As always, food was great this weekend. We had chicken fried steak, grilled spicy Asian chicken wings, parsley potatoes and another crown pork roast (fixed entirely different from the previous recipes) with a wonderful side of apples. I had planned to make a side dish using apples and plums but the plums were so sour that I made an Indian chutney out of them instead (next time Indian is on the menu, I'll be ready). I made an apple pie filling as the apple side dish. The sweetness of the sliced apples next to the savory pork was very good. Plus I plan to make hand pies from the leftover apples. Last week I also made an interesting dish, Chicken Vesuvio. Interesting in that it is a simple roast chicken dish that makes the most of the chicken drippings at the end. It is a sauce worth remembering and applying to other dishes. I made just a sauce to accompany the pork roast and the grandkids loved it. I made the Chicken Vesuvio using artichoke hearts as suggested but found when eating the leftovers I preferred the addition of sweet peas. And the recipe of the week is Grilled Spicy Asian Chicken Wings. Sometimes I make this dish using Turkey wings, a fine alternative when wanting to get away from chicken or beef.

Moving from TDM to IP

We spend a lot of time discussing why businesses should move from TDM Voice platforms to IP-based platforms. What we do not do is spend enough time training our staffs to guide our prospects and customers as they make the transition. There are basic terms every sales and sales support person should know and understand. Integrated Access Device (IAD), Router, Session Border Controller (SBC), firewall, media gateway, packet, codec and many others allow our sales teams to be considered experts when discussing VoIP/SIP Trunking. In addition to knowing what these and other terms are, there is also the requirement to know how to communicate that knowledge. Nothing frustrates me more than listening to a sales engineer describe any of the aforementioned using language that only further confuses or obfuscates the subject. I no longer assume that our sales personnel can communicate these terms and concepts to our prospects. I make an effort to engage in some level of training during each of our Broadvox sales meetings and I often suggest reading materials. Therefore, this week is dedicated to discussing how we can be the experts our prospects and customers deserve.

See you on Wednesday...