New Qwest IVR Gives Enterprises More Flexibility

Welcome news for enterprises with limited development resources that are looking for more control, flexibility and speed with their IVR design and deployment: Qwest added a customizable interactive voice response service to its Qwest Contact Center offering.

“Qwest iQ On Demand IVR” is a portal-based application development tool that allows Qwest customers to create and manage automated contact management applications on Qwest’s hosted contact center solution.

The ability to customize customer interaction interfaces is a step forward in improving customer experience for smaller companies that do not have large development staff, says Sam Bloomfield, Telwares’ contact center practice leader.

But the tool isn’t sufficient to ensure good customer experience or profitability, he cautions. It’s up to enterprise IVR designers and operations managers to craft the kind of interactions that are customer-focused and lucrative.

Don’t have that kind of expertise in-house? Check out Telwares’ contact center practice.

Users can develop a customized IVR app in real time and create libraries of applications that can be turned on or off as needed, Qwest explains.

The IVR is enhanced with voicemail, speech recognition, call recording, reporting and analytics. The capabilities are delivered via software as a service, which enables integration with other sales and customer applications and enterprise data.

Qwest claims cloud-based delivery will save enterprises money on new and ongoing application development, plus infrastructure costs are incurred as a variable operating expense (not a capital expense) and it enables a pay-per-use model.

Qwest has 700 customers deployed on its contact center solutions and handles approximately 5 million calls per month within its contact center portfolio.

The IVR solution was developed in partnership with Angel.com, which provides enterprise-focused cloud-based customer experience solutions via a software-as-a-service platform.

Supreme Court: Audit of Texts Not a Privacy Violation

A Supreme Court case involving a police officer, a pager and some X-rated texts could change how your enterprise approaches employees’ text messaging privacy.

The court ruled that the city of Ontario, Calif., did not violate police officers’ rights when it reviewed a transcript of their text messages. Read the full opinion in Ontario v. Quon here.

This ruling is only one of many scenarios that reflect a market-wide grey area for legal, compliance and audit personnel globally, based on Telwares’ six years of first-hand experience advising large enterprise clients on IT and telecom risk mitigation and governance processes.

We would strongly recommend that every enterprise perform a full due diligence exercise to examine its own asset/intellectual property risk profile, policies and procedures; local, state, federal and country-specific regulations; and most importantly, employees’ expectation of privacy versus legal reality.

Audit Born of Text Overage Investigation

The Ontario case began when the city gave its police officers alphanumeric pagers to send and receive text messages. Officer Jeff Quon and other officers – who paid out of their own pockets for at least part of their usage – exceeded their monthly character limits several months in a row. So the police chief investigated whether the overage was due to work-related or personal messages, and whether the character limit had to be increased to save employees and the department money.

Upon the city’s request, the wireless carrier (Arch Wireless) provided transcripts of some officers’ text messages from August and September 2002. The chief discovered that many of Quon’s messages weren’t work-related and some were sexually explicit. Most of the messages sent while Quon was on duty weren’t even related to police business.

He was disciplined and filed suit with several of his fellow officers, alleging that the city violated the Fourth Amendment (which protects a person’s privacy, dignity and security from arbitrary and invasive governmental acts, even in instances where the government is an employer) and that Arch Wireless violated the Stored Communications Act by giving the city the transcript of their text messages.

Supreme Court Agrees with Jury

The case first landed in district court, where a jury determined that the search of the text messages was reasonable because – even though Quon had a reasonable expectation of privacy with his messages – the audit was completed for the legitimate business purpose of uncovering the cause of the overages.

An appeal brought the case before the Ninth Circuit court, where judges reversed the lower court’s decision. They determined that the city could have used less intrusive methods to determine the cause of the overages. Arch Wireless was also found to have violated the Stored Communications Act.

But the Supreme Court disagreed with the Ninth Circuit in a judgment issued June 17. It says the search was reasonable because the audit was performed for work-related purposes, and it wasn’t excessively intrusive. The government (when acting as an employer) has the same right to search an employee’s “electronic sphere” as it does his or her physical office, the court reasons.

However, the court was quick to point out that it didn’t resolve the issue of Quon’s expectation of privacy. It warns that future judges not use the case to establish a precedent, hinting that the United States legal system still has a work to do on defining the boundaries of electronic privacy.

“Rapid changes in the dynamics of communication and information transmission are evident not just in the technology itself, but in what society accepts as proper behavior,” the justices say in their opinion. “At present, it is uncertain how workplace norms, and the law’s treatment of them, will evolve.”

Enterprise Enhancements to iPhone 4 Overshadowed by Video Calling, HD Video Recording

Apple announced the new iPhone 4 on June 7, touting lots of upgrades that will have your end users taking extreme measures to convince you they need one: video calling, a higher-resolution display and HD video recording, to name a few.

But if you look beyond the headline-grabbing enhancements, there are enterprise updates that could make iPhone 4 the version that finally convinces IT departments that the iPhone platform is ready for enterprise primetime.

