Packet8 Virtual Trunking

Last month I discussed a rumor regarding 8x8/Packet8 providing SIP trunking services. It turns out this rumor was true as today the company released the news they will not only provide SIP trunking but a more comprehensive product they call... continue reading...

Hyperconnectivity, Live and in Person

You can't escape the reality that interconnectivity between humans will increase at a more rapid pace as time goes on. The myriad ways in which we connect with one another, e-mail, social networks, blogging, IM, SMS, telephone, voicemail and others... continue reading...

Sipera Looks To The Channel

Expect Sipera, the Texas-based company focusing on VoIP/UC security to look for resellers to sell their products worldwide. Brenadan Ziolo, the company's VP of Marketing Operations visited TMC this week to brief us on where the company is going with... continue reading...

Build Communities With Google's Help

Let's say your company plays in a few different spaces such as information technology, security and storage. And let's say your company has decided to build a community of interest which is dedicated to a specific subject area as you... continue reading...

Switchvox AA300

Greg Galitzine  broke the news regarding the new Digium Switchvox AA300, a new appliance dedicated to companies with about 150 users. The box also supports 45 simultaneous calls, 10 recorded and 15 simultaneous conference calls. Tom Keating speculates about... continue reading...

T-Mobile Suing Starbucks

T-Mobile is already not thrilled AT&T will replace them as the service provider of choice in Starbucks stores, now the GSM-based service provider who was early to embrace WiFi is losing revenue due to the new AT&T/Starbucks promotion of free... continue reading...

Mobile Virtual Worlds Emerge

There are so many communications companies pushing products and services revolving around virtual worlds, one wonders if we are about to see a new subset of communications break out and achieve mass appeal like VoIP, the iPhone or Blackberry. Do... continue reading...

Headed Back

I am headed back now -- and gearing up for my video reporting at CBX later this week. An interesting point about airlines is that their rules (on some of the older airlines anyway) are so complex that they have... continue reading...

Flat Rate Voice/Data Plans for SMBs

If you are an SMB and you feel you would like to pay less for voice and data service, perhaps now is the time for you to rejoice... Well at least smile. The reason is there is a new flat... continue reading...

Telephony Hardware Community

Be sure to visit TMC's newest Global Online Community (GOC), Telephony Hardware sponsored by Pika Technologies. Why would you visit? Simply because regularly visiting a TMC community is an ideal way to learn about a specific topic such as in this... continue reading...

Nortel User Group 2008

I am off to Dallas for this event. Maybe I will see you there. Back online soon. -- Rich... continue reading...

Microsoft Response Point at Costco

Is the world ready to buy their IP PBXs from Costco? We are about to find out as the warehouse club with 537 worldwide stores and over 51 million card holders will be carrying Syspine/Microsft's Response Point, the entry level... continue reading...

New Asterisk Community

In an effort to further educate purchasing decision-makers and influencers in the world of communications and technology, TMC has partnered with Digium to build an Asterisk Global Online Community. The goal of TMCnet's communities (and channels which are micro-communities) is... continue reading...

Salesforce.com Grows 50%

If you have any doubts about the growth of CRM and the growth of SaaS models, I advise you to consider the fact that Salesforce.com just announced earnings up 52% for the quarter -- year-over-year. Here are some financial stats... continue reading...

Podcast: Objectworld's David Levy

Objectworld's CEO, David Levy Objectworld is a Canadian-based software-only company providing unified communications solutions for small to medium businesses. Their solution includes UM, fax server, IVR, TTS, Exchange & Lotus Notes integration, etc. Objectworld's solutions work with about 90% of... continue reading...

MindWireless Podcast

MindWireless is focused on the wireless expense management space which as you might imagine is an area of growing importance inside telecom expense management. Just think about how complicated it is to manage wireless gadgets as employees have become obsessed... continue reading...

CBS Picks up CNET

Congratulations to CNET for being acquired by CBS for a 40% premium. I have always admired the company and I am curious to see how it changes as it becomes part of a larger media company which has so many... continue reading...

Alorica Adds Jobs

In a slowing economy where many industries are shedding jobs, it is great to see a company in the call center market adding. California-based Alorica will be adding 500-600 new jobs in Indiana in the next year and a half... continue reading...

My Canada Trip and Nortel Wrap Up

I am back from Canada and the first thing I did when turning on my phone was praise the engineers who came up with the awkward-sounding acronym called EVDO. By the way in my discussions in Canada it seems the... continue reading...

What the HP/EDS Deal Means

When you look around the tech market you see factors which suck the profit out of every nook and cranny. In hardware there is a trend towards standards-based hardware which is not slowing down. As this trend continues, prices shrink... continue reading...

Vonage Record Quarter: Jeff Citron Interview

Vonage has done a great job this last quarter --  posting growth numbers in a slower economy. I just had a podcast interview with Jeffrey Citron where he talked about the company's growth rate and the number of new initiatives... continue reading...

eGlue Interview With Dror Pockard

Today I had a chance to interview Dror Pockard who is the CEO of eGlue, the only tech company I know that was developed on a kibbutz. If you aren't aware, a kibbutz is an Israeli agricultural community and to... continue reading...

Hosted Application Demand Fuels SalesForce.com

Hosted applications continue to get more press as time goes on. Similar to the e-commerce space, this market saw a slew of new entrants during the bubble times and many of these companies subsequently crashed and burned. Obviously having ASPs... continue reading...

Nortel's Joel Hackney Discusses Earnings

Nortel announced earnings today and to get more detail on the news I had a chance to speak with Joel Hackney, President of the Enterprise Solutions Group at Nortel. Some details worth sharing... The company's net loss widened but revenue... continue reading...

Interop Bound and Thanks

Another year, another Interop. I am off once again across the country to Vegas where I will likely spend more time standing in line than I will sleeping. How amazing is the fact that you can build a city in... continue reading...

Blackberry Voice Search

TellMe just launched a new application which allows people to use their Blackberry for voice search. utilizing the TellMe speech recognition engine and Microsoft Live Search, you can have search results automatically localized if you happen to have a GPS-enabled... continue reading...

Podcast: Broadlook Technologies - Co-Founder Broadlook Technologies

Are CRM and SFA tools only as good as the data they contain? You bet they are. This is exactly why I invited Dan Hughes the co-founder of Broadlook Technologies on a TMCnet podcast so I could learn more about... continue reading...

Danny Windham Podcast

Yesterday's podcast with Digium's CEO Danny Windham is getting a good deal of exposure and a number of people have been commenting on it to me. There is also a related article written by TMCnet's Susan Cambpell worth reading. For... continue reading...

SMS Saves Lives

The only thing better than seeing the world interconnecting with technologies such as SMS, is seeing health care providers taking advantage of the latest gadgets and technology to help curb disease outbreaks and improve prescription compliance. Case in point is... continue reading...

EsnaTech Grows the Google Ecosystem

One of the latest trends I have noticed is integrating disparate solutions into Google's suite of applications. Just this month in fact, two companies in the communications and CRM spaces have decided working with Google more closely makes a great... continue reading...

Caribbean Outsourcing

Many people think India when they discuss outsourcing but it is interesting to note that the market for BPO/teleservices is much larger than a single country. Case in point is a company called e-SGI. I read about them in an... continue reading...

New TMCnet Record and New Writer

Thanks to our readers -- once again, TMCnet has hit a new record. In this case, we built a Global Online Community in conjunction with Interactive Intelligence and this community generated just under 600,000 page views in one month according... continue reading...

Dialogic Analyst/Media Day

Today I head to New York City for a Dialogic Press and Analyst day. We will be having a function this evening in Yankee Stadium which should be lots of fun. Many people have asked me to bring them some... continue reading...

Fonality Trixbox 2.0 Launches

According to Chris Lyman, the Founder and CEO of Fonality, the brand new Trixbox 2.0 is the "look mom, no hands, reseller version." In fact, the company is doing its best to make sure resellers have to touch these phone... continue reading...

Target Service Provider Marketing by Pontis

At the recent CTIA show in Las Vegas, much of the talk centered around how service providers need to focus on generating revenue from advertising as companies like Google will be giving away many of the services they hope to... continue reading...

Google and SalesForce Enhance Relationship

It was over a year and a half ago when I had a chance to listen to Marc Benioff talk about how his company's software would be integrating with Google to provide a mashup allowing companies to better track their... continue reading...

