I stayed at the Palazzo a few weeks back and it is a great hotel. Here is the view from the Wynn and specifically Blush where Siemens is hosting a killer analyst, media and customer party.
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April 2008 Archives
I have never heard the kind of rumors about a vendor that I am hearing about Shoretel. Reports of unhappiness in the ranks of the workers and management problems persist in the industry.
Some comments I have been hearing is this management team was great for the IPO but can't run the company day to day. This news may have leaked to analysts and would explain the various downgrades I have been seeing on the wires.
I normally hate to talk about rumors without doing more research than this but in my experience this level of negativity is unusual for any company and for it to come out of the blue and unsolicited from multiple sources means there could likely be fire causing the smoke.
Suffice it to say, I will write more if I hear anything.
Some comments I have been hearing is this management team was great for the IPO but can't run the company day to day. This news may have leaked to analysts and would explain the various downgrades I have been seeing on the wires.
I normally hate to talk about rumors without doing more research than this but in my experience this level of negativity is unusual for any company and for it to come out of the blue and unsolicited from multiple sources means there could likely be fire causing the smoke.
Suffice it to say, I will write more if I hear anything.
Here are some shots of Vegas in the morning from my hotel room. Someone definitely needs to clean the windows.
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Yesterday at Interop I asked exhibitors and analysts what they were hearing about the economy. Most said they think the recovery would be U shaped, not a V but some thought that Q3 would be the start of a recovery.
Interestingly it seems the companies who are marketing aggressively are doing better than the quiet companies who have basically turned out the lights and are hoping for the best.
An example of the former, Interactive Intelligence - a company reporting record profits -- was cited here yesterday.
I have to admit that I believe the housing market is still inflated and has 30-40% to drop. I am no real estate analyst mind you but it seems the run up was too fast and we haven't seen that much air taken out of most of the market.
If I am right -- this drag on the economy could be offset fairly easily. We need an increased focus on public works. Basically repairing the infrastructure of America. Our bridges and roads are a mess and we need to hire many people to fix these problems.
This is akin to the New Deal which was how we got the economy back on track after the Great Depression.
One point that does tie unified communications more closely with the economy is a conversation I had with Jay Burrell and Kendra Petrone of Nokia and Chris Thompson of Cisco. Jay told me in a few of his recent meetings, CIOs are telling him they need UC because employees can't afford gas and they want to work from home.
So UC it seems is becoming a way to offset high gas prices. If you add this to long distance savings brought on by VoIP, communications technologies are in a great position to be boosted by a slow economy and soaring gas prices.
Interestingly it seems the companies who are marketing aggressively are doing better than the quiet companies who have basically turned out the lights and are hoping for the best.
An example of the former, Interactive Intelligence - a company reporting record profits -- was cited here yesterday.
I have to admit that I believe the housing market is still inflated and has 30-40% to drop. I am no real estate analyst mind you but it seems the run up was too fast and we haven't seen that much air taken out of most of the market.
If I am right -- this drag on the economy could be offset fairly easily. We need an increased focus on public works. Basically repairing the infrastructure of America. Our bridges and roads are a mess and we need to hire many people to fix these problems.
This is akin to the New Deal which was how we got the economy back on track after the Great Depression.
One point that does tie unified communications more closely with the economy is a conversation I had with Jay Burrell and Kendra Petrone of Nokia and Chris Thompson of Cisco. Jay told me in a few of his recent meetings, CIOs are telling him they need UC because employees can't afford gas and they want to work from home.
So UC it seems is becoming a way to offset high gas prices. If you add this to long distance savings brought on by VoIP, communications technologies are in a great position to be boosted by a slow economy and soaring gas prices.
Here at Interop 2008 I was a bit surprised to see Amazon Web Services as they haven't been to shows I frequent before. I hear this division although small is growing quickly.
Blogged via wireless handheld 
Blogged via wireless handheld 
Google wash showing their enterprise solutions such as store locator mashup technology.
Blogged via wireless handheld 
Feeling under the weather today but doing my best to report on all the things you need to know.
Blogged via wireless handheld 
In a challenging economic environment, what can one say about the financial performance of Interactive Intelligence? Consider this: quartlerly revenue of $29.5 million; up 21 percent over revenues of $24.3 million in the same quarter last year.
I must admit that there may an implied bias as Interactive Intelligence works extensively with TMC on marketing. But really there isn't. I3 understands how to promote itself and is obviously executing on all cylinders.
The company has done a masterful job of branding these past years and they show that a strong engineering company with strong marketing can take market share in a competitive market.
This performance in a slower economy is beyond impressive. Hats off to Interactive Intelligence.
I must admit that there may an implied bias as Interactive Intelligence works extensively with TMC on marketing. But really there isn't. I3 understands how to promote itself and is obviously executing on all cylinders.
