lotus Award "Business Value through Social Business" and interoperable with BroadWorks platform, enabling HD video conferencing & full CTI support for all OS

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND. January 29, 2011 - The IBM Lotus Award 2011 jury for the category "Demonstrating Business Value through Social Business" has nominated iscoord ag, a leading provider of award-winning Unified Communications (UC) clients, as finalist. The Award nomination includes the new is-phone Assistant for BroadWorks Lotus Edition. iscoord's is-phone solution is certified by BroadSoft and currently the only IBM Lotus Notes and Lotus Sametime softphone plug-in with full CTI support for the BroadWorks platform. Users can make/receive calls and control their hardphone or any other device supported by is-phone like e.g. iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Android mobile phones with the is-phone plug-in and is-phone Assistant add-on.

Full press release (pdf) including quotes:
www.iscoord.com/fileadmin/documents/press_releases/is-phone-PR-Finalist-BroadWorks-Jan2011-E.pdf

Data sheet is-phone plug-in for IBM Lotus Notes/Sametime:
www.iscoord.com/fileadmin/documents/datasheets/is-phone-Lotus_Notes_8-Sametime_8-Plug_In-data-sheet.pdf

Data sheet is-phone Assistant for BroadWorks Lotus Edition/Portable:
www.iscoord.com/fileadmin/documents/datasheets/is-phone-Assistant-BroadWorks-Lotus_Portable_Edition-data-sheet-V2_0.pdf

Free trial download of is-phone plug-in for IBM Lotus Notes/Sametime:
www.iscoord.com/downloads/download-is-phone-plug-in-8-5.html

is-phone Lite for iPhone/iPad/iPhone Touch available as free download

2011-01-13T02:14:00.001-08:00

iscoord launched is-phone Lite for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, a full featured UC client softphone/VoIP application. is-phone Lite can be use with SIP-based IP PBXs and IMS platformes e.g. from 3Com/HP, Alcatel, Asterisk, Avaya, Broadsoft, Cisco, Metaswitch, Siemens, openSER etc. and is available as free downoad in the iTunes App store.

is-phone Lite is the free version of the is-phone for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch Enterprise version (availabe in the iTunes App store for US$9.99).

A comparison of the Enterpise and the Lite version can be found on the second page of the is-phone for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch data sheet.

iscoord launches first enterprise-grade UC client for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch

2011-01-03T06:27:00.000-08:00

is-phone for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch v2.0 featuring business-class features and integrates in existing corporate IP telephony environments

iscoord ag, a leading provider of award-winning Unified Communications (UC) clients, announces the availability of the new UC client is-phone for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch v2.0 that interoperates with all leading IP PBXs and IMS platforms. It represents the only enterprise-class softphone for all Apple mobile devices and is available in the iTunes App Store for US$9.99. A free Lite version will be launched beginning 2011 with restricted functionalities.

Pess release (pdf): English / German
Data sheet (pdf)
More information on our website
More information on the iTunes website
is-phone in the App Store

Forrester: SMBs increasing UC engagement

2010-11-01T03:19:00.000-07:00

According to the latest Forrester report, 88% of North American and European SMBs will increase the deployment and use of unified communications technologies.

Forrester: UC is a high priority

2010-10-13T01:27:00.000-07:00

According to a new report from Forrester, UC is a high priority for companies:

For 11%, implement/expand UC is critical and for 40% it is a high priority
For 12%, IP videoconferencing is critical and for 40% it is a high priority
43% have implemented/are implementing, expanding or piloting UC
12% are planning UC projects in the next 12 months
43% are planning UC projects in the next 12 or more months
Only 3% are not interested in UC

NetworkWorld: 70% increase deployment of softphones

2010-09-22T12:22:00.000-07:00

According to NetworkWorld, 70% of companies are increasing their deployment of softphones, while only 18% of firms have no plans to deploy softphones of any kind.

Softphones are now becoming commonplace and are mainly used in the following 3 ways:

- Replacement of desktop phones
- For teleworkers for whom provisioning a dedicated desktop phone is cost prohibitive
- For traveling workers, such as salespeople and service professionals, to provide telephony services via laptops and to decrease mobile phone costs.