Podcast: Ken Lamneck - President The Americas, Tech Data

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

Podcast: Dieter Thompson, TAG

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

Communications Developer Call for Papers

Be sure to submit your call for papers entries for the Communications Developer show which will be collocated with ITEXPO later this year in the Los Angeles, California Convention Center. The specific dates of the event will be September 16-18,... continue reading...

Bob Emmerson: TMC's European Editor

Bob Emmerson joins TMC as out European Editor. We are truly proud to have Bob join the team as he is a communications and technology veteran. Previously, Emmerson was a designer of digital control systems, a journalist, and a copywriter.... continue reading...

TMCnet Podcast Library

Sure you have an iPhone or iPod or even a PC where you like to listen to your music. But have you had a chance to listen to TMCnet's high quality podcasts as of yet? ;-) I know many... continue reading...

TMCnet Gets a Redesign

I am very happy to be the first to tell you TMCnet is in the midst of one of its largest graphical overhauls. We are very proud of our new look which emphasizes softer blue colors and shades. There are... continue reading...

ScanSource Wants its MTV

ScanSource, a company distributing specialty technology products in communications, POS and other spaces, has acquired MTV Telecom Distribution, a UK-based distributor of voice and data solutions. Many US distribution companies are looking to expand internationally. This is especially true as... continue reading...

SalesForce.com Satisfaction Ratings

I was just reading an article from TMCnet's David Sims where he talks about SalesForce.com satisfaction ratings and I was blown away. Why? the company recently surveyed over 4,000 of their users and 94% said they definitely or probably will... continue reading...

Live Communications Webinars

How do you stay up to date on the latest in communications and technology without leaving your desk? One of the best ways is with a webinar which allows you to sit comfortably in your office while you learn from... continue reading...

Mind CTI Interview: Monica Eisinger

In the past few years there has been tremendous interest paid to VoIP and the underlying internet protocol which allows IP communications to take place. For those people who started to pay attention to the communications space in the last... continue reading...

TMCnet Hits 100 Sponsored Community Milestone

All I can say is thank you to our loyal readers who visit TMCnet frequently and our sponsors who have launched communities and channels in partnership with TMC on TMCnet. Furthermore, thanks for your loyalty and the nice testimonials many... continue reading...

Starface Looks for US IP-PBX Growth

I recently came across a software-based IP-PBX company from Germany that I have never written about before. Vertico Software GmBH makes a product called Starface which comes in a variety of flavors, from software to an appliance or hosted solution.... continue reading...

Packet8 Links With SalesForce.com

In the race to differentiate IP communications services, a natural area  for service providers in the business market to look is the CRM space. Integration with customer relationship management systems is common in large enterprises and even medium companies have... continue reading...

Motorola's Helpful Help Desk Solution

As carriers look to add more and more services to their portfolio of products, it is apparent that support costs will continue to increase in direct proportion to the concurrent services offered. Sure, there are some services which have fewer... continue reading...

Save Money in a Slow Economy

What is one of the best ways to cut costs without cutting heads or disrupting you key business operations? One simple solution is to explore the adoption of a telecom expense management or TEM solutions. Recently I had a chance... continue reading...

Polycom's Durable 8002 VoIP Phone

I have to be frank… I have never been in a meeting where I saw a product launch accompanied by a phone being slammed on a table. So I was a bit surprised when Polycom's Ben Guiderian did just that... continue reading...

TMC Growth Update

Congratulations to TMC's Kevin Kiley who was just promoted to VP of Finance. Great job Kevin. In addition I would like to thank TMC readers and our partners who have allowed us to continue our wave of growth. In the... continue reading...

Grandstream's Grand GXE502X

Many of us know Grandstream for their IP Phones which offer great value as well as an assortment of analog gateways, ATAs, videophones, etc. I have spoken with resellers in fact who sell truckloads of Grandstream equipment on the show... continue reading...

LiteScape's Unified Communications Applications

One of the more interesting unified communications companies is Litescape. They are doing new things in the UC space and more importantly, I can't think of another company who does what they do. The company's Oncast solution enables phones... continue reading...

Calabrio's Call Center Solutions Advance

The trend towards unification is something you can see everywhere from cellular phones which now include music players, GPS and cameras to desktop software allowing communications with once disparate applications. One company in the call center space which is surfing... continue reading...

Nortel's Customer Experience 2.0

Perhaps one of my most interesting vendor meeting as of late was with Nortel where David Murashige VP & GM Multimedia Applications and Debora Glennon in Multimedia Applications Marketing really got me thinking about the way customers are serviced today.... continue reading...

CRM Autopsy

David Sims has a great article for people who take their CRM too seriously and need to lighten up.... continue reading...

Communications To Fuel Global Economy Growth

Infonetics pegged PBX growth at 7% last year and they further mentioned that companies are beginning to slowly see the benefits of IP-PBX systems beyond the typical costs savings associated with lower phone bills. With unified communications software now available... continue reading...

Dan Miller New TMCnet Columnist

As I mentioned a while back, TMC is experiencing record growth and I promised we would maintain our high levels of quality as we grow. TMCnet currently has just under 50 worldwide columnists and most of them write daily or... continue reading...

Where is the TMC Team?

This week, we have a total of nine TMC team members traveling to industry events. Dave Rodriguez, Erik Linask and I are headed to VoiceCon while Greg Galitzine will be at VON. I am looking forward to an information packed... continue reading...

Avaya's Huge Unified Communications Push

Avaya has certainly made unified communications history today with a suite of announcements that will certainly rattle the competitive landscape. UC will never be the same in my opinion. The New Jersey-based company's biggest news had to do with affordable... continue reading...

IBM's Big Unified Communications News

Recently I spent a good number of hours at the sprawling Somers, NY campus of IBM where the company announced to the media their intention to spend a billion dollars in unified communications development over the next three years. IBM... continue reading...

E-Mail Customer Service Complaints

Few things annoy me  as much as poor e-mail interactions with companies I either purchase from or am thinking of purchasing from. I am sick and tired of companies who send me an auto-response e-mail and then never follow through... continue reading...

Outsourcers Abusing Work Visas?

The clash between U.S.-based companies and outsourcers continues as outsourcing companies such as Infosys Technologies, Wipro, Cognizant Technology Solutions and UST Global who are either based in or have the majority of their workers in India are bringing thousands of... continue reading...

Ken Camp is Available

Regular readers of my blog and attendees of TMC expos no doubt know Ken Camp. Ken is very knowledgeable in the field of information technology with special expertise in communications and security. He has written books, articles, spoken at shows... continue reading...

Peter Radizeski Joins TMCnet

TMCnet's latest blogger is Peter Radizeski. Peter is knowledgeable and not afraid to say what he thinks. He is direct and has a long history in telecom. He will will write things that ruffle feathers. His views many not always... continue reading...

Communications News March 7, 2008

My editorial team has selected the following stories as some of the most important ones of the week. Hopefully some or all of these news items will be useful to my readers. Some of my favorite ones are how green... continue reading...

NEC, Microsoft, HP Labs and Comcast News

I was traveling yesterday and I didn't get a chance to communicate with my blog readers in the detail I would normally like to give. This morning I decided to share all the news that caught my eye from last... continue reading...

AT&T's Bullish Investment

AT&T is making a major telecom investment in many areas of its business. The telecom giant cites the explosion of high-speed networks, data consuming devices and the move to IP as the reason for this investment. The money is... continue reading...

TMCnet's New Vertical Communities

Over the past decade, TMCnet has become the accepted resource for news, product research and analysis in communications and technology markets - including telecom, VoIP, and contact centers. Moreover, the site has become the defacto location online where companies build... continue reading...

Podcast: Joel Hackney, Nortel

If you want some great perspective on Nortel's recent earnings as well as information on which areas of Nortel are doing best, be sure to check out this podcast interview with Joel Hackney, President of the Enterprise Solutions Group at... continue reading...

TMCnet Services

In an effort to allow TMCnet readers easy access to the breadth of TMCnet services such as the personalized MyTMCnet and TMCnet Mobile, TMCnet has launched a new TMCnet Services page which will allow you to instantly access the... continue reading...

Web 2.0 comes to CRM

The above graphic is a bank mashup showing all banks in Norwalk, CT -- where TMC headquarters are located. (credit: Webmashup.com) A logical place for mashups to show up are in customer relationship management applications where they can allow... continue reading...

Telecommuting Slowdown

While I have been espousing telecommuting and moreover discussing frequently how IP communications enables companies to hire remote workers without losing productivity... Even I have been a bit surprised that some companies have such a large number of at home... continue reading...

