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Unified Communications Featured Article
December 05, 2008
Look For Mobile UC To Open Up In 2009
By Vivek Khuller is President and CEO of Mountain View, CA-based DiVitas (News - Alert) Networks. Prior to founding DiVitas, Vivek was a Venture Partner at Clearstone Venture Partners. Before that, Vivek led strategic sales for the tier-1 carrier market and managed software business development at Sycamore Networks (News - Alert).
Today, at the helm of DiVitas, Khuller is laser-focused on the mobile unified communications space.
According to the company’s Web site DiVitas “mobilizes business voice and messaging applications and provides single number reach and visual voicemail through mobile desk phone capabilities in addition to enterprise contacts, messaging, and presence services…” Which is a roundabout way of saying the company allows enterprises to free their employees from the confines of their offices and allows them to be productive any place, at any time.
Khuller was kind enough to answer several questions as part of year end series of articles. He will be speaking at ITEXPO (News - Alert), which is scheduled for February 2–4 in Miami Beach, FL. Appropriately enough, the title of Khuller’s session is Mobile UC & Presence.
GG: You are on the schedule to present at the upcoming ITEXPO. What can attendees expect to learn in your session at the event this February?
VK: I will focus on a couple of things:
1. Customer deployments: Which customers are deploying our solution, how are they using it and what benefits are they deriving.
2. Differentiated features: I will specifically talk about Presence and Micro-blogging — how these two applications are changing and improving the way we work.
GG: When you look back on 2008, was it a good year for your company?
VK: 2008 was a milestone year for DiVitas. After solving key technical challenges in 2007, we released our full-featured product in 2008. We deployed our solution in multiple markets including government, education, legal and VoIP carriers.
GG: What was your firm’s biggest achievement last year?
VK: The most significant achievement in 2008 was securing partnerships with significant telecommunication vendors and expanding our market presence.
GG: What can we expect to see from your company for the next 12 months?
VK: Continued focus on the customer and innovation and maintaining our leadership position.
GG: Do you think a new administration in Washington, D.C. will be good for the communications industry? If so, how? If not, why not?
VK: We are going to see increased government spending, adoption of newer technologies in government, and focus on cost. DiVitas recognized these trends and took steps to address these markets in 2008. We will continue to benefit from that investment.
GG: In your view, please describe the future of the IP Communications industry?
VK: Desktop will become richer and mobile will become more open — all thanks to IP communications. Core intellectual property will consist of customer insight and winners will be companies that take calculated risks to benefit the user.
GG: How do the current market conditions affect your potential customers? Do you think they will hold off on purchasing new solutions or do you think the economic conditions will spur them to make purchases that will allow them to be more competitive?
VK: There will be some level of caution through the next 12–24 months, but applications like DiVitas Mobile UC can have a very positive impact on the ROI of communication costs. We expect to benefit from increased focus on economics.
GG: What sets your company’s solutions apart from the competition?
VK: The DiVitas Mobile UC product delivers a full enterprise mobile communication solution; addressing the seamless roaming requirement for extended wireless coverage and Presence and IM. No other Mobile UC product on the market offers this breadth of features.
GG: If you had to make one bold prediction for 2009, what would it be?
VK: Carriers will enter this market in a meaningful way.
Greg Galitzine is editorial director for TMC’s (News - Alert) IP Communications suite of products, including TMCnet.com. To read more of Greg’s articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.
Edited by Greg Galitzine