Main users:

- Mobile and home workers
- Hoteling workers
- Workers in temporary locations (e.g. customer's site)
- Contact-center and support personnel

Forrester: Awareness of UC potential increasing

2010-09-13T04:31:00.000-07:00

Forrester report "Jump-Starting The Unified Communications Market - Prospective UC Buyers Are Waiting For System Interoperability" from September 2010:

Prospective buyers of unified communications (UC) systems are becoming more aware of the potential benefits, but UC trial and deployment activity remains stagnant. Many buyers are waiting for interoperability — or at least a credible promise of future interoperability — to reduce the financial and technical risks they undertake when deploying UC systems. Like Vladimir and Estragon in Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot, they are not sure exactly what they are waiting for, but they continue to wait nonetheless. Vendors will accelerate the UC market by selling systems based on open standards like Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), and SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE) to a combination of IT, business management, and financial buyers. Systems original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) need the cooperation of channel partners, particularly those that offer a range of UC management capabilities, from simple on-site management to cloud-based UC solutions.

Stage of UC adaption:
- 28% interested, but no plans
- 19% planning to implement in a year or more
- 12% planning to implement in the next 12 months
- 9% piloting
- 9% expanding/upgrade existing implementation
- 5% not interested

60% of companies agree that their employees/users are actively using UC software

Forrester report

Frost & Sullivan: IP Telephony, SIP Services Market to Grow

2010-08-09T05:21:00.000-07:00

VoIP and SIP market +40.1% in terms of user base and +22.3% in terms of revenues 2009. Revenues of $717.3 mio. in 2009, estimated revenues $3.9 billion in 2016.

Article on TMCnet

VoIP lines reach 21 million subs, 13% of wireline market

2010-07-05T01:56:00.000-07:00

VoIP subscribers now account for 13% of wireline telephone service in the U.S (about 21 million users, according to a report released this week by the FCC (PDF). The commission tees up new approaches to regulating both the traditional voice and broadband sectors of the industry.

Juniper Research: 470.6 billion mobile VoIP minutes by 2015

2010-07-05T01:40:00.000-07:00

A new Juniper Research predicts that 3G/4G mobile VoIP minutes will rise from 15 billion in 2010 to 470.6 billion by 2015, particularly in developed markets.

is-phone tested by David Strom with Vonage on OS X

2010-06-17T12:01:00.000-07:00

David Storm has tested is-phone Portable on Mac with his Vonage account and has published his experiences on his blog.

There is also a screenshot published showing the settings needed to connect to a Vonage account:

Around 20 mio. Americans now use VoIP

2010-06-15T12:18:00.000-07:00

Telappliant reports:

Around 20 million Americans now regularly use IP telephony solutions according to Research & Markets.

Cable companies in the US are now expanding their VoIP services to a significant number of users.

A statement read: "Strong subscriber and revenue growth rates have positioned VoIP firmly on the US telecommunications map."

R&M claims the entry of Microsoft and Apple, as well as internet giants Google and Yahoo! has assisted the growth of the industry.

Furthermore, mobile VoIP is predicted to boom following the widespread adoption of Wi-Fi enabled handsets.

Customers may also be tempted to adopt VoIP solutions following the improvements made to networks.

Mobile operators Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility have both decided to significantly invest in 4G networks which "will propel mobile VoIP into the mainstream of mobile telecommunications".

GigaOM: 30bn video calls by 2015

2010-06-12T08:42:00.000-07:00

Tenfold increase in video calls & chats over the next 5 years, up from 3bn in 2010 to 29.6bn in 2015, according to GigaOM Pro. Large-scale broadband adoption, low-cost integrated web cams and free video-chat services driving expansion.

Most video calls are currently made on PCs, but use of web-connected TVs and smartphones will increase by 2015. Number of users making video calls from mobiles likely to rise from 3m to 143m, generating revenues of USD3.4bn by 2015. Mobile video calling to get a boost from new iPhone, which is expected to have a front-facing camera. The report warns that the introduction of tiered pricing and caps for mobile data may hinder growth in mobile video calls.

SMB VoIP: Huge growth

2010-06-07T01:23:00.000-07:00

41% of UK businesses have already deployed VoIP. Further 20% looking at deploying VoIP over the coming year (+50% in penetration of IP telephony over the next 12 months). IP telephony was found to be the fastest growing segment of the European enterprise market in 2009.

SMBs are realising there are huge savings to be made from IP telephony for companies of all sizes from those with less than 20 employees to organisations with 1000-plus staff.

