Greg Galitzine : Greg Galitzine's VoIP Authority Blog
Greg Galitzine

Quintum/NET and Microsoft Connect at ITEXPO

September 17, 2008

Open Source News at ITEXPO

September 17, 2008

If you follow open source telephony, today is a good day for news from the major players in the market.   Digium Digium kicks off the ITEXPO open source news review today. The Huntsville-based creators of Asterisk announced that Camrivox Limited, a unified communications technology vendor that designs solutions that unify telephony with on-demand CRM applications has joined their technology partnership program.   The Camrivox Flexor CTI Software family of products offers SMBs a simple way to marry on-demand CRM (Customer Relationship Management) applications with IP PBX telephony and VoIP handsets. The company's upcoming release of Flexor Connect for Asterisk brings an extra dimension to the Asterisk community and follows through with tangible benefits to businesses focused on maximizing their customer interaction.   The partnership will allow Asterisk users to benefit from other Flexor CTI Software products, including CTI for Outlook, Salesforce, NetSuite, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.   Sangoma Sangoma Technologies today announced its newest product line, dubbed NetBorder Express VoIP Gateway Cards. Sangoma's cards, in concert with this new set of software building blocks combine to deliver a SIP to TDM VoIP Gateway solution.

ITEXPO in Full Swing, IP Man Makes his Debut

September 17, 2008

It's Wednesday morning here in Los Angeles and today promises to be a day chock full of exciting happenings at ITEXPO, going on at the LA Convention Center.   In addition to the keynotes on the schedule (Cisco's Louis Marascio, Texas Instruments' Fred Zimmerman, Sharone Ben-Levi of AudioCodes, Michael Tessler of Broadsoft and 8x8 Chairman Bryan Martin) today marks the opening of the Exhibit Hall, where attendees will have a chance to visit with over 175 vendors leading the charge in the IP communications space.   The Exhibit Hall will be open from 4pm - 8pm, and will feature a networking reception sponsored by Aculab beginning at 6pm.   Today will also see Day 2 of the Ingate SIP Trunking Workshop and the always popular Reseller Solutions Day Workshop -- both events are free to all attendees.   So far the show has lived up to expectations. Yesterday's keynotes were all very interesting takes on the current and future state of the IP Communications industry.   One notable moment was the animated introduction of our own Rich Tehrani. SIP Trunking provider Broadvox sponsored a "surprise" animated intro to the keynotes and the cartoon featured a brand-new character -- IP Man -- and his flying monkey sidekick, Metoo, as they worked to rid the world of the evil Jitter and Noise. It was very entertaining, and even featured an animated Rich Tehrani.

Communications Developer Keynote: Avaya's Lawrence Byrd

September 16, 2008

Lawrence Byrd, Director of Unified Communications Architecture at Avaya kicked off the keynote schedule of the Communications Developer conference on Tuesday with a presentation entitled Unified Communications in a Web 2.0 World.   The gist of the speech was that developers will play a critical role in the future of communications, and in fact the developer community is the engine that runs the IP communications world.   Byrd threw about several definitions of "2.0," including one from Tim O'Reilly that defines the Web 2.0 phenomenon as "...networked apps that explicitly leverage network effects."   Byrd also used this definition from Harvard Business School's Andrew McAfee, "Enterprise 2.0 is the use of emergent social software platforms within companies and between companies and their partners and customers."   In any event the developer community should recognize this as an opportunity; an expanded playground to create ways of connecting these elements to deliver added value for their end customers.   "We've spent the last 20 years trying to connect the phone to the Web," said Byrd. "Connect the Web to the store. That is the definition of unified communications, connecting both the old and the new."   And as we move ahead we need to be sure that legacy applications and modern cutting edge applications work well together. That is how we add value. It has to work together.

