Customer Service is Going Virtual

April 8th, 2013 | Posted by Adam Kaiser in Use Cases | Video Conferencing - (0 Comments)

“This call may be monitored for quality assurance.”

How many times have you heard that throughout your life? The reality is, as technology continues to change at a rapid pace, the way we communicate with our vendors and service provides is rather primitive. When the cable bill arrives with the wrong charges (surely that never happens!), one has to pick-up the phone only to wait on hold for twenty minutes to ultimately get a resolution. Or maybe a recent purchase for a child warrants some technical support; again a phone call and wait time must be endured. At the same time, it can be very difficult to explain a problem to a support agent by merely describing it.

For years, there has been talk about moving video technology into a business to consumer world. But, what does this mean? Simply, customers could connect to the very same contact center they call now, but speak to the appropriate agent via video. The advantages of this are significant! Suddenly, all customer service interactions would benefit from everything video conferencing has to offer. The agent can work with the customer and gain a better idea of their understanding of a particular topic. Second, the customer can point the camera at the item being discussed (extra parts to a new toy that don’t seem to have a use) and immediately give the agent better insight into the issue. Finally, video could put a more personal face on what can seem like a very impersonal interaction.

While video contact centers have been a topic of discussion for a while, why is now any different? There is a convergence of several key market and technology trends that could make this idea a reality.

The Proliferation of Video, Everywhere
Video is truly everywhere. Consumers are already accustomed to communicating with family and friends over video. Whether it is via a social network, Skype, or another service, video has truly gone main stream. At the same time, many people are used to going to work and using video as a tool to complete assigned projects and tasks.

Mobile Devices
The explosive growth of mobile devices, such as smart phones and tables, has put multiple video enabled devices into nearly everyone’s pockets. A user can grab their phone and make a video call just as easily as a voice call. These devices have not only helped make video ubiquitous, they have also made video far more accessible than ever imagined.

Advanced Contact Center Technology
Even though most customer service interactions have been limited to voice, the technology driving these connections is rather advanced. Many organizations had implemented technology that allows them to hire the most talented support agents and place them anywhere. In addition, these solutions are able to route calls intelligently to both an available agent and the most skilled agent for the issue at hand. Customers have become far savvier and do not accept being transferred multiple times. Technology has helped route customers to the right person at the right time.

WebRTC
WebRTC has been discussed many times on this blog and the technology is one of the main catalysts of the video contact center. If a user requires help, the desire to spend 15-20 minutes downloading an application to their computer or smartphone is nonexistent. With WebRTC, one click could immediately initiate a video call right in their browser. With no downloads needed, the customer would get near immediate access. Unfortunately, there is no technology that can eliminate wait times completely!

As all of these elements come together, the promise of the video contact center is very real. The ultimate question comes down to the customers themselves. Will they embrace this type of interaction and will they push the vendors they do business with to implement this technology? What do you think? Would you welcome the opportunity to get support via video?

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This Month in Telemedicine – March 2013

April 4th, 2013 | Posted by Adam Kaiser in Healthcare | Video Conferencing - (0 Comments)

This month’s telemedicine videocast from the American Telemedicine Association focused on a major change in the population tabulation that directly affects telemedicine reimbursement, as discussed by ATA’s CEO Jonathan Linkous and Gary Capistrant, senior director of public policy.

Federal Policy Changes & Activity
The hot topic was the re-designation of many counties from rural to metropolitan, which resulted in the loss of Medicare telehealth reimbursement. Due to a change to the Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas, 97 counties newly designated as “urban” will lose reimbursement privileges because Medicare reimbursement for telehealth services is not available to populations in metropolitan areas. On the other hand, 28 counties will gain coverage because they are now designated rural.

While this is a setback for telemedicine and Linkous proposed two ways to deal with the situation: the first, to grandfather in counties that have been redefined as metropolitan; the second is to expand Medicare reimbursement for urban populations. “This really shows the need to do that,” said Linkous.

Also mentioned was the F.I.T.T bill (Fostering Independence Through Technology), which is sponsored by South Dakota Democratic Senator John Thune and Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar. The bill aims to establish a pilot program for home health agencies serving rural communities to use remote patient monitoring.

