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• iotum Adds Skype Access to Calliflower Conferencing Calling (eon.businesswire.com)

Just about any company can get immediate benefit from moving to a web-based ‘Saas’ conferencing solution.  The largest benefits accrue to companies that have inherited multiple service providers, either via organic growth or a merger and acquisition, but any business looking to make a transition will benefit.  Companies managing multiple service provider relationship (and spending ten’s of thousands of dollars per month) often come to us looking to consolidate those multiple partner relationships and bring the entire conferencing infrastructure in-house using a single web-based service such as Calliflower.

Web-based conferencing is especially important for smaller companies that lack in-house IT expertise or resources.  Typically they have no history with traditional enterprise telecom solutions, they don’t know how to manage an audio conferencing bridge, and they lack the expertise to do telecom service analysis or resource planning.  Calliflower is especially valuable for these companies, because it’s an out of the box conferencing solution addressing web and audio conferencing.  Customers get a web-based console, plus all of the tools to manage costs effectively, and serve internal users in the best possible way.

And, with Calliflower’s flat-rate pricing, there is no need for complex resource planning and service analysis.

One of the great trends of the last decade has been the move toward employee “self service” models.  We make our own travel reservations, and provision our own web applications, for example. It’s a positive trend, providing greater transparency, and lowering costs.  And, this trend is a key to helping companies manage their costs appropriately.

It’s not surprising to see companies now wanting to move away from expensive operator-assisted conference calls.  For many uses, operator assist is simply inappropriate, and even for the use cases where it’s still common – corporate earnings calls, for example – it may not be necessary.  Web based controls, such as those provided by Calliflower, help companies take back control of their calls from the operator.  Provisioning is done with a self service model.  In addition, with controls such as mute and unmute, hand raise and lower to give the floor to third parties, and the ability to record calls at no additional charge, Calliflower offers IT departments all the capabilities of an operator-assisted conference call, without incurring the burden of user configuration requests, questions and cost associated with an operator-assisted conference call.  Moreover, if a presentation is required during the call, it can be shown simultaneously using Calliflower’s document sharing feature.

The transition away from operator-assisted conference calls to self serve with Calliflower can be nearly seamless.  And with flat-rate pricing and web-based management, Calliflower brings a level of transparency and predictability to conferencing expenses that hasn’t been possible until now.

The main concern that most IT managers have about audio conferencing is visibility.  Since conferencing is now looked upon as a data service, rather than pure voice service, it’s now part of the IT portfolio, and IT has responsibility for oversight.  So how does the IT manager manage the costs associated with voice?

Calliflower makes management easier in two key ways:

1. It’s a web-based service, with web-based controls, and administration.  At any time you can track fulfillment of the service, make sure it’s working okay, add and remove users and more.  Calliflower give the IT manager the ability to do self-service management for changes, adds, and deletes, just like IT does for other applications through Web-based tools.
2. It’s a flat-rate conferencing service as well.  Calliflower removes all variability in costs associated with conferencing by charging a flat-rate per month per organizer.  That means a radical reduction in the expenses associated with reconciliation of bills, inter-department charge-backs, and other kinds of administration.

The transition to web-based management of conferencing is a critical cost-management tool for the IT manager.

A decade ago audio conferencing was a standardized service offered by the telecom department in any medium or large sized business.  A couple of folks internally managed a bridge, owned by the business, and charged back expenses to individual departments.

Then along came communications convergence.

Today, many companies no longer have a dedicated telecom group.  That responsibility has moved over to the IP department, and increasingly telecom is being outsourced.  The problem with this scenario is that the shift from a mostly fixed-cost solution used by 90% of business to a highly variable-cost outsourced solution has provided inherently less visibility into who is using the services and how they’re being used.  Conferencing services are frequently over-provisioned, but under-utilized as a result.  There is often no direct correlation between the users, cost control, and overall management of the platform.

Services, like Calliflower, that provide low-cost access to conferencing have finally emerged.  With a web-based console, Calliflower can be managed like any other software asset, and it’s familiar to the IT departments that have now inherited responsibility for audio.  As IT shops transition from being cost centers to service centers for their internal users, Web-based Calliflower, with flat-rate conference call pricing, is an easy tool to regain control of conferencing costs.

OTTAWA, CANADA (March 10, 2010) – iotum announced today that Calliflower, its interactive conferencing and collaboration service, will be promoted through the VAR and system integrator channels of Samsung Canada. Under an exclusive agreement from March 1st to April 30th, 2010, Samsung resellers will offer purchasers of selected Samsung netbooks and laptops the first year of Calliflower service free, and will receive commissions when their customers sign up. 

Calliflower applies an engaging, social-networking-style visual interface to the task of conferencing and collaboration, and under standard pricing charges a $50 US monthly flat rate for unlimited use for up to two organizers.  Participants can join through local access phone numbers in major Canadian cities and around the world, or via Skype into a single conference, all while sharing presentations, documents, links, and chats with all those remotely assembled.

Calliflower’s  intuitive controls also allow participants to see the status of other callers and raise hands to request the floor, while also providing call recording, invitations and reminders, integration with calendars, and more. 

“This partnership is a great way to grow customer relationships for our small-business retailers and system integrators, by offering another powerful, money-saving tool alongside our laptops and netbooks,” said Michael Dodgson, Product Marketing Manager for Netbooks at Samsung Canada. “We also see the chance to promote great Canadian technology in a space – teleworking —  that’s very much in demand.”

iotum CEO Alec Saunders, for his part, acknowledged that Samsung Canada’s promotion would provide a great boost to Calliflower’s long-term user base. “We’re so confident in the service and the sales channel, that we’re willing to offer the first year’s service for free – a $600 dollar value,” he said. 

Samsung Canada resellers and retailers will have customers sign up for Calliflower through a web site, entering PC serial numbers for proof of purchase and downloading the client software. 

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About iotum

iotum is a Voice 2.0 company that aims to reinvent business conversations and shape a world of relevant communications where devices, social networks and Web services work seamlessly together to let people communicate with whom they want, when they want and on the device they want.  

About Samsung Electronics Canada Inc.

Samsung Electronics Canada, Inc. (SECA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., markets a broad range of award-winning digital consumer electronics, information systems, telecommunications and home appliance products. SECA upholds Samsung’s mission to provide consumers with innovative digital convergence products that possess exceptional technology, quality, features, performance and value. 

Samsung has been a global TOP sponsor of the Olympic Games since 1998 and has been a presenting sponsor of the Olympic Torch Relay from 2004 to 2008.  Also through Samsung’s Four Seasons of Hope charity, Samsung helps athletes and celebrities raise funds for their respective charities, including the Wayne Gretzky Foundation in Canada.  Samsung is also a proud sponsor of Hockey Canada.

For customer service inquiries, please call 1-800-SAMSUNG (1-800-726-7864), and for more information, please visit www.samsung.com.

via Samsung Canada and iotum Announce Partnership with Calliflower | Stardust Global Ventures.