On Rad's Radar? - social network Archives

Churn Predicted by Social Influence

2012-03-02T13:54:45Z

Found this preso this morning on twitter: Social Network Analysis for Telecoms. "A major North American telecom sought to identify factors driving customer churn. We applied social network analysis over several billion call records. We found that customers with a cancellation in their frequent calling network churned at twice the monthly rate."

Social Network Analysis for Telecoms

Most people have 3-5 frequent callers. That explains the Circles and Friends&Family plans.

When one of their frequent callers cancels, they are 7x more likely to leave. Now that's Influence.

What are you doing to retain customers (or re-acquire them)?

Social Media Channel Integration

2012-02-07T22:38:51Z

An ITEXPO panel on Wed. discussed social media integration in the contact center. Sanjay Popli of LiveOps, Manuel Ramirez of Avaya, and Alex Quilici of YouMail spent 45 minutes talking about social media and call centers.

There are five steps a company needs to take to implement social media strategy in a contact center.

Monitor social channels
Decide on Relevance
Assign employees to tasks
Establish Policies
Design procedure for interacting with the rest of the Org

The contact center could be monitoring for leads, complaints or opportunities on social media platforms. These platforms can include twitter, Facebook, Google+, Yahoo groups, forums, LinkedIn or any of the other thousands of online communities and networks that exist.

It is a way for call center to move from a cost center to a revenue center. Not just by following up on sales leads, but by preserving the brand and reputation of the company.

One item that all panelists agreed upon was that the time for response from a company has shrunk from a day to an hour. It's about speed now.

Another reminder from the panel is that conversations about your service and brand ARE indeeed taking place online (like on DSLReports and GetSatisfaction.com). Ignore it at your own peril.

Monitoring or Listening also includes finding out where your customers are hanging out online. Go where they are.

A final note was that previously most online commenters were anonymous. Today, about 70% are very traceable. That means you can identify them and interact with them. There are many books written about creating raving fans out of disgruntled customers. It is possible online as well.

Look for me in Miami Beach Next Week

2012-01-26T17:59:23Z

Next week is ITEXPO East 2012 in Miami Beach at the convention center. I arrive around 11 AM on Tuesday for Editor's Day. There are a number of all-day events going on Tuesday like InsightPRM's Sales Management training and the Avaya seminar.

Not surprisingly, most of the buzz around the show is on Startup Camp Comms, which is Thursday at 4 PM with keynote from Sir terry Matthews, founder of MITEL. Four start-ups will be pitching as well.

I have 5 slots this time.

Wed. night on the show floor at the CVX Expo stage, three agents - Dan Vidal, Josh Anderson and myself (fueled with cocktails) will answer questions from Martin Vilaboy, Editor-in-Chief of Channel Vision magazine about issues facing the Channel. Consolidation, Competition, Commissions, Cloud, UC, and the decline of the PSTN. The fun starts at 6:30. Straight from the Shooters: Candid Conversations on Issues Facing the Channel. Details here.

Wed. at 11 AM, I moderate the panel, Social Media Channel Integration, about contact centers integrating social media into the work station in room B210. The discussion will be about business drivers for social media; 4 steps to utilize social media in the enterprise; and hurdles to incorporating SM in the contact center.

At 2:30 on Wed., in room B116, I will be moderating a panel titled Educating the Channel with Industry Standard Certifications. It's a topic that is close to me because the TCA, which I helped found, is all about educating the Channel and rolled out a certification program last year. This will be a good conversation about how we need to education the sales channels as well as the marketplace in order to sell services like UC, Cloud and managed services.

The fun panel will be on Friday morning at 9 AM: Does Your Business Have a Social Media Strategy? Chief Head of Lettuce Antony Francis is an old pal, who likes to get cranky with me, so this panel will rock. You will leave with more info than you thought possible at 9 AM on a Friday in room B210.

At Noon on Friday catch me at the 4GWE session about Fixed Wireless as a wireline replacement (in room A109). Do you think fixed wireless can replace copper?

Look for my tweets from @radinfo and say HI if you see me.

Are You Going to ITEXPO?

2011-12-28T18:48:18Z

It's just about a month away from ITEXPO East 2012 that starts January 29, 2012. The Lowes Hotel is already sold out in Miami Beach.

