Simon's blog
The purchasing arm of the UK government recently awarded a teleheath framework agreement to TeleHealth Solutions who are a UK company supplying technology and consulting to the Health sector who require telehealth services.
Take a look at TeleHealth Solutions here
Popularity: 15% [?]
Posted in Unified Communications, Use Cases, telehealth.
– August 28, 2010
Again not normally a big fan of these types of video, they tend not to pitch at the right level. But this one is quite good, of course there is the standard corporate look and feel but don’t let that distract you from the central message that deploying UC can enable significant and tangible benefits within your business/project. Take a look at the video but here are some points I would like to draw out. Both positive and negative.
Good messages:
Negative:
There is no point having such great functionality when it is difficult to set up and can not always be relied upon during a vital sales pitch. If UC vendors can work through the usability issues the benefits expressed in the video are certainly achievable.
Popularity: 17% [?]
Posted in Unified Communications, Use Cases.
– August 26, 2010
If anyone has any doubts that Google aren’t making a major push into the UC market place TechCrunch highlight how Google are just about to launch Gmail and Google Talk integration. This is another clear sign that Google want to attack Skype in the consumer market and Microsoft/Cisco et al in the business market.
I think TechCrunch may have scooped the launch given that the Google Voice Blog entry has September as a post date.
Now all we need is for Google to release Google Voice outside of the US/Canada
And here is the Google Voice video
Popularity: 20% [?]
Posted in Google, UC Vendors, Unified Communications.
– August 25, 2010
I don’t normally like the arguments between vendors but this video is quite funny and the message to Cisco is loud and clear – unify your Unified Communications product range. Until you do you will be open to this type of attack from your competitors.
Popularity: 18% [?]
Posted in Cisco, Microsoft, UC Vendors.
– August 25, 2010
AT&T yesterday announced that their enterprise customers can take advantage of integrated VoiP solutions when they take private IP VPN from AT&T. This makes a great deal of sense for customers who would like to experiment with VoiP services on an existing network platform. The press release makes special mention of OCS SIP trunking.
AT&T* announced today that new and existing virtual private network (VPN) customers may add VoIP service to the network solution delivered over AT&T’s global network cloud.
This converged solution will enable customers to consolidate their separate voice and data networks, reduce equipment and maintenance costs, and simplify migrating these complimentary capabilities to a common, secure infrastructure. By migrating to a common infrastructure, customers are able to take advantage of additional applications as AT&T makes them available, such as unified communications capabilities.
The AT&T VoIP portfolio is also certified for interoperability with leading industry providers of IP-PBX systems, such as SIP Trunking services qualified for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, providing support for businesses planning to incorporate a comprehensive unified communications solution in the future.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Posted in AT&T, UC Vendors.
– August 25, 2010
Unified Communications – especially presence, skill search, interactive real time applications and video – can and will revolutionise health care. It’s great to see that everyday their are articles related to the investment in Telemedicine across the world.
UC can reduce the cost of providing health care and provide faster and wider access to specialist skills. Given the amount of examples I’ll be keeping a running score of articles I come across.
From FireceTelecom California has recently launched a Telemedicine network:
California residents will now be able to tap into new health care capabilities as the state officially launched its California Telehealth Network (CTN) this week.
The CTN, which was announced by Arnold Schwarzenegger, California’s governor, and U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra at the UC Davis Cancer Center in Sacramento, will connect more than 800 California healthcare facilities to a statewide medical-grade network of healthcare and emergency services.
And the growing nations of India, Brazil, Russia and China are also investing, from Heatlhcareitnews:
DALLAS – A new research report from MarketsandMarkets (M&M), a U.S.-based global market research and consulting firm, shows that the telemedicine market in Brazil, Russia, India and China can be expected grow to nearly half a billion dollars in the coming years.
The study, “Telemedicine Market in Brazil, Russia, India, China (BRIC) – Advanced Technologies, Global Forecast,” shows that the telemedicine sector in those fast-emerging economies is expected to reach a market size of $418.4 million by the year 2014, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.8 percent from 2009 to 2014.
Popularity: 23% [?]
Posted in Unified Communications.
– August 23, 2010
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?
Popularity: 12% [?]
Posted in Unified Communications.
– August 21, 2010
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.
Twisted Pair’s website can be found here
Popularity: 59% [?]
Posted in Use Cases.
– August 18, 2010
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.
Popularity: 17% [?]
Posted in Google, Unified Communications.
– August 17, 2010
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.
And here is a video of the PharmaTrust vending machine that includes the video conference capability.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Posted in Unified Communications, Use Cases.
– August 16, 2010
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