September 2001
 

BY RICH TEHRANI

Eventually, the real world receded into a haze, and when my sight finally cleared, I looked upon a sumptuous jungle, while my ears rang with the incessant and slightly mechanical croaking of frogs, a sound that I can best describe as a rich, throaty "Kewll ... Kewll ... Kewll ..." I scarcely had time to ponder my predicament before I heard yet louder noises. Grunts of exertion, and desperate cries of "Catch me! Now!! Please!!! Arrrrgggghhhh!!!!" Then, the blood-curdling cries would fade, followed by the faint sounds of something falling through a distant jungle canopy. And then, finally, I would hear a sickening thud.

I had to investigate. Hacking through the dense undergrowth with a machete, I headed off in the direction of all the noise. After much effort, I finally reached a clearing, which opened, to my astonishment, onto a gaping chasm. On my side of the abyss I saw an eager crowd, some neatly attired in khaki slacks and colorful polo shirts, others looking unkempt, almost shabby. One by one, they hurled themselves over the Bleeding Edge, attempting to leap clear to the other side of the chasm, where another group of people stood, many in formal business attire. In most cases, the jumpers would fall short of their goal by mere inches. An excruciating sight it was, as they reached out at the last moment, only to be met by cool stares. Never did the people on the other side reach out themselves. Instead, they kept their arms crossed, and they watched impassively as one after another of their opposite number plunged into the darkness below.

I couldn't contain myself. I exclaimed, "This is madness!" Those near to me cheerfully replied that, on the contrary, this was high adventure, a wonderful contest. And the contest had a name. "This," winked one fellow, drawing out his next word in a jovial if smarmy croon, "...Is ..." -- and here everybody joined in, shouting -- "Leap! ... Of! ... Faith!"

This staccato outburst left me speechless, and I stood in disbelief as the friendly jumpers explained that anybody who managed to leap clear to the other side would collect untold riches. In fact, a few (very few!) had already succeeded. These few had launched themselves from the Plane of Innovation, sailed over the abyss in a flurry of press announcements, and landed safely on the other side, where they were adopted by the Mainstream People, who evidently liked nothing better than spoiling their new charges, awarding them fat checks all covered with zeros. The Happy Innovators could then enjoy cushy security, while their yachts plied the tranquil waters of the Mainstream ever after. Or such were the legends.

Amidst all the chatter, I ventured a question, "Has it ever occurred to anybody to build a bridge?" Silence. And then, a little more sternly this time, I asked, "Has it ever occurred to anybody to ask the Mainstream People if they'd like to start building their half of the bridge from their side?" More silence. You could even hear the "Kewll ... Kewll ... Kewll..." of the frogs again.

I sighed. But I wasn't completely resigned. "Well," I said, "Maybe I can help." I took out my trusty iPAQ, holding it high above my head, waving it at the Mainstream People on the other side of the chasm. A few of the Mainstream People responded in kind, brandishing their own iPAQs, which now and then caught a ray of sunshine, glinting reassuringly. We then took advantage of the iPAQ's infrared communications capabilities, passing messages back and forth. And we exchanged e-mail addresses, so that we could send longer and more complete messages.

The Innovators pressed around me. "What are the Mainstream People saying? Tell us! Tell us now!"

"Well," I replied, "They don't want cool technology just for its own sake. They want standards. They want solutions. And they want service and support."

A groan rose up. "Aw... that's what they always want! And they'll even refuse that unless it's already obvious that everybody wants it at the same time they do! Can't they exercise just a little imagination? Can't they cultivate just a teensy bit of technical savvy?"

"Well, I had the impression that technical imagination was part of your job." (As you can imagine, there was much grumbling at this point!) "Look," I said, "It's not that bad. You just have to be willing to meet them halfway. They invest considerable time and effort trying to follow all of your innovations. Look at all the publications they read, and all the conferences they attend. But they want more than all of your self-serving stories about the 'how' of innovation. They also need to know about the 'why' of innovation. And, yes, to use an overworked but under-realized term, they want solutions."

"Okay, okay, we get the message. But what do we do? How do we emphasize the 'why' and not the 'how'? Can you show us some examples?"

And the funny thing was, just then, when I had finally seized their attention, I felt distracted. I had such an ache in my neck. Hey! That was it. I got that ache from resting my head on all those media kits. Maybe I could cite a few media kits that were examples of effective communication, that effectively narrowed the gap between "how" and "why." And maybe, just maybe, with a little extra push from me, these examples could suggest a way for both sides to bridge the chasm between them.

BOTH SIDES NOW
When I distinguish between how and why, I mean to emphasize the need to encompass the unique and the commonplace, the specific and the general, the technologically novel and the perennially work-a-day. I mean to advocate a balanced approach. Unfortunately, the balanced approach may be forgotten when technology is especially engaging. But the more powerful the technology, the greater the need to remember the humble basics; just as the higher the building, the greater the need to install a massive foundation.

