Recently in CRM Category

We are heading into ITEXPO with one day to go and today I got great news from my team who all arrived safely in Los Angeles and are busy preparing the Los Angeles Convention Center for the best ITEXPO ever. The good news? The preregistration for Avaya's social networking kick-off event is over 3X greater than last year's Avaya conference so far. Either this is an indication of the interest in social networking or there are more people coming to the show. Hopefully it's a bit of both.

My weekend in Los Angeles has been great... I have spent time with many relatives - at least 100 and counting. Yes, I have a huge family.

As always, we are looking forward to welcoming you all to what promised to be a great show - full of collaboration tools, videoconferencing solutions, IP communications tools and more. Moreover, there are new areas of the show such as Smart Grid, M2M, 4G and WINOG which I just can't wait to learn more about.

Then there are open source certifications (Digium/Asterisk, Fonality/Trixbox) on all the important flavors of open source communications solutions.

I have said it repeatedly - the way to get the most out of any conference is to not only attend sessions and the exhibit hall but also network with people who can help you. Perhaps they can help you purchase a product or service or even land that lucrative consulting gig. Maybe you are looking for potential customers or partners at the show. Whatever you seek, if it is in the communications space, there is no better place than ITEXPO to find it.

And before the show kicks off this Tuesday, September 1 in Los Angeles I wanted to share the fourth installment of interviews from the show. These interviews provide guidance, allowing you to get a feel for who will be at the show and more importantly, who can help you learn valuable information.rise-voip/articles/63128-dangers-ubiquitous-wireless-networks.htm%20

As a reference, here are interviews, one, two and three.

A recent Forbes survey shows business executives prefer face-to-face meetings over those of the virtual type. As expected 58% of respondents said they were travelling for business less today than they were at the beginning of the recession in January 2008, with more than a third (34%) indicating they were travelling much less frequently.

What seems obvious (to me anyway) is that executives still expressed an overwhelming preference for face-to-face meetings, with more than eight out of ten (84%) saying they prefer in-person contact to virtual.

Even more interesting, those that prefer face-to-face meetings believe they facilitate the following: Building stronger, more meaningful relationships (85%), the ability to "read" another person (77%), and Greater social interaction (75%).

Other tidbits worth sharing, 64% of those who prefer technology-enabled business meetings like them because they allow them to multitask and 87% agree that there are tangible business benefits to in-person, face-to-face meetings that outweigh the cost savings of alternative, technology-based meeting methods such as web conferencing or videoconferencing.

I find this survey refreshing as it confirms what we may all know - that

face-to-face meetings are much better than meeting in any other way.

The timing of these survey results are interesting as I am headed to TMC's ITEXPO (Sept. 1-3, 2009 in Los Angeles) -- (This photo was taken at the last ITEXPO this past winter in Miami) to engage in a live event which focuses on virtual meeting technology based on IP communications. As it happens, the attendance to the exhibit hall portion of ITEXPO is ahead of last year and I am thrilled to welcome the global crowd to the exhibit hall and conference areas.

I take this as a sign that although IP communications technology is gaining more traction by the day, sometimes, face-to-face gatherings are the best way to learn more about how to meet virtually, save money on communications and boost productivity.

I am happy to hear from a number of companies attending ITEXPO that they are being overwhelmed with requests to meet and do business at the show. This is yet another signal to me that the communications markets are resilient and from what I hear, a number of companies at the show are expecting nice growth for the rest of the year. A few first-time exhibitors told me they think they have sold products to companies who saw them on the exhibitor list. This is great news as ITEXPO has always been the premiere communications event attracting buyers and sellers.

But what I haven't shared is how we at TMC are doing our best to foster the buyer and seller relationship by adding tools to our community which allows them to arrange meetings with one another at the event. The service we added is called DealCenter and the details are below. I hope you find it useful

The ITEXPO DealCenter is now
available for attendees

and exhibitors to begin pre-show
networking!

NEW TO ITEXPO WEST 2009:THE ITEXPO DEALCENTER!

All registered attendees and exhibitors coming to Los Angeles for ITEXPO West 2009 are eligible to use the ITEXPO DealCenter to network and plan meetings with other attendees and exhibitors on-site at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The ITEXPO DealCenter is an online list of registered attendees and exhibitors available to meet on-site in Los Angeles. Attendees and exhibitors who create a profile in the ITEXPO DealCenter can view one another's names, titles, companies and industry sectors to determine with whom they would like to meet with on-site at the show. 

The DealCenter allows you to arrange 30-minute meetings with new prospects and partners, thereby introducing you to new business potential and increasing your event ROI. These meetings can be held at the on-site ITEXPO DealCenter meeting area, your exhibit booth, or any location at the Los Angeles Convention Center that you find convenient.

