Whenever I go to a conference, I learn a tremendous amount from the people I meet at the show. I really enjoy the impromptu networking which takes place at events as it allows me to learn so much about what is happening in the market. Ironically, I generally learn things I didn't think I would learn ahead of time. Quite often, I wish I would have known more about peoples' experiences before I met with them as it would allow me to be better prepared to ask pertinent questions.

I further wish I knew who was coming to events and and moreover I wish I could get a "brain dump" from them before the event so I could have a frame of reference before our conversations take place.

Imagine how much better networking at a show would be if I had an idea what people were generally thinking about the market before I even say hello.

In less than two weeks the world with gather at ITEXPO -- The World's Communications Conference to help select products for purchase, learn about the latest events in the telecom market and network with peers.

It is this last area where this blog entry should be of maximal benefit. You see, over the past month or so I have been interviewing the telecom movers and shakers who will be coming to ITEXPO. I certainly didn't interview every mover and shaker (exactly what is a telecom shaker anyway  ;)  ) but this list should give you a good idea who some of the speakers and exhibitors will be at this year's show.

The questions each person answered below may be slightly varied but what is common is the person's thoughts on their markets and where they think things may be going. I truly hope you find these interviews useful and I hope to see you at the show September 16-18, 2008 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

NAME	COMPANY
Don Palmer	Sip Print
Jim Beuoy	OKS
Mark Stacy	Touchstone
John Nam	Phonevite
Jim Beuoy	OKS
Barry Sher	IVR Technologies
Ari Raban	Phone.com
John Doyle	CommuniGate Systems
David Mandelstam	Sangoma
Sharone Ben Levi	AudioCodes
Rupesh Chokshi	AT&T
Jeff Gallino	Callminer
Dr. David K. Schrader	Teradata
Mark Ricca	Intellicom Analytics
Xuedong Huang (XD)	Microsoft
Rick Dell	Mitel
Mark Lepko	Altitude Software North America
Liz Amaral	Enkata
Francis Carden	OpenSpan
Kevin Murphy	NEI
Chris Gravett	Aculab
Brian Schwarz	RedSky Technologies, Inc.
John Konczal	Sterling Commerce
Stefan Winkler	Symmetricom
Eric Thomas	FreedomVoice
Albert Chu	ACCESS Systems
Bill Miller	Digium
Randy Busch	Jazinga
Jeff Hicks	NetQos
Scott Charter	WBS Connect
Jim Slaby	Acme Packet
Dean Jordan	Telesphere
Justin McLain	Endeavor Telecom
Asif Rehman	Mitel
Steve Safley	VoIPConsultants
Frank Paterno	Intelliverse
Warren Sonnen	Epygi Technologies
Jim Jenkins	IQ Services
Jonathan Christensen	Skype
Mark De Clerq	Sitel Semiconductor
Ken Kuenzel	Covergence
Chris Lyman	Fonality
Michael Hermann	Cincinnati bell
Brough Turner	NMS
Shelley Veazie	CTI Group
Abdul Kasim	Critical Links
Eran Gal	Xorcom
Robert Messer	ABP
Todd Woodstra	SpinVox
Mike Coward	Continuous Computing
Laura Serna	Dialexia
James Rafferty	Dialogic
Ken Lowe	Sigma Designs
Rob McDougall	Upstream Works Software
Mary Boyd	Intrado
Henry Danser	Aspect Software
Gregory Giagnocavo	Vitelity
Vikram Saksena	Sonus Networks
Alastair Westgarth	Tango Networks
Greg Rothman	Cbeyond
Vivek Khuller	Divitas

I missed John Chambers on CNBC this morning. I wanted to hear what he had to say but unfortunately I was being interviewed about ITEXPO at the exact same time Chambers was on TV. Thankfully, Michael Dinan, a TMCnet editor was on hand to listen to Chambers and write up what he had to say.

Chambers seems relatively bullish on technology and anticipates growth between 12-17% for the long-term. In addition, the world's largest networking company announced a net of over 10 billion dollars for the fourth quarter. This is the first time the company has exceeded the $10 billion bogey.

Chambers also spent a good deal of time focusing on visual networking and the growth of this market. Since 1997 the company has predicted a CAGR of 46 percent growth rate in visual networking based upon their Visual Networking Index or VNI.

As many of us know Cisco cites the tremendous growth in wikis, blogs, social networking and video sites like YouTube as reasons for the explosion in the VNI.

For more check out this TMCnet article.

One of the most fascinating advances in political systems worldwide is the advent of technology like blogs and other web 2.0 initiatives such as social networking and video. But even the old technologies like SMS are coming into play as candidates look for any and every advantage to distance themselves from one another.

