More notes from BSFT Connections 2014 in the desert by friends of my at the show.

These notes are from ANPI's prezo and others. It coincides with David Byrd's blog post about the best part of UC is Presence and IM.

"Scheduled meetings should be for large groups. Small ad-hoc meetings should be able to do without scheduling. As Presence becomes widely used, everyone's availability will be known in order for ad-hoc meetings to occur." That's a lot of Interruptions. MS Exchange allowed for calendar insight for years to improve meeting scheduling. Presence will give a more immediate view, but may result in more interruptions. The ideal for Presence will be if it "lets you know what steps to take next - voice call? video call? email document? desktop share?"

One sales tip is to "ask business owners if they want to take advantage of video. Usually they say they cannot afford it. There are several free solutions, but they are not integrated and not secure and no way to know who is using them." With BroadCloud, video can be "integrated all under one cost, one set of guidelines."

Another sales tip: discuss increasing productivity, enabling mobility, increasing collaboration instead of the phone bill and number of seats.Ask yourself, "What does this mean to biz owner? How would this change the sale? Can you quantify it or monetize it?" You need to convert time into money for the business decision maker (or CFO). You must convince the business decision maker that this service can save more than cost, and show how you got there. To turn time into money demonstrate how to save time on each collaboration, instant messaging, web meeting - click, click, click - integration at work. DEMO! Other ways will include chat and call handling - " always relate back to time".

I always recommend eating your own dog food. If you are going to sell Hosted UC, you better be using Hosted UC daily. It's the only way to become familiar with the features. The speaker suggests "forcing sales and management to use video. They will see productivity increase; a cultural shift; and then sales with a little more passion." I have to agree. When I was consulting for Vidtel, it was video calls all day. They are quicker, more engaged and far better than voice calls (or email or texts). Much of the communications is non-verbal and video can help fill that gap.

If you missed part 1, go here. More tomorrow.