March 2009 Archives

With all the opportunity to sell more products in the data center and the consumer electronics space, a company like Cisco can afford to simultaneously attack both markets. To that end, Cisco recently announced its entry into the blade server market and today purchased Pure Digital Technologies for $590 million, the company behind the Flip Video brand of pocket-sized video recorders.

Cisco's efforts in the consumer electronics space have not been nearly as successful as its accomplishments in the enterprise but the company seems to believe if it sells enough products in the connected home, sooner or later it will become a preferred provider in the consumer setting. They could be right but the problem for the industry today is the threat from Apple who will continue to own more and more of the home network and consumer electronics market.

Which leads one to wonder, what if Cisco started adding really cutting edge phone and computing technology into a next-gen Flip Video device...? Would it have enough consumer appeal to boost Cisco as a consumer brand? Maybe.

And moreover, can it pull off a strategy which successfully attacks the high-end and low-end of computing simultaneously? If they do it will be a shocker to many as few if any companies have ever done so. But then again, Cisco has shown in many ways - especially when it comes to integrating new companies that it is able to pull off what few other companies can.

After $500,000 in development costs, FreedomVOICE has abandoned the Beta test of Newber, an application which blended the best of VoIP and location awareness to allow users to direct calls to various phones. The app even allows you to swap calls from phone to phone mid-conversation.

Newber was submitted to Apple on October 2, 2008 and after 165 days, Apple has not approved the application and worse it won't tell FreedomVoice anything. Interestingly Apple did approve the company's other application IQ Voicemail in about a month according to the company so there is something about the Newber app that Apple doesn't like.

Eric Thomas the CEO of the company writes about the situation and pins the blame on a middle manager at Apple. While I can't verify who is responsible for putting the approval process in limbo I surmise that there is fear in the company that this application will take revenue away from AT&T and thus reduce the amount of money it can make selling service on the phone which in turn reduces the subsidy Apple might receive on each device.

I feel for FreedomVoice and I think what Apple is doing is terrible to developers who end up in the no man's land between approval and denial. I also think that Apple lock on the App Store stinks for end users. But on balance, the iPhone/iPod Touch platform has tens of thousands of applications and no other device even compares.

So the question worth asking is can Apple please give developers some sort of playbook before they start spending their money to better the iPhone? The fact that Apple doesn't do this makes you wonder if there is something Apple/AT&T are worried about - perhaps their comments on why an app doesn't fly can be used against them in the future by the EU, DOJ or in a class-action suit? One wonders why Apple would want to endure any bad press with such a successful product.

Had an early breakfast meeting in CT and now heading into the city.

SuperComm had been the nation's largest carrier event for decades and over the last seven years or so the show split into two and even three events. Some of the other names the show went by (or partially went by) were TelecomNxt, Globalcomm and NxtComm. Recently the two warring association factions the TIA and USTA made up and the show became SuperComm again which took place last June in Las Vegas.

I have kept these rumors to myself for weeks but as word is slowly leaking out I thought it worth mentioning that I understand the new show dates will be in October (although who knows if this event can even happen with a postponement so close to its original dates).

As companies reduce their travel budgets - they still have the challenge of conducting business without being face-to-face. Of course by now my readers have heard me discuss countless solutions to how you can conference using technology. One of my more recent encounters with companies in this space took place earlier this month in a meeting with Greg Plum of The Conference Group, a conferencing company specializing in audio and video and selling through wholesale and retail channels. Both agents and resellers are targets of the company's wholesale approach and they are currently servicing the US, Canada and have some partners in the UK.

Plum tells me to differentiate themselves, by allowing recordable conferences which are turned into podcasts. These can be subscribed to by RSS readers which means you can keep people informed on happenings in a new way. In addition the company offers toll-free conference call numbers in 60 countries allowing customers to seem as they have an international presence.

I asked about competition from free services and Greg mentioned Skype and DimDim are the biggest competitors - but they differentiate by offering multipoint service and he said with his service you don't get solicited by other callers such as "sexysamantha" referring to the spam you get on services like Skype.