Will Salesforce.com be Sold?

Will Salesforce.com be sold soon? I keep hearing rumor after rumor and some say Marc Benioff is getting bored. i haven't had time to reach out to Marc but I thought it worth sharing the news. Likely purchasers would be... continue reading...

Some Webinars to Witness

If you aren't aware, it seems like my responsibility to at least mention some webinars worth attending. They happen to all be webinars that are hosted by TMC. I am going to try to attend them all. Some of the... continue reading...

More SMB Communications Growth

Yesterday I discussed how well the SMB space is doing in the communications market and today there is more evidence of competition in the space as WhaleBack Systems is expanding deeper into the mid-Atlantic region. Three companies, Schultz Technology Solutions,... continue reading...

The Problem with Triple-Play Providers

I am a cable quadruple customer. VoIP, broadband, TV and the reason I switched from standalone VoIP to cable had to do with dropped packets on my network. After spending days trying to figure out what the problem was... continue reading...

TMCnet Continues to Grow

Thanks once again to our loyal TMCnet readers. Because of you, TMCnet has broken more online records. In January of 2008 TMCnet experienced 38,368,961 page views (meaning total number of web pages viewed on TMCnet in January alone. The total... continue reading...

Amazon S3 Down but not Out

Amazon has been getting lots of positive press lately on its new storage initiative Simple Storage Service or S3. The service has been a tremendous help to startups as well as established companies as it lowers the cost of scaling... continue reading...

Unprotected SIP

Somehow the title "The Dangers of Unprotected SIP" caught me off guard  since today is after all Valentine's Day. Seems like something they should teach you about in geek health class in high school. But seriously, I don't think... continue reading...

Increase Marketing Spend in a Recession

I just couldn't help but sharing this article about how companies who increase their marketing spend in a recession come out of it doing better than when they went into it. I am not advocating that there is a recession... continue reading...

Communications Being Purchased Incorrectly

In the world of communications a sad fact is that in the past few years, technology has evolved to the point where communications is being more integrated into business processes than ever.  Regardless of industry,  communications has evolved to the... continue reading...

Digium Guarantee Program

Good news for the open source market as Digium now offers a slew of new warranty related announcements meaning that purchasers of Digium software and hardware will get better warranties and and a money-back guarantee if a product does perform... continue reading...

Sprint Complaints

Sprint Complaints Last night I got together with my family for dinner and I found that my Aunt was desperate to talk with me about her recent customer service experience with Sprint. She upgraded her phone and it wouldn't work... continue reading...

SugarCRM to Go Public

SugarCRM has been on quite a tear lately with the news that it has secured $20 million in funding and that they have a new mobile application. The latest news out of the company is that they are profitable... continue reading...

Is AT&T a Runaway Winner?

Is AT&T going to win the IP services wars? I get the feeling they are really doing a fine job in this regard and will only do better over time. Jon Arnold agrees and in a  recent article he talks... continue reading...

ITEXPO: Article in Sun-Sentinel

The Sun Sentinel had a great article on Internet Telephony Conference & Expo today and their spin was local. They mentioned companies in the Florida area who participate in the show. The article was written by Arlene Satchell and she... continue reading...

ITEXPO East 2008 Schedule

Here are some of the happenings this week at ITEXPO. My team is already down in Miami, making sure the new Mustang convertible is prepped and ready for the raffle Friday. I wish you luck in winning the car and... continue reading...

Have a Safe Trip to ITEXPO

I hope everyone has a safe trip down to Internet Telephony Conference & Expo. The registration numbers are trending nicely above estimates and we expect a stellar event. As always, we have done our absolute best to assemble the most... continue reading...

Fax, T.38 and SIP

As you may remember from a prior post, AudioCodes was running a five-part webinar series which concluded yesterday with a webinar on SIP and T.38 fax. On the webinar, Percy discussed reliability concerns with the G.711 standard, and more specifically,... continue reading...

Outrageous Interactions

Normally I don't like to judge people but in this case -- I was asked by Interactive Intelligence if I would do just that --- judge people. You see, I will be a judge on a panel with Interactive Intelligence... continue reading...

Top 10 Phone Tricks

If you are looking for the top 10 telephone tricks you need to be aware of, look no further than this post over at Life Hacker. You want to know how to "gracefully" bow out of a long-winded conversation? How... continue reading...

ITEXPO - Huge International Draw

As Tom Keating mentioned earlier today we are proud to announce that Internet Telephony Conference & Expo which will take place in just under a week in Miami Florida has registrations from 74 countries, a 15.6% increase over last year.... continue reading...

Important Interviews

Recently I was fortunate enough to be able to interview a number of thought leaders and others who have given me their perspectives on the communications market, the future, the entry of Google, Apple and Microsoft into the space and... continue reading...

Quantcast Update 01/08

On November 6, 2007 I had a post (see bottom of post for chart) where I showed how TMC compares with other IP Communications sites. I did this by pulling numbers from Quantcast, a web service which tracks web traffic... continue reading...

Ergonomic Phones

A concept you rarely hear about but which is important is ergonomics in telephones. I came across an ergonomic phone white paper from Shoretel and while it is Shoretel-centered it is still pretty useful and worth checking out before you... continue reading...

Best Buy CRM Challenge

Although I cannot vouch for whether this is true, the story of Best Buy allegedely screaming at someone for purchasing a video game which is rated for mature audiences could get some play on network TV. Apparently the store accused... continue reading...

Good Bye Jeff Raikes

Good bye Jeff Raikes. Raikes did a great job at Microsoft and in the unified communications space he should be commended for rolling out a slew of strong products and doing a fantastic PR and marketing job promoting them. He... continue reading...

Nice Systems Win

Nice Systems recently reported multi-million dollar contracts with a number of banks. The banks are using NICE Perform, part of NICE SmartCenter, as well as an enterprise fraud solution from Actimize, which NICE acquired in August. With NICE SmartCenter these... continue reading...

Technology News Wrap Dec 27, 2007

It has been a slow news week as you might imagine and there have been a number of stories which have caught my eye. Stories wrapping up 2007 are rampant and one worth reading is from Mae Kowalke and is... continue reading...

Avaya’s Unified Communications Future

When you think of enterprise communications Avaya is certainly one of the first names that comes to mind. A huge player in the space, the company has a tremendous amount of influence in the future shape of things to come... continue reading...

Nortel Sues Vonage

Vonage just can’t catch a break these days and seems to be the target of more lawsuits related to patent infringements than just about any other company out there. The latest patent fight is with Nortel, a company who says... continue reading...

Genesys Buys Informiam

Genesys– once called Genesys Labs is one of the companies at the head of the CTI (computer-telephony-integration) revolution of the nineties. Often referred to as a middleware company, Genesys always seemed to fight the designation. In reality, Genesys was just... continue reading...

Dell Latitude XT Vs. Commenters

Perhaps Dell should get an award for superior CRM in launching a new tablet computer, the Latitude XT. After all, the company released the news on its blog and allowed potential customers to absolutely skewer it. The reason the company... continue reading...

Titanium Watches? What about Headsets?

Recently I picked up a titanium watch. In fact I now am the proud owner of two titanium watches. I just love the stuff… More durable than steel and much lighter. What if everything in the world was made out... continue reading...

Communications Webinars

I came across some webinars of potential interest coming soon from TMC. There are a bunch and they are quite varied so it would seem there is certainly something for everyone. I am certainly interested in the 10 myths of... continue reading...

ITEXPO East 2008 Brochure Available

I know my loyal readers have been waiting with baited breath to get a hold of the latest ITEXPO brochure. For those of you who have, consider this your very own early holiday season. Here it is… Please enjoy this... continue reading...

A Date-Rape-Drug-Free Christmas

Buying toys is riskier than ever. I remember when I was a kid and falling off your bike was the worst problem you might have. You would get scraped, bruised, a bit beat up but you would get back on... continue reading...

Nortel is Back

Recently it is has been a mixed ride for communications companies as those relying on tier-one service providers for the majority of their growth have been battered. Case in point is Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent who each have lost over $15... continue reading...

Quantcast

You are likely familiar with Alexa, a division of Amazon that measures website traffic. I have written about the site a number of times before. A while back I discovered a site called Quantcast which is becoming a well respected... continue reading...

FonalityCRM

Fonality has made quite a splash in the open source communications market and the most recent news coming out of the California company is an acquisition of Insightful Solutions Pty Ltd, one of the world’s largest SugarCRM development houses.  ... continue reading...

