Yesterday’s announcement that hosted UC provider Broadcore will make its offerings available through Concierge Communications is another sign that voice has become just another application in the UC arsenal, said Concierge Vice President Clark Atwood.
Atwood says that Concierge acts as sort of a broker for telecom services. The company matches service provider offerings with customer needs and, after a deal is struck, helps to ensure that the relationship works. The best analogy, he says, is to an insurance brokerage.
Broadcore is a national provider that will extend Concierge’s hosted VoIP and managed wide-area network (WAN) services, Atwood said. More specifically, Concierge now will offer Broadcore’s UC, IP telephony, conferencing, messaging, call center and mobility services.
In the big picture, the deal is interesting as it illustrates two interrelated trends: The positioning of voice as an equal among services offered in a UC portfolio and the overall movement of UC to the cloud.
“What’s happening is that there is no more voice network,” Atwood said. “We’re recognizing that small, medium [-sized businesses] and enterprises are looking for providers that can deliver multiple solutions without large capital outlay. The phone has become a utility. You have a handset, a soft phone mobility extensions for cell phones so that they can become extensions off the phone system. That’s all part of that gray area called UC.”
