Recently in Conferencing Category

On a recent flight back from Europe I marveled at the ice littering the North Atlantic. A flight attendant told me it was sad as what appeared to be ice cubes from a mile or more in the air used to be icebergs. I am concerned about the environment but I am not sure I agree with the carbon cap and trade system being proposed in the US as it could adversely impact the economy.

But last I checked, regulation gets passed without my express permission and in a world where CO2 is becoming a pollutant, you need to be more aware of energy use and carbon emissions than ever before.

I am especially looking forward to the upcoming sponsored TelcoBridges webinar on TMCnet which will help educate the market on how data centers can lower their energy use.

Even if cap and trade does not become reality this year it is apparent that governments are more and more likely to impose penalties for carbon emissions. Since reducing energy use saves money as well, it behooves everyone with data center decision making authority to be part of this timely event.

For nearly 13 years, Greg Galitzine has been a tremendously valuable part of the TMC team. His career started as an editor for CTI Magazine in 1996. Where he reported on the collision of the computer and communications spaces including what we called IP telephony back in the day. In 1997 we convened a meeting with Greg to explore whether it made sense to launch a publication in the IP telephony space. The outcome of the meeting was to launch what we hoped would become a cornerstone of what we hoped would be a new industry - Internet Telephony Magazine.

Greg became the editor of this publication and had the vision to see this is where the industry was going. Many companies in the communications space told us we were nuts for launching this publication as at the time there was no industry, just a few nerds calling each other on softphones.

Lo and behold, over the past decade this nerdy, niche technology revolutionized telecom to the point where business models have changed, new entrants have come into the telecom market and entire industries were transformed through international outsourcing made possible by inexpensive VoIP-based telephony.

In the last few years, Greg did a great job helping transform TMCnet into a major web force in communications and technology news. We are grateful to him for the years he has put in.

I am very happy for Greg as recently he has been given a great opportunity which involves a move to a new industry altogether. Galitzine has accepted a position with ISA, Inc., a prime contractor to the National Nuclear Security Administration and working in about 18 countries through Central and Eastern Europe to identify and interdict the illegal movement of materials for weapons of mass destruction. Greg will be taking his analytical and editorial skills to a higher level, contributing to national-level policy and operational support analysis for these major international nonproliferation undertakings.

While we all selfishly wish Greg wouldn't move on, we are happy for him and are sure he will make a tremendous impact in his new position.

If you look at TMC from the outside and find yourself asking how you can get a job as an intern at this global integrated media company which builds communities online, in print and in person while gaining marketshare regardless of economic climate, I have some great news to share. We are looking for a small army of interns who want to learn what it's like to take on major multibillion dollar media companies with infinite resources and consistently win.

We will teach you how to sell collaboratively - how to listen and to be loved by your customers (well most of them anyway).

We will teach you integrated marketing and online marketing - not theory but ever-evolving practice.

If you love media and want to work at the company that is light years ahead online, contact us ASAP. We are very picky so if you aren't a super-hard worker and collaboration and hat-wearing are not your middle names, let's end our relationship now as friends (it's not you it's me).

One last thought about TMC - our culture is unusual - we have the financial stability of a 37 year-old company with the energy and enthusiasm of a start-up.

Let's just say if you're thinking of contacting us, please don't delay


Here's more:

The Sales & Marketing internship position at TMC is designed to provide hands-on experience that will be mutually beneficial for both the intern and the organization. The internship position is designed to challenge students and provide them with practical experience in the advertising and media industry.

TMC is looking for a dynamic, creative, enthusiastic, high energy professional to support the Sales organization, to help build advertising and marketing presentations for prospects and clients.

• Work with sales & marketing team to assist in the implementation of various campaigns
• Contribute to the creative input in building campaigns and support the campaigns
• Copyediting and proofreading
• Communicate with customers and peers
• Minimum Qualifications:
• Working towards completion of a college degree program in business, marketing or communication
• Excellent communication skills verbal and written
• Proficient in Microsoft Office suite, specifically PowerPoint and Excel
• Excellent communication skills
• Detail Oriented
• Initiative and proactive thinking
• Team player
• Ability to multi-task and work in a fast paced environment meeting deadlines

In tech, one of the best punch lines around was "the year of videoconferencing." Since 1990 we heard the year of videoconferencing was coming soon and dozens if not hundreds of video companies have disappeared while waiting to take advantage of this new age of visual communications. I have been meeting with videoconferencing companies for many years and over the last few it has become evident that video is here to stay and it will become a bigger and bigger part of our lives.

The most recent conversation which drove this home was with Tandberg where I spoke with Tony Cook VP Marketing Americas and Rick Snyder President Tandberg Americas. The pair went on to explain how their business is doing well and that market research shows they are taking share of market from others. While spending has slowed in many segments of the market including tech, the communications market has proven more resilient. But it is evident that when you lose more than 1.5 million US jobs per quarter (not to mention elsewhere) for a prolonged period, the need for endpoints decreases.

