Dubber Signs Agreement with AT&T

VoIP calling has been steadily replacing traditional telephony due to its reliability and efficiency, achieved through its use of data connection instead of fixed lines. The chart below shows the reasons for moving to VoIP from landlines given by SMBs. The data connection that enables VoIP calls is quicker and cheaper as it takes advantage of the existing IP infrastructure of interconnected routers. Recording VoIP calls presents a challenge due to the difference in the way audio is transmitted in VoIP calls compared to traditional telephony. VoIP call recording requires data to be ‘sniffed’, which is a process of real-time monitoring of data flow through a computer network by a software program or a hardware device containing this sniffing software or firmware. Sniffers copy the data without altering it and can only intercept data from networks that their host computer is connected to.

Survey by Software Advice

Depending on your requirements for call recording, and how you intend to use the captured conversations, and your business telephony network (or lack thereof), the VoIP call recording solution that is right for you may vary.

What will you use your recorded calls for?

When deciding on the call recording solution that is best for you, it is important to consider how you will be using your recorded calls. If you are a journalist who records their phone interviews, you will need calls to be stored in a format that can be easily replayed, but you might not need to keep the calls for years after you have filed your copy. You might have a podcast and need to be able to access your calls as files that can be edited to form part of a finished episode. A solution such as Dubber’s Playback, designed for individuals, is an easy-to-use communication capture service that allows you to decide which of your calls are saved and allows you to download and share them as easy-to-edit audio files.

Financial institutions require their communication with customers to be recorded in order to stay compliant with the latest regulations. Call records are generally required to be stored for up to five years, so businesses will need to ensure the solution they choose has the flexibility and security needed to safely archive their conversations. A cloud-based solution, such as Dubber, has the scalability required to hold unlimited calls and is not restricted by the storage hardware limitations of legacy solutions. True cloud storage also has the added security of encryption and the redundancy that accompanies multiple storage locations, for added reassurance.

Businesses that require call recording for compliance will most often need call recording that is compatible with a unified communications (UC) solution. Modern working life spans multiple methods of communication and our mobile phones allow us to make traditional calls as well as VoIP calls, send text messages, and have conversations over instant messenger. To ensure that all of these communications are captured accurately, call recording must be able to integrate with UC solutions.

Larger businesses that have contact centres often use call recording in order to improve their customer service and business practices through analysing their captured conversations. A solution that offers speech intelligence, such as Dubber’s Zoe, will allows a business to search their calls and automate processes to make their business more efficient and gain a detailed insight into their customers. Recording with Dubber can also record conversations between extensions, ensuring recording continues if a call is transferred internally.

When considering VoIP recording options, it is important to plan for the future as well as the present. Choosing a flexible call recording solution that can adapt as your business grows and changes is vital. Expansion into different locations, sudden changes in call volume, and regulation reforms could affect your call recording needs so the solution you choose must offer you the reassurance that these eventualities can be accommodated.

Redcentric Records with Dubber

As the big telecom providers phase out traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN) functionality, businesses are looking for a modern solution to their telephony needs. A SIP trunk allows business telephone systems to operate using an internet connection rather than a traditional phone line. Session initiation protocol (SIP) is essentially a language that allows phones and other telephony devices to talk to each other. It is a standard communications protocol for initiating interactive multimedia sessions across a data network. This protocol is used for creating, modifying, and terminating sessions. A trunk is a line or connection that is able to transmit multiple signals simultaneously. A SIP trunk is able to combine data, voice, and video in one connection.

With Verizon planning to shut down its integrated services digital network (ISDN) in the USA and Germany also phasing out ISDN by 2018, and BT announcing that from 2020 ISDN and PSTN circuits will no longer be available to purchase, moving to an internet telephony service will soon be essential. Instead of traditional PSTN, calls operate through voice over internet protocol (VoIP) through one point of entry – the internet connection. SIP trunking occurs between a private domain, connected to your network, and the public domain, which is the responsibility of your internet telephony service provider (ITSP). This interconnection allows for VoIP and media streaming to take place.

A manual telephone switchboard.

Often there is no physical hardware required for a SIP trunk connection although, depending on how the trunk is presented, a private branch exchange (PBX) or session border controller (SBC) may be required. Installation uses a business’s existing internet connection, removing the need for traditional phone lines and the costs associated with maintaining them. As the telephony service is not bound to a physical phone line, you can easily move offices and keep your phone number.

Multiple phone lines can be replaced by one SIP trunk, which allows for scalability that can adapt to the growth of a company. VoIP is also more reliable than traditional phone lines as the quick and easy forwarding of calls to mobile phones provides insurance in case of system failures.

