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Alteva's Unified CaaS Solution Helps Erase Geographic Limitations in Business Collaboration

March 17, 2014

At the recent ITEXPO event held in Miami in February, TMC’s Erik Linask took a moment to sit down with unified communications solutions provider Alteva’s Bill Birnie, who is the company’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer, and Mike Timar, VP of product management. Alteva provides a hosted unified-communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) product that offers companies a comprehensive voice, video and collaboration service for the office and mobile workforce.


The topic was how mobility is changing the way businesses and individuals communicate with one another, with technology erasing geographical borders and equipment and device barriers.

“The workforce is no longer centralized,” said Timar. “You can no longer just stand up and walk to the next cubicle to talk to your coworker. Everybody is now working in different offices or different buildings. Seventy percent of workers are working from in the home or on the road two days a week. So the ability to be productive and in communication no matter where you are is critical in today’s business environment.”

Once upon a time, the choice of mobile devices by employees may have been a barrier to true unified mobile communications. Birnie noted that today, it doesn’t matter…or at least it shouldn’t. Mobility is too critical to business today, which is why Alteva’s solution supports all of the most prevalent mobile operating systems.

“When we leave the home in the morning and we forget our cell phone, we turn around and we go get it,” he noted. “If we forget our wallet, we borrow a few dollars for lunch. That’s how important mobile devices are and how important mobility is. So Alteva – and other carriers are doing the same thing – is very focused on delivering business mobility solutions. We are integrating those into our hosted environment so you’ve got your desk phone and your mobile device – your smartphone or your tablet.”

Timar notes that a lot of the most successful applications are apps: dedicated programs designed for the operating system the user is working with. So Alteva offers four different apps, for PC, Mac, iOS and Android, each one custom-developed to deliver a modern business communications experience, including text messaging, presence, video, voice and HD voice, as well as systems settings and global directory right to the fingertips of each user. (There are also options for Windows 8 and BlackBerry.) The solution works across all these operating systems so the users of different devices can communicate seamlessly. Users can even pull a single call across multiple devices.

“There’s no click, no hiss, no indication of transfer,” said Timar. “I can even walk out to my car and I can continue to be on the call. When I get to my home office, I can pull it back to my home phone.”

Birnie notes that true integration means integration across devices, integration across operating systems and integration across applications. The result is a seamless experience for the end users, and the ability to make sure that communications – and work – continue to flow regardless of where a worker is or how he or she is communicating.

For more information about ITEXPO Miami or the upcoming Las Vegas event in August, click here.





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