April 2008 Archives

Here is the good news. You can get Google's Android running on current hardware. In fact the AT&T Tilt is the Guinea Pig of choice for this particular endeavor in the following example.

It is a bit early to jump for joy of course and perhaps the bad news is I am not sure what Android does for you yet. At least this demo is not so impressive.

As a pure technical accomplishment however, perhaps this is a bigger news than the credit I assign to it. I will be impressed when I see Google Apps integrated with Android on the AT&T Tilt. Basically what I mean is that for this platform to be of use to me and other users, it needs to do something that I can't do today.

So this is one small step for mobile users and I am waiting for the giant step in productivity.




[Gizmodo]

You have heard me discuss how contact centers could connect with virtual worlds and moreover how virtual worlds could connect with e-commerce. One of my most recent posts is titled Virtual Customer Interactions and in this post I give an example of how you could shop in a virtual "Sachs 5th Avenue" for a tie.

In case you aren't aware, there are web sites which sell glasses and the way they do so is quite novel. You upload a photo of yourself and then virtually try on various frames. You do this until you find a pair you think looks good on you.

This same concept extends into virtual worlds where you are able to try on clothing, glasses, accessories and anything else you may think appropriate. The goal being to see how things look on you without trying them on.

Even if e-commerce is not your primary business, the ability to connect your contact center with virtual worlds is good to have as many expect these worlds to become more important over time.

This is why I read with great interest that Nortel will be adding Second Life integration into their Call Center 6.0 solution. Tony Rybczynski goes into more detail on his blog.

It is great to see the US Government embracing technology. Recently the FCC said that by 2010 we should have a nationwide alert system capable of delivering timely warnings vis SMS in the event of disaster.

Participation in this broadcast communications network is optional for carriers and for subscribers.

My thoughts? This is great news and shows that even the government benefits from the innovations which take place in the communications space.

I just hope all regulators and government officials realize that providing a fertile environment for competition in the communications space has benefits which are far greater than just providing more competitive pricing for consumers.

[TMCnet]

Open source web conferencing company Dimdim is looking to attack the conferencing market in the same way Asterisk "attacked" the PBX space. Although the concept of open source is not new this sort of product just shows how virtually every corner of the software market has to deal with the issue of competing with free or very cheap software supported by a community of developers who work for the "fun of it".

One way to compete with such challenges is to focus more on consulting and systems integration. Another is to focus on building your development community up as a way to add value to your core offerings.

These are things Avaya has done masterfully and it remains to be seen how companies in the conferencing space will deal with the increased pressure from open source conferencing providers such as Dimdim.

[TMCnet]

It looks like Digium's Java based client will be getting commercialized as a result of a five year deal with PhoneFromHere.com. Apparently this agreement will improve the voice quality of PhoneFromHere's products and for Digium this signals another potential revenue stream -- externally commercializing some of their engineer's creations.

[TMCnet]

Correction... Despite my best efforts to be perfect this device is called the HW251N-USB not the HW351N-USB. Sorry if this caused you any problems.




If you are like me you look for ways to ensure your entire team is as productive and efficient as possible. You look for ways to increase productivity and if possible costs at the same time.

As communications solutions have evolved and Moore's law has lent it some speed, we have all benefited from a  slew of faster and faster solutions that can do more for less money.

This coupled with the power of IP communications has led us to a world where communications is becoming truly unified. One of the companies at the center f this trend is Microsoft and they are responsible for a wideband codec which they embed as part of their Office Communications Server product and Office Communicator, the software which sits on the client desktop.

But having the communications software is part of the equation. Wideband codecs rely on devices to ensure there improved sound quality can not only be heard but transmitted effectively.

It is for this reason Microsoft has worked with many companies to ensure plug-and-play compatibility with Windows systems.

i was fortunate enough to recently get my hands on the Plantronics HW251N-USB wideband headset for use with Microsoft Office Communicator.

The company supplied TMC with two of these advanced headsets and Tom Keating was kind enough to accept the challenge of testing the sound quality of this new device with me.

The headset itself looks like any typical one you would see a call center agent use. The difference is that it is USB device and truly autoconfigures when you plug it in.

The sound quality of the headset is great and there are four in-line buttons which control volume, mute and even disconnect OCS calls.

The headset was tested with Office Communicator and Skype and it is was interesting to note that OCS produces a dial tone sound when you press the disconnect button while engaged in a Skype call.

There isn't really much room for improvement in this device. It does what it supposed to and seems rugged enough for a typical casual office environment. I did notice the microphone boom cannot be moved farther or closer to your mouth but that is a minor quibble.

The headset is not really compact but fits into a  laptop case without taking up too much room. It is really the perfect complement to any soft phone.

Of course until the rest of the world's devices start to support wideband, this device and the few others on the market will be "audiophole telephony islands." I am looking forward to seeing more and more devices support high quality voice so we can finally leave the telephony jail of decades-old audio quality.

