June 2008 Archives

Telepresence seems to have come out of nowhere and taken the market by storm. Couple this innovation with UC and you have disparate solutions which work very well with one another. To discuss these and other important issues in the communications space, I had a chance to have an exclusive podcast  interview with Dana Rasmussen, President North America of Siemens Communications, Inc.

Based in Boca Raton, Rasmussen focuses on strengthening Siemens' position as an IP convergence leader in the U.S. enterprise communications market.

I really enjoyed my talk with Rasmussen and learned a great deal about the company's approach. Other important issues discussed on the call had to do with business quantification metrics for UC and what questions a CIO should be asking before taking the leap into unified communications.

Enjoy.

The Telecom Expense Management (TEM) space is doing well and many predict this segment to not only weather an economic downturn but they think TEM will benefit from potential corporate belt-tightening which will increase focus on expense management in the telecom and wireless spaces.

If you are wondering if this is indeed the case, I am happy to say I have just conducted a podcast interview with Al Subbloie, President, CEO and Founder of Tangoe, Inc. This company is a leader in the TEM market and as such Subbloie's views should prove to be quite illuminating.

He speaks candidly about the market, what you should look for in this space and why you would want to consider working with his company.

He also addresses the wireless market and talks about how RIM's Blackberry and the Apple iPhone have changed the TEM space.

Before you make a purchase decision in the TEM area, be sure to listen to this interview very carefully.

If you want to build a perfect business plan, sometimes it makes sense to look at what has been successful in other markets and apply the same techniques in another space. McDonalds showed the world that a restaurant could become a successful worldwide chain and as such we have many worldwide restaurant chains today. This first successful chain shows the world that it can be done and the followers have an easier time and can even learn from the mistakes of the first.

In communications, we often borrow from the information technology space when looking for successful ideas. There are a few things the tech market has taught us over the years. One is that if you own the software on the desktop, it is possible to leverage this relationship with customers to expand into other areas such as databases and servers. For example, Microsoft cleaned Novell's clock in the 1990s by extending its dominance from the desktop to other areas.

While Microsoft has developed much of their software organically, Cisco established a marketing and sales machine with strong customer relationships and then purchased complementary technologies and rolled them out to their worldwide salesforce. Cisco is a technology company but it is their sales and marketing machine that makes the difference. They also know how to acquire companies and are the grand wizards of M&A. I don't want to call anyone else out but I can ascribe billions of dollars in lost shareholder value to Cisco competitors who never learned how to acquire new companies.

Cisco and Microsoft also have strong management and although there are some calls for Steve Ballmer to step down after the failed Yahoo! acquisition, no one can argue that Ballmer is one of the most passionate leaders in tech and in fact, if anything, he may be accused by some YouTube-watching detractors of being too enthused about what his company does.

I couldn't help thinking about Microsoft and Cisco when I recently met with Donovan Jones (pictured) of

CounterPath in Vancouver to discuss what his company is up to. You know CounterPath as a company that makes softphones which run on your computer and smartphone. Their smartphones are really everywhere -- private-branded by carriers and NEMs and sold as a standalone package and even distributed for free in a limited-feature version.

Think of the CounterPath smartphone as the communications equivalent of the desktop OS for office applications. What you may not be aware of, however, is that this leading softphone maker has been on an acquisition spree which has resulted in a company with hoards of intellectual property in some of the fastest-growing areas of telecom.

In many cases, CounterPath has purchased companies with great technology but lousy marketing -- so the goal here is to use the global relationships CounterPath has and sell these great products worldwide. In many cases, when CounterPath made these purchases, the investors in the original companies actually invested more in CounterPath. This is not a typical situation and to me signals greater belief in CounterPath's management than the management of the original companies.

Here are the companies purchased and their dates of acquisition:

• BridgePort, February 2008

Here are some of the new solutions the company now has in its arsenal:

• Network Convergence Gateway Solution - enables users to receive cell phone calls over the internet with a single phone number.

• Enterprise Mobility Gateway Solution - extends office communication features and applications to mobile handsets.

• Quick Conference Solution - a feature-rich, cost effective and flexible SIP-based audio conferencing application.