When looking at SIP trunking for your business, additional benefits such as number provision and call recording should be considered as well as cost. With SIP trunking, features such as multiple phone numbers and call forwarding that aren’t available through a traditional telephone line can be added easily.

SIPREC

Traditionally, call recording through PSTN captured voice conversations as audio files on the trunk side of a network infrastructure – the telco-facing portion on the outside of the internal phone system. Session initiation protocol recording (SIPREC) is a way of allowing calls to be recorded securely, without interception. SIPREC defines the architecture of call recording, including the call flows and metadata associated with it.

The internet engineering task force IETF has created a framework for SIPREC that identifies the two parties involved in call recording: the session recording client (SRC) and the session recording server (SRS). SIPREC occurs through the session border controller, which is a device that sits between businesses and their network provider. A SIP invite contains specific metadata for processing call recording that contains information about the call and participants.

Where traditional call recording would use hardware to tap into a dedicated line in order to capture the communications, no such equipment is required for SIPREC as the devices that handle the SIP trunk can also enable recording through SIPREC. Using SIP trunks enables SIPREC to be implemented quickly and easily, allowing a call recording solution such as Dubber to capture communications.

With online interaction dominating the modern world, a phone call feels special. Phone calls are reserved for the important stuff – for the decision that needs to be made, for the question that we want answering urgently – we pick up the phone when we just need to get things done.

Listening in

We can see this idea reflected in how customers contact companies when they need assistance: research by eConsultancy found that a phone call was the most commonly chosen method of communication at 61%. When looking for online assistance, 71% of customers wanted help within 5 minutes or less (see chart below). The majority of customers looking to buy also choose to call a company rather than contacting them online. Both Google and xAd, two of the leading digital advertising networks, found that a click-to-call option on ads was highly successful – with 51-62% of users choosing this option.

Source: eConsultancy

On top of the immediacy offered by a phone call, there is science behind why verbal communication is so effective: hearing is the fastest sense, with sound taking only 10 milliseconds to reach the brain compared to 13-80 milliseconds for sight, according to researchers at MIT,

With customers 11 times more likely to complain over the phone than via the internet, according to research from Arizona State University, these phone calls are a valuable opportunity to turn a negative experience into an improved relationship. Customer interactions that take place over the phone create a much better opportunity for a meaningful connection. Your customer is right there, willing to speak to you, and you can answer any questions they might have immediately. Up-selling and cross-selling also comes much more naturally over the phone. Only a face-to-face conversation could possibly be better.

Reading between the lines

Written communication can be open to interpretation. It’s the very reason for the enduring magic of books, but it can result in misunderstandings in the corporate world of hurried emails. Without the indicators of tone and meaning, simple sentences can be misconstrued to drastic effect. When clarification is needed over the phone, you can get an answer immediately. Complex technical queries are always best discussed with a call as the instant feedback can alleviate confusion quickly, whereas a series of emails might only further complicate things.

With a phone call, you can hear the emotion of the speaker’s voice – their intonation and volume of speech can often say more than their words. Customer service agents can tell if a customer isn’t fully happy with the resolution of their complaint, while sales agents can get a better sense of how to entice a new client.

Measuring the success of phone calls

The importance of phone calls is clear, and because of this customer service agents who excel at building relationships with customers are more valuable than ever. However, contact centre workers can feel like they lack objectives and that their work can’t be measured. In order to provide customer service agents with reports on their success, a call intelligence solution such as Dubber’s Zoe can be utilised to conduct sentiment analysis of calls and measure the customer’s experience throughout the conversation. Not only does this give workers valuable feedback on their work and progress, their supervisors receive an insight into their interactions with customers and can use this information to improve their work practices and train new members of staff effectively.

The benefits of email and instant messaging are the paper trail that they leave behind. With a call recording solution, such as Dubber, that provides transcripts of your conversations, you can have all the benefits of phone calls with the reassurance that you can track and record your communications.

Dubber and Macquarie Telecom Sign Call Recording MSA

Dubber Annual Report 30 June 2017

Virtual reality (VR) allows you to be transported to real or imagined locations instantly and can connect you to people all over the world. VR users hit 50 million in 2016 and the number of active users of VR is forecast to reach 171 million by 2018. The graph below shows how revenue has grown and is predicted to grow over the next few years. 360-degree video is already available on platforms such as YouTube and Facebook and continued investment from these companies and others including Google and Microsoft mean that VR technology is becoming more affordable every day.

