NextUC Releases Web Conferencing Upgrade

NextUC announces the completion of an update of its web conferencing products.  NextUC completes changes to their cloud design that greatly enhanced an already strong web conferencing product suite (www.nextuc.com/why-nextuc/web-conferencing-nextuc).  The changes increase the value delivered to NextUC customers while the cost continues to stay low.  The value of the products can be compared to market leading vendors and is covered in more detail here:

Web Conferencing Comparison:

NextUC vs Webex and GoToMeeting:

The cost savings are actually conservative as they do not take into account The Other Guys requirement to prepay for calling… AND the fact that NextUC provides a Business Telephone System as part of its service.

These numbers don’t tell the whole story, which is just the way “The Other Guys” want it.  One simple question to ask is, “how likely is it that you will use exactly 500, 1200 or 3000 minutes?”  The answer is that it is extremely unlikely and that is why The Other Guys sell you pre bundled minutes… they make more money.  NextUC’s Web Conferencing has greatly enhanced the quality of video, the speed for screen resolutions and as with the rest of the products suite is delivered with low prices and no long term obligations.

Web Conferencing is about joining people together to produce more, faster.  It largely serves two purposes, cut spend on travel and make it easier to collaborate.  The large providers are challenged because they are facing massive investments they need to protect and challenges are now delivering products that are as good or better and a whole lot cheaper.  NextUC believes that web conferencing should be like any other technology or telecom service, it should be powerful, cheap and easy to use… and it should not tie customers to long term contracts.  NextUC allows you to choose a provider that can make it easy to cut spend more significantly while also allowing your business to promote and encourage the use of collaboration services.

NextUC takes the collaboration discussion a step further.  While the cost comparison to the other guys is impressive, it only compares a single service.  NextUC also provides Lync Enterprise PSTN calling which is a telephone system replacement for that same cost.  The combined service suite is an unparalleled value in the market.

NextUC encourages businesses to try the service for no charge for 60 days.  Try web conferencing, outbound calling, Microsoft Unified Messaging, desktop sharing, rich presence and everything else that Microsoft Lync provides at no risk.  Allow your team to produce more with much less friction with NextUC.

Written by Bob Barnes

Lync Web Conferencing 2010 Web App vs. Lync 2010 Attendee: A comparison

Much of the value of NextUC’s hosted Lync with voice product comes in the web conferencing component with integrated audio and video.  Better yet, much of the web conferencing features are available to Online Meeting participants, even if they are not NextUC Lync users.  Non-Lync users have the ability to join an online meeting using the Lync 2010 Web App, which launches in any web browser right from the Outlook meeting invitation.  There’s no question that the Lync Web App creates an excellent web conferencing experience for non-Lync users.

But there is an even better tool that is available for online meeting participants, and it has some significant benefits to NextUC Lync users as well.   Lync 2010 Attendee is a free software client that provides additional features and functionality to Online Meeting participants, and they don’t even have to be Lync users.  The following table highlights the key differences between the Lync Web App and the Lync Attendee.

Lync Web Conferencing Feature Support:

Lync Web Conferencing 2010 Web App vs Lync 2010 Attendee:

In addition to the obvious benefits for meeting participants, the Lync Attendee will cut audio conferencing costs significantly for NextUC hosted Lync customers.  With the Lync Attendee, participants outside your organization have the option to use their computer audio rather than dialing into the audio conferencing bridge at $0.03/min. And because Microsoft provides a free download for Lync 2010 Attendee, why not encourage all external meeting invitees to download it?  They’ll get a superior web conferencing experience and NextUC customers will get FREE audio conferencing.

See Lync 2010 Attendee in action:

Written by Bob Barnes

Social Media Will Be The Next Business Unified Communications

What is social media when you dig in?  What are the core components of the user experience?  What differentiates that experience vs what businesses live on a daily basis?  Once you come up with your answers, I think the next big question is, “what is going to keep the current social media companies from evolving into business solutions?”

