June 2005 Archives

I thought this news item from Noble Systems Corporation was worth noting, as I have not seen it reported elsewhere:

Noble DCRT 4.0 Delivers the Newest Generation in Contact Center Management & Reporting From Noble Systems

Noble Systems is a developer of contact center technology. DCR stands for Dynamic Center Reporter; the new release provides an improved graphical interface for managing agents, lists and programs and for real-time reporting.

What is the product like? Noble's Web site doesn't show you much, other than these images from a PDF brochure, which might give you some idea of the user interface:

AB -- 6/29/05

FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin issued a brief statement today approving of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision today in the Brand X case. The Court today upheld the agency's 2002 ruling declaring that a cable company does not have to share its broadband infrastructure with an independent ISP.

Martin's statement reads:

"I am pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed the FCC’s ruling.  This decision provides much-needed regulatory clarity and a framework for broadband that can be applied to all providers.  We can now move forward quickly to finalize regulations that will spur the deployment of broadband services for all Americans."

Naturally, many do not agree that this decision is good news for broadband deployment in the States.

In his blog today, TMC President Rich Tehrani says this decision is "bad for consumers." Rich has a hard time seeing how this development can result in greater competition in the broadband space: "What we will be left with are two competitors, ILECs and cable companies, with the potential for broadband over power line and WiMAX making some sort of competitive dent."

It's hard for me to see that BPL and WiMAX are going to do much to improve the picture in the near term. The silver lining in the cloud? Says Rich: "Consumers can rest assured that if they want competition for Internet service, they can always go back to dialup."

TMCnet's Communications and Broadband columnist Ted Glanzer, in his article today, "Unpacking the Brand X Decision," quotes Jim Pickrell, owner of Brand X, who is understandably bitter over today's outcome: "It’s a terrible decision. It's bad for consumers and it is bad business ... [Brand X is] effectively locked out ... It’s an end to competition in broadband and telephone ... For us it’s a disaster."

To get the opposite perspective, Ted also interviewed former FCC official Carol Mattey, who thinks today's decision gives cable companies and telcos the financial incentive to build broadband infrastructure. “The ISPs aren’t spending $95 billion [like] cable companies [are] to convert to digital,” she told Ted.

Here are the pieces we've published today on TMCnet relevant to today's Supreme Court news:

High Court: Cable Cos. Need Not Share Lines With Rival Internet Providers -- Hope Yen, Associated Press

Brand X Decision: We Can Always Go Back to Dialup -- Rich Tehrani, TMC Technology Analysis Columnist

Unpacking the Brand X Decision -- Ted Glanzer, TMCnet Communications and Broadband Columnist

AB -- 6/27/05

TMCnet's latest podcast is now available to download or add to your podcast player. Our podcasts cover the week's most compelling stories in the communications and technology space. This week's podjockeys were TMCnet's Executive Editor Bob Liu, TMC President Rich Tehrani, and myself, TMCnet Editorial Director Al Bredenberg.

Here's what you'll hear about in this week's podcast:

• Cisco promotes its Intelligent Networking initiative.
• CRM Wars -- Salesforce.com advances its non-Microsoft operating system. But is it really an operating system? Competitors Siebel and Salesboom lash out!
• Solar Sail Spacecraft Fails -- An attempt to test the solar sail concept fizzles when its booster rocket fails.
• 1.3 Million Pennies -- A Louisiana man makes the largest-ever cash-in of pennies -- we think his wife is happy it's all over!
• Pod Slurping -- The latest trend in corporate espionage -- watch out for the cleaning guy with those white earbuds
• Tom Cruise Gets Squirted -- Did he deserve it?

As a top technology educator, TMC produces podcasts that are both educational and fun -- please go to our podcast page to listen or subscribe.

AB -- 6/26/05

I could let myself speak cynically about this study sponsored by Verizon:

Tampa, Hillsborough County Residents Want Choice and Competition for Cable TV From Verizon

It's probably a good idea to recognize that survey research is easily colored by factors such as who pays for it and what questions are asked in the survey. A reasonable person will be careful about saying that any position is "proven" by the results of a survey. Naturally, this Florida study paid for by Verizon concludes that consumers in two important Florida markets want to see competition for their business. That would probably be true in most markets.

