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Tom Keating
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Drag-and-drop Conference Calls = OCS 2007 Success?

October 16, 2007

I was just checking out Rich's impressions of the Microsoft UC launch since he was actually there in the audience to gauge the audience's reactions. Rich writes, "Perhaps the most memorable moment about the event so far other than the dry ice smoke and blaring guitar at the start of the day is the fact the audience actually clapped when they saw how a conference call can be initiated with a simple mouse click."

I too picked up on this strong audience reaction to the simple mouse-click and drag-and-drop conferencing ability. (I was streaming the video of the UC launch.)  As CTO and as a former IT Manager, I also speak from experience that no matter how many times I trained a sales person how to make a conference call, they would simply forget the next day because it's too complicated to remember. (no offense my fellow sales co-workers!)

It's surprising that TMC has covered this conferencing usability issue since 1996 when TMC launched CTI Magazine, a magazine dedicated to covering the integration of the computer and the telephone (hence CTI - Computer Telephony Integration) and how CTI would make using the phone much easier to use by leveraging the computer's user interface (UI).

In fact, all of TMC's publications, including Internet Telephony Magazine and Customer Interaction Solutions have been espousing the need for a "better phone" that leverages the computer with its more powerful and flexible UI.





Microsoft OCS 2007 Review

October 16, 2007

Today is the big launch of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS 2007), the core of the Microsoft Unified Communications Strategy. OCS 2007 is a unified communications server that delivers enterprise instant messaging, audio, video- and web-conferencing, and enhanced voice over IP. Today, Bill Gates and Jeff Raikes will announce the worldwide Unified Communications Launch 2007 in San Francisco, with smaller launch parties taking place across the country. I've been testing OCS 2007 beta for a few months now and also the OCS 2007 RTM (release to market) version more recently.

Commodore legend Chuck Peddle, Skype, New Jersey, Sri Lanka, WiFi, VoIP...

October 10, 2007

What do Commodore legend Chuck Peddle, New Jersey, Sri Lanka, WiFi, voice & video over IP via Skype have to do with each other? Well, friend and fellow reporter Evan Koblentz has a cool article about Chuck Peddle using Skype to save the day for a speaking engagement he was going to miss in New Jersey since he was stuck in Sri Lanka on business.

With no Internet access in the event's auditorium, they leveraged WiFi and a connection to a neighbor's cable modem to enable Internet access. Evan points out that they had permission from the neighbor, but he just might want to check the cable provider's Terms of Service (ToS) on sharing Internet access with an adjoining building.

In any event, they held an hour videoconference using Skype which was beamed over the Internet from Sri Lanka to New Jersey to a cable modem to a WiFi router and finally projected to a 8 foot screen. They recorded the videoconference, which is hosted on Youtube, and which has some pretty cool computer history, including discussion of a 6 foot x 4 foot hard drive, Boolean logic, AND / OR gates, birth of microprocessors, and more.



VoIP Tradeshow Testimonials

September 26, 2007

Tradeshows are always a fluctuating business. What could be the greatest tradeshow in the world one year, could be a disaster the next - or worse gone forever. Comdex anyone? As part of the TMC team, I strive as best I can to make sure TMC puts on a great IT Expo show, whether it's recommending speakers, moderating panels, or covering the plethora of news that inevitably comes out of Internet Telephony Expo.

So it is extremely nice to read Rich Tehrani's roundup of testimonials from the Los Angeles show from some very happy exhibitors.

Skype Could Trump Facebook in Social Networking

September 26, 2007

Facebook is the most popular social networking site right now. Putting aside some of my anti-social networking views for a moment (due to tons of LinkedIn, Facebook, Myspace email invites I get), why isn't Skype the #1 social networking application? Just to compare, Skype has over 220 million registered accounts and 9 million concurrent users as of January 2007. Facebook on the other hand claims 39 million active users as of August 2007.

It's tricky to compare their "active" user base numbers, since Skype users may shut down the Skype application or turn off their PC at the end of the day.

Pizza Hut goes VoIP

September 21, 2007

Pizza franchises live or die based on their ability to answer the phones as quickly as possible. If the customer has to wait on hold too long - or worse gets a busy signal, then the customer is going to hang-up and call another pizza restaurant.

So how do local pizzerias increase their call handling efficiency? Most have 2-5 analog lines deployed. Assuming it's $20 per line/month, over-provisioning by adding several additional lines that will probably only be utilized during peak load isn't very cost-effective.

Dataprobe iBootBar Review

September 20, 2007

Ratings Score Installation Documentation Features Usability Performance Overall You Mr. Administrator think you know it all. You think you've got all the bases covered and you scoff at disaster recovery.

Well... Pop quiz, hotshot.

Digium Wins InfoWorld ''Best of Open Source Software'' Award

September 18, 2007

I missed Digium's announcement yesterday that its popular Asterisk VoIP telephony platform had won the InfoWorld "Best of Open Source Software" Bossie Award for 2007. According to the news release, Digium is the only open source VoIP provider to make the list.

"Asterisk is indeed taking the VoIP world by storm," said Mark Spencer, CTO and founder of Digium. "Receiving this industry recognition from IDG and InfoWorld is not only a win for Digium, but the entire open source telephony community as a whole. Digium is committed to taking Asterisk to even greater heights and developing new ways for businesses all over the world to experience cost savings and flexibility never before possible with proprietary VoIP solutions."

Kudos to Mark Spencer and his team at Digium!



Web-based GUI comes to Frontrange HEAT

September 18, 2007

Users of the popular Frontrange HEAT software, a help-desk service & support CRM solution, have been clamoring for a web-based front-end interface for some time. Well, NetworkD informs me through blood, sweat, and tears they've added an HTML interface to HEAT via their iNferndo product and are leveraging AJAX for real-time screen updates. Oh and by the way, HEAT supports VoIP through integration with Frontrange's relatively new FrontRange IPCC voice applications platform, making HEAT a great solution for multi-site centers or even home-based agents since they can leverage low-cost VoIP calls.

Mark Reed from NetworkD writes to me, "We were promised over the last few years by Frontrange that they would develop a web-based front-end for HEAT and they never delivered. Finally we heard from their development manager that they gave up on trying to provide that functionality so NetworkD stepped in to create that for them.

Internet Telephony Expo Recap - And SIP Trunking has Arrived!

September 14, 2007

I'm back from Internet Telephony Expo and thought I'd recap the show and offer my observations. First, the show was very well attended, especially the first day. A picture, or in this case, a video, is worth a thousand words, so check out the jam packed exhibit hall on Day 1. (Click to Play)


If you want to check out some other video footage from IT Expo, go here.


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