As you can imagine, with so much technology swirling around, making candidates more productive and efficient, we at TMC became mezmerized by it all. It got so interesting to us in fact we decided to categorize all of the stories we ran having to do with election technology. Afer a while we realized we had developed an entire website focusing exclusively on election technology and how it transforms poltics. I hope you enjoy it.

election-2008.tmcnet.com

It is worth mentioning that call centers are a vital part of of the election process and now that the government has more or less outlawed telemarketing for everyone but themselves, call centers continue to be a vibrant part of the election process. We will of course continue to chart the progress of this segment of the market as well -- as you may recall, TMC has been covering the call center space since 1982 -- before the term call center was even coined. :)

What is the future of communications? One acknowledged thought leader in our field is Thomas Howe and his consulting company which bears his name is the place you go when you want to know. Howe and I were recently on a panel together at a conference in San francisco and I was very impressed with what he had to say so I invited him to be be my guest on a podcast.

Some of the takeaways from our discussion are that voice mashups are becoming more common and voice will transcend CEBP or communications enabled business processes to the realm of the consumer as well. As this happens, communications becomes the condment to virtually all applications.

The excitement here is how this will happen. Who will be the winners and losers as communications ends up everywhere? Certainly BT sees this transformation and this is one of the reasons the company purchased Ribbit. Be sure to listen to Howe's perspective on how other service providers will respond.

If you are looking to learn more about the future of communications be sure to come to ITEXPO September 16-18, 2008 in Los Angeles and while you are there you can stop buy booths at the collocated Communications Developer Conference.

While you are there be sure to say Hi to Thomas and me as well. See you soon.

Tata's View of Communications

Tata is a global company which is perhaps closest to what General Electric is in the US or Siemens is in Germany. The company is absolutely massive, having over 5,000 employees and engages in businesses such as building cars, providing chemicals, energy, materials and even consumer products like tea.

In addition, the company is a major player in telecom and has a global fiber network which is worth taking note of as it is large and growing. Tata has been aggressively pursuing US and international business and for this reason I knew my audience would be interested in learning more about how Tata Communications can help service providers, schools, the government and other US based concerns solve their communications problems.

On a podcast interview with Anthony Rossabi, Vice President of Carrier Services for the Americas I had a chance to ask questions about what the company is up to and how it can help carriers worldwide.

A good deal of our discussion centered around TCTS or Tata Communications Transformation Services which provides specific back office functions for carriers such as provisioning, network design, access and access pricing. The company has been focusing on landline but is moving into the wireless space as well.

In addition to what is happening in the US, the company is also growing in developed markets and moving aggressively in emerging markets. Beyond India, they have also created strong inroads into South Africa and China with equity stake arrangements in Neotel and China Enterprise Communications.

The company is also growing its MPLS platform in Latin America through a partnership and building out a POP (Point of Presence) in Brazil.

The company is also exploring green initiatives by potentially working with the Green Grid and other similar groups.

TCTS is gaining traction according to Rossabi by helping carriers increase efficiency and save money. For more information check out tatacommunications.com.

Tata Communications Global MPLS Network

The open source world of communications is growing rapidly. Recently I discussed the Nortel acquisition of PingTel and what this means for our markets.

Ironically the competition in open source was once between Digium and PingTel and when Asterisk became the the dominant player in the space, it seemed that Digium won the war. It turns out that while PingTel lost steam, a new wave of compeitors in the open source space emerged, basing their products on Asterisk.

One such company is Fonality and their Trixbox platform has become a popular alternative in the open source space. It just so happens that Fonality is collocating their training session in Los Angeles at ITEXPO in a  few weeks.

If you are looking to see all the communications companies that matter in the market and also get a chance to receive certification on a number of topics, be sure to come to the show. As you probably know by now, TMC does not play favorites and we are open to working with many companies on their certification prgrams.

Here are the details of the the Trixbox program and a link to TMC University courses as well:

FtOCC CE FtOCC Technician  trixbox Training Courses Return to ITEXPO West Why Get FtOCC Certified? Get FtOCC certified to get prepared to make money with trixbox. Take FtOCC CE to sell and install trixbox and FtOCC Tech to support and troubleshoot trixbox. Get certified and get the cost of training back in your pocket: knowledge from the experts, demo kit with licenses to become your own export, and discounts on licenses and support! Product Discounts By attending FtOCC, you will automatically qualify for reseller discounts on trixbox Pro licenses and support. Now, get certified and start increasing your margins - instantly! Review the descriptions below then select the best course for you and register today!   FtOCC CE (trixbox CE)   FtOCC CE FtOCC CE is a 2.5-day course designed to teach the basics of trixbox® CE installation and administration. FtOCC CE is a great opportunity to roll up your sleeves and learn the ins and outs of trixbox CE. This course is designed for those who wish to install trixbox CE systems for their company or their clients, people who will have to maintain a trixbox installation, or users who are relatively new to trixbox and who want a better understanding of its capabilities. Learn More: Course Description Course Objectives FtOCC CE Agenda Course Requirements September 16-18, 2008 Los Angeles Convention Center Los Angeles, CA   FtOCC Technician (trixbox CE, Pro and PBXtra)     FtOCC Tech FtOCC Technician is a three-day technical certification course designed to train resellers and consultants to support their clients running trixbox CE, trixbox Pro, and PBXtra systems. Taught by Fonality technical support instructors and designed for Linux system administrators, FtOCC Technician dives deep into platform and application installation, carrier setup and integration, network configuration, echo causes and remedies, and other common issues. Learn More: Course Description Course Objectives FtOCC Technician Agenda Course Requirements September 16-18, 2008 Los Angeles Convention Center Los Angeles, CA

The VoIP opportunity is still huge according to a new report from Infonetics Research. At a time when many industries are really hurting, hosted VoIP and managed IP PBX services grew 53% to $24 billion in 2007 after surging 66% in 2006.

