Building on our UCStrategies podcast earlier this week on the UC year in review, I've added another take in written form.
In short, disruption was the big driver, and it's hard to imagine this degree of change being the norm for 2012 - but you never know! I've had a chance to gauge the landscape both here in Canada as well as the U.S., and disruption comes in many flavors. Some is welcome and some is not, and my take on what it means for UC is the focus of my summary. It's posted now on the UCStrategies portal, and I welcome your thoughts after you've had a chance to give it a read.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Unified Communications - 2011 Year in Review Podcast
We're getting that looking back/looking ahead time of year, right? The latest UCStrategies podcast served as our 2011 review in this space, and there was lots to talk about.
This is as complete of a roundup on what happened in Unified Communications this year as you're going to find, so if this space is on your radar, you'll want to give it a listen. The podcast - and transcript - is posted now on the portal, so head on over to hear what we had to say.
We're off next week, but our next podcast is the following week, and we'll address our 2012 UC outlook/predictions then. Can't wait!
This is as complete of a roundup on what happened in Unified Communications this year as you're going to find, so if this space is on your radar, you'll want to give it a listen. The podcast - and transcript - is posted now on the portal, so head on over to hear what we had to say.
We're off next week, but our next podcast is the following week, and we'll address our 2012 UC outlook/predictions then. Can't wait!
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
ITExpo East in Miami - 41 days and counting...
Just a quick shout-out before people get too scattered for the holidays.
TMC's ITExpo East is just 41 days away, and before you know it, we'll be in Miami - nothing wrong with that, right? The show builds on strong momentum from the Austin expo back in September, and the upcoming program is as strong as ever. They recently announced Sir Terry Matthews as a keynoter, and you will not want to miss that. Great choice!
I'll be plenty busy as well, moderating three panels, and I'll provide more details on those as the speakers get confirmed.
1. Wed. at 11am - Building the UC business case
2. Wed. at 1:30pm - How call centers are being reshaped by smartphones, social media and fed-up consumers
3. Friday at 10am - Can UC get social?
Looking forward to all of those, and I hope you are too. Lots more to come about this and the Expo - stay tuned.
TMC's ITExpo East is just 41 days away, and before you know it, we'll be in Miami - nothing wrong with that, right? The show builds on strong momentum from the Austin expo back in September, and the upcoming program is as strong as ever. They recently announced Sir Terry Matthews as a keynoter, and you will not want to miss that. Great choice!
I'll be plenty busy as well, moderating three panels, and I'll provide more details on those as the speakers get confirmed.
1. Wed. at 11am - Building the UC business case
2. Wed. at 1:30pm - How call centers are being reshaped by smartphones, social media and fed-up consumers
3. Friday at 10am - Can UC get social?
Looking forward to all of those, and I hope you are too. Lots more to come about this and the Expo - stay tuned.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
SMBs and the channel - Canadian update - where's the innovation?
This morning I attended a breakfast session hosted by IT World Canada, and it was a good update on the state of the channel, especially for serving the SMB market. They served it up as a debate, with speakers from two channels, and facilitated by the venerable Paolo Del Nibletto from IT World Canada - with a specific focus on the publication, CDN - Canadian Dealer News. Joining Paolo was Joe Ussia of Infinite IT Solutions, and Christopher Woodill of Navantis.
For SMB, the channel is where the business really happens, and where vendors put their trust in their partners to effectively deploy their solutions. As we heard, SMBs are cautious, both in terms of adopting technology and spending. Paolo shared some data showing that 50% of Canadian SMBs will have have flat IT budgets in 2012, and 22% will actually drop. Not surprisingly, he shared data showing that the biggest concerns among channels are - the state of the economy (healthier than the U.S., but not great), margins, and sales growth. Totally makes sense, right?
Of greater concern to Paolo - and I fully agree - is how little importance the channels are placing on innovation and R&D - these scored much lower on the priority list in the research he shared. This is pretty typical for Canada, and while SMBs generally don't flock to cutting-edge technology, the channel players risk becoming commodities if they're all pushing the same stock solutions.