In the face of this endpoint pressure it is worth pointing out that Polycom recently saw its telepresence services grow 45% in the most recent quarter. The reason of course has to do with travel budgets being slashed and the need to communicate more effectively over distance.

Tandberg credits the quality level of their solutions as the reason for their growth in video market share as well as a focus on interoperability with a variety of solutions. They also happened to mention their acquisition of Codian which brought them a variety of high quality solutions such as an HD multipoint bridge. I discussed the company back in June of 2007.

Another point the execs made was that in the last few recessions video just wasn't where it is today. They went on to point out their 1700 MXP personal telepresence solution (pictured) costs around $10 thousand and can be paid for with the savings of two international trips. I was told a typical ROI for the company's customers is 6-9 months with one seeing a savings of 11 million euros over three years.

But for Tandberg, typical enterprise videoconferencing is only one of the solutions they provide as they offer cameras which integrate with a company's supply chain to allow more efficient and in many cases real-time problem solving. Other clients use the Tandberg solutions to monitor oil rigs. Yet other companies utilize their solutions to save money while becoming more carbon neutral.

The key Tandberg catchphrase from the meeting was definitely, "We call this the new way of working. This will replace a lot of other means of communications."

The company as you might expect uses its own solutions and they tell me once you get used to using video it is difficult to go back to audio - video allows you to sense people's passion they explain. It is tough to get the true story without it they say. In addition, more tangible benefits include acceleration of the decision-making process; the ability to bring together globally distributed work teams, the scaling of knowledge, work life balance improvements and an increase in productivity while lowering costs.

Another concept the pair discussed was the ability to perform training sessions over video which can be recorded and used in the future to train others. In this case your video solution basically becomes a training DVR.

Another topic of discussion was their HD video desk phone the E20 (pictured) which is a sleek device with an impressive 10.6" screen, resolution of up to 1280x780 and a $1,500 list price tag. They see this phone as a conduit allowing them into more applications and vertical markets such as healthcare, government, education, etc. While I have to say the E20 is one of the nicest videophones I have seen if not the nicest, one has to wonder if we aren't at a point where netbooks can be turned into desk phones. Why not? Isn't a high-powered videophone more or less a laptop with a few functions added and a bunch of functions removed?

Although our conversation didn't mention it explicitly, it seems that the year of video has come and gone without the mention from the press I thought it would receive. Then again in retrospect which year was it? 2008? It might have happened so slowly that we didn't notice but the trend is in place and more and more calls are going to utilize video and while doing so, increase productivity and provide a better user experience while reducing carbon emissions. Am I am the first to notice? Probably not. But I am still happy to be sharing the good news.

Other than solving a breath quality issue, I am not sure what the benefits of the videoconference in this Tandberg supplied photo are.

For over a decade TMC has covered AVST and their wonderful unified messaging solutions - which in the nineties were the talk of the industry. But as is sometimes the case, when the industry talks about the next big thing, it doesn't always take off overnight. While UM was slow to catch on in the nineties, the last few years have seen an explosion of interest in both UM and UC. While you may think this is a long time to wait, remember some are still waiting for the glorious age of OS/2 to finally arrive.

To catch up on what the company is up to since the release of CallXpress 7.1 I met with Tom Minifie - Chief Technology Officer and Denny Michael - Vice President of Marketing.

They have spent a great deal of time, effort and energy on the latest release of their CallXpress Version 8.0 which will be available this Summer and include Neverfail technology making it more resilient to outages. The entire architecture of the product has been improved allowing multisite organizations to centralize servers or distribute them with higher levels of availability. And this is crucial for a company which provides the backbone for the communications of companies worldwide, including law firms in the UK.

One benefit of using this new architecture is users will be able to transfer calls and perform other call management tasks - even if a WAN link fails. 40,000 users will be supported and there are multiple PBX integrations as you likely know or expect.

The new architecture of AVST CallXpress Version 8.0 makes it more resilient

There are new applications available as well which support mobility - with "Wildfire-like" speech recognition/personal assistant features. Presence is also supported allowing intelligent call routing - and there is FMC - allowing calls to be transferred back and forth between cell and landline.

Users can benefit from a single mailbox and phone number and corporations can more easily integrate UC into their business processes allowing for CEBP - yes the term that has more lives than the entire global feline population. An example of the CEBP prowess of CallXpress is sending SMS alerts to people within an organization if an item is on backorder.

Personally I would like my server to be notified if something on the menu is out before I order that fancy tilapia special which I later learn is not available. I think this new version of CallXpress could be a tasty addition to the restaurants I visit.