He further explained his company has focused on the quality of their calls which he says are better than that of free services. I haven't had a chance to use the service myself by will certainly cover it when/if I do get an account.

Greg thinks his company is positioned well in this economic downturn as the competition in the business space is the cost of first-class round-trip tickets abroad. Moreover the company seems to have a great strategy on focusing on keeping agents, VARs and customers happy.

I scan over 1,000 news headlines a day when I am not traveling and without a doubt the most popular tech topic in the mainstream media these days is Twitter. David Pogue from the New York Times has even devoted TV airtime to the topic on CNBC and it seems everyone is experimenting with using the service. Then there is the talk of leading social network Facebook modifying its homepage to take on Twitter and Google purchasing Twitter to show ads on all those tweets people send regarding their hunger status and other innocent facts which you wouldn't imagine anyone would take the time to share or read about.

It makes you think long and hard about how companies are integrating consumer technologies like Twitter into their marketing. Dell for example credits Twitter for millions of dollars in sales. Many companies in fact have embraced Twitter and the trend is not slowing down. But it isn't just Twitter which companies must integrate with. Just as Twitter is an outgrowth of text messaging, companies too must adapt to the new world where their employees will use texting to communicate with the teens and twentysomethings making up the world's big spenders.

One company, Tango Networks is focusing on helping companies with the integration task of getting text messaging to work more seamlessly with corporate IM and phone systems. On a recent trip to the company's Texas headquarters I spent some time with Al Leo - Vice President Business Development and Sales and Bill Young - Director of Product Marketing to get an update on what the company is up to. First off it is worth noting the company wants to be known as the best FMC solution in the world and they are one of the only companies looking to solve the integration challenges of fixed-mobile convergence from all angles. They focus on the benefits to carriers, the enterprise and the end-users as well. Most other solutions out there focus on one or two these areas.

To be quite honest it is a major challenge to do FMC well if you don't focus on all parts of the equation. After all, to get mobile devices to work with corporate PBXs in a way which increases functionality, lowers costs and doesn't complicate the user experience takes lots of planning and integration. This all-encompassing approach however is also a challenge to the company as carriers are notorious for bleeding tech companies dry and leaving them stranded to wither away and die.

That is perhaps why the company is also working with equipment and software providers like Microsoft and Cisco to make sure their solutions work with solutions prevalent in enterprise environments.

Similar to what the company does with SMS, it also allows enterprise calling line ID to appear in the place of Caller ID and messaging. In addition they have integrated presence with device location which opens up the ability to provide enhanced services which are based on phone location. For example, ensuring calls do not ring the phone between 12:00 AM and 7:00 AM regardless of time zone or the ability to locate the nearest doctor to an accident.

The company is looking to multimedia and the femtocell markets as natural places to grow and although this is a tough financial environment for startups, they company seem confident about their future. Based on today's funding news it does seem companies with good ideas can still get money.

Asked how the economy is affecting them they responded that they have seen decision processes slow but they haven't been shelved.

The way I see it as more companies embrace the latest technology to stay competitive, FMC should be on more and more short lists. In addition, one can only imagine companies will begin to realize that they need to deal with rogue texting going on between their employees and their customers. They will need to take control of corporate text messaging the way they have done with corporate voicemail and email.

As these trends continue, the need for FMC and corporate texting solutions should only increase. Agree or disagree? Be sure to check me out on Twitter and send me a tweet. 

While there likely isn't a smartphone on the planet that does not support cut and paste, Apple's iPhone users have been waiting patiently for years for something most consider entry level. The latest news out of Apple is that you will have to wait a little longer for this feature... This summer in fact when the iPhone 3.0 OS debuts with a host of great additions.

At that time you will not only get the addition of text copy/paste but also the ability to use the keyboard in landscape mode in all applications. In order to get to this other much-anticipated feature you double tap and slide your finger and pull it across the selection you want to highlight.

Oh yeah and a cool feature is the shake to deselect option if you decide you really don't need to copy what you just selected.