HOW DO I LOGIN TO THE ITEXPO DEALCENTER?

First you must register to attend or exhibit at ITEXPO West 2009.

Once an individual is registered for ITEXPO West 2009, please Opt In by sending a note to Michael Genaro from ITEXPO West and let him know you'd like to be included in the list of ITEXPO DealCenter participants.

If you have any questions about the ITEXPO DealCenter, please email support@deal-center.com or call 201.839.0177

To see the ITEXPO West DealCenter please click here.

It's just what you have been waiting for - the 76-page show directory for ITEXPO which will give you lots of needed information regarding the show (Sept 1-3 in LA) . Virtually everything you need is in here - sponsors, floor plan, exhibitor list, TMC University, Trixbox training, Ingate's SIP trunking workshop, Reseller solutions day, keynotes, Asterisk Training, WiNOG, Sipera SIP Security, Wireless Broadband training, M2M, Smart Grid Summit, 4GWE, agenda and Q&As with industry thought leaders. Get it while it's hot and download it to your smartphone or laptop/netbook so you can refer to it often.

Be sure to check out all of the exciting news happening at ITEXPO. In order to get up to date news be sure to bookmark the show news page and check out the three show dailies which have already been produced. Check this page often to stay up to date.

August 20 show daily: SIP security, next gen IMS, VoIP boosts small biz, smart grid progress, Brightcom, Octasic, SIP trunking seminar, Digium open source Asterisk workshop, Terry Matthews keynote, cash for phone system clunkers etc.

August 25 show daily: Smart grid as global trend, mobile communications, Amdocs, 4G, mobile devices, consumer unified communications, Cbeyond and pretzels, Spanlink, wholesale and enterprise VoIP.

August 27 show daily: home energy management/smarthome, networking alternatives, open-source communications in Europe, Multi-Tech, WiMAX dead again, telepresence worth $4.7 billion, fax over IP survivability, SIP trunks

When online mortgage titans battle, who wins?

In the last few decades fear was struck into heart of investors and entrepreneurs whenever Microsoft decided to invade a new market. After all Microsoft has such a big name and was considered to dominate every space it went into. Microsoft is still looking to maximize shareholder value by launching in space after space (more recently though they have been regrouping, trying to maximize sales in the spaces they are in already).

But for companies in a number of industries they not only have to worry about Microsoft but now Google. The latest concern is the search powerhouse getting into mortgages and one company not happy about the idea is LendingTree who is filing a lawsuit against technology provider MorTech for helping the search leader in a new business it may get in which will provide conditional mortgage information to searchers.

Google has done an excellent job destroying business models as it extends its vast empire. For users, what Google is doing is beneficial as it makes it easier to find information which is sought after. But in many cases, as the company grows, it helps to destroy entire industries and hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process.

In the past I have praised the company for being a job creator but the company has also cost tens of thousands of jobs in the newspaper industry alone. Having said that I should point out that eBay and Craigslist helped destroy newspaper profitability as well.

I should also mention the company is disruptive and in a way IP communications is doing to communications companies what Google seems to be doing to so many other companies (including those in communications)  - forcing them to evolve or die.

In the end, Google provides valuable services and when I look up flight information and weather on the site, I now bypass the old web favorites I used to go to. For users this is great but for industries where Google wants to extend its presence, it can be a kiss of death.

In my decades in business the one thing I have learned is that there are few monopolies which can be defended indefinitely (look at postage meters, film, brick and mortar retail) and that scale and technology can drastically change your business model in ways which are impossible to predict. Only by being immersed in your industry and working harder and smarter can you keep up in this brave new world of tech innovation and scale (referring to Wal-Mart, StarBucks and others).

If you happen to play in the tech space though it seems that you have to not only worry about Microsoft but Google could be an even bigger potential threat if you find your industry in their crosshairs.

I ran into Dan York the Director of Conversations at Voxeo and had a chance to talk with him about his company's Prophecy 10 software which was running 2,000 calls on 20 netbooks at the recent SpeechTek 2009 in NYC. As Dan explains, a combination of better software and Moore's Law allow these small netbooks to really become efficient multichannel IVR processors. As he points out, imagine what they can do on more powerful computers. Here is the video below for more and an article with details. You can see Dan at ITEXPO next week in Los Angeles if you want to learn more.
 

The photo below may or may not accurately depict the following event

I just received this email which I thought I would pass along to my readers and attendees. Just so you know, if you want me to promote your event at the show you can just drop me a line ASAP. Thanks.

RingPlus, Inc. (Booth 321) is having their Exclusive Launch Party on Sept. 2nd after closing day of the ITEXPO Conference. We are currently one of the exhibitors for this year's conference and wanted to first invite you to attend and also invite the attendees of the conference to attend as well. 

The event is free and would love to share it with fellow conference attendees.

