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

How Do You Spell iPhone in German?

August 22, 2007

Black Box To Sell ShoreTel VoIP Systems

August 21, 2007

SightSpeed CEO on Skype

August 17, 2007

Just got a note from SightSpeed’s Peter Csathy regarding the Skype outage and the blogosphere wondering aloud of this is a P2P doomsday scenario.   Here’s Peter:   Obviously, the Skype outage is big news – and several industry pundits are now wondering if Skype’s troubles expose previously unexposed vulnerabilities to all P2P models.  This is a critical question right now because literally billions of dollars are at stake -- (eBay lost nearly $1 billion valuation in the past 48 hours alone per TechCrunch)   The answer is a critical “no” – i.e., all P2P models are NOT created equal…   Peter is inviting people to check out a blog entry written by SightSpeed CTO Aron Rosenberg, which explains the differences between the various types of P2P.   *** Ironically, I just installed Microsoft’s Office Communicator this week for IM’ing my colleagues here in the office, so I’m not really missing Skype too much.   Still I’m fairly confident that once this issue is finally completely patched up, Skype will return stronger for the experience.    

SightSpeed CEO on Skype

August 17, 2007

Just got a note from SightSpeed’s Peter Csathy regarding the Skype outage and the blogosphere wondering aloud of this is a P2P doomsday scenario.   Here’s Peter:   Obviously, the Skype outage is big news – and several industry pundits are now wondering if Skype’s troubles expose previously unexposed vulnerabilities to all P2P models.  This is a critical question right now because literally billions of dollars are at stake -- (eBay lost nearly $1 billion valuation in the past 48 hours alone per TechCrunch)   The answer is a critical “no” – i.e., all P2P models are NOT created equal…   Peter is inviting people to check out a blog entry written by SightSpeed CTO Aron Rosenberg, which explains the differences between the various types of P2P.   *** Ironically, I just installed Microsoft’s Office Communicator this week for IM’ing my colleagues here in the office, so I’m not really missing Skype too much.   Still I’m fairly confident that once this issue is finally completely patched up, Skype will return stronger for the experience.    

Latest Unified Communications Survey Results

August 16, 2007

Inter-Tel, Mitel on the Precipice

August 15, 2007

Infonetics: 80% of Providers to Offer FMC by April '08

August 13, 2007

  Infonetics has released a new study titled “Service Provider Plans for Next Gen Voice & IMS,” that shows nearly 80% of responding service providers plan to offer fixed/mobile convergence (FMC) services within 8 months.   According to the study, service providers see the two main benefits of FMC services as increasing average revenue per user and keeping traffic within the network.   “Despite the fact that 71% of the service providers we interviewed for a similar study last year expected to use IMS architecture in 2007, we cautioned that providers likely were being optimistic with their uptake plans. With this year’s study, we now have concrete evidence of IMS adoption shifting out: just over a quarter are using IMS in 2007 and less than half plan to do so in 2008,” said Stéphane Téral, principal analyst at Infonetics for service provider VoIP, IMS, and FMC.   Several other highlights from the report include:  
  • Operational expenditure saving remains an important driver to deploy IMS
  • Some providers say they will never completely migrate to next gen voice for access, Class 4, or Class 5, meaning multiple heterogeneous access networks will coexist for a long time, and full Class 5 replacement is not on the agenda
  • Main drivers for carriers adopting VoIP continue to be reducing opex, growing revenue, and adding margin-rich services, all aided by an increasing broadband penetration and the maturation of next gen voice technology
Infonetics’ study is based on formal interviews conducted by senior analysts with 24 North American, European, Asia Pacific, and Latin American-Caribbean service providers who plan to deploy next gen voice over the next year.

Where's Greg?

July 25, 2007

Inter-Tel Again Postpones Merger Vote

July 13, 2007

Inter-Tel, Incorporated announced today that the Special Meeting of Stockholders to vote on the merger with Mitel Networks Corporation has been rescheduled upon the advice of Delaware counsel for August 2, 2007 so that all stockholders receive 20 calendar days written notice of the meeting.   This is the second postponement of the meeting/vote.   As previously reported, the original vote scheduled for June 29th was delayed until July 23rd. Now, that date has been pushed back again, to August 2.   Responding to the postponement, Steven Mihaylo, founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Inter-Tel sent a letter to shareholders denouncing the Board's repeated postponement of the vote on the proposed merger.   Calling the Board's tactics “a ploy to trigger panic among stockholders,” Mihaylo assured stockholders that in his view nothing has changed in recent weeks that should cause them to reassess their valuation of the company and the Mitel transaction.   A full copy of Mihaylo’s letter can be found here.

Top 8 Trends Shaping the Customer Service Experience

July 12, 2007

Salesforce.com has released a fascinating informational video titled, Top 8 Trends Shaping The Customer Service Experience.   The video features a pair of high-level presenters, Michael Maoz, vice president and distinguished analyst from Gartner, and Kendall Collins, senior vice president of corporate marketing at Salesforce.com.   The two discuss a number of issues and challenges facing customer service executives, the trends that are shaping the customer service industry, and how service execs can take advantage of them.   Among other subjects, both Gartner and Salesforce.com speakers do a great job sharing insights on the innovative technologies and processes shaping the future of customer service.   Without giving too much away, some of the technologies addressed include:
  • Software as a Service (SaaS) and hosted applications;
  • Feedback management systems or customer experience management systems;
  • Real-time decision support systems that enable agents to solve complex issues on-the-fly; and
  • Community management/community software programs, delivered as software.
The video also highlights several customer success stories.   If you are an executive in the customer service industry, you know how challenging it can be, day in and day out.   I urge you to check out this informational offering from Salesforce.com and Gartner.   You might just thank me later.
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