Full article on Commsdealer Online

Mobile VoIP users to exceed 100m by 2012

2010-05-31T07:55:00.001-07:00

Juniper Research reports that worldwide users of mobile voice-over-IP (VoIP) will exceed 100m by 2012. >50% will reside in Europe and North America (correlation between 3G access and mobile VoIP take-up).

Mobile operators likely to lose USD5bn in revenue by 2015 because of mobile VoIP apps on Wi-Fi networks. Traffic volumes likely to be be higher in developing markets (calling patterns of migrant workers).

Forrester: CaaS heats up

2010-05-28T01:33:00.000-07:00

According to Forrester Research, the Communications-as-a-service (CaaS) market is heating up. CaaS delivers voice, conferencing, contact center, IVR, and unified communications services from services providers' or vendors' networks and secure platform. Customers typically pay per user, per month, or per transaction for full life-cycle support. Providers offer sophisticated applications in the cloud, allowing companies to deploy advanced unified communications services quickly and affordably across a distributed environment. Surveys show that there is high interest by enterprise communication decision-makers in adopting CaaS services in the future.

Forrester report

Home office: Many advantages

2010-05-18T23:55:00.000-07:00

Oliver Gassmann, chairman of the Institute for Technology Management at the University in St. Gallen: Home office work clearly decreases illness and absences. Occurence of burn-out syndroms is 45% lower (5% instead of 48%) when employees are working periodically from home. An average office worker is disturbed every 11 minutes and needs after each break 8 minutes till reaching full concentration. Also unproductive meetings and noise of other employees are disturbing the flow of work. Home office workers are not only more focused, but also faster.

Survey in the US: 60% of Americans prefer home office work for a better work-life balance. Around 30% have more time for their family due to home office work. 47% appreciate that due to home office work, they spare travel time.

Mathias Binswanger, professor for political economy at the advanced technical college of Nordwestschweiz: Home office work is reducing stress and increasing quality of life. In Switzerland, productivity could be improved 30% due to home office work and till 2020, home office use will increase tenfold.

Nearly 300 mio. will use mobile VoIP by 2013

2010-05-12T00:41:00.000-07:00

There will be 288m mobile voice-over-IP (VoIP) users by 2013, generating annual revenues of USD35.2bn, according to market research firm In-Stat. More than 50% of these will use online mobile VoIP providers, nearly 33% will access the service via their mobile operator or 3G MVNO, and 11% will use 4G WiMAX or LTE operators. According to the report, the Asia-Pacific region will see the biggest growth rates and overtake Europe to become the market leader.

The growth of VoIP services and 3G networks has led analysts to speculate that all calls made via mobile phones will eventually be VoIP. The services are

much less expensive than traditional phone calls, especially internationally, and
could force operators to cut the prices of mobile plans with inclusive minutes.

For this reason, operators are reluctant to embrace VoIP.

Mobile VoIP set to explode

2010-03-08T00:08:00.000-08:00

Number of consumers using mobile VoIP will approach 288 million by 2013
50% of these users will get their service from an online mobile VoIP provider, under 1/3 will use it over 3G through a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) or wireless operator, and 11% will use a WiMax or LTE operator
10 years from now more than 50% of mobile voice traffic will be carried end to end using VoIP
It is clear that mobile VoIP is starting to become a lot more palatable to wireless operators if they are able to retain some of the control

Full article on Connected Planet

Research companies' positive view on Hosted/IP/VoIP PBX

2010-03-07T23:48:00.000-08:00

Several research companies incl. In-Stat, GIA and Synergy Research Group believe in an increasing Hosted/IP/VoIP PBX market:

Hosted PBX offers business-specific benefits
Interest in IP PBX is revitalizing
VoIP PBX appeals to businesses due to the innovation, costs savings and potential revenue generation it offers
superior business-grade flavour of VoIP offered by IP PBX is attracting businesses to it
IP PBX is more acceptable to IT managers in terms of management, security and integration
VoIP adoption by businesses is expected to regain momentum in 2010

Full article from Telappliant

Cisco: VoIP Enables Innovation

2010-03-07T23:39:00.000-08:00

Two Cisco Execs describing VoIP technology for SMBs:

VoIP has enabled innovation in telephony like nothing before it
We will see higher adoption rates of video telephony with small business customers
Each user can have the same basic experience, regardless of fixed location or mobile

Full article on Phone+

TMC: Over 100 mio. VoIP subscriptions worldwide

2010-03-01T00:42:00.000-08:00

The latest analysis from Point Topic reveals that by the end of September 2009 VoIP subscriptions had grown by 15% in the first 3 quarters of the year to pass the 100 million milestone. The number is close to 110 million today.

