Papers 4th Forum
SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS AND THE FUTURE OF CONVERGENCE
(A PFS PERSPECTIVE)
By Yele Okeremi
(Precise Financial Systems)
INTRODUCTION
Convergence simply put, is the concurrent use of the different media of conveying messages and information such as data, voice, and video in any business communication and messaging for the purposes of achieving a richer, finer, and fuller communication than ordinarily possible.
Convergence, though not a new concept in the IT sphere, has assumed an imposing status in IT discussions in the recent times. This is particularly so in the last ten years vis-à-vis software applications development. The reason for this is observably, because of the enormous benefits that convergence has brought to the business world, the daunting challenges to ensure its reliability, availability, and affordability, as well as its revolutionary influence on business messaging and communications. In any perspective, software applications have a major role in helping businesses to harness these benefits, overcome the challenges, and adapt to the revolutionary change driven by convergence. This is understandably so since almost all smart devices and appliances that are convergence compliant are driven by some sort of software applications.
Many efforts have been invested to mining the opportunities that convergence offers to the world. Many organisations have equally exerted themselves to acquire capabilities that will enable them leverage on the possibilities that convergence have brought. Quite a number of successes have been recorded while some failures have also been experienced by others. But the ubiquitous understanding is that convergence has come to stay. It is the technology that any organisation that hopes to continue in business tomorrow cannot ignore or be left in the bin. This is true, both to software application developers and IT consumers at large.
Unmistakeably, all ranges of business, industrial, and even domestic devices and appliances are now driven by converged software applications. These include, the PDAs, mobile phones, personal computers, internet enabled devices, cars, utensils, televisions, etc. The consumer world seems to embrace convergence with wide-spread arms. This sends a very strong signal to the business man who understands the consumer-customer as a king. Rather than seeing a technology that will repress over the years ahead, I see convergence as a technology that has conquered and still conquering to position itself as the next generation trend for software applications development and indeed other related business areas.
BENEFITS
We have seen that one thing that makes it difficult for the business world to ignore convergence is the many benefits it brings to the business place. It suffices to say that the list of benefits vary per industry and usage. However, mention must be given to the following;
R&D Efficiencies. By reusing common technology, collaborating on common development, and reducing development duplication, software convergence seeks to improve R&D efficiencies in software development;
Faster time to market. One critical aspect of convergence to the software applications development is the software bases convergence, which enables developers to easily turn out new applications that are running on common inherited bases;
Improved software quality. A software application with ability to transmit or process information that are in a combined media of data, voice, and video is close to being likened to humans with writing, vocal, and visual capabilities. This gives a sort of naturalness to the software application in information handling;
Robustness. There is nothing like having all you want in one place as far as that does not affect the quality of what you get. Convergence makes available all possible modes of information transmission, retrieval, and storage available in a single application;
Security. Improved security can be implemented across products when all products are built on a software platform that uses the same security mechanisms, ensuring full interoperability
Common technology re-usability. With convergence, existing information formats and technology that hitherto could not be found useable because of technology compatibility issues can now become useful thereby eliminating the need to recapture the affected information in the needed formats. For instance, fax images of business mails, can now become useable in a unified messaging environment which allows fax copies, emails, and voice mails to be stored and processed in a single mail box.
Collaboration on common development. Collaboration is a key concept in today’s software development workplace to achieve effectiveness and efficiency. With convergence, technologies that were previously in limbo to one another can now collaborate while also enhancing collaboration in the software development workplace.
Reduction in development duplication. Convergence now makes it possible for same software modules and databases to handle data, voice, and video information contrary to duplication of efforts to develop modules and databases to handle trio information modes separately.
Cost effectiveness/savings. One of the main driving force behind the deployment of convergence whether in software applications or in networks has been saving money. The theory has been that developing, deploying, operating, and servicing a single network is less expensive than doing all of that in multiple, application-specific networks.
