ITEXPO Blog
| The ITEXPO blog is where you can view the latest news and happenings at TMC's leading VoIP conference.

Longview IoT Boosts Energy and Wireless Efficiency

Some of the biggest challenges slowing down the adoption of IoT are security, efficient battery usage and optimized wireless communications.One company has...

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Hallmark's Simple, Inexpensive Way to Boost Customer Satisfaction

In an effort to boost margins, companies often push more users to automated solutions such as FAQs, chatbots, voice bots and anything...

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Huawei Places the World's First 5G VoNR Video Call

Huawei recently completed the world's first voice over NR (VoNR) call. The voice and video call service was made using two Huawei...

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IGEL Advances Future of Work

IGEL is a provider of a next-gen edge OS for cloud workspaces. The company’s software products include IGEL OS, IGEL UD Pocket (UDP) and Universal...

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Tata Communications and Cisco Collaborate on SD-WAN

Tata Communications and Cisco have extended their partnership to enable enterprises to transform their legacy network to a customized and secure multi-cloud...

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How to Win the 50-Year-Old China Trade War

Today and this week in-fact is historic - the left and right in the U.S. agree that we have a major trade...

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Extreme Elements Enables The Autonomous Enterprise

Extreme Networks just announced Extreme Elements which in-turn enables the autonomous network and subsequently the autonomous enterprise. In a dynamic webinar, Dan...

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MicroCorp Continues to Grow in SD-WAN, UC, Cloud and MPLS

October 26, 2018

As global enterprises are embracing SD-WAN and the move to the cloud, we decided to reach out for an exclusive interview with Trish Kapos – VP Marketing & Strategic Relationships at Microcorp.

This 32-year-old company is getting some very large SD-WAN deals - into the Fortune 5, in fact. The award-winning organization has over 80 providers, from Altice Business to Zayo.

As a premier value-added distributor of telecom and cloud solutions, they have simplified the purchase and management of telecommunications services for business customers. Today, the MicroCorp People-Powered Network is a powerful combination of back-office systems, people and support offerings in the industry.

MicroCorp prides itself on being your whole back office or an extension of your current team, allowing customers to focus on growing their business profitably. In addition, their collaborative back office portal, Nautilus helps position them as a trusted, skilled partner for a national network of agents, MSPs and VARs.





Trish explained their growth areas are SD-WAN, UC, cloud and even MPLS is growing.

In terms of differentiation, the company prides itself on providing flawless commissions the first time to minimize or eliminate the need to recover them later.

Trish said, "MicroCorp is making huge investments in the area of automated tools as we continually see that self-service tools are what drive partner engagement."



She continued, "We are focused on the ecosystem and assist our partners in building a network of experts around them, along with programs that protect their customers and commissions as they open their customer doors to these experts."

Learn more about SD-WAN, IT and UC at SD-WAN Expo and ITEXPO, January 29-February 1st, 2019 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Where Doers & Disruptors Find Communications & Technology Solutions


















ZiipRoom Intros Must-Have Videoconferencing Solution

June 5, 2018



Friction or resistance is generally used to slow things down. In fact, a car's braking system is a great example of something very small - brake pads, reducing the momentum of a vehicle weighing thousands of pounds.

A learning curve is friction. Multiple ways to accomplish the same outcome causes friction. In technology, one example of friction was Microsoft Windows phones around the 2005 timeframe.



Jenne Becomes Leading UCaaS Value-Added Distributor

May 8, 2018

As resellers evolve from selling telecom hardware like PBXs to UCaaS, they often need help to figure out how to do it successfully. Beyond the financial challenges inherent in going from a CAPEX to a monthly recurring (MRR) model are the inherent difficulties in learning how to configure complete solutions which include the network and voice communications.

One company helping resellers and the channel making the switch is Jenne, Inc. They bill themselves as a truly value-added distributor according to Susan Elder, Senior Director of Marketing as she told us in an exclusive in-person interview.



In January of this year, TMCnet reported Jenne becoming a distributor of Zenitel Group. At the time, Patrick Howard, senior director of product management at Jenne said that Zenitel’s intelligent communication solutions for operational risk and resilience, as well as essential operational needs are critical to bridging the last mile in this market.

In February, we reported on a Jenne deal with Jive Communications. At the time, Patrick said, "Jenne’s high touch, fast response,’ model and UCaaS offerings will complement Jive’s scalable, flexible, and reliable cloud-based phone systems and unified communications services, and their stellar customer service." 

More recently, Jenne announced a new Cloud Master Agent Program for Avaya IP Office.









With Yeastar, Becoming a Telecom MSP is a Massive Arbitrage Opportunity

May 4, 2018

Recently we wrote about how telecom resellers are becoming MSPs, providing UCaaS solutions on their own, without the need to rely on an OTT provider such as RingCentral or 8x8.

