ITEXPO Blog
| The ITEXPO blog is where you can view the latest news and happenings at TMC's leading VoIP conference.

September 2011

You are browsing the archive for September 2011.

Apple iPad - Your Next Desktop Phone?

September 22, 2011


I've been thinking about how the Apple iPad could really disrupt the VoIP space and become your next desktop phone. Think about the impact to companies such as Cisco, Polycom, Aastra, snom, Grandstream, and others. While these companies do offer low-end IP desktop phones, they have higher margins on the high-end large color screen IP phones that sport advanced features like RSS feeds (weather, news), collaboration, and video conferencing.

Take for instance the Aastra BluStar media phone, which sports a 13" touch screen that achieves true HD 720p video conferencing at a rate of 30 fps or the Polycom VVX 1500, which sports a a 7" color touch-screen and 2MP camera. Both IP phones are over $650, while the latest iPad 2 can be had for $450 (16GB model).


CosmoCom and Telesphere Announce Partnership at ITEXPO

September 14, 2011


Contact centers looking for a comprehensive hosted voice, email and chat solution will be happy to learn that Telesphere, a Cloud Communication Service provider today announced a relationship with CosmoCom. CosmoCom is one of the early pioneers of cloud-based contact center solutions and certainly one of the leaders in this space. CosmoCom has won multiple TMC Labs Innovation Awards, including an award way back in 2002.

Telesphere's relationship with CosmoCom provides businesses and contact center operators with a portfolio of hosted contact center applications and advanced tools including:
  • Email, VoIP and chat, all of which can be captured and archived for training and follow up.
  • Skills-based routing so customers are routed immediately to the correct agent group.
  • Cradle-to-grave reporting, enabling businesses and contact centers to track every interaction for every customer.
  • An intuitive, graphical call-flow designer, which eliminates the need for special coding skills to create and modify call flows.
  • A 100 percent Web-based design, eliminating the need for client software.
  • The ability to bolt on third-party reporting tools.
  • Support for whisper and DNIS.
CosmoCom will demonstrate the new interaction management suite at Telesphere's ITEXPO booth, No. 837.

"Powered by CosmoCom, Telesphere's new, completely cloud-based contact center solution enables businesses and contact center operators to implement advanced tools quickly and without the need for a six-figure investment in premises-based hardware and software," said Sanjay Srinivasan, Telesphere CTO.





ITEXPO Austin, Texas - Day 1 Photos Slideshow

September 13, 2011

ITEXPO Austin Day 1 Photos

September 13, 2011

Hookflash for iPad Launches

September 13, 2011

Hookflash is skipping the iPhone and jumping right to the larger screen iPad to offer their feature-rich peer-to-peer communications and social media app. This goes to the heart of an article I've been thinking about  for months about how the iPad could replace the desktop phone. But that is an article for another day.


Hookflash for iPad is like a softphone application on steroids featuring  group video conferencing, group messaging, and participant profiles automatically created from information derived from business and social networks. You can also think of Hookflash as a "business" version of Skype, which tends to be more "consumer" focused.

Users can set up group video calls with Hookflash from the iPad with a simple swipe of the finger.




Death of PSTN Panel @ITEXPO (pic)

September 13, 2011

Austin American-Statesman ITEXPO Coverage

September 13, 2011

TMC's Juliana Kenny Conducts Avaya Interview

September 12, 2011

ITEXPO: 8x8 Buys Contactual

September 12, 2011

Breaking news from ITEXPO West 2011 in Austin, Texas.

Hosted communications, video and VoIP pioneer 8x8 has just purchased Contactual, formerly known as White Pajama. I have been visiting 8x8 for about 15 years and when you enter their HQ the first thing you notice is the patents hanging everywhere. They now have about 75 of them. After the tech bubble crash the company turned their leading-edge technology into a customer focused business which you could call a business Vonage.

ITEXPO West 2011 Austin Jeep Giveaway Has Arrived (pic)

September 12, 2011

ITEXPO West 2011 Austin Jeep Giveaway is Here (pic)

September 12, 2011

Artisan Infrastructure Solves the MSP Competition Conundrum

September 12, 2011

At ITEXPO I met with Artisan Infrastructure's CEO Brian Hierholzer to discuss how Artisan offers a compelling cloud-based solution for MSPs and service providers. Brian explained that one problem with existing managed service providers (MSPs) is that they often compete against their service provider customers by building and selling applications. Brian explained that competitors such as Amazon and Rackspace are now offering their own hosted applications, which undercuts service providers trying to offer hosted applications such as BDR (backup & disaster recovery), email, and hosted phone services leveraging VoIP.

