First published on Alex Saunders's blog.
"Slick". That’s what I said when I powered up the Polycom phone that the folks at Junction Networks sent me in order to be able to review their new My.Onsip user interface. Truly plug-and-play, the phone immediately found the Junction Networks hosted PBX, configured itself (even through my NAT and Firewall), and was ready to go in a few seconds.
As cool as it was, however, I wasn’t as interested in how easy the phone was to configure as I was in the GUI that Junction Networks announced last week. Web based, my.Onsip shows presence information for everyone in your organization, incorporates XMPP-based chat, and allows dialing from either the on-screen GUI, or the phone. You can see a photograph below (credit Lonnie Lazar’s review at Voxilla). On the left you see presence and availability information for people in your organization, and on the lower right, tabs for messaging.
So why is this so compelling? Fact: over 80% of calls end in a voice mail box today. If business can find a way to deal with telephone tag, they can boost productivity everywhere in the organization. Simply knowing the availability of the people you need to reach will help immensely. Moreover, Junction Networks has gotten the interaction model right. Today’s business phone user uses IM first, to establish that the other party is available to talk, followed by a voice conversation if necessary.
Now all they need is a mobile version for my iPhone or Blackberry.