Top 10 Countries - VoIP subscribers (not softclient: Point Topic includes only verifiable IP-based telephone subscriptions in these statistics. Services like Skype which are softclient (ie originating on the PC) and which do not report user numbers but only ''minutes'' of calls are excluded.)

1 USA 22,704,900
2 Japan 21,368,000
3 France 16,125,000
4 Germany 8,100,000
5 China 5,000,000
6 South Korea 4,846,839
7 Italy 4,187,000
8 Canada 3,607,318
9 Netherlands 3,446,400
10 UK 2,950,000

"Conditions are starting to become common that should allow for faster growth in the next couple of years, especially when VoIP is provided for a low price in a bundle with broadband and TV. There's certainly enough headroom in enough markets to see adoption increase markedly," says Bosnell.

Full report

Global IP PBX Market $9.05 billion by 2015

2010-02-21T23:45:00.000-08:00

Global Industry Analysts “GIA”: IP PBX market is reviving the otherwise stagnant telecommunication industry. Businesses are replacing TDM systems with IP PBX’s across verticals who can benefit from an IP PBX or hosted PBX.

European & North American businesses will increase budgets to allow purchase and deployment of IP PBX and IP telephony services and systems, intend to complete migrations to IP telephony by 2012.

Providers who offer solutions to meet business needs at a good price point, and that are reliable, will have a chance to take hold in this market.

Full article on TMC

Frost & Sullivan: Cost efficiency of VoIP/IP Telephony too large to ignore

2010-02-12T00:00:00.000-08:00

TMC wrote in an article about a new Frost & Sullivan report, that more businesses realize the value of IP solutions over legacy infrastructure, and as more value-added applications are being introduced.

"IP has emerged as the foundation for a number of technologies designed to build a new cost-efficient infrastructure for the enterprise."

Collaborative tools drives innovation and productivitiy and together with cost savings, IP is essential to corporates' strategy.

The market is likely to generate $7.6 billion in 2014 as in 2008. Line shipments will continue to grow from 46.8 mio. in 2008 to 52.3 mio. in 2024.

Forrester predictions 2010: Effects on softphones

2009-12-07T13:43:00.000-08:00

Forrester published the report "Predictions 2010: What's In Store For The Telecom Industry?" and some of the predictions are related or will have an effect on desktop softphones:

Convergence will move from collision to explosion.
Green will be back on the telco agenda in a big way.
The boundaries between work and home will continue to blur.
Broadband will go universal.

Frost & Sullivan: UC with proven ROI

2009-12-03T12:35:00.000-08:00

A new study from Frost & Sullivan draws a stronger correlation between collaborative tools and monetary gains. "If we're able to measure the amount of improvement … that UC can provide versus no UC, then we can say definitely there is some measurable return on investment," said Brian Cotton, a vice president at Frost & Sullivan. A company in Italy that has implemented UC including VoIP is closing five times more deals with online conferences than with trade shows, and estimated that they have since realized a $15,000 to $18,000 per month unified communications ROI.

New product development occurred in 68% of enterprises that used UC tools versus the 39% that developed new products without collaborative tools.
76% of enterprises that used UC tools saw sales growth versus the 50% that increased sales without using them.
Profit growth was also more likely in enterprises that invested in UC -- 71% versus 45%.
Collaborative environments such as sales and research and development yielded the highest rate of return, while employee retention and turnover seemed to benefit least.
Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) appeared to see the lowest unified communications ROI, according to the study. Large enterprises with 1,000 or more employees yielded on average six times more value from collaborative tools than SMBs. Despite appearances, Cotton said, the finding doesn't mean SMBs don't benefit from UC. Instead, he said, they probably need to use UC for more than a limited number of employees and include suppliers, investors and key customer groups.

Frost & Sullivan white paper "Meetings Around the World II: Charting the Course of Advanced Collaboration"

Forrester with new telecommute numbers

2009-11-28T05:19:00.000-08:00

According to the new Forrester report "Understanding Information Worker Smartphone Usage", 59% of employees' work time is at places in the office other than own desk, at home, at a client site or other places and 41% telecommute. 54% are using their smartphone for more than 1 hour daily - a huge cost reduction potential when moving some of these calls to VoIP and use integrated softphones.

