Google Voice for Enterprise An Agents Worst Nightmare?
Recently Google announced in an interview with Google Enterprise President Dave Girouard and eWeek that it plans to release a business “enterprise” version of Google Voice.
Google Voice is the free consumer-focused phone service, which created such a stir of interest last year. An enterprise version of the service would come at a cost, but it isn’t clear how Google will price such a service or what sort of support and standards it would guarantee. Though, one would assume that out of the box, Google Voice for Enterprise will be similar to other Google Enterprise services and lack a robust support model.
And how will all those Google Voice calls be carried? Over the Internet of course. Yes, I know that Google claims it is going to trial 1gbps fiber-to-the-home services, but I don’t buy that they really want to be in the access business with all that entails – although that’s a subject for an entirely different blog. My conclusion is that they are planning to provide Google Voice services over the public Internet. And let’s face it, what is the incentive for ISPs (think AT&T, Verizon, Comcast etc.) to make sure that Google Voice packets get any priority?! In fact, we could probably count on the major carriers to throw more than a few roadblocks Google’s way.
This type of a product might work well for a small business happy to run all their services (voice included) over the Web. However, as with all VoIP solutions running over the public Internet, that means that the carrier (in this case Google) has no control over QoS or CoS in order to maintain quality of service. Without end-to-end QoS over a private IP connection or MPLS link, the carrier cannot ensure that voice traffic takes any priority over someone streaming the latest hilarious YouTube video.
Sure, residential subscribers and very small offices may be thrilled with a new low-cost solution from Google … but this does not work for any size of a real “enterprise” business.
However, this scare from Google does indicate that agents would be wise to focus their efforts on larger, more complex customer solutions – ones that aren’t so easily lured away by the likes of Google.
At Airespring, all of our local dial tone services are only available with a managed IP connection that we provide. We’ve learned the hard way this is the only way to assure quality of service and make enterprise VoIP work.
Bigger customers demand an SLA and quality of service with a company that has real customer service 24/7 to stand behind what they sell. Those are the customers that wise agents should be seeking, and it will be very hard for Google to suddenly replace the quality of service that AireSpring and other leaders in the industry offer.
At the end of the day, Google likely will realize that its core business of selling advertising on the Web is an incredibly profitable business. I doubt it (or its investors) have the stomach to do the day-to-day dirty work required to run a real telco on razor-thin margins.
Is Google Voice something an agent should fear? Perhaps one day … but not quite yet.
Daniel Lonstein is COO at AireSpring Inc, a telecommunications service provider for offering local, long-distance, Internet, conferencing and SIP/VoIP products. Previously, he served as COO for Addtel Communications. He also has served in sales and marketing functions both inside and outside of the telecommunications industry, including positions at On Target Market Research and Tel Aviv-based based USTM Partners. He also has consulted for various international telecommunications conglomerates. He also is a member of the 2009-10 PHONE+/Channel Partners Conference & Expo Advisory Board.
