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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January 2014

You are browsing the archive for January 2014.

Hosted Unified Communications Delivers

January 29, 2014

I have extolled the benefits, features and exciting growth of Hosted Unified Communications for several years. However, I realize that many of you have only recently begun to read my blogs and, therefore, are not aware of the range of data on the market, value propositions and suggested sales methodologies discussed in this blog. To that end, I will cover, once a week, some of the problems or issues businesses face which are solved by implementing Hosted UC.

Generally speaking, the following represent the seven benefits of Hosted UC:

  • Increase employee productivity
  • Improve and integrate employee mobility
  • Increase collaboration between employees and departments
  • Attain Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery
  • Improve cash management
  • Maintain pace with technological improvements
  • Decrease your carbon footprint

Most of the participants in the IP Community and ecosystem can list these benefits, but few can actually give pertinent details or facts that define the range of improvements.

Support: It Takes a Village

January 21, 2014

Long gone are the days of simply selling a product and moving on to the next customer. Today’s competitive telecom environment (all business environments, actually) calls for providing consistent, high-level customer service and support throughout the product lifecycle. It follows, then, that support is no longer the exclusive job of the Customer Service and IT Support departments; taking care of the customer’s issues is now part of everybody’s job description.

In 1996, Hilary Rodham Clinton published her book, “It Takes a Village (and Other Lessons Children Teach Us).” In it, she focuses on the impact people outside the immediate family have on a child’s life, for better or worse, and advocates for a society that meets all of a child’s needs.

Net Neutrality Takes it on the Chin

January 20, 2014

This week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit struck down the rules established by the FCC to preserve the concept of an “open” Internet. The appeals court essentially supported the position of the network and Internet service providers that they should be able to manage and operate their networks without interference by the FCC. While logically that makes sense, it creates an environment where the consumer may face higher cost, poor service and even a continued loss of privacy.

Kick Off 2014 Successfully

January 14, 2014

Every year since the early nineties, I have had the opportunity to participate in a meeting where we positioned our sales teams to sell products. It is a very important event because it provides the management team of the company an opportunity to communicate strategy, priorities and new product information to sales. It is also a time to augment existing sales skills and team camaraderie. It is an exciting and very important meeting and event.

The Immediate and Foreseeable Future

January 10, 2014

The Consumer Electronics Show is a huge gathering of vendors hawking all manner of products, from small electronic connectors to large SUVs. This was my third such visit and, when it comes to new technology announcements, perhaps the least rewarding. However, there were a few things that caught my attention.

First, wireless and mobility is in. From the connected car, home, extended batteries and all manner of handheld devices, it is clear that the demand to access anything from anywhere at any time using any device is being met.

Telecom and IP get the Future Right

January 8, 2014

Over the weekend, I saw a program that compared the marvels of technology from the film “Back to the Future II” with what has actually come to pass. The film, released in 1989, looked at what we could expect 25 five years out, or in 2015, through the eyes of its hero, Marty McFly. Well, we are nearly there and in position to take inventory of the forecast and what was actually delivered.

  1. Hoverboards – Not surprising that this did not come about since the cost of such a board would have prevented widespread adoption, and the concept was really a play on the lead character’s prowess with skateboards.
  2. Flying Cars – They have been projected for years and, other than prototypes and some special applications, have not been commercialized.
  3. Dehydrated Pizza – The concept was that a pizza would be about four inches in diameter and placed into a special oven. The oven would, within seconds, cook the pizza delivering it at 12 inches and hot.
  4. 3D Movies – They got this partially right.
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