IP Communications News: October 19, 2007

Some of the interesting news of the week shows SMBs will not only be going down the road to purchasing IP communications solutions – they will also be purchasing and installing security solutions. In my research this morning I also... continue reading...

Which PBX Manufacturers will Survive?

The following is a sidebar to the Publisher’s Outlook Column Microsoft’s Big Unified Communications Launch in the November, 2007 issue of Unified Communications Magazine.   ---   There are many PBX companies – well over 25. I am surprised how... continue reading...

Microsoft’s Big Unified Communications Launch

Please enjoy the Publisher’s Outlook from the November, 2007 Unified Communications Magazine.   ---   In the history of communications space there has never been a new product roll-out supported by over 50 other companies. Until October 16, 2007, that... continue reading...

Keating’s Microsoft Unified Communications Review

Tom Keating has an incredible review of Microsoft Unified Communications products which has yet to be posted. I believe there is an embargo until later today. I really suggest you check out his blog regularly until it hits. I read... continue reading...

Communication’s Biggest Week Ever

Tomorrow kicks off the biggest week in the history of communications. I have to be honest. After I wrote this statement I had to get up and take a walk and get some tea. I wanted a sanity check and... continue reading...

What eBay Should do with Skype

Please enjoy the unedited November 2007 Publisher’s Outlook column from Internet Telephony Magazine.   ---   OK, I was wrong. Really wrong. Over a billion dollars wrong in fact. Why? I believed eBay and Skype had a solid strategy to... continue reading...

Network Engines Buys Alliance Systems

If you have been in the telecommunications market for any period of time you are no doubt aware of Jon Shapiro the founder of Alliance Systems the company responsible for building bullet-proof communications servers. Alliance Systems has great industry partnerships... continue reading...

Siemens Unified Communications

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Mark Straton the Senior Vice President of Product Marketing at Siemens about his thoughts on unified communications and where the telecom market is headed. Straton spent the early part of the conversation... continue reading...

TMCnet Searches

I thought it would be interesting to see what people search on when they come to TMCnet. It should be noted these searches are on TMCnet proper which unfortunately at the moment does not include blogs.   These numbers should... continue reading...

Dialogic Buys Cantata

Dialogic has been gaining a great deal of momentum this past year and now this momentum has increased substantially as the company has just announced they will be acquiring Cantata. This deal gives Dialogic access to huge fax market share... continue reading...

Unified Communications Gaining Momentum

In less than two weeks the communications market will be bolstered by the announcement of Microsoft officially entering the unified communications space in a major way. As a show of their support for the market, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates will... continue reading...

Response Point

For at least a decade PBX manufacturers would speak to me off the record about their trepidation regarding Microsoft entering the phone business. For those companies who hoped the day would never come, they should probably avoid reading this article... continue reading...

3Com and Digium News

If you haven’t been watching lately there has been lots of activity in the IP PBX and networking space from 3Com and Digium. Here is a recap.   3Com was recently purchased and a minority investor was China’s Huawei.... continue reading...

Ixia’s New President and COO

Loyal TMC readers and visitors are likely aware of Atul Bhatnagar who was a keynote speaker about two years back at ITEXPO in Los Angeles, CA. The year Atul spoke was the first time Internet Telephony Conference & Expo was... continue reading...

Hyperconnected

About a decade or so ago I ran across Tony Rybczynski (Tony Ryb to those who know him and/or cannot pronounce his last name) at the COMNET trade show in DC and was so blown away by him that I... continue reading...

Trixbox Training

If you are looking for open source communications training, Fonality Trixbox training is going worldwide and is likely coming to a city near you. If you are looking for a discount on this training, be sure to click on... continue reading...

Switching to Optimum Voice

This was a big week for me personally as I switched service providers. I should mention I have free VoIP accounts coming out of my ears. I often test them but I haven’t switched to any of them because to... continue reading...

3COM Sold

The Wall Street Journal reported that 3COM will be acquired by Bain Capital and Huawei Technologies. TMC’s Greg Galitzine has a call into 3COM for comments but what we know so far is the transaction is at $5+/share meaning more... continue reading...

ITEXPO West 2007 Scores Big in L.A.

Here is my Publisher’s Outlook from the October 2007 Internet Telephony Magazine. It is rough and needs some editing but should give you a good idea of why you should be subscribing and reading every issue of the magazine. :)... continue reading...

Vonage Loses to Sprint Nextel

These are mighty difficult times for Vonage as the incumbent providers have ganged up against them and have decided to compete on patents as opposed to technology. A federal jury has ruled that Vonage has to pay $69.5 million in... continue reading...

Best of Show ITEXPO West 2007

Congratulations to the best of show winners at Internet Telephony Conference & Expo last week in Los Angeles, CA. A list follows below and here is the detailed press release.   Best Service Provider Solution Comverse (www.comverse.com) CTI Labs (www.ctigroup.com)... continue reading...

ITEXPO West 2007 News

ITEXPO West 2007 News The staggering amount of news and analysis generated from last week’s Internet Telephony Conference & Expo is mind-boggling. Thanks to all the analysts, bloggers, members of the press and everyone else who covered ITEXPO.   Here... continue reading...

Make Money Selling VoIP

  The VAR is Dead and Partner is Born   In a session titled how to make Money selling VoIP Robert Messer spoke today about how resellers need to evolve to become successful. Robert who works for ABP Technology a... continue reading...

PerformanceEdge

For many companies with thousands of call center agents the concept of optimizing contact center performance is akin to optimizing the US government. In either case you must ask yourself how you know when you are truly optimized and the... continue reading...

Bloggers at ITEXPO

I have noticed this year more ITEXPO speakers have blogs than at any time in the past. We all know there are more and bloggers each day and I am excited to see how many of them are referencing their... continue reading...

Nice Systems

Brian Spraetz, Senior Product Marketing Manager NICE Systems Inc., recently sat down with me (virtually over e-mail :) )to discuss IP communications and NICE’s upcoming presentation at ITEXPO.   NICE Systems is the leading provider of Insight from Interactions, offering... continue reading...

NeoPhonetics

I recently had the opportunity to ask NeoPhonetics executives about open source/open standards-based on IP communications, cost effective PBX platforms, and more.   NeoPhonetics designs, implements and supports custom VoIP telephone systems for enterprises with a specialty in open source... continue reading...

Business Solutions magazine

I recently had the opportunity to ask Jay McCall, VoIP and Wireless Editor with Business Solutions magazine, about the evolution of SIP-based communications, the future of the market and more.   Business Solutions magazine is a publication geared toward executives... continue reading...

SIP Trunking Overview

I am looking forward to listening to Alan Percy’s panel on SIP trunking which takes place next week at ITEXPO. Alan has been a fixture at many TMC events over the years and I am waiting semi-patiently to hear what... continue reading...

Dan York Available

Sadly, Dan York was restructured out of a job at Mitel. After the acquisition of Inter-Tel there is obviously some overlap. Dan was part of the overlap and as a result is a great talent looking for an opportunity. For... continue reading...

LiveVox

I recently had the opportunity to ask Louis Summe, CEO of LiveVox, about the company’s on-demand contact center solutions, their customers, and the IP communications space.   LiveVox provides on-demand, voice application solutions integrated with existing systems. The company is... continue reading...

Thanks for Registering Green

The Green Technology conference is doing well so far. Thanks for your support. Here is the full story.... continue reading...

Toshiba

I recently had the opportunity to ask David Fridley, senior product manager of IP Telephony at Toshiba America Information Systems, about the evolution of the IP communications space and the direction his company is taking.   To learn more about... continue reading...

Excendia

It is difficult to start this column without a reference to Wildfire the personal assistant launched in the nineties we all thought would take over the world. Of course by “we” I mean the people attending trade shows in the... continue reading...

Call Center Consolidation

There is more and more talk of call center consolidation and suites of products from single vendors seem to be what analysts and many companies are clamoring for. I came across an interesting twist on getting educated on this space... continue reading...

Fonality FtOCC Training

Great news. Fonality FtOCC (pronounced F-Talk) Technician Certification is sold out at next week’s ITEXPO in Los Angeles, CA. There is still limited seating for the Administrator Certification. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention what this acronym means. It stands... continue reading...

Miss Teen South Carolina

It is all about the education. Miss Teen South Carolina hit the nail on the head when she said our education system in the United States needs to improve so as she says, US Americans can one day hope to... continue reading...

