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NetSapiens Provides Inside Look into UC and VoIP Ahead of ITEXPO

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NetSapiens Provides Inside Look into UC and VoIP Ahead of ITEXPO

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January 09, 2017
By Alicia Young
Web Editor

The year may have just begun, but it is already promising to bring a whirlwind of advances in the tech industry. With countless companies offering predictions on what the Next Big Thing will be in 2017, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by all the possibilities.


One company that has some interesting ideas about the future is NetSapiens. NetSapiens (News - Alert) is a provider of advanced VoIP and unified communications technology. The company’s goal is to create and deliver “the communication applications of the future,” according to its site.

It’s no secret that VoIP and UC are going to become increasingly popular in the coming years—just look at all the studies, research, articles and testimonies that paint the two technologies in such a positive light. NetSapiens is already a major player in both spaces, and has set itself up for a successful future.

In preparation of ITEXPO, taking place in Fort Lauderdale, FL from Feb. 8-10, TMC (News - Alert) caught up with Ken Adams, director of solutions marketing at NetSapiens, to discuss where the company is at now and what it hopes to accomplish in the future. Adams also provides some insider information on the future of UC and VoIP, and discusses how both technologies are utilized at NetSapiens.

The full exchange can be seen below:

How have technology changes over the past 12 months helped businesses grow?

Over the last year, there has been a greater push towards integrating multiple platforms seamlessly using API’s and middleware, rather than focusing on finding a single solution that meets most of the needs within an organization. This leads to less disparity and better productivity as no one solution provider can meet ALL the needs of an organization.

What does the term Collaboration mean to your business?

Collaboration software and services are helping workers in many ways but in general, the notion of an “on-the-fly” ability to work with a team from any location seems to hold the most value. With the advancement of WebRTC, IoT, and other connected service offerings, collaboration has become even easier to utilize across organizations and in the field.

What elements of Unified Communications (News - Alert) are most useful for your company?

The elements of UC that are most useful for our company are Video Conferencing, Web Based Collaboration, and the ability to work from any device anywhere you are.

Are you using messaging technologies to communicate with your customers?  How, or why not?

Yes, NetSapiens uses messaging technologies to communicate with our customers. The communication with our customers is mostly longform because of the nature of our business. We have an open dialogue with forum and we also do frequent webinars.

How can artificial intelligence best be used in business applications?

Artificial intelligence can best be used in business applications by predicting and modeling trends, upcoming needs in particular sectors (ie. medical, retail), and determining best case business models to deliver what those sectors need in a timely manner.

Content marketing has become a hot topic recently.  Have you defined a content marketing strategy and how has it helped you build your business?

Creating content that is useful for our customers goes beyond marketing. In an industry that is constantly evolving, it is crucial for many service providers and enterprises to stay up-to-date on the best practices for communication. We aim to provide a source of useful information and advice to help these businesses take control of their communications network. Our focus in 2016 was holding webinars which address the common concerns of service providers. In 2017, we plan to continue our webinar initiative and ramp up additional content creation including white papers, case studies, and regular blog posts on netsapiens.com/blog.

How will augmented/virtual reality be used in business environments?

Augmented reality can completely change the way geographically dispersed employees connect. Training employees with AR technology creates an immersive, interactive experience across multiple senses, which is far more effective than a typical lecture or simply reading instructions. It also promises improved knowledge in the realm of repairs, where even inexperienced people can fix complex machines.

How have the growing number of high-visibility security breaches impacted your outlook on security?  Which breach is of greatest concern?

I can say that I have seen our client base steadily increase their platform’s redundancy using our n-Share technology to distribute their network geographically. That way, if something like a DDOS attack should occur, they are able to continue serving their clients from another location on different servers.

Have you increased your investment in security technology in the past year?  Are you likely to increase your security spend in the next year?  Why or why not?

We have updated our platforms security within the past year to meet the needs of our customers, customers. It is imperative that a communications platform is kept up with and ahead of security standards in order to provide users of that platform in the safest environment.

To what extent are you leveraging APIs to enhance business opportunities?

Our customers utilize our API’s to connect to other provider platforms and services. Internally, we utilize our own API to design our own customer facing portals.

What percentage of your workforce would you consider mobile?  What technology decisions have you made as a result of your mobile workforce, to ensure they have the tools they need to remain productive?

Our Workforce can work mobile as needed. At anytime, approximately 20% of our workforce is remote. We specifically developed SNAPmobile WEBPHONE to help keep our own and our customers mobile workforce connected.

To what extent are you using cloud services in your daily business processes?

Our company has adopted a wide range of cloud based services for our business processes, however, more integral pieces of our business, such as voice services which is our core product, needs to be managed more closely and needs a higher service level (availability). We find this is the same mentality held by our service provider and enterprise customers.

Has your use of cloud-based resources increased over the past year?  Do you expect to make more use of cloud computing in the coming year?  Please elaborate.

Yes, our use of cloud-based resources has increased over the past year and we do expect to make more use of cloud computing in the coming year.  The growth of cloud computing is creating more opportunities for our service provider clients. More and more businesses are becoming familiar with the concept and are starting to actively look for alternatives to their on-premise PBX (News - Alert) systems.  Our clients are able to use this growing knowledge as a “foot in the door” to sell hosted PBX, hosted contact centers, and other cloud services more easily than ever.  As always, when our client’s succeed we succeed as well.

How has the growth in the managed services market impacted your business?

We welcome the growth within the MSP market as it has a direct positive impact on our business. Our platform enables the MSP to offer additional over the top services that they traditionally would not have offered.

What emerging technology has the potential to have a disruptive impact on businesses in the coming years?

The emerging technology that has the potential to have a disruptive impact on businesses in the coming years is Artificial Intelligence. Our existing social structures and educational institutions are not preparing people for the skills that will be needed in the job market of the future.

How has your business’ product development evolved over the past year as a result of emerging technologies?

We have added additional staff in key areas to enhance our ability to push out new features and enhancements to our customers and increase our offering to potential customers. The augmented staff has allowed us to keep our development process quick and nimble while still keeping the core stability that is needed.

Are channel partners keeping up with the latest trends and developments?  Is more education needed and how can they better leverage the latest technologies to grow?

Channel Partners face a challenge when it comes to consumer applications and the low barrier to entry that they hold for both the vendors creating these apps and consumers using them. New market entrants are offering solutions like cloud storage and different forms of communications for a very low price. For end-users, it has become difficult to differentiate between these apps in order to make the right choice for their enterprise business. The channel must figure out how to educate the end user on what make one offering different from the next and where the value truly lies.

What will you have on display at your booth and why should attendees make it a point to visit you at your booth?

NetSapiens booth is at #213 and we will be giving away a large Millennium Falcon Star Wars flying drone! We are also a part of the stamp raffle inside your ITEXPO (News - Alert) booklet. While you try to win big at our booth, you can learn more about our company and the solutions we offer that enable our service provider clients to sell VoIP and UC around the world.

What are you most looking forward to at ITEXPO 2017?

We always look forward to seeing our existing customers. We also would like to add value to the industry during my involvement in panels and seeking new perspectives on things happening out in the market.




Edited by Stefania Viscusi

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