unified communications

VoIP and the Economy

January 20, 2009

VoIP originally was sold as the answer to the next wave of cost savings for consumers and especially for small business. Business phone lines have always cost more than residential lines because, in theory, businesses use the phone line more often. (I guess, if you have 2 teenagers then that equals 1 small business).

Now that businesses are looking for ways to cut costs, analysts are predicting a rise in VoIP sales. Maybe.

Posted in PBX, agents, economy, sip trunking, telecommunications, unified communications, voip

Agents Need to Morph into a VAR

January 22, 2009

It is getting tough out there, as the news keeps repeating as nauseum.
Businesses are laying off and closing. If you can maneuver in this environment, then opportunity awaits. No I haven't been drinking. Let's examine things.

Layoffs means companies have to be more efficient and more productive with less.

Posted in TEM, agents, saas, unified communications

Sutus Delivers a Stimulus Plan of its own

January 28, 2009

Small Business wins as Sutus announces new lower pricing for 'Office in a box' technology

All-in-one Telephony and Data Communications vendor announces SOHO-grade pricing for award-winning Business Central device

January 27th, 2009, Vancouver, B.C. Sutus Inc., the company behind the Sutus Business Central™, a unique all-in-one device that combines all the Telephony, data and networking features required to run a modern-day office, today announced pricing that dramatically reduces the TCO (total cost of ownership) for small businesses.

Posted in PBX, agents, channel, technology, telecommunications, unified communications, wi-fi

Video Crosses the Chasm

January 29, 2009

Video hasn't really hit mainstream yet, except as consumer entertainment in the form of pirated movies, Hulu and YouTube. As a communications medium such as video email, video phone and video conferencing (including tele-presence), it has not taken off yet.

When talking with consultants, coaches, and other work-at-home types, not a one of them wants to do video calling. They don't want to get dressed for it. The office space is too cluttered to be in the background. It isn't as easy as it sounds.

Posted in technology, telecommunications, unified communications, video

Hot off the Twitter Press

February 18, 2009

It's amazing the news feed you can get from Twitter.

Broadband Stimulus Plan: High-Speed Access coming to Rural America

Ask our CIO about our UC implementation at Aspect on a Frost & Sullivan webinar tomorrow:

Telefonica, Microsoft Offer Windows Live Services to Latin America

AboveNet is connecting 4 Telx facilities in NY/NJ

Recession is slowing the Death of Dial-Up.

RackSpace is using the Green label to market its hosting service. (IPO's will do that to you).

Apparently, BPL is still a viable option. Go figure.

This is all in about an hour. There's a lot going on. How are you keeping up with the Industry?

Posted in PBX, TMC, broadband, data center, telecommunications, twitter, unified communications

The Future for COMPTEL

March 5, 2009

The CLEC show, COMPTEL, is in Dallas this week. Stupidly, COMPTEL had their show overlap the Channel Partners Expo. Hello! Same exhibitors and people can't be in 2 places at once. But it's this exact kind of planning that has led to the troubles that the CLEC's are experiencing.

Has COMPTEL ever won a major battle at the FCC? Nope.

Yet COMPTEL is a lobbying organization.

Posted in cellular, expo, organizations, telecommunications, unified communications, voip, wireless, wireline

Google Voice Ready to Launch

March 12, 2009

The blogosphere is all a-Twitter with the news of the re-launch of Grand Central as Google Voice. Read here for Google Voice is like Gmail for Voice Mail and here and TechCrunch for the break down of features. Highlights would be SMS integration and voicemail transcripts. It makes me wonder why other providers haven't done this kind of integration and "special" features before. Is it because Grand Central is really a techie toy?

Posted in unified communications, voip

Caught My Eye at VoiceCon

April 8, 2009

At VoiceCon, Grandstream had some new SIP-based gadgets including the video telephony units that VidTel is using and video surveillance gear. As TMC's Erik Linask reports here, "The first products in the new line include one- and four-port video servers/encoders -- its GXV3501 and GXV3504 -- and an IP video camera -- the GXV3601.... All three products leverage Grandstream's experience with H.264 real-time video compression, providing clear video while optimizing bandwidth usage, and SIP-based VoIP technology for providing two-way audio and video streaming to mobile phones and desktop video phones."

But the other hardware surprise for me was Aastra's Clearspan. It's basically an Aastra branded version of Broadsoft on a blade server for enterprise.

Posted in broadsoft, technology, unified communications, video, voip, wimax

What the Heck is UC and UD?

April 20, 2009

Talking to a channel exec this morning about UC. There isn't really a clear definition of UC. When you speak to UC companies like Altitude, the UC is about the contact center, first call resolution, and unified desktop. To me, first call resolution is a business process management (BPM) issue.

Posted in PBX, technology, unified communications, voip

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