Allen Miller on Response Point - aka ResponsePointGuru.com

I'm back home in Cincinnati after a great time at TMCNet's IT Expo in Miami.  I spoke to my wife on the telephone while I was there - from the Packet8 reception at the beautiful Miami Botanical Gardens.  We were outside in shirt sleeves watching a very nice sunset over the palm trees and she told me "You're lucky" - since she was driving home from her studio in a blizzard back in Cincinnati.

So the IT in IT Expo stands for Internet Telephony.  My primary purpose for attending this conference was to meet more people in the Microsoft Response Point team and the rest of the RP ecosystem.  In that respect, this was a very successful trip for me.  I saw my old friend Rex Backman, met Richard Sprague finally (we've spoken and emailed quite a bit before), met XD and John Fredriksen, the new General Manager of Response Point.  I hung out with my friend Ed Carnes (an RP VAR from Nashville) and Marta and Luis from the RP Team.  Marta and Luis took Ed and me to a GREAT cuban restaurant for lunch.  We had plantains prepared three different ways and yucca prepared two different ways.  It was a tastebud's treat.

Besides all the Microsoft folks, there was a great presence by a lot of other related products and services for the RP brand.  We got to hear about what everyone is doing and some things that are coming down the pike.  Get this, D-Link is working on a new Response Point phone that will have Internet Radio!

Response Point SP2 was announced/released on the first day of the conference.  A lot of new features at absolutely NO COST to any existing customers - another FREE upgrade.

I've got a few pictures and I've learned that this blog system doesn't auto-size them - or at least I don't know how to do that.  So, I've posted them in my Picasa space and you can link to them at http://snipurl.com/itexpo.

Just about ready to get out of town.  Monday starts IT Expo in Miami and it will sure be nice to leave behind the snow storm and the ice storm that we had the last two days here in Cincinnati.  The emails from the various exhibiting vendors have really picked up this week - come see us in booth # xyz.

If you are at the IT Expo next week be sure and look me up.  And, ask me to show you my new blue tooth headset.  I know it's not really an Internet Telephony device - so it's a little off topic - but it is a telephony device so it's half on topic.

And, I can't wait to hear what the Response Point Team has in store for us.

See you there.

You are invited to attend the Microsoft Response Point Town Hall meeting #2 on February 11 at 4pm Eastern Time.  The ID for this event is 262104 and you can register for it using this link right HERE. BTW - I just tried this link and it is not giving a 'register' option yet so you may have to check back later to register.  I sent an email to Mike @ MS to make sure they are aware of this.

This Town Hall meeting will cover current developments with Response Point and then the floor will be opened to marketing and technical questions.

SP2 is the second set of enhancements to the very cool Response Point small business VOIP telephone system.  This system came out a little over a year ago and Microsoft has already added 1 new feature set with SP1.  Service Pack 2 has been in development and some of us have been able to participate in a preview of this update.  I think you will like what you see when SP2 is released.

TMCNet's IT Expo (Internet Telephony Expo)  in Miami, is just one week away.  I'm going to leave the cold weather behind and travel south to hang out with the Reponse Point channel folks.  My friend Ed Carnes, from Franklin, TN, will be there - will you?

My good friend support technician at Quintum looked (remotely) at my customer's new Analog Gateway that was not making the modem connection when we tried to use a credit card machine and a postage machine.  He made some settings changes (which I haven't yet received the documentation for but will shortly) and voila (or wahla as I once read from someone I am sure never learned any French) both devices are now working.

So, I've been working with some new hardware made for Response Point.  The first was a T1 Gateway from Quintum.  This was supposed to be plug-and-play.  Well, my experience was not plug-and-play.  We did eventually get the device working and it is doing a great job for this client.  Hopefully, the Quintum people learned some things from my experience that will benefit the rest of the people that want to install this device.

I am now in the process of trying to the Quintum Analog Gateway working at this same client.  This client has 2 analog telephone devices - a postage machine and a credit card machine.  So far we are able to make analog telephone calls from the gateway but are not making a good modem connection for the necessary communication.  The next step is to try some configuration changes just made by Quintum.  I'll keep you posted.  So far, another not plug-and-play, though.

Can't wait to try this new forum out.  I've been writing a couple blogs for a while, made a small attempt at podcasting, and now here I am - on 'Broadway'. 

I'll need a little time to learn this interface - and plan to write on one of my favorite topics - Microsoft Response Point - the small business voip telephone system with big business features and a small business price tag.