The company has done a masterful job of branding these past years and they show that a strong engineering company with strong marketing can take market share in a competitive market.
This performance in a slower economy is beyond impressive. Hats off to Interactive Intelligence.
I am here!
I am ready for another Vegas tech show... Are you?
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Another year, another Interop. I am off once again across the country to Vegas where I will likely spend more time standing in line than I will sleeping. How amazing is the fact that you can build a city in the middle of nowhere and after fifty years get people from all over the world to come visit your city and spend their precious time waiting. Waiting to gamble; waiting to eat; waiting for a hotel room; waiting, waiting, waiting.
Thankfully I will have all my gadgets and gizmos and will continue to blog and email away while I wait, wait for everything.
Having said all that, although I do despise the cab line that comes with the Vegas airport I do like the fact that the airport is not too far from the strip and moreover, at least Vegas is closer to Connecticut than California is.
How is that for turning my lemons into lemonade? It's all about perspective I guess
I have some really great meetings planned and I can't be more excited about this year for TMC. We expect 2008 to be an even better year than 2007 and at this rate this year will be one of the top 2 or 3 years in our company's 36 year-old history.
The incredible TMC team has grown tremendously and it is amazing to see this well-oiled machine continue to delight customers and exceed expectations.
Thanks once again to our readers, conference attendees, exhibitors, sponsors and advertisers for making this all possible.
Thankfully I will have all my gadgets and gizmos and will continue to blog and email away while I wait, wait for everything.
Having said all that, although I do despise the cab line that comes with the Vegas airport I do like the fact that the airport is not too far from the strip and moreover, at least Vegas is closer to Connecticut than California is.
How is that for turning my lemons into lemonade? It's all about perspective I guess
I have some really great meetings planned and I can't be more excited about this year for TMC. We expect 2008 to be an even better year than 2007 and at this rate this year will be one of the top 2 or 3 years in our company's 36 year-old history.
The incredible TMC team has grown tremendously and it is amazing to see this well-oiled machine continue to delight customers and exceed expectations.
Thanks once again to our readers, conference attendees, exhibitors, sponsors and advertisers for making this all possible.
I don't mean to sound alarmist but half a million hacked websites? is that how many there are? In other words if users hit any of 500,000 sites using IE they will likely be infected? Talk about an electronic pandemic. This is a major problem and very scary.
I know we at TMC have been hit with an SQL injection attack in the past that was not successful. These sorts of attacks seem to constantly propagate and it has to be very scary for companies who have websites but don't have the technical staff to deal with these issues.
Brian Krebs over at the Washington Post has a very good article with details and thoughts on using FireFox to protect yourself from such websites.
I have met with many security experts over the years and in the last 12 months many have become quite alarmed at the rate of of security breaches and this article encapsulates some of these concerns.
There are still many other vulnerabilities out there and it seems to me that companies in the security consulting business have a bright future
I know we at TMC have been hit with an SQL injection attack in the past that was not successful. These sorts of attacks seem to constantly propagate and it has to be very scary for companies who have websites but don't have the technical staff to deal with these issues.
Brian Krebs over at the Washington Post has a very good article with details and thoughts on using FireFox to protect yourself from such websites.
I have met with many security experts over the years and in the last 12 months many have become quite alarmed at the rate of of security breaches and this article encapsulates some of these concerns.
There are still many other vulnerabilities out there and it seems to me that companies in the security consulting business have a bright future
Whether the rumors are true regarding Apple working with Immersion to add haptic feedback to Apple's touchscreen devices is true or not it seems obvious to me that every touchscreen device needs to embrace this tactile feedback mechanism. The way it works is when you press a button the device emits a vibration which is more like the feedback you would get from touching a real key.I for one have never been a fan of the onscreen keyboard that Apple provides on it's cellular phone. Haptic feedback would help and I am sure Apple is exploring adding the technology to its devices as to do otherwise would put the company at a disadvantage in a competitive market.
[engadget]
Jamie Siminoff beams with enthusiasm as he explains to me in this podcast about his excitement regarding his company's name change from SimulScribe to PhoneTag. According to Siminoff, sales have increased dramatically since the announcement of the new name and moreover, his customers feel more comfortable recommending the service to others as the name is now easy to remember.Why else is Jamie so happy, what new features does the service now offer and where is his laptop located? Well for answers to these and other pressing questions, be sure to check out the podcast.
I really had some great meetings today with Fortune class companies who are in various stages of deploying VoIP. It is always great to get to spend time with these companies and learn about their challenges and success stories. I plan to cover this more thoroughly soon.
I have an immense amount of notes I need to digest it all and post in a way that helps my readers the most. I expect to do some of this in the flight back.
I have an immense amount of notes I need to digest it all and post in a way that helps my readers the most. I expect to do some of this in the flight back.
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