On the photo front there is the ability to send more than one photo at a time and MMS messaging. Other additions include a single search across the phone (calendar, songs, etc - search continues on severs), note synchronization, autofill, YouTube accounts and stereo Bluetooth.

There are lots of miscellaneous upgrades as well. For example, the stocks application now supports landscape and news stories while there is also a new voice recording application, the ability to forward and delete multiple SMS messages, undo support and perhaps the most anticipated is push notification which is not as good as allowing apps to run in the background but better than what we have now. What will happen is a 3^rd party server will reach out to the Apple Push Notification Service and a pop up will appear on your screen. This is similar to how SMS works now.

Apple says the reason to support push instead of background apps by the way is because a single app such as IM running constantly can degrade battery life by 80% in standby.

There is also a new API fro streaming audio and video and a new API coming for in-game voice. In fact there is a ton of support for gaming and we can expect much better games for the iPhone going forward.

There is more - but still no Adobe Flash support -- for the complete story check here.

Today, I came across a number of funding announcements and it has been some time since I have seen four in the same day. The first big news is from Transera where they raised $17 million to grow their hosted contact center business. As I have mentioned before, the on-demand/hosted/cloud/SaaS market is gaining momentum because of reduced CAPEX budgets and the preference for pay-as-you-go solutions. This is a logical move for the investors, Accel Partners, Apax Partners, Lighthouse Capital Partners, and Storm Ventures.

Then there is the $19.5 million funding news for optical semiconductor company OneChip Photonics, a Canadian company getting an infusion from BDC Venture Capital, DCM, GrowthWorks Canadian Fund, Morgenthaler Ventures and others. The company makes cost-effective, fully integrated Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) transceiver technology based on monolithic Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) in Indium Phosphide (InP). These components  find their way into access networks and other mass-market broadband applications. There is no question the need for more broadband is there and customers are paying for it. OneChip should be among a number of companies benefitting from this trend.

The online advertising market too is seeing growth and while the slow economy has slowed the rate of online ad growth, advertisers are still looking at the web as a means to generate tangible ROI. To that end, Apture, has received $4.1 million in first-round funding to show in-line contextual ads. According to the Washington Post, the company is trialing its service on big name sites such as BBC, Washington Post and SFGate. Apture unlike other competing services requires you to click before an ad pops which is more user-friendly but will likely result in lower page view and click numbers. Here is a demo.

Finally there is funding new from VoIP provider JahJah who has received $2.75 million of the $5 million fourth round. Past investors in the company have included Globespan Capital Partners, Intel Capital, Deutsche Telekom and Sequoia Capital.

As you might imagine the valuation associated with this funding is probably much lower than it was in the past. But that is why the expression "timing is everything" was invented... because it is so darn accurate. Still, though, even with lower values, funding is getting done and this week shows me that the capital markets have thawed a great deal. Is this a trend? I would have so say it is with greater than 70% probability as I haven't seen this much funding in one week in recent memory.

There has been a lot of speculation regarding the impact of Google's entry into the voicemail transcription market with their new Google Voice initiative which is based on the Grand Central acquisition of almost two years. The major player in voicemail transcription is SpinVox and theirs is the first service I have ever tested. I have continually been impressed with the company because they have taken speech-to-text in many directions with services which can integrate into blogs, blasts, IM and social networks.

I asked the company for official comments on the news regrading the world's search leader entering their space and this was the response:

Google is entering a marketplace that continues to be led by SpinVox, the world's largest privately-held speech technology company. We're excited by the launch of Google Voice because it will demonstrate the benefits of speech-to-text conversion and validate its deployment as a network service to an increased audience. We have already launched carrier-grade services with 13 operators - including recently with Skype - on five continents and SpinVox is in use by in excess of 30 million users. SpinVox's 97 percent accuracy in conversion is now the benchmark around the world. - Christina Domecq, co-founder and CEO of SpinVox

In the end, Christina is right and conversion accuracy will be an important factor for many business users and it remains to be seen just how accurate Google can be in comparison to the competition. I am patiently waiting for an account so I can give you my feedback.