I am moderating 4 sessions this time. Here they are:

2/1/2012 @ 11:00-11:45am - TRACK: Customer Engagement -- "Social Media Channel Integration"

2/1/2012 @ 2:30-3:15pm - TRACK: Next Gen Service Provider -- "Educating the Channel with Industry Standard Certifications"

2/3/2012 @ 9:00-9:45am - TRACK: Customer Engagement -- "Does Your Business Have a Social Media Strategy?"

At 4GWE on Friday the 3rd at Noon, I will be moderating "Wireless Access Open For Business" where we will be discussing fixed wireless as a last mile access choice. Then we will have an open discussion, kind of an Un-Conference.

You can register for ITEXPO or MSP World or Cloud Comm Summit for $99 until 12/31/11. You can register for 4GWE here. CVX for Agents and VAR's is no charge.

Asterisk workshop on the 31st is free (with any registration).

Julius Knapp, Chief of the Office of Engineering and Tech at the FCC, will be one of the keynotes.

Another keynote is Terry Matthews, chairman of Wesley Clover, MITEL, Newbridge and Counterpath.

Let me know if you are attending so we can meet up for coffee or for the Gathering Dinner.

Sprint's Spending on Marketing

2011-12-12T17:35:59Z

According to Adage, Sprint has a new CMO, Bill Moyer, who fired the old agency for a new agency to handle the $1.4 Billion ad spend of Sprint. I looked at that number and my jaw dropped. Sprint spends more than 1 billion in marketing dollars?

Surely there is a better way to spend that money than more black and white ads of Dan Hesse.

Yesterday, I asked some friends - all in marketing of one flavor or another - if they had seen the new Rocket Man VW ad. All said no. One said, "AH! But you remember it." Yeah. I like the Elton John song. I thought it was creative. But I would never buy a VW - even if it is a great stereo system. And this is VW's second creative commercial.

There are many elements to an effective commercial. It has to be creative or innovative or original. It has to be memorable, which is usually tied to an emotional response or connection with the viewer. Linking an emotion with a brand is HUGE!

However, today, we see that companies want more than "just" branding. They want - no, need - to move the needle of sales with their marketing spend.

Some companies are migrating ad dollars to social media. Too many get caught in the trap of social media numbers, while still others view social media as just another broadcast channel. Both miss the whole point.

Branding is important, especially in a commodity market. VW seems to be spending its time featuring features - the stereo and the remote start. More success could come if the brand centered around the customer experience. Customers own that car for 5 years and own that cell phone for at least 2 years. What are those years going to be like dealing with the Brand?

There are thousands of companies selling Hosted PBX. Call it anything you want, it's hosted PBX and it's fast becoming a commodity because everyone is selling it - Parallels, Intermedia.Net, Broadsoft's 400+ customers, Metaswitch's client base and more. To differentiate, it won't be about the features since you all have about the same ones. It will be about the Customer Experience, the Quality of Service and the Integration. At the end of the day, the marketing will have to demonstrate to your market what it will be like to have your service. Get there first. (Want help? Call me.)

Just Like Fishing

2011-10-28T19:40:06Z

I was reminded this morning while speaking to the STC that Marketing is just like fishing or hunting. You need to know what you will be trying to catch; what bait you will need; and where to hunt or fish.

Just like fishing, there are going to be some people just sitting in the boat catching nothing but a buzz and a sunburn because they are using the wrong bait (message) or there are no fish in that area.

Online marketing and social media really take that into account. Your message on Facebook (mainly a B2C play) will not work the same as it will on LinkedIn (mainly B2B) and it will be received on twitter or Google+ differently as well.

Marketing - online, offline, social - boils down to where are your prospects hanging out? What message will they respond to? How many times and how many ways can you touch that prospect with the appropriate message?

The Future of Media

2011-09-30T15:29:16Z

The buzz is that email is dead. Oh, voice is dying also. And if you believe all the hype, sell your airline stocks since video conferencing and tele-presence will replace travel.

"A company's corporate website is the top source of new sales leads--second only to personal connections and referrals, and more than seven times more effective than social media, according to a 2011 Demandbase National Marketing and Sales Study released today by marketing technology company Demandbase and online business network Focus, according to an article in the Tech Journal South. Yet the buzz says it's all social media.

Voice isn't dead either. If it was the contact center space would be folding up tents. Granted robo-calling is annoying, but it still won't end any time soon. (It just may get more challenging to reach humans instead of voicemail.)

Email is still my number one communication platform. Project management, clients, prospecting and more all happen via email. Notifications end up in email. When companies talk about unified messaging, it's about one inbox - the email tray.

