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

... yes, I made it to Dallas

March 2, 2009

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F-f-flying to Dallas?

March 2, 2009

Posted in Personal

Infonetics' Enterprise Telephony Report: Winners and Prognostications

February 26, 2009

I was on the road yesterday, a quick jaunt to Chicago for an interview with Tellabs. Rich blogged about it and posted a bunch of images from the trip, including one picture that so eloquently captured my thoughts on how busy O'Hare was.

 

The Tellabs facility is a beautiful. Modern, spacious, everything a corporate headquarters should be.

 

Watch for the interview with president and CEO Robert Pullen to be published soon in NGN magazine.

 

While I was winging my way back home, Infonetics Research announced its Q4 (2008) Enterprise Telephony report.

 

The headline of the release suns it up quite nicely: "Cisco takes lead in 2008 enterprise telephony market; Alcatel-Lucent, ShoreTel sole 4Q08 winners"

 

So amid the gloom:

 

·         The worldwide enterprise telephony market dropped 14% sequentially in 4Q08 to $2.3 billion, with vendor revenue down for all types of equipment including pure IP PBX, hybrid PBX, and TDM PBX

·         The main cause of the decline is the lack of new business creation and business expansion due to the difficult economic climate worldwide

 

There were some bright spots as well:

 

·         Year-over-year, the overall PBX market is up 1.1%, with the IP PBX segments up and the TDM segment down as the market continues switching over from TDM to IP equipment

·         Pure IP PBX revenue grew 25% worldwide in 2008, sustained by new product introductions

 

On the vendor front, the Infonetics report found that Alcatel-Lucent and ShoreTel -- alone among their competitors -- realized PBX equipment revenue gains in Q4, with Alcatel-Lucent's revenue up 13% sequentially and ShoreTel's revenue up 1%.

 

And despite a quarterly revenue loss, Cisco maintained the first spot in overall PBX/KTS revenue market share in 4Q08. According to the report, 2008 saw Cisco "grab the lead" for the entire year for the first time as well.

 

Matthias Machowinski, Directing Analyst, Enterprise Voice and Data, Infonetics Research had this to say:

 

Because of the significantly deteriorating worldwide economic conditions, we expect the overall enterprise telephony market to contract fairly significantly in 2009.

Posted in Enterprise, IP Communications, Research, VoIP
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Siemens Announces Results of Communications Survey

February 24, 2009

Siemens Communications announced the results of a global survey conducted by SIS Research that uncovered the top five pain points in communication for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The survey found that companies with 100 employees could be losing more than $5,000 per employee per year by not addressing common communication issues.   Among the key findings:   ·         68% of respondents have trouble coordinating communications among team members, affecting their ability to respond quickly to time-sensitive requests. ·         68% of respondents said they experience work delays while waiting for information from others. ·         77% of respondents receive unwanted communications that disrupt workflow and decrease productivity.       The complete text of the release as I received it follows:     Companies with 100 Employees Could Be Losing More Than $5,000 Per Employee Per Year by Not Addressing Inefficient Communication Issues   Communications barriers and latencies can cost small and medium businesses up to 40 percent of their productive time, according to a Siemens-sponsored global study     On average, 70 percent of employee respondents of small and medium businesses (SMBs) with up to 400 employees said they spend 17.5 hours each week addressing the pain points caused by communications barriers and latencies, according to a global study sponsored by Siemens Enterprise Communications and conducted by SIS International Research. The research also showed that while SMB awareness of unified communications as a solution is rising, nearly 60 percent of SMBs do not currently employ one based on the sampling.   In addition, researchers at SIS International Research determined that the time spent per week dealing with communications issues was more than 50 percent higher in companies with more than 20 workers. In hard costs, the study concluded, companies of 100 employees could be losing more than $500,000 each year by not addressing their employees' most painful communications issues.   Key Findings.
Posted in Business, Enterprise, IP Communications, Research
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Rich on Freedom to Connect

February 24, 2009

Rich has a post about the upcoming Freedom to Connect conference being held in Washington, D.C. March 30 & 31, 2009.   There's even an offer for a discounted entry fee, but you'll have to read Rich's blog for that nugget.   Here's a marketing blurb on the show:   F2C 2009 will tell the story of: ·         on-line, network-enabled industry and culture, new jobs and sustainable growth ·         Burlington VT, where muni fiber enables business, artistic endeavor, and new telemedicine ·         how Lafayette LA's community came together as it built its muni fiber network ·         the twin cities of Cedar Falls and Waterloo, Iowa, where one twin has a muni net, and the other doesn't ·         how municipal CIOs are planning for Seattle, Portland and San Francisco municipal fiber networks ·         city nets, wired and wireless, that didn't work -- what went wrong and what that teaches ·         what Obama's infrastructure and economic recovery plans mean for tomorrow's network ·         and more ...  
Posted in Government, IP Communications, Technology
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VocalTec Announces Customer Wins