With softphones, FMC and UC all projected to grow rapidly in the coming months and years, CounterPath is positioned well to fulfill the needs of the business and carrier markets.

But the company is also positioned to capitalize on the mobile market if wireless service providers allow themselves to be helped. You see, one of the products the company now has as part of the BridgePort Networks acquisition is called MobileSTICK. It's a USB card which attaches to a computer and authenticates it like a SIM card. Once this is done, calls to and from a wireless number can be transmitted via IP communications over broadband directly to the computer.

This means that wireless carriers can take traffic off their expensive cell phone towers and while they are at it they can also encourage users to send SMS and MMS messages from the computer or laptop where they have a much better UI than on a phone. Sure, all those kids sending text messages today have great eyesight but you can only stare at a 2x2 inch screen for so many years before your eyes start to go and you need a bigger screen. And yes you can just send email from a laptop but the cool factor of mobile communications is sending from your mobile device -- even if your friends don't know you are secretly using a computer. Also, if you send email from your laptop and then leave your computer, the response won't reach your cell phone.

Jones also points out that this technology allows wireless roaming to take place over VoIP over broadband or WiFi. This means cellular companies have a new business model allowing them to drastically reduce the amount of money they have to pay other carriers in places like Europe.

In the enterprise, the company competes head-on with Microsoft but without the need for OCS. You get a working softphone, and plugs-in for SameTime and Outlook. Jones believes people don't want a separate telephony application but instead they prefer a telephony extension of their applications. This is why the CounterPath's software has the ability to drag-and-drop participants into a conference call from a messaging client, for example.

I have never been bashful about sharing new buzzwords with you, so I didn't filter the assertion Jones makes about his solutions being UC 2.0. There is a certain truth in the fact the company is ahead of the competition in terms of bringing UC to the carrier and enterprise. You see, the Vancouver-based company's products already work in carrier networks, which means the flexibility of combining a best-of-breed carrier/enterprise solution is built-in. In fact, you can choose which components reside where (cloud or premise) in your particular implementation.

It is worth mentioning that the company seems to be riding the jet stream created by those PBX companies scared of Microsoft putting them out of business. Simply stated, this means we may see more enterprise communications companies pushing CounterPath to ensure Microsoft doesn't get a stranglehold on their customers.

I can't go to Canada without discussing Terry Matthews at some point -- it just seems to me he has a hand in virtually all Canadian telecom as well as investments in tech companies worldwide. When CounterPath purchased New Heights, they added Terry Matthews to the board and got Owen Matthews (Terry's son) as an influential salesperson. Jones explains that Matthews opens doors to just about any carrier in the market and as you can imagine this is a yet another great benefit the company has going for it.

A few months ago, the blogging community went wild regarding an analyst report discussing how global providers would work together to come up with a Skype competitor. They said it made no sense and wouldn't work. At first I started to agree but I soon realized that if they leverage mobility, SMS, MMS and other benefits of MobileSTICK technology, they could really have a great idea on their hands.

If everyone with a mobile phone installs software on their desktop which allows their mobile calls and SMS messages to follow them to their computer, would Skype not be faced with a massive competitor? Skype does a great job adapting its service to the mobile network but they can never have the seamless connectivity to mobile operators that these carriers themselves could potentially provide. Who would be at the center of such a radical idea? Someone who has a softphone which works with the majority carriers and the potential to link their backed-end systems with what lives on the PC of course. Can you think of such a company? No. Me neither. :-)

CounterPath is publically traded company and all this potential makes me think it is a good investment. I may even invest myself after this article is posted.

The downside risks as I see them are something happening to Terry Matthews or Donovan Jones. Both are some of the most charismatic people I know in the business and when they finish talking, customers feel like getting their checkbooks out.

There is also the marketing and integration risk. None of the companies acquired by CounterPath were known very well and in fact many of them lived in a marketing vacuum. CounterPath is well-known but as a soft client company... Can they change this perception? It is unknown at this time.

Integration is something that has brought a number of companies to its knees. Jones allayed my integration concerns in my meeting with him by saying they generally took the R&D and engineering departments of the companies they acquired and the acquired talent believes in the grand vision he has for the company. Frankly, the acquired companies were pretty small, so ongoing integration may be a small issue.

