IntelePeer has added cloud-based video conferencing to their portfolio of offerings.   In addition to their traditional SIP Trunking and federation services, customers are now able to obtain a cost-effective cloud video conferencing service without the need for purchasing and managing expensive on-premise equipment.

Here’s why this is important: cloud applications have been embraced by enterprise CIOs, who understand the benefits of cloud services far outweigh the capital expenditure, training and human resources needed to manage premise based gear.  But at the same time, these enterprise CIOs need cloud solutions that will work seamlessly with their premises-based solutions, and they need a cloud partner they can absolutely trust.

IntelePeer is a market leader in SIP trunking and federation services for enterprises and service providers – and with their new cloud video conferencing service, they have not only proven that they are serious about reducing technical complexity for their customers, but they also serve as a single source provider enabling Unified Communications and video solutions to run smoothly and with utmost productivity.

IntelePeer and Vidtel share the same vision when delivering cutting edge products to market – and with cloud video added to IntelePeer’s service portfolio, their value to customers is greater than ever.

You can get more information regarding IntelePeer by visiting http://www.IntelePeer.com/

Channel Partners

Vidtel was highlighted for its Gateway application – this was nice to see, since normally we’re recognized for WebRTC usage with our MeetMe cloud video conferencing application.  But as we’ve talked about before, the Gateway app has a unique value proposition, which is more in demand than ever before with the rise of WebRTC.

Simply put, companies worldwide have premises-based MCUs in place in their network, they’re not in a position to rip them out – but the cost of that is that they miss the benefit of new advances like WebRTC.

But with Vidtel Gateway, companies can easily add WebRTC to their premises MCU – these companies then get all of the benefits of WebRTC, without having to ‘rip and replace’ their existing solution.

Kudos to Vidtel partner ACT Conferencing, who was also recognized for WebRTC leadership for their Forum service.

It’s no secret that the initial customer experience is critical to the success of any service.

Fundamentally, there are three reasons for customer churn: price, quality, and the customer experience.  If you’re selling Vidtel-powered solutions, you should be confident that on the first two areas, you are in great shape – you have a great solution at a market-disrupting price.

But that makes it critical that you ensure the initial customer turnup experience – the installation, training, and welcome process – is a delight to the customer.  This is what anchors your service for a long haul of recurring revenue.

Vidtel assists here – if you didn’t know, Vidtel provides you with brandable Dialing Guide docs that you can rebrand and send to your customer, to give them an easy reference page for how to join a MeetMe call via their legacy equipment, soft clients, Google, WebRTC, or Skype.  Vidtel also provides a brandable, customizable welcome email that you can customize to welcome all new customers to your service.

It’s common in the tech industry for companies to build great technology, but then drop the ball on the rollout process – don’t fall into this trap.  Make your welcome experience easy, simple, and obvious – and customers will embrace your service.

In a little over a month, Vidtel will exhibit at the Infocomm show in Orlando.

The great thing about Infocomm is that it’s specifically targeted at audiovisual community: the content, show floor, and diverse training courses are all geared specifically to our space.

Infocomm has a cool digital show brochure that’s worth checking out, but in particular we’d like to highlight this article from prominent industry analyst David Danto: The Changing Face of Collaboration – Disruptions in the World of Videoconferencing.

In this article, David looks at three huge trends in the videoconferencing market: (1) the decline of DSP-based conferencing, (2) the rise of cloud-based video conferencing services, and (3) the rise of very low cost video endpoints.  David also highlights some of the companies exhibiting at Infocomm who are demonstrating these disruptive technologies.  And yes, Vidtel is in the list.

It’s a really, really exciting time for video collaboration – cloud solutions, mobile solutions, WebRTC, and any-to-any interoperability are literally redefining how video communication is used.  Vidtel will be demonstrating all of this and more at the show, and once again, we’ll be joined by key technology and go-to-market partners from the Vidtel community.

Looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones at Infocomm – see you there!

