A Partnership Is Worth Zilch When....

... your partner fails to provide an obvious path to download and install your software.

In early July last year I wrote about the launch of Dell Video Chat, based on a newly announced agreement between Dell and SightSpeed to use SightSpeed's video services. The bottom line was that Dell Video Chat would become available on an expanding range of Dell PC's.What follows is a story about what turns users away from Windows PC's and why Apple is doing so well with its iMac's and MacBooks these days. But it also has to be an embarrassment to Dell.

As background I should say that recently I have watched as two non-tech persons have started up their MacBooks for the first time. Turn it on, asks for your name and contact information, upgrades the software, takes your photograph with the built-in webcam, finds the WiFi, connects to the Internet (and finds other PC's on your LAN). In about 20 to 30 minutes you're up and running. No hassles, no new software to install; it just happens!. And subsequently these people do not come back to me for technical support, especially on security, operating system upgrade and new software installation issues.

This weekend I am helping an acquaintance getting transitioned to a new Dell Vostro 220 desktop PC. Due to one critical business application that only supports a Windows installation this person could not change to a Mac. In the course of starting it up I found there was a webcam embedded onto the monitor and installed the appropriate webcam software. (No, Dell did not pre-install it even though a monitor with embedded webcam was included in the initial order.) Ran a client called Dell Webcam Central. You could take photos or record video while seated in front of the monitor.

Then I noticed in the upper right hand corner an option to "Switch to video chat". Recalling that I had written about Dell Video Chat last summer I clicked on the link. And got a dialogue box stating: "You have not installed the video chat application 'Dell Video Chat'. Do you want to download now?" Clicked on the "Yes" button.

This took me to a Dell web page that asked for my Dell Service Tag. Entered it and ended up on the standard page of driver downloads for the Vostro PC. Looked through the various categories (after identifying my OS as Windows XP) and could not find Dell Video Chat software anywhere. No application downloads. Nothing about it listed in a sidebar on the same page. Nada, Did a search. No luck.

So, at this point, not being sure if I had installed Dell's webcam software properly I installed Skype on this PC and found it recognized my webcam, including its associated microphone, with no problem. Dell had failed to provide any means (let alone a user-friendly means) to download and install the Dell Video Chat software.

Sort of defeats the purpose of having this SightSpeed-Dell agreement and the associated easy access to the relevant software somehow. It actually turned out to be easier for me to download and install Skype (and have ready access to voice and/or chat conversations with the huge Skype user base).

A couple of points made in posts since my initial one about the arrangement between Dell and SightSpeed have happened since last summer:

• Skype hired Scott Durschlag as COO. In a post about CxO's and their persoanl business networks I pointed out that both Scott and Ron Garriques, now Dell's President of Global Consumer Group, had worked together at Motorola.
• Logitech announced it would acquire SightSpeed in late October.

Aside from Dell's obvious quality assurance problem described above, the sceptic in me might ask:

• Did Logitech's acquisition of SightSpeed somehow sour the Dell relationship with SightSpeed
• If it's all but impossible for a somewhat technically savvy person to find and install Dell Video Chat, is there any Dell Video Chat user registered out there with whom a user could have a conversation?
• Has SightSpeed been tracking any metrics on Dell Video Chat adoption?
• Is there an opportunity here for Skype to leverage a Skype executive's previous relationship with a current Dell executive to initiate discussions about having Dell provide Skype with all its PC's?
• Will "Skype Everywhere" include Dell PC users when they want to hold voice, chat and video conversations simply by default? "No biz dev required."

Just wondering .....Where's the value in a Dell partnership? It's all about execution!

In spite of being a 14-year purchaser of Dell PC's, it's one more nail in the Dell/Microsoft coffin as I contemplate a transition to a MacBook for my next laptop purchase.

And, in case anyone was wondering about what Steve Jobs brought to the table at Apple: a discipline within Apple's corporate culture that focuses on a friction-free and overwhelmingly successful user experience. In spite of Steve's current absence that corporate culture is not going away anytime soon.

Phil's Observations:

• Two More Reasons why SightSpeed is good for Logitech
• Why Did Skype lose the Dell account to Logitech

SightSpeed's CEO Peter Csathy:

• Speculation About SightSpeed's Partnership Success -- "How Did They Do It?"

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OnState Virtual PBX: Taking On and Managing All Callers

OnState's Virtual PBX incorporates Skype as a contributor to lower cost, yet more productive, small business communications management activities.

A mainstay for communications in any office with at least a few employees is the need to accept incoming calls, determine who is calling, what is their general need and getting the call to the right employee. In the interest of effective and productive customer and supplier relations, calls need an automated way to reach sales personnel, customer care, accounting or technical support or "the boss". Preferably this call management should be handled without any human intervention; over the past twenty or more years this has resulted in the evolution of increasingly effective Private Branch Exchange ("PBX") offerings from telecomm equipment suppliers. And it traditionally required a reasonably demanding capital expense, from $15,000 up.