To me, the significance of this study lies more in what it says about the current strategy of Verizon (and its cousins SBC, BellSouth and other telcos) to break into the video space. Some of the telcos advancing triple-play strategies are hoping to get government help to leap-frog local franchise requirements and get easier access to markets. Being able to point to "research" can help persuade legislators to move ahead and ease up requirements.

That said, it is probably true that most of us as consumers in the overall U.S market would like to see more competition and choice among communications providers, not just for TV, but for voice services, Internet access and wireless. In the following survey results, quoted from Verizon's press release today, perhaps the surprising thing is that the percentages in favor of competion are not even higher:

* When asked if they had cable or satellite television service, 79
percent of Tampa respondents and 87 percent of Hillsborough County
respondents said yes.

* When asked whether or not they support companies being able to offer
television service through a fiber-optic network as competition to
cable and satellite, 78 percent in Tampa and 83 percent in Hillsborough
County were in favor.

* When asked about Verizon being one of these companies, 68 percent were
positive in Tampa and 62 percent in Hillsborough County, an average of
65 percent.

* Most area residents are not satisfied with the level of competition in
the cable television service market. Fully 57 percent of Tampa
residents and 51 percent of Hillsborough County residents say they are
not satisfied with the amount of competition between companies that
provide cable television service in their area. Dissatisfaction is
even greater among those who currently have cable television service.
Six out of 10 cable subscribers in Tampa (60 percent) say they are not
satisfied with the amount of cable service competition, as do 52
percent of Hillsborough cable subscribers.

* Whether young or old, male or female, white, African-American or
Latino, there is broad support for increasing the number of companies
offering this type of television service, with the percentage favoring
more choice ranging from 64 percent to 85 percent.

AB -- 6/24/05

For us marketing geeks, it's worth noting that Sprint and Nextel have revealed their intended post-merger branding and logo. Today's announcement is on TMCnet at:

Sprint and Nextel Communications Announce New Branding and Logo to Be Used by Combined Company

The new company will be called Sprint, with Nextel retained as a product name. Too bad they couldn't be more creative -- might have been fun to have a company called Sprextel or Nint in the marketplace.

As I'm sure you're waiting with bated breath to see what the new logo will look like, here it is:

It's always interesting to look into the rationale for decisions around branding and positioning. What's that you say? Well, maybe not for you, but some of us are fascinated by such arcana.

Under the imposing subhead "The Sprint Master Brand," today's announcement reveals the following:

"Given its broad market awareness and its history of innovation, the Sprint name was chosen as the lead go-to-market brand name for the new company. Combining the rich attributes of the Sprint brand with the entrepreneurial, instant-communications traits represented by highlighting Nextel's presence in the product line offers strong positioning for the combined company."

The companies expect to complete their merger in the third quarter of 2005, pending regulatory and shareholder hurdles.

AB -- 6/23/05

This news item seemed quirky enough to take note of:

Alabama Man Sets New World Record Cash-In of Largest Penny Collection; More Than 1.3 Million Pennies Cashed In Using Coinstar Machine at Local Escambia County Bank

And I thought my uncles were weird!

Some intriguing things about the story:

The guy collected these pennies for 38 years and had them stored in his garage in four 55-gallon drums and three 20-gallon oil barrels. They weighed more than 4.5 tons.

Coinstar says there is over $10.5 Billion in loose change sitting around people's homes in the U.S.

According to today's release, a Coinstar machine can count up to 600 coins per minute, and the story only mentions one machine at this guy's local bank in Flomaton, Alabama. I'm wondering, did the guy stand at the machine for 36 hours spilling in coins?

1,308,459 pennies is only $13,084.59. I guess if I saw $13,084.59 lying on the ground I would pick it up (unless it was all in pennies) -- but still, that doesn't sound like such a great payoff for all the hassle involved!

AB -- 6/23/05

Traxi Technologies, a communications and IT services firm, informed me of a new product release today. The new product, Volcrum Voice, adds VoIP call recording to their Volcrum product line, developed to integrate enterprise phone systems and applications. The company describes Volcrum as a "suite of tools that lets you manage, integrate, control and administer your VoIP phone system seamlessly with the rest of your information technology infrastructure."

Traxi's news release from today is available on TMCnet at:

Traxi Technologies Introduces Volcrum Voice, a VoIP Call Recording Package

The announcement describes Volcrum Voice's capabilities as follows:

"Volcrum Voice contains a call recording component that allows calls to be archived for subsequent searching and playback. This application is ideal for customer service departments, contact centers, and regulated entities, resulting in better quality assurance, increased sales and customer satisfaction rates.

