For Mauro Calvi, CEO of Managed Service Provider Clearfly Communications, the troubled economy has been an unlikely source of opportunity.

 

Yes, companies are busily slashing their IT budgets to survive the global economic downturn.

 

Regardless, says Calvi, they are still eager to invest in technology that will reduce their mobile-communications costs, improve communication and increase productivity.

 

And, Calvi adds, DiVitas (News - Alert) Mobile UC falls squarely into the cost-saving, productivity-boosting camp – making Mobile UC a solution that is being deployed today.

 

“The tougher the financial conditions, the harder organizations look for ways to stretch their dollars,” said Calvi, whose company, Clearfly, offers DiVitas Mobile UC as a managed service. “Companies want to take advantage of the significant investment they’ve already made in their PBXs and their wireless LANs, and they want maximum value from their corporate smartphone purchases. DiVitas Mobile UC meets these challenges head on.”

 

Clearfly offers integrated service packages in 14 Western states, excluding California and Nevada. Its customers, ranging in size from 10 to 500 employees, are deploying DiVitas Mobile UC as a managed service to:

 

--Leverage their WiFi (News - Alert) investment: Mobile UC dramatically reduces mobile communications costs by offloading expensive cellular calls to free WiFi. Mobile UC places and receives calls over WiFi when possible, offering landline-like voice quality on a mobile phone. Better voice quality improves productivity.

 

--Leverage their PBX (News - Alert) investment: Mobile UC moves the deskphone to a smartphone, making individuals more accessible by their company number regardless of location, which improves reachability and productivity.

 

DiVitas Mobile UC Puts Customer Investments to Work

 

Leveraging PBX and WiFi investments, reducing cellular costs and improving productivity conspire to allow customers to quickly realize cost saving benefits from their Mobile UC deployment. It is for this reason, says Calvi, that his customers are eager to extend their mobile-communications infrastructure with the additional DiVitas solution – despite the economy-induced financial belt tightening.

 

“Layering DiVitas Mobile UC on top of an existing mobile-communications infrastructure is painless for our customers, and they begin realizing benefits from day one,” says Calvi. “Cellular bills drop immediately, and voice quality improves right away – our customers are on their way to realizing cost savings and improved productivity as soon as they start using DiVitas.”

 

Reduce Costs

 

With DiVitas Mobile UC, individuals roam seamlessly between WiFi and cellular networks, allowing calls to be placed or received via WiFi preferentially if a WiFi signal is available. Seamless roaming saves on mobile-communications costs by reducing the number of monthly cellular minutes used.

 

This cost saving benefit has great appeal to companies needing to cut costs without sacrificing productivity. With Mobile UC, voice coverage is continuous, but free WiFi calls offload cellular minutes to reduce costs. For example, Calvi estimates that the average Clearfly customer spends about $90 to $100 per mobile user, per month, and saves up to 30 percent off that cost by deploying DiVitas to displace cellular with WiFi.

Improve Voice Quality

DiVitas voice quality is as good as a deskphone when running over WiFi, and this is very appealing to users who rely on their mobile phones for their business calls. While cellular calls can be choppy and disruptive, DiVitas Voice over WiFi (VoWiFi) call quality is virtually indistinguishable from landline calls. Clearfly uses the Nokia (News - Alert) ESeries smartphones in its DiVitas Mobile UC deployments.

VoWiFi is furthermore particularly important in regions, such as those served by Clearfly, where reception is spotty due to inadequate carrier coverage. When a WLAN is available, DiVitas detects the WiFi network and moves the call seamlessly away from cellular to WiFi. This WiFi connection can be at the office, home or any hotspot.

By relying on WiFi to extend cellular coverage, highly mobile individuals are assured that they can be continuously reachable by their smartphones. Fewer lost signals due to poor cellular coverage along with crisp voice quality means increased productivity.

“We have been using DiVitas Mobile UC for a year and a half and we notice a major voice quality improvement when we are in WiFi mode,” says Calvi. “Because so much of the Clearfly team is frequently on the road and in mobile-communications mode, we all appreciate the exceptional voice quality – especially during conference calls. High voice quality really helps the conversation flow.”

Moving the Deskphone onto a Smartphone

Additionally, DiVitas Mobile UC enables smartphones to carry the same phone number and features (extension dialing, call transfer, hold, etc.) as a deskphone. Moving the deskphone onto a smartphone untethers office workers from their desks by offering single-number reach (the phone carries the same number as the deskphone). Also, the availability of deskphone features – including a single voicemail inbox – provides individuals with in-office-like capabilities necessary for efficient business communication, regardless of their location.

Relying on smartphones for the majority of business communications brings greater value to mobile phone purchases. In many cases companies are spared the expense of purchasing and supporting two phones and two phone numbers – a deskphone and mobile phone – because the smartphone serves both purposes. Additionally, end users are better able to do their jobs because they are more reachable, miss fewer calls and no longer need to juggle multiple phone numbers and voicemail inboxes.

“A major benefit of Mobile UC for our customers is being able to make mobile-communications more reliable,” says Calvi. “They are assured that when they dial a corporate extension, it doesn’t matter where their contact is physically located at that moment – whether that contact is at home, in the office or on the road, he can be reached directly by dialing his extension number.”

Managed Service Providers and Mobile UC

Clearfly is already seeing significant demand for Mobile UC from a variety of verticals, ranging from healthcare to manufacturing. The Managed Service Provider installs the CPE (customer premises equipment) at its customer locations then deploys and manages the Mobile UC solution.

This managed-services model for Mobile UC is practical for the SMB-sized customer Clearfly serves. As IT organizations downsize, or are expected to do more with the same staffs, they are turning to third parties and managed services.

According to Nemertes Research, 63 percent of organizations are now using or evaluating some flavor of managed service at one or more of their branch locations, and those who are using third-party services to extend them to 89 percent of their locations. This is an increase from the 46 percent in 2007 and just 27 percent in 2006.

Presence and IM

Clearfly customers are additionally interested in the Unified Communications (News - Alert) features of the DiVitas Mobile UC solution, including Presence and Instant Messaging (IM).

These capabilities allow individuals to broadcast their availability (Presence icons depict whether they are available by voice only, text only, voice and text, or unavailable). And they allow them to state specifically where they are and what they are doing (a companion microblog feature allows them to write customized details about their whereabouts i.e. “at the airport waiting for a 5-hour flight”). Based on the status message (i.e. “in a meeting” and “available by text only”), colleagues know whether to call, don’t call or send a discreet IM at any given moment.

However, in the case of Clearfly’s SMB customers, UC features are a close second to economic-justifications on the list of benefits and priorities.

“Our customers are definitely interested in taking advantage of Presence and IM to further improve their reachability and productivity,” says Calvi. “But their first thought out of the gate is to see immediate benefits that result from reduced cellular costs, improved voice communication and leveraged WiFi and PBX investments.”