Security enhancements in the new OS protect e-mail and attachments stored on an iPhone by using the device password as an encryption key, Apple explains on its “iPhone in Business” Web site. There are also new data-protection APIs that can protect sensitive information even when a device is compromised. New SSL VPN protocols can be leveraged to securely access enterprise resources and connect to a corporate network via “VPN on Demand.”

New mobile device management APIs will bring iPhone administration closer to industry-standard BlackBerry administration – the APIs integrate with third-party solutions to wirelessly configure and update settings, monitor compliance and wipe or lock managed iPhones.

Enterprises also can securely host and wirelessly distribute in-house apps over Wi-Fi and 3G with the new OS. Apps can be updated without requiring users to connect to their computers, Apple explains on its enterprise site.

Users can set up multiple Exchange ActiveSync accounts and the new OS works with Exchange Server 2010. A new unified inbox feature allows users to see messages from all e-mail accounts in a single inbox, or they can switch between accounts. Users now can open attachments with compatible apps from the App Store, Apple says.

iPhone 4 will be available for preorder in the United States on June 15 and in stores June 24 for $199 (16-GB model) or $299 (32-GB model) with a two-year AT&T Mobility contract. It comes in either black or white.

iOS 4 software will be available June 21 as a free update via iTunes for iPhone and iPod touch users. The software is compatible with iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and second- and third-generation iPod touch. But not every feature will work on all devices, Apple says. Multitasking only works with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 or third-gen iPod touch, for example.

Features to Make You Flush Your Old Phone

Now for the features your end users will be geeked about: The new device features “FaceTime,” which enables video calling over Wi-Fi via a forward-facing camera. You can also switch to the rear-facing camera to show others what you are seeing.

A higher-resolution Retina display – 960 x 640 pixels – has four times more pixels than the iPhone 3GS and 78% of the pixels on an iPad, Apple says in a press release. That’s 326 pixels per inch – reportedly the pixels are so dense that the human eye is unable to distinguish individual pixels when the phone is held at a normal distance.

Apple also squeezed a 5-megapixel camera with 5x digital zoom, a backside illuminated sensor and built-in LED flash, tap-to-focus HD video recording and editing, Apple’s A4 processor, a 3-axis gyro and 40% more talk time into the 9.3-millimeter-thick device.

iPhone 4 enables seven hours of talk time on 3G networks, as much as 10 hours of Web browsing on Wi-Fi and as many as six hours on 3G, Apple says. You can also watch 10 hours of video and listen to 40 hours of audio.

There’s a second microphone and new software to suppress unwanted background noise, which results in improved call quality in loud places.

Users will enjoy 7.2 Mbps downlink and 5.8 Mbps uplink thanks to 802.11n Wi-Fi networking and quad-band HSUPA, though Apple is quick to point out that speeds depend on AT&T Mobility’s network. That network has famously been unable to handle the full weight of iPhone traffic in the past.

The front and back of the handset are made of aluminosilicate glass, which Apple says is 30 times harder than plastic, making it more scratch resistant and more durable. It’s covered in an oil-resistant coating that keeps the phone clean. A band of stainless steel made of a custom alloy forged to be five times stronger than standard steel encircles the phone.

There’s also the OS upgrade: iOS 4 includes more than 100 new features and 1,500 new APIs for developers. It enables multitasking (to switch between apps while preserving battery life), folders (to organize apps into collections) and the potentially annoying new iAd mobile advertising platform (which – starting July 1 – will put ads in front of iPhone users while letting them stay in their active applications).

Here’s one undeniably cool integration: A new free iBooks app syncs your current place in a book – plus bookmarks, highlights and notes – between copies of the same book on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. More than 60,000 books are available in the iBookstore.

Verizon Wireless Announces Global Tethering BlackBerry

The BlackBerry Bold 9650 smart phone is officially available through Verizon Wireless’ Web site – it’ll be available in stores June 10.

The Bold 9650 will enable subscribers to tether their BlackBerry devices to notebooks or netbooks and use the phones as modems for wireless Internet in more than 200 countries, according to Verizon Wireless (never mind that most authorities agree on only 193 countries or so). Verizon Wireless calls the new service “GlobalAccess Connect.”

The new phone is available for $149.99 after a $100 rebate with a new two-year agreement. A non-camera version also will be available.

You’ll need a Verizon Wireless voice and data plan, plus a GlobalAccess Connect plan.

The low-end GlobalAccess Connect plan gets you 5 GB of data in the United States and Canada for $65 monthly (plus 5 cents per megabyte for overages). The plan also includes a 100-MB allowance in select countries (but watch out for the $5.12 you’ll pay per megabyte for overage charges).

There is also a $155 monthly access option that offers a 5-GB allowance in the United States and Canada and a 200-MB allowance in select countries, with the same overage rates as the $65 monthly option.

The BlackBerry Bold 9650 uses EV-DO Rev. A cellular data networks in North America as well as single-band UMTS/HSPA (2100 MHz) and quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM networks abroad.

