Microsoft’s new Lobby feature in their upcoming “Communication Server 14″ release could be a solution to this curse. The “CS14″ team over at this blog post give a brief hint at the Lobby feature and “CS14″ UI.

Fundamentally the Lobby feature and the integrated Audio Conferencing feature should now negate the need to complete a constant roll call.  All those on the call will see who is on the call and the chair of the call doesn’t have to worry about unauthorised attendance.

I’ve said/written this many times but we are only starting to scratch the surface that Unified Communication can provide.

The stethoscope – medical icon, lifesaver and doctor’s best friend – is disappearing from hospitals across the world as physicians increasingly use their smartphones to monitor patients’ heartbeats.

More than 3 million doctors have downloaded a 59p application – invented by Peter Bentley, a researcher from University College London – which turns an Apple iPhone into a stethoscope.

Last week, Bentley introduced a free version of the app, which is being downloaded by more than 500 users a day. Experts say the software, a major advance in medical technology, has saved lives and enabled doctors in remote areas to access specialist expertise.

“Everybody is very excited about the potential of the adoption of mobile phone technology into the medical workplace, and rightly so,” said Bentley, who initially developed the app “as a fun toy”.

“Smartphones are incredibly powerful devices packed full of sensors, cameras, high-quality microphones with amazing displays,” he said. “They are capable of saving lives, saving money and improving healthcare in a dramatic fashion – and we carry these massively powerful computers in our pockets.”

Read the iStethoscope article in the Guardian here the article describes other Telemedicince technologies too.

BT today announced two further voice initiatives on its converged communications platform, BT Onevoice. To enable larger organisations to accelerate the adoption of communications applications to the desktop, BT is launching SIP trunking in a number of countries, delivering a clear migration path to unified communications. At the same time, BT has the global Microsoft qualification of BT Onevoice for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

BT Onevoice’s SIP trunking provides full connectivity between domestic country voice services and BT’s Onevoice global VPN to help customers reduce telephony costs and rapidly deploy converged applications. The service offers local numbering for both outgoing and incoming call traffic that can be delivered anywhere on a user’s network. Already available in the UK the services will be rolled out to the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France and the US in the coming months, with further regions, including Spain, to follow. In addition, by utilising SIP trunking, customers can reduce rental for access lines, reduce call costs, and improve collaboration for users, whether they be office based, on the move or based remotely.

BT also announced a commitment to deliver up to 25% reduction on voice communications for customers who already have a data network with BT, spend £700k on voice communications and then move their voice traffic to BT’s Onevoice product.  Devil of course will be in the detail.

Interesting to see another large incumbent telco start to broaden their UC offer to include support for products such as OCS and also start to offer guaranteed savings into the mix. While I fully expect the number of voice and video minutes to increase within an enterprise the per unit pricing will fall dramatically which creates real financial challenges for incumbents such as BT, AT%T, D-Telecom.

(please note I initially had guarantee savings and did not have the ‘up to’ 25% but having re-read I now notice BT are offering to commit up to 25% savings)

Michael Bolognino just released a blog post on Google Voice Blog explaining some of the really nice features that Voice/Gmail has built in, in case any of you lucky North Americans who has a Voice account didn’t know here are a few really nice features:

• Chrome click to dial extension:  see a number in Chrome and simply click to dial.  In my experience click to dial is the most popular feature when a UC system is deployed
• Call recording: click 4 and both parties are informed that the call is being recorded (I don’t think it is transcribed)
• Switch calls: a large number of calls require moving from one phone to another (eg from a mobile to landline or vice versa)  Google Voice allows the user to quickly switch the call from a chosen list of devices

I’m not sure Google/Cisco/IBM and Microsoft fully appreciate that voice remains at the centre of the UC&C tower – I think Cisco probably understand this more.  If one company can capture the voice element they will have an extremely good opportunity to attack email, instant messaging and collaboration platforms that are multi billion pound/dollar markets.  If Google keep innovating Voice they have a real chance at creating a spearhead for their Google Apps business……now please Google can you launch in Europe?

I personally don’t see the fit, unlike the excellent recent aquisition of Tandberg.  Is it a defensive move to prevent voice minutes leeking away from Cisco’s business CUCM product range or is it a pure consumer play?

If you are interested in Microsoft’s BPOS take a look over at Brett’s Blog.  It contains everything you need to know to get started with BPOS.

Goto technet document

This has got me thinking as to the potential use for this application.   I’m sure there are many more use cases but here are a few off the top of my head:

• Multi language helpdesk/website support.  The UC platform already allows an organisation to embed IM into their website, enabling Bing Translation now allows an organisation to support customers in multiple languages without investing in costly translation services or multi language resource
• Emergency translation services.  Although limited in number there are times when organisations/individuals need immediate contact to answer an emergency call and there is a lag if a translator is required.  A quick IM conversation could answer the call without having to search for the translator
• Clearly within the multinational business environment the ability to seamlessly communicate across boundaries without everyone having to rely on a single language is a significant benefit and there will be many different use case generated by such organisations
• And perhaps more exciting is for the SME market place.  Large organisations can devote resources to overcome language barriers (or simply dictate a primary language) but for the SME that is venturing into a foreign market for the first time language can be a significant challenge.  Such a solution could help a business overcome the challenge.

Unified Communications coupled with critical mass and an open platform deployed within an organisation can dramatically change how that organisation operates, this is just one small example of the countless possibilities that UC can deliver.

Sametime blog is here

A reminder from our energetic LotusUserGroup.org community and the Virtual User Group program: join Lotus product managers Rob Ingram and Kathleen Cooke on September 14, 2011 for a brief, but information-packed 30 minute webcast on what’s new in IBM Lotus® Sametime® 8.5.1 and IBM Lotus Sametime Unified Telephony 8.5.1 software:

• Come see what the 8.5.1 release looks like on the Mac 10.6, Linux, and other popular desktop and mobile device environments.
• Discover how the new Sametime Unified Telephony 8.5.1 release provides support for additional client platforms and simplifies client deployment.
• See how to reduce calling costs with softphone, call management, and aggregated presence awareness.
• Get a peek at what a real consistent user communications experience looks like with a demonstration of telephony presence, incoming call management, click-to-call, click-to-conference, and softphone capability
• Learn how to activate telephony features via administrator policies
• Hear what early deployment customers are saying
• Q&A with the product management team

The 10 digit number of course will still be around but there will be a new UI between the user and the dialled number.  The closest analogy I can think of is IP addressing.  Every form of communication on the internet requires an IP address but less than 1% of people use IP addresses to access content or read a web page.

Soon enough when you want to contact someone you’ll find a contact button on their facebook, twitter or corporate communication system and click to dial.  Dialing a number will be a thing of the past.

I’m certain my grandkids will never dial a phone number, or even have one. It’s time to say goodbye to ten digits along with the world’s oldest social network.  While we’re at it, let’s kill phone-tree mazes, do-not-call lists…everything associated with phone numbers.

Don’t misconstrue what I’m saying. This isn’t the demise of phone calls.  Far from it.  People will still talk on their phones.  They just want the service to be simple and fun, which won’t entail punching digits into a device to start a conversation.