Recently in TMC Team Category
In years past the competition between GIPS and Spirit DSP has been the stuff of legend. While the competitive situation has unwound over the past 18 months or so it is still interesting to see how the companies compete with one another.
For example, some news out of this week's ITEXPO is that exhibitor GIPS has just announced it has been selected by Mail.Ru to have its GIPS' VoiceEngine embedded inside the Mail.Ru Agent, starting with version 5.2 -- allowing affordable calls to stationary and mobile phones.
Of course the interesting thing here is Spirit DSP is based in Moscow -- so this is a win in foreign territory for GIPS and the company can look forward to having its solutions rolled out to about 50 million new Russian users.
For example, some news out of this week's ITEXPO is that exhibitor GIPS has just announced it has been selected by Mail.Ru to have its GIPS' VoiceEngine embedded inside the Mail.Ru Agent, starting with version 5.2 -- allowing affordable calls to stationary and mobile phones.
Of course the interesting thing here is Spirit DSP is based in Moscow -- so this is a win in foreign territory for GIPS and the company can look forward to having its solutions rolled out to about 50 million new Russian users.
I just came across an article by Richard Zippy Grigonis regarding the success of ITEXPO in light of the incredible competition over the years. Reading it, reminded me of shows of the past which I enjoyed going to. Zippy -- as many of you know is about the straightest-shooter there is -- he tells it as it is -- from his vantage point of course.
This is what makes his thoughts are all the more incredible (and humbling) -- and Zippy -- you are part of the team that allows ITEXPO and TMC in general to flourish. Of course while i am in thanking mode -- getting ready to head out to LA for ITEXPO myself -- let me extend a hearty thanks to the entire TMC team, our advertisers, sponsors, exhibitors and partners who have allowed TMC to keep growing.
I look forward to seeing you all and thanking you in person this week. Be sure to register now and come on down.
This is what makes his thoughts are all the more incredible (and humbling) -- and Zippy -- you are part of the team that allows ITEXPO and TMC in general to flourish. Of course while i am in thanking mode -- getting ready to head out to LA for ITEXPO myself -- let me extend a hearty thanks to the entire TMC team, our advertisers, sponsors, exhibitors and partners who have allowed TMC to keep growing.
I look forward to seeing you all and thanking you in person this week. Be sure to register now and come on down.
I was just reading the Phone.com blog by Ari Rabban where he mentions:
As the founder of ITEXPO, it's been a long road since we first launched ITEXPO in 1999, but my team has worked very hard to make ITEXPO the premiere communications event in the industry.
Currently this show is the only one in the world we know of which attracts resellers, service providers and business decision makers. It has truly become the gathering place of the communications industry and we are busy this week putting the final touches on what we think will be the best show we have ever held.
Remember the show is next week -- September 16-18 in the Los Angeles Convention Center -- West Hall.
Ari I hope to see you at the show and the same goes for all of my readers.
ITExpo is arguably the largest gathering of the VoIP industry. The conference and expo is a great place for the industry to gather, network and exchange ideas about the industry.
As the founder of ITEXPO, it's been a long road since we first launched ITEXPO in 1999, but my team has worked very hard to make ITEXPO the premiere communications event in the industry.
Currently this show is the only one in the world we know of which attracts resellers, service providers and business decision makers. It has truly become the gathering place of the communications industry and we are busy this week putting the final touches on what we think will be the best show we have ever held.
Remember the show is next week -- September 16-18 in the Los Angeles Convention Center -- West Hall.
Ari I hope to see you at the show and the same goes for all of my readers.
ITEXPO West 2008 attendance for the upcoming Los Angeles, California event to be held September 16-18 is looking great and I just can't wait for the show to start. We are brimming with enthusiasm about this year's event and it will truly be the World's Communications Conference. Perhaps the most exciting thing about this year's show is the record number of companies making news at the show. We are absolutely thrilled about this and are doing our best to help you absorb all the news emanating from the show in an easily digestible format. To that end, we have started producing show dailies which detail news from the exhibiting community.Here is just a smattering of the news items from ITEXPO West 2008 Show Daily #1 for your reading enjoyment:
» IntelePeer Transforming Communications with Rich Media features for Web Apps and Enterprise Software
By Tim Gray, TMCnet Web Editor. Hosted on-demand communications and rich media services company IntelePeer is pushing out its latest technology platform designed to make it easy for software vendors, service providers and Web companies to add the interactive impact of voice, video, SMS, data and other rich-media communications capabilities to Web sites and enterprise software applications - even with minimal or no telecommunications experience. By Mae Kowalke, TMCnet Senior Editor. An ITEXPO panel will examine the business case for uniting various SMB communications systems and tools to boost efficiency and productivity while reducing communications-related costs.
By Rich Tehrani, President and Editor-in-Chief. Unified communications (UC) holds a lot of promise for transforming the communications technology landscape.
By Rich Tehrani, President and Editor-in-Chief. RT: What has been your company's biggest achievement in 2008 so far? SJ: Ingate has seen a continuing growth in sales driven in large part by the growth in SIP Trunking adoption.
By David Sims, TMCnet Contributing Editor. Officials of Iowa Valley Community College District, which operates two community colleges and a satellite campus, say they have adopted unified communications from Avaya and a network infrastructure from Extreme Networks to link faculty, staff and students across 15 buildings located within a 90-mile radius.
By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor. The energy crisis is gaining the attention of many, from consumers to big corporations, politicians and small businesses, all are seeking ways to become more "Green" in their approach to business and to life.
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.
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 (corrected -- sorry) |
| 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 |
The financial news networks seem to thrive on giving us the negative news regarding the economy. Jobs being lost; wages decreasing and all sorts of other negative bits and pieces.
