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Contact Center and Service Provider Similarities

July 17, 2008

I have been seeing an interesting trend in the communications space. In the last 2-3 years, more and more companies who used to focus on service providers have expanded their focus into the call center space. Acme Packet and NextPoint are a few examples of such companies. This is not so surprising mind you when you realize how remote agents resemble service provider customers and the theing they have in common is the need for an SBC.

In addition there has been growth in the hosted contact center market and as more service providers have become interested in providing such services worldwide they need to work with call center vendors who can supply them with the solutions they need.

Posted in AT&T, Avaya, Broadband, CRM, Call Center, Cisco, Communications Developer, Conference, Conferencing, Consumer Electronics, E-Commerce, Google, Green, IP Communications, IPTV, ITEXPO, Microsoft, Nortel, Open Source, SIP, Skype, Speech Technologies, TMC Team, Unified Communications, VoIP, Vonage, Wireless, Yahoo

VON Shows Over

July 16, 2008

A Community Service Message

I have been pretty silent about what has happened with Pulvermedia and the VON events because frankly, everyone else seemed to be covering the fact that the events are no longer taking place.

Also, TMC used to compete head to head with thee VON events so I thought it poor taste to discuss their demise. Having said that, I was at a recent event where I heard horror stories of people showing up for VON Amsterdam -- only to find out there was no VON Amsterdam. Commenters in the blogosphere have echoed the same sentiments.

So I wanted to make sure I went on record letting people in the communications industry know that Pulvermedia is shut down.

Posted in AT&T, Apple, Avaya, Blackberry, Broadband, Call Center, Cisco, Communications Developer, Conference, Conferencing, Consumer Electronics, E-Commerce, FCC, Google, IMS, IP Communications, IPTV, Merger/Acquisition, Microsoft, Nortel, Open Source, Patent, Personal, SIP, SaaS, Security, Skype, Social Networking, Speech Technologies, Technology, Unified Communications, Verizon, Video, Virtual Worlds, VoIP, Vonage, WiMAX, Wireless, Yahoo

Sun, Intel Have Positive News

July 15, 2008

While there was a run on one bank and United States financial institutions seem to be having some big problems, Intel (25% second quarter increase) and Sun are doing quite well thank you very much. While Sun is not such a major tech player anymore, I have to be honest that good tech news is good tech news and if these two companies can do well, one imagines others can do well also.

I have heard a number of financial analysts say that tech will get into trouble because of issues with US financial institutions and it is good to see that so far they are wrong -- at least today.

Posted in AT&T, Apple, Avaya, Blackberry, Broadband, CRM, Call Center, Cisco, Communications Developer, Conference, Conferencing, Consumer Electronics, E-Commerce, FCC, Google, IMS, IP Communications, IPTV, ITEXPO, Microsoft, Nortel, Open Source, SIP, Skype, Speech Technologies, Technology, Verizon, Video, Virtual Worlds, VoIP, Vonage, Wireless, Yahoo

Did Carl Icahn Kill the Yahoo Deal?

July 15, 2008

I think many of us couldn't stop watching the OJ trial years back -- not because we wanted to but because we were drawn to it. Some sort of morbid curiosity I suppose. This is how I feel about the Microsoft/Yahoo deal and the latest in this never-ending story is that Carl Icahn killed the deal by adding in the provision that the senior management and board leave the company.

Posted in Merger/Acquisition, Microsoft, Yahoo

Yahoo/Microsoft The Never-Ending Story

July 13, 2008

I am not sure I have the attention span to follow the love/hate story that is the Microsoft/Yahoo/Carl Icahn/Rupert Murdoch relationship acquisition/merger/whatever -- but it seems that as of this moment, Yahoo! has once again rejected Microsoft's proposal -- this time -- a proposal to restructure.

Rupert Murdoch weighed in by saying News Corp will not be involved in any Yahoo deal and furthermore, Yahoo and Microsoft will not end up with any deal.

Yahoo for its part is communicating to the world about the matter through press releases and the latest one claims that Carl Icahn/Microsoft gave Yahoo less than 24 hours to accept a take-it-or leave-it deal that would be of higher risk, complexity and lower financial value than the deal Yahoo signed recently with Google.

