Enterprise

TMC Blogs: The Week in Review

January 23, 2009

What was the big story this week? No doubt it was the inauguration of Barack Obama, as the 44th President of the United States and the first African-American to hold that post. Truly a historic day for our nation: a day when many people put politics aside to welcome our newest leader to his job, and judging by the crowds in Washington, D.C. this past Tuesday it was quite a welcome indeed. Rich is excited.

Posted in Business, Contact Center, Enterprise, IP Communications, ITEXPO, Personal, Service Provider, VoIP

Even Microsoft Gets the Blues

January 22, 2009

Add Microsoft to the ranks of companies forced to cut jobs due to the state of the economy. According to a story by our own Michael Dinan, the software maker today announced major year-over-year earnings dips and a plan to cut 5,000 jobs. Microsoft reportedly saw a net income decline of 11 percent, to $4.17 billion, for the quarter ended Dec. 31, as well as a 6 percent drop in earnings per share, to 47 cents. About 1,400 of the 5,000 job cuts -- across R&D, marketing, sales, finance, legal, HR and IT -- will occur today, with the rest coming over the next 18 months. The layoffs are expected to help reduce operating expenses by about $1.5 billion. Ever the optimist, Steve Ballmer commented: While we are not immune to the effects of the economy, I am confident in the strength of our product portfolio and soundness of our approach. We will continue to manage expenses and invest in long-term opportunities to deliver value to customers and shareholders, and we will emerge an even stronger industry leader than we are today. Investors apparently need some time to digest the news. Microsoft's shares fell in the wake of the announcement, (down 10.5% at 2pm EST). I had hoped I was mistaken when I blogged here about industry job losses. In addition to Microsoft, Ericsson this week announced plans to expand its restructuring, cutting about 5,000 jobs. This is on top of an announcement last year that the firm would eliminate 4,000 positions.

Posted in Business, Enterprise, IP Communications

Genesys Acquires Conseros, SDE

January 22, 2009

Posted in Business, Contact Center, Enterprise, IP Communications, Service Provider, Technology

Open Source Education at ITEXPO/Digium|Asterisk World

January 22, 2009

Earlier today I noted that Camrivox' CEO was presenting at ITEXPO on February 3rd. But the open source education doesn't stop there. At the upcoming ITEXPO/Digium|Asterisk World Conference (is it really only 10 days away?), Digium will host a pair of new Asterisk training courses. The collocated events take place at the Miami Beach Convention Center in beautiful Miami Beach, FL. On Tuesday, February 3, 2009 they will present a one-day introduction/training seminar on their Switchvox system. This course serves to: explain the role of a Switchvox system within a corporate IT/telephony infrastructure; familiarize the student with the initial setup and configuration of their Switchvox system; and more. And, on Wednesday, February 4, 2009, Digium will present their newest educational offering, the Asterisk 123 course. Asterisk 123 is a "gentle introduction" to the Asterisk Open Source PBX, introducing the student to the many roles that Asterisk can play and walks them through setting up Asterisk for the first time. For both classes, participants receive a student kit, which includes: · Digium TDM411B Analog card (1 FXO port + 1 FXS port) · Polycom SoundPoint IP 330 SIP Phone · Asterisk Tote Bag · Asterisk T-shirt · Asterisk SWAG Kit · Calculator, pen, mouse pad, etc. If you are interested in either or both of these training courses, feel free to register online at the Digium|Asterisk World Web site.

Posted in Enterprise, IP Communications, ITEXPO, Open Source

Ifbyphone Offers Service Guarantee

January 21, 2009

Ifbyphone announced a new service guarantee today, saying that they will deliver their customers' voice broadcast calls on time otherwise those calls will be free. According to CEO Irv Shapiro: Our guarantee helps our business customers understand how important the delivery of their voice broadcast calls is to us. Moreover, our guarantee helps differentiate Ifbyphone's services because we are the first and only provider that stands 100 percent behind the delivery of voice broadcast calls. The guarantee is simple: if any scheduled broadcast call to a U.S. or Canadian phone number is delayed by more than five minutes, Ifbyphone will reimburse customers for the call. Shapiro is also on the schedule at the upcoming ITEXPO, which will take place in Miami Beach, FL, February 2-4, 2009. On Wednesday February 4th, from 1:30-2:15pm Shapiro will be part of a panel discussion entitled: Contact Centers in a Web 2.0 World. For more information on the show, or to register, visit www.itexpo.com Just for the record, as I write this, it's 16 degrees in Connecticut where my office is located. Florida sounds like a good idea.