Basic or foundational information is largely about context, and it can be as simple as filling in the blanks in a statement such as the following: "We do X. Unlike others that do X, we also do Y." Unfortunately, such is the mania to be unique that many avoid such statements. Instead, all too often, we hear something like this: "We do Z. Nobody else does Z." Needless to say, Z is usually filled in with some overly slick, made-up marketing term unique to a particular vendor. The problem is, the "Z" approach is self-referential and scorns context. Moreover, each instance of the Z approach contributes to an increasingly context-free information environment, a confusing proliferation of Z's (little wonder the Mainstream people in our story didn't catch the leaping Innovators. The Innovators had "Z" written all over them).

PLATFORMS AND PARTNERS
Some of the best information is the most selfless -- or, at the least, is self-interested but only indirectly. Such information is often available from platform providers. Such providers know all too well that platforms themselves aren't all that compelling, not without interesting examples of what the platform may support. Accordingly, platform providers will tirelessly provide contextual information about their customers, or partners, to use the preferred term. Platform providers typically emphasize distribution channels, development opportunities, and the cascading nature of the value chain.

A conspicuous example is Intel, particularly with reference to its Converged Communications Platform, which supports compatible telephony and business software applications, peripherals, and services from multiple vendors on a single system. As vendors demonstrate compatibility via the standard voice processing and network interfaces supported by CT Media, Intel has the opportunity to cite partner contributions from software PBX, messaging, fax server, IVR, voice portal, contact center, and call reporting applications.

At present, the platform emphasizes communication systems for small to mid-sized businesses. Ultimately, Intel will support OEMs and ISVs in their development of high-value solutions for their channels and hosting models. In its literature describing these plans, Intel takes pains to address several very general but nonetheless crucial issues. These issues, identified in a research study on converged PBX technology by International Data Corporation, include potential channel complications (voice VARs focused on voice, data VARs on data, and the relative scarcity of converged, cross-over expertise), a lack of compelling applications, non-standard telephony and network interfaces, scalability concerns, and the need to provide opportunities for VAR customization.

As you might expect, Intel offers assurances for each point. One point, however, may merit special attention -- namely, the availability of compelling applications. Of late, this point seems less troubling than previously, when platform providers were wont to cite "future applications as yet unheard of," suggesting that developers would come along to save the day, and that we just needed a little faith and patience in the meantime.

Hardly an argument to reassure the Mainstream. But Mainstreamers may yet take heart, now that more and more announcements indicate that developers are indeed filling in blanks that nobody knew existed, inspiring some to describe development communities as ecosystems -- a term suggesting that while nature may boast of biodiversity, industry may, by analogy, assert technodiversity.

Intel, for example, has its CT Media Value Network. Another example is Cisco, which recently announced enhancements to its IP telephony solutions. The enhancements include Cisco Personal Assistant, Cisco Unity 2.46 unified messaging, Cisco IP Integrated Contact Distribution (IP-ICD), the Cisco IP Phone Productivity Services (PPS) applications suite, the Cisco CallManager 3.1 call processing system, and the Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRS Telephony) feature that is now part of the Cisco IOS Software.

The Personal Assistant is notable as an IP-based telephony application that may enhance voice communications with personal call rules and speech recognition. For example, users may establish conference calls from any telephone using voice commands instead of the telephone keypad. Also, users may rely on a browser-based interface to set up rules for forwarding and screening calls in advance or in real time, without the assistance of a system administrator.

The Phone Productivity Services offering represents a suite of extensible markup language (XML)-based applications that may turn Cisco IP phones into Internet thin-client devices, with interactive soft keys and large LCD displays providing access to such services as e-mail, voice mail, calendar information, stock quotes, weather, and personal contact information. In addition, a development suite known as the E-Service Application Engine provides an open environment in which developers can create myriad new applications targeted at specific business needs in various vertical markets such as travel, financial services, and education.

With these developments, it would appear that Cisco takes to heart the observations of Elizabeth Ussher, vice president of convergence for the META Group: "Enterprises anticipate that developing and deploying IP applications across converged networks will provide increased productivity and operational cost savings over time. Once an enterprise has established a converged network infrastructure, it is the integration of applications that offers these benefits and provides compelling reasons for enterprise customers to consider moving to a converged solution." Very mainstream.

CHECKING REFERENCES
Another sure sign that platform providers are looking to broaden their appeal beyond early adopters is the release of information about "customer wins" or successful beta deployments. A recent example comes from Motorola Computer Group (MCG), which recently unveiled plans for its Multi-Service Packet Transport Platform, or MXP. The platform, engineered for high availability and carrier-grade applications, is designed to meet the needs of telecom OEMs challenged to rapidly bring out products capable of bridging various generations of networks, scalable to meet increasing bandwidth requirements, and compatible with open standards to minimize costs and development time.