As TMCnet has expanded I have to admit it is tough to keep track of all the sites we have which can help you in your job. To that end I decided to take a moment and list some of them which you may not be aware of. I thought this entry made sense as I have received some comments about how TMC should launch some of the sites listed below. This shows me there are just so many things we do that our 2-3 million unique visitors each month may not be aware of. I hope you find these sites of use:

• Europe
• Asia
• Africa
• Latin America
• Middle East
• Australia

• Mobile site
• iPhone site
• iphone news site

• Information technology
• Cable technology
• Robotics
• Satellite
• Green Solutions

• Jobs Site

According to the Wall Street Journal, there are a number of companies vying for pieces of Nortel. The LTE research and carrier groups may go to Nokia Siemens Networks or NSN if the JV between Nokia and Siemens has its way. NSN sends my editorial team news of a win a day from around the world but few of these are in the US. This acquisition would help cement the joint venture as a true global player with much more strength in North America.

Avaya and Siemens are bidding for the enterprise portions and either company is a natural fit. Avaya has a strong contact center business what would be helped by this deal and Siemens too would have natural synergies. In addition The Gores Group the private equity firm behind Siemens also owns SER - a once mighty predictive dialing company which has gone dead silent for a number of years. Silent or not SER has a huge installed base of contact center customers and there are synergies to be had as a merged entity. Gores also owns Sagem Communications, First Communications and Enterasys so it would seem Gores has a natural affinity for our space.

Remember also this acquisition comes with a strong Microsoft UC relationship. And that value will likely not carry much weight in an auction with limited participation and in these financial times.

Genband too is throwing its hat in the ring looking at Nortel's digital switching and media gateway business. Genband has been pretty impressive in the market and is well-regarded - I am curious to see if they get what they are after and at the right price.

Apparently Cisco is not interested in any of the company's assets and I am not too surprised. John Chambers generally does not like large acquisitions and he doesn't like them when they are far away. Moreover I just can't see them being able to acquire many of Nortel's pieces due to antitrust concerns.

What is good for Nortel bondholders is the fact that there are a few companies interested in these disparate parts of the company. And there are likely more companies involved than we know about. This should mean the price tags won't be atrocious. Of course one man's cheap is another man's expensive.

Many people in the communications space have asked me recently what TMC's secret is. After all, we are in the toughest media environment of our lifetimes and we produced our best show ever and have more paying customers online than at virtually any other time in our history.

The answer may lie in a bit of luck and some skill. The lucky part is we built our first online community for a customer about a decade ago. And since this time we have invested a small fortune in building our own proprietary technology which allows us to build highly-ranked, viral, news-driven communities for customers. Well over 100 of these sponsored communities live on TMCnet and generally consist of the tabs at the top and down the left of most of our pages.

Moreover TMCnet now houses millions of pages of content which gives the site tremendous prominence. And we have ranked very high on search engines for many years which has generated a tremendous amount of links to the 100+ articles we write a day and other content such as blog entries on the site.

The community product is called a GOC or "gock" and stands for Global Online Community. When we launched the program the term "organic search results" was probably not common but now, these communities help our customers rank extremely high for a variety of keywords which are important to them.

I know what you are going to say. Rich, that is what those click ads are for. Well to be honest the value of an organic search result is much higher to the searcher because it is not blatantly paid for and moreover it is not in a sea of other ads. Most importantly, research shows less that 20% of people even click on search ads. What about the other 80%?

TMC's communities answer the request we have been hearing -- How do you recreate the best part of tradeshows online?(shots from last ITEXPO East February 2009 in Miami)

Finally, unlike search ads, these communities help your own site(s) rank high organically by providing links. Moreover they help companies build their brand and thought leadership.

In addition, as a news-driven entity, GOCs draw traffic from other pages on TMCnet, newsletters, the TMCnet home page, news search engines and traditional search services. They are multimedia in nature, allowing companies to interface with customers via audio, video and of course text.

Example of an IP-PBX GOC (click to see full screen image)

Many of you have told me over the years that there needs to be a way to combine the best part of trade shows online. The GOC program is exactly this as it brings in your potential customers from around the world and gives them a reason to come back and see your message as the news is constantly updated. It is a very busy 24x7 community consisting of the most targeted people available on the web. And it is targeted by the news you find important.

In addition, it is measurable, and includes a wealth of metrics which can be used to analyze your spend and justify it up the chain of command.

For the reader the benefit is clear. They come to the GOC and bookmark it so they can keep up to date on the latest happenings in the space. How many people come? Well our record is over 650,000 pages viewed on a GOC in one month but typical results are between 250,000-500,000 per month. Generally, each GOC will average about 100,000 unique visitors per month - and they are targeted exclusively by content. In other words, you can use this program to build a community of people interested in subjects such as colocation, IP communications, HD voice, next generation communications, fixed mobile convergence or anything else in virtually any field. Click on any of these above links to see how the design is different and mirrors the look and feel of the sponsor.

If you are interested in learning more, here is an updated (4/14/2009) video which describes the program. Feel free to drop me an email for more.

If you are interested in the stories and headlines I find useful, I invite you to bookmark my Google Reader feed which I update fairly regularly. I occasionally will add comments as well. In fact, since I started using this page, I have found myself blogging less. I hope you find this resource useful.