Capistrant and Linkous also discussed FDA regulations about medical devices, licensure and interstate health commerce, and the need to coordinate the various roles that the federal government plays in healthcare. Linkous points out the very real potential for backlogs—the FDA, Linkous says, has received 100 or so applications but can only process 20 a year.

“The good thing is there’s a lot of innovation in mobile health. The bad is it’s taking a long time to get through regulation, and, number two, you can’t get paid for it.” - Jonathan Linkous, CEO American Telemedicine Association

State Activity
They also discussed the ongoing issue of licensure, and the burden acquiring multiple state licenses places on telehealth providers. The Federation of State Medical Boards is proposing a form of state reciprocity but, Linkous points out, getting all the states on board could take a long time—a decade or more. He offered the example of the nursing compact, which was started 15 years ago and less than half the states have signed on to date. (The ATA has not endorsed any one approach).

Big Med Developments
Larger healthcare systems are seeing the potential business benefits of telehealth, and are looking to expand their footprint and brand by providing more services to a larger population. Linkous gave the example of the Mayo Clinic Care Network, an affiliation program. They have a goal of reaching 200 million patients by 2020, through both their own hospitals and the affiliation network by using “e-consults”, i.e. telemedicine. Cleveland Clinic also has an affiliate program. “It’s an interesting contest,” says Linkous, noting this is a business decision and cost-reduction tool. Mercy Healthcare is using telehealth for a broad range of services, including stroke, autism, and cardiac care, and they’ll soon be breaking ground for a virtual healthcare center which will house subspecialists and a teaching facility at their headquarters outside of St. Louis.

New Online Education
ATA will be launching an education service on their website with webinars, videocasts, and online courses, with many continuing medical education accredited. The organization is looking to develop a major educational center—online, of course—for telemedicine providers.

Annual Meeting
ATA’s annual meeting will be held in Austin, Texas, from May 5 to 7. For a free exhibit hall pass, click here to register and enter  the code VIPcomp13.

The next This Month in Telemedicine videocast is on April 23.

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Come See Video Conferencing Hit Legal Age

April 1st, 2013 | Posted by Lisa Avvocato in IVCi | Video Conferencing - (0 Comments)

The ABA TECHSHOW is taking place April 4-6, 2013 in the Windy City (Chicago, IL). Visit us at booth #614!

IVCi is partnering with Blue Jeans Network to showcase how video collaboration solutions can help law firms meet today’s legal challenges, such as geographically dispersed clients and timely access to subject matter experts, while helping minimize expenses.

In a previous article, we discussed how firms can use video to build client relationships, as well as, manage their ever growing case load by keeping in touch with traveling clients effortlessly through video enabled smartphones or tablets. Additionally, firms can use video conferencing to depose remote witnesses or interview difficult to reach subject matter experts without the time and cost associated with business travel.

Firms can also use video conferencing solutions to attract and retain top associates. Partners can interview potential candidates remotely so that only the most qualified candidates are brought in for further discussion. Plus, law firms can help differentiate themselves by utilizing the latest technology and making the firm more attractive to new recruits.

Additionally, partners and associates can attend meetings with remote offices and confer on any range of topics that would typically be discussed in a face-to-face environment.  Plus, attorneys can attend classes and seminars over video as part of distance learning courses to satisfy CLE requirements. This frees up valuable time and resources by avoiding travel to various firm or seminar locations.

Stop by our booth at ABA TECHSHOW for a demonstration and learn how video collaboration solutions can help your firm. Click here for registration information.

Additional Resources:
Video Conferencing Hits Legal Age

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Highlights From Enterprise Connect 2013

March 26th, 2013 | Posted by Adam Kaiser in Industry News | Unified Communications | Video Conferencing - (0 Comments)

Enterprise Connect 2013 has come to a close and what an event it was. This was IVCi’s first year attending and exhibiting at the show and it was a fantastic experience that provided many opportunities for us to connect with our current customers as well as future prospects. In addition, the opportunity to see the latest technology and offerings from our partners was great. The event was jam-packed with great sessions, keynotes, exhibitors, attendees and more. Here is an overview of some of the key takeaways and messages from the event.

