Recently in communications Category

During a discussion online, some interesting items popped up.

Companies ban Instant Message. One IT Security Consultant looks at the irony of it here. Tele-Presence is all about improved efficiency in communicating -- no more phone tag, less voicemail, that kind of thing -- but how will that be implemented in a corporate environment that locks it down?

Social networking like LinkedIn and Twitter are becoming commonplace among the marketing set. Maybe instead of banning these things in a corporate environment, you embrace it and set policy. Here's an article from CIO.com on LinkedIn etiquette.

It boils down to tools. Will you give people the tools that they can use to be effective at their position?  If you are that worried about security, do an audit and train your people. Manage by walking around. Most theft is internal or social engineered. You can train against the social engineering, but if someone wants something bad enough they will figure out how to get it. It's just a shame that can't get that passionate and creative about the job.

I don't know how this ended up in front of me this morning, but it was an interesting piece about Obama and Radio Localism. Obviously, conservatives don't want localism because it gets in the way of profit. You can't profit if you have to pay a DJ in each market AND report some local news. Sheesh! Why do you think we get these licenses anyway - Profit. The guys at NAB are ready to fight Localism.

Unfortunately for NAB, word is getting out that license renewal is NOT automatic and even one complaint can derail the process and cost you money. (This was news to me). And during the media ownership workshops, despite broadcasters trying to fill seats, too many folks showed up to report about the total lack of local news in their communities. Even though Martin had a pre-determined gift for NAB, the workshops were too powerful to allow the steamroller to work.

NAB needs to realize that the FCC's job is not to insure that some businesses have a profit or even stay in business. The FCC's main duty is to protect the consumer and to mandate the spectrum equitably.  (Congress needs to remember this as well).  If TBO.com companies started going backrupt, I am certain that another entity would take its place.

I don't know how many of you are on LinkedIn or Facebook but it has been a strange couple of weeks. Before I left for IT Expo West, I was getting duplicate invites from several people that I did not know. The unusual part was the duplicates. So I replied to each invite asking for information about what list my email address was on. No reply from the 7 or so folks. Flying back from LA, it's a week later, still no reply. Why invite me to your network, if you don't use it or check it?

Also, LinkedIn has started allowing anyone to create a group. And they have. 494 groups when you search telecom. Ridiculous. That's like buying a new screwdriver and hammer at Sears each time you assemble Saunders furniture. Use the tools that are there and stop creating excess noise.

It would be great if one invite would say something like: "Peter, I joined GotchaNetworks. The discussion about LTE was great and I have discovered one or two prospects." Then I can understand the invite. But the canned invite because every time someone joins a group or network they upload the whole contact list is patently absurd.  And another lazy thing is the newsletter. You join networks and people add you to their newsletter. It would be fine if there was any value to these "communications" but they come off as marketing fluff. Tell me what you are up to. What topic are you following or finding interest in (or scaring you - no politics or religion please). How about what you get from the network we are both in?

While this is some ranting, the lesson is about Marketing and Persuasion. If you want people to read your stuff, to not think that you are just interrupting them like an email tele-marketer, Respect their time. How to do that? Give value. Think about the message you are sending.

Andy Abramson writes about how video conferencing from a client company like SightSpeed is better than Cisco's Tele-Presence. On Sept. 22, Brian Carroll is having a tele-seminar on "Email vs. Phone vs. In-Person Meeting". Keith Rosen, a respected sales coach, would tell you that, especially in today's economic climate, nothing beats a face-to-face or a phone call. Keith writes about how Sales 2.0 is diluting inter-personal communications. (If you have ever received an email from someone that using text messaging a lot, you will see what he means).

As one commenter wrote to Andy, Tele-Presence is a richer experience. Well, it should be for equipment that is in excess of $50K per site. Even this price barrier is being removed by companies like WBS Connect leasing out tele-presence rooms for business use.

Another point is that many tele-workers don't want to shave and dress for video conferencing. There's no IT guy at the home office to help with the video conference set-up. Messing with the webcam and the software is a pain and when you have so much to do in 8 hours, dialing a conference bridge is easy. Even that isn't fool-proof as quite a few times stuff has happened to hamper that easy tool.

Maybe the differentiating factor will be personal interaction. When I see couples at restaurants and one or both are on the cell phone, I have to wonder what are they doing. That's a live person that traveled to meet you. Talk to that person. And the yakking in the car while driving WITH other people in the car. This society is in for a wake-up call and it will come when most of us are too weak to fight back.

You can't get a human on the phone but ChaCha pays humans to run your Google search while you are mobile. Go figure. Maybe the differentiator to a sale will be the personal touch.

Is travel is mess? Yes. Will virtual conferences replace real ones like IT Expo West next week? No. It's about the hand-shake; the meals, drinks and ideas shared. It's about getting a read from someone live. That is not easily replaced. That said, tele-presence as a 3-D meeting experience might work for second or third meetings to go over details or brainstorm or for product demos or training.

Video conferencing like SightSpeed and tokbox can replace phone calls (if we can figure out how to make them on demand like a phone call instead of scheduled). And I need to start replacing some IM and email with the phone. I pay for a landline, a VoIP line, and a cell phone. I need to use it more and the keyboard less.

The PR factories are pumping out releases working up to IT Expo West. At least, they changed it from puking on me to invitations to speak with an exec. This came in about an hour ago:

Free phone service wasn't even a thought ten years ago. New technology breakthroughs are lowering costs for providers and increased competition with new telecom startups and the growing number of Voice over IP (VoIP) users is bringing prices down. ..... Would you like to speak to Mr. Exec about when and how free phone service will be a reality as well as Company X's platform?