As communications comes together and the move towards wireless, FMC and UC continues in carrier and enterprise networks, there is no company better positioned to take advantage of the trends than CounterPath. Few companies have the kind of potential CounterPath does and I can't help but wonder if their name will be seen in more articles along side of Cisco's and Microsoft's as we go forward.

You may remember a while back I wrote about Vocaltec selling some of its patents to what appears to be a firm that will become a patent troll. This scenario is becoming more and more common... Companies are now launching businesses based on buying patents and using them to sue others.

In order to combat such companies, Verizon, Cisco, Google, Telefon AB L.M., Ericssson, HP and other companies have joined together to launch Allied Security Trust -- an organization which will acquire patents and subsequently grant member companies nonexclusive rights to use them.

A quarter million dollars or so will grant you access to this exclusive patent club and another $5 million is required to be placed in escrow to help fund future patent purchases.

There are two interesting points here. One is the fact that there are a number of telecom companies in this group and second is the fact that Verizon sued Vonage recently for patent infringement. Does this seem ironic to anyone else?

The end result of these moves is likely going to be a bidding war for patents. On the one hand there will be VC money fighting to buy patents and on the other it will be Allied Security Trust.

If anything, this environment will make it more lucrative for companies with valuable patents to sell. This new battle will certainly be interesting to watch.

It is evident that society has a different relationship with technology today than ever before. Jon Arnold, one of the most well-respected analysts I know has delved deep into Microsoft's relationship with telcos. He has really thought through the company's  Telco 2.0 offerings.

Arnold makes the point that service providers are likely already Microsoft customers so the software giant is positioned well to have Telco 2.0 permeate carrier networks. He further points out that Microsoft needs carriers in a world where things are changing rapidly, Google is growing and the relationship with the customer has become more important than ever.

Here is an excerpt from his well-written article:
You really need to read this article if you are a carrier (or Microsoft for that matter). It really sums up the need for cooperation and new partnerships in the Telco 2.0 world. I have to say that the concept of widgets, mash-ups and social media have changed the game in telecom as well as many other markets. If you thought the Internet was already disruptive, just wait a few years.

Gary Kim goes on an very positive semi-rant in this article. I like the new Gary Kim -- he seems to have become an optimist lately. Perhaps like me, he is just happy to be be back from the trade show madness of the last two weeks and is glad to be home with his family.

Check out his thoughts on broadband... How it is ever-evolving and how it is fast enough and reasonably priced.

Is it possible that in front of our eyes, the US wireless market is opening up? It seems this is the case as MetroPCS Communications has just opened its network, allowing customers to bring devices from other networks which will be reprogrammed in the company's stores. The carrier is based on CDMA technology meaning you can bring certain Verizon, Alltel and Sprint phones to your local MetroPCS dealer if you are interested.

According to the AP, MetroPCS's network covers 14 large cities, including Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas. It had 4.4 million subscribers at the end of March. This means the wireless carrier is the largest one in the US to allow such a practice.

This is a very good sign and in a small way offsets the success of the iPhone which is one of the most locked down devices in recent memory. Certainly this move will put some pressure on other carriers to do the same.

T-Mobile and Sprint being the weakest US wirless players "of size" are likely first in line to do something similar.

Dear Mr. Gates -- I feel I know you well enough to call you Bill. You see, although we have never met, I feel like I owe you a huge debt of gratitude. I started loving technology while playing Pong and Space Invaders and shortly thereafter I became a BASIC programmer. First of all, thanks for ensuring this language was around and simple enough for a person to easily pick up on his own.

It is unclear what the computing industry would be like if it weren't for you and your company. You seem to have had an uncanny way of beating virtually every competitor your company ever had while you were in charge. WordPerfect and IBM are just a few companies that come to mind and now it seems there is no area of technology where your company hasn't changed the rules. You built Microsoft into a sprawling enterprise which can strike fear into virtually every company in the market.

It is amazing how many areas Microsoft can successfully compete in at once.

I beleive your company sped the pace of computing and innovation and for that I am thankful. I often wonder what technologies will be around in 100 years and now that I stop and think about it I also wonder how much further behind the technology world might have been if your company wasn't around.