In addition, the board apparently was not happy with the Microsoft/Icahn proposal's requirement that the board and the senior management take a hike. They say, this massive change would destabilize Yahoo.

Here are some other points made by Yahoo:

-- The revenue guarantees suggested, which are conditional and subject to reduction, are well below the search revenue that the Company is expected to generate on its own and in association with its announced commercial agreement with Google. That agreement alone is estimated to generate $250 to $450 million of incremental cash flow for the first twelve months following implementation, while allowing Yahoo! to remain a principal in paid search;

Posted in Google, Microsoft, Social Networking, Technology, Yahoo

Korean VoIP, 911 and LNP

July 4, 2008

While we all know VoIP calls allow tremendous flexibility in allowing callers to access their communications wherever there is an internet connection, we also know the new technology doesn't integrate with 911 services in exactly the same manner as the PSTN. Is this the reason that Korean regulators are hesitant to allow LNP to VoIP numbers or is it that the incumbent KT who handles 90% of fixed-line calls doesn't want to lose market share and is exerting its influence?

Check out this article which points out 90% of the country uses mobile phones and decide for yourself.

Posted in Broadband, FCC, IMS, IP Communications, SIP, Skype, Technology, VoIP, Vonage, WiMAX, Wireless, Yahoo

Todd Keefe to Promote ITEXPO West 2008

July 1, 2008

Todd Keefe always did a great job managing the press room, etc at the VON events and now that the VON events are gone, we thought it made sense to have Todd join TMC in promoting ITEXPO, the World's Communications Event. Officially, it is Keefe's company, For Immediate Release who will handle the PR and we are happy to have him onboard and we look forward to hosting you all at ITEXPO September 16-18, 2008 in Los Angeles.

Posted in AT&T, Apple, Avaya, Blackberry, Broadband, CRM, Call Center, Cisco, Communications Developer, Conference, Conferencing, Consumer Electronics, E-Commerce, FCC, Google, Green, IMS, IP Communications, IPTV, ITEXPO, JITC, Merger/Acquisition, Microsoft, Musings, Nortel, Open Source, Patent, Personal, Podcast, Rates Technology, SIP, Science, Search, Security, Skype, Social Networking, Speech Technologies, TMC Team, TMC Video, TMCnet, Technology, Unified Communications, Verizon, Video, Virtual Worlds, VoIP, Vonage, WiMAX, Wireless, Yahoo

Searching Flash Becomes Easier

July 1, 2008

Until now, if you designed a website in Flash, you were out of luck in terms of SEO. Search engines in fact could not read Flash and this means that even a rich, very targeted site would not come up in search engine results.

You can see that searching is inacurate as many great sites are Flash only.

This is scheduled to change in the future as Adobe has said they will start working with leading search engine companies such as Yahoo! and Google to make the SWF Flash file format readable.

Many in the industry think this is a big deal and I tend to agree.

One of the areas where this move can be most important is in reduced duplication of effort. Many sites which develop in Flash also develop a seperate but equivalent HTML site for SEO reasons. Obviously this is duplicated effort and makes no sense in the long term.

Posted in Google, Microsoft, Search, Technology, Yahoo

Allied Security Trust -- Let The Patent Wars Begin

June 30, 2008

You may remember a while back I wrote about Vocaltec selling some of its patents to what appears to be a firm that will become a patent troll. This scenario is becoming more and more common... Companies are now launching businesses based on buying patents and using them to sue others.

In order to combat such companies, Verizon, Cisco, Google, Telefon AB L.M., Ericssson, HP and other companies have joined together to launch Allied Security Trust -- an organization which will acquire patents and subsequently grant member companies nonexclusive rights to use them.

A quarter million dollars or so will grant you access to this exclusive patent club and another $5 million is required to be placed in escrow to help fund future patent purchases.

There are two interesting points here. One is the fact that there are a number of telecom companies in this group and second is the fact that Verizon sued Vonage recently for patent infringement.

Posted in AT&T, Apple, Blackberry, Broadband, Communications Developer, Consumer Electronics, E-Commerce, FCC, IP Communications, IPTV, Microsoft, Nortel, Patent, SIP, Science, Technology, Unified Communications, Verizon, Video, VoIP, Vonage, Wireless, Yahoo

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