Peter : On Rad's Radar?
Peter
| Peter Radizeski of RAD-INFO, Inc. talking telecom, Cloud, VoIP, CLEC, and The Channel.

communications

Why Do I Have To Give You That Info Again?

March 1, 2011

Speaking with Fonolo CEO Shai Berger and I were talking last night about Call Centers and the lousy customer satisfaction. All the M&A activity creates pockets of technology and data and apps that cannot integrate easily with other pockets of apps, systems, data.

For example, a customer calls an 800 number of a company that bought two companies - and integration is complete. Except it isn't. The company uses a couple of call centers to fulfill customer service.

Net-heads Grab the Gold Ring

January 3, 2011

Over on Voyces Larry Lisser blogs about 4 communications startups that received funding in 4Q2010.  (Pertinent because Communications Startup Camp is in less than a month on Feb. 3 at ITEXPO!) What made the story stand out for me is that all the innovation in communications is coming from Net-Heads not Bell-Heads. Software developers are shipping great Art.

Verizon coming up with another stupid slogan or the ability for a largely technophobic consumer to watch the same movie on 3 devices is not a great advance.  I'll give them some credit for the social networks widgets, but again not easy for the general public to pull off.

Meanwhile Net-heads are making mashups; designing friendly UI; and allowing the small business to take full advantage of the web/apps/cloud.

For example, Tampa local's Charles Armstrong launched the iPhone app Tour Wrist in 2010 at TEDX Tampa Bay





Chat With JCurve About 2011

December 15, 2010

Expectations in 2011 with Jon Arnold

December 15, 2010

What's It Take to be a VoIP Winner?

December 13, 2010

What does it take to run a successful VoIP services company? According to Report Linker, "the biggest VoIP providers are ostensibly run-of-the-mill telecom companies. This means smaller providers must innovate and take the role of pioneers whose marketing strategy doesn't rely only on offering the lowest price, since that's a game they can't win."

Lowest price is about scale.

Big Challenge Selling Hosted PBX

November 9, 2010

On LinkedIn (in the Hosted PBX group), the question was asked, "What's the biggest challenge you face selling your solution to end users and/or channel partners?" Here are some of the answers.

Can the end user trust the service delivery of the provider? This is a big question because there have been some failures in VoIP delivery over the years. VoIP has taken somewhat of a reputation hit.

Day 1 Observations from Phoenix

October 26, 2010

I'm at the Broadsoft Connections 2010 user conference in Phoenix. The theme is Ignite Passion (for Hosted UC). These are some of my notes:

Broadsoft is pushing not just Hosted PBX but services they are calling CAAS (Communications-as-a-Service).

The Pitfalls of Social CRM

October 21, 2010

A consultant sent me a link to look at a CRM solution. (I don't know why because she was researching blogging platforms when I spoke with her Tuesday). The site is intriguing and makes some big promises:

* Manage contacts and build relationships.
* Engage, import contacts on social networks.
* Track sales pipeline and view analytics.
* Organize projects, tasks, and events.
* Monitor customer & team activity in the stream.
* Google Apps Integration

First off, in my experience, you have to force people to use CRM. Unless you withhold pay, most salespeople will fight you on the use of CRM.







Broadvox and Cypress: What Now?

October 17, 2010

Broadvox and Cypress acknowledged the merger rumors on Thursday, announcing that they were still working out the details of the merger. (TMC broke the story here). Both companies wanted to assure customers that it will be business as usual.

Executives told TMC that no product lines were in danger.

Broadsoft Acquires Casabi

October 13, 2010

I received a tip that Broadsoft was buying Casabi and a link to a PR website that had this to say:

"BroadSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: BSFT), the leading global provider of IP-based communications services to the telecommunications industry, today announced it has acquired substantially all of the assets of Campbell, California-based Casabi, Inc., a privately held provider of innovative, cloud-based personalized content and messaging applications."

"Casabi empowers cable, fixed-line and mobile telecommunications service providers to expand their consumer offerings to include fixed-line SMS, customized information services and tools that keep families organized. Through this hosted application, family members can send text message blasts to any phone number (fixed-line or mobile), access voicemail, make real-time updates to a family calendar, and share a network address book."  [I am waiting word back from Broadsoft.]

This clearly plays into the roadmap at Broadsoft of more MRC based offerings. This acquisition also assists Broadsoft customers in two ways: a tool for SMS messaging and a differentiator for service bundles.



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