VoIP Blog - Tehrani.com

January 8, 2007

January 8, 2007

 

 

I just went to Expedia and checked the airfares for the upcoming Internet Telephony Conference & Expo coming up in a few weeks. Boy was I surprised. I have never seen such low fares just two weeks from any show. And this is with no Saturday night stay requirement. I summarized some of the fares below so you could see for yourself.

 

The destinations are either Miami or Ft. Lauderdale (the airports are about 30 minutes from one another)

 

To South Florida round trip 1/23/07-1/26/07

 

 

I am hearing daily about new people signing up for the show and booking inexpensive flights.

 

In order to give you a great summary of what the show will contain, please read the informational message below with my top reasons to attend. It is a good summary of the giveaways and unsurpassed education you will get at the show.

 

I am excited as ever about this year’s conference. This will be a big year for IP communications and every company I speak with in the industry tells me they expect ’07 to be a much better year than ’06 – and 2006 was a record year for most.

 

So if you haven’t booked your flight yet – now is a great time to do so and I look forward to welcoming you at the show.

 

Here are more details:

 

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15th INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO East 2007 January 23-26, 2007 -- Broward Cty Convention Center Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

 

15 Days Until INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO West 2006

 

Time Once Again For My Top Reasons to Attend...

 

 

ITEXPO, The first VoIP/IPTV/IP Communications event of 2007 begins in just two weeks down in sunny Florida. As always, the program is focused on education, with literally hundreds of sessions and panel discussions designed to help you make better informed choices.

 

Here's just a handful of the many, many reasons you can't miss INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO East 2007 this month in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida:

 

1. Focus on Disaster Preparedness/Business Continuity

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Companies worldwide are using IP communications solutions to protect precious data and maintain business continuity when disaster strikes.

Come learn from experts how you can prepare your business to operate without interruption when hurricanes or other disasters strike.

 

Wednesday, January 24th

VoIP Options: Disaster Preparedness - Are You Ready?

 

Thursday, January 25th

 

 

2. New! Service Provider Shootout

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First time in Ft. Lauderdale. Unique opportunity to hear service providers offering wholesale, residential and business services discuss opportunities for service providers AND exciting new enhanced services for enterprises and consumers. Panelists include Packet8, Earthlink, BandTel.

 

 

3. New! Ingate's SIP Trunking Seminars

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January 24th - 26th

 

 

These educational seminars are free, and include a comprehensive Professional Development Program where you can earn a SIP Trunking Professional Certificate.

Solutions Tracks are also offered, with information and real-world case studies from proven deployments.

 

The SIP Trunking Series is sponsored by Ingate® Systems and TMC, and held with leading IP-PBX vendors, SIP trunking service providers and thought leaders in enterprise IP communications.

 

 

4. Voice Peering Fabric Workshop

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Thursday, January 25, 2007

 

Free For Enterprises and Service Providers

 

The Voice Peering Fabric (VPF), the preferred platform for carriers and enterprises to exchange telephony and applications services, is pleased to organize another distinctive Voice Peering Workshop at the ITEXPO East 2007!

 

This workshop brings to the ITEXPO attendees a team of experts from the telephone, hardware and software industries. Their business strategies and technical insight will be the answer to your questions and concerns relating to voice/video routing and interconnections. The workshop panel discussions present the state of direct peering, putting you on track to harness the full potential of IP communications.

 

5. Harley Davidson & Toyota FJ Cruiser Giveaways

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OK, so this is not an educationally-focused attraction. But who can deny that topping off a productive week spent in Florida learning how to improve your business communications by winning a new Roadster or SUV would make it a spectacular trip?

 

Plan your trip accordingly because YOU MUST BE PRESENT TO WIN:

 

Harley Davidson Giveaway: Thursday, January 25th - 5:00pm Ballroom A, 3rd Floor - Immediately following Service Provider Shootout Panel

 

Toyota FJ Cruiser SUV Giveaway: Friday, January 26th - 2:00pm Main Lobby, Outside Exhibit Hall A

 

 

6. Reseller Solutions Day - Wednesday, January 24th

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There is serious money to be made selling IP equipment AND services.