Note to self and Paolo - next time, show some research regarding what SMB priorities are. I wouldn't be surprised to see innovation and R&D higher up on their list - and if so, there really would be a disconnect between channels and SMBs. Paolo - I'm ready to do the research when you are!
So, with all this uncertainty out there, it's no surprise that uptake on hosted or cloud offerings is slow. As the speakers noted, SMBs still like a sense of IT ownership and control, but they do value what VARs and integrators bring to make multi-mode - and multi-vendor - solutions work. It's a tricky balance in that SMBs aren't spending a lot on Capex for premise-based systems, plus they're also cautious about the cloud.
Perhaps the strongest takeway from this was the path SMBs seem to be on with cloud. They seem happy and comfortable buying point solutions such as Salesforce or CRM that run in the cloud - but this just results in a mish-mash of applications with no integration, which of course, is where the channels earns its keep. As such, the channels concede we'll be in a hybrid market for some time - premise isn't going away that quickly, and cloud adoption will be gradual for communications applications.
Nothing ground-breaking here, but certainly a healthy reality check on what Canadian SMBs are doing, and how the channels are responding. Kudos to Paolo and his team, and I look forward to the next event.
Paolo leading the discussion with Joe Ussia and Christopher Woodill
For SMB, the channel is where the business really happens, and where vendors put their trust in their partners to effectively deploy their solutions. As we heard, SMBs are cautious, both in terms of adopting technology and spending. Paolo shared some data showing that 50% of Canadian SMBs will have have flat IT budgets in 2012, and 22% will actually drop. Not surprisingly, he shared data showing that the biggest concerns among channels are - the state of the economy (healthier than the U.S., but not great), margins, and sales growth. Totally makes sense, right?
Of greater concern to Paolo - and I fully agree - is how little importance the channels are placing on innovation and R&D - these scored much lower on the priority list in the research he shared. This is pretty typical for Canada, and while SMBs generally don't flock to cutting-edge technology, the channel players risk becoming commodities if they're all pushing the same stock solutions.
Note to self and Paolo - next time, show some research regarding what SMB priorities are. I wouldn't be surprised to see innovation and R&D higher up on their list - and if so, there really would be a disconnect between channels and SMBs. Paolo - I'm ready to do the research when you are!
So, with all this uncertainty out there, it's no surprise that uptake on hosted or cloud offerings is slow. As the speakers noted, SMBs still like a sense of IT ownership and control, but they do value what VARs and integrators bring to make multi-mode - and multi-vendor - solutions work. It's a tricky balance in that SMBs aren't spending a lot on Capex for premise-based systems, plus they're also cautious about the cloud.
Perhaps the strongest takeway from this was the path SMBs seem to be on with cloud. They seem happy and comfortable buying point solutions such as Salesforce or CRM that run in the cloud - but this just results in a mish-mash of applications with no integration, which of course, is where the channels earns its keep. As such, the channels concede we'll be in a hybrid market for some time - premise isn't going away that quickly, and cloud adoption will be gradual for communications applications.
Nothing ground-breaking here, but certainly a healthy reality check on what Canadian SMBs are doing, and how the channels are responding. Kudos to Paolo and his team, and I look forward to the next event.
Paolo leading the discussion with Joe Ussia and Christopher Woodill
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Rogers Wireless "One Number" Launch - Upping the Stakes
At its core, Toronto-based Rogers is a cable company, but wireless is where the action is, and that's where they're doing the most interesting things. They bet right on GSM - which begat their iPhone monopoly until recently - and through some shrewd moves, have become Canada's #1 mobile operator. They really are a one-of-a-kind entity, as no major MSO I know of has their mix of assets, all of which make money.
