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Evangelyze Communications (EC), known for its Featured UC&C CEBP software and services, will be appearing at the upcoming ITEXPO (News - Alert) West, this October 2-5 at the Austin Convention Center.

In preparation, Joe Schurman, founder and chief software architect at EC, answered a few of our questions about business communications and the future of the market.

When it comes to purchasing decisions, Schurman has noticed a trend in what customers seek, and the increased sales of hosted and cloud offerings. Buyers need a clear return on investment (ROI) before they can make a purchase, to make sure their money is put to good use – especially in tough economic times.

“Due to economic conditions, our customers have had a very difficult time understanding the ROI in moving from a hardware based communications platform to a software-based UC environment,” he said. “While there is a lot of soft cost ROI there along with improved and enhanced communication and collaboration, providing a dollar amount is tough as moving to a software-based UC environment requires a lot of initial investment.”

“As a result, we make sure to show our customers exactly how much they will be saving in leveraging our applications from day one,” he added. “We also offer hosted and cloud-based solutions to provide an even more flexible proposal to the customer without requiring the customer to install or purchase hardware needed for an on-premise installation.”

As such, he advises that companies offer flexible positioning for their solutions and products in order to prepare for the future. Both on-premises and hosted solutions are desired by different groups, so having both available just makes sense to maximize the market reach.

Focus on the customers, and allow them flexibility and choice; that’s how sales are made.

As for video, Schurman considers it very important for business communications. As a result, it’s one of the main features for each of Evangelyze’s applications. Video makes it easy to communicate directly with coworkers over long distances in ways that instant messaging and e-mail simply can’t convey.

Of course, there is still a ways to go before video communications is perfect.

“I personally have been working heavily in the field of Human Dynamics where several video use-case scenarios are being put to business use and integrated into business processes,” he said. “It’s quite surprising to see how the conversation changes and how messages are conveyed in a video conference rather than via text or even phone/audio-only communication. The main problem right now with video in the communications marketplace has to do with cost and interop.” 

“We have been advocating to some leading vendors for a few years now regarding the requirement for open video codecs and communication platforms that provide integration with multiple video client applications, but they continue not to listen and focus on proprietary solutions,” he said.

ITEXPO attendees can look forward to seeing EC’s solutions for the Microsoft (News - Alert) Lync platform, as well as the customer-first solutions and the ROI they can provide.

Schurman himself looks forward to showing his customers how solutions are made for them, and the savings and profits vendors and partners can realize with Evangelyze Communications.

To find out more about Joe Schurman and Evangelyze, visit the company at ITEXPO West 2012. To be held Oct. 2-5 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, TX, ITEXPO is the world’s premier IP communications event. Schurman is speaking at the sessions, Selling VoIP and Unified Communications via Channel Partners, What Does Unified Communications Mean in the Contact Center?, and How to Generate Revenue from the Cloud...Fast. For more information on ITEXPO West 2012, click here.