The basic functions of a PBX include:

• Receiving and answering a call from an external caller
• Offering a menu of options to determine to whom the call should be connected
• Transferring the call in response to answers provided either by entering alphanumeric or dialpad information or by using speech recognition.
• Accepting, recording and managing voice mails if nobody is available to take a call
• Ability to make a subsequent call transfer if deemed necessary

However, IP-based communications technology along with web 2.0 tools provide opportunities for enhancing the PBX to build more productive and effective business processes when it comes to managing relationships with both suppliers and customers. For instance:

• An individual agent portal for overall conversation management
• Intelligent call queuing would permit an "occupied" employee to either put a caller into a queue for answering when available or transfer a caller to another employee with the skills to handle the call
• Chat sessions can be offered as either an alternative or complement to voice conversations
• Building a searchable call archive integrated into an email system such as GMail.
• Making call transfer destinations independent of the recipient's geographical location, whether "in the office", at a home office or out "on the road".
• Reducing and minimizing the costs associated with various PBX services.

Building on its Call Center experience OnState has launched its Virtual PBX which provides all this functionality as well as:

• Receives calls via Skype, SkypeIn as well as Local DID numbers and toll free numbers in over 20 countries
• Call transfer to employees, agents and other designated recipients on their Skype-enabled PC, landline phones or mobile independent of geographical location
• An extension-based agent/employee/representative portal for managing incoming calls, including call waiting notification, queuing and redirection
• Integration into GMail, Zimbra and Salesforce.com

A few weeks ago, OnState CEO Pat Kelly was our guest on a SquawkBox conference call where he provided more details about OnState's Virtual PBX, including a sharable slide show presentation accessible as a Google document.

Bottom line; for as little as $15 per month per seat and no capital investment, small to medium enterprises and organizations as well can establish an enhanced PBX capability to facilitate both more productive business processes as well as more cost effective communications.

Definitely a business model disruptor.

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Truphone Breaks the Carrier Barrier

Truphone's announcements last week overcame a significant carrier resistance barrier to using VoIP-enabled services to reduce international calling costs. The key secret here was that it required the combination of Truphone's iPhone and iPod Touch applications along with the Apple Application program that leverages Apple's established carrier relationships to break this barrier.On Friday I was finally able to complete provisioning of Truphone on my iPhone. It happened at this time for three reasons:

• The association of my original Truphone number and account with a Nokia N95 handset and the "416" number I eventually transferred to my iPhone whose acquisition as an upgrade on my carrier account minimize my iPhone costs over the term of the three year contract.
• The original iPhone application only supported outbound calling; I would have lost the Truphone inbound calling feature I had on the N95.
• For this reason I left Truphone on my N95 (using a deactivated SIM and my home office WiFi access point) pending the arrival of a Truphone for iPhone application and service that supported both inbound and outbound calling.

Recall also that the original Truphone for iPhone only allowed calls over WiFi access points with no ability to pass them through the underlying 3G wireless carrier. Truphone's two announcements last week addressed three issues:

• Truphone for iPhone now supports both inbound and outbound calling
• Truphone added the Truphone Anywhere service such that Truphone for iPhone calls could be made over the underlying 3G carrier as well as over WiFi.
• Truphone for iPod Touch (2nd generation) invoked the Truphone Anywhere service allowing calls to be made from iPod Touch to any PSTN number.

Over the course of the past week it has become possible to make low cost international calls from any iPhone or iPod Touch mobile device worldwide. Truphone has demonstrated how the underlying service provider can can eliminate the need to have a multitude of individual "carrier-service provider agreements" with the 79 carriers currently offering the iPhone worldwide. Yet carriers still benefit through increased local minutes used to provide the connection to/from Truphone calls. To quote from Ted Wallingford's "Heartburn Chuckle: The telecom industry can blame itself":

The Carriers

The carriers are firms like AT&T, Windstream, Verizon, BT, and so on. Their obsession with the billing unit (the almighty minute) has made them helpless to see the possibilities of a software-rich, application-based global ecosystem. Consequently, the most successful apps to arrive on the carriers’ networks, the ones most embraced by the public, overwhelmingly have one purpose: to steal billable minutes from the carriers. The innovation disappeared and the scrappy new players in the market, the ones with the power to transform the public’s thinking about telecom, instead got stuck doing the same old thing the big telecoms do to put bread on the table: bill minutes. [Author's italics]

For instance, Canadians can now use Truphone for iPhone as their international calling service over Rogers without the need to subscribe to one of Rogers international calling plans but perhaps with an increase in their monthly "local" voice plan minutes. In this case, there is no cost for the actual application and you establish international call credits through a Truphone account. When Rogers' iPhone customers travel to Europe, calling back to North America can be handled at a much lower cost through hotel, cafe and airport WiFi services, such as Boingo or iPass. (True roaming calls from outside the "home country" over a 3G carrier will still be expensive; Andy's post linked here suggests RebelSIM provides a solution.)

It was the second part of this announcement that is most significant. Previously VoIP-enabled services, such as 3's Skypephone, required working with individual carriers to establish the appropriate business and operating agreements. However, in one move, Truphone was able to leverage Apple's relationships with 79 carriers worldwide to bring about commitment free international calling. Apple, through its Application Program has become a disintermediator, facilitating a business model disruption, once again.

As for the iPhone for iPod Touch application; this is why the most successful carriers need to offer both wireless and broadband Internet services. Calls via WiFi access points, including one's broadband Internet service, go over the broadband connection and reduce carriers' needs to build out the capital-intensive wireless network infrastructure, including backhaul.

In a future post, once I've had some more Truphone for iPhone experience, I'll do a comparison of services available over Skype and over Truphone. But one obvious difference: Truphone is about voice conversations only; Skype is about voice and text conversations.

Related Post: Race to Provide Low Cost International Calling Heats Up

Tags: Truphone, iPhone, carriers, voip, Skypephone, iSkoot, international calling, service providers, WiFi

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