Polaris IP

Polaris IP is a company you probably never heard of but they have a patent on an e-mail routing system and are using it to sue the Internet’s largest companies. In particular, Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, A9, Borders, AOL and IAC/Interactive... continue reading...

Inter-Tel

Inter-Tel executives Aron Aicard (Director of Product Marketing), Jon Young (Director, Softswitch Technology) and Rick Ringel (Strategic Solutions Engineer), gave me this exclusive interview. They talked to me about Inter-Tel’s new corporate initiatives, the impact of SIP technology, and the... continue reading...

Virtual Customer Interactions

This is my next Customer Interaction Solutions High Priority column. If memory serves it will be the October, 2007 issue. As often happens this will be the unedited version. If this is of any interest be sure to subscribe digitally... continue reading...

VoEX

VoEX, Inc., is a VoIP managed-service provider offering global peering infrastructure, network interoperability, industry-leading quality of service, and advanced applications capabilities for top tier carriers, mobile operators, cable operators, voice service providers, academic institutions and enterprises. VoEX maps the world’s... continue reading...

Oaisys Update

If you live vicariously through my travel schedule then you were with me in Arizona during that muggy and super-hot trip I took a while back to see Oaisys and learn about their Talkument voice appliance.   As you... continue reading...

Skype Retracts Microsoft Blame

In previous posts it was mentioned that Skype blames Microsoft for the recent outage it had last week. More recently Skype has issued a statement saying it does not diectly blame Microsoft for the problem but instead it clarified the... continue reading...

Level 3 Communications

Level 3 Communications, Inc., an international communications company, operates one of the largest Internet backbones in the world, connecting 180 markets in 18 countries. The company serves a broad range of wholesale, enterprise and content customers with a comprehensive suite... continue reading...

Tissot High-T Discontinued

Sadly, the Tissot High-T has been discontinued. This is terrible news as when the watch worked, it worked very well. It connected with the Microsoft Spot network which is now called MSN Direct. It had a touch screen and vibrate... continue reading...

IP Communications Education

Listen, I don’t want to overdo discussion of ITEXPO in my blog but the fact of the matter is this recent e-mail sent by my marketing team is a great document discussing what is important at the show. It is... continue reading...

Call Center CRM Stories August, 17 2007

While technology has a bewildering effect on the medical industry it seems one of the areas ripest for improvement and change is that of the interaction of patient and doctor. A recent article on TMCnet details how HD videoconferencing is... continue reading...

Telrex

I recently got the chance to sit down with Bob Cordes, Vice President of Product Management for Telrex. We discussed his company’s business strategy, as well as the future of the IP telephony market in general.   Telrex is a... continue reading...

3CX

I recently had the opportunity to ask 3CX CEO Nick Galea about the evolution of the IP communicationsspace and the direction his company is taking.   3CX is well known for its SIP-based 3CX Phone System for Windows, a software-based... continue reading...

Telecom Cost Management

One of the fastest areas of growth in communications – and there seem to be so many these days, is telecom cost management. In recognition of this fact, TMC has launched a Telecom Cost Management channel which is being sponsored... continue reading...

Aperio CI Interview

I recently had the opportunity to speak with William Mich, chairman and chief executive officer of Aperio CI, and get his thoughts on where the market and his company is headed.   As you may recall, the company has a... continue reading...

Smoothstone

I recently had the opportunity to ask Jeff Wellemeyer, chairman and CTO of Smoothstone, about the most recent call center solutions and the path Smoothstone is taking to create greater customer satisfaction.   Smoothstone is an IP communications provider... continue reading...

TMCnet New Traffic Record

Thanks to all our readers and visitors who have allowed TMCnet to achieve a new traffic record in July 2007.   Here are the numbers:   Page Views 30,977,147 Average Visit Length 35:45 Unique Visitors 3,078,409   Page Views refers... continue reading...

IVR Technologies

I recently had the opportunity to ask IVR Technologies Vice President of Business Development Barry Sher about his business and the direction he is taking the company.   IVR Technologies is a software development company providing integrated application, media and... continue reading...

AudioCodes Interview

Anyone in the IP communications business knows quite well that Alan Percy is one of the most well-connected and knowledgeable players in the space. Alan’s day job is Director of Business Development at AudioCodes and I swear his night... continue reading...

Call Center/CRM Stories August 10, 2007

Big news this week in call centers and CRM as we find call center quality is improving. This is great news. There is more below so take a read if you want to learn about peace in the Middle East... continue reading...

Office Communicator Voice Quality

I had a chance to try Microsoft Office Communicator voice quality for myself on a Plantronics stereo headset and I remain impressed with the quality of the sound. Although the wideband codecs do not support stereo, the voice and video... continue reading...

AudioCodes Has Good Quarter

Cisco made a big splash with their earnings news today and subsequently it may be worth pointing out Audiocodes too released great numbers with growth on a year over year of 15.5%.   “AudioCodes’ second quarter financial results were highlighted... continue reading...

Telephone System Channel

If you aren’t aware, TMC has built with its partners, the largest collection of business to business online communities in the communications and technology space. Channels are micro communities which live on the left navigation of TMCnet menus. Global Online... continue reading...

VoIP/IP Communications Stories August 6, 2007

In case you are behind on your reading or perhaps were away and want to catch up quickly; I have assembled some of the top stories from last week and today. Topics of interest include Cisco’s purchase of an equity... continue reading...

Loving Asterisk

Some people don’t hold back. If they like you or they don’t you know it right away. Others are diplomatic. Well Tom Keating loves Asterisk… And to back it up he has 10 reasons. There are so many top 10... continue reading...

ITEXPO Weeks Away

I just can’t believe that Internet Telephony Conference & Expo is five short weeks away. I just can’t wait for September 10-12th in Los Angeles. Boy is the summer going by fast. Thankfully I read Ken Kamp’s blog where he... continue reading...

Call Center/CRM Stories August 3, 2007

Here are the call center/CRM stories for the week of August 3, 2007. Enjoy. I really don’t have a favorite but if you press me I might say the Argentina and Central American call center stories are of interest.  ... continue reading...

Kiosks

The new face of sales and service will be kiosks according to this article from MSNBC. Frankly I am not a huge fan of kiosks but I am less of a fan of standing in line.... continue reading...

Mitel/Inter-Tel Finally Merge

Mitel's proposal to acquire and merge with Inter-Tel has been approved by Inter-Tel stockholders. Here are the details:   US$723 million merger Creates a market leader in SMB IP communications industry with the scale to strengthen and extend its reach... continue reading...

Aastra Intecom/BroadSoft

The IP communications market gets more and more exciting by the day and if you aren’t paying attention it even may get confusing. Today’s big news comes in the form of a partnership between two companies who you may not... continue reading...

Accela Inc.

The hosting and VoIP services market continues to do well. Providing VoIP service to companies is a much easier proposition than the residential space as the pure-play market leader Vonage charges so little, even they struggle to make money.... continue reading...

Iwatsu

As part of a recent whirlwind Dallas, Texas tour I had a chance to catch up with Iwatsu’s Don Gant and discuss what his company is up to. He tells me sales of the company’s EMA Enhanced Messaging Application service... continue reading...

Bluesocket buys Pingtel

One of the fastest growing spaces in communications is the wireless market and it is essential all communications equipment providers address this area. To that end, Bluesocket, a company known in the WLAN and security space has just picked... continue reading...

Microsoft Pushes into Communications and Beyond

Here is my August 2007 Publisher’s Outlook for Internet Telephony Magazine. It may be one of the longest pieces I have written in a while and it was great fun to put together and hopefully is something you will appreciate.... continue reading...

Call Center Stories Week of July 20, 2007

Here are some great call center and CRM stories from the week. There is a very strong Latin flavor as you can see below. Stories about Brazil, Mexico and Argentina.   Using CRM Software Solutions to Increase Sales Revenue Call... continue reading...

Cablevision Customer Service

I have been consistently impressed with Cablevision customer service. I am having a problem with my network and it is potentially complicated. From time to time the network experiences packet loss for a few minute period.   I have... continue reading...

NetSuite on iPhone

Is it a marketing ploy or really something useful? NetSuite recently announced they will have support for Apple’s iPhone with their SuitePhone solution. The application provides native Safari support which is a good move. As iPhone use proliferates this announcment... continue reading...

