Welcome from the newest blogger on the Avaya blogroll. My name is Wilson Korol and I am the new Sustainability Business Leader here at Avaya, coming over from Nortel in the acquisition that took place in December 2009. My contributions to the avaya.com blog will focus on green and sustainability in the corporate setting, with particular attention paid to the tech sector.More
The scenario: In a virtual desktop environment the users have only a thin client on their desks. The thin client (a web browser, Citrix client or Wyse terminal) accesses the business and office applications running on a server in the data center or in the cloud. Technical terms used for this are Desktop Virtualization (VDI, Microsoft Web Access) or Cloud Computing (Google docs and Apps). In my humble opinion (IMHO) desktop virtualization is great when you want to ensure nobody can copy your customer data and walk away with it. There is simply no way to copy any data on...More
Apple recently announced it's long rumored iPad tablet device. With all the buzz the announcement is creating, it reminded me of another modern communications issue I have; too many devices! The explosion in device technologies and types is a major part of the communication revolution and the challenges it presents to us. The communication revolution is driven by new communication modes being adopted today; social networks, texting, IM, video, blogs, RSS feeds and more. It's also driven by the emerging new devices and technologies, especially smart phones, and the ever advancing capabilities they are giving us. We have smart phones,...More
A way to honor those swept up by recent events is to not miss this moment of learning. Our organizations may have been spared the immediate impacts this time, but none of us are outside the window of probability for some future event. Now is the time to learn, plan, and act so that in some small way, those who have fallen may not have gone in vain. More
In Eastern beliefs, “Karma is the law of moral causation.” You don’t have to understand the intricacies of this ancient philosophy to see the wisdom in the Sanskrit text, “According to the seed that’s sown, So is the fruit you reap there from…” Today, the concept of the karmic effect seems to be expressing itself in the marketplace accelerated by the explosion of social networking. What are your customer’s social networks beliefs about your company?More
Today Apple announced their ipad tablet. In my opinion its a device targeted to playback/display media (web, video, ebook) and gaming - leveraging its 10 inch screen, 1 Ghz processor, 3G and WiFi and integrated graphics controller. Additionally, standard Apple office applications such as iWork were demonstrated. Apple also presented a consumer - oriented ECO-system with web-browsing, ebooks, e-newspaper and Games. Obviously a great product that takes the i Pod touch concept to a larger screen. Lets compare this offering with the needs of Enterprise level collaboration. My view on the requirements for enterprise: 1) Multiple real time sessions. Multi...More
Cloud computing / desktop virtualization together with real time communicaiton / collaboration allows exciting new solutions to business problems. In today's blog we cover the challenges of the retail store manager. The issue: Establishing a great relationship between the customers and the store is the prime goal of retail store managers. That makes customers return - thus driving revenue. So the retail store managers should spend the majority of their time on the shop floor. Instead they spend a substantial part of their time in the backoffice in front of their PC doing administrative work. Thus there is need to...More
20 years after the landmark book, Total Customer Service: The Ultimate Weapon, The 6 Laws of Customer Experience add new competitive weapons to the arsenal. More
In the past decade, a sea-change has taken place in the way voice and data communications are structured, delivered and used by businesses around the world. As we kick off the second decade of the New Millennium, what’s in store for the brave new world of communications? Here are the top 10 areas we expect to see action in 2010:More
At the end of the last decade we saw Amazon snap up Zappos for $928 Million. Combining two of the most customer focused organizations I am aware of on the web and making one of the most powerful customer centric companies out there.More
It’s no surprise that Direct Marketing response rates have dropped to a historic low with success rates in the low single digits. And further - that marketing organizations are becoming increasingly focused on Inbound Marketing (credit HubSpot for creating this term) which are a source of much higher response rates.More
This post is part 2 of a series of posts on the Communication Revolution and Deep Impact it has on us. Part 1 of the series discussed how the Communication Revolution has brought on information overload and communication management issues. This post focuses on the impact that new technology and communication modes have had on our social communication behavior and preferences. Ultimately the series will end with recommendations and examples of what Unified Communication solutions can do to help us better cope with the less positive side effects of this revolution. The Communication Revolution has given us mobile phones, social...More
With the Communication Revolution going on today many of us suffer information overload or management issues from time to time. Information overload and/or inefficient management of communication carries a cost. This post is part 1 of a series described here. If you haven't read that it may help to go do so to set the stage and context for the follow-on posts. This series of posts is regarding the communication revolution and where new Unified Communication solutions that are needed as a result. What is information overload? This link gives good background on the problem. Using myself as an example,...More
My prediction: Thursday December 24th, approximately 1:00 PM – in your office. It will go something like this: A few of the sales team are hovering around the fax machine; fingers crossed, ever hopeful for those last minute orders. Tapping their fingers and getting impatient – not because the order may slip into next quarter if it doesn’t arrive, but that time is ticking away and they still haven’t picked up a gift for their significant other (incidentally, the other half of the sales-team is no-where to be seen; they had a round, err, meeting at the golf club as they already made their quotas in November – curse them!)… More
The danger, I guess, of thinking about how useful a social network can be to leverage is that we can lose sight of the simple, easy ways to communicate that don't require that social network at all.More
There's no doubt we're in a communications revolution. It's like a "deep impact" asteroid ready to strike unless we take steps to divert it! Social networking, real time news and blog feeds, and the continued advances and adoption of mobile smart phones have been some of the major drivers of this change over the last 5 years. These advances have given us communication & information access anywhere, all the time, and in real time. A good thing, right? Yes, mostly. This revolution has also created new challenges and behavior changes for individuals and enterprises. More than ever we wrestle with...More
A fundamental change is underway in how real-time communications occur. The advent of the Telecommunications Session is a revolutionary concept that promises to change the basic nature of electronic communications. The power of the session is just becoming apparent and it has the potential to be one of those seminal changes that causes a ripple effect across business and life.More
As a customer, I have found exceptional customer service experiences rare. One recent exception was an experience that redefined the company that I was doing business with in my eyes. They went from being a generic source of inexpensive consumer electronics to a company that has gained my loyalty. More
Let's face it, we have more ways than ever to connect with each other. To help you keep up with a variety of business communication topics, we share our perspectives and ideas here. We hope Avaya Insights will be your starting point for answers as you explore your next communications challenge.
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