Remarks by MCG's director of marketing, Paul Virgo, demonstrate the cross-over mentality not only by emphasizing success with early adopters, but a commitment to standards: "The beauty of this architecture is that it can be adapted to many different applications, since the communication between any two slots is not contingent on what protocols may exist elsewhere in the platform. Motorola has been delivering a mesh fabric solution to early adopter customers for over six months through our PXP series. The MXP, with an expanded 18 x 18 mesh and defined network processors that can take full advantage of the architecture, is capable of up to 700 Gbps of throughput. Now that we have validated the architecture through real customer applications and have improved the overall system performance, we are ready to submit the mesh fabric for standardization through industry standard committees."

TYING UP LOOSE ENDS
Another theme dear to the hearts of Mainstreamers is consolidation and simplification. Consequently, this theme eventually emerges in discussions of new platforms, such as the Syntellect Vista platform, which is currently incorporating new elements designed to support enterprise voice portals.

Whereas a typical voice portal may be as simple as a Web site equipped with speech recognition and text-to-speech capability, an enterprise voice portal, according to Syntellect, is more ambitious. An enterprise voice portal extends voice access capabilities across multiple applications, and not just for consumers, but also to other constituencies, including employees, suppliers, partners, and investors. These additional constituencies are often more demanding, needing to access complex data structures, including legacy data sources. Also, they may be even more interested than consumers in moving from an automated session to immediate live assistance.

Accordingly, Syntellect intends to leverage its IVR and legacy data integration expertise, extending its capabilities via voice XML-based development, to support enterprise voice portals relying on a common voice platform, a single text-to-speech and speech recognition engine, and reusable grammars. Syntellect foresees its approach, which it calls Interactive Media Response (IMR), tying together enterprise information access functions such as sales force automation, distribution, employee benefits, quote management, contact center, order processing, and other applications as needed.

Syntellect, aware of the growing popularity of VoiceXML, and the waning relevance of traditional IVR hardware platforms, is positioning itself as a provider of a bridging solution, one that can immediately offer the benefits of voice access to data while the standards for the Speech Interface Framework (SIF) are developed. That is, Syntellect cites both the advantages and the limitations of the W3C's SIF, while describing its approach to addressing these limitations. These include the lack of a third-party call control specification, the lack of an outbound specification, the inability to accommodate media exchange, and the presence of incompatible extensions designed to work around the holes in the specification. According to Syntellect, its IMR approach includes the ability to access the data, application, or transaction service, regardless of where it resides; the ability to respond with spoken voice, fax, e-mail, or wireless text; the ability to transfer the user from unassisted to assisted service at any time within the interaction history; and the ability to write applications, integrate third-party components, call third-party services, and absorb third-party software objects using standard languages (Java, VoiceXML).

OUT OF LOCK-STEP
As wonderful as new technology may be, actual deployments may pose an uncomfortable trade-off. On the one hand, you may be able to extend automation into new areas of functionality, while at the same time enlarging the potential scale of business processes. On the other hand, you may find yourself sacrificing the personal touch and the kind of intelligence and flexibility you would take for granted with a competent human being. Consider auto-attendant functionality. Auto-attendants have enjoyed wide deployment, and yet many chafe at their limitations, both callers and the employees for whom auto-attendants are designed to spare effort.

Caller frustrations are already well known. But less attention is devoted to employees who often feel ill-served by generic auto-attendants, which may impose an unwelcome uniformity of treatment in terms of IVR scripts and call routing logic. Employees performing different functions, from collections to human resources to engineering to whatever, might well appreciate auto-attendant treatments. Moreover, individual employees might appreciate highly customizable auto-attendant features. Imagine unique IVR scripts and follow-me routing rules from extension to extension. Such a capability would go far towards minimizing technology's tendency toward oppressive pre-fab consistency. (Ever notice how schools, prisons, post offices, dental offices, and all manner of "facilities" have all started to look alike? A thoughtless tendency towards dreary uniformity can infect communications, too.)

Fortunately, thoughtful applications of technology can resist the "gray wave." One such application is available from Object World, which offers a unified messaging application called CallAttendant Office. According to Object World, it brings call flow control to individual desktops, allowing users to manipulate their own call flow requirements by means of a graphical interface and drag-and-drop elements. Individual users may create scripts of how their own calls should be handled.

A BRIDGE TO HEAVEN?
A poet once wrote that "a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?" He must have had innovators and early adopters in mind, for the sentiment would probably strike mainstream sorts as imprudent. Mainstreamers want to know that if they take the trouble to reach, that they'll be guaranteed something to grasp, and that whatever they grasp won't fail, dragging them down as well. Accordingly, innovators need to account for a range of priorities and attitudes, from the adventurous to the conservative, staging the development of technological solutions, including communications solutions, accordingly.

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