Pillar talk: meet the two key drivers of enterprise VoIP software

I've been blogging this week from the VON Spring 2005 trade show in San Jose. Now I'm home.

My feet are sore from walking the show floor, and my throat is sore from the numerous conversations I've had with exhibitors.

I was seized by the sheer number of exhibiting companiesthat areseeking their fatesin two key software service pillars. These are diagnostics and control.

In the field of diagnostics, we're seeing growth in the number of testing and measurement companies with sophisticated hardware and software algorithms for measuring enterprise VoIP performance in the pre-buildstage,and monitoringperformance once the network goes live.Not only are such services able totrack such key metrics as latency and packet loss with increasing accuracy, theycanallow network administrators to pinpointthe source of a quality of service problem and fix it.

In the field of control, we're seeing software programs that allow enterprise-centric added VoIP services to not only be configured by network administrators, but by individual users with the proper permissions. Want to tie in your caller list toyour CRM database? Not a problem. A fewmouse clicks and you are there.

Do the VoIP software utilities and services you've seen offer the functionalities you want? What, if any functions do they not enable that you would like to see? Talk to the industry by posting a TalkBack.