Artisan on the other hand is a 100% pure play wholesale infrastructure services provider. They don't do any business direct to end users so they don't compete against service providers that use their service to build applications.

ITEXPO Austin Asterisk 123 Training in Progress (pic)

September 12, 2011

ITEXPO West Austin Exhibit Hall Setup (pics)

September 12, 2011

ITEXPO Show Daily, Monday, Sept 12

September 12, 2011

Here is the latest ITEXPO West Austin show daily. Some of the items discussed are the cloud, mobility, Grandstream, Sangoma and big news from 2600hz.

» Exhibitors » Dates & Times Keynotes » Register To Attend Show Daily : 9/12/2011 Latest Features
• IP Multimedia Phone Provider Grandstream to Participate in Key ITEXPO West Session • Exploring Opportunities in the Cloud: ITEXPO West Interview • SoTel Systems Showcases SoSimple Unified Messaging Program at ITEXPO West 2011 • Sangoma to Discuss Recent Acquisition, Media Handling at ITEXPO • 2600hz and CloudTC to Debut Powerful Business Communications Solution at ITEXPO • The Evolution of Enterprise Mobility: ITEXPO West Interview
Latest News
• Towerstream to Present at 4GWE Conference and Expo • LiveVox CEO to Discuss Secure Cloud Contact Center Implementation at ITEXPO West 2011 • One Source Networks' COO to Provide Insight on Deploying UC to SMEs at ITEXPO • Matrix to Showcase Complete Office Communications Solution at ITEXPO West 2011 • 4PSA to Showcase New VoIP Additions at ITEXPO • SIP Forum to Make its Mark at ITEXPO West 2011 • Hosted Predictive Dialer: Be Informed before You Buy
Latest Blogs
• ITEXPO West Austin Show Essentials • Download ITEXPO on the Go • Largest ITEXPO Hall Ever • Follow @rtehrani on Twitter for Important ITEXPO Updates

Featured Keynotes
Cameron Coursey - Associate Vice President of Product Development - AT&T Michael Tribolet - Chief Business Officer magicJack Ian Pennell - Senior Vice President, Small Business Technology Group-CISCO Mark C. Straton - Senior Vice President Solution Marketing Voice and Applications- Siemens Enterprise Communications John Antanaitis - Vice President Marketing- Polycom Matt Groppe - Director of Global Business Development- DHL Same Day Bob Metcalfe - Inventor of ethernet, founder of 3Com, author of Metcalfe's Law, VC and Professor
Free Workshops
StartupCamp 4: Comms Edition Unified Communications: SIP Trunking, Voice, Video and More Avaya Tech on Tap Asterisk 1-2-3 MPLS University Live at ITEXPO Austin Telecom Reseller
Win Exhibitor Giveaway Prizes!
While at ITEXPO, Pick up your official Jeep Giveaway Entry Card. Visit each of the sponsors listed on the card and have your card stamped. Drop it off at the Jeep Giveaway Display on the Exhibit Hall Floor and be there on Thursday, September 15 to see if you are the lucky winner!

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ITEXPO West Austin Show Essentials

September 11, 2011

Here is a good overview of this week's ITEXPO and collocated events. Feel free to bookmark this link, print it or whatever works best for you.

Attend tomorrow's Asterisk 1-2-3 Seminar then head over to Avaya's ever popular Technology on Tap event.

On Tuesday ITEXPO kicks into full swing with collocated conferences, multiple workshops, numerous keynote presentations, and a networking cocktail reception to officially open the exhibit hall.

Download ITEXPO on the Go

September 11, 2011

Largest ITEXPO Hall Ever

September 11, 2011

AT&T Responds to DOJ - What They Missed

September 9, 2011

AT&T responded to the DOJ regarding the blocked T-Mobile USA acquisition saying that the proposed merger would be good for consumers as it would allow AT&T to gain access to T-Mobile spectrum allowing their call quality to improve and the number of dropped calls to be reduced. This in turn they argue would lead to lower prices. Ma Bell 2.0 continued to explain that the wireless business is fiercely competitive which has resulted in lower prices over time.