"Volcrum 's core technology design allows it to integrate with any application from packaged software to proprietary applications. The product suite provides a flexible set of tools that lets companies manage, integrate, control and administer an IP phone system (VoIP) or traditional phone system seamlessly with the rest of its technology infrastructure."

Lou Person, president of Traxi Technologies, describing the rationale for Volcrum Voice, says Traxi is seeing many companies upgrading phone systems and applications. "Over half of those making the change," he says, "are moving to VoIP because they are interested in the additional applications VoIP provides, such as phone and data integration. Volcrum Voice implements that vision one step further and increases the application richness of the phone system." Person says that Volcrum Voice can "integrate your contact database and record calls for subsequent mining and playback."

This image of the Volcrum Voice archive screen gives you some idea what the user interface is like:

Traxi is now developing voice-to-email and email-to-voice products to add to the Volcrum line.

AB -- 6/22/05

Performance management developer Centergistic Solutions today released Version 4.0 of its AgentView Enterprise product for contact centers, providing new Microsoft security features. Centergistic's complete announcement is available on TMCnet at:

Centergistic Solutions’ Announces Release of AgentView Enterprise Version 4.0 Performance Management

The new version of the platform attempts to decrease vulnerability of the product to malicious attack and intrusions.

Today's release also says that AgentView 4.0 "comes with enhanced graphics and more flexible layouts to create a high impact unified view of information that is more eye-catching and even easier to maintain." Centergistics uses a dashboard-type interface to integrate "data from various systems" and present "intelligent real time metrics and alerts to managers, supervisors and the workforce."

In writing about products, I like to check the company's Web site to look for illustrations that show what the product is like. I think this is particularly important for companies marketing software products. Purchasers need to be able to see what the user interface is like.

So I was disappointed when I visited Centergistic's Web site and found very little visual representation of the product. Sometimes this lack is due to paranoia -- someone in the company is afraid that the competition is going to learn too much about their product and somehow take advantage of their openness. More often, it is just lack of marketing resources and expertise. Nobody thinks to get good visuals up on the Web site, or nobody has time to do it.

In any case, it's pretty hard from the Centergistic Web site to get an idea what the user experience is like. I did find this one low-resolution graphic which gives some idea what Centergistic's interface is like:

AB -- 6/21/05

I haven't seen this news item anywhere else other than TMCnet, so I thought it was worth drawing attention to:

Smart Telecom in Dublin, Ireland Selects Minerva Networks’ IP Television Platform

This story comes from Minerva Networks, a provider of carrier-class infrastructure for delivery of video over broadband IP. Service provider Smart Telecom has chosen Minerva's iTVManager software and VC8000 headend system for its IPTV offerings in Ireland.

According to today's announcement, "Smart Telecom is the very first operator in Ireland to offer the digital triple play via a high performance FTTH network."

AB -- 6/20/05

I'm intrigued by the implications of this kind of announcement, which appeared today:

GroveSite Launches 4.0 at Collaborative Technologies 2005: Wiki-Style Collaboration is Good for Projects

On the surface, one usually thinks of a Wiki as a kind of collectively written encyclopedia. But I've heard a lot about them as tools for collaboration, knowledge management and project management. Seems to me that one of the possible advantages to using an enhanced Wiki-type applications is that it could allow for the storage and sharing of unstructured information, as well as management of and access to it.

Here is a quote describing what GroveSite does:

"Over the lifetime of a project, today's cross-functional multi-enterprise teams will generate volumes of unstructured information -- ideas, issues, documents and discussions. This unstructured, subjective information impacts the project's success or failure, yet most traditional project management tools only handle structured information such as project tasks, timelines and status.

"GroveSite 4.0 is designed to bridge this gap, giving nontechnical team leaders the ability to manage both structured and unstructured information; it combines core project management functionality with wiki-like team collaboration. GroveSite 4.0's enhanced project management tools include project import/export, task dependencies, milestones, late alerts, issue tracking and Gantt charts. GroveSite has also upgraded its search functionality to include content and file search for all users."

AB -- 6/20/05

... pretty much like the old one!