Source: Superdata

The technology is set to transform a number of industries and affect on the way we work and interact with the world and each other. Developments in VR mean that live events such as concerts or sports games can be experienced from your sofa. A global audience can be reached from one venue with the help of a few cameras and some technology. Users can access live streams through VR headsets but also through their browser or mobile app.

A seamless experience

To create a 360-degree video, visual data from multiple cameras must be pieced together to create one video. Post-production of VR content begins with stitching and blending to create one seamless sphere of visual content. VR has continued to improve since its conception and now features immersive effects such as audio that matches the user’s visual experience so accurately that when a user looks away from something, the audio diminishes. Recording using binaural sound is key to this feeling of ‘presence’. For a successful VR experience, and a feeling of true presence, the stitching technology used to create the 360-degree environment must be of a high enough quality to produce a seamless experience.

The future of VR

Tech leaders are predicting that VR will compete with television in the future and are investing in livestreaming services that aim to distribute 360-degree VR content to users around the globe. Just as the internet has changed the way we consume media such as news articles, VR is expected to do the same to television. This entertainment value could be seen as a key area of investment for telcos looking to create a new revenue source after the decline in growth from voice, texts and, most recently, data.

Industry specialists such as CNET founder Halsey Minor believe that VR will be the next stage of growth for the content industry, while Goldman Sachs have stated that VR and AR have the potential to become the next big computing platform. Goldman Sachs have outlined their predictions for VR and AR use in 2025, which can be seen in the graph below. The World Economic Forum sees AR and VR as technologies that can transform daily life with their time and cost saving benefits. This growing industry should be capitalised on by any telco wishing to stay relevant in the future.

Goldman Sachs predictions for VR and AR use in 2025

An example of a telco that is investing in VR is SK Telecom, which is commercialising its 360-degree VR live broadcasting capabilities and planning to open its application programming interface (API) so that individuals and small content developers can create their own 360-degree live VR experiences.

At this stage, the development of VR is very experimental as challenges are identified and overcome. Poor internet speeds can impact the VR experience through heavily compressed images and the strain that VR will put on networks is an area of concern. Network capacity needs to be an area of investment, particularly at the user end of the journey, as VR requires around five times more bandwidth than HDTV as well as the low latency that is essential for a fully immersive experience. If users do not have the correct requirements, content will need to buffer and be stored locally  – creating delays and limiting the interaction capabilities of the VR experience.

The next steps for VR will take the experience mobile. Immersive live VR broadcasting will work in tandem and become more widespread with the development of 5G due to the large bandwidth and low latency that are required for streaming. Network providers will play a key role in the realisation of VR, ensuring high quality connections to allow for a seamless immersive experience.

Hosted telephony has gained popularity and coverage recently, with its cloud base appealing to forward thinking enterprises and press alike. The chart below shows the growth of both managed and hosted systems, with on-premise PBX experiencing negative growth. However, research undertaken by communications analyst MZA has shown that most small businesses still use PBX rather than making the move to hosted telephony. There are four main factors to consider when choosing between the two solutions, which are outlined below.

Source: Synergy Research Group

Cost

Hosted telephony largely appeals to both small and large businesses due to the lack of CapEx required to implement the system. There is no hardware necessary, which reduces the storage space required as well as power costs associated with running servers. With on-premise PBX options there are also installation costs on top of hardware expenditure. Larger organisations will have greater CapEx, as costs only increase with the size of the hardware required.

However, monthly subscriptions for hosted telephony can work out more expensive over time, depending on the services and the size of the enterprise. Considerations need to be made regarding the features required by the business, as there may be extra costs that are not included in basic hosting packages. The chart below shows the top 7 reasons that SMBs look to change their system, with the results separated by their current solution, giving an idea of the considerations that should be made when deciding on a system.

Software Advice’s survey of SMBs and their phone systems

Time

As well as installation costs, the time required to implement an on-premise PBX solution is an inconvenience. Cloud solutions offer the advantage of rapid deployment, meaning installation costs are virtually eliminated by the DIY approach to implementation. When choosing a telephony option, installing a new infrastructure is a significant commitment. PBX solutions will need to be updated over time, and replacing hardware or enhancing features can take weeks to integrate. These changes can often lead to communications downtime that will need to be scheduled to reduce inconvenience as much as possible.

Hosted solutions can be implemented alongside existing communication systems. The most hardware that will be required is the phones themselves. Software updates are maintained by your cloud provider, meaning you stay constantly up to date.

Flexibility and scalability

The case for hosted telephony is certainly bolstered by the flexibility and scalability that it offers. Just as hosted telephony can grow alongside a business, it can also be scaled back. This can reduce monthly costs immediately, in contrast to large CapEx that will have already been paid in the case of PBX.

