Our product outlooks were extremely similar in terms of new feature sets and functionality. Mark Levitt, an analyst with IDC and co-author of the recently published Collaborative Applications Market Forecast and Analysis, believes that the merger offers good news for the two companies, but could be somewhat limiting for their customers. The idea that a service provider is essentially an exclusive partner for a single platform or single product offers the best solution in terms providing a hosted offering and resolving any integration issues. However, Envoyglobal will risk alienating customers who like dealing with an ASP that offers them a number of options. Placeware also believes that the meetings segment will grow significantly.
Critical communications require a robust and rich voice piece.
I think we all know VOIP is on its way. LeJeal agrees that going forward, VOIP will play a major role. Over the course of time, as VOIP technology becomes more robust and equivalent in reliability and quality to the PSTN, we will see a migration of businesses adopting that as the technology that supports the voice piece of communications. Centra already has VOIP standard in all of its experiences, Reed says. I'm not paying any conference call provider, and that is a fundamental threat to the folks who are making their money off of the voice services.