I don’t know about you but I’m more than a little curious why Google has not made a move to dominate the traditional landline phone the way they have the cell phone. Googles android (cell phone)is on the street and it’s cool. Now you can perform voice activated searchs using SMS. Stock quotes, flight info, sports scores are just a voice command away with your mobile Google powered phone.
So what would a PBX look like if Google built it? When Google purchased GrandCentral more than two years ago I thought “whoa, here we go”. But for the last two years there has been little improvement of the GrandCentral service.It’s got some cool features like one master phone number to give out so your cell number is kept a secret. You can swap calls mid conversation between your cell phone and your land line. You can route a caller to a specific phone or flag a caller ID so that when that person calls they have priority status and you’ll pick up that call. You can your voicemail easier because it can store it in your email. You can even have it transcribed so that you don’t have to take the time to listen to it.
Guess what. SimpleSignal can do all of that too. But me too equals me dead.
So that’s why I like to say we are different. It’s true. We can do something that not even Google can do. We can make GoogleTalk talk. We are working with a software development company that can integrate SimpleSignal’s voice services with Google apps early in the first quarter. Add voice enabled Google to our current integration with Salesforce.com and you have a suite of services that can rival our voice integration with Microsoft’s hosted exchange and Dynamics CRM. Our leadership in creating these software “voice mashups” has been heralded as groundbreaking and innovative.
I believe that when you bring different pieces together you get an application that is greater than the sum of its parts. As the user experience changes dramatically the usage skyrockets. It makes sense. If you are working out of an application why shouldn’t you be able to launch a call to a contact as easily as you do a Google search? If a contact calls you why not have the caller ID pull the contact info and do a screen pop so you can see the contact history before you pick up the phone?
The fact is that as of the beginning of 2009 Google is not yet on the traditional phone services scene. I believe that will change soon. We’ll be ready. “if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em”…and make them better because you did.
