Ifbyphone Blog

More than a year ago PhoneGnome CEO David Beckmeyer posed the question Where are the Voice 2.0 developers? We’re still waiting for the answer, says FierceVoIP editor Doug Mohney in his post, Pulver’s Purple Prophesies–And Fallout Thereof, charting VoIP’s journey from industry-disrupting new technology to plain vanilla status quo. 

If you’ve been around the VoIP space any length of time you’ve heard plenty about the uber-cool applications that digital voice was going to bring us. Well, we have mobile personal ads from Jangl – wait, didn’t Jangl go under a few weeks ago? 

Let’s face it, whether you call it rich voice or Voice 2.0, the pickings are slim. Talk about the impossible dream. Searching Google News on “rich voice VoIP” yields three hits. One is about fax-over-VoIP and the other two are about the same services for public safety agencies. Not exactly paradigm-shifting.

A decade later the VoIP industry has barely scratched the surface on the opportunity presented by turning phone calls into data. The last VON show in San Jose was all about new variations on the century-old theme of making and delivering phone calls. Like one more Baskin Robbins flavor – it’s still just ice cream. A new Skype handset is still…a handset.

Instead of making more ice cream maybe we should think about making something new — using the flexibility that VoIP opens up for making business operations smarter, more efficient, and more effective.

For example, add a short IVR to capture information like address or account number to route calls to the nearest office, look up account information or schedule a service call. Or think outside the phone call envelope altogether, as PEAK Technologies has done in its voice-based supply chain applications.

Just as we no longer write separate applications to update customer name in the accounts receivable and customer order systems, it’s time to stop silo-ing voice in something called the “phone system.” But that’s not going to come from the VoIP industry – it’s still too busy making cheap phone calls.

In the last couple days, there has been bad news for a couple Voice 2.0 startups, Jangl and TalkPlus.  There are people commenting on what this means for Voice 2.0: has the bubble burst?  What does the future hold for Voice 2.0 companies?

I feel bad for the people at Jangl and TalkPlus.  More or less, I’ve been in their shoes before.  I know how it feels, and it’s not pleasant.

But second, Voice 2.0 is poorly defined.  I consider IfByPhone to be a Voice 2.0 company in at least some ways.  But we are vastly different than both of these companies above and many other companies under the Voice 2.0 umbrella.  IfByPhone is sitting in the middle of a convergence of several different marketplaces, Click-to-call, Call routing, call tracking, voice broadcast, and IVR being just a few of them.

So, I for one, am going to suggest that we stop calling every new telephony feature or company or widget Voice 2.0.   Just becuase AT&T doesn’t offer it to their residential customers doesn’t make it part of the next wave.

For IfByPhone, I think the most appropriate term is Telephony Application Provider or TAP (I didn’t come up with the term, but I think it fits).  I think it’s pretty clear that there will be a huge marketplace for companies large and small to integrate voice into business processes and existing business applications.  And IfByPhone will be there at the forefront of that marketplace.

We released Version 2.7 last night. Below are highlights of the new features.

Some of the new features in Ifbyphone Version 2.7 include:

• The availability of local telephone numbers in all major US metropolitan areas. Customers will be able to select either toll free or local numbers for use with our Virtual Receptionist, Find Me, Survo and other inbound call routing applications.
• The Publish SurVo feature has been improved to allow for multiple logins for a single SurVo, as well as the deletion of SurVos that have already been published. The ability to edit the top portions of an active SurVo - e.g. everything above the questions, such as the email addresses, play beep at end of question and announce question count.
• The addition of a SurVo question type that allows a transfer to a Virtual Receptionist, Find Me, or Voice Mail.
• We will begin offering a new Audio Only Voice Broadcast with the ability to send out 25 simultaneous calls at no additional port usage cost.
• The ability to schedule Voice Broadcasts to run only on certain days of the week.
• The audio file maintenance tool now includes the approximate length of the recording in minutes.
• The ability to delete multiple audio recordings at once.
• Feature to automatically remove the beeps at the end of recorded Virtual Receptionist and SurVo prompts.
• The speed of many reports has been significantly enhanced.
• The addition of confirmation emails/receipts when signing up and adding additional items.

Some enhanced features for developers include:

• A new API for retrieving SurVo recordings as a streamed MP3.
• The ability to create Find Me’s using the Administrative API.
• The ability to retrieve the Call Detail report via the API.
• The use of a click-to key or API key will be required on new accounts to increase security. Current accounts won’t require this key, but we recommend you add it for additional security.
• Some additional parameters for Net Gets including dialed number and SurVo ID.

You can find more documentation on our support page here.

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I wrote a guest post on VOIPSupply’s blog. The post is about the Voice 2.0 market, how TAPs (Telephony Applicaiton Providers) are changing the market, and how VOIP companies in particular are able to take advantage of the functionality we provide.

Also, our Facebook app was reviewed:

Somewhat Frank

EasyasVoip

And both Start Henshall and Andy Abramson weigh in on Irv’s post about AOL + Jajah.

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The integration of Jajah’s network into the Yahoo Messenger platform signals a continuation of the movement of telephone transport from traditional PSTN networks to open VOIP transport. These new voice and data networks allow the user to bring their own device and access the world of telephony from new and exciting places.

Many of you may still remember when the telephone company provided all of your phones. The latest VOIP initiatives just continue the transition from telephone company owned devices to a device of your choice, by providing a device agnostic transport medium. Most telephone users now have access to open VOIP transport alternatives that are changing the pricing of transport. As transport costs continue to fall telephone users will obtain a new freedom in how that utilize telephone minutes. In a world of transport costs that are no longer a factor, users will want powerful applications that maximize the utility of these voice and data highways.