Sure, there were many smaller, more creative companies which were wiped away as Microsoft grew and a common joke is the third version of Microsoft products are the ones that work but for such a large company, the fact that you don't give up easily speaks volumes about your vision and determination to win.

Now that you are going on to the next phase of your life which will involve philanthropy, I can only hope you do as much for the needy as you have done for the world of tech. I wish you a  fond farewell and good luck!

I promised yesterday that we would be devoting great focus to ITEXPO this week and to kick things off I want to ensure you are aware of the TMC University courses which will be offered at the show September 16-18, 2008 in Los Angeles. We have been running TMCU sessions for many years and we have had hundreds of graduates who walk away from the event better educated on various topics and if they pass the test at the end of the session(s), they also have the bragging rights of a diploma which can boost their resume value and get them valuable consulting/reseller assignments.

The program has focused on open source, SIP and IP-PBX topics in years past and for the first time we have greatly expanded the number of courses provided to ensure we can help you get certified in multiple courses at once. These are the important areas of the market where the seems to be great interest in certification as well as hiring.

Here is the complete list of topics and a page with the details.

• Microsoft OCS
• FMC/Mobility
• Open Source
• IP Network Security
• Unified Communications
• SIP
• Software as a Service
• SIP in the Contact Center
• Next-Gen Call Center Management

	Date	Course
	Tuesday, September 16, 2008	Microsoft OCS Learn More
	Tuesday, September 16, 2008	FMC/Mobility Learn More
	Tuesday, September 16, 2008	Open Source Learn More
	Tuesday, September 16, 2008	SIP in the Contact Center Learn More
	Wednesday, September 17, 2008	IP Network Security Learn More
	Wednesday, September 17, 2008	SaaS Learn More
	Thursday, September 18, 2008	Unified Communications Learn More
	Thursday, September 18, 2008	SIP Learn More
	Thursday, September 18, 2008	Next-Gen Call Center Mgmt Learn More

Come to the show and try your luck skill at becoming a happy graduate, along with the hundreds of your peers. Be part of an elite group -- only at ITEXPO.

Use that WiFi phone in the car... Good news for those of you who like your WiFi phone but just haven't been able to get it to work properly in the car. Now, you can use a WiFi phone or even take advantage of videoconferencing  while driving 70 MPH down the interstate.

This will come courtesy of Chrysler as many of their future cars will have a new entertainment system called uconnect which also has a 3G connection and in-car WiFi connectivity. The good news, we can really be connected wherever we are... The bad news of course is no one will be able to afford to drive anywhere the way gas prices are going up. At this rate we can expect Chrysler cars to become mobile hotspots which drive short distances and then stop to allow people to surf.

Perhaps some enterprising entrepreneurs can even start charging for connectivity to offset some of the fuel cost.

Now that T-Mobile is out at Starbucks, perhaps they can get back at the coffee company and AT&T by setting up Chrysler WiFi vans outside coffeehouses and restaurants nationwide.

You may recall the relatively new visual search engine called Searchme which allows you to see graphical snapshots of your search results before you click on a page. The theory here is you can get a better idea about a result if you can see what the page looks like first -- before you click on it. This is useful if a search result is a turn-off and you prefer a different result. Similar to the interface popularized by Apple, you drag a slider bar at the bottom of the screen to scroll through pages. You can also click a button to scroll individual pages.

While the concept is cool it is not resonating with enough people to make Searchme very popular. A look at the company's web traffic numbers show this to be the case. Quantcast ranks the site 1,376,595 out of all sites in the world. For a search engine this is atrocious. It needs to be in the top few thousand. Alexa ranks the site in the top 40,000 with positive upward momentum. It is tough to understand how these two different websites can rank Searchme so differently but instead of focusing on metrics, I want to point out the service has a new feature called stacks which allows you to combine a few websites, photos, videos, etc into categories which are then linkable in blogs, emailable, etc.

Within the Searchme search engine you can just drag and drop pages, graphics, etc onto the stack you create in the top right hand corner and from there you can reference the stack later and share it. This really socializes the web.