The phone also features built-in Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) and built-in GPS with support for location-based applications and services, as well as geotagging. The device is push-to-talk capable but enabling that feature costs an additional $5 per month per line.

AT&T Unveils Pay-by-Drink Data Plans

AT&T Mobility announced a new two-tier pricing model for smart phone data plans on June 2; a call to AT&T confirms these plans govern new consumer and enterprise purchases beginning June 7.

The new plans are evidence of a trend toward pay-by-the-drink data pricing that Telwares’ mobility experts have predicted for months. Telwares expects carriers to adopt this model gradually over the next seven to 10 months and beyond.

Current smart phone customers are not required to switch to the new plans, but can choose to do so without a contract extension, AT&T says. There is no change to AT&T Mobility voice and texting plans.

The higher priced plan, likely to be the best option for enterprise users, is dubbed “DataPro.” This plan gives users 2 gigabytes of monthly data usage for $25, with an additional 1 GB of data available for $10 when customers exceed their initial 2 GB in a billing cycle.

AT&T says 98% of its current smart phone customers average less than 2 GB of data consumption monthly. It’s enough to send or receive 10,000 e-mails without attachments, plus send or receive 1,500 e-mails with attachments, view 4,000 Web pages, post 500 photos to social media sites and watch 200 minutes of streaming video.

For new iPad customers, the $25 per month 2 GB plan replaces AT&T’s current $29.99 unlimited plan. iPad customers will continue to pre-pay for their wireless data plan and no contract is required. Existing iPad customers who have the $29.99 per month unlimited plan can keep it or opt for the new 2 GB plan.

Smart phone customers – including iPhone users – who select the DataPro plan can add tethering and use their smart phones as modems to provide broadband connections for their computers for an additional $20 monthly. Tethering for iPhones will be available when Apple releases iPhone OS 4 this summer, AT&T says.

Meanwhile, the entry-level $15 per-month “DataPlus” plan gives smart phone users 200 megabytes of data. It’s half the cost of AT&T Mobility’s current $30 unlimited data plan. But with the new price structure, $30 a month only gets you 400 MB: AT&T will bill an additional $15 to double the data allowance for a billing cycle when subscribers exceed the first 200 MB.

AT&T says 65% of its smart phone customers average less than 200 MB of data per month. That’s enough to send or receive 1,000 e-mails without attachments, plus send or receive 150 e-mails with attachments, view 400 Web pages, post 50 photos on social media sites and watch 20 minutes of streaming video.

The new DataPro and DataPlus plans include unlimited free access to more than 20,000 AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots in the United States. Customers can also use unlimited Wi-Fi at home, in the office and everywhere else it’s available.

Virtually all AT&T smart phones offer built-in Wi-Fi, which allows devices to switch automatically from the cellular data network to a Wi-Fi hotspot.

AT&T says it will help smart phone users manage their wireless data usage by sending free text messages after subscribers reach different usage intervals. Subscribers receive text messages when 65%, 90% and 100% of plan data is consumed. The alerts also can be sent via e-mail.

AT&T also will provide online tools, including a free AT&T myWireless app for iPhones and certain other handsets that shows monthly usage information.

Watch MPLS Bills for Potential Increase with USF

Talk to your carriers now about regulatory changes that could raise your enterprise’s telecom bills, specifically those for MPLS services.

Your MPLS costs could increase 15.3% if federal Universal Service Fund (USF) surcharges are applied.

USF supports programs for low-income subscribers, schools, libraries and other organizations. The fund gets its money from a surcharge – now a record high 15.3% – levied on international and interstate carrier revenue. The FCC recalculates the fee quarterly based on demand from USF-supported programs and carrier revenue projections. (The current federal USF fee is always available here.) Though carriers are responsible for paying the fee, they can and do pass it through to businesses and residential subscribers on their phone bills.

The USF is managed by the Universal Service Administrative Company. Learn more about USF here. 

Traditionally, the FCC hadn’t asked carriers to contribute to the USF from revenue they earned on MPLS (multi-protocol label switching) services. So carriers didn’t pass USF surcharges through to enterprises on MPLS bills. That’s one of the reasons MPLS was so attractive to enterprises when they migrated to it from frame relay.

But the FCC included MPLS in a list of USF-eligible services in the instructions for a USF reporting worksheet released last year. (See p. 5 where MPLS is included in list of “interstate telecommunications” services.) Only a few carriers, including Global Crossing, apply USF surcharges to MPLS invoices today. But there’s reason to believe that others – like AT&T and Verizon Business – could soon follow suit. That would add 15.3% to enterprises’ MPLS bills with those carriers.

The FCC is reforming the USF as part of its National Broadband Plan and more guidance about how the surcharge should be levied is expected soon. Read more about how USF will change with the National Broadband Plan.  

So ask the question now. You might not get the answer you like, but it will definitely prompt further discussions, clarify your carrier’s position, and, potentially, drive further concessions into your final contract.

Contact your Telwares account executive today if you have questions about how new applications of USF surcharges change your procurement and negotiation strategies.