Along those lines, Rogers Wireless is set today to launch their beta of a new service called One Number. It's exactly what you think - one number to manage all your communications. If there's one key to success with consumer services - especially technology - it's simplicity. Skype taught us all about that and they haven't looked back since. Doesn't get much simpler that this - one number - that's all you need to worry about. It's the same mentality that goes with bundling, which they've been very successful at. If you like the bundle, you'll probably like One Number.
This is hardly a new concept, and anyone in Unified Communications circles would yawn. They shouldn't, though. UC is really for the business market, and the telecom piece is built mainly around the desk phone. The twist with One Number is that it's built around the mobile phone, which is pretty much where consumers live, breath and sleep these days. Rogers Wireless has read the tea leaves right, and to make their bundle even stickier, One Number basically integrates mobility with your desktop. So what? So this. Now you can hand off mobile calls to your PC - or vice versa - as some people do with Skype. Same for texting and messaging - what you do on your mobile phone you can now do on your PC. And of course your contacts will synch between the devices so the experience is seamless.
Pretty cool, pretty easy and pretty familiar. Sounds like Google Voice, huh? Problem is you can't get it here in Canada - something to do with how the big 3 operators like to do things. Anyhow, it's very much a Web 2.0-meets mobility-meets VoIP mashup, and I think consumers will love it. Most people under 30 have long moved on from a landline, and with One Number, their PC simply becomes an extension of their smartphone - you just don't need anything else. Clever, huh? If you can find a way to use Google Voice, there's no need now. Skype. Well, it's always there, but hey, if most of your everyday contacts are in your smartphone directory, it will just make more sense to call them from your PC that way, especially since those calls are largely free.
There are some other twists to this, but I'll leave those details to the real geeks. I just find it very telling how this is all being driven by wireless now, and One Number is a neat way to marry this with the PC. Of course, all of this will depend on the end user experience - if handoffs drop, or call quality is crappy, One Number will quickly and quietly disappear. In that regard, there's a nice Canadian angle, as the PC platform is from CounterPath, a company I have followed for some time. Their Bria soft client is quite good - I trialed it recently, and the company is doing well - their Q2 numbers were just released today. At a time when 6 of Canada's 7 hockey teams are mired in total mediocrity, it's great to see some good news coming from these companies.
As a coda, I should note that there's more to consider than just making the Rogers bundle stickier. Last night I was at a holiday party for one of the new wireless entrants, and it's very interesting to hear their take on the competitive landscape. Canada's wireless market has some challenging dynamics, and the regulators are doing everything they can to legislate competition. The new operators are pureplay mobile services, and One Number is another way for Rogers to differentiate and keep their ARPU up where investors are happy.
Not everybody needs or wants to integrate mobility with their PC, but those who do are pretty valuable customers. Rogers gets that, and One Number will help keep those customers under their tent. If this works, I have no doubt that TELUS and Bell will soon offer similar services, if only to keep their customers from going to Rogers. Until then, it's Rogers out in front again, and I'm sure CounterPath is hoping that everyone wants it.
Along those lines, Rogers Wireless is set today to launch their beta of a new service called One Number. It's exactly what you think - one number to manage all your communications. If there's one key to success with consumer services - especially technology - it's simplicity. Skype taught us all about that and they haven't looked back since. Doesn't get much simpler that this - one number - that's all you need to worry about. It's the same mentality that goes with bundling, which they've been very successful at. If you like the bundle, you'll probably like One Number.
This is hardly a new concept, and anyone in Unified Communications circles would yawn. They shouldn't, though. UC is really for the business market, and the telecom piece is built mainly around the desk phone. The twist with One Number is that it's built around the mobile phone, which is pretty much where consumers live, breath and sleep these days. Rogers Wireless has read the tea leaves right, and to make their bundle even stickier, One Number basically integrates mobility with your desktop. So what? So this. Now you can hand off mobile calls to your PC - or vice versa - as some people do with Skype. Same for texting and messaging - what you do on your mobile phone you can now do on your PC. And of course your contacts will synch between the devices so the experience is seamless.
