Presence and the Relevance Engine™

Iotum is a company that is really onto something I believe. I became aware of them via the VoIP-focused Blogsphere. Alec Saunders is the CEO and founder I believe - and I stumbled across the company through his blog. (his is a regular read for me) Iotum has created a Relevance Engine™. Here's the definition from the website:

"The iotum™ Relevance Engine™ is the world's first smart platform to intelligently filter, rank and prioritize calls based on their relevance to you.

What makes a call relevant? You do!"

So the premise is to create a tool for the "ultraconnected" individual, that is in need for a centralized, intelligent, adaptive, call-routing AI function to handle incoming calls. This is very intriguing to me.

Presence has been getting a lot of hype in the marketplace recently, but that's all it is = hype. Presence is all too often only associated with an end-users' status, and that simply is not enough to determine what action to take with an incoming session. Here's an example - there can be a standard rule-set for call handling, like routing calls from client 'X' to v-mail when in a meeting. But more times than not, there are input variables that need to be taken into consideration along with pure status. For instance, when in the midst of serious and critical contract negotiations with client 'X', it might be appropriate to be interrupted in that meeting?!?!? Another example, treatment of calls from family - under some circumstances, like when wife is pregnant, all calls get through, but when wife if not pregnant, punt to v-mail.

It appears that the Relevance Engine™ could be the solution for this predicament that presence finds itself in. I also believe that this is truly necessary presence to be adopted. The Relevance Engine™ is to presence, what the Wizard was to the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz - it gave it a brain!

Adam "voiploser" Uzelac