Dave Rusin asked yesterday where all the innovation went. And I make my clients change the pitch. It is NOT about how low can you go. It is about What Can You Do For Me?

If all you have to say is we are the Cheapest, well, join the club: Net2Phone, Voiceglo, Vonage, Skype, SunRocket, MagicJack, and yadda yadda. And we will start a Death Watch on your company. [I give Vonage until the end of 2Q09].

How about some Innovation? And I don't mean your user portal. Yawn! Remember Vertical's TeleVantage? That was the first user portal and all others are mere copycats. What about "HD Voice" or Klipsch like speaker quality? (I know mainly hardware innovation.

Service wise, it has to be about ease of use and productivity (like Broadsoft Anywhere).

The Jetsons had Video Phone long before we did. Yet BrightMind and other services rely on a video phone (Grandstream in most cases) to negotiate with a similar model. From tests by clients, ease of use isn't there yet.

I think "free phone" is becoming a stale marketing plan, but the reality is even ploys like MagicJack at $20 per year are not sustainable models.

When you look at the numbers, the companies winning the consumer VOIP battle appear to be the cable operators. Ike Elliott has a post about Over-the-top VoIP Providers dying in the residential space. Vonage is spending $65M per quarter to maintain its subscriber numbers at 2.6M. It's churn is barely being replaced by new customers. Cheap folks are flocking to Skype and its look-alikes, MagicJack (don't get me started!) and T-Mobile cell & VoIP plans.

8x8 decided wisely a year ago to focus on Business customers, which have an average of 7 lines and $252 in ARPU. That beats the sub-$40 ARPU of Vonage.

MagicJack is $20 per YEAR. I don't see how that will work out. Plus talking to folks on it sounds like there is tissue paper being crinkled on the line. It doesn't stop people from using it.

SunRocket imploded. ATT CallVantage is on hold. deltathree is tanking. Over-the-top Consumer VoIP is almost over. I think UC and Hosted PBX is a better play - and it is what people will pay for. One number. Find-me. Unified voicemail box. VM-2-email. Combined address book. And I guess calling International often, but that's what calling cards are for.

All-you-can-eat cellular plans are also going to be a landline replacement, as RBOCs are learning. T-Mobile is hoping so with @Home.

Not everyone cares about the call quality - as you can see from the number of folks that spend all day on cell phones and the millions that use over-the-top VoIP. Also, Skype and other PC-to-PC and PC-to-phone apps. If I am trying to make a connection with a prospect or solve a problem for a client, I want to HEAR it. Give me a POTS line or my CallVantage line any time.

I dabble in Twitter. I find it very challenging to plow through my various inboxes, blogs, clients, LinkedIn, and to find time to Twit as well. It's just too much noise. (So is doing anything by Committee. By Committee through email is the Worst Way to Do Anything!)

Lately, people (like Pistachio) have been putting on information on how to use Twitter for business. I think in an Enterprise it works or with distributed groups it works, but in small business it's just a way to feel connected - which i swhat communications is all about any way.

John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing had this in his latest newsletter: "I put together my "Beginner's Guide to Using Twitter for Business" and offer here to all as a gift. This is not the definitive guide to all things twitter, this is a nice, simple, practical road map to show you how to start using twitter to reach some of your business and marketing objectives." That's one source.

Then there is this presentation, "Explaining the Impact of Twitter, Friendfeed and Social Media 2.0", which does a good job of explaining how the conversations have flowed, but whether it is blogging, commenting, email, etc. it is especially bulletin board like messaging. People (like this presenter), suggest that Twitter is Interacting much like text messaging. I beg to differ. Texting is a quick way to converse with one person, who will likely reply in some form - text, call, email. Twitter is mainly one-way. It's not a conversation - or at least I'm not experiencing it.

In a collaboration effort it could replace IM, especial for folks without IM. And the history portion is good for this. But how much proprietary info do you want to put on Twitter?

So how are you using Twitter? Following or being Followed? (you can follow me at twitter.com/radinfo )

To be a speaker at the IT Expo, there is a lot of paperwork. And I have procrastinated so that I now have to scramble to meet tomorrow's deadline. I will share with you some of the questionaire:

What has been your company's biggest achievement in 2008 so far?

Getting my book finished.

What can we expect to see for from your company for the next 12 months?

I will be helping many service providers fine tune their message, train their staff, and help them sell more services.

How do you see the communications market evolving?

I see VOIP being sold as an Overlay rather than as a "Cheaper Alternative to POTS"

What company made the biggest contribution to communications this year?

No idea. It all looks the same to me.

How has Google changed our markets?

Everybody thinks free is possible - moreso than before, which is annoying! They made SAAS more acceptable.

How about Apple?

That damn iPhone.

What mobile phone(s) do you use?

A brick from Sprint (PPC6700)

Who will win in an Apple/RIM war?

Blackberry. Not everyone likes ATT. Not everyone wants an Apple. And between Apple and ATT, something will mess up that turns folks off. RIM already had their mess up during the patent battle. The first one with a hook to Broadsoft's Broadworks will win.

What do you think the communications market might look like in five years?

I can't see that far in advance. The pace that change gets adopted is logarithmic. I think we should all have video phones now! And UC should just be how it is.