Security

With hosted telephony you have the added reassurance of reliable redundancy. Depending on the provider, you may not have immediate access to all of your data but you will have the guarantee that it will be stored securely with recovery solutions. The advantage of on-premise PBX systems is the immediate access they offer, but recovery measures are often so expensive that only larger enterprises are able to justify the cost of this level of security.

To decide which option is right for your business you need to consider not only pricing, but what your company needs from a telephony system. Looking to the future and anticipating how these needs might change as your company grows is just as important as the immediate considerations of cost and convenience.

We recently published the results of our survey of SMBs in the US, which showed what small businesses are missing from their current communications solutions. After uncovering some interesting results we conducted a comparison survey; this time of UK businesses.

Accounting for a large percentage of employees in the UK – 48% according to the report SMEs and Flexible Working Arrangements – SMBs differentiate themselves from larger enterprises through their agility and ability to respond to changes within their market quickly and easily. A cohesive communications strategy, one that encourages collaboration and productivity within the company as well as streamlining external conversations, gives smaller businesses the opportunity to triumph over larger companies that may struggle to adapt.

By consolidating their communications, across telephony, email, and instant messaging, small businesses are able to synchronise conversations that happen remotely and also out of office hours. With a similarly small number of SMBs in the UK currently using a unified communications (UC) solution – 9.2% in the UK compared to 10.7% in the US – the potential for telcos is clear.

Mobility is key across UK and US

Much like the findings of our US survey, personal mobile was also the most commonly chosen answer to the question ‘what phone system do you use for work?’ by participants of the UK survey, with 38.3% choosing this option compared to 39.7% of US respondents (see chart below). To keep workplace communications cohesive, a UC solution with mobility is essential for small businesses where workers use their personal mobiles so much. Small businesses may have limited office space, so having the confidence that their employees can have all the functionality of work available on their own devices is of great benefit. Getting employees to use their own devices may also be more cost effective for smaller businesses.

We looked at the different services that SMBs used as well as their phone system. In the UK instant messaging was the most popular choice, with 71.7% of respondents communicating in this way, closely followed by voicemail at 67.5%. This is unsurprising given the growth of Slack, which has grown to 5 million daily active users from 4 million since only October 2016. Instant messaging was slightly less common in the US with 57.9% using this service, while 79.3% of respondents said that they used voicemail. The benefits of consolidating all of these communications include an increase in productivity as conversations can be found in one place.

Interestingly, when asked if they would like to have all business communications, including mobile and deskphone as well as conference calling and internal messaging, provided in one UC platform 64.2% of UK respondents said yes, compared to 72.5% of US participants (see chart below). This is still a significant majority and one that should be pursued by telcos.

A flexible approach to work

Increasingly, employees have come to expect the flexibility to be able to work from a range of locations, at a time that is convenient to them. According to a Citrix-commissioned report by The Work Foundation at Lancaster University, over 50% of businesses in the UK are likely to have a flexible working policy in place by the end of 2017. This flexibility boosts the happiness of employees and can result in more efficient working with less time spent travelling if employees can work from home and remain connected with the rest of the team. In fact, research by Vodafone found that 83% of respondents to their extensive workplace survey said that adopting flexible working has resulted in improvements in productivity.

A unified communications as a service (UCaaS) model utilises cloud infrastructure in order to provide the kinds of features that were once only available to larger enterprises, and through a lower cost service that is quick and simple to deploy. Cloud-based solutions also offer a higher security level that can defend against cyber attacks. Any solution will need to serve a variety of devices to fully integrate all employees but will be better placed to adapt to updated technology in the future with intuitive software and the automatic rollout of new features.

Additional services

In a similar result to our US survey, the additional service that SMBs in the UK wanted most from their service provider was call recording. An even higher percentage than the US, 42.5% compared to 37.2% of US respondents, chose call recording as the service they would like to add to their phone system (see chart below). Call recording is becoming increasingly important to small businesses as regulation and compliance develop as issues for more industries.

Not only do UC solutions offer synchronised conversations, their enhanced reporting capabilities can be instrumental for business understanding and growth. Call recording can help with training new team members and the data captured can form the basis of reports that inspire improvements in business practices.

Another opportunity for business development is the integration of a UC solution with existing CRM systems. This can add value as customer details become a part of the communication process, creating an informed approach that can improve relationships and make conversations more efficient.

Not only would a UC solution create a simplified and cohesive approach to workplace communications and increase interconnectivity between employees of small businesses, the potential for increases in productivity and efficiency is great. When integrated with existing CRM systems and used to inform business practices, a UC solution can provide previously unrealised opportunities for growth and development.