February 24, 2009

For those who have been around the VoIP industry for some time, the name VocalTec is synonymous with the industry's earliest days. VocalTec is a true VoIP pioneer and many even credit them for creating the first commercial products that put VoIP on the map. As with anything, origins are often debatable, but there is no denying that the company played a pivotal role in the first days of this industry.   Having gone through its own financial troubles, amid regional and more broad economic downturns through the years, in addition to the evolution from H.323 to SIP, VocalTec saw its star dim and went through a period of restructuring, but is slowly and steadily making its way back into the limelight of the IP communications space.   Just today the company announced that VMB, a carrier in St. Petersburg, Russia, has selected VocalTec solutions for its VoIP network rollout.   And, last week, VocalTec announced that Amatole Telecoms, a South African USAL (Under-Serviced Area License) service provider, had selected VocalTec's Essentra VoIP solutions in a VoIP deployment over Amatole Telecoms' WiMAX carrier-grade, converged IP network. 
  According to the announcement, VocalTec's Essentra solution will support Amatole Telecoms' requirement to provide customers with innovative residential and enterprise services, over a next-generation network architecture, enabling the provision of subscriber services at reduced cost, while enhancing service flexibility as well as the rapid deployment of value-adding services and applications.   It's good to see the name of a one-time high-flier back in the news, announcing customer wins no less.   The company will be releasing its fourth quarter and full year 2008 results on Monday, March 2, 2009 at 10:00am ET. Mr. Ido Gur, the President & CEO of VocalTec will lead the call, and management will review and discuss the results, and will be available to answer questions.   Details, including dial-in information of the call can be found here.   Looking back to VocalTec's last reported numbers, for the third quarter (2008) we see that revenues for were $1.4 million.
Posted in IP Communications, Service Provider, Technology, VoIP, WiMAX
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Sipera, RSA in Secure VoIP Deal

February 23, 2009

Sipera Systems says it's joined the RSA Secured Partner Program and RSA, The Security Division of EMC, said that it has certified interoperability between the Sipera IPCS UC security product family and the RSA SecurID two-factor authentication solution.   The result is a simple way for users to secure their VoIP phones without the need to use any special clients or phone configuration. All users need to do is enter the RSA SecurID one-time secure password and their PIN.   In an era where security and privacy compliance in industries such as healthcare, financial services and others is becoming critical, this solution helps an organization achieve its overall secure information goals.   Just today, TMCnet columnist Kevin Coleman published his most recent column, titled $1Trillion. In his note to me he wrote: "It's bigger than the bailout!" and when you stop to think about it, it's a scary thought.   The trillion that Coleman is referring to is not a US Government sponsored handout, it's the estimated dollar loss for intellectual property and data theft in 2008 for businesses globally. Coleman gets his numbers from Dennis C. Blair, the Director of National Intelligence, in his Annual Threat Assessment of the Intelligence Community for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. To learn more, read the entire article.
Posted in Enterprise, IP Communications, Security, Technology, Unified Communications, VoIP
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Is This the Beginning of Nortel Sell-off?

February 20, 2009

Radware is acquiring Nortel's Layer4-7 application delivery products, which were originally acquired by Nortel in 2000 by way of its purchase of Alteon.   It was not unexpected that Nortel would shed some assets as it strives to restructure itself while under bankruptcy protection. Radware, based in Israel, was earlier rumored to be interested in Nortel's Metro Ethernet products.   We'll see if this portends a bigger breakup of the once high-flying telecom gear maker.   Radware issued the following statement: (reprinted in full)   Radware (NASDAQ: RDWR), the leading provider of integrated application delivery solutions for business-smart networking, today announced that it has signed an asset purchase agreement with Nortel [TSX: NT, OTC: NRTLQ] to purchase certain assets related to Nortel's Layer 4-7 Application Delivery Business. Nortel added the application switch product line in October 2000 by way of its corporate acquisition of Alteon WebSystems, Inc.   "We believe acquiring Nortel's Application Delivery Business is a strategic move that will directly benefit Radware and Nortel's [Alteon] customers. Our ultimate goal is to provide them with a stronger, integrated product backed by world-class support and a globally-focused organization," stated Roy Zisapel, CEO, Radware.
Posted in Business, IP Communications, Technology
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Call Recording for Skype

February 20, 2009

is a hot topic these days, whether traditional TDM, or more frequently now, VoIP recording. There are many reasons to deploy a call recording solution, be it to improve your business' performance through monitoring and archiving important calls, to enhance training and employee development, or to comply with government mandates and regulations.Call recording   Today I received word of a new call recording solution designed specifically for Skype.   Developed by ExtraLabs Software, Skype Recorder is compatible with all versions of Windows (95, 98, Me, 2000, XP, NT, Vista) and supports all Skype versions.

    According to the company:   Skype Recorder can record Skype calls automatically.   ·         Skype Recorder has a range of efficient and advanced capabilities: ·         Manually start/stop/pause, or automatically record Skype calls ·         Convert your calls to MP3/OGG/WMA/WAV format ·         Built-in audio player, built-in FTP client ·         'Spy' mode   The software starts recording as soon as a users starts talking. At the end of the conversation, Skype Recorder encodes the recording to the specified format and saves the file on the user's hard drive.    Skype Recorder is available for a free 30-day trial period.    

Posted in IP Communications, Technology, VoIP
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Keener on Obama's Broadband Stimulus

February 19, 2009

Writing about President Obama's signing of the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act," TMCnet columnist Barlow Keener does a good job parsing the bill for its broadband communications related passages, from who will be doling out the funds (NTIA, RUS) to what the requirements are for getting those funds (jobs creation, shovel readiness...), and so on.

  One thing I found interesting was the provision in the Bill for so-called "net neutrality obligations" contained in the legislation:   Grants provided must be subject to NTIA-determined "non-discrimination and network interconnection obligations" which "at a minimum" must follow the FCC's non-discrimination policy. Grants may be provided for a wide range of equipment and services including education of broadband subscribers.   It's an informative piece, one which I highly recommend.    

Posted in Business, IP Communications, Legal, Technology
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