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BroadSoft is looking to make it easier for business users to leverage their unified communications services regardless of the device they’re working on.
BroadSoft on Oct. 31 unveiled BroadTouch, which includes intuitive user interfaces that will allow enterprise users to more easily access their UC applications across a variety of devices, from desktops and laptops to tablets and smartphones.
The move comes as the number and variety of devices used by workers grows. Workers are becoming more mobile and are looking to access their UC services on any device they have. BroadSoft officials noted a report from market research firm Gartner showing that 428 million mobile communications devices were sold in the first quarter, which represented a 19 percent jump over the same period in 2010.
Cisco Systems also has documented the rapidly expanding connected device trend. In its annual Visual Networking Index Forecast, released in June, Cisco said that by 2015, there will be almost 15 billion network-connected devices, including smartphones, tablets, appliances and other smart machines. In addition, U.S. citizens will have an average of seven connected devices by 2015, and more than 40 percent of the world’s population-or about 3 billion people-will be Internet users.
Given that, BroadSoft officials said their goal was to give enterprise users and consumers an easier way to access their communications applications, and to give telecommunications service providers the ability to offer users a consistent and intuitive experience and services that are integrated across multiple devices and networks. BroadSoft has a customer base of about 450 global service providers.
“We have led the industry in developing software that empowers our service provider customers to deliver modern communications services over their IP networks,” BroadSoft President and CEO Michael Tessler said in a statement. “With BroadTouch, we are unleashing our innovative services from these networks and putting them in the hands of end-users. We believe BroadTouch will eliminate the need for enterprise end-users and consumers to use multiple clients for each communication service and instead provide a single application for all their communications services-from any device and any location.”
BroadTouch includes a host of applications, such as Business Communicator, which brings voice, video, IM and presence onto a single interface that supports everything from Windows, Mac and iOS to Android. It also includes the BroadWorks application platform and BroadCloud, the company’s cloud-based service delivery platform. There’s also BroadSoft’s clients for call center agents, supervisors and receptionists, text messaging and Web collaboration.