The evolution we continue to see in telecommunications hasn’t always been the norm. History tells us that operators once had to complete our connections and party lines were common. Once individuals had a straight connection to the landline and operators were no longer needed, however, the only evolution noticed was in the phones connecting to the wall. The technology behind that connection remained the same.

The Internet introduced a considerable amount of change. While Voice over IP (VoIP) was first tested decades ago, it didn’t become mainstream until the last decade. Companies are still testing the potential of Unified Communications and too many are still hesitant to move to the cloud. This demonstrates significant opportunity for those willing to educate the market and enable decision makers to select solutions according to their needs.

Still, as companies entered the market to offer services and expand on these opportunities, the phone number marketplace did not effectively cater to the smaller players. A marketplace didn’t exist for those who needed smaller quantities of numbers to service or offer their customers the capabilities they needed. When faced with this same challenge, DIDX created its own marketplace to meet its need for smaller quantities and fill a gap for other providers.

Today, DID buyers can find the numbers they need, billing solutions designed for smaller players, the necessary APIs to work in the online world, automatic provisioning and so much more. DIDX’s VP of Marketing, Suzanne Bowen, plans to bring these innovations to ITEXPO (News - Alert) this week, while having fun with anyone who finds the DIDX booth.

In a recent interview with Rich Tehrani, Bowen gave her insights on Unified Communications adoption, movement and challenges in Unified Communications, security threats both perceived and real, mobile capabilities, cloud computing, wearable tech, WebRTC and so much more.

Check out her interview in full below.

Have we the reached an inflection point with Unified Communications adoption? What is driving or hindering the market?

In 2011, James Opera and I wrote a silly little “Over the Rainbow” spoof on UC:

Anywhere throughout the Internet

Way out there 

Lie the goals that you made up 

Once in a first class seat (a few sheets to the wind in the Cloud) 

Everywhere despite lack of spectrum 

Videos, voice, and text stream seamlessly 

Over every device that you wished for 

Text could even be converted to VM ... ooh ooooh 

This day I'll wish upon an Asterisk 

Wake up where the latency will be far behind us 

Where companies deploy IP networks 

High inside the Cloud puffs, where they'll store it

Since 2011, B2B telecommunications, wireless, mobile and other types of related companies have grown Unified Communications to be a more practical and harmonious set of technologies, in my opinion. But who really cares what it is called? How much does it cost? Let’s see a million different real life examples of how it works awesomely.

What’s hindering Unified Communications?

My telecommunications and technology background is not in technical development. It is in mentoring, training, marketing, social networking, PR work, research, and customer service. I see things like UC from the viewpoint of those who don’t care what it is called. Small businesses (which is what most businesses are) run by one person, or at most 10 – 12, just want to see concrete examples of what Unified Communications can do for them to get customers, communicate with them, keep them and pay the bills and make a profit. So…any company that believes Unified Communications is one of their star products and services should market in ways that concretely show what UC will do for small to large size businesses. How simple is it to use? What are the different components? Show real live scenarios of it changing businesses to the positive. As many as possible, in fact. Keep sharing one video, blog, image and other method of media after the other, especially those that show specifically another unique use for business success… real case studies.

What’s driving Unified Communications?

Bootstrapping tiny businesses are what should be driving it because they are the majority and they are the most likely to try new technologies, and if they are convinced, they will evangelize them. Am I wrong? Most businesspeople are like me, I think. They try new technologies, they crave choice, they don’t want to be locked in, and they do not own big conglomerate organizations. We like being able to pick and choose from web conferencing and desktop sharing at one time or audio teleconferencing and IM another, and so on, which means … customer churn… looking for acceptable quality and least cost from different vendors ongoing. While huge enterprises that employ 10s of 1000s of employees may benefit from proprietary UC platforms, most businesses are very small and cannot afford them. Together, as of 2012, approximately 10 million small businesses with zero to 10 employees just in the USA employed around 40 million people. 

Has corporate awareness of security threats increased over the past year?  Have security practices been adjusted as a result?

Of course, corporate awareness of security threats has increased over the past year. Every other tech and retail headline in the world’s most popular online and “television” media and news seems to have something to do with security. Debit card breach; becoming a bot network convert without wanting to from just clicking on a URL, image, or cute little animation; sluggishly slow online or in person payment processes; denial of service and distributed denial of service and how is such instigated and why; and the 2015 rule involving the new high-tech EMV chip-enabled credit cards are all hot topics.

The last point is one of the most talked about security topics that are making people realize how important awareness of security threats really is. Starting October 1, 2015, retailers and small businesses that have not yet upgraded credit card networks to swipe the cards will be liable for all Visa, Discover or MasterCard credit card transactions that are questioned by consumers as fraudulent. (American Express has set their date to October 15, 2015.) Banks will haunt retailers that have not properly updated transaction terminal equipment to allow the EMV chip-enable credits cards to be used.

Have security practices been adjusted because of this increasing awareness?

I think corporations as well as small businesses and consumers do not know who to trust in security practices. Most of us cannot “see” the Internet and what has good intentions for us and what has bad; whereas, we can “see” the physical world of business. It’s just different.

If your mobile device had integrated software that allowed you to separate your business and personal apps, would you use it?  Why or why not?

My answer is similar to a popular Facebook (News - Alert) relationship status: it’s complicated. My business life and personal life have become so integrated that it would be like trying to separate emotion from politics. I “work” off and on 365/24/7. Many of my friends are my customers and vendors and fellow team members. I know how to focus on family, friends who are not business-related, and also business persons involving “work” or “social” individually as needed. If someone could create something to fit exactly this lifestyle (which is more common than people will admit) without closing doors and walling me and my local and global networks in, not bad.

How is cloud computing shaking up your product/service offerings?

