Wednesday, July 31, 2013

New Research - Promising UC Outlook for SMBs

Got some new industry research to share, and the news is good. Back in late 2010, Metaswitch Networks did some ground-breaking research with SMBs to better understand their thinking around communications technologies, especially their phone systems. I produced a position paper for them based on the data, which gave me first-hand access to the detailed findings.

SMBs don't just buy on price, and we all have a lot to learn about this huge segement of the business market, especially UC vendors and service providers. Well, I'm happy to say that Metaswitch Networks has updated this research and am even happier to say that there's lots of upside for those who take the time to understand what really drives SMBs.

Metaswitch is just starting to get the word out, and I got the first analyst briefing about it last week. There's lots to digest, and they've done a nice job summarizing the key findings in a public document you can access from their website.

Before you do that, though, I'm going to steer you to my analysis of that summary, which has just been posted on the UCStrategies portal. UC wasn't in the mainstream vernacular in 2010, but it is now, and since UC is a key element of the research, UCS is the logical home for my writeup. So, please give it a read, share your thoughts with us, and if you want to learn more, give their research summary a read as well.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Smart Grid Future Outlook Webinar - Thursday, July 18

Back from vacation now - haven't been online much for a while and slowly catching up to things. Non-stop busy since returning, and I wanted  to do a final shout-out for this webinar tomorrow. I've been doing a fair bit lately with Zpryme, and this webinar is going to be very well attended.

We'll be talking about where the smart grid is going, and along with myself, there will be presentations from eMeter, Bluebonnet Elecctric Cooperative, Arizona Public Service and NAESB. It's another strong lineup, and with five speakers, this will be a 90 minute event. I hope you can join us - we start at 1pm ET, and the full details can be found here.

Friday, July 5, 2013

Zpryme Webinar - Future Solutions for the Smart Grid

Pretty busy here just before disappearing on a family vacation. Am happily wearing my smart grid hat now and donning my dual role of host and presenter for an upcoming Zpryme webinar. These events are getting great takeup and the last two I've done have been really good. First rate panelists, up-to-the-minute research and solid insights from leading companies in this space.

So, if the smart grid crystal ball piques your interest, you'll want to join us on Thursday, July 18 at 1pm ET. Joining me will be speakers from eMeter (a Siemens company), Arizona Public Service, Bluebonnet Electric Co-op, and NAESB - North American Energy Standards Board.

If you lived through the disruption of Hurricane Sandy, you'll know how vulnerable our aging power grid can be, and this is the place to be to learn how the smart grid will better prepare us for future disruptions.

The webinar is free, and runs 90 minutes - we have a lot of ground to cover. Here are the details about the topic and our speakers, as well as how to register. See you there!

Merits of UC in the Cloud - EM360 Podcast/Article Now Posted

Enterprise Management 360 is a UK-based venture focused on thought leadership for IT executives from the analyst community. This is another entity that engages me on occasion, and my most recent involvement was an interview I did with Todd Abbot of Sonus back in May.

They do a good job of bringing industry leaders to the table, and a few weeks back, they had me lead a roundtable panel on the business case and reservations about putting UC in the cloud. It's a huge topic these days, and we had a great group on hand.

Joining me was Sanjay Bhatia of GENBAND, Richard Bennett of Avaya, and Jon Martin of BT Global. I really enjoyed having views from both vendors and carriers, as this presents major implications - and opportunities for each as they struggle to maintain ownership of the end customer.

We had so much to talk about that the podcast was broken up into three distinct segments. EM360 has just posted them here on their website where you can download and listen any time.

They've also included excerpts in their flagship quarterly glossy magazine. The Q4 edition is in distribution now to subscribers, and the digital version is now running live. Here's the link, and the transcript from part of our podcast runs on pages 12-15.

I hope you find this content helpful, and comments are most welcome.

Ziff Davis Webinar - Evolution of Fax

I'm a regular contributor to Ziff Davis for UC thought leadership, and when the stars line up, they engage me with their webinars.

Got a new one coming soon to tell you about. This webinar is about the evolution of fax, with the main focus being the virtues of cloud-based offerings. The evolutionary path taken by fax has parallels to telephony, and I'll be talking about that during my presentation.

The webinar is on Tuesday, July 16 at 1pm ET, and full details about the topic and how to register are on this web page.

I need to get the word out now as I'll be on vacation next week and won't be blogging again until I'm back on the 15th. Hope you can join us!