Ken Lamneck
President
The Americas
Tech Data









Distribution companies are in a great position to tell us what trends to look for in the market. What is hot? What is not and more. It is for this reason I was very interested in speaking with Ken Lamneck - President The Americas at Tech Data.

In our discussion we had a chance to embrace the concepts of virtualization, unified communications, NAS, how selling services is becoming a great business for VARs and more.

We also had a chance to discuss how VARs that do not provide complete solutions will lose business to others and will subsequently put their product sales in jeopardy.

Lamneck stresses that Tech Data wants to provide the best choices for their customers instead of pushing companies down a certain path.

There is much more but to hear it you have to listen to the podcast.

Dieter Thompson
CEO TAG
I had a chance to have a podcast interview with Dieter Thompson the CEO of TAG, an Alcatel-Lucent company specializing in telecom procurement, contract negotiation and vendor management solutions.

Thompson shares many things in this interview -- one important point is that many local telecom services are going up in price. is the FCC to blame? Is there really enough competition? Dieter goes into these areas and discusses why carriers in some cases won't even bid on contracts.

is WiMAX the answer? Dieter explores this idea as well.

Thompson discusses many things such as cost pressures due to the economy, the future of procurement, how to deal with telecom liability how $99/month wireless pricing is changing how companies deal with their telecom bills and more.

Yahoo is working to present shareholders with an alternative to a Microsoft purchase. The company will package a Google ad deal with an AOL partnership and a share repurchase plan. The goal is to avoid becoming part of the world's leading software company.

This is certainly one way to try to get Ballmer and company to raise their bid.

Let's see if this plan does the trick.

Blogged via wireless handheld

You may recall I have written about the RIM division Ascendant Systems and how the company enables mobile unified communications. Now the company which allows your Blackberry to function as a wireless extension of your communications system has inked a pact with Verizon meaning you can now work with the service provider to ensure your employees take advantage of the best of UC on the go.

[TMCnet]

I agree with Gary Kim that FTTH is needed, if not today, at least very soon. Unless a service provider is looking to sell out this year or next, they should be considering doing what rural Smithville Telephone did and deploy fiber to the home or FTTH.

This is one of those investments where Wall Street may be out of touch with Main Street as one day we will wake up and customers will want bandwidth which can only be achieved with massive amounts of photons traveling on glass strands.

When this transition will take place is impossible to know for sure.

What we can all be sure of however is that it will happen.

The question is, who will be left standing with thousands of miles of obsolete copper and cable when the music stops?

Be sure to submit your call for papers entries for the Communications Developer show which will be collocated with ITEXPO later this year in the Los Angeles, California Convention Center.

The specific dates of the event will be September 16-18, 2008.

You know I have always been a huge fan of open APIs and the concept that communications will become embedded in other parts of our lives and software.

This trend is on the rise and we are happy that Communications Developer is the world's forum for software development in the communications space.

See Also

• Tom Keating's Blog
• Press Release

Bob Emmerson joins TMC as out European Editor. We are truly proud to have Bob join the team as he is a communications and technology veteran.

Previously, Emmerson was a designer of digital control systems, a journalist, and a copywriter.

For a number of years he ran his own advertising/pr agency in Brussels. Clients included ITT Europe, Philips, Intel and The Financial Times (News - Alert). In addition to creating numerous sales brochures/leaflets/ presentations and writing press releases and press kits, he wrote three market reports for The Financial Times and has co-authored two books on IP Communications.

Bob Emmerson joins these other respected contributors recently added to the TMCnet editorial team: Charlotte Wolter, Gary Kim, David Yedwab, Peter Radizeski , Scott Wharton,Taran Singh, Rick Graves, Dr. Alan Solheim, Jagan Jagannathan and Phil Hill.  In addition, Jon Arnold is also contributing his commentary to TMCnet. 

For more about Emmerson, please visit his columnist page on TMCnet.

Its funny, I spend so much time writing about solutions for service providers and enterprise customers that when I come across a do it yourself (DIY) solution allowing you to keep tabs on your Skype friends without the use of a computer, I turn up my nose.

Is that bad? I am not sure. But what I know for certain is that this new idea is really great if not a bit messy. By having a picture frame with multiple photos in it you can watch each of your friends and see what they are up to. Are they online? Are they away?

This reminds me me of the text to speech application that came with one of the Scala bluetooth headsets I reviewed a while back. It integrated with Skype and whenever one of my contacts came online, it announced the fact to me.

It took me a few days to figure out that this noise emanating from my laptop had to do with Skype. No I am not kidding.

But I digress. If you try this project out and get it working, drop me a line.

[gizmodo]

Sure you have an iPhone or iPod or even a PC where you like to listen to your music. But have you had a chance to listen to TMCnet's high quality podcasts as of yet?

I know many of you have but for those of you who haven't, there are two pages to bookmark. My podcast page as well as the TMCnet podcast home page.

I hope you enjoy the interviews and other audio content which we will be providing