It’s been a long time coming, but there has been a lot of noise about WebRTC recently. Last month Mozilla and Telefonica announced a partnership that will deliver ‘Firefox Hello’, a WebRTC service integrated into the Firefox browser without the need to create an account. Soon after, Microsoft confirmed that Skype will soon work natively in Internet Explorer using WebRTC technology, allowing IE users to communicate with Skype contacts through the browser – a first for both Skype and Internet Explorer.
WebRTC is maturing and is on the road to mass adoption.
The list of services, applications and platforms that support it is growing rapidly and every modern telecommunications organization is researching or implementing the standard. This is a real turning point for WebRTC capabilities; it is being introduced to a large audience, helping to familiarize users with the technology. The big question at the moment is how to integrate the technology with both existing infrastructure but also with other WebRTC solutions that are already out there.
Real value comes from when WebRTC is optimally integrated with the web applications we use most.
What is really creating interest around the technology at the moment is its security standards; in particular the encryption method that protects users from intrusion into private personal information. It is one of the the most secure VoIP solution currently available, making it very popular with telcos that are faced with trust issues created by recent scandals.
It also carries huge potential as a unified communications (UC) platform due to its ability of uniting the desktop and handset experiences. In the next few years, we see this integration of a unified desktop experience and mobile to be seamless. For road warriors, however, we expect that the desktop will act as a complementary interface to their mobile handsets. When on the desktop we expect that certain types of users will start their workday centered around their mailbox. Other types of users, such as receptionists or call center agents, will start their day around their needs of real-time communications and will be more likely to use managed UC as their ‘go-to tool.’ And there is no reason that the switch between environments shouldn’t be seamless: with OX App Suite, it can be.
Collaboration with Voiceworks fully integrates into OX App Suite to provide a complete, cloud-based communication solution.
This is why we have a dedicated development team to work in collaboration with Open-Xchange and launched OX Messenger — based on our WebRTC framework. By using a range of open standards, OX Messenger works in most browsers without requiring any plugins. It also integrates easily with existing PBX and UC systems on-premise, allowing the customer to pick up and answer regular PBX voice and video calls straight from OX App Suite.
To find out how WebRTC can drive new revenue growth for your IT service portfolio, talk to Open-Xchange today.
Even better – if you are in the Netherlands this week — stop by Telecom Time and learn firsthand how OX Messenger can start scaling your telco and/or Cloud services business today!