Gartner on Customer Service

Customer service is so crucial in every organization and Gartner is a well-respected name in the field of technology market research. It is for this reason when Gartner analysts make a live presentation, it is usually a great idea to... continue reading...

Digium Acquires Sokol & Associates

Digium just acquired Sokol & Associates the company behind the successful Asterisk training program and the Astricon trade show. This further reconfirms the idea of Digium being “everything Asterisk,” a concept espoused in a recent interview with the company’s news... continue reading...

Call Center/CRM News July 6, 2007

Here is the latest in the contact center and CRM space. Interesting topics consist of call center trends in Mexico and New Zealand. I have always wanted to go to New Zealand by the way and just haven’t found the... continue reading...

TMCnet Goes Twitter

It seems like if you are under 18 you spend a good deal of time twittering on well – Twitter. Since my typical reader is above 18 you may not be aware that Twitter is a service allowing you to... continue reading...

Interesting Reading

  Here are some things to keep you busy this weekend. Some articles in the IP Communications and contact center spaces followed by some events worth registering for. All of these are TMC articles and events btw. Enjoy!  ... continue reading...

Road Warrior Bill of Rights

Although Andy is a bit more high-maintenance than me (at least when to comes to hotels) I think his latest post could have easily been called the Road Warrior Bill of Rights.... continue reading...

Oracle

The Oracle machine seems to keep rolling along day after day, week after week. Not only does the company continue to acquire best of breed companies and add them to their product/service offering they are also busy spending time educating... continue reading...

Ken Camp

Be sure to sign up for Internet Telephony Conference & Expo (ITEXPO) now and be part of the world’s premiere IP communications event. World-famous blogger, journalist and author Ken Camp will be there as well (Ken is there anywhere you... continue reading...

Communications Optimism

Last week I had a chance to spend a good deal of time with Norman Stout the CEO of Inter-Tel. He told me he is more optimistic about the spend in the market than any time in the last 7-8... continue reading...

Thank You Google

It has been months since Google somehow started to omit TMCnet blogs from their BlogSearch service. Since the service is so popular we wanted to find out we were delisted and se if there was a technical problem.   After... continue reading...

Asterisk Fuels Speech Technologies

If open-source telephony is going mainstream as I recently wrote about, then the subsets of open-source telephony are also booming. For example, speech recognition in the open-source world is becoming more and more important. Case in point, a company called... continue reading...

Office Headsets

I have written a few times in the past about TMC’s channel program and the fact we have built over 100 business to businesses (b2b) communities in the communications and technology space.   The communities are news-based and are designed... continue reading...

Open-Source Telephony Goes Mainstream

In the last few years the communications industry has been taken by storm through the invention of an open-source communications platform named Asterisk invented by Digium (www.digium.com) founder Mark Spencer. An article written for the January 2004 issue of Internet... continue reading...

VoIP Stories May 7, 2007

Here are some interesting stories worth reading. Incidentally, I now have a Plantronics CS70N installed at my desk. It is about the same size and weight as the popular Plantronics Voyager 510 with the difference being slightly more weight and... continue reading...

Marketing in the New World Order

Tomorrow I will be speaking in sunny Phoenix, Arizona on “Marketing in the New World Order”. I often write about a plethora of new technologies and tomorrow I get a chance to weave together my knowledge of marketing and technology... continue reading...

Skype Announcements at Communications Developer

I was just perusing an article on Skype development from Greg Galitzine which consists of an interview with head of development for the world’s most successful VoIP software company. The interview is with Paul Amery the Director of the Skype... continue reading...

Hosted Communications for the SMB

We hear about hosted solutions from so many vendors these days. This area of the market is certainly experiencing tremendous growth. Companies like Covad, AccessLine and 8x8/Packet8 are doing well selling services to customers who are giving up their small... continue reading...

InfoWorld on Patent Reform

Let’s hope patent reform gets a great amount of momentum in our government and it actually happens. Large companies are indeed hoarding patents and using them as weapons to crush smaller companies. Patent litigation seems to be increasing by the... continue reading...

TMCnet Goes International

Today is a momentous occasion for me as TMCnet has gone international developing continent-specific editions for Latin America, Europe, Asia the Middle East and Australia. You will find these country choices on a grey horizontal bar at the top... continue reading...

Nokia Intellisync Mobile Suite 8.0

One buzzword with legs is mobility. We hear the term everywhere these days. Moreover, it seems workforces are becoming more mobile by the day and knowledge workers are being created in segments previously not considered to be in this category.... continue reading...

Cisco Invest $700M in China

Cisco Systems plans on sponsoring 40 Chinese companies with a venture fund worth a total of $700 million. Investment in China is not new but this move could have implications as to where tomorrow’s technology leaders will come from. This... continue reading...

Oracle CRM

Oracle obviously knows a thing or two about CRM and with their recent acquisition of Siebel Systems they are even more firmly entrenched in the space than ever. The company has a recent white paper designed to help users get... continue reading...

Is Vonage the New Google

Now hear me out. I realize the title of my article is baffling and your brain is already calculating all the different ways you will flame this piece with negative comments.   You may be thinking of all the differences... continue reading...

Nice Systems

In the wake of the negative VoIP investing news due to the recent Verizon/Vonage court battle, it is great to see BusinessWeek highlighting Nice Systems as a positive investment opportunity precisely because of the migration to VoIP. In addition it... continue reading...

Esna Technologies

When you think about unified communications you probably think of the big software or hardware companies. These are the organizations making the biggest splash in the UC area.   But we all know about the big boys. What is really... continue reading...

SpinVox

When I first came across a company called SpinVox I thought it had a niche product not really aligned with my core readership. The first product the company introduced to me was SpinmyBlog which is something I could definitely use... continue reading...

Cantata Gets New CEO

You may have seen the news about Cantata hiring a new CEO and could possibly be wondering why they would do such a thing. After all, Mark Zionts was involved in building Cantata into the company it is today with... continue reading...

Unified Communications Magazine

In case you missed my past blog entries regarding SIP Magazine becoming Unified Communications Magazine, consider it official… The change has begun and we are working on the look and feel of this new publication. It should be different than... continue reading...

MyTMCnet

Thanks to readers like you, TMCnet has been blessed with 1-2 million unique visitors every month and last month over 20 million pages were viewed on this site. We are truly grateful to our readers, sponsors and advertisers who support this... continue reading...

TMCnet Sets Page View Record

This past February 2006, TMCnet passed the 20 million page view mark for the first time ever with a total of 20,554,331 page views from a total of 1,169,160 unique visitors. I am personally thrilled with this accomplishment because it shows... continue reading...

Brookstone

About six months or so ago I purchased an iGo mobile travel adapter from Brookstone in the JFK Airport in New York. The device proved extremely handy allowing me to plug into airline power adapters as well as AC outlets.... continue reading...

Cantata

Cantata is a veritable conglomerate in the communications space. The company was formed a year ago through a combination of Excel Switching and Brooktrout Technology and has product lines for developers and service providers. The company is soon celebrating... continue reading...

Dialogic & Aculab Focus on Growth

Please enjoy the April 2007 Publisher’s Outlook from IMS Magazine:   ---------   DSP Resource Board Vendors Expand Focus   The last few weeks has seen an explosive amount of news in technology and communications and trying to justice to... continue reading...

TMCnet Search

We are always trying to innovate here at TMC and recently we have been looking for a way to ensure TMCnet becomes even stickier than it currently is. Our goal is not only to be the primary destination for all... continue reading...

ApplianX

Aculab Launches ApplianX Product Line   Aculab has just announced a new line of appliances and the product line is so different from any products previously supplied by the company I decided to ask some questions about the new ApplianX... continue reading...

Dialogic Cruise

I am headed to downtown Miami now where I will be on a cruise with Dialogic partners and the Dialogic team. This will conclude the Dialogic One event. The weather is pretty nice here so I expect to have a... continue reading...

Costco Tightens Return Policy

AC_AX_RunContent( 'width','425','height','350','src','http://www.youtube.com/v/1-2Xrybaa6w','type','application/x-shockwave-flash','movie','http://www.youtube.com/v/1-2Xrybaa6w' ); //end AC code A New Electronics Return Policy Spells a Terrible Day for CRM   I frequently hear people talking about Costco’s amazing return policy and how they only purchase their electronics from the warehouse club.... continue reading...

TMCnet Mobile

If you are looking for the best communications and technology news on the go be sure to check out TMCnet Mobile which will display very well on most mobile devices. The service is in alpha at the moment but seems... continue reading...

