Page 6 - Telecom Reseller March-April 2015

6
Telecom Reseller
March/April 2015

Is WebRTC compelling enough
for the contact center? Part 2

continued from page 1....
Uniied Multimedia Agent Desktop

calls directly inside the browser.
his can be a seamless part of the CRM system
itself. It usually requires complex CTI integration
and browser plug-ins; however, this kind of Now available through
integration becomes easier with WebRTC. Using
the browser instead of an SIP phone or desktop Avaya DevConnect
sotphone yields the following beneits:
Virtualization of the contact center. It frees agents from a speciic machine that has all the
necessary VoIP sotware installed, or from a Select Product Program
speciic desk with the desk phone they have to
use. It allows for smaller physical oice spaces
to be used, and a greater lexibility in recruiting
agents.
Tighter CRM integration. It leads to less cct-solutions.com
suppliers to work with, lowered costs, and better
visibility of the contact center.
Lower hardware costs. Agents no longer need
to be equipped with expensive SIP Phones. A
good headset will do, since the phone has been
integrated with the browser.

Will 2015 be the year this all
happens?
WebRTC has experienced plenty of growing
pains, which can be primarily attributed to
strategic war gaming between technology giants.
First, there was a major conlict over which video codec would be mandatory. Google was
pushing for a recent royalty-free codec (VP8),
while existing video vendors like Cisco fought
for an entirely diferent one (H.264) that was
already compatible with most of the existing
IP communications services and systems
like Microsot Lync and Cisco’s conferencing
platforms. he entire project became fuzzy when
both Microsot and Apple refused to support the
emerging standard in their respective browsers,
bringing the market share of supported browsers
below critical mass.
W
he end of 2014 seemed to signal a W
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First, in an IETF (Internet Engineering Task
Force) meeting in November, attendees,
including Microsot and Google, agreed to
advance a proposal for approval that would make
both video codecs mandatory for all browsers. Although neither Microsot nor Google have
formally committed to supporting the opposing
codec, it appears as if resolution is possible.
Second, an evolution to WebRTC, named ORTC
(Object API for RTC), was developed as a “next-
generation” of sorts to the current WebRTC
1.0 standard. Both Google and Microsot have
taken steps to resolve their diferences and
potentially work together in the efort to achieve
widespread adoption of WebRTC. As it stands
today, Chrome, Internet Explorer and Firefox will
support ORTC, which is above critical mass in
my opinion.
he coming year will serve as WebRTC’s
transition from a novelty and a basis for free
communications to the basis for ofering
business-related or subscription-based solutions
to consumers. he result will be that these
customers will expect to receive a quality experience that equals or exceeds the experience
of what the telephone network ofers. While the
convenience of WebRTC or the availability of
HD audio and video may be enticing, drop-outs,
echoes or other user experience issues will limit
its use and value.
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there. ■

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