Social media is all about communicating.  The different services provide a vast array of tools to help facilitate communication between select groups of people.  Some create circles, some have friends of various types, almost all have public personas and private personas.  These services allow people to create content, post and share documents, edit documents, chat between people on the service, create calls, audio and video conferencing and some even tie into the public telephone networks (already).  These concepts should sound very familiar to people looking at Unified Communication solutions for businesses.

Consumers are pushing change in technology adoption for businesses.  Going and almost gone are the days of IT dictating the type of mobile devices, laptops and limiting tablet support.  IT has to now find ways of supporting what the user community is bringing to the table for hardware, not the other way around.  This is all for the positive, but is it and will it be limited to hardware devices?

Businesses are already being concerned about their profiles on current social media platforms like Facebook and Google+.  They are creating storefronts, advertising, marketing and sales inside of these social media platforms already.  These changes are happening and they are being adopted at a very fast pace, a pace that will only quicken.  The “me too” affect is happening and stopping it at this point is not possible.

With that foundation in place, how large is the jump to see the current social media companies turn into business communication solution companies?  Businesses are there and customers are there.  Businesses need to communicate with customers, right?  Once live synchronous communication begins to accelerate within social media, the migration will happen and once again… there will be no stopping it.

The communication foundation is in place, the tools are prepared, security is tight and resource is vast.  Users have already trumped IT’s iron grip on tool acceptance and adoption… what is left to prevent the inevitable?  Just some icing on the cake…  keep in mind that employees in the sub thirty years old category only communicate on social media. They don’t call, they don’t leave voicemails and they are more secure and stable using Facebook than they are Microsoft Exchange.  Social media for business is a reality and will happen.

One last thought…  don’t sign contracts, don’t be obligated for any terms… AND no matter what you do, don’t buy anything to put on site unless there is absolutely no option!

Written by Bob Barnes

NextUC Partner Program Launch For Their Cloud Microsoft Lync with PSTN Product

Foster City, CA – April 24, 2012: Today, NextUC, who provides PSTN enabled Microsoft Lync from the cloud, announced that they have kicked off the formal launch of their partner program. This program is designed for organizations that have trusted advisor relationships with potential customers who are looking for ways of improving team communication and collaboration.

The partner program is designed to be easy to use and efficient for the partner community. Potential partners can simple go to the Partner Page on the website (http://www.nextuc.com/partners/) and complete the form to join the partner program. The application will be reviewed and approved partners will receive their Partner ID within 48 hours.

The Partner ID is associated to any new customer during the onboarding process. The customer or partner who completes the 5 minute activation process simply applies the Partner ID in the provided field, and the partner will then begin receiving commissions when payments are received by the customer.
“The feedback from our beta partners has been impressive, “ says Bob Barnes VP of Product Marketing and Sales, “the simplicity and ease of use for the overall partner program has really resonated with the partner community.”

NextUC provides a strong and well-rounded portfolio of collaboration services all of which can be enabled in less than 10 minutes. The product experience is largely based on Microsoft Lync, but NextUC has made instant enablement, PSTN and Office 365 integration two of the initial differentiators with the customer experience. Customers can quickly evaluate the product on the website, onboard themselves in 5 minutes and step into a trial of full Microsoft Lync for 60 days with no obligation. NextUC will never ask for a contract or long term obligation, and focuses instead on delivering a quality experience that attracts and retains customers on a daily basis. The partner program allows the approved partner to share in the revenue provided by the customer.

About NextUC
NextUC is a cloud-based Microsoft Lync communication product providing enterprise-class voice, messaging, conferencing, presence, chat, collaboration and mobility capabilities. NextUC streamlines business communication into one unified interface enabling easier and faster communication that improves teams collaboration and productivity. With NextUC clients can replace their phone and conferencing providers and simply use Lync for all of their communication needs. NextUC works on all operating systems including Windows, iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry and has a mobile client available for all major mobile platforms. For more information please visit www.nextuc.com

Written by Bob Barnes

NextUC Provides a Unique Level of Phone Service and Support

From its full integration with Microsoft Office365 with Voice to its online self-provisioning sysem, NextUC is doing things differently all across the board. It therefore comes as no surprise that NextUC takes a different approach to the Support organization and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) as well. These items come up repeatedly in conversations with prospective NextUC customers and this is an attempt to address these differentiations.
 