The interesting takeaway here is that there is nothing new being argued.

Meet ITEXPO West 2011 Participants Right Now

September 9, 2011

In order to get the communications and technology community ready for one of the largest business technology shows in the world, we strive to interview as many of the participants at ITEXPO and collocated events before the event. What you see below is 59 of the latest interviews from the show - and more importantly a window into the event itself.

We asked participants questions about the cloud, social networking, mobility and the future of tech. Many of them had thought-provoking comments which are something worth chewing on this weekend. The interviews are below:

NAME COMPANY Jason Tapolci VoIP Innovations Mike Coffee Commetrex Mike Ross 4PSA Jon Arnold J Arnold and Associates Greg Brashier Virtual PBX Carl  KS  Teo Ecocarrier Inc. Doug Mohney HD Voice News Alex Ferdman Telinta Denis Gatens OneAccess Networks Chris Perret Nukona Garrett Smith VoIP Supply Tim Whittington Aastra Justin O'Brien CXM Recording and Quality Monitoring  Wes Durow Fonality John Frame Sigma Systems Sarah Carter Actiance Inc Dave Rokita Hexagrid Computing Inc Bud Walder Dialogic Robert Messer ABP Mark Ricca IntelliCom Analytics Chad Kissinger OnrampAccess LLC Michael Stoll GSIS Paul Baron SPIRIT Technologies Chris Bucholtz Sugar CRM Austin McChord Datto Steven Johnson Ingate Mark Swanson Telovations Mark Swanson Telovations Jonathan Stark Mobiquity Neal Axelrad Global Convergence Solutions, Inc. Gene Fay Nine Technology Natasha Tamaskar GENBAND Adam Boone Sipera Greg Friesen DragonWave Brough Turner netBlazr Inc. Brian Hierholzer Artisian Infrastructure John Freimuth Internap Steve Ferman eTegrity Systems International Bob Lawson GFI Software USA  Jeff Connally CMIT Solutions Russell Wurth Verecloud Adam Crossno OnAsset Intelligence Inc. Rod Ullens Voxbone Mike Sapien Ovum John Verry Pivot Point Security Russ Green VPIsystems Joe Staples Interactive Intelligence Stephanie Atkinson Compass Intelligence Peter Cruz Sevone Mike Klein Online Tech, Inc.   Mike Miracle Sevone Chris Carabello Metaswitch Gary Oliverio Crandlepoint Steve Harriman ScienceLogic Jeff Dworkin Sangoma George A. Grabowich Broadview Networks





ITEXPO in Austin, Texas - Business & Pleasure

September 9, 2011

Rich Tehrani snapped some more photos in Austin, Texas (including some night life shots) and he writes:
The night life here in Austin is legendary with the huge emphasis on live bands. I had a chance to check some of the bands and crowds out last night. It reminded me a bit of Greenwich Village in New York actually. These bars will be a great place for networking next week at ITEXPO for sure.

Meet TMC Editors Monday at ITEXPO in Austin

September 9, 2011

The PSTN Will Die. Time to Learn SIP

September 9, 2011

It should come as no surprise to avid followers of this blog that the PSTN is potentially going to be mothballed in the next seven years. If you are wondering what will replace it, the answer is in-part SIP and protocols TBD. You may know that there will be a can't-miss keynote panel on the death of the PSTN at ITEXPO next week but what you may not know is the SIP Forum - the global organization devoted to SIP interoperability and promotion is making a big splash at the show and if you either purchase, sell, or manufacture/develop SIP products and solutions you may want to lean more.

Here are the details:

SIP Forum to Have Strong Presence at ITEXPO in Austin, TX

Association Sponsor of  ITEXPO and co-located events including 4G Wireless Evolution, and the SIP Tutorial; Leadership to participate in multiple sessions, panels and tutorials, Chairman Richard Shockey to Moderate Keynote Luncheon Panel on “End of POTS” 

NORTH ANDOVER, MA, and AUSTIN, TX September 9, 2011 – The SIP Forum (www.sipforum.org) has announced a full schedule of activities at the upcoming ITEXPO West in Austin Texas, showcasing the association’s active role in helping to drive the broad adoption of SIP communications in today’s global telecom industry.

Austin Night Life

September 9, 2011