We have been seeing a surge of registrations for TMC's ITEXPO, the hotel room block has been oversold for over a month and we feel the industry getting more excited than ever for ITEXPO - the ultimate event which brings global buyers and sellers together in the communications and tech spaces. Carriers (wired and wireless), enterprise decision-makers, resellers, developers and industry all will be at the show in numbers close to last year. It is virtually impossible to determine show attendance in advance but based on the numbers I saw in the registration database this morning, we could have a show at least as busy as least year if not even busier.

Remember that earlier this year TMC had a record show in Miami - ITEXPO East 2009. The event was up 15% in attendance thanks to you and it was the most qualified mix of visitors ever according to exhibitors.

This is the show's tenth anniversary and the 20^th show! Our goal is to make every one better than the last and it seems based on the numbers we have so far this ITEXPO will be as good as all the other ones which draw purchasing decision-makers from over 110 countries each year.

For more, here are comments (video) from Michael Genaro Executive Vice President of Operations at TMC and below is an email which I sent to TMC's readership earlier today.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I Keep Finding More Reasons to Attend ITEXPO:
Smart Grid and M2M Conferences; Avaya Social Networking

One week out from ITEXPO West 2009 in L.A., and each time I visit the show Web site, I see more and more  compelling reasons to make a trip to LA for the show.

Here are three more collocated events where you can learn and network - all in an effort to expand your
business and take advantage of growing segments of the communications market.

1. Smart Grid Summit Conference

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsored by Redline Communications - Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Just added to the program a few weeks ago, The Smart Grid Summit is the first event of its kind to address the unprecedented opportunity coming from the intersection of two core building blocks of our
economy - utilities and communications.

The Smart Grid Summit is devoted to a sector poised for the same fundamental transformation that telecom  experienced with the advent of IP communications.

Come understand the role that IP communications technologies will play in how the Smart Grid evolves - not  just for making utilities more efficient, but also for enabling the Smart Home and a new generation of  communications innovations.

2. M2M Evolution Conference

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Free one-day conference sponsored by MultiTech Systems - Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Telemetry has been changing to take advantage of the Internet, where WAN and LAN systems were points of aggregation in the past, today's machines benefit from the ability to connect worldwide. And as the machines continue to look to network, the wireless world represents a large growth opportunity for data communication.

Today, machine to machine solutions are driving data demand with tight vertical integration for specific industries like healthcare, refinery or transportation or supporting the general IT needs and cross industry requirements associated data centers, facilities and security.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Social Enterprise - Are you ready for it?

Free Workshop and Reception for all ITEXPO Attendees Monday, August 31, 2009, 7:00pm - 9:30pm - Westin Hotel

This is where you can learn how to integrate Facebook, Twitter and other platforms into your enterprise and customer communications.

You will have a chance to listen to and meet Paul Dunay, the author of "Facebook Marketing for Dummies", and get a chance to check out Avaya Labs innovations.

Social media is becoming a more important element in corporate marketing and communications and I really give  Avaya tremendous credit for choosing to educate companies on the topic.

As an added bonus the event will conclude with some handcrafted ales from the Bonaventure Brewing Company.

Here are more details and event registration.

OK, let's recap. Here is the complete list of Top Reasons to Attend ITEXPO that I've circulated over the past two weeks.

There is a great resource page on the ITEXPO site with links to the pages describing every event, workshop, session, keynote and reception at the show: What's Happening at ITEXPO

• INTERNET TELEPHONY is TELEPHONY; and IP Communications are Communications
• New! Sipera's UC Security Workshop
• TMC University Courses - Microsoft OCS and Network Security
• Free Reseller Solutions Day Workshop
• New! Avaya's Social Enterprise and Contact Center Workshop
• Free Keynotes: ShoreTel - Aspect - Paetec - Alvarion - Clearwire - Interactive Intelligence
• Ingate's Free SIP Trunking Workshop
• Meet More Than 250 Important Vendors
        Exhibitor List
        Speaker List
• NEW! Three Collocated Conferences - 4GWE, Smart Grid and M2M Evolution
• New Jeep Giveaway
• Sir Terry Matthews to Keynote ITEXPO & 4GWE Conference - Wednesday, September 2, 2009
• Asterisk Training
• Fonality trixbox Open Communication Certification (FtOCC)
• Wireless Broadband Training
• Smart Grid Summit
• M2M Evolution Conference
• Avaya's Social Networking Workshop

The complete conference brochure has just been updated to include all of the newest content.

Use this link to Register now.

While at ITEXPO, please visit our sponsors on the exhibit floor:

Platinum Sponsors: Applianx, AudioCodes, 8x8, Inc, Fonality, VoltDelta,

Gold Sponsors: NetSapiens, IntelePeer, Touchstone Technologies, Telco Bridges,