Everyone has their preferred method of communicating: email, voice, text, chat, FB, twitter, and more. It is getting more baffling for people to keep track of conversation threads as they bounce from one medium to another - text to email to FB. But it all comes back to email - maybe mainly due to the inbox and inbox organization that we are used to. Texts, chats, notifications and more can all come back to an email inbox to be stored, organized and searched. That's why email will be around a while longer. Longer than you think anyway.

The future of media will be fractious at best.

Want an interesting look at new media?

The 1st CMO Summit

2011-09-14T06:49:42Z

I hope you were one of the hundred people in the room at the 1st CMO Summit at ITEXPO! Rich Tehrani kicked off this TMC special event at Fago da Chau with some opening remarks and introductions of the two speakers: Shawna Vercher and Brad VanAucken, who spoke about branding and online marketing strategy. A big hand to the speakers, the awesome team at TMC that managed every detail, the sponsors - CRE Group, RAD-INFO INC and Marketo - and the marketing heads that attended.

Integrating new media

View more presentations from RAD-INFO, Inc..

The Blake Project slides on Branding.

Building brand leadership

View more presentations from RAD-INFO, Inc..

What To Do in Austin Next Week

2011-09-06T17:19:38Z

Next week is the first time the ITEXPO West will be in Austin, TX. It's my first time in Austin (or Texas for that matter).

Once again, ITEXPO will be the home to a lot of great content. This time I am moderating two panels under the Social CRM Expo. Top 10 Tips for Online Marketing on Wed. at 2 PM with Shawan Vercher, Kyle Flaherty and Rusty Shelton. Then at 3 PM, Does Your Business have a Social Media Strategy? with Ronan Keane, Mike Langford, Simon Salt and Sanjay Popli. Following those 2 must attend sessions is the networking reception followed by Startup Camp from EMBRACE, where Robert Metcalfe will be the keynote address. Awesome! (I hope you registered for it already!)

There are many sessions going on at the same time all week. Check your program carefully or you will miss some good content and speakers.

The emphasis this year was to bring in more C-level presenters as well as some experts from outside telecom (like on my panels for instance). The CMO Summit on Tuesday night is for C-level execs to learn about branding and online marketing while mingling with their peers. (Be warned: no substitutes - CEO, CMO, President or VP of Marketing only!)

Another C-level networking opportunity is the Cloud Communications Summit, where EMBRASE has assembled a C-level cast of speakers plus a Social Networking Lunch & M&A Keynote.

The Channel Vision Expo will be happening on the show floor - a good place to learn how to sell this cloudy stuff. (Build it and they will come is a broken myth; you have to sell this stuff.)

Besides selling Cloud Comm, you have to on-board the customer properly. Katie Butcher at B-Lynk will be moderating an all-female panel of experts on on-boarding Hosted PBX customers.

If you can only make one day, make it Wed. Startup Camp, my sessions and the party!

Looking for the Gathering Over a Meal? That's Monday night. Looking to have a coffee and talk about the Industry, social media or your business? Email me or find me in the press room. See you in Austin!

ITEXPO in Austin Will Be Hot

2011-08-04T22:04:52Z

Taking a cue from Jon Arnold, here's what I have going on at ITEXPO West 2011 in Austin (a move from Los Angeles in previous years):

While I will miss the chance to hit Manhattan Beach for some beach volleyball, this will be my first time in Austin.

It's also the first time that there will be a CMO Summit at ITEXPO. My company and my pal's company, CR8 Group, in conjunction with a great team at TMC - Dave, Anna and Mike - are bringing in 2 speakers to discuss Online Branding. Rich Tehrani wrote about it today. CMO, CEO, President or VP of Marketing only. 75 execs in charge of marketing to network and learn. Apply for a ticket now!

I usually have a panel for Reseller Day or under the ITEXPO banner for VoIP, but this year I am moderating 2 panels for the Social CRM Expo. Keeping with the CMO theme of online marketing, my panels run from 2-3:45. At 2, Top 10 Tips for Online Marketing with Shawna vercher on the panel. At 3, Does Your Business Have a Social Media Strategy? Both should be pretty informative. (Wait until you see the panelists!)

Then over on the show floor, the Channel Vision Expo will be happening. Get ready for a Channel Manager Round Table!

Startup Camp is at 5PM on the 14th! That is a don't miss session.

If you will be in town, let me know - I woould love to have coffee, a drink, dinner or interview you for the blog. Email me for a time!

