Cisco Takeaways - Five Business Opps for Carriers

I promise - this will be my last reference to Cisco's Collaboration Summit! Can't help it - there were a lot of good ideas there - not just about what Cisco is doing, but also the bigger picture as to where communications is going.

I've written about these things in various places recently, and I also see a specific angle that's relevant for carriers. That's the focus of my latest Service Provider Views column on TMCnet. I've identified five specific business opportunities for service providers based on what I saw at Cisco's event.

Some of this will not be news, but for me, what Cisco is doing in these areas really underscores the need for service providers to be more proactive - not just to leverage new technologies, but also to adapt to changing end user behaviors and expectations. These things go hand-in-hand, and addressing these opportunities is easier said than done.

Enough preamble - the article is posted now, and you can read it here.

Next Stop - ADTRAN

Heading into the final month of 2010, I have two short trips coming up - back to back. Tomorrow I'm going south, to Huntsville, Alabama. It's my second analyst event for ADTRAN, and I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Last year's event was quite impressive, and I had no idea how much of tech hub this town is - not to mention being the birthplace of the U.S. space program, and a not-too-far bus ride to the Jack Daniels distillery. :-)

Stay tuned for hightlights, and now that I'm on Twitter, I'll have even more timely updates.

Cisco Takeaways: Five Ways to Rethink Communications

I've been writing a fair bit about last week's Cisco Collaboration Summit, but that's because there's a lot to talk about. This time, I've channeled some new thoughts into my latest Focus Brief. The idea here is to summarize five themes that I believe business decision-makers need think more critically about, and for you to mull over during the Thanksgiving break.

Cisco is looking to play an even bigger role than most of you can imagine for our workplace needs, and if their plans come to fruition, these themes will become core drivers for communications planning at all levels. To follow my thinking, you can read my brief on Focus.com now, and then let me know if I'm on target or not.

UCStrategies Podcast - Cisco, Microsoft and HP

Last week sure was busy in the IP comms space, and while a few of us were busy at Cisco's Collaboration Summit, others were busy following news from Microsoft and HP. I've shared a few things about Cisco's event already, with one more coming today.

I can now add this podcast to the list of analysis and commentary. This was our weekly group call with UCStrategies analysts, and we reviewed our thoughts about the summit along with these other major news events. The podcast can be downloaded here, and there's a transcript if you'd rather just read along.

Cisco Collaboration Summit - Takeaways and Photos

I managed to post some photos and brief comments during Cisco's 2010 Collaboration Summit last week, and promised I'd share some thoughts. On the flight back, I wrote up my takeaways and bigger picture thoughts on where I see Cisco going. This was written specifically for the UCStrategies portal, and as such, most of my analysis focused on how Cisco's plans impact the Unified Communications space.

My article was submitted for posting on Friday morning, but it didn't end up getting published until last night. So, please keep in mind, this was written just hours after the event, with every intention of posting it fresh the next day. Anyhow, not much has really changed since Friday, but if you're still interested in Cisco's grand plans, I think you'll find this a good read. It's running now on the UCStrategies portal, and you can read it here, along with UCS colleague Blair Pleasant's take on the summit.

This is actually the first of two analyses about Cisco's summit. I'll have another one coming this week with a slightly different focus.

While I have you, I mentioned photos earlier, and just wanted to share a few shots from the final day of the summit...

Marthin De Beers - great wrapup presentation


Preview of umi, their home-based collaboration suite - very impressive

Podcast with Peter Radizeski on BroadSoft and Metaswitch

Peter and I often travel in the same circles, and he's well known in the channel space, especially for training and go to market strategies. We do podcasts from time to time, and last week we did one about our shared impressions of two recent telecom events. I attended the Metaswitch Forum and saw some of BroadSoft Connections via video, and Peter attended the latter.

These companies are increasingly coming up against each other, and I can tell you from first-hand experience that both are doing quite well. I go back a long way with both, and it's great to see how they've grown and evolved to become leaders for integrated communications platforms, especially for hosted services. I've been posting about both for some time on my blog, so feel free to review those for more.

Anyhow, if these companies are on your radar, you should enjoy our chat. You can download the podcast here, and if you'd like to follow up, just drop me a line.