IFS

Please enjoy my High Priority Column in the February 2007 issue of Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine.   IFS: Another Hat In The CRM Ring   The world of software is succumbing to a few forces which seem to be... continue reading...

The Real Unified Communications Relationship between Microsoft and Nortel

The Real Unified Communications Relationship between Microsoft and Nortel   With all the IP communications industry focus on ITEXPO last week it was difficult to get a chance to share my thoughts on happenings from the prior week –... continue reading...

ITEXPO Comments on Video

Since Internet Telephony Conference & Expo last week – TMC has received a steady stream of testimonials unlike I have ever seen for any tech show ever. So many people have told me that ITEXPO in Ft. Lauderdale was the... continue reading...

ITEXPO Photos and More

Here is Ari Zoldan from Launch 3 based in Garfield, NJ. His company is in the investment business - they invest in communications companies worldwide.   On this day he walked away with a great education as well as a... continue reading...

T.J. Maxx Data Breach

I try not to write about every data breach but since there is a T.J. Maxx within walking distance to TMC I thought it might be worth pointing out the company had a security breach and customer data seems to... continue reading...

Innovative Communications Alliance

I am in New York today with Greg Galitzine on my way to the Innovative Communications Alliance meeting which is the new (since this past summer anyway) initiative between Microsoft and Nortel. I haven’t covered this topic too extensively and... continue reading...

Musings: Apple, AT&T, Zultys, M&Ms, Ubiquity, Avaya

While the world is going iPhone lawsuit crazy (posts from Andy, Jeff and Aswath) there is a bit of news that seems to be under the radar but crucial. What is it you ask? It is that eBay/PayPal will start... continue reading...

Florida is on Sale for ITEXPO!

  It is not too late to book your flights to ITEXPO   I just went to Expedia and checked the airfares for the upcoming Internet Telephony Conference & Expo coming up in a few weeks. Boy was I surprised.... continue reading...

Who is CRM Player Infor?

I didn’t think it was possible to have a 2 billion dollar company in the software market that I didn’t know about but Infor is such a company focusing on enterprise applications such as CRM and more. The company competes... continue reading...

Diamonds are For... the Web

If you are interested in how a dotcom company made it through the bubble and emerged as a leading diamond retailer -- one of the top three in fact, check out When Buying a Diamond Starts With a Mouse by... continue reading...

Channels

One of the fastest growing areas of TMCnet is the channels program which are micro-communities of interest. These channels focus on so many topics I can’t list them all but a few of the more recent ones are here for... continue reading...

TMCnet Redesign

Today is a pretty big day for me personally. As you know, TMCnet is the world’s leading site for communications and technology information, community building, etc. In fact this past December 2006 saw our traffic reach just under 2 million... continue reading...

Sir Terry Matthews

Terry Matthews is a living legend in communications and I suppose the only person I will get to meet with a “Sir” in front of their name. For years many people have told me I must meet Terry and for... continue reading...

Bring a Map

I'd like to start this blog entry off by saying Happy New Year :) and wishing all my readers a tremendous 2007. I hope you are healthy and happy and that your family and all loved ones are as well.... continue reading...

Airline CRM

You I don't mean to complain about the airlines and unless I have a terrible experience somewhere I hate to specify the company name in a derogatory fashion. So suffice it to say I am sitting here -- well actually... continue reading...

A Look inside the Call Center

What is happening in today's call center could be surmised up by a recent survey by Witness Systems discussed in this article on TMCnet. One question worth noting asks what the number one challenge is in the call center.... continue reading...

Costly CRM

OK so I am using a blog as a sounding board to complain. I do this often. Perhaps this is part of my unique charm? ;-) Since the holiday season is approaching I will complain without telling you what company... continue reading...

Happy Holidays and Thanks!

I would like to take a moment and thank all my readers and wish you all a great holiday season and a Happy New Year. In addition I want to specifically thank you all for visiting TMCnet so frequently as... continue reading...

Costco CRM

I have been hearing relatives, friends and just about everyone else tell me how Costco is a great place to buy electronics from as their warranty policy is amazing. You can return things apparently forever. I am no sure if... continue reading...

Alcatel-Lucent

I like the new Alcatel-Lucent logo. It makes me think of a cross between an airline and an ecommerce company. I do really like the way the A and L come together as one. On a separate note the new... continue reading...

Cisco Systems Rockets Ahead, Beats all Estimates

Here is part of my Internet Telephony Magazine Publisher's Outlook December 2006:   -----------   Certainly the biggest news in recent months is that Cisco Systems, the world’s biggest vendor of computer-networking equipment, reported first-quarter 2007 net sales of $8.2... continue reading...

Cantata Layoffs

The word on the street is that approximately 50 people (see update) were laid off at Cantata yesterday out of a workforce of 300. Most of the people who were let go are shocked. Sources tell me the reason... continue reading...

Inter-Tel Buyout Withdrawal

Vector Capital and former Inter-Tel CEO Steven Mihaylo said they withdraw their bid for Inter-Tel. Recently Inter-Tel shareholders rejected the takeover proposal. 11,272,46 shares were voted against the Mihaylo Resolution, representing slightly over 50% of the 22,524,535 shares of the... continue reading...

Web 2.0 meets VoIP and Call Center 2.0

If I have to say what the most interesting thing happening in the call center today it is call center 2.0 which like every other concept with a 2.0 moniker means many different things depending on who you are. For... continue reading...

Heading Home From Lisbon

It has been a wild week here in Lisbon at Dialogic Connections and there is so much going through my head. Will the new Dialogic be anything like the old one? Can it generate more interest in telecom? Will more... continue reading...

Dialogic Connections 2006 Analysis

Perhaps the most important takeaway from the Dialogic Connections event taking place this week in Lisbon, Portugal is that Nick Jensen the President and CEO of Dialogic has a strong vision for where the company is headed. Nick states emphatically... continue reading...

$1.27 Billion in VoIP Support Services Revenue by 2010

A sign of a healthy market is one in which there is lots of money being made. IDC reports that the VoIP services market will be growing at a phenomenal rate. I was blown away to discover they predict VoIP... continue reading...

Webinar News

There are a ton of things going on at TMC and one of the most exciting is our web seminar program where we educate decision-makers on some of the latest and most important topics in the world of IP communications... continue reading...

Call Center Wait Times

I have been reading more and more about companies who neglect customer service and get punished by losing customers and/or losing share price. Sure the two are generally related but a company like Dell has been slammed so many times... continue reading...

Art Rosenberg

I have been getting Lots of constructive feedback from Art Rosenberg for many years; probably longer than a decade. Way back to when we launched CTI Magazine in fact. As you may know Art is widely accepted as the person... continue reading...

MetaSwitch, Cisco and Juniper Gossip

I spoke at a seminar hosted by Interactive Intelligence like I have been doing more and more lately. Today I was in Detroit, MI, a city and state I have never been to. I was a huge fan of Ford... continue reading...

Primal Solutions

Consider a typical tax return. If you own a home and have a mortgage you may be able to deduct interest payments -- at least in the US (oh and by the way this article is not meant to provide... continue reading...

Lower Broadband Customer Service Costs

Sorry for the self-promotion here but I haven't had a chance to share this with you --the news of a webinar teaching service providers how to lower the costs of broadband customer service. It takes place tomorrow so feel free... continue reading...

Speaking at ITEXPO Ft. Lauderdale 2007

I have been getting lots of questions about how people can speak at this show – which promises – as usual to be the best-attended IP communications show in the world. As usual we have a call for papers process... continue reading...

Alcatel and Lucent Approve Merger

The Alcatel and Lucent merger was just approved despite rumors to the contrary. The price -- 10.8 billion dollars."As we have said from the start, the primary driver of this combination is to create long-term value for shareowners, customers, and... continue reading...

Nortel’s Future

With the rumblings in the market and out Alcatel and Lucent possibly calling things off, it might be a good time to look to Canada and see how Nortel is doing and what they plan for their future. I just... continue reading...

Catch me in LA

I would love to catch you in LA if you get a chance. I’ll be speaking at a seminar titled "Unified Communications Technology for Business." I am really looking forward to this seminar and remember speaking to well over 100... continue reading...

TMC in Stamford Advocate

TMC was featured on the front page of the business section of the Stamford Advocate newspaper today. It was also in the Hartford Courant (at least online – I am not sure if it made the printed version on Sunday)... continue reading...