Always one of the most popular attractions at the conference, Reseller Solutions Day is a workshop educating resellers about the latest IP communications technology - and about how to most effectively sell it to their customers.

 

Sponsored by Interactive Intelligence; Presented in conjunction with the ECA.

 

 

7. Speaker List Contains More Potential Partners/Suppliers

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There are more than 250 speakers presenting in sessions, participating in panel discussions and delivering keynotes at the event. Many of their companies are represented on the exhibit floor, and many are not. I recommend you take a look at the list and see the extensive number of companies you'll meet at networking receptions and walking around the event that could become great partners and suppliers for your organization.

 

 

8. More Than 7,000 Other Attendees to Network with, Learn From

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As an attendee at this conference from an enterprise, government agency or service provider, you will undoubtedly run into other attendees seeking similar IP solutions. This conference is not just an 'industry gathering', where everyone you meet will try to sell you something. People come to this conference to learn about and select solutions. The networking you do with other people trying to accomplish the same goals you are could make the whole trip worthwhile.

 

 

9. Meet Hundreds of Vendors on the Exhibit Floor

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With the opportunity to meet with so many companies that can help you, your trip to the trade show will be more than worth your time and trouble.

 

 

10. Can You Think of a Better Place to be in January Than Sunny Florida?

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In addition to its world famous climate, Ft. Lauderdale offers many benefits to you that will help to make your trip as productive as possible.

 

 - Easy commute from Ft. Lauderdale Int'l Airport, saving time and money

 - Close proximity to hundreds of restaurants for productive dinner meetings

 - Surrounded by World Class hotels within walking distance of the Convention Center

 

Flying in and out is a breeze. Driving from anywhere in Florida is easy and convenient. The convention center features plenty of parking.

 

Important Note: Be sure to being a Photo ID for admission to the convention center.

 

 

11. Can You Name A Company That is not Here?

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Create a list in your mind of all the companies you think of related to IP communications. Then check the exhibitor, speaker and keynote lists. I bet you'll find every company you can think of on one of those lists. Doesn't that make this event the best place to come learn and find partners? I think so.

 

 

12. International Collection of Delegates Attending

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This event has always been known for its international appeal. With 15 days remaining until the show, attendees from from more than 60 countries have registered to attend so far. Delegates from Japan, Canada, UK, Venezuela, Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Taiwan, Phillipines, Mexico, Germany, Bolivia, Honduras, Thailand, Ecuador, Croatia, Guatemala, and virtually every other Latin American Country are among those coming to the conference.

 

 

Please register now. I hope to see you at the show.

 

And please don't hesitate to reply with any questions - or with your specific reason to attend. I'll include it on my next list.

 

Regards,

Rich Tehrani

TMC President & Conference Chairman

 

While at the conference, please visit the booths of our sponsors:

 

 

 

 

January 8, 2007

I didn’t think it was possible to have a 2 billion dollar company in the software market that I didn’t know about but Infor is such a company focusing on enterprise applications such as CRM and more. The company competes with the likes of SAP and Oracle and has grown revenue by 300% in the past year. Infor has had a string of acquisitions as of late and the result is a company with 70,000 application customers. I decided it would make sense to have an interview with the company’s Global Director, CRM Product Marketing Patric Timmermans so we could all get a better Idea about who the company is and where they are going.

 

1) Before we discuss CRM, who is Infor and what are you doing different in the market?

Infor recognizes there has been a large gap in the enterprise software market. There are players trying to bring their heavy solutions down market and small companies bringing their niche solutions up market. Infor fills this void by providing customers of all sizes, through innovation and acquisition, with proven business-specific solutions with experience built in, backed by a vendor with global scale and stability. Our more than 70,000 customers turn to Infor to solve their needs in CRM, Supply Chain, ERP, Performance Management, Enterprise Asset Management and more.