At first I thought you had to find what you are looking for within Searchme to add it to the stack. I thought this was a problem as I couldn't find past Searchme articles and blogs from TMCnet using Searchme -- I had to use Google. The good news is I found a way to add any URL manually. At the bottom of the Stacks box in the upper right-hand corner is an icon which says add URL. You click on this and are presented with a box allowing you to add a title, URL and description.

Here is an example of test stack which was created by dragging the first few results from a Searchme search on TMCnet. Here is a stack of some past TMCnet articles and blogs on Searchme.

Why is this feature important? Well -- there are often instances where you want to share multiple items in a single link. Two days ago in fact I wanted to list past blogs on the VPF and I resorted to doing this:


What I could do now is to add all five of these links onto a single stack and then link to the stack. There are probably other tools that do this as well but if there is one thing Searchme is good at it is sharing multiple pages/URLs. I am not convinced I want to search with it but as a graphical presentation tool it excels.

For Searchme, this new functionality could be the viral boost the company needs to keep it in front of bloggers and columnists who in turn will spread the Searchme search engine virally to their readers.
A smart move if you ask me.

I am back from NXTComm, the Voice Peering Forum and my trip to Vancouver. It is good to be home and I have so much to share. A few things you should know about are the fact that TMCnet was on-hand at NXTComm doing video interviews with a number of the movers and shakers.

Here is one of these interviews with Erik Linask and Sam Lisle from Fujitsu. This interview page has a menu of all the interviews so I hope you enjoy them all.

On another note, my team and I will be gearing up to put the final touches on ITEXPO which takes place September 16-18, 2008 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. This show will consist of an audience that is approximately as follows:

• 20-30% Service Provider
• 20-30% SMB/Enterprise
• 20-30% Reseller
• 10+% Industry

The total attendance will be be between 7,000-8,000

At the same time, the Communications Developer Conference will take place and will consist of the who's who in the communications developer world. In fact this is the world's only communications developer event.

I just learned in fact that some attendees especially enjoy the timing of these events because the following weekend, a short drive away is the Manhattan Beach Open Volleyball Tournament. Whether you are a volleyball fan or not, I am looking forward to personally greeting you at the show.

I am looking forward to spending quality time in the office where I can catch up on work.

Blogged via wireless handheld.

I know you are busy but I am sure you noticed this week that Zultys appointed a new CEO. Sure you did. I know readers of my blog are voracious and can't get enough of the latest news and analysis in the communications space.

I am sure you are wondering about this Steve Rotherberg Rothenberg fellow... His views on open source, SIP trunking, unified communications and many other issues. I am sure you can't get enough. Fortunately my desire to get this information is about as big as your appetite so here -- without any further filters or delays is the first interview with Mr. Steve Rotherberg Rothenberg, the new CEO of Zultys... Enjoy.

Zultys was looking for an experienced business leader to take the company through its next stages of growth. I was chosen because of my leadership and team building skills. My experience over the past 30 years was a perfect fit. I have taken a company of this size in this kind of business and ensured that all of the aspects that are needed for success are in place.

I have had both successes and failures in a career that spans both the Silicon Valley high tech sector as well as the VC community. I know what it takes to be successful. I believe Zultys has most of the key pieces in place including a loyal customer and reseller base. It just needs to better convey its message to the market, as well as to the channel.

Zultys is the best kept secret in communications. We have developed a market leading solution, which provides enterprise functionality at SMB prices. It is easy to implement and support, is mature and reliable. My first job is to make sure we tell the world about it. With focused leadership and a strategic plan, this company will have a roadmap to success. We will emphasize working very closely with the channel and being a real partner with them in practice and not just in name.

I plan to emphasize partnering and integrating with third-party software and hardware vendors to ensure that the customers' investment in a Zultys system will give them the greatest opportunity to take full advantage of integrated technology. This emphasis will serve both the single enterprise as well as a range of vertical market opportunities

First, we must make sure we stand for a great product that is easy for the customer to use and even easier for the reseller to sell, install and maintain. Customers and resellers alike must know this is the most advanced, feature-rich PBX platform on the market. If we can accomplish that, the end result will be excellent referrals, which is the lifeblood of sales.

How much of your focus is on the channel as opposed to end customers?