Live Video Streaming; Skype: VoIP Is Dead Keynote at ITEXPO

September 16, 2008

Skype's Jonathan Christensen is speaking right now about how VoIP is dead.   Of course he's just generating some controversy, but it's an attention grabbing headline nonetheless.   Meanwhile check out Tom's blog.   I'm sitting next to him and he's holding up his smart phone and I'm thinking... "What the #$%^& is he doing?"   Well he's shooting video of the keynoter and he's streaming video via his blog.   It's pretty cool to tell the truth.   Next best thing to being there and all that...   Check out his blog and see the playback later on, or if you're lucky enough to catch my blog within a few minutes of posting, click here to see Tom's ITEXPO live video streaming of the keynotes.  

Aastra Makes Headlines at ITEXPO

September 16, 2008

VoIP Logic at ITEXPO

September 16, 2008

VoIP Logic, has announced a new solution -- CDR Manager -- a Call Detail Record Management module for its Cortex OSS middleware. CDR Manager is designed to serve as an easy-to-use, hosted tool for real-time reporting and access to call records and other raw user data. This latest module is geared towards providing integration between systems and the monitoring and management tools carriers and services providers require to run them.   Cortex is the central component that drives VoIP Logic's VoIP managed services and solutions portfolio. The company enables telecommunications service providers worldwide to build and manage customized, flexible and scalable IP telephony rollouts. By deploying the Cortex OSS middleware system, VoIP Logic is able to provide their service customers with a comprehensive, fully neutral, set of on-demand solutions for service providers looking to use VoIP technology.   According to CEO Micah Singer, "What we're trying to do is to make something complex more simple.

Education is Key to Growth of SIP Trunking

September 16, 2008

Joel Maloff is Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at BandTel.   He's pulling double duty this week at ITEXPO, speaking both in the Ingate SIP Trunking seminar as well as in the TMC University session entitled Best Practices in VoIP Security.   The fact that Maloff is speaking at a conference designed to educate attendees fits right in with the general theme of education that is playing a major role in his life these days.   Maloff, who is tasked with driving BandTel's strategic focus and message, is spearheading a more aggressive campaign built on proactive education to help customers understand how Band Tel can help them achieve their goals.   But it's not just end users that need education. Maloff told TMCnet that the reseller community is in need of education too, to better understand how they can embrace a recurring revenue stream. Resellers and VARs are interested in selling product, he said. BandTel offers them an opportunity to establish a recurring revenue stream via their various programs.   Consultants who advise end users also need to be educated about the various options provided by SIP Trunking.   Among the bigger challenges facing the industry, Maloff believes that the FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) being spread by certain providers will eventually fall away as more pure SIP Trunking deployments underscore the value propositions and customers begin to understand how they can leverage SIP Trunking.

Simple Signal Does V-Mail to Text

September 16, 2008

I had the pleasure of meeting with Simple Signal executives who caught me up on what the company has been up to lately. SimpleSignal is exhibiting at this week's ITEXPO at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Stop by and see them in booth 642.   Among the things we discussed,  was the exciting news of a new voicemail-to-text service called SimpleScribe that's designed to let small and medium businesses (SMBs) more easily manage their voicemail messages by reading them. Built on GotVoice technology, a white label version of the SimpleScribe voicemail-to-text service is immediately available for channel partners.   The new SimpleScribe service converts voice messages into text and delivers them via e-mail.

Connect With Avaya Networking Event On Tap

September 15, 2008

Monday morning, it must be Los Angeles...   ITEXPO preparation is full swing here at the LA Convention Center, as the exhibit hall floor is being layed out and the trucks are getting set to roll in.   While there are no activities scheduled at the convention center for attendees until tomorrow, Avaya is putting together a networking/informational event tonight at the nearby Westin Bonaventure Hotel, at the Bonaventure Brewing Company.   The "Technology on Tap - Connect with Avaya" event is open to all ITEXPO attendees and will feature great information from Avaya and their partners, followed by a networking reception at the Bonaventure Brewing Company. The event is scheduled for Monday September 15th (today) from 7:00pm until 9:30pm.   To reserve your spot at this free and informative event, please register here.   See you at the Westin!
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