Since the TMCnet Web site is down and I can't publish anything except on this blog, I thought I would just take a moment to express wry amusement over this story from CNN/Money:

New-look PT Cruiser unveiled

I suppose PT Cruiser enthusiasts will be able to pick out dozens of things that are different about the 2006 version, but honestly, nothing stands out to me:

AB -- 6/16/05

In case you haven't heard, the big news here at TMC is that Michael K. Powell, former chairman of the FCC, will speak at the Internet Telephony Conference and Expo in Los Angeles Oct. 26, 2005. TMC's full announcement is available at:

Former FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell to Keynote INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO Fall 2005

Details on the event are at:

http://www.tmcnet.com/voip/conference/

AB -- 6/16/05

I just received a report from ABI Research commenting on BT's launch of its "BT Fusion" Bluephone service today. ABI refers to the new business as a "bold move" but also warns that the initiative is not without its challenges.

BT's news release on the new service appeared today on TMCnet:

BT Launches World's First Combined Fixed and Mobile Phone

In the release, the selling points for BT Fusion seem to be cost savings and better indoor call quality. The service will involve installation of an access point (called BT Hub) in the home which should allow seamless transfer between mobile and Bluetooth access, even mid-call. The hub also works as a WiFi router for other devices in the home. BT says the service will start out with a small number of early-adopter subscribers then go into widespread rollout in September.

All-in-all, it seems that ABI thinks this is a good move for BT in that it gets the company back into the important mobile business and fits with their current "all IP" strategy.

Here are the challenges ABI sees for BT in this foray into the fixed-mobile space (I quote):

• The handoff between the mobile coverage and the home Bluetooth coverage will need to be seamless and reliable
• Bluetooth is in most mobile phones but BT needs to migrate to Wi-Fi for future economies of scale
• They need to build out a diverse range of handsets, but the market has fickle tastes
• The mobile operators will not be standing still. They will continue to improve coverage and intend to use 3G to reduce the underlying costs and increase the capacity of their networks. They could, and will, introduce home-zone tariffs centered on your current home (or office) location.

Here's a photo of the BT Fusion Motorola v560 handset:

And this is a photo of a BT customer blissfully enjoying his BT Fusion BT Hub:

AB -- 6/15/05

I have podcasting on my mind right now, as we just finished our most successful podcast yesterday -- had Aculab's David Duffett conferenced in from England -- check it out by going to TMCnet's podcast page here.

But doing research today, I found some commentary referring to podcasting as "time-shifted radio," which I thought was a great description, borrowed I think from the realm of Tivo. (This is probably nothing new to veterans. At TMC, we're rank newbies at podcasting, although we love it and it has become an important part of our weekly publishing cycle.)

I found another commentator saying something along the lines that 'no, it's not time-shifted, it's on-demand.' So I though those two ideas were worth noting and recording -- time-shifted, on-demand.

Wikipedia has a great entry about podcasting here.

AB -- 6/11/05

TMCnet Communications and Technology Podcast for 06-10-05: VoIP Expert David Duffett of Aculab - Rich Tehrani Reviews SUPERCOMM 2005 Service Provider Conference - Oops! CitiGroup Loses Customer Data - Apple Switching to Intel Processors

By Al Bredenberg

This week's TMCnet Communications and Technology Podcast was the most exciting and most interesting to date. Best thing about it was our guest podjockey, David Duffett of Aculab, who conferenced in from Milton Keynes, UK, and added immeasurably to the fun and raucousness of this week's podcast -- oh yeah, and to the insight and analysis of the latest trends in VoIP, communications and technology.

On this podcast: Rich Tehrani, David Duffett, Michelle Pasquerello and Al Bredenberg.

Tune in to the June 10, 2005, TMCnet Communications and Technology Podcast to enjoy the following thought-provoking topics:

• Insights from TMC President Rich Tehrani on SUPERCOMM, the communications technology event for service providers, just concluded in Chicago.
• David Duffett ("The Voice of IP") on Aculab's newly-released Prosody X, the new VoIP media processing card designed from the beginning 'with IP at its heart.'
• CitiGroup's "Big Oops" -- How did the financial service giant lose account information for 3.9 million of its customers?
• Apple announces its intention to go over to Intel processors -- has Steve Jobs given in to the Dark Side
• and much more!

Visit our podcast page right now to listen or subscribe -- it's fun and informative!

AB -- 6/10/05