Well there is something you won't hear about if you focus all your time and attention on the network news. It seems in fact that there is some great economic news in the world of IP communications. In fact, VoIP jobs are rising in salary at a time when so many other jobs are not.
OnForce Inc., is an online jobs mart where employers and workers meet on the Internet and agree on an hourly rate and a recent report from the company shows growth in VoIP rates have increased from 1.5 to 1.95 between Q1 and Q2. This basically means VoIP jobs are now paying twice the average of all IT jobs.
Get this... Jobs in the field of printers and point of sale systems (cash registers, etc) command 1/3 the salary of those in VoIP!
If you are in the VoIP space, your time is now. Sure these salary levels may not be this high forever but it is great to see demand and salaries increase so rapidly in a time where news in other markets is generally not as good.
If you are looking to get into the VoIP market or enhance your skills, the time is now. Don't wait... Don't delay.
There are many certifications you can look into and many are very good but only one is offered by TMC -- the company which publishes the only VoIP-related magazine -- Internet Telephony and puts on the world's only IP Communications event ITEXPO...
And of course that would be TMC University. Frankly, you cannot find a better certification anywhere IMHO and as you may have noticed it is tough to be humble when you think your product is so great.
Below is a list of VoIP-related courses and certifications which will be available to you September 16-18, 2008 in Los Angeles, CA. By the way, these courses come with a satisfaction guarantee and I have heard many times that resellers and others have found the certifications at past events valuable and responsible for increased business and rates.
I hope to see you at the show.
Well there is something you won't hear about if you focus all your time and attention on the network news. It seems in fact that there is some great economic news in the world of IP communications. In fact, VoIP jobs are rising in salary at a time when so many other jobs are not.
OnForce Inc., is an online jobs mart where employers and workers meet on the Internet and agree on an hourly rate and a recent report from the company shows growth in VoIP rates have increased from 1.5 to 1.95 between Q1 and Q2. This basically means VoIP jobs are now paying twice the average of all IT jobs.
Get this... Jobs in the field of printers and point of sale systems (cash registers, etc) command 1/3 the salary of those in VoIP!
If you are in the VoIP space, your time is now. Sure these salary levels may not be this high forever but it is great to see demand and salaries increase so rapidly in a time where news in other markets is generally not as good.
If you are looking to get into the VoIP market or enhance your skills, the time is now. Don't wait... Don't delay.
There are many certifications you can look into and many are very good but only one is offered by TMC -- the company which publishes the only VoIP-related magazine -- Internet Telephony and puts on the world's only IP Communications event ITEXPO...
And of course that would be TMC University. Frankly, you cannot find a better certification anywhere IMHO and as you may have noticed it is tough to be humble when you think your product is so great.
Below is a list of VoIP-related courses and certifications which will be available to you September 16-18, 2008 in Los Angeles, CA. By the way, these courses come with a satisfaction guarantee and I have heard many times that resellers and others have found the certifications at past events valuable and responsible for increased business and rates.
I hope to see you at the show.
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Two days -- two shows, two cities and two trains which left at dawn. Wow... What a rush. What I picked up from the Channel Partners (Boston) and SpeechTek (New York) shows is the communications market and the call center market are doing well, based on what companies in the space tell me.Yes, of course some sectors are doing better than others but some are amazingly strong... Open source anything for example is a good place to be. The speech market too is doing well as companies are looking to automation as a way to save money.
In addition, businesses have begun to realize the contact center is extending its presence within the entire corporation making almost all people within the company call center agents. Seems like Nadji Tehrani was right when many decades ago he proclaimed, Every Company is a Call Center.
As this happens the need to monitor quality by companies like Empirix grows and a conversation Susan Anderson at the company showed this to be the case.
A discussion with Jim Jenkins at IQ Services -- a communications testing company also confirms that the testing market is growing.
Discussions with Nuance were interesting as well, as the company seems to be transcending the world of speech and embracing a larger portion of the customer interaction pie. Not unlike Nortel, Cisco, West Interactive, IBM and others, the company is looking to capitalize on the growth of 3G devices and the convergence of outbound, inbound calling and voice portals.
Nuance is even helping companies design user interfaces which marry the best
aspects of speech recognition and the GUI, allowing for example to tell a GPS device that you want to find a local Italian restaurant and rather than listen to 10 responses which you have to pick from, you see them on a screen and at this point can say, "Pick number 3".My conversation with Nuance's Lynda Kate Smith and Michael Wehrs was very instructive and since Smith represents the call center line of business and Wehrs represents mobile, it was interesting to hear how technology developed in one area helps in other parts of the value chain. Our discussion even got into using speech on the device and within the network to interact with stored information in the cloud. For example telling your mobile phone to play music which could reside on your device or in the cloud and having the software be smart enough to figure out how to get the right information back to the user.
Voice biometrics too is gaining traction for things like password resets but I don't see this space as taking off -- rather it will grow slowly but surely and in the process, save companies tremendous support costs in areas like password resets and others.
What I am most excited about however is ITEXPO as I am seeing a resurgence in call centers and massive activity in the communications API space. This means that not only with ITEXPO have a very strong showing (early registration numbers show this to be the case) but the two simultaneous events, Communications Developer and Call Center 2.0 should also have nice attendance levels.
Remember that the purchase of Ribbit by BT has really legitimized communications APIs and development. We now see that major world power service providers are interested in extending their networks to developers everywhere and in doing so they will extend their importance in the new world of communications.
What communications will look like in five years is tough to know for sure but what I can tell you is the thought leaders in the communications and technology space will be at ITEXPO in a matter of weeks (September 16-18, 2008) in Los Angeles and if you want to know what is important in the market today and tomorrow so you can do your job more effectively, you should be there.
I hope to greet you all personally.
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:
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:
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