Jon Arnold writes, "This year's MetaSwitch Forum provided a host of proof points that service providers of all stripes can stay competitive so long as they deploy the right technology and have the right vision for serving their customers."

Time and again, the pitch is about the company and the technology. Look at automobile reviews: It isn't about the engine size, it's about the 0-60. Telecommunications needs to do the same thing.

When Aastra talks about its AastraLink Pro 160, it should be about Asterisk. The story should be similar to the Aastra CT handset story. When anyone talks about the iPhone, do they mention that it only works on GSM or do they spend time talking about all the neat things they can do with it?  Same lesson.  I think that gadgets, handsets, phones and softphones can drive VoIP penetration, if they were easy to use (which they are), easy to add apps to, and did cool, useful things (for the consumer).

Take this example: "a food-service equipment innovator, Henny Penny, has deployed several Cisco Unified Communications solutions to improve customer service, streamline operations and enhance employee collaboration. ... Cisco Unified Contact Center Express and Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express solutions are helping Henny Penny realize their business goals of getting their customers' issues solved more quickly and more simply than in the past."  The press release is kind of repetitive and vague. It should have said that Henny Penny used Cisco Unified Contact Center Express and Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Express in order to improve first call resolution, which has a direct impact on Henny Penny's bottom line. In addition, both the employee and the customer have seen an increase in satisfaction. Cisco's platform is a tool. The goal is to reduce costs by resolving customer service in one call, while improving customer satisfaction. This is what UC is all about. In fact, if you ever talk to John C. Kelly, Regional Vice President of Sales, North America, at Altitude Software, that's all that he is trying to accomplish for his clients - first call resolution. It's the goal of contact centers.

Another example is this Voxeo press release, which can help Human Resources departments with task resolution (like Self-service benefits enrollment, Job hotlines, Employee surveys and Employee notification messages) and efficiency especially now with job screening. These are concrete examples of what Voxeo IVR can provide. No tech talk. Just end user benefit.

The last example today will be Sprint's UC announcement.  SIP trunking over Global MPLS network. Yawn! The release did mention Sprint's 3 global partners: Cisco for mobile integration; IBM Sametime Unified Telephony; and Microsoft's OCS 2007 R2. The only case study: Sprint's internal deployment of unified communications and its $6 million annual cost savings, visit www.sprint.com/whitepapers.

When trying to market or sell UC, forget all that tech talk and tell a story about the customer. It's all about the customer. Their pain. Your solution.