SalesForce.com Meet Google AdWords

Please enjoy my September, 2006 High Priority column from Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine. It was a real rush meeting Marc. As you may recall I blogged about meeting Marc Benioff a few days back.------------Over the years, I have had many... continue reading...

Lawyers and CRM

How often – seriously now – do we get to read stories that encompass both CRM and lawyers. Usually you don’t see these words on the same page unless of course Tom Siebel or Larry Ellison is Suing Marc Benioff.But... continue reading...

Tier One Service Providers Worldwide

I have never seen so many registrations form Tier one service providers at any previous TMC event. This Internet Telephony Conference & Expo this October will have a massive showing of Tier 1 and smaller providers. In addition we are... continue reading...

ITEXPO – Early Bird

Time is running out to take advantage of early-bird pricing for Internet Telephony Conference & Expo. A reminder to my blog readers that the time is now to save up to $1,000 on a registration. That, my friends is a... continue reading...

Latest Communications Solutions

Here is the latest look of the Communications Solutions website. I hope you like it.... continue reading...

Phone Companies Get an FCC Spanking

A number of consumer advocacy groups and others have trying to encourage the FCC and government to put a stop to the consolidation of service providers that is taking place. They argue the old AT&T is being rebuilt and the... continue reading...

Google Aided CRM

What happens when you use Google search technology to ferret out information hidden in your enterprise archives? According to this article you get a killer CRM application. Looks like Google enabled data mining really. Pretty cool stuff.... continue reading...

Sprint Interview

Here is the partially edited interview I had with Tony Krueck, VP of Product Development at Sprint. This was a great interview for me as I really learned a great deal about what Sprint is up to and how they are... continue reading...

Eicon Networks Buys Intel Dialogic Division

As I have been writing about for a few months, the Dialogic Division of Intel has been sold. Eicon Networks is the buyer and I am looking forward to finding out more details and sharing them with you.This is potentially... continue reading...

Verizon Wireless Does CRM

Perhaps one of the best CRM stories I have read recently was about Verizon Wireless and their new offerings for customers. The article was in a newsletter from Peppers and Rogers and I would link to it if I could... continue reading...

August 2006 High Priority in Customer Interaction Solutions

Please enjoy a sneak peak at my August 2006 High Priority Column in Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine: High Priority!By Rich TehraniEighteen Years Of MergersIn May of 1998, I wrote a column in these pages entitled "Merger Fever - For... continue reading...

SugarForge

SugarForge – take a look at how the CRM market is opening up its APIs.   See Also: VoIP Applications Advance    ... continue reading...

Avaya Replaces Don Peterson

Avaya announced a profit decrease and replaced Don Peterson as CEO on the same day. Louis D’Ambrosio is the new CEO. I liked Don – he was a great guy. Unfortunately on Wall Street how nice you are rarely matters... continue reading...

Salesforce.com and Contactual

  Here is my High Priority columns from the July 2006 issue of Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine. Enjoy. I have to write my SIP Outlook in the next few hours so my blogging may be limited.------------Behold The Virtual SalesforceI can... continue reading...

A CNBC Morning

This morning on CNBC I woke up to talk about net neutrality and an analyst who said Google makes a good buy regardless of what happens with net neutrality. From net neutrality the program went on to Comcast customer service... continue reading...

Catching up

With all my travel lately I have been neglecting my blogging. I figured I would get right back into the swing of things with some links to interesting articles.You hear me discuss building communities all the time. Well Electronic Arts... continue reading...

Oracle Buys Telephony@Work

After hearing rumors for many weeks this finally became reality. This purchase allows Oracle to get into the hosted contact center space and in addition it keeps Telephony@Work, a Siebel partner from falling into someone else’s (perhaps a competitor’s) hands.Perhaps... continue reading...

Stories of Interest

Here are recent stories of interest. My favorite has to be Survey: IPods More Popular Than Beer followed by QUALCOMM's VoIP news and of course how often do I get to talk about JFK. The VoiceGenie news is old but... continue reading...

Get Human

I recently came across a very funny video clip that teaches callers how to get right to a live operator. It takes tips from a website called gethuman.com and you'll learn tips like mumbling, hitting zero repeatedly and other tips... continue reading...

What Happens Here Now Gets Out

Much to the horror of millions of carefree visitors to this Mecca in the dessert, apparently what happens here no longer stays here. VEGAS.com claimed a big win, increasing their sales by 85 percent with Interactive Intelligence (News - Alert)’s Customer... continue reading...

RIM Vs. Visto

Blackberry maker Research in Motion must have incorporated on Friday the 13th because they seem to continually be in the spotlight for patent infringement problems. This time it isn't NTP but Visto who wants (take a wild guess) an injunction... continue reading...

TMCnet breaks One Million Unique Visitors

I just landed and checked e-mail and one of the first messages I saw is that TMCnet broke one million filtered unique visitors in the month of April 2006.I was really hoping April would be the month we reached this... continue reading...

940,000 Unique Visitors

940,000 unique visitors with four days left to go!   I got this message today from my web team just now. As you may recall we are hoping TMCnet will break one million unique visitors in a month as measured... continue reading...

Channels

Be sure to check out the TMCnet channels when you get a moment… Think of them as micro-publications on various topics. There are a number of new ones here and there are XML feeds on the channels if you would... continue reading...

Channels

Be sure to check out the TMCnet channels when you get a moment… Think of them as micro-publications on various topics. There are a number of new ones here and there are XML feeds on the channels if you would... continue reading...

TMCnet Video: part 2

Here is the release on TMC video – I have had many questions on this today. We are very excited to get this rolling.-----------Critical Mention Launches ClipSyndicate, a 'One Stop Shop' For Web Site Publishers to Syndicate Video News Segments... continue reading...

Inter-Tel 7000

Industry analyst and telecom veteran Mark Ricca says “Inter-Tel has done a masterful job in developing a platform that is being designed to successfully leverage advanced IP technology to provide a rich, intuitive feature set that can be an asset... continue reading...

Speaking at the ATA next week

Yes I am on my way to Louisville, Kentucky to speak on VoIP to a group of hundreds of resellers and next week I get the privilege of addressing a different group altogether – contact center executives. What I like... continue reading...

Sorry about that

Sorry about the whole not blogging thing today. I had meant to see the accountant and sign the tax documents a few weeks back but as luck would have it today was the day I saw him. In addition --... continue reading...

Call Center 2.0 Sponsor

TMC’s new Call Center 2.0 conference is off to a strong start… We are putting together the conference content of this event as I write this and so far there is strong sponsor interest with Spanlink being our first... continue reading...

Call Center 2.0 Applications

You have heard me talk about Call Center 2.0 and how it will embody AJAX and other Web 2.0 functions. Today, Jacada announced that Jacada WorkSpace 3.0, which became popular under it former brand, Jacada Fusion Agent Portal will take... continue reading...

Call Center 2.0

The following is my High Priority Column in the April 2006 issue of Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine.---The modern call center industry is about 25 years old, yet it remains on the forefront of customer interactions.  Paradoxically, for many years, call... continue reading...

Call Center Mexico

I was reading yet another article today from David Sims, this one focusing on VoIP security. It is quite good and I also saw that it is running on TMCnet’s Call Center Mexico channel. I was not aware this channel... continue reading...

Multisite Call Center Webinar

I wanted to invite the readers of my blog to join in learning about Multisite Call Center Strategies to Reduce Costs and Increase Productivity. Here is an e-mail explains the webinar in more detail.---------Dear Colleague,As an industry professional, we wanted... continue reading...

ATA Technology Forum

I will be speaking at the American Teleservices Association 2nd annual Technology Forum on April 25, 2006. I will be covering the future technologies needed in your call center. I hope to see you there. Here are the details:2nd ANNUALTECHNOLOGY... continue reading...

CallMiner

Here is a real cool blog entry from fellow blogger Dan Rua, Managing Partner of Inflexion Partners on the future of audio searching. Audio data is voluminous and call center recordings alone present an invaluable resource – a virtual treasure-trove... continue reading...

Remote Support

Remote support is becoming a bigger part of contact centers and the support process in general. In more and more instances companies are using remote support tools to enable rapid resolution to problems.In technical fields especially remote support solutions allow... continue reading...

TMC News Snapshots

Here is a new service from TMCnet – News Snapshots™ that will allow you to have a single page to go to keep track of important companies and topics in communications and technology. Bill Gates even gets a page. A... continue reading...

VoIP, Nor