Cisco Collaboration Summit - Day 2

Just have time to post some quick pix. Ironically, broadband access has been close to impossible, at least for me. You'd think at this event we'd have super service. Seems that some people are getting access and some are not - might depend on where we're sitting in the room. Anyhow, I'll tweet when time allows, and I'll have my overall thoughts in a day or so.

Day 2 was mostly roundtables with analysts and consultants, and these were under NDA - that's why you won't hear much about that. Aside from that, there were some good panels yesterday with customers, and for companies who buy into Cisco's collaboration vision, the results have been pretty good - it's really about transformative experiences rather than being more efficient with the status quo.

Phil Sherburne talking about VXI and desktop virtualization


Cisco Cius


I love this place - wouldn't you?

Cisco Collaboration Summit, Day 1 Photos

Day 1 at Cisco's 2010 Collaboration Summit was short - just some late afternoon keynotes, but everything has been great so far. Nobody puts on a better event than Cisco, and the venue is as good as it gets. I've written about the Biltmore before, and what I like is how this place is on a very human scale, and reflects the sensibilities from an earlier time before the balance between man and machine tipped too far to the right. Of course, you have this quirky contrast of small scale leisure against the vastness of the harsh Arizona desert - love it.

Anyhow, time to get going on Day 2, and I just wanted to share some quick photos here. More to come on the blog, Twitter and elsewhere.



Kara Wilson with her welcome message - happy to share her excitement and passion about what's coming - and it's pretty good!


John Chambers doing a video greeting. Even with my crappy 2 MP Bold camera you can see how crisp this image is. It really is impressive and it's another example of how well Cisco is living the dream of all this technology.


Padmasree Warrior, CTO - her messaging gets better every time I see her. She did a great job tying in all the big themes of mobility, video, virtualization and the new big driver, social networks.


Barry O'Sullivan - also did a great job connecting all the big ideas to real world applications, especially during the demos with Jim Grubb.



This hotel is full of history, and the Frank Lloyd Wright touches are everywhere, but none more so than this spectacular stained glass panel in the front lobby.

How to Select an IP Telephony Vendor - Focus Brief

Anyone following me regularly knows that my writing sometimes comes in spurts, and today is a great example of that. I'm posting here about my latest Brief on Focus.com, with the topic being titled "Five Things You Should Look for With an IP Telephony Vendor".

In short, making buying decisions today around telephony is more complex than before, especially once you start thinking beyond voice and getting into the broader universe of IP communications. My Focus Brief isolates five factors you need to consider, and if you're in a buying mode for telephony, you might want to give this a read!

Will the Cloud Kill Telecom Vendors?

Am I the only one asking this question? It's been on my mind lately for good reason, and I think there's something to this. The cloud is a big topic, for sure, and on my latest Service Provider Views column for TMCnet, I take my first stab at what this ultimately could do to/for telecom vendors.

You can read my article here, and as always, your comments are welcome!

Mitel's Freedom Updates - our take on UCStrategies

Mitel announced some pretty interesting things today, and the analysts got their briefings last week. There is some news here, as well as some new market positioning messaging, and it all falls under the name Freedom. The tag line for this new stake in the ground is "Flexibility + Simplicity = Freedom". Ok, sounds good to me - but it's also fairly similar to the mantra another player in the space is hanging its hat on.

Well, these are just words, and at the end of the day its all about execution and meeting customer expectations. Mitel is definitely on the right track here, and I'd say they've taken the virtualization path far enough for it to become a nice differentiator. Time will tell, but there's a good story here for sure.

Instead of rehashing my thoughts, I'll steer you to UCStrategies, where you'll get everybody's take, and not just mine. Now that the embargo has passed, Friday's podcast has now been posted, along with a full transcript. If you want to understand what Mitel is doing with Freedom and where this could take them, checking out the podcast will be time well spent.

Avaya web.alive - will this be UC 2.0?