Sales Stalking

2011-07-27T15:33:08Z

With the loss of any privacy today online, cyber stalking for prospecting is easier. I know it sounds sinister, but the best way to sell is to know your prospect. Know if they NEED your service. Know if they can afford your service. Know if your service can actually benefit them. How to do that? Cyber-Stalking.

First, set up a Google alert with the CEO's name (and another for the corporate name). When you see PR from the company or about them, print it out and mail it to him - or share it with your socila network -- or email him with a short note of congratulations.

As Gitomer says, Give Value First! Maybe that value is information about their biggest competitor or industry reports. There's a lot to be said about BI (business intelligience).

Find out the CEO's sweet spot; chocolate, cigar, golf, something small that is related to this and send it to them.

Follow the company on LinkedIn and twitter. Know what they are up to. It may coincide with your services. For example, if they are opening a new office or hiring or even laying off. In Hosted VoIP, these are sales triggers.

If they just went Cloud, bandwidth, mobility, security and backup become important. Again sales triggers.

But it shouldn't be all about you, it should be about the Prospect. The more you know about them -- and their vertical - the more value you bring to the table.

If you see that they are hiring and there is a webinar about hiring practices today (or whatever), you could invite the prospect to join you at the event.

On LinkedIn, you can see their bio and shared connections. The company page may have info and news. There are many ways to skin a cat today -- you need to be working smarter and creatively. What worked before may not necessarily work now.

If you always get voicemail and your email goes unanswered, first off, be more creative with your messages! Is it about YOU or THEM? Next, try a different form of contact - a postal invite to a networking event; a CD or thumb-drive in the mail; flowers or balloons; ice cream or pizza for the office; or ping them on twitter; see them at an industry event; message them on LinkedIn.

BTW, on LinkedIn, don't use the canned invite message unless you know that person (F2F or face-to-face). Add a personal note about why you want to connect. It gets better results.

It's a new age, so some new tricks are required. Good luck!

How Not to Interact on LinkedIn

2011-07-19T15:32:28Z

I received this email from a contact on LinkedIn:

I asked the contact if it was a mass email. He replied yes. And asked him not to send me any more mass emails. He replied, "You have been removed as a LinkedIn connection. Best of luck. FYI remove yourself from Linkedin to avoid messages from other connections."

The thing is I have 1400 connections on LinkedIn and am in over 20 groups. Like you, I already have a heavy email load. Getting 700 emails in a day is typical (depending on how many projects I am handling that week.) I work on trimming my signal-to-noise ratio on social networks. All notifications are off. If someone sends me a mass email that is of no interest to me, I will tell them. This sales guy emailed me that he received 20 inquiries and 1 negative (mine). Well, 20 out of 1400 is a 1.4% response rate which is pretty good. Most are probably window shopping, so he will have busy work for the rest of the week.

It's the other 1379 that I worry about. If he was removed by anyone, he wouldn't know. If he upset someone he wouldn't know, because most people don't reply like that. A majority probably just deleted it. But why use mass email to an unsegmented audience? Is that what you want associated with your name? On LinkedIn your name is the brand that your network sees.

It would be more effective to send out a personal note to each person. Does this take longer? Of course. Is it more effective? Yes. Does it get better responses? When done correctly.

Jeffrey Gitomer talks about giving Value first. His Sales Bible [affil] is excellent. The first and best sales book I read was Bob Burg's Endless Referrals [affil]. Seth Godin wrote Permission Marketing [affil] years ago; then wrote a book called Tribes. These are just 4 examples of books that could help you with email marketing communications.

It is difficult to get attention today, but that means you have to be Creative, not lazy.

And a quick social networks lesson: SOCIAL is the first name. If you wouldn't do it at a party or in-person event, like run around to everyone to push your business card on them, then don't do it online.

The sales guy sent me an e-book about Leveraging LinkedIn. I know the author. He is a LION - LinkedIn Open Networker. He is one of the networkers that think being connected to 17,000 people is an advantage. I don't understand the advantage, but that's me. How do you give a referral or a recommendation when you can't possibly know that much about a majority of the 17,000? What help can you be to your network other than to pass on mass emails?

Email segmentation is a factor for marketing success. So is network segmentation - at least to me.

The social media case studies show that interacting with your network (or followers or tribe) will get you success. Seth Godin argues that the Internet has ended mass marketing. In the book, High Probability Selling [affil], the lesson is that hard selling and cold calling are ineffective today. Too many gates up - voicemail, locked doors, doormen, spam filters. We need a warm lead, a referral or an intro. We are seeing a shift from pushing at the masses to pull marketing (or inbound marketing). It's about giving value first and staying in front of your tribe of high probable prospects. Not everyone is a prospect. It's a fact. Some people won't like you or trust you or ever buy from you. Many don't want or need your service; some can't afford it. Why would you market to these folks?