Gartner's UC Magic Quadrant warns against single-vendor approach

2009-09-11T00:05:00.000-07:00

Interoperability is the magic word for vendors in Gartner's unified communications (UC) Magic Quadrant this year, as market giants accept they have to let third-party developers play in their sandboxes.

Gartner is advising enterprises to shop around for interoperable communications products across the market.

"... the benefits are worthwhile because you will end up with more choice and more control over your direction, and more control over your costs."

Ross Daniels, director at Cisco: "Certainly, whenever possible, we'd love people to use Cisco, but the clear reality is that there is a significant installed base of other suppliers' applications across unified communications," he said. "As things have moved to an environment where communication means more than just voice, interoperability has become even more of a premium."

Microsoft has also opened the doors of its unified communications portfolio, recognizing "the customer has a choice," said Moz Hussain, the company's director of product management in unified communications.

"Unified communications doesn't have to stop with the products we deliver. A customer can take that and enrich it to their business needs," Hussain said. "If another vendor has a solution they want to plug into our client experience …. we have the APIs [application programming interfaces] to allow them to do that."

Full article on SearchUnifiedCommuniations

Forrester identifies Microsoft & IBM as collaboration leaders

2009-08-08T15:25:00.000-07:00

Forrester published, based on its 66-criteria evaluation of collaboration platform vendors, the new report

The Forrester Wave™: Collaboration Platforms, Q3 2009

Forrester found that Microsoft and IBM Lotus led the pack based on the breadth of functionality in their offerings.

Traditional vendors IBM, Microsoft and Novell lead on breadth of offerings.
Challengers all demonstrate unique strengths.

New Forrester reports about UC and VoIP

2009-08-08T05:40:00.000-07:00

Forrester published new reports based on their surveys across North America and Europe:

The State Of Enterprise Networks And Telecommunications: 2009 - Business Data Services North America And Europe

Executive Summary

Even given the current economic crisis, enterprises recognize the importance of network and telecommunications (N&T) products and services. What are the top investments and interest areas? Mobility, unified communications (UC), and managed services. A new addition to this survey includes questions about how economic conditions are affecting N&T spending, as well as where purchasing power lies within the IT organization for specific technologies such as UC, landline data, voice, and enterprise mobility.

Report highlights in terms of UC and VoIP:
- Cutting costs is biggest priority.
- Contact center IP migration continues.
- Cost savings, faster communication, and decision speed drive UC adoption.
- Desktop VoIP migration continues.

The State Of SMB Networks And Telecommunications: 2009 - Business Data Services North America And Europe

Even given the current global economic crisis, small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) recognize the importance of networks and telecommunications (N&T) products and services — although spend is not as abundant as in earlier years. What are their investment and interest areas? Wireless and mobility and unified communications (UC). A new addition to this survey includes questions about how current economic conditions are affecting SMB N&T spending and where purchasing power lies within the organization for specific technologies.

Report highlights in terms of UC and VoIP:
- SMBs follow enterprise interest in IP contact centers.
- Majority of SMBs are interested in or are already implementing a UC solution.
- Desktop VoIP adoption continues.

Enterprises Need Innovative Telecom Service Options And Flexibility

2009-07-03T06:26:00.000-07:00

The Forrester report "Enterprises Need Innovative Telecom Service Options And Flexibility To Address Cost Pressures" explains why Telecom companies need to offer innovation especially in an economic downturn.

Executive Summary
The global economic recession is extracting a heavy toll on enterprise IT budgets. As a result, sourcing and vendor management executives at multinational firms responsible for network and telecommunications (N&T) are looking for improved flexibility and innovation in service pricing and delivery, along with concessions to help them justify their vendor and service choices. To help clients set expectations on how far they can reasonably push their service providers to be more attentive, responsive, and flexible, we interviewed 29 reference customers of nine major international telecom operators about customer satisfaction. We also used data from two recent Forrester surveys to: 1) identify global multinational enterprise (MNC) N&T service buyers' priorities over the next year; and 2) compare enterprise customers' biggest vendor relationship challenges with some of the largest North American and European network operators. Based on our analysis, Forrester recommends vendor consolidation to remove extraneous players and create a strategic N&T environment and the use of specialists and smaller or regional players for innovative, lower-cost service delivery options.

The Value Of VoIP

2009-06-02T01:54:00.000-07:00

Forbes published an article where the SME company RAO explaining the benefits they reached after switching to VoIP. When credit is tight, being able to reinvest in a business means shaving costs elsewhere--like the phone bill.

