TELEPHONY

14. VoIP Speaks Softly

by Ben Worthen

If an automobile manufacturer sent you a notice touting a new diesel engine that performed just as well as the conventional one in your current car - no better, no worse - would you ask your mechanic to rip out the one under your hood in order to replace it? That's the dilemma facing voice over IP (VoIP).

The advantages of an IP-voice network over traditional telephony are not staggering - the per-call price is pretty much the same, and most people won't be persuaded by VoIP features like the ability to route voice mails to an e-mail inbox - and, in the current anti-spending environment, the cost of replacing the copper phone lines with Ethernet cable just isn't worth it. To be sure, VoIP is growing. Cisco sold its 1 millionth IP phone last August, and analysts expect the VoIP market to double in 2003. However, many millions of traditional phones are sold every year (as a point of reference, more than 94 million mobile phones were sold in the third quarter of 2001). "It will be a slow adoption," says Christine Hartman, research director at Probe Research. She says companies will transition to VoIP over time when they start a replacement cycle. That said, Hartman strongly encourages CIOs to install VoIP networks whenever they have to replace their existing telecom infrastructure or expand it to a new office - a move that only requires equipping each workstation with two Ethernet connections instead of one. David Fraley, a principal analyst with Gartner (US), adds that using a VoIP network in your contact centre (formerly known as the call centre) can consolidate all customer contacts - phone calls, e-mails, faxes - on a single network, thereby making it a snap to maintain an up-to-date customer profile. That, he suggests, is a worthwhile investment.

The biggest hurdle to VoIP adoption may come from the beleaguered telecom industry, which Fraley says is in the "midst of a great depression". Traditionally, telecoms spend 10 per cent to 12 per cent of their revenue on infrastructure maintenance. Now, they're spending 8 per cent. The cuts, says Fraley, could push truly widespread VoIP adoption back from 2010 to 2015.

CUSTOMER RELATIONS

15. Blogging for Bucks

by Daintry Duffy

Gone are the days of secretive scribblings in a leather-bound diary. Today's preferred medium for personal expressions is the Web log - a small, regularly updated online journal that combines a person's commentary with links to other content she recommends. For example, people who visit Salon.com no longer have to verbalise their vitriolic disagreement. They can chronicle their thoughts about an article - or anything else for that matter - in their own Web log, or "blog", on the site. Blogs are not just a forum for people who like to read their own words, though. Just ask the head of your marketing department.

Though blogs first gained popularity on news sites like Salon.com, Slate and MSNBC.com, companies are beginning to realise that same brand of opinion and news content can be a crackerjack sales, marketing and communications tool. Consequently, more of them are hopping on the blogging bandwagon.

Macromedia, the developer of Flash and Shockwave software, has been using blogs to share information with its customers since last May. At that time, the company had just released three new software products directly to the Internet, and it wanted to get feedback as quickly as possible in case there were bugs or other problems. The company decided to put a set of blogs on its site, each administered by a single community manager who could communicate directly with customers, answer their questions and direct them to other Web content that might interest them. "Within the space of a couple days we had hundreds of thousands of posts," says Tom Hale, Macromedia's vice president in charge of developer relations. Not only do the blogs help Macromedia quickly troubleshoot its products and respond to customers' concerns, they have spawned little communities where serious users can share advice.

Unlike questions sent via an online feedback form, the blogs enable the company to amass feedback, post information and patches to the site, and reach their user community very quickly. The blogs have also become a valuable marketing tool. The exchanges that occur between the community managers and visitors provide useful content in a personal rather than PR-ish tone and present Macromedia as a trusted information provider to its user community. While it might not feel like a marketing tool, the opt-in nature of the technology makes it an appealing way to establish and maintain low-pressure, high-value relationships with customers.