WebRTC
WebRTC (as previously covered here on Collaboration Insight) is a new browser based protocol that allows for real-time voice and video communication to occur right inside a web browser. WebRTC has gotten to be so big; the conference dedicated an entire track to the topic and every session was full. The reality of WebRTC is that not all browsers currently support it (only Google Chrome and the developer builds of Firefox) but the potential for it is endless.

At the end of the day, WebRTC will enable any browser to be a video client or endpoint on a communications network. In Cisco’s keynote, the example of a shopper on a website was used. They were looking for accessories and information on a his store  purchases. They simply clicked a link and a video session was initiated with an expert back in a video call center. No wait to download a client and no security issues with the install; it simply happened in the browser. When the standard is ratified and included in all browsers, the potential will be limitless! Cisco demoed a Jabber client built entirely in the browser, contact center agents could access their voice services right within the browser and more. It has to the potential to breakdown interoperability issues and extend enterprise collaboration to an organization’s customers.

Unified Communications
Frost and Sullivan presented a session at the conference in which they defined unified communications as “an integrated set of voice, data and video communications applications, all of which leverage PC- and telephony-based presence information.” UC was in full force at the conference with all major players showing their latest innovations. Both Cisco and Microsoft came with their entire vision. Microsoft presented their total solution from mobile devices (Android, iOS, Windows Phone) to tablets (Surface, iPad) to desktops and even room systems. The solution was elegant and worked as advertised. Microsoft has been pitching this vision for a while and it was great to see it fully realized. At the same time, Cisco showcased their Jabber solution which offers interoperability across all platforms and seamlessly integrates voice, video, data sharing, and more.

The key takeaway about UC is that the technology is very real and organizations are definitely implementing or looking to implement it in their current short term roadmap. Voice, video, and everything in between have converged!

The Cloud and Mobility
There was not a session that didn’t include a discussion around how cloud delivery and mobile devices would influence employees and technology. Even sitting in the sessions themselves one could see dozens of attendees taking notes on their iPads, checking email, and ultimately staying connected. The discussion of cloud, however, must be secondary. The user of the technology, how it can impact user productivity must be first. How it is delivered (on-premise, cloud, etc) is a decision that comes after.

Business Case
Perhaps the most exciting trend seen at Enterprise Connect was a focus on making the business case for the technology being presented. Certainly there was a large amount of discussion around the technology itself, the features, etc. But in many of the sessions, the business case for collaboration technology was continually presented. Some of the key messaging was around how these technologies can help move a business forward and help fulfill strategic goals. Additionally, simply deploying technology does not equal success. Organizations must see widespread adoption and employee satisfaction to really judge if the technology implementation was a success.

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The NASA Distance Learning Experience

March 14th, 2013 | Posted by Lisa Avvocato in Education | Video Conferencing - (0 Comments)

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to sit in on a NASA Digital Learning Network program with a fourth grade class that ironically was located about fifteen minutes away from me.  Scott Anderson, a DLN Coordinator at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, taught a module about Toys in Space. The program focuses on forces and motion and consists of an investigation of what toys will work in a microgravity environment (such as space).

Did you know that a boomerang actually works in space? It’s because the looping path a boomerang follows is actually the result of the uneven forces exerted by the air they travel through and not the influence of gravity.

For each segment, a short video of an astronaut using a toy, such as a jump rope, is shown to the class. After the video, the instructor gave a brief explanation as to why the toy did or did not work in space. In the jump rope’s case it is because of the law of motion; an object in motion will stay in motion until something (usually gravity) causes it to stop.

The instructor then poses the question to the class, what could be done to modify the toy to perform better in space? After a flurry of raised hands, the teacher selects a few students to answer the question. My favorite answer for the jump rope was magnet boots. When you jump up the magnets pull you back down similar to gravity (smart fourth grader!).

After the lesson is completed, the students have the opportunity to ask questions about the lesson or NASA programs.  For example, what animal has gone into space the most? The answer is the squirrel monkey although France did send a cat into space one time.

Overall, the program was extremely interesting and the kids were well behaved and actively engaged.  I learned a lot of interesting tidbits so I imagine the children learned a lot from the class as well.  It’s great to take a break from typical lessons and learning channels (or work day) and learn something new!

Watch the below video for a sample of one of NASA’s DLN programs where they connect Mission Control with students in Georgia.

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