In our discussions with MSPs making the switch from reselling a hardware solution like Toshiba to providing service themselves, they tell us how happy they are. They are making great margins and have much more control over their destiny.



We just had an in-person interview with David L. Puckett, Director of Business Development at Yeastar and the opportunity just grew in our minds as we spoke.

The company has 100 engineers and recently devoted themselves to taking all their hardware smarts and converting it to software. The result is the Yeastar Cloud PBX which was launched a few months back at ITEXPO. It's a monster, based on the Yeastar Management Plane or YMP, supporting 100 PBX instances, 2,000 users, and 500 concurrent calls.







AireSpring Going The Extra Mile For Customers

April 27, 2018



AireSpring continues its rapid hosted growth according to Danial Lonstein who recently became the President and Chief Revenue Officer. To accommodate their expansion, Danial explained in an exclusive live interview that they recently moved to a new headquarters in Van Nuys, California.

The company made some big bets last year as they explained to us in an interview at the time.



They've recently added a new channel chief, Shane Speakman who came from Zayo Zayo Group where he led the channel management team and served as National Director of Business Development. The news was announced at ITEXPO and SD-WAN EXPO in Fort Lauderdale.



As a result, they are actively adding to their channel team - in part because many of the larger players in the space and reducing their channel commitment. Danial explained, the larger the competition gets, the less flexible and channel-friendly they become.

Other differentiators include their multivendor approach, more sophisticated portal access, free support of third-party tickets and auto ticket generation which happens when they notice a problem.

Going forward, the company will have a global SD-WAN solution including getting through the great "Chinese firewall." In addition, they have added Zoom from Metaswitch.















Windstream Positioned between CableCos and Largest Carriers

April 26, 2018

Two months back at ITEXPO/SDWAN Expo, Windstream aligned its brands to simply Windstream Enterprise and Windstream Wholesale. The company explained the new brand strategy reflects the transformation the organization is undertaking in response to the demands of the business market for a more agile, innovative network and communication service provider. The organization distinguishes itself by leveraging the latest technology and a highly agile, customer-centric culture that positions Windstream as a trusted partner to its Enterprise and Wholesale customers.



“Enterprise IT is going through a tectonic shift, driven by rapid migration to the cloud and adoption of new technologies to address evolving customer needs,” said Joseph Harding (above), executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Windstream Enterprise and Wholesale. “This transformation directly addresses the specific challenges facing businesses today who’ve learned that conventional approaches can’t keep pace with the requirements of the digital economy,” said Harding.



How Nuance is Powering the Voice Economy

April 16, 2018

It's no secret that voice interfaces have become one of the most successful product categories in recent years. With the price point of smart speakers dropping to the same level as a week's worth of Starbucks, many consumers have filled their homes with such devices.

All of this is great news for Nuance as they have been a leader in the voice recognition space for decades.

As this tech has evolved to become intelligent assistants, the company has invested in organic growth and acquisitions to stay ahead of the curve.

Speaking of acquisitions we remember when past ITEXPO keynoter Steve Wozniak mistakenly mentioned that Apple was going to purchase Nuance. Sometimes you can be correct but just early. This could be the case as Apple is failing in the Smart Speaker market with its overpriced HomePod. It may be forced to buy Nuance for its voice technology.





CounterPath Now does Collaboration

April 15, 2018

President and CEO Donovan Jones



Years before it was fashionable, CounterPath had a soft-client, allowing an app to give mobile devices compatibility with virtually all SIP phone systems. The company's Bria softphone was so ahead of its time, it is pretty incredible that CounterPath hasn't become a household name.

Perhaps that will change as the company recently launched its Stretto Platform for collaboration. We aren't sure we are huge fans of the name Stretto but we are fans of the solutions the company offers. CounterPath can now overlay seamless collaboration on all PBXs. All this while, providing provisioning, battery saving technology, messaging, presence and more.

The benefits become clear when you think about it.







IPTechView RMM from ABP Fills Important MSP Gap

March 2, 2018

According to Robert Messer CEO of ABP, the company's new IPTechView RMM, launched at ITEXPO gives MSPS and VARs the ability to monitor and control virtually all the devices on their customer networks. PBXs, switches, IP cameras, IP phones, IoT, etc. The highly secure system is compatible with the GPDR standard for cybersecurity in Europe which means it should be fine for use in the U.S. and elsewhere.

The solution is meant to be complimentary to things like SolarWinds, Kaseya, Autotask and ConnectWise as it does not manage the PCs and they do.

What we liked best about it was the ability to see real-time views from the cameras.



Mitel Analyst Day 2018 Live Blog

February 26, 2018