CHALLENGES
Driving the convergence technology since its inception has been trailed with various challenges. However, it must be noted that these challenges are there not to scuttle the prospects of convergence but to spur the IT world to look for better ways of harnessing the technology for greater benefits to the business place. The major and current challenges are discussed below;
Ensuring call reliability and quality across complex voice networksmeeting service level expectations and agreements with clients
Difficult pursuing new clients with mixed IP Voice environmentscompetitive market place (in software designs, implementation, pricing, etc)of Network bandwidth and cablingof convergence compliant devices
SOLUTIONS
Converged communication management software that monitors and manages devices from multiple vendors in a single application has been mentioned by one convergence consultant, Juanita Ellis, as one major way of tackling the challenges of convergence especially in the networks environment. This is representative of the conspicuous role of software applications in the future of convergence.
Consequently, the future of convergence will be gravely affected by how the software applications developers will seek to find solutions to the issues of;
Ensuring call reliability and quality across complex voice networksservice level expectations and agreements with clientsclients with mixed IP Voice environmentsand Efficient Network bandwidth utilizationon the cost of convergence-compliant devices
SAMPLE APPLICATIONS THAT DRIVE CONVERGED NETWORKS
Teleworkers
Probably the one application that most enterprises have embraced for their first converged application is teleworkers. The teleworking applications allow users to access voice functions over their already-existing remote IP access applications. Large enterprises in particular are faced with an increasingly dispersed workforce. Current market research shows that only one-third of enterprise employees actually work in main office locations. The majority of this market’s workforce is employed in branch office and remote locations. As much as 16 percent of the entire enterprise workforce currently telecommutes at least three days a week. As companies seek to remain competitive in local and global markets, further fragmentation is expected to increase the number of remote workers, especially the percent of teleworkers, making up the enterprise workforce.
Video conferencing
One of the most popular converged applications that takes advantage of the capabilities of the converged network is the Multichannel Contact Center. A multichannel contact center expands on the traditional telephony contact center by adding items such as email, web access, and video access streams into the contact center. The multichannel contact center also provides for tighter integration between the customer-facing agents and back-office databases and functions. This can give a business a distinct advantage by giving their customers many different ways in which to contact them.
Unified messaging
Another key application that is evolving to use the power of the converged network is the concept of Unified Messaging. Unified messaging is a generic term for a set of applications that links all voice mail, e-mail, fax, and other messaging types into a single coherent messaging platform.
Unified messaging is a new technology that unites these disparate systems into a single, unified mailbox and enables access from the PC or from any touch-tone telephone. This streamlined access to and management of information dramatically enhances the productivity and responsiveness of office workers, telecommuters, mobile employees, and IT staff throughout an organization. The people within the enterprise are better equipped to make fast, effective business decisions in the office or on the road. A unified system brings together voice, e-mail, and fax-messaging systems—and in the future, video-messaging applications—to allow a user to access all messages from a single unified mailbox via a PC or telephone. This system also supports user-customizable rules-based access that allows users to flag and prioritize important messages by subject or sender. This capability can be particularly useful to mobile professionals who need quick access to their messages, anytime, anywhere, and from the most convenient device.
Multichannel contact center
One of the most popular converged applications that takes advantage of the capabilities of the converged network is the Multichannel Contact Center. A multichannel contact center expands on the traditional telephony contact center by adding items such as email, web access, and video access streams into the contact center. The multichannel contact center also provides for tighter integration between the customer-facing agents and back-office databases and functions. This can give a business a distinct advantage by giving their customers many different ways in which to contact them.
THE PFS PERSPECTIVE
Precise Financial Systems, being one of the foremost software development houses on the shore of Nigeria with over sixteen years experience in the software application development business has watched the convergence technology evolved over the years to its current state. PFS has had her fair share in the benefits, challenges and change that convergence has brought to the business world. Consequently, we strongly believe that convergence is a welcome development to the software development business.
The future we see for the convergence technology is that of thriving technology that will enhance the survival of older technologies that are consistent with its wave of change while ensuring extinction of those other technologies that are not amenable to the change driven by convergence.