There's been a lot of blog conversation the past week or two about Voice 2.0, the lack of development that really uses some of the new tools created by some innovators, and the like. I've known all along I'd weigh in, but have had some other things going on, and needed to synthesize what was being said.

I also think perspective is important. I've been actively involved in both sales and marketing over the past thirty years. In the telecommunications industry. In companies like AT&T and Lucent Technologies. And it small, entrepreneurial startups. I was pretty successfull at both. So there's some history behind these thoughts that runs deep, although I'm sure I won't articulate it well. This is, after all a blog post, written without the kind of detailed thought a research a comprehensive white paper would garner.

First, let me share a scan of a cartoon that's always been close at hand in my work space since about 1980. It gets directly to the root of the problem in many ways, both technical issues and marketing & sales (or positioning.branding) issues.



In the old Bell System days (pre-divestiture), this was a reality of product development. It very much represents the old Henry Ford "you can have any color you want as long as it's black" approach to customers. The customer wanted a simple tire swing, but we delivered everything but the desired solution. This was a joke, but in too many cases, back in the monopoly telco days, it was also a reality. Not every case, but too many cases. Each is hyperlinked so you can read along if you like.

I can't begin to address each and every thoughtful post by my friends and colleagues, but I want to reference several so that you can wrap some context around the issue at hand.

The catalyst that began the conversation came from David Beckemeyer on 1/31/07 -

Where are the Voice 2.0 developers?
PhoneGnome has offered a free API for almost a year now. But where are the innovators? We even offered to provide a free PhoneGnome box to those publishing apps to the User Contributed Library.

People say they want this stuff. They can talk the talk, but can they walk the walk

David closes with "So don't complain that these platforms don't exist. It's here, available now, and open to anyone with the ideas. The platform for Voice 2.0 innovation is here. Now, where are all the service providers?"

Alec Saunders responded the same day with Where ARE the Voice 2.0 Developers?. He asserts, "There is reason to be optimistic, however. Carriers do seem to be getting the message, albeit slowly. Just this past week I’ve chatted with one carrier who considers the application market exciting, but early."

A couple of days later, Aswath wrote Still Looking for Voice 2.0 Features, noting his own different take -

David quotes Simon Torrence as saying that with PhoneGnome one can “[deploy] far more features than could ever be deployed in IMS, and deploy them within weeks, not years.” The first part of that claim may be true, but I am skeptical about the ability to deploy them quickly. The reason is that PhoneGnome as do almost all standalone VoIP clients project the same limited interface to the users as the PSTN does. If it is difficult to develop feature in PSTN, then there are two main reasons – feature interaction and educating the user to invoke the features. PhoneGnome has not addressed either of them. This may not explain why the developers are missing in the first place; but PhoneGnome will face this issue quickly if David’s wish is granted.

Consider the service David quotes in his entry – Tellme DialTone 2.0. I do not have dialtone in my cordless phone; neither does the cell phone. Why do I need it for VoIP? It is nice that they use speech recognition to dial the number for me. But how do I say “not that John Smith, but the other one”? Wouldn’t having a screen based phone and the ability to select from my address book be simpler and cheaper? I may not have explained why the developers are missing, but I am pointing out that had they come, the situation will be same as it is in PSTN. So I say that we need to pay attention to user interface and simplify feature invocation.

Aswath often takes a different view, playing the Devil's Advocate. He also brings a depth of direct telecommunications knowledge that not everyone involved in unified communications understands or appreciates. There's an adage that Aswath's sometimes contrarian viewpoints often brings to mind that says "he who does not understand history is doomed to repeat it." I've seen this played out many times in the last ten years of evolving VoIP and unified communications services myself.

Other posts on the subject include
A great marketing lesson from Luca Filigheddu
Walk in Your Customer's Shoes from VoIPGirl
What came first? the innovators or the users from Pat Phelan
“Marketing” writ small from Alec Saunders delivers some very solid marketing background. Just keep in mind that Alec's background is what I'd view as network oriented (Internet, software, tech sector). It's a view that the carriers have never understood. If you're looking for a short tutorial how-to on marketing, Alec delivered the basics.
Voice 2.0 and Bouillabaisse from Alec also merits special attention.

There are three posts that I think move more toward the heart of things from Jeff Pulver, Tom Evslin and Andy Abramson. These are three who know much of the business, and folks whose thoughts and opinions I respect even when I don't agree with them.

Tom says -

Voice 2.0 – Fuggetaboutit!
There isn’t gonna be a new killer voice application!  Old friends from my VoIP days aren’t gonna believe it’s me saying that but (with lots of hindsight) it’s the truth.  New phones? Yes!  Different pricing?  Yes! New features? Sure.  Major new capability?  Nope!

My friend Jeff Pulver has been right about almost everything to do with voice on the net and now video on the net.  But I think he’s wrong (as I was) when he looks for major functional innovation in the delivery of voice communications.