When selling Cloud Communications, you know who your best prospects are: more than 20 phones, multi-location, outdated PBX, moving or opening a new office, remote workers, and contact centers. I'm pretty sure that all of the 1400 people don't fall in these categories. And how many were actual decision makers? How much busy work do you want to do?

It wasn't a lot of work from the sales guy. How hard is it to mass email your whole address book? But how do you maintain your reputation while doing that? People have to like you and trust you to buy from you. The one instance of trust that was presented to the sales guy was "here's my contact info". Was that trust broken when he spammed them? Probably.

Using his own headline: Think Outside the Box! Stop doing all the easy stuff and get creative! Give your network value and you will see sales come in.

4 Notes About CRM

2011-07-06T22:50:22Z

I get asked often about CRM systems for sales teams. (I should I train salespeople and help hire salespeople.) Here are a few thoughts about CRM.

One, it's only effective if the sales team actually uses it. Most sales stars are too busy selling to fill out forms completely, do their paperwork, or enter data in CRM -- unless you tie to their compensation. But do you want to force an otherwise productive sales star to paperwork and data entry? Or do you want her out selling more?

Two, CRM offers management a way to see sales activity. This is important for a couple of reasons: to know what is in the funnel; to know what may be installing (workflow scheduling, financial forecasting); and to know what is disconnecting (forecasting and cash flow).

Three, CRM for tele-sales should make the process smoother. Many Hosted VoIP systems integrate with CRM applications to make dialing, customer history, and note taking easier. It's up to the salesperson or Customer service rep to mentally accept this concept, so it doesn't become a source of aggravation.

Four, there are wide number of CRM applications out there (I list 10 CRM applications below). They are not interchangeable. Some do things better than other. Some don't.

Here are 10 CRM Applications:

Salesforce.com - at $2B in revenue it has to make the top of the list.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM - a shout out to my MVP pals in Florida!
NetSuite - competes with the Big Boys above.
SugarCRM - open-source and clunky but there are professional SAAS editions available. LotusLive and Social CRM integration.
Zoho CRM - lots of integration.
RightNow - Gartner Magic Quadrant choice (with FB integration).
BatchBook - which now just tags itself as Social CRM.
Hirerise by 37Signals.
The name says it all: Free CRM.
This is called a Sales Lyfecycle tool: Landslide.

When I first heard about Landslide from my business coach, Keith Rosen, it was a CRM application that was not only cloud based (or SAAS), but it had an available assistant that the sales team could call to input data and get information read back to them, like contact or appointment info. That was the part I thought would launch it - for busy (or lazy) salespeople. The company blog isn't just about the company; it's about ways to sell. (This post is an example about sales tools for a sales tool.)

At the end of the day, CRM is supposed to be a tool. It can automate some of the sales and marketing activities. It's a task list. It's a database of interactions with the customer. If embraced, CRM can make sales easier both for retention, upselling, cross-selling and acquisition. Are you using any type of CRM?

Craig's Lifetime of Customer Service

2011-06-15T13:43:47Z

Craig Newmark of craigslist spoke at the CoolTech event in Tampa last Friday. It was a good speech from a nerd with a dry sense of geeky humor. (Not everyone got it.) He was doing his best to "simulate social behavior", he said. He had 3 themes that he repeated throughout the talk (that's kind of my style of speaking, too): Customer Service, Doing what's Right, and the Common Good. Craig was introduced by his former attorney, Brett Britton, as a Bad ass. He kind of lives up to it.

Craig offered up a history of social media. It's been around a long time - just the technology has changed (from town cryer to newspapers to books to twitter). Social media has had the same effect throughout the ages though: social change. Martin Luther learned a valuable lesson about social media: You lose control of the message. Today, the Internet is everyone's printing press. Tough to fact check all the stuff that gets added to the WWW every day!

Craig is worth about $400M accoridng to Forbes with Craigslist generating about $40M per year. Craig considers himself a Customer Service representative. He has started something called Craig Connects, which "helps connect people of good will for the common good by highlighting nonprofits that are making an impact in Community Building, Journalism Integrity, Middle East, Open & Accountable Government, Service & Volunteering, Technology for Social Good and Veterans issues." These are the issues that he actively helps on: the VA, Mideast, journalistic integrity, democracy. Why? He wants to be part of something bigger. He believes in doing Social Good because It's the Right Thing to do. Is it easy? No. And he encouraged the audience to operate outside their comfort zone too. (Growth only happens when you are uncomfortable.)

