Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Vocera Communication's 802.11-VoIP System Takes Nextel Subscribers.

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2003 00:01:22 -0400

Vocera Communication's 802.11-VoIP System Takes Nextel Subscribers. 
"True One Button Communications" (No Pesky 9 Digit Pvt ID To Dial)

Hands free, WiFi voice communications – without the recurring costs.
by Rich Seidner | 07.13.03 @16:42

If you’re one of the 25 million U.S. mobile workers—in healthcare, retail, hotels,
theme parks, warehousing, manufacturing, IT support, and security—who can’t afford
to be tied to a desk, you’re going to love this. Because reaching you is too
time-consuming, inefficient, costly, and annoying. All of which hurts patient
care, customer satisfaction, productivity, and the bottom-line.

Vocera Communications has an elegant solution to these problems, and it pays for
itself in as few as six months because it’s free of recurring costs. It’s a
voice-activated, 802.11b network, voice and data communications system. It's like
a StarTrek communicator. The Vocera Communications System has two components:
server software and communications badge. At the heart of their system is the
Vocera Server Software, which runs on a standard, rack-mountable Windows 2000
server. This software manages users and calls, provides speech recognition, and
controls various databases. The Vocera Communications Badge is a tiny, light
weight, wearable, voice-controlled device, and communicates with the server over
an 802.11b wireless network.

This system is loaded with features that increase efficiency and timeliness:
• Users can call individuals or groups simply by naming them (“Dr. Robinson”,
“Oncology”) or their title (“respiratory therapist”). So there’s no need to
memorize any addresses and telephone extensions.

• There’s no need to page someone and wait for someone to be found and get to a
phone to reply, because the communication is instant, and directed only to the
named recipients(s).

• The system optionally connects to the local PBX and allows unlimited incoming
and outbound calls.

• The system is highly customizable, so users can easily designate when and where
they are reachable, and by whom.

• And users can establish a sense of presence by allowing the system to
automatically redirect any calls to their home, desk phone, voicemail, cell phone,
or to a co-worker.

• And it works in areas where cell phone coverage is not adequate.

Vocera’s initial market focus is on urgent healthcare units and retail, where they
are already proving their value. For instance, by using the Vocera system, some
nurses at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama reported saving up to
45-minutes every day by not having to run around looking for people. With
hospitals nationwide facing a severe nursing shortage, these significant savings
mean hospitals can manage higher bed capacity and generate higher revenue.

Another hospital reduced the staffing at its urgent care facility because
emergency technicians were hard to find when you needed them. And yet another
hospital who previously used Nextel phones to reach staff, paid for the system in
18 months through savings in Nextel user fees (even though they are a seriously
discounted high volume user).

But it’s not just about healthcare, because Vocera is currently in advanced trials
with leading retailers and others. It’s easy to see where the potential value is
for retailers. Reduce staff requirements, and associated operational costs, while
increasing customer satisfaction. With Vocera, there’d be no need for those
mind-jarring loudspeaker broadcasts, and it takes less time to answer customer
questions about product price or whether requested items are in stock.

And, in what will constitute a major enhancement to the system’s capabilities,
Vocera will provide access to other software applications written by Vocera or 3rd
party providers to a standard SDK. Not to mention, possible partnerships with PDA
device makers.

All of which makes me agree with the way Julie Shimer, Vocera’s CEO, summed it up:
“Within the local area today, and wide area soon, the ability to reach anyone
instantly without knowing where they are, is the ultimate of always-on. Vocera is
the always-on poster child for mobile voice
communications.”

Vocera Communications Badge is a wearable device that weighs less than two ounces
and can easily be clipped to a shirt pocket or worn on a lanyard. It enables
instant two-way voice conversation without the need to remember a phone number
or manipulate a handset.