I agree with him, but will elaborate further on.

Jeff Pulver has been deeper into VoIP and unified communications that most of us. Jeff's led our industry in many ways for years. Jeff's takne on battles others avoided and understands what it takes to win. Here's what he said -

Q. When will Service Providers offer Innovative Services?
A. Only when they have to. Or in other words, when their customers demand it.

Between the words of Aswath, Andy and Mr. Blog, it seems that some of my friends are starting to realize something that I've been in search of since 2002.

Over these years, while the enabling communication services platforms have continued to evolve, the reason innovative services were not deployed has nothing to do with how difficult they were to deploy, but rather a lack of consumer demand. Just because someone provides a great toolkit does not mean that there is someone else who is excited to use the applications that are created from leveraging the tools.

Only when they have to. Jeff's been around the block enough to understand the root problem. Change is hard. People don't welcome change. Only when they have to...only when there's a pain point, will people change. And that applies to developers, carriers and customers equally

Andy Abramson gave us Why Some Innovate And Die . Here are a couple of excerpts from the middle that really hit the nail on the head.

But rather than take a purple sky view through mauve colored glasses, something we all have been guilty of more than once, let's start with where the problems actually lays. A fundamental lack of knowing how to market to consumers that exists in so many companies that are trying to bring consumer products and services to market today.

Fundamental lack of knowing how to market - Powerful words, and dead on target. If you're trying to understand how to market a solution, you simply must read Andy's post. Read it more than once. There's a lot in there that will slip by the first two or three times. His summation says it all (emphasis mine) -

Innovation isn’t dead. It’s being killed. And the killers are the people who give birth to the ideas by practicing the worst form of euthanasia. They kill off their young not because their idea isn’t right. Because they’re not the right people to innovatively market the idea.

In this changing game from where technology has gone from geeks to the general market, the time for innovation in marketing is here. To market innovatively takes money, or at least some clue.

This morning Jeff followed up with another question, another post -

How do service providers go about *learning* what customers want?
And even if service providers know, is the customer's need in line with the company's need? One might argue that the service provider's main objective is to achieve reliable, recurring revenue with a relatively low duty cycle - which may or may not be in sync with what customers actually want. The best way to fulfill the service provider's typical objective is to come up with more things to charge for which might sound neat, but which most people will rarely use even though they continue paying the bills.

Now we're digging into the heart of things at another level.

I've been blogging on a variety of subjects, in a number of places, for six years; longer than some. But these colleagues, have been thinking, writing and working on these things for every bit as long. This collaboration and sharing of ideas and conversation is one of the real values of the Net, blogs and community. This is as deep a conversation as you'll find at any conference off in some engaging sideline conversation. The difference is that we're all talking about it out in the open for everyone to see (and comment). That's a powerful thing.

I agree with Tom, Jeff and Andy. Forget about Voice 2.0. It's an illusion we've created for ourselves. Innovators and entrepreneurs like David and Alec gp do very creative things because they have a vision. A vision of the future. A vision of what might be. They create, have created, building blocks for that future of communications. That's what startup innovators do, and those two represent a pair of the finest, brightest. They are true shining lights of innovation in our industry.

But as Tom, Jeff and Andy note, that isn't enough to make it happen, There isnt' a pain point screaming for a solution. Carriers and the large companies dont' understand how to market the future because they've skipped the basics. No customer focus groups asking customer what they want. Limited engagement through blogs, and the blogs are an echo chamber that real customers don't participate in. We're all talking to one another, but not to the person who matters - the customer.

There are two gaps. Chasms really. Which brings to mind Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore. That's a book that everyone should have read by now, but maybe it's time to revisit those truths and figuring out how to build a bridge across the chasm.

it's true that "if you buid it, they will come," but that's vague and has no objective. Who are they and what will they do with your creation? It worked with the baseball field, but it's no way to run a business. Why build something without a market established. There are some fundamental customer research and product marketing planning steps that the unified communications sector hasn't undertaken. In part, because we're tightly couple with the carriers, wireless and wireline alike. Their framework for marketing may still be tied to the tire swing picture I began this post with. They're still fighting a corporate culture shift that, twenty-two years after divestiture, hasn't caught up with the Internet tech sector.

There's another chasm, and that' selling the solutions once we';ve figured out what they are. I'm a firm believer that everyone in a company is a sales person. Every single employee is responsible for sales, marketing, customer service, and articulating the  company's vision. And for the basics of sales, and understanding how to ferret out the pain points and succeed, SPIN Selling byNeil Rackham is another valuable book that warrants re-reading.

Sorry for being longwinded. I hope there's something useful in here. With so many good ideas from so many insightful people, there's a lot of food for thought overloading our senses right now.

Technorati Tags: Voice 2, 0 Innovation, Marketing, Sales, serving the customer