An Information Week Analytics 2010 Unified Communications Survey of enterprise technology professionals highlighted the specific UC services enterprises value most for meeting business objectives: unified messaging, instant messaging, presence, hosted contact centre, mobile integration, web collaboration, videoconferencing and integration with business software. BroadSoft’s BroadCloud services will empower fixed-line, mobile and cable service providers to extend their communications services to include these in-demand UC services.
As a cloud infrastructure application delivery platform, BroadCloud will include BroadSoft’s current SaaS products, PacketSmart and, assuming the closing of the Casabi acquisition, Casabi’s family services, as well as new Unified Communications services:
BroadCloud Instant Messaging & Presence – corporate instant messaging and presence which fully integrates a subscriber’s phone status (desktop and mobile),
BroadCloud Video – a high-definition, always-on, meet-me videoconferencing service, which supports a wide range of room, desktop and soft client video enabled devices. BroadSoft expects to join Glowpoint to leverage their "Open Video" platform and Telepresence interExchange Network (TEN), to facilitate the delivery of video communications beyond a single enterprise.
BroadCloud Web Collaboration – a suite of web-based collaboration options, including screen sharing, a document library, chat, audio and video support, whiteboarding, accessible from a wide range of devices.
BroadCloud PacketSmart – a network assessment and monitoring service which ensures the highest quality of experience (QoE).
BroadCloud Casabi – a consumer focused solution that enables the delivery of group SMS, personalized content and tools that help keep families organised
BroadCloud’s infrastructure, strengthened by the recent acquisition of Casabi, will allow carriers to shrink time-to-market for delivering UC services from years to months or even weeks, and enable them to offer a comprehensive portfolio of UC services when combined with their existing BroadSoft application server platform.
“Rather than following the market and attempting to dictate which services should comprise a UC offering, we have focused our product development efforts on the services enterprises say they want,” said Michael Tessler, CEO, BroadSoft. “With the addition of our BroadCloud hosted platform, we are offering a service delivery model that accelerates time-to-market for our service provider customers, enables them to brand and customize a UC solution and allows them to quickly capitalize on the growing demand of these communications services.”
Finally, BroadCloud enables BroadSoft to extend its online marketplace distribution platform, Xtended. In addition to a traditional direct sales model, service providers can offer their customers the option to access, purchase and start using their communications services within a carrier branded Marketplace, enabling rapid deployment of carrier-branded, hosted UC services.
“Another compelling capability of our BroadCloud platform is the ability for carriers to leverage the growing acceptance and adoption of app stores,” added Leslie Ferry, vice president of marketing, BroadSoft. “We are enabling our service provider customers to complement their existing distribution channels for Unified Communication services with an online marketplace, which is a growing, preferred purchase option by end-users and offers higher service margins.”