NextUC Support: NextUC believes in community based support. The NextUC community site is the place to get support, share ideas and connect with NextUC support staff and other users. The site is constantly monitored by the NextUC support team who responds promptly to any questions or issues that customers post. Further, the open forum makes all topics searchable and accessible to everyone. NextUC is an on-demand, self-service product and this idea is the basis for our support structure as well. NextUC will always implement the community based method of support, however we will continue to enhance the community with a ticketing system and limited phone support. Stay tuned for the ongoing changes!
 

Service Level Agreements: NextUC has the best in the business! If we don’t service you properly, you leave our relationship. This is usually the most difficult concept for most people to grasp. But if there are no contracts, what would be the advantage of having SLAs? In the traditional sense, SLAs are offered by providers who require customers to sign long-term contracts, giving them assurance that their providers meet some set of pre-defined standards (as defined provider)…or else they’re free to take their business elsewhere. At NextUC, we provide this guarantee at all times. In essence, customers get to provide their own SLAs. If NextUC at any time does not meet the highest standards of service and quality (as defined by each customer), they are free to cancel services, no questions asked. NextUC’s opinion is that’s the best guarantee for service reliability and performance there is.
 

Not everyone immediately adopts these new ways of doing things, especially when it comes to communications services which are essential to the success of all businesses. That’s OK and it is why NextUC lets customers try the full version of our hosted Lync with Enterprise Voice product free for a full 60 days before we ask for any type of payment. If our service reliability and support structure does not meet your business communications needs for any reason during that time or at any point thereafter, you can cancel service with no penalty. It’s that simple.

NextUC Sees Massive Growth In Web Conferencing, Video Conferencing and Audio Conferencing On Back Of Another Record Month

Foster City, CA – April 17, 2012: Today, NextUC announced the close of March with record numbers across the board.   The strong performance was led by significant increases in video conferencing, web conferencing and audio conferencing by its customers.  NextUC also experienced record growth in its customer base when compared to any prior month in its history.

“It is extremely encouraging to see collaboration leading the way for our customers”, said Bob Barnes, VP of Product Marketing and Sales.  “NextUC believes that business communication is moving away from being PBX driven to being driven by the users no matter where they are.”

NextUC provides a strong and well-rounded portfolio of collaboration services which can be viewed on its Web Conferencing product page at www.nextuc.com/why-nextuc/web-conferencing-nextuc/.  Services include unlimited online meetings including Lync audio and video conferencing.  Every user has access to online meetings from iPads, iPhones, Android Phones, Windows or MACs and the conferencing service is included at no additional cost on top of the base service.

Customers can come to the website, onboard themselves and be up and running with everything a young and dynamic company needs for all its communication needs in five minutes.  Services include telephones, voicemail, chat, video conferencing, audio conferencing, mobile and more.  The change in experience from the traditional telecom company’s approach is being well received by NextUC’s customers.

NextUC saw 230% increase in use of video conferencing and 67% increase in web conferencing overall when compared to the month prior.

There are no contracts required, there is a 60 day evaluation period and customers can leave at any point they feel there is a need.  This marks the beginning of a massive shift in the way communication services are being consumed by businesses.

About NextUC

NextUC is a cloud-based Microsoft Lync communication product providing enterprise-class voice, messaging, conferencing, presence, chat, collaboration and mobility capabilities.  NextUC streamlines business communication into one unified interface enabling easier and faster communication that improves teams collaboration and productivity. With NextUC clients can replace their phone and conferencing providers and simply use Lync for all of their communication needs. NextUC works on all operating systems including Windows, iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry and has a mobile client available for all major mobile platforms. For more information please visit www.nextuc.com

Written by Bob Barnes

NextUC Provides Microsoft Unified Communications With No Contracts, No Commitments.