Forrester: CIOs to cut spending on communications equipment, increase software investment, says Forrester

SAP: CIOs’ adoption of a “cloud first” strategy will double to 70% by 2016; Mid-market companies will also leverage more cloud services in 2013

Heavy Reading: analysis on which segments are using cloud video conferencing (includes the chart below)

Looking for a sales tool to send to your prospects?  Interested in educating your sales teams on the benefits of cloud-based video conferencing?

Vidtel has released a new white paper: Cloud-Based Video Conferencing – the Strategic Benefits to your business.

You’re invited to download this free whitepaper at http://www.vidtel.com/vidtel-white-paper-cloud-video/.  Please feel free to pass this link on to your colleagues, partners, and customers!

From the abstract:

Here’s a link to a transcript and recording from a recent podcast done by the great group at UCStrategies.com – the topic was “UC Innovation”, and Vidtel – and video  and WebRTC in general – were called out by the team.

It was great to get recognition not just for our service, but also our business model and our 100% commitment to our channel partners.   It was also great to be mentioned in such an esteemed group – lots of industry superstars here, including Vidtel partners ACT Conferencing, AVer, Burstpoint, Compunetix, IntelePeer, and Magor.

Here’s my favorite scene in my favorite film:

In a time of crisis, NASA’s engineers literally figured out a way to put a square peg into a round hole.

If you’re not familiar with the story, here’s the nickel summary: after a severe accident, when the Command Module was deemed unsafe, the three Apollo astronauts needed to move into the Lunar Module.  However, the Lunar Module was meant for three people, not two, and the team was quickly using up the oxygen in the module.  The Lunar Module had filters to remove carbon dioxide from the air, but the canisters that powered this filter (from the Command Module) were incompatible with the sockets in the Lunar Module.  Under time pressure, NASA’s engineers build a procedure - using only materials found on the Apollo craft – to connect the CO2 filters into the Lunar Module sockets.  They dump an inventory of supplies onto a table, sort through what they have at their disposal, and figure out a way to put things together in order to make a workable filter.

I’ve used this story for years – because in our industry, far too often we put our customers in this situation: we throw technology at customers (who have their own problems to worry about) and expect them to achieve Herculean levels of similar integration.

And here’s the thing – customers can do this – of course they can.  But that’s neither their interest, nor their core competency, so every time we ask them to do this, we make our solution a little less compelling.

Which is all a long-winded way of noting and praising today’s announcement from Clary and Vidtel.  Clary and Vidtel announced that the Clary OneScreen interactive whiteboard will be bundled with Vidtel’s cloud-based MeetMe video conferencing service.   Now customers get all of the value and benefit of the Clary whiteboard – but they’re not asking the customer to go jury-rig video conferencing capability into the Clary.

What Clary and Vidtel have done is make collaboration easy.  And that’s a clear win for customers.

Regular readers know that I typically focus more on the strategic and B2B benefits of cloud videoconferencing, and less so on the environmental benefits.

But today we celebrate Earth Day, and more than ever we’re seeing worldwide appreciation of the eco-benefits of video collaboration, whether it’s from working at home or avoiding unnecessary travel.

Forbes today quotes a study from USamp that zeroes in on the personal-responsibility angle of ecological conservation: simply put, USamp’s study shows that when employees work in their home, they’ll be more diligent about turning lights out, recycling, and limiting paper usage.

So here’s a salute to our home workers, and the companies and technologies that support them.  Happy Earth Day!

Tsahi Levent-Levi (a must-read on all topics WebRTC-oriented) has a nice analysis at bloggeek.me – his point isn’t that there’s a single “Skype killer” on the horizon; instead, the erosion of Skype will be a “death by a thousand cuts.”

The key graph:

On our side, we’re already seeing usage stats indicating that Skype usage to connect to Vidtel conferences is falling, and WebRTC usage is growing dramatically.  As more of our partners spin-up WebRTC-based access and applications, that rate will only increase.