Zultys is and always will be working through the channel. We will work with the channel and their customers to improve our products. Zultys is a customer-focused company, not a technology-driven company.

What is more important in the SMB communications space - advanced technology, or working solutions?

The SMB space wants systems that work without thinking about it. Customers often start off focusing on a small subset of features because that is how they have always worked, I see one of my challenges is to make sure we get the message out to customers that there is a new way of working and our technology delivers that with out losing anything they are used to.

Unified Communications has become more of an equalizer ... and, as such, more important ... for larger enterprise companies to infuse agility into their business models. In a sense, it's really a chance for them to become more nimble much like a smaller business. From the standpoint of the SMB businesses however, UC is secondary to the unique selling proposition. They are turning to Zultys to maximize and reuse their existing infrastructure, VOIP-enable their network, simplify manageability, etc. - especially in highly distributed (multi-site) environments.

Unified Communications is all about working anywhere at any time. Zultys offers a broad sub-set of mobility features that address this very real need in today's business climate.

We continue to actively engage in partnerships with many ITSPs (BandTel, nexVortex, Etherspeak, to name a few) because we see SIP Trunking fulfilling the promise of IP-enabling voice. In fact, part of our value proposition is the ability to enable end-users to connect "natively" to SIP Trunking services without requiring additional investments in hardware, firewalls or gateways.

But SIP trunking requires fast reliable internet infrastructure, and customer confidence, elements which are missing in many parts of the world. By offering SIP registry, SIP Trunk, Analogue, BRI and PRI to our customers they can implement IP telephony on the LAN, and choose whatever combination of WAN services fits their requirements.

Open source expands the market. It really lowers the cost for companies to enter the market with product (because it gives them a starting point). I believe that a hardware/software company like Zultys is more similar to Apple where they control all of the software and hardware and as a result can improve the product in all aspects, especially where ease of use and reliability are so important.

Open source is an opportunity. It opens the eyes of end user customers to the possibilities of IP telephony and unified communication and expands the market. But telephony is a business critical application and customers want a fully integrated fully supported solution. Many of our customers started with a low cost Open Source solution but discovered that the cost of ownership of a Zultys system was actually lower.

Zultys really has tremendous potential. Since I've only been on the job for 3 days now, I'll have to get back to you on this one.

To facilitate this new way of looking at telecom, they have developed APIs which let you interface telephony into applications. For example, their service is interconnected to SalesForce.com and subsequently you can make calls from within SalesForce.com which go out through Ribbit's network.

 

The company also has an agreement with PhoneTag meaning your voicemails can be transcribed and sent to you in email/SMS and in the above example you can even have the text of the voicemails show up in the SalesForce.com com database.

There is also a nifty application written by Joe Johnston an independent programmer which consists of a virtual Apple iPhone on your desktop written in Adobe Air with voice calling powered by the Ribbit Network.

The company will also be launching a prosumer/consumer service which is very interesting as it has hooks into Skype, GoogleTalk, MSN with AOL and Yahoo! in the works. One thing you can do for example is set Skype to IM you when a call comes in. This is a great way to see if your cell phone is working well by the way.

The service is very flexible meaning you can do things like receive an IM when you have a voicemail or even recover a call out of voicemail as the message is being left. It should be mentioned you can listen to the message as it is being recorded This is on top of the typical find-me, follow-me functions of sending calls to office and/or home phones.

There is also tight Plaxo integration meaning you can keep your contacts organized via this third-party social networking service. There is also a Caller-ID "2.0"service which brings up a person's contacts info, blog information, and other information shared through OpenSocial/standard web searches.

So when a person calls, you can immediately see their latest company information, title and other pertinent information about them... Basically all of their social networking information (YouTube, Flickr, blog, LinkedIn, Google News, etc.)

I admit my eyes rolled when I heard a company calling itself Silicon Valley's first phone company but it is actually a good description of what the company is up to.

What can we expect next from Ribbit? It is tough to predict the future Waters says but certainly there will be more CRM implementations and the company's multi-tiered revenue model coupled with its store concept which is similar to the SalesForce.com AppExchange meaning we can potentially expect Ribbit to be at the center of telecom/internet enablement space for some time to come.