Peer to Peer Magazine

A New Intranet Is Born Browser-launched operating systems, such as Chrome OS, can be coupled with an HTML browser that has an application virtualization interface so that an organization can potentially have 100 percent of their interface accessed directly through the Web. In this new environment, the desktop is replaced with a knowledge interface or, as we traditionally know it, the intranet. This new intranet becomes the landing page for all users, customized for each person by their personal and organizational preferences. Email messaging is the default streaming interface, and a plethora of other communication tools are all available from one screen. Users can utilize instant messaging throughout the entire organization with the ability to chat through text, (with or without language translation), voice calls or video chat. The user's phone number is assigned to the interface, so a voicemail message is duplicated as an email message with a voice translation tool transforming the voice message to text. And a one-click button allows users to make quick phone calls. This same intranet interface provides access to calendaring, documents and sites, along with any customizable project interfaces that have been integrated through apps. The "sites" in this context are multiple Web pages built to compile what is traditionally known as a corporate intranet. They are accessible through search and strategically shared directly with clients as extranets and portals, or internally through practice areas and business focus areas. All make up the communications portal or, in my opinion, a social media interface (as the most accurate term) for both the landing page and knowledge interface. This turns the traditional concepts of the desktop interface, the intranet interface, the application interface and the search interface on their heads. In this new environment, they are all accessible through one, unified Web interface, and, by default, the new intranet of the firm is born. Applications are managed through the administrative console where consumer market integration options (such as YouTube or Blogger) can be turned on or off; groups can be tracked through the Web; the user interface is customized, and the browser-launched operating system manages selected devices. The future of the intranet interface will be driven by social media tools like Google+. The key to the interface is through profiles, streaming video with multiple screen "hangouts" and, of course, social circles. This truly begins the transition of the interface into a purely social media-driven and accessible intranet. This makes the intranet/desktop as interactive and intuitive as Facebook, and the search, unified communications, voice/video touch, document sharing/collaboration and application-driven innovations are built for the enterprise. Social Media Drive Change Designed to bridge people and processes, this social media desktop incorporates consumer market integration, as well as business process management. 60 www.iltanet.org Peer to Peer by James Whitemore, Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Smoothstone IP Communications T oday, every billable hour counts. A law firm cannot afford to be inaccessible to its clients, principals, material witnesses, industry experts or internal subject-matter experts. Lost calls easily translate into a lost revenue opportunity, especially when new clients are reaching out for the first time to a law firm. The demand and revenue potential are extremely perishable, especially with new clients. Law firms should consider moving to a cloud- based unified communications approach for their telecommunications services. Cloud-based unified communications can deliver advanced communications and collaboration services, drive down the costs of law firms' telecommunications and increase the efficiency of its IT operations. Instead of focusing on key communications initiatives that have the potential to transform the way a law firm works, many firms today are being forced to spend an inordinate amount of their valuable resources on managing legacy voice and data infrastructures. By redeploying how a law firm allocates these resources, they can be better positioned to drive the initiatives that are the basis for their competitive advantage. Read the complete article online at www.iltanet.org/telecom-cloud.

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