HTC Magic, Android-Based Phone

While Nokia layoffs mount with the news of 1,700 more being let go as well as other requested concessions, HTC acts bullish saying they will release three new Android phones. This on the heels of the fact that the Asian company exceeded its G1 target of one million devices sold so far. Here are some interesting excerpts from a Wall Street Journal article:

In the fourth quarter, world-wide smartphone sales grew 3.7% from a year earlier to 38.1 million units, research firm Gartner said earlier this month. HTC's market share rose to 4.3% in the three months ending Dec. 31 from 3.7% a year earlier, the report said.

HTC will focus on the Chinese market this year, Mr. Chou [HTC Peter Chou, CEO] said, adding that the company maintains its 2009 revenue growth forecast of 10% to 20%.

While Nokia is a massive force in the cell phone market their troubles related to the economy are being increased by the success of the iPhone, RIM, Android and others. The competition is mounting and I wonder if the Palm Pre will also have impact on Nokia and others this year.

You may have read that Acredo Technologies has closed down. This information is not exactly true. There are Twitter and blog reports regarding layoffs which I can confirm. Over the past six months we have seen many startups under pressure. Investment is harder to come by and cash has become more valuable than at any time in my life. This explains why many companies like Acredo have to restructure and either find new investors, sell or find some other way to make it through what is obviously a turbulent financial market.

Mike Ross is the President and CEO of the company and I have a great deal of confidence in his abilities knowing him since his Dialogic/Rhetorex days - decades ago. In addition the company is in the hosted communications space -- an area which continues to grow. One would imagine it has great prospects if it can get through this rough patch of unspecified longevity.

Still, timing and luck are sometimes just as important as skill and Acredo like other companies in the communications and other spaces are looking to adapt to a changing financial world where credit went from free-flowing to very difficult to come by.

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Acredo Technologies restructures company with eye on the future

Orlando, FL, March 16, 2009 - Acredo Technologies Inc. announced today that it is restructuring its organization to better capitalize on the opportunities that have appeared as a result of the ongoing economic crisis. This restructuring includes a complete staff resizing and re-prioritizing of marketing and sales strategies.

"A decision of this magnitude is difficult for any company to make, however when faced with the current economic disturbances in the market, a reality check and a reset are extremely important to maintain forward momentum" said Mike Ross, President/CEO. "It is my feeling that it will be the companies that are agile enough to react quickly to the driving forces in the market and respond with products and services that assist business in preserving their own capital that will come out ahead in the long run" said Ross.

"Acredo has begun a restructuring of its Advisory Board, refocusing its business plan and has several capital raising efforts underway to support these new strategies. As we get our new structures in place, I look forward to announcing how our product BASIX™ will be positioned to become a leader in the emerging telecom world", Ross also said.

After a long 20 months, Google took its purchase of Grand Central and launched it at Google Voice and added a nifty feature, voicemail transcription. When I heard the news I was curious as to what Jamie Siminoff of SimulScribe/PhoneTag thought about the news.

Jamie did not disappoint and came out swinging, explaining that Google can't sustain the business of providing this free service which costs the company $60/year/customer. He argues that ads cannot pay for this service - no way, no how - it is just too much money.

He goes on to say that the Grand Central/Google Voice business model is flawed or at least will only appeal to a niche. He explains that in order to use the service you have to give everyone your new Google Voice number. Moreover when you call someone back from your cell they then call you back on your cell which defeats the whole premise of having people call you on your Google Voice number to begin with.

He also questions the accuracy of Google Voice voicemail transcription and I would tend to agree that for the moment PhoneTag will have better accuracy. Then again I have yet to be able to get to test the new service.

He goes on to ask if Google Talk killed Skype. It did not. Did Jaiku kill Twitter? Obviously not. He didn't mention the search giant's failed forays into newspaper advertising or radio but perhaps he didn't want to overdo it.

Then again, Twitter and Skype were household names when Google came at them. Probably fewer than 1% of people have even heard of Spinvox or SimulScribe/PhoneTag.