Let’s break this down a bit with an example. Why have railroads failed in America and prospered in the rest of the world? The American highways were much too good, gas prices where too low, and the price of an automobile was a reasonable percentage of the typical Americans income. This lead to the creation of the largest automobile companies in the world. (These same companies are now failing because of a combination of historical mistakes and changes to the relationships between transport costs and personal income.)

The new VOIP networks are the highways of telephony. The traditional telephone companies are the railroads. Telephone Application Platforms such as Ifbyphone are the new automobile manufacturers. The Ifbyphone Telephone Application Platform delivers applications over low cost VOIP networks, affordable by any business, that leverage the power of low cost telephone communications in any business, at any location, any time of the day.

A link to the Information Week article on the Jaja Yahoo deal follows:

Yahoo Outsources Messenger Voice Service To Jajah

As previously mentioned in this space, we recently announced our PhoneMashup initiative aimed at getting developers involved with our product. Every day we’re getting more developers signing up and doing interesting things with our services.

We want to make sure we’re providing the best support we can to our developer friends. So to that end, you will be seeing a lot more content. You’ll see more blog posts here related to developer issues. And we will regularly be posting new sample applications to the files section, as well as writing about them in the forums.

Finally, we’re on Twitter. You can follow us by going here. If you have any questions, feel free to ask us a question by using @ifbyphone. We’ll be monitoring the account regularly. You can also follow me (Khyle) too.

PS: If you don’t know what Twitter is, it’s a social networking tool similar to Instant Messaging. Their FAQ should help, and Jennifer Laycock wrote a great series about it as well.

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We’ve not been shy of discussing the ways Ifbyphone’s smart analytics can help you know more about the way your business works and how customers interact with you and your web site. In an article posted to SmallBizTechnology, Ifbyphone is mentioned as one new company that finds a way to comfortably add a Web presence to your telephony needs. The use of Phone Mashups and the integration of the Web with the old-fashioned telephone can provide a healthy boost to any small or medium-sized business. Read more here on the blog about how Ifbyphone can work for you.

At EComm 2008 our CEO, Irv Shapiro announced our new initiative aimed at allowing developers easy access to our technology (see mentions at Information Week, MacWorld, Thomas Howe, VOIP Weblog, and VOIP News). We are offering free accounts to developers so they can look at our technology, and see how easy it is to use our services. To signup for your free account, head over to PhoneMashup.com and click on the Free Mashup Account link to sign up.

Feel free to call me if you have any questions.

We talk a lot about the concept of mashups around here. What that really means to me is that people are starting to integrate voice into every day applications.

There simply is no better way to keep in better touch with your clients and prospects than by talking to them. The most successful companies will be the ones who consider voice as an integral part of their overall communication strategy. Certainly there are places where Email or websties or RSS or other means are a great way to keep in touch. But with the technology available today, you have the ability to use all methods in any given situation.

For example. Let’s say you have an overloaded HR department, and you’re going through a hiring push. You want to pre-screen applicants to see which meet some basic requirements. In the past, you could have people directed to a website where they could answer the questions. Today, you can choose any number of ways to get that information. By creating a simple Survo (our powerful and simple IVR like functionality) you now have any number of ways to gather that information.

You can automate outbound calls to the applicants. You can send an Email with a link to the web site and a link that would allow them to answer via the phone. You can tell them to call an 800# if you’d like. The point is you have much greater flexibility. YOU can choose how you want to be in touch.

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The EComm (Emerging Communications) 2008 conference is under way as of Wednesday morning and Ifbyphone, a silver sponsor, has been in the press quite a bit. Ifbyphone CEO Irv Shapiro gave a speech yesterday on the usefulness of Phone Mashups and announced Ifbyphone’s plan to give away 1 million minutes a month to developers to promote the creation of new third-party voice applications. Here are a few of the links. We’ll add to the list as more go live:

VoIP News

Information Week

Macworld

Thomas Howe Log on Ifbyphone CEO Irv Shapiro : Irv’s company, ifbyphone, looks to me like the phone mashup service provider that’s closest to getting it. His presentation was right on, his message clear, and the ifbyphone business model looks like it might be a winner. Pay attention to them.

 The VoIP Weblog

Voice Mashups are everywhere. I came across this very interesting post today. I have the same experience as the author. I can’t go a day without seeing a mention of Voice Mashups in a press release or a blog post. It’s easy to understand why this concept is gaining popularity. Everyone has a phone; everyone understands how to use a phone.

My grandmother will never read an email or fill in information on a web form. But she’ll be ecstatic when her prescription company calls her to remind her it’s time to refill. So the demographic for voice applications is much larger than web applications. And when you consider voice as an alternative to Email, the developer has much better control over the delivery of the message to the end user. In addition to Spam issues, there are issues in including images in emails that limit the developer’s ability to control the experience.

Voice applications don’t have those problems. Certainly it’s not a panacea, but it certainly has advantages over other delivery mechanisms.

The recent bump in activity around Voice Mashups is really based on companies like IfByPhone, VoodooVox and others making it easier for developers to voice enable their applications. It is a fairly recent development that voice enabling applications has become easily accessible. Developers don’t know how to use VXML to program a voice application anymore, and they don’t have to worry about a physical delivery mechanism. Using IfByPhone, VoodooVox or any of the other companies out there make it easy.

In our case, we are focused on bringing web and voice technology together to make it easier for the SMB market to have more conversations with their customers.

VoodooVox is allowing people to monetize their calls, and also offers an API. Since their services are ad supported, they can offer their service for free.

There are other companies focused on things like bringing voice applications to user centric websites.

And the wheels are really just starting to get rolling with voice applications too.

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