Did you know that according to RightScale’s 2015 State of the Cloud survey of 930 technical professionals of which 88 % of the respondents say they are using the public cloud only or a hybrid of the public and private cloud? A tiny percentage uses the private cloud only.

Thousands of telecommunications, wireless and Internet service provider companies count on the cloud computing services of DIDX, a product of Super Technologies, Inc. (a company I co-founded in 1999.) The buyer/reseller and vendor participants benefit from the outsourcing of the management in the middle of wholesale buying and selling of phone numbers (also termed SIP or VoIP DID or direct inward dialing.) Every company involved saves time, effort, money and customers and they reap the advantages of suddenly becoming as “global” as they want and able to say, “yes” more often to their end-users by taking advantage of DIDX. The wholesale DID marketplace has truly shaken up the way of doing business in telecommunications because of cloud computing.

On the other hand and on a more personal level, Michel Vaillancourt (owner of JKL-5 Group and steampunk author) and I are writing a technical book with some funny narrative here and there together. We conveniently collaborate via cloud computing on a central document that is private and secure. I want to write several books but have always felt too disorganized to make it happen. Now, I can work on them very easily when I want to via cloud computing and it doesn’t get thrown away, lost or misplaced accidentally.

Samsung Mobile is making a direct move into the enterprise market with its latest line of corporate-centric devices.  Can Samsung successfully take the corporate market share that once belonged to BlackBerry or will the enterprise mobile market remain entirely fragmented?

Samsung Mobile offers some of the most popular mobile and smart devices, with iPhone being the closest competitor in my opinion. I always hear that consumers determine new directions in how businesses should conduct business, not vice versa nowadays, so if Samsung Mobile listens to what consumers and even the tiniest businesses preach they want on social networks, they might take the lead in the corporate and enterprise mobile device market.

What, if any, wearable tech products do you use?  How do they make you more productive?

My running improved greatly when I was using the FitBit clip-on device. I ran my first marathon in 5 hours and 1 minute, but I lost 5 FitBit devices in a row within 16 months beginning in 2007. I gave up. Now, I just cloak my Samsung Galaxy 4 in a Dr. Who case and a DIDX bling phone holder with RunKeeper app tabulating. I don’t like wearing anything on my wrist. It feels confining. I’ve tried Google Glasses at a WebRTC conference in Atlanta and another time at a CTIA (News - Alert) Wireless conference, and I also tried DigitSoles that fit in your running shoes and track for you.

I would like to try some clothes that change shape according to how much my dinner has affected my waistline…but still look nice and feel comfortable without causing any harmful side effects to my health and the same goes true for all wearable tech. Wearable tech makes me more productive when it saves me time that I normally spend on personal and business research and tracking my progress on anything by myself, but still it should not be harmful to my health and those around me.

Will wearable tech become a major enterprise technology?  What will drive or hinder adoption?

If it saves time, is not harmful to one’s health, includes good security and privacy as is necessary, improves productivity, looks good, be comfortable, not be easily misplaced, and increases revenue and customer and awesome employee retention, it can become a major enterprise technology. We want everything. ;-)

WebRTC went through a very significant hype cycle.  Will its use cases and adoption live up to that hype?

In the early days, it seemed that the key names involved in WebRTC were Google Chrome, Firefox Ericsson Labs, Acision (that acquired Crocodile Talk), OnSIP, Weemo, Sansay (News - Alert), PubNub and others. But… in early 2015, one of the USA’s biggest mobile carriers AT&T announced at CES they would soon support WebRTC by enabling customers to make calls and video chat on their devices on a browser.

Consider reading Tsahi Levent-Levi’s book that helps “vendors everywhere get the most of out of WebRTC,” called “WebRTC for Business People.”

What are you looking forward to at ITEXPO Anaheim?

Networking and learning from other entrepreneurs, developers, engineers, business owners and experts, of course! Plus it’s always exciting to see who wins the car or the big $. Upon announcement on my social networks that I will participate at booth #924 with DIDX and several of its MVNO, VoIP, ISP and CLEC buyer and seller members, many people responded with conversation about their own participation such as David Knell and 3C - 21st Century Telecoms in the ChannelVision area and Ruth Bridger with Xorcom who will be at booth 504. I just cannot wait as always to make the best of every second to build upon current business and develop new business with and for current and potential customers, vendors and third party services and products. The people who run TMC, the powerhouse behind ITEXPO, always make every participant feel how valuable they really are to the big picture.

I am excited to gather images, videos and information to write about and share on my business social networks, blogs, video channels and audio podcasts because people need to know what they are missing that could help them start a business leveraging empowering technology, grow it, build its reputation, get acquired and more.

Why should attendees come to your session/visit your booth?

Attendees will discover complimentary offers to showcase their business, their technologies, their effective social media use, their inventions, and their accomplishments at DIDX booth # 924. Get your picture taken with your team, have a recorded video interview and leave us your brochures, Twitter (News - Alert) and LinkedIn pages for us to stay in touch and collaborate for a more successful business future.

Tag us on Twitter with: We’re participating in #ITEXPO #Anaheim @DIDXGlobal

… and be entered in a drawing to win a Google tablet or 50 Toledo, Ohio USA DIDs for three months on your wholesale DIDX account.

Come talk with me, Suzanne Bowen, and my colleague Omar Shaikh, and let’s make this happen. DIDX is not only a wholesale marketplace of 25,003 wholesale IP communications-related service providers, carriers and operators, but its team and Muntwo business video and Techistan magazine are one of the most effective media partners for the most productive exhibitions and conferences with ITEXPO the best and then others such as PTC, GSMA World Mobile Congress, CTIA Wireless, Connected Cars World, CommunicAsia, Cluecon, Asian Carriers Conference and ExpoComm.