David Byrd
Chief Marketing Officer for ANPI
CloudTC and N-Able Acquired
"Australian-owned IP PBX systems company, Vixtel, has completed the acquisition of Silicon Valley based glass phone developer, CloudTC, for an undisclosed figure,"...
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ProfitBricks: Where InfiniBand Meets Cloud 2.0
In a recent meeting with William Toll and Pete Johnson of ProfitBricks, the pair were ecstatic to explain how their company has...
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Proactive Care Puts Operators One Step Ahead
By Thomas Fuerst, Senior Director, Multimedia Solutions MarketingAlcatel-Lucent
Monitoring and analyzing network data proactively saves operators time, money, and customers.
When a network service fails, it makes headlines, ticks off customers, and costs that network operator money. When a failure is headed off in advance, on the other hand, there might not be praise-laden headlines, but it's newsworthy nonetheless.
The traditional approach to customer care has typically been: a disgruntled customer calls customer service and complains of a service interruption or problem; the rep, learning of it for the first time, sends out a technician the next day, and eventually finds a resolution. Often, customers are left feeling put out, and the operator has spent significant time and money resolving the problem. Even worse is the customer who doesn’t call and just feels this is ‘typical’ of their network experience. That is a customer at risk of leaving.
Proactive care flips this dynamic on its head by using predictive analytics to identify potential outages or errors in the network and stop them before they occur. It consists of three main parts: one, constantly monitoring and measuring data on the network; two, real-time analysis of the data; and three, the most important, acting on that analysis to fix the problem.
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10 Lessons from Volleyball
I've played volleyball for over 25 years. I have traveled around the US to watch the pros live - both indoor...
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Emerging Threats Combats a Million Plus Pieces of New Malware a Week
There are 250,000 plus new pieces of malware being produced each day equating to one piece per person in the US in...
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NFV-Based Software Telcos Need OSS/BSS Interoperability
One of the goals of ETSI NFV is to allow new entrants to provide solutions to carriers based on software instead of...
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SysAid's Lifshitz: The Cloud Will Dominate ITSM Market
Cloud computing has really become a household word with mainstream media outlets running stories on television about the growth in the space...
Full Story »The Diminishing SIP Trunk, Not!
August 10, 2011
Recently, I have read multiple blogs and articles devaluing the role and savings associated with SIP Trunks. In each case I found the logic used compelling but the conclusion somewhat missing the mark. SIP Trunking, as exclaimed by ShoreTel for years, is not required for a Unified Communications (UC) implementation. However, there is a difference between a requirement and a desired component.
Napoleonic Dreams
August 8, 2011
Finding a title for today’s blog was more difficult than usual. That stems mostly from my choice of recipe of the week. I hope you don’t think it unbecoming of a foodie due to its simplicity. Naturally, the weekend was full of great food, French toast with strawberries, deep fried soft-shelled crab, trout stuffed with salmon mousse and hollandaise sauce and a breakfast Napoleon.
Today, I am Being Social
August 5, 2011
Social media continues to generate headlines exclaiming its growth and business relevance. While I cannot, have not, and will never argue it is not growing at a fast clip, its business relevance has always been in question. However, recent events have finally, established for me the business relevance of social media.
First, I must expose my lack of use of social media broadly.
Measuring Broadband America
August 3, 2011
The report “Measuring Broadband America” by the FCC is an exercise in navel gazing. Previously, I have pointed out that it is important to analyze availability, speed and price or ASP. This report looks only at speed which in the US is abysmal compared to other industrialized and developing nations. Recently, I had lunch with a businessman from the Ukraine.
Smoky Backyards and Back Rooms
August 1, 2011I had a series of grilling moments this weekend beginning with a London broil. Although, the original London broil was made with flank steak, most sold today consists of top sirloin or round steak. It needs to be marinated in olive oil, garlic and lemon juice or vinegar overnight. Next grilled over high heat to medium rare and sliced as thinly as possible against the grain.
Differentiating Yourself When Considered a Commodity
July 29, 2011Over the past two weeks, we have engaged the real estate representatives that can influence our ability to sell in buildings where we have a PBX or can provide broadband access and hosted services. Although, the majority of the presentation was about the benefits of working with Cypress Communications and Broadvox since the acquisition and the growth of cloud computing, the questions we received were more about existing services. What was surprising was the question that assumed we are selling a commodity product.
Often, when asked “what does Broadvox sell?” I find it simpler to respond with a “phone service” or a “phone line”.
Commercial Real Estate and Cloud Computing
July 27, 2011
Over the last two weeks Broadvox and Cypress have met with our major landlord and tenant representatives in Dallas and Atlanta. The meetings were held to engage the major commercial real estate players that have worked with Cypress over the last decade or so and to discuss the future of VoIP, Unified Communications and cloud computing. Obviously, this audience does not follow IP communications or IT trends closely, but they do need to be prepared to solve their current and future tenant requirements. Therefore, we articulated the growth and importance of VoIP and hosted VoIP to their clients.
OMG, Crab Cakes and Bing
July 25, 2011
It was an interesting weekend for food beginning with Friday’s grilled lemon chicken breasts. Using my usual brine of salt and lemon juice (1 teaspoon each per cup of water) the breasts were incredibly juicy and flavorful. Saturday we decided to try a new restaurant in the neighborhood. It is a breakfast and lunch place and we tried it in either day one or two of its opening.
Internet Marketing State of the Union (con't)
July 22, 2011
Before I begin, I need to note that Matthew Sharp has been nominated for Channel Manager of the year. Many of you know Sharpie and how well deserves the nomination and the win. Today is the last day to vote. Please fill out the Channel Partners voting form and help Matt to victory!
Internet Marketing State of the Union
July 20, 2011
The primary topics normally discussed on this blog involve IP telephony, the VAR community, Unified Communications, and of course my passion for food. Occasionally, I like to spice it up and discuss marketing and more specifically, internet marketing. The shifts this year to internet marketing efforts have been substantial, so I will split my opinions into two posts.
A lot has been happening this year regarding the major search engines and internet marketing.