More mobility with less budget

2009-04-22T07:26:00.000-07:00

According to a new Aberdeen Group research report, Best-in-Class companies over the prior 24 month period

increased the number of employees included in their mobility initiative by 44%.
employee productivity by 36%.
have grew the number of mobile devices in full compliance with IT mandates by 33%.

Despite the global economic downturn, or perhaps in part because of it, the enterprise demand for mobility has remained steady or even increased. However, mobility initiative budgets have not; in fact capital equipment budgets are being cut dramatically, and operating expense budgets are being scrutinized and reduced wherever possible. This study reports how Best-in-Class companies - those that are performing in the top 20% across multiple metrics - are managing to maintain or increase their level of mobility support while their budgets are being cut.

VoIP top priority for CIOs

2009-04-17T05:29:00.000-07:00

Chief information officers (CIOs) across the United States say VoIP is among the top five areas of IT investment they will invest in over the next 12 months. The survey, conducted by Robert Half Technology, interviewed more than 1,400 CIOs with 100 or more employees.

Article on FierceVoIP

iscoord @ VoiceCon 2009 in Orlando

2009-04-08T13:44:00.001-07:00

We had a very successful VoiceCon 2009 in Orlando and our booth was visited by a lot of people.

The time for integrated softphones has definitively arrived and our innovative OEM solutions for IBM and Microsoft UC platforms generated a lot of interest.

Forrester believes that collaboration market will stay healthy

2009-03-29T08:37:00.000-07:00

The new Forrester report "Demand Insights: Collaboration Market Healthy Despite Slumping Economy " from March 25, 2009, explains why and how the collaboration market is still in a good shape and sales increasing, also and especially within the SMB segment.

Executive Summary
Although 2009 is shaping up to be a tough year for technology vendors, the collaboration market is proving to be vibrant. The tough economy is forcing companies to restrict travel while keeping distributed teams in touch. In addition, changes in the composition of the workforce mean enterprises must find ways to capture the knowledge of retiring Baby Boomers and provide Gen Yers with their favored tools to work efficiently. These trends have created opportunities for collaboration vendors not just at the enterprise level but also among small and medium-size businesses (SMBs). Collaboration vendors should capitalize on these smaller companies' interest by providing software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings and flexible pricing models.

Selling applications has become the new dominant business activity of the telecom market

2009-02-20T13:48:00.000-08:00

According to Usernews and research firms, companies are looking for technology to help them fill gaps left by smaller staffs, and to enhance productivity.

Selling applications has become the new dominant business activity for the telecom market.

It's important to offer

real cost saving
cost conserving
productivity producing
customer experience enhancing products and service.

The Big Trends

Global & North America PBX Line Shipments 2008 :

56 million lines shipped in 2008

12.9 mio. IP Lines (23.2%)
32.1 mio. Hybrid (57.73%
3.7 mio. TDM PBX (6.65%)
6.9 mio. TDM Key (12.41%)

(Source: Dell O’ro Reports)

Broadband IP Telephony remains the most common carrier-based business VoIP solution with revenues exceeding $1.1 billion in 2008, compared to $857 million for hosted IP Centrex service within the US.
Adoption varies significantly by size of business, with Enterprise businesses preferring a partial deployment, while SOHO businesses are more likely to go IP-only.

(Source: In-Stat)

60% more flexibility with Unified Communications

2009-02-19T14:24:00.000-08:00

Past Aberdeen research showed that Best-in-Class companies who have implemented Unified Communications have seen a 55% increase in employee responsiveness to others - 2.7x more than all other companies, a 52% increase in an employee's ability to gain knowledge / data from others - almost 3x the Industry Average, and a 60% increase in the flexibility of the workforce - over 3x all others.

Interview with Christophe Remillet

2009-02-12T03:48:00.000-08:00

The Competence Site has published an interview (German) with Christophe Remillet , Head of Business Development at iscoord ag.

He answers questions about his past activities and current developments, projects and challenges.

New is-phone 8 versions ready for download!

2009-02-11T00:38:00.001-08:00

We have uploaded the new is-phone 8 versions with improvements and additional features like toolbar support (is-phone for IBM Lotus Notes 8).