My November contribution to the UCStrategies portal focused on Avaya's web.alive, which they inherited from Nortel. I recently attended their Evolutions customer event here in Toronto, and after seeing their latest iteration of web.alive, it got me thinking about where this could fit in the UC space. I've distilled that into a posting for the portal, and it's running now. You can read it here, and I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Next Stop - Cisco Collaboration Summit, Phoenix

I've been home for a bit following way too much travel in October, and have just one trip for this month. This time it's Cisco - tomorrow, I'm off to their Collaboration Summit in Phoenix. They're holding it at the famous Biltmore Hotel (Frank Lloyd Wright), which was the site earlier this month for BroadSoft's Connections event. I couldn't go to that one, but did participate via streaming video, so in a sense this will be my second visit to the Biltmore this month. :-)

I was lucky enough to attend last year's Collaboration Summit in San Francisco, and am looking forward to hearing first hand how Cisco's vision becoming reality. I'll be posting and tweeting as time allows, so check back with me tomorrow for news.

Avaya Evolutions - Keeping Customers Happy

Yesterday, I attended a new Avaya customer event here in Toronto. It's called Evolutions, and it builds on the success of a similar event they recently had in Mexico. This one was for the Canadian market, with a nice mix of customers, prospects and sponsors. I couldn't make the morning sessions, but the afternoon presentations were quite good, and I'm sure the full day was worthwhile. Attendance was strong and the buzz seemed great, esp during the reception where we had time to chat up the various sponsors.

Am not sure if there were any other industry analysts there - I didn't see any - so this might be the only place you'll hear about it. The content mix was quite good, including their roadmap, customer deployments, and updates across the board - contact center, Web.Alive, mobility, UC, Flare, Aura, etc.

The highlight for me was the update on Web.Alive from Chris Hardy. This technology is new for most people, and it came over with their Nortel acquisition. I have a particularly long history with Web.Alive, going back prior to Nortel's acquisition of the underlying technology from DiamondWare. If that's of interest, you can read all about that here. Anyway, I think Avaya has a great opportunity with Web.Alive, as they truly have technology that nobody else has, especially Cisco. Stay tuned!

Before leaving you, as it turns out, I was interviewed by VoIP Planet about Avaya and Skype - two companies I follow closely, and who happen to have the same investor. The story ran yesterday, which is timely here, so I thought I'd include it to keep the Avaya theme going.

I'll just leave you with a few photos for the record...

Chris Hardy and Web.Alive


Ritchie Brothers case study with Unity Telecom

Microsoft Office 365 - UCStrategies Views

The recent launch of Microsoft Office 365 is big news on a few fronts. Google is certainly changing the game with the cloud, and the time has come now for Microsoft to counter. There's a lot at stake here, and we started to explore that on this week's UCStrategies podcast call.

The podcast has now been posted to the portal, along with a transcript if you just want to read along. We'll likely continue the thread on our next podcast, but this should get you going for now.

Mitel's Don Smith Retires - Nice Profile on CTV

I've followed Mitel for some time, and am especially interested since they're Canadian. In fact, I would argue that they've taken Nortel's spot as our top telecom player. No doubt RIM is tops for Canadian tech companies, but in the telecom space, Mitel is our best known story. There are other companies I could drag into the conversation, but let's leave that aside for now.

The story here is about Don Smith's retirement as CEO, which was recently announced in close proximity to his receiving Ottawa's Executive of the Year award. That's a nice way to go out, and I wanted to share some coverage that ran Sunday night on CTV's Ottawa-based affiliate.

There are two pieces to steer you to, both running on Paul Brent's weekly feature, Tech Now.

First is a short profile article about Don that I'm sure has run across various CTV sites by now.

Second is a video segment from his Sunday show - October 31. Mitel is the lead story, and it runs just a few minutes. There's some great archival footage of Mitel, along with various interviews with Mitel executives.

Paul was nice enough to include me in both pieces, so I'm cited in the article, and provided some comments towards the end of the video segment. I'm not sure how long the video clip will run, so check it out now while it's still there!

Focus Webinar with Panasonic - When it's Time for IP Telephony

Just another shout-out for this Wednesday's webinar - "Top 5 Signs an SMB is Ready for an IP Phone System". It's being sponsored by Panasonic, and hosted by Focus.com. I'll be the first presenter, examining various scenerios that lead businesses to adopt IP telephony.

I hope you can join us - just go to this page for more details and how to register.