But it all comes down to accuracy. If the paid services are much more accurate than Google Voice they will likely see a boost from the search leader's entry into the space - especially from the business community. Assuming of course they step up their PR/marketing. I would certainly continue to pay for voicemail transcription if it is far more accurate than a free service and I am sure many others are like me.

NTT America, a subsidiary of NTT Communications Corp is being more aggressive in getting referral partners, agents and VARs to sell its entire suite of domestic and international IP and data solutions including Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet and 10 GigE in an effort to further bolster the company's Global IP Network (GIN) Solution Partners Program

The company is pushing the channel neutral nature of their offering meaning their own sales force is not supposed to compete with the partners/resellers. Instead the goal as the company explains it is to collaborate with solution partners. One partner, Mike Nguyen of Silent Partner explains, "Their method of collaboration is almost unheard of in the industry. It makes becoming an agent a much easier venture to swallow because you come out of the gates with the NTT America GIN direct sales team behind you, and they stay with you through the entire customer relationship management lifecycle."

I met with the company's Director of Product Marketing, Chris Davis to talk about his company and in the discussion he mentioned the way they are able to stay neutral is to pay both sides - meaning the channel and the internal sales force. He also told me the growth rates in Latin America are off the charts as they are skipping over dial-up and regardless of the economy the forecast for broadband use worldwide is not set to decline.

From there we discussed the potential for low-cost, high-powered devices to drive the next wave of broadband adoption in BRIC countries. For example, Davis mentions the new NVIDIA HD mobile internet device initiative that could produce devices which cost the end-user $99.

As you might imagine we talked about his parent company NTT and the sheer size of the behemoth which has 469 subsidiaries and 200,000 employees. Suffice it to say, they are one the most stable service providers on the globe. But what of course made me take special note was the mention of Pandora as a customer. Yes, the streaming radio station I am listening to right now is powered by NTT America as well as at least one other carrier for redundancy.

I imagine this case study might even resonate with customers and help differentiate NTT America in a highly competitive space.

Be sure to drop the company a line for more information.

You hear me go on and on about how hosted providers are having a field day selling in this economy. Apparently it is not as easy as I thought... Peter Radizeski in fact tells us firsthand how difficult it can be to get techies to make decisions which make them lose control of box. He calls it "humping the box" and while I am not going to comment on the terminology, I agree techies love control. So if you are looking to sell SaaS solutions you definitely want to check his post out... Especially since he further discusses the ISP "fear of Google."

Recently I had a chance to sit down with Eugene Laykhtman the founder and president of Advanced Technology Group, Inc. (ATG), a company he founded in 1995 in the IT consulting space. Over the years, ATG got involved in IP communications and a new company Vocal IP Networx was spun off as a separate service provider of voice and data.

The company provides a variety of products such as T1s, fiber, DSL, wireless, security services and applications such as VoIP recording, web hosting, hosted MS Exchange, Sharepoint and backup services. Vocal IP Networx is powered by solutions from Broadvox, Allworx, Adtran and others and in a conversation with Eugene, I had a chance to ask what he feels is different about his company.

One of the key differences is the spinoff from a technology company where they gained tremendous experience rolling out hundreds of sites for carriers. This experience led them to build a resilient network and put in procedures which ensured excellent levels of service and support.

The target market for the company's services are companies spanning multiple locations such as the retail market.

One of the services the company has which you can consider to be a differentiator is called Plan B and it allows as the name implies an organization to have backup-voice and data up and running in 24-48 hours. We are talking about unprovisioned connectivity as in some cases, retail establishments forget to get their broadband circuits up before a store opening. As you guessed, this solution is also useful in disaster recovery/continuity planning scenarios as Max Schroeder points out.

Just a few months back I was in Huntsville listening to Adtran give a presentation which included how their products have better wireless connectivity - in fact a representative of Verizon Wireless spoke at the event as well. I surmise Vocal IP Network is one of the customers of this solution.

The company sells through agents or direct and is based in Manhattan and has an additional collocation facility on the west coast.