Fact checking is important, according to Newmark. I agree and he gave the names of many sites that do that. Web 2.0 has certainly had an effect on shining the light in some areas. These sites grade non-profits: Charity Navigator, GreatNonProfits.org, and Guidestar. Also, Donors Choose. These check political facts or money: Politifact and Influence Explorer, [I would add Open Congress here and mention that Politifact is a project of the St. Pete Times newspaper, which is owned by the Poynter Foundation. Local pride for Tampa Bay!]

He is working with some crime fighting nerds to check grant apps and vet veterans groups. Craig worries about journalism (especially since media empires are crumbling), since the Fourth Estate is supposed to keep our Democracy in check. For our democracy to survive, the press has to have integrity and be diligent in fact checking. I'm not surprised that The Daily Show wih Jon Stewart does the best job of fact checking, according to Newmark.

Craig has his hand in many pies that all revolve around social good, customer service and doing what's right. I'll leave you with 3 quotes from his speech.

"Listen to people and then do something about it. That's customer service. Try to listen to everyone because even a disgruntled customer can be right."

"Working together for the common good - whatever your version of that is."

"Sunlight is the best disinfective for government."

IBM's New(er) Strategies

2011-03-29T04:17:56Z

Image via Wikipedia

At IBM's Lotusphere this year (Feb. 1), IBM rolled out strategies for Cloud and Social Media.

IBM identified 5 ways that partners could benefit from the Cloud. They are as follows:

Cloud Application Providers - deliver business apps via a subscription model through the cloud such as SAAS
Cloud Builders - design, build and manage clients’ cloud needs, typically integrating with existing infrastructure.
Cloud Infrastructure Providers - provide a public cloud infrastructure or Platform as a Service (PaaS) on which app can be hosted.
Cloud Services Solution Providers - resell multiple public cloud services and offer complementary services such as training and integration.
Cloud Technology Providers - provide the tools, services, and technologies, such as cloud management, billing metering and monitoring — that help clients use the cloud more effectively.

These are ways for VAR's to stay in the business of providing applications and associated services.

According to some PR sent my way, " IBM is the largest consumer of social technologies. As a company, IBM takes social networking seriously - to develop products and services, to enable sellers to find and stay connected with clients, to train the next generation of leaders, and to build awareness of Smarter Planet among clients, influencers and other communities. IBM will showcase how it is poised to help clients exploit this transformation of a social business delivering new software, services and skills resources to help organizations adopt best practices, policies and software to transform their businesses, including: (1) New Cloud software and services that delivers a cloud-based office productivity suite; (2) New software to help companies and governments socially enable their business processes using the most successful mobile devices, including tablets, such as the iPad, iPhone, Google Android, RIM's Blackberry and Nokia devices."

See how they worked Cloud and social networking into that press release? Google Juice!

"IBM intends to offer a cloud-based version of LotusLive Symphony, an office productivity suite that will give organizations a social platform that enables them to simultaneously collaborate on documents in the cloud. LotusLive Symphony in the cloud complements IBM's on-premise, free of charge, office productivity suite, IBM Lotus Symphony." I didn't know IBM offered free office software.

In its collab suite, IBM will turn the inbox into the Activity Stream that feeds in twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and SAP through the Social Business toolkit. (Yeah, it says SAP in the release.)

Meetrix is an IBM Partner that offers IBM's enterprise-class Sametime Server in the Cloud. "Combining Meetrix with Broadworks Connector provides unique capability for Broadworks operators to deliver a full featured, over the top Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC 2) offering to business-class customers." Simple Signal is using this service. Meetrix is the only partner for Hosted Lotus Sametime presently, which allows Meetrix to offer "businesses access to enterprise-class UCC features such as instant messaging, chat, presence, awareness, document and presentation storage and sharing, audio and video, web conferencing and e-signature capabilities through SAAS." Note: digital e-Signature. [pr]

I'm guessing that this will compete against Microsoft Linc. I'm also guessing that the marketing and branding of this will take some time, which they don't have. The key may be the Activity Box and the digital e-Signature capabilities. At least, that's what I would be featuring in my marketing. It should be interesting to see, especially if other Broadsoft CLEC's jump on that wagon.