The world has become one giant network of interconnected individuals and organisations. Globalisation is real, and the global village is now. The world is getting smaller thanks to ever-increasing levels of technology and business no longer only happens within the boundaries of one's own country.
But while this has opened up a host of opportunities, it also brings with it its fair share of problems, not least of which is communication.
Says Chris Wortt, VOIP Sales Manager at Polycom UK: “With so many languages around the world, English has become the lingo of choice for most business dealings. However, each person, whether English is their native language or not, brings a unique accent to the table.
“Considering that the telephone, and more recently IP telephony, is the communications medium of choice, accents can have a huge impact on the quality of communications, which in turn has an impact on interpretation and retention of information.
“This problem is only compounded by the often bad quality and delayed lines that characterise long distance calls. Added to this issue is the high cost that has also been linked with analogue long distance calls for so long.”
The evolution of VOIP and lately of more sophisticated IP telephony tools has helped to control the issue of cost, as can be seen by the growing number of outsourced contact centres now in existence. But within this environment, where people from all over the world are attempting to talk, certain sounds - such as 's' and 'f' - can be indistinguishable from each other and this can make it difficult for the parties to grasp what is being said. Often, so much time and effort is spent focusing on what the person is trying to say, that those who are talking can struggle to understand exactly what the issue at hand may be.
The sometimes erratic quality of VOIP, made worse by the differences in accents, speech patterns and local vernacular, can lead to communication breakdowns, misunderstandings and customer frustration, all of which can end up costing business extensive amounts of money.
Luckily, like all technology, voice is moving into high definition. HD voice operates at 7 - 22Khz, which is a much higher frequency than traditional telephone systems, and runs off sophisticated compression algorithms, capable of operation at only 64kbps bandwidth. In layman's terms, this simply means the sound is of a much higher quality, and does not need a large amount of bandwidth in order to run.
Says Fiona Mclean-Banks, Polycom Business Development Manager at official distributor Zycko: “Using HD voice technology means that no matter where a person is in the world, when talking to colleague or associate over IP the results will be crystal clear sound, as if the two individuals were in the same room. This will aid the clarity of communication, as delays and bad quality lines will no longer be an issue, and sounds will be more distinguishable. This will aid understanding, ensuring that instructions can be followed more easily and people can get their point across more effectively, minimising frustration and the often tiring effects of low quality conference calls.”
Technology can often be a communication barrier, as can language. HD telephony, especially when combined with HD video communications, will effectively remove these barriers. By combining high definition voice and video, technology becomes an enabler, and people can interact in a far more natural way even though they may be separated by thousands of miles of physical distance. This has far reaching implications, especially in the field of conferencing. What it will mean is not only high quality communication, but a reduction in the need for people to travel to attend conferences. With 'invisible' technology enabled, it will appear as if people are in the same room and interacting with each other as if they were, even though they may be continents apart.
Says Wortt: “As part of a unified communications strategy, HD voice is a significant factor. Installing high quality, HD-enabled endpoints is an important step, as even though they may not be used frequently today due to the newness of HD technology and the need for both parties to be using it for it to be effective, it will become vital in the future.”
Concludes Mclean-Banks: “While HD voice may not be viewed as a mission-critical appliance, it is the future, and technology that is capable of supporting this now will serve an organisation well in years to come. It may also provide that all important competitive-edge, a differentiator that will separate an organisation from its competitors, allowing it to become more profitable and better serve its customers.”
Share