By filling out the form on the following pages, you will get an email with instructions how to download the 30-days free trial and install the new is-phone stand-alone client and plug-ins:

If you have any question or improvements, please email us.

iscoord interviewed by Forrester

2009-02-06T05:57:00.000-08:00

Forrester published the report "Market Overview: Sizing Unified Communications - Stalled Market Blossoms To $14.5 Billion In 2015 As Barriers Fall". iscoord is one of the interview partners together with companies like AT&T, Avaya, BT, Cisco and others that has provided information for this report.

Executive Summary

Forrester forecasts that the market for unified communications within enterprises in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific will reach $14.5 billion in 2015. Unified communications (UC) is an important, innovative capability that IT buyers and business executives believe will deliver financial and operational advantages. But the UC market's long-awaited takeoff hinges on detailed business cases that lay out the return on investment (ROI), as well as more interoperability between UC solutions and business applications. While all firms are demanding measurable business benefits to support UC business cases and deployment plans, the voyage to UC will be unique at each firm. IT strategists will progress from trials to near ubiquitous deployment of basic UC capabilities to improve collaboration and increase the velocity of business processes. On top of that, we forecast that companies will deploy enhanced UC capabilities to about 60% of employees in functions that will benefit most from embedding communications features like mobility and video directly into their business applications.

IBM Chairman/CEO on stage with President Obama

2009-02-03T23:58:00.000-08:00

The economic slowdown was the main topic of the speech from IBM Chairman & CEO Sam Palmisano when talking to the press on CNBC, invited by President Obama.

In the exclusive CNBC interview with Maria Bartiromo, Sam Palmisano shared insights on how IBM plans to innovate in a rough economy.

New customer website live

2009-02-03T01:01:00.000-08:00

We've just launched a new website for our customer Proceq: The Canin+ promotion website.

This new site is the forth promotion website that was supported by iscoord (advisory, project management). More information incl. screenshot can be found on our news page.

iscoord has also supported as supervisor, advisor and project manager for Proceq concerning their main website.

New is-phone datasheets

2009-01-28T00:09:00.000-08:00

After showcasing the new is-phone version 8.0 and announcing version 8.1, we have uploaded new data sheets.

The main improvements are

LDAP Directory Integration
Mini Browser Tab for is-phone for IBM Lotus Notes 6/7/8
SIP Dialog for Presence Status
Additional Audio Codec G.721, G.723 and G.726
Linux Support for is-phone for IBM Lotus Notes 8 Plug-In and Sametime 8 Plug-In
Max OS X Support for is-phone for IBM Lotus Notes 8 Plug-In and Sametime 8 Plug-In (Q2/2009)

If you like to get an email alert as soon as the new version 8.0 is ready as free trial, you can use this form to contact us.

A new team member @ iscoord

2009-01-26T10:32:00.000-08:00

Please welcome Christophe Remillet, a new team member of iscoord, responsible as Head of Business Development for promoting our solutions and services.

Christophe has already great experience in the softphone market and we are very pleased that he joined iscoord.

Press release in English (pdf)
Press release in Deutsc (pdf)

Lotusphere impressions

2009-01-22T10:49:00.000-08:00

Markus Sieger, CEO of iscoord, and Rolf Kuster, Head of Development, were at Lotusphere in Orlando and they shared some impressions from the exhibition with us:

Video conferencing is hot and reduces CO2 pollution!

2009-01-20T02:13:00.000-08:00

Due to the "Green" efforts of many companies, video conferencing is a hot topic.

We have invested a lot of effort at iscoord to deliver our customers video conferencing with is-phone right within the softphone.

is-phone is able to handle video conference capabilities within the softphone with up to 4 people and the best thing is that it's all mixed on the client - no need for any additional hardware!

Check out the video below where we showcase the video capabilities of is-phone or try it by yourself by downloading a free 30-days trial of our is-phone for IBM products.

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Welcome to the iscoord Blog

2009-01-19T04:46:00.001-08:00

Hello and welcome to the iscoord Blog!

There is a lot going on in the digital world and iscoord is part of it with our integrated softphone is-phone.

Currently we are exhibiting @ Lotusphere in Orlando, the biggest IBM Lotus event in the world! Visit our CEO Markus Sieger and Head of Development Rolf Kuster @ our booth #827 and see our newest developments incl. the softphone toolbar integration into IBM Symphony and the Linux version of is-phone.

Here is a first screenshot of the is-phone toolbar within IBM Symphony:

Looking forward to see you @ Lotusphere!