Don’t Be Tied To Any Unified Communications Solution.  Change Is Coming!

The landscape is changing in the world of Unified Communications.  Change is coming in many different ways and from many different players.  Gone are the days of telephone PBX’s from brands like Nortel with CTI integrations to applications like RightFax, going are things like CallManager with integrations to other products like Unity, here is Microsoft Unified Messaging provided from the cloud from companies like NextUC and coming is a shift that is going to be hard to swallow for all of the going’s and here’s.

The telecom game was once one where margins on PBX’s were in the 70% range for resellers.  Once you got the PBX working, calling charges were in the 80% margin range for the CLEC that got the business.  Margins on both have fallen due to competition and the fall is accelerating.  The shift from a hardware based PBX that was built on some Unix based system to software based solutions that could run on Windows and other platforms opened options for customers.  This change really kicked into gear in the early 2000’s.  Initially the prices stayed high and the options for customers were limited.  Players like Shoretel and options like CallTower started a shift in the favor of customers.

There was a larger shift happening in the general technology world as we neared 2010.  The shift was towards cloud based software that operated in open standards or browsers that made the consumerizataion of IT a reality.  These trends are here to stay and are now being promoted by companies like Apple and even Microsoft.  The trend was really about removing over priced and under valued Service from a customer relationship and allowing a broader skilled base of consumers supported by IT teams to embrace and enable new technologies.

Unified Communications is a little late to the game, but it is finally shifting.  NextUC allows a single tech savvy individual to turn up a Microsoft Unified Communications platform in minutes, where it took months before.  Costs and margins are compressing for the application and for the usage… no more 70% for anyone except for the customer’s pocket.  Simply said, nobody should be buying a PBX, installing PRI’s and continuing with business as usual in Unified Communications.

The next generation is here, although it is not quite ready for business grade prime time yet.  Google Plus, Skype and even companies like Facebook are where we are going… for FREE.  The power a group can get out of Google Plus or Skype now is amazing, but there are holes that most businesses won’t tolerate.  Those holes will be filled and the solutions will be amazing.

Your objective as a consumer must be to not tie yourself to any solution.  No long term contracts, minimal capital expenditures, no evergreen clauses…  You are doing yourself and your company a major disservice if you do.  Change is coming, make sure you are prepared to embrace it when it arrives.

Written by Bob Barnes

Business Start-up Communication Tools.  Be Ready For Change.

What do you need if you are starting a new company? Will your team work out of our an office, offices or remotely? Will your customers walk through the front door, find you on the Internet or on some social media source? Does your team need to collaborate or are they independent workers that get little from working with other team members?

Answers to these questions will likely change over time as your business grows, but laying a foundation with your company will help support the changing requirements. Hiring, signing leases, buying communication services are all considerations when starting up. While the focus of the team must be on getting your idea to market, all of the basic plumbing should be accounted for properly before you get to breaking points.

The trend is clearly in favor or teleworking, remote employees, mobile employees and contract labor. This general trend is likely to continue for many macro reasons and it becomes critical to understand how to plan for and integrate these workers into a healthy business successfully. Make the diverse workforce feel like they can interact quickly and easily is what will allow your business to thrive and grow in what is certain to be a changing work environment.

With business communication you must account for web conferencing, audio conferencing, mobile support for a wide range of devices, wireless services, video conferencing and presence management. Make these services easy to use on a wide variety of devices including MAC’s, PC’s, iPhones, iPad and Androids and make it so the user experience across those devices is easy to adapt to… AND it probably makes sense to get these non-core services from the cloud rather than hiring additional staff to design, source, build and support these services. Make it easy and quickly adapt when you need to.

Apply the same logic to people and workplaces and you will be a huge leg up on your competition. Plan for the unknown, the black swan, the totally unexpected and unaccounted for turns. Understand that business as you are doing today will not be the same in a year or five years.

