Everyone who works in a large corporate environment appreciates how audio conferencing has become a much used technology within an organisation. Audio conferencing minutes can easily reach tens of millions of minutes in global organisations. As a very rough rule of thumb I would use 1million audio minutes per year per 1000 employees.
Dave Grady catches the frustration exceptionally well in his 5 minute video. Watch out for Nigel from the UK.
This started me thinking on how much time is wasted on audio calls waiting for the meeting to start? 3 to 5 minutes on every call?
It’s always good to see UC technology implemented in any organisation but when the deployment is generating operational benefits for the UN’s World Health Programme you can’t help but smile. I assume that the WFP will be treated as a charity and receive the software for a significantly reduced rate.
Take a look at the video from Twisted Pair Solutions on how they utilise their Wave solution to combine OCS, Radio systems, Mobiles and presence aware mapping.
Google may not be on many UC technology roadmaps today but I guarantee within 12 – 18 months if they keep developing Voice, Apps, Android, Docs, Talk, Chat and Chrome they will be.
While their development seems scattergun if they can consolidate their products into a single competitor to Office and deliver via their cloud infrastructure they have a shot at taking a slice of Microsoft’s $16billion market.
Here’s another example of how they are bringing together their Chrome, Android and most importantly their cloud platform.
The BBC reported over the weekend that a county in England (West Sussex) is trialing self service prescription vending machines. One of the major concerns with the self service model is the lack of specialist advice on hand from pharmacists. Unified Communications however is coming to rescue with PharmaTrust who have developed a vending machine with video conference capabilities, allowing patients to quickly access any advice they may need.
There is no doubt that UC can help deliver improved service to patients and make healthcare more effective, we need leaders in the healthcare industry to embrace the change and start to utilise the technology available to ensure the maximum available money is spent on patients.
Quote from the BBC;
Each year, 886 million prescription drug items are dispensed in England and it is hoped this new technology can streamline the process.
There are questions though over if it is safe to break the patient-pharmacist link, if drugs stored in the machine will be safe from thieves and if people could fraudulently pick up the medicine meant for others. Two different types of machines are being trialled with the aim of national roll-out across England. The supermarket chain Sainsbury’s is currently piloting a scheme in two of its West Sussex stores. After a year it will look at customer feedback, before deciding whether to extend to other stores. It is hoped the machines will speed up customer queuing times.
