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

Unified Communications

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?

Dell'Oro: Avaya Leads UC Market

December 3, 2008

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.

NEC, Premier Purchasing to Serve Healthcare Market

November 17, 2008

Spracht Marries Quality, Design

November 13, 2008

It's not every day you meet with a company and think, "...this may be the next Bose or the next Herman Miller, or the next Apple..." I'm talking of course about companies whose claim to fame is not only offering quality products but also the close attention they pay to the design process to produce a lasting product experience.   I met such a company recently, that produces the Aura Mobile BT, a speakerphone that is equally at home broadcasting a Skype-based phone call next to a laptop, or attached to the visor of your car cruising down the boulevard while you carry on a hands-free conversation.   Spracht is the acoustic division of parent company ODI, an OEM provider of digital imaging, acoustics, LCD image display, and other consumer electronics. Founded in 1993, Silicon Valley based ODI has developed popular products, such as the Connectix Quickcam, for both Fortune 100 companies and technology notables such as Palm and Kensington.   I met Trace Williams, vice president of sales and marketing at Spracht who gave me some background on the company and also talked up a brand-new device that is expected to be launched in the next couple of weeks.   First, we discussed the Aura Mobile BT a full-duplex speakerphone featuring dual 3W speakers, and echo and noise cancellation, powered by the patented SoundClearâ„¢ Digital Signal Processing (DSP) chip.   The device offers eight hours of talk time and can connect up to eight profiles to each device.   The company also offers the Aura SOHO, a conference call device that can be used in an analog phone environment, or converted with the simple swap of a module to operate with digital PBXs, and soon will offer a wireless option as well. The Aura SOHO is designed for conference rooms ranging up to 20' x 40' when utilizing expandable microphones.   Spracht is offering the solutions through multiple channels, including Dell, Amazon.com, Best Buy, Fry's and telecom distributors such as Synnex, NTD, and others.

Objectworld Announces Support for Microsoft's SBS/EBS Solutions

November 12, 2008

Yesterday I met with David Schenkel, the CTO of Ottawa-based Objectworld, and we discussed the company's announcement of support for Microsoft's Windows Small Business Server 2008 and Windows Essential Business Server 2008.   The gist of the announcement is that it is now much simpler for Objectworld's customers and partners to leverage the productivity enhancing features of VoIP and unified communications and integrate these applications into their IT infrastructure.   The new solution is reportedly quick and simple to deploy and allows businesses to save money by simplifying moves adds, and changes and making it easy to create call flows, notifications, and more.   Schenkel illustrated how simple it was to create call flows by creating a simple IVR application on the fly. The solution leverages Objectworld's library of "elements" which via simple drag and drop combine to create a complete call flow.   My colleague, TMCnet's Michael Dinan, has a great interview with ObjectWorld's director of marketing and sales, Vincent Guihan, in which they speak about the relative popularity of the solution's SIP telephony edition and the value of providing Objectworld UC Server as a hosted environment.

Meetings Galore

November 12, 2008

Trade shows serve as a wonderful opportunity to meet with a large number of companies and individuals in a very condensed time frame. Today I got to meet with a rather large and diverse group of companies operating in the IP Communications space.   First among today's meetings was a visit with Todd Woodstra, vice president of unified communications and emerging markets for SpinVox, the voicemail to text company.   SpinVox captures spoken messages and converts them into text. It then delivers these messages via e-mail.   On Tuesday, SpinVox announced that they were playing a major part in Avaya's new Speech to Text solution, along with Mutare Software's EVM gateway.   SpinVox provides the core recognition technology that provides the conversion of the voicemail file to text.   According to Woodstra, SpinVox is only company in this space that can provide the needed scalability to yield a successful solution. To drive the point home, he told me that SpinVox is already deployed at 13 carriers spanning 5 continents.   The service bridges silos of audio files into text and makes those files actionable and searchable, which empowers end users.   I look forward to trialing the SpinVox solution shortly.     Yesterday I wrote about Mitel and how they were getting into the Telepresence space in addition to offering an upgraded suite of Unified Communications solutions.   Today I spoke with Mitel's Kevin Johnson, director of analyst and consultant relations, who shared more details about the company's announcement.   In addition to the telepresence portion of the announcement, Johnson spoke of several upgrades including a revamped UC desktop client for users (Mitel Unified Communicator) and extended mobile integrations for Windows Mobile and Nokia devices and a similar integration on Blackberry devices, which enable mobile users to access PBX functionality when on the go.   Johnson touched on the economy and mentioned that in these trying economic times, UC solutions must offer fast, well defined payback to be seriously considered.   Johnson said Mitel offers UC Solutions "for the real world" -- marketing speak that underscores the company's pragmatic approach to marketing products and benefits to the real world.     I also met with Mike Storella and Michael Knieling of snom, who were excited with the launch of their latest desk phone, the snom 820.   The new 820 phone includes snom's foray into the wideband audio space, and features the company's klarVOICE technology.   Other features include an HD display, WiFi functionality which offers a way to deploy the phone quickly without having to draw a wire to the desk, secure VoIP with SRTP and TLS as well as all the usual standard advanced business-class calling features one expects on a device of this quality.   Storella mentioned that the phone was competitively priced, and that he has high hopes for this new line.

MItel Expands UC Portfolio, Adds Telepresence

November 10, 2008

Mitel has unveiled some new twists to its Unified Communications portfolio including a brand-new telepresence platform, which will be commercially available in Q109. Mitel's TeleCollaboration Solution is designed to improve the telepresence experience with enhanced collaboration capabilities including desktop sharing and recording for a 'better-than-live' interaction.   Mitel is also introducing several new UC clients that are tailored to different worker needs, including:   Mitel Unified Communicator (UC) Express - a desktop UC client that provides productivity enhancements like click-to-call, incoming caller ID pop-up, call history, speed calls list, plus personal and corporate directory integration with public IM presence engines.   Mitel Unified Communicator (UC) Advanced - a comprehensive client that integrates presence and availability, secure IM, audio conferencing and video and data collaboration. Mitel UC Advanced provides simplified access to commonly used Mitel and third-party applications via a 'launchpad' designed to enhance productivity.

Avaya Announces Changes at the Top

October 30, 2008

Logitech Dials Up SightSpeed

October 29, 2008

Logitech International has announced that it will acquire SightSpeed Inc. for approximately $30 million in cash. SightSpeed offers consumers and businesses high-quality, SIP-based Internet video communications services, including video conferencing, video chat, video voicemail, collaboration tools, and more.   According to the announcement:   The acquisition of SightSpeed will provide Logitech with video calling technology and a software and services development team that can be focused on future video calling initiatives that can enable cross-platform video communications with an intuitive, lifelike experience, for people sitting in front of a personal computer or with their family in a living room.   I've used the service before and I must admit the quality was very good in my experience. The software got a recent boost by being featured on CBS' morning news program.   Congratulations to Peter Csathy and the rest of the SightSpeed team.   The acquisition is expected to close in early November.  
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