Written by Bob Barnes

Foster City, CA – April 10th, 2012: Today, NextUC announces new options for customers wanting to buy handsets, headsets or video conferencing cameras. NextUC launches a new procurement site for desk phones and a new partnership for wireless and wired headsets. Both offerings make the evaluation, purchase, delivery and support for all hardware fast and friendly.

Customers can now go to the device purchase page on NextUC’s website (http://www.nextuc.com/plans-pricing/purchase-devices/) and evaluate and order the best hardware for their specific environment. While NextUC works with a wide array of different vendors, Jabra and Polycom are the go to partners for the different options available through the NextUC relationship.

Jabra and NextUC have partnered to offer an attractive bundle for NextUC customers. Newly registered teams can get 1 free headset for every 10 that are purchased, limit of 5 free devices. Additional incentives are available for future purchases when the team converts to a paying monthly subscription. Jabra focuses on wireless and wired headset solutions specifically designed to work with Microsoft Lync.

Polycom offers both Ethernet and USB based phones that provide a more traditional approach to office communication designs, but also have options available for mobile users. Polycom provides NextUC customers with great video conferencing options for conference rooms as well as desktop Ethernet phones for desks or conference rooms.

NextUC customers are not required to purchase equipment from these sources. NextUC provides team communications and collaboration solutions that are based on Microsoft Lync, and supports most varieties of Lync approved endpoints. NextUC believes that businesses deserve to be able to change, grow or even leave as they need to respond to the changing world, and this is another example of how NextUC is changing the historic approach to business communication solutions.

“We are excited to add another great way for our customers to get collaborating in a fast and efficient way” say Bob Barnes, VP of Product Sales and Marketing. “We found two partners that provide great support for their specific products and want to make the purchase and use experience outstanding, which is a great match for NextUC’s approach to business relationships.”

About NextUC
NextUC is a cloud-based Microsoft Lync communication product providing enterprise-class voice, messaging, conferencing, presence, chat, collaboration and mobility capabilities. NextUC streamlines business communication into one unified interface enabling easier and faster communication that improves teams collaboration and productivity. With NextUC clients can replace their phone and conferencing providers and simply use Lync for all of their communication needs. NextUC works on all operating systems including Windows, iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry and has a mobile client available for all major mobile platforms. For more information please visit www.nextuc.com.

Written by Bob Barnes

The Campaign: Telecom Must Change Because Business Communications Deserve Better

While the technology world continues to innovate at an ever increasing pace and provide services and products at costs that plummet, traditional telecom continues to screw their customers.  How can this be?  How can they charge too much and deliver poorly?  How is it that you can get a killer user experience like Skype or Google+ for an amazing value and justify to pay ATT, Verizon or one of the affiliates $.04 cents per minute or more for calling that costs them one tenth that amount?

Why do the majority of business not only continue to pay these fees for crappy service, but they seem happy to sign long term contracts that tie them to the experience for years on end.  Oh, and don’t let a customer forget to check the evergreen clause with the tiny window for “notice”… they get the opportunity to be stuck with that poor experience for another extended period of time with no option to get out unless they want to pay some massive penalty.  How is it that the “market” has not killed the traditional telecom business communication model?

The solution is in our control.  You do not need to sign contracts for business communication solutions.  You do not need to spend large amounts of capital for equipment to provide business communications services to your team.  Companies like NextUC provide options that deliver killer business communication apps for a low price and ask for no commitment beyond a free trial.  Imagine ATT or Verizon or one of their affiliates offering to come out and install services and product for you to try, require no obligation and ask little once you go live.  Those options exist today, and they exist with no risk associated.

It is the business community’s responsibility to force change.  Business communication solutions are something that deserve the same level of innovation and evolution that is happening everywhere in technology.  More, better, faster… AND cheaper.  Don’t buy into the Enterprise sales reps FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt), give it back to them.  Ask them for 60 day trials, no obligations and low costs.  Make them deliver a business communication and collaboration product that is competitive and not what has been forced on us as the way it is… make it the way it was.

Written by Bob Barnes