 

2) Tell me about Infor CRM.

Our legacy in CRM comes from Epiphany as well as other best-of-breed CRM providers we acquired. Infor CRM is a strategic set of solutions that enable companies to develop and maintain a consistent and continuous dialogue with their customers, and brings all channels and sources together to create one experience. In order to be effective, a company’s CRM solution must integrate marketing, sales and service to provide full 360 degree view of the customer. A comprehensive CRM can provide real time information about the customer and match that to the best possible service or product, or next best action.

 

3) What should customers take into consideration when selecting a CRM provider?

When a CRM system is deployed, it will be there for a long time. With new applications being introduced every year, your CRM provider has to have the ability to integrate with any service you want to offer. This creates a mashup within CRM and the real estate on an agent’s screen becomes a combination of several applications and capabilities. The CRM system must pull all of this information together be it from legacy or third-party applications. Companies should look for CRM solutions that are agnostic to other applications in the enterprise infrastructure and are not reliant on a specific middleware platform.

 

4) What does the future of CRM look like?

Marketing to the consumer on their time. This is a shift from the current concept where companies market solutions when it is convenient to them, not the customer. CRM is evolving towards utilizing real-time information from across the enterprise to provide offers to the consumer when their attention is at its greatest. For example, using a customer’s calling history to offer more services when they visit the website to pay their bill or call the contact center. Our customers have seen dramatic increases in campaign effectiveness with this approach.

 

5) What are the key milestones for Infor CRM in the next 12 - 18 months?

You will see additional functionality in our CRM solutions for B-to-B, B-to-C, and B-to-B-to-C environments as we strive to enrich the customer experience. In addition, we will continue to extend our solutions’ capabilities in our key verticals such as communications, financial services, insurance, retail, hospitality, travel and leisure, and manufacturing.

Infor CRM will continue to evolve and interoperate with new applications and services.

 

6) What do you predict the evolution of CRM to be over the next 10 years?

I see CRM evolving towards the concept of intelligent customer dialogue to create one experience. Companies realize the consumer wants more then exceptional service or product, they want the whole experience the brand they are buying promises, and to connect with the vision of that company. Products are so similar from one brand to another companies are competing on customer service. This too will become very similar and the shift will be towards the customer experience and feeling a part of the brand and company. CRM will provide the tools to help companies move beyond simple sales tactics and create this experience.

 

 

7) What industries do you see the most momentum with CRM?

There are three industries I see are leading: communications, retail banking and insurance. All three of these have a strong customer vision with set strategic goals for how CRM can help them increase revenue, not just create efficiencies.

The retail sector is also surging and I see them as a good growth market for CRM in the coming years. Interestingly, we also see manufacturers developing a strategy of supporting the whole supply chain from manufacturing through retail to the end-customer in a B-to-B-to-C model.

 

8) What is the key ingredient many companies are missing from their CRM strategy?

I believe many companies overlook the ability to gain insight into the customer and act upon it. CRM is a strategic resource to turn contact centers into profit centers by using real-time analytics to reduce costs while driving in new revenues by creating a customized customer experience at every touch point. This may change the way performance is measured. For example, on of our retail banking customers changed their metrics for success. Their call center agents were previously measured on call handling times and speed of entry, but now they are measured on products per-household, deposit growth goals and customer satisfaction.

January 8, 2007

I found out about PhoneHog today and I get the feeling I am way behind the curve on this one. Why you ask? Well there are already 3 million members (site provided data) of this service who get free ad supported calling. Surprisingly there are few articles on the internet discussing this site. There is more and more talk of service providers getting into the ad market and I even touched on this topic last week. With this in mind PhoneHog.com deserves closer inspection to see how they are doing and to see how well an ad supported call model works. I have an e-mail into company founder Phil Nadel and am awaiting his response.