FierceVoIP sat down with Divitas CEO Vivek Khuller to talk about his company, UC, and the future of the VoIP space.
FierceVoIP: Vivek, where is Divitas seeing the most market penetration right now?
Khuller: We are seeing a lot of adoption of the Divitas 2.0 mobile client in legal spaces, and I mean non-big law firms, which are already on Blackberrys. I'm talking about the government side, courthouses, public defenders' offices, since they use public funds, the cost savings they receive from our solution is a big selling point. We've also seen Sawtel pick us up in the VoIP carrier space.
FierceVoIP: What do you think are some important trends right now in the industry?
Khuller: I think the continued adoption of smartphones by the general public is a really important trend right now. RIM brought smartphone adoption to businesses, and Apple brought it to the public through the entertainment features and excellent interface. But the full capabilities of the smartphones are still being explored, and we're poised as a convergence company really mobilizing business applications on the smartphones, because until now, only email had been truly mobilized.
FierceVoIP: With tough economic times looming, why do you think customers should migrate into the VoIP space next year?
Khuller: It's so cost effective, I think people will see the value. Mobile voice and mobile Wifi for employees cuts back on cellular costs and the need for expensive hardware in the office. Companies in the financial, consulting and law space that took the cost associated with cellular and PBX services for granted in the past will start to reexamine them now, and I think they will be far more interested in cost-effective solution on dual-mode phones.
We also see people were first generation WiFi tech users like education and health care, and we want to target them in a novel way. We want to take the people who were very point-solution based and show them the value of new advances in voice technology.
FierceVoIP: Who would you consider Divitas's biggest competitor?
Khuller: There are a lot of companies out there who do some of the things we do, but I really think the biggest competitor for a start-up is inertia. What I mean by inertia is, the customers' reliance on the present technology and their legacy products. You have to figure out how to get them to embrace new products on the market and show them the leverage they gain by using your product.
FierceVoIP: What do you think the next year to two years holds for the industry?
Khuller: I think you can expect to see further convergence in three areas. One, in the network, with the proliferation of mobile networks, people will want to be able to use them in an integrated way. Two, in applications, business voice and business text right now, but more useful and effective business applications will drive it here. Three, devices will begin to converge. You had desk phone and a mobile phone before, now, you'll have it all in one device with features neither had before. The proliferation of standards like SIP is letting people tap into apps with ease, which will increase convergence as well.