Posted in Enterprise, IP Communications, ITEXPO, VoIP

Hard Times as Nortel Bankruptcy Looms

January 14, 2009

Rich is reporting in his blog that Nortel will file for bankruptcy today, ending the run for one of Canada's biggest corporations and one of telecom's storied companies. This marks quite the fall from grace for a company that was once one of the highest-fliers of the tech boom. According to a story in today's Globe and Mail: Nortel easily qualified as the country's largest company at the peak of the tech boom in 2000, with a $366-billion (Canadian) market capitalization and 95,000 employees. While still North America's largest telecom equipment maker, Nortel's shares were worth a total of just $192-million yesterday, and the company has 26,000 staff after a bruising series of layoffs over the past eight years. Nortel stock that soared to $1,231 at the peak of the tech bubble - reflecting a recent consolidation in shares - closed yesterday at 38.5 cents on the Toronto Stock Exchange. You can expect the vultures will all be out today, slamming the company's management, pointing to the series of accounting scandals that ultimately doomed this company. You'll hear all about the acquisition of Bay Networks and how that never really turned into the perfect fit that had been hoped for. Yes folks, all the news will be bad, and the blame game will be blown out of proportion. Nortel still has some great technology, and a customer base and service contracts that will have the scavengers salivating. Unfortunately for the many great employees of the company the end of Nortel as we know it spells something far worse. The news reports today speak of breaking up the company and selling off the pieces to competitors. In such cases, some employees will be fortunate enough to stay on, but for too many others it's a time of great uncertainty and worry. I have been fortunate to work with many wonderful people who represented Nortel over the past 12 years, and I hope that they fare well in the wake of whatever goes down.

Posted in Business, Enterprise, IP Communications, Personal, Service Provider, Technology

OrecX Taps Sangoma's Wanpipe Driver

December 31, 2008

OrecX, a provider of low-cost open source VoIP call recording, announced a new option for low-cost TDM and call recording, and said they would be using Sangoma Technologies' new Wanpipe driver that supports RTP tapping. Bruce Kaskey, CEO of OrecX, offered the following in a statement: Overall, Sangoma's RTP tapping solution gives more choice for situations where TDM and VoIP are blended. The Wanpipe driver with the RTP tap mode enabled converts a TDM signal to VoIP seamlessly for scalable recording. The details can be found in this news item. Ultimately, as Kaskey explained, the solution enables customers to tap TDM and or VoIP using their existing Sangoma equipment. OrecX will also be participating at the upcoming Digium|Asterisk World, which is being collocated with ITEXPO in Miami Beach this February. The company's co-Founder and CTO, Bruno Haas will be speaking in the presentation theater during the event. For a complete list of sponsors and exhibitors, please visit the Digium|Asterisk World site.

Posted in Enterprise, IP Communications, Open Source, VoIP

Alcatel-Lucent to Trim Workforce, Tighten R&D Focus

December 12, 2008

Posted in 4G, Enterprise, IP Communications, Service Provider, Technology

It's That Time of Year...

December 8, 2008

As the year comes to a close, it's time again to feature that publishing staple -- the year end interview.

I'm fortunate enough to work in an industry where people not only have a lot of interesting things to say, they're not shy about sharing their thoughts and insights with our audience. Below you'll find links to several interviews I've posted with some of the companies that operate in our space. Among the threads that are tying these together (so far) is the belief that mobility holds the key to our industry's future. Mobile VoIP, mobile video, mobile UC... you get the picture. I invite you to take a look at this first batch of interviews. There's more on tap, so check back often. The Future of IP Communications Rests With the Mobile Device Jon R. Doyle, CommuniGate's vice president of business development talks about mobility... Open Source IP PBX Vendor Gains International Recognition Xorcom CEO Eran Gal discusses open source and the opportunity ahead... Look For Mobile UC To Open Up In 2009 Vivek Khuller, President and CEO of DiVitas Networks remains cautiously optimistic for 2009... The Future of IP Communications?

Posted in Development tools, Enterprise, IP Communications, ITEXPO, Mobility, Open Source, Unified Communications

Podcast: Interactive Intelligence & Business Process Automation

November 25, 2008

I recently recorded a podcast with Joe Staples, senior vice president of worldwide marketing for Interactive Intelligence, where we spoke about a new approach to business process automation. Ironically, what prompted this conversation was a white paper written by Interactive Intelligence CEO Dr. Don Brown entitled -- you guessed it -- A New Approach To Business Process Automation. The white paper is available for download here. Staples gives several examples of business processes and how enterprises can really benefit by leveraging some sort of process automation strategy. In his opinion, the current trends of UC and CEBP (unified communications and communications enabled business processes, respectively) are fine as far as they go, but a new approach, one he dubs CBPA or communications-based process automation takes things to another level, offering enterprises a more efficient solution to their business needs. I urge you to give the podcast a listen.

Posted in Contact Center, Enterprise, IP Communications, Unified Communications

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