Obviously much of this growth is as a result of PSTN replacement but it should be noted that once IP is in place, the potential to add services increases greatly. The great news is Infonetics anticipates growth in the strong double-digits until at least 2011.

Interestingly, IP communications boosts productivity and saves money at the same time. This makes it a great technology to invest in when times are good and times are bad.

Sadly, many companies get the deer in the headlights feeling when they see an economy slow and they sometimes stick with the status quo instead of making decisions which will save them money, boost performance and generate rapid ROI.

Interestingly I have noticed an increased focus on contact center and CRM solutions these past months which leads me to believe companies have finally figured out that if you serve your customers efficiently and well, you make more money.

Contrast this to the last slowdown in 2000 when companies decided to offshore their call centers to save money. This resulted in many cases with worse service and some companies were forced to bring their call centers back into the states.

I am very curious to see how this year shapes up in terms of IP communications growth. Internationally it is certainly on fire but in the US we need to see just how many companies were staring into those headlights.

Please enjoy some communications and technology stories while having your morning (or evening) tea or coffee. My thoughts in brief -- Extreme is smart to jump on the energy efficient bandwagon, Jajah claims to have over 10 million users in the story below which is substantial. They also have a service which translates short English phrases to Chinese. Very cool but I am not sure this can be monetized.

Virtual PBX now allows callers to be pulled out of voicemail -- this great news and not easy to pull off for a hosted vendor. BTW, Virtual PBX was years ahead of the competition in this market but they are being rapidly eclipsed by companies that started years after they did but focused on building their brands. The company should be the Avaya of the hosted communications space.

I was just up to see PAETEC last week and Tim Gray who wrote the PAETEC story was with me. There is insight in Tim's article not found elsewhere.

Another story worth mentioning is Gartner recognizing Digium. Digium really doesn't need the recognition as they already had millions of people download their software before many of the analysts realized what they were doing. Still, corporate decision makers like to have blessings from analysts to keep them from getting fired for making bad decisions. This story is good news for Digium and hats off to Gartner for recognizing the growing momentum of open-source communications solutions.

The last article here focuses on Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his Cramer interview on CNBC. First of all, many people have commented to me that Cramer acted buffoonish during the interview while Schmidt was polished and professional. As challenging as Cramer is to watch at times, his style has caused thousands (millions?) to take a serious interest in investing. For this he should be given great credit but in the end should everyone be investing their own money? We will leave this discussion for another day. For his part, Schmidt was polished and quite matter-of-fact and even acknowledged Google is not perfect.


I did catch him saying in the interview that his company is not responsible for the loss of revenue at companies like the New York times as his company sends them so much traffic. This is true but half the story. News aggregation services such as those supplied by Google do allow companies with far less reach and quality coverage to compete on a semi-level playing field with the New York Times.

Depending on perspective, this could be good or bad. But the fact that Google sits between customers and media sites means they have wrestled at least some control from media companies. In some ways the search giant is responsible for audience amplification... If your site does well -- Google makes it do better. If your site does not do well, Google ensures few will visit it. perhaps this is the role they should play.

•  XO Communications Debuts Ethernet Hub Service for Carriers
•  Locus Telecommunications Expands Distribution Coverage of S Card
•  JAJAH Announces PC-Free VoIP Calls in Mexico
•  Extreme Networks Joins the Green Grid
•  Successful Tests Conducted on Dutch SIP Exchange Project
•  IPLogic Receives Recertification as Cisco Gold Certified Partner
•  Polycom Brings VoIP Field Verified Program to Asia Pacific
•  Virtual PBX Intros Voicemail Interrupt
•  Nortel Unified Communications Enhances Productivity for the Bank of Panhsin
•  KT Chooses Acme Packet SBCs for International VoIP Peering Service
•  PAETEC: Revenues Up, Profits Down
•  Nortel Acquires Pingtel, Eyes Open Source UC Market for SMBs
•  Digium Drives Open Source VoIP, Named Corporate Telephony Visionary by Gartner
• Report: VoIP Service Revenue Up in 2007
• PacketVideo: Video on a Cell Phone Turns 10
• Broadband in the U.K. Still Ahead of Forecast
• CEO Eric Schmidt Discusses Future of Google on CNBC