David Byrd : Raven Call
David Byrd
David Byrd is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer for Raven Guru Marketing. Previously, he was the CMO and EVP of Sales for CloudRoute. Prior to CloudRoute, He was CMO at ANPI, CMO & EVP of Sales at Broadvox, VP of channels and Alliances for Telcordia and Director of eBusiness development with i2 Technologies.He has also held executive positions with Planet Hollywood Online, Hewlett-Packard, Tandem Computers, Sprint and Ericsson.
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March 2011

You are browsing the archive for March 2011.

Business VoIP Faces Armageddon

March 30, 2011

Perhaps the hardest thing to do in this blog was keep the word “puppy” out of the title. An ambient video showing some cute puppies has caused quite a stir as its popularity is greater than that of ESPN Online. The Shiba Inu Puppy Cam site has had more than 26 million views representing untold hours of Internet usage. The Internet itself is threatened by these puppies as this type of video will increase traffic at a faster rate than any other IP application.

Soaring with Turkeys and Eagles

March 28, 2011

Friday is nearly always a casual dining day and last Friday was no different. I made classic Reuben sandwiches for dinner using my homemade pastrami and corned beef. Loved it! Saturday we tried out a new Indian restaurant that opened a couple of miles away.

More than Flowers

March 25, 2011

I was reviewing a slide show of CTIA noting an array of people, activities and panels, and came upon a photo of the NTT booth, a pedestal and a vase containing flowers. NTT was not at CTIA. Due to the earthquake in Japan, NTT canceled their participation at CTIA.

It is difficult to appreciate the enormous difficulties that Japan is facing when we have seen the country as a competitor to the US for global economic supremacy.

The Voices of Unified Communications through Podcasting

March 23, 2011

It is very common as you walk through the various expositions and events in our industry to see interviews taking place either on the show floor or in some more private area. Generally, I will sit for an interview in either the Broadvox booth or in the established video area. However, up until this year, I had not done a podcast. Doug Green, of Telecom Reseller, finally got me to do one on the merger of Broadvox and Cypress Communications during IT EXPO and while I was at COMPTEL, he got me to sit again.

Scrambling to Grow, Slowly and Thoughtfully

March 21, 2011

The past weekend was good for dining as well as cooking. Friday was casual with burgers and chicken fried steak. Saturday, I cooked corned beef and smoked pastrami. Sunday was a fried Cornish game hen and a Caesar salad.

From SNL to the Senate, the Honorable Al Franken

March 18, 2011

I was not one of those that felt Ronald Reagan did not have the stuff to be President of the United States. He was older than I and “Bed Time for Bonzo” was not on my must watch list. Even Sonny Bono didn’t cause much of a blink for me. He and Cher had split up seven years before he ran for the US House of Representatives.

Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks

March 16, 2011

Consider that years ago attempting to market to SMBs was a very expensive proposition. The number of SMBs is in the millions and traditional mass marketing cost is in the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. With the advent of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) that has changed. In fact, it is easier to model the buying behavior of SMBs today than Enterprises.

Pause to Taste the Sauce

March 14, 2011

It was a short weekend given the need to travel to the Channel Partners show in Las Vegas on Sunday. Therefore the only cooking I did was a salmon egg Napoleon for breakfast on Saturday. I didn’t make it with the intent of having a recipe as it was my first attempt. I made it with toasted and buttered marble rye (rye and pumpernickel), a layer of smoked salmon, lightly scrambled eggs with diced tomato, and cream cheese salmon roe sauce.

Geo Targeted SEO for SIP Trunking

March 11, 2011

Previously, I discussed the value of geo-targeting using Google. In the last couple of weeks we have developed our first geo-targeted SEO campaign. As a result of the merger with Cypress Communications, Broadvox inherited over 600 buildings with shared tenant services customers. The sheer number of customers and potential prospects these 600 buildings represent require contemporary marketing methodologies.

FIFO Meets First to File

March 9, 2011

A story that will have implications for every inventor and Research and Development (R&D) organization across the US came to my attention this morning. The US Senate has voted to change the US patent system. Called the America Invents Act the Senate approved significant changes to our patent system by a vote of 95-5. Given the current climate in Washington, I am amazed that something important to our future could garner that kind of support.

Gnocchi isn't New and neither is DDoS

March 7, 2011

Breaking the fast Friday night was both exciting and anticlimactic. I decided on having Pollo Asado using Cornish game hens rather than chicken. I marinated a Cornish Game hen in salt, adobe seasonings, Mexican oregano, achiote sauce, water, orange, pineapple, lime and lemon juice for 24 hours. I then grilled it along with lightly oiled and seasoned red onion wedges, split jalapenos, quartered tomatoes, and sliced bell peppers.

It's Getting Really Cloudy Out There

March 4, 2011

Enterprise Connect had one subject with many minds, Cloud Computing. Since it is necessary to say what you intend to do in the cloud, the simplest announcements state Unified Communications (UC), more complicated Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and the fence sitters, Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C). The bottom line is that you could not walk an aisle on the show floor or listen to more than a few speakers before hearing praises of UC. Earlier this week, I was reading an interview with IBM’s Samuel Palmisano regarding decisions they have made to position IBM in the new era of cloud computing.

How Big is the Virtual PBX Market?

March 2, 2011

Yesterday while I was interviewing a candidate to join Broadvox, I was asked the simple question “How big is the market for C4 IP and GO!VBX?” What makes the answer interesting is to understand the target markets and underlying technologies of the two platforms. C4 IP is intended for enterprise customers given the per seat cost and CENTREX like feature set. GO!VBX is positioned for the SMB market with potential to support an array of third party software and hardware solutions. Both products have options that move them from being business communications platforms to providing the most advanced Unified Communications capabilities.

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