Pretty cool, pretty easy and pretty familiar. Sounds like Google Voice, huh? Problem is you can't get it here in Canada - something to do with how the big 3 operators like to do things. Anyhow, it's very much a Web 2.0-meets mobility-meets VoIP mashup, and I think consumers will love it. Most people under 30 have long moved on from a landline, and with One Number, their PC simply becomes an extension of their smartphone - you just don't need anything else. Clever, huh? If you can find a way to use Google Voice, there's no need now. Skype. Well, it's always there, but hey, if most of your everyday contacts are in your smartphone directory, it will just make more sense to call them from your PC that way, especially since those calls are largely free.
There are some other twists to this, but I'll leave those details to the real geeks. I just find it very telling how this is all being driven by wireless now, and One Number is a neat way to marry this with the PC. Of course, all of this will depend on the end user experience - if handoffs drop, or call quality is crappy, One Number will quickly and quietly disappear. In that regard, there's a nice Canadian angle, as the PC platform is from CounterPath, a company I have followed for some time. Their Bria soft client is quite good - I trialed it recently, and the company is doing well - their Q2 numbers were just released today. At a time when 6 of Canada's 7 hockey teams are mired in total mediocrity, it's great to see some good news coming from these companies.
As a coda, I should note that there's more to consider than just making the Rogers bundle stickier. Last night I was at a holiday party for one of the new wireless entrants, and it's very interesting to hear their take on the competitive landscape. Canada's wireless market has some challenging dynamics, and the regulators are doing everything they can to legislate competition. The new operators are pureplay mobile services, and One Number is another way for Rogers to differentiate and keep their ARPU up where investors are happy.
Not everybody needs or wants to integrate mobility with their PC, but those who do are pretty valuable customers. Rogers gets that, and One Number will help keep those customers under their tent. If this works, I have no doubt that TELUS and Bell will soon offer similar services, if only to keep their customers from going to Rogers. Until then, it's Rogers out in front again, and I'm sure CounterPath is hoping that everyone wants it.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Know Your Alternatives 2012 - Program Announced
Newsflash - a Canadian telecom event! This is a rarity up here, and I'm glad to say I'll be part of it, so stay tuned for details.
The event is called Know Your Alternatives, and runs here in Toronto on February 9, 2012. Sure, it's a small event and just one day, but I'll take it. There are just so few events in this space in Canada, and hats off to Emily Nielsen and her team at Nielsen Consulting for putting this together.
She's lined up a solid roster of sponsors - Bell, Microsoft, Cisco, Avaya, Mitel, ShoreTel, NEC, Dialogic - and the program is very strong. At this point, I'll be speaking on the SIP Trunking session, which is familiar ground for me, so this should be a fun panel.
Have a look at the website for details, and there's a bonus draw if you register before December 16. There's a newsletter you can sign up for as well, and I'll update you here and on Twitter as updates come along.
The event is called Know Your Alternatives, and runs here in Toronto on February 9, 2012. Sure, it's a small event and just one day, but I'll take it. There are just so few events in this space in Canada, and hats off to Emily Nielsen and her team at Nielsen Consulting for putting this together.
She's lined up a solid roster of sponsors - Bell, Microsoft, Cisco, Avaya, Mitel, ShoreTel, NEC, Dialogic - and the program is very strong. At this point, I'll be speaking on the SIP Trunking session, which is familiar ground for me, so this should be a fun panel.
Have a look at the website for details, and there's a bonus draw if you register before December 16. There's a newsletter you can sign up for as well, and I'll update you here and on Twitter as updates come along.
Canadian Blog Awards - don't forget to vote!
Just a quick shout-out to keep the Canadian Blog Awards on your radar. You can view the full list of nominees across several categories here. If you scroll down towards the end, you'll find the Science and Technology category, and my blog is in that group.
I'm not sure when voting closes, but hey, just head on over the site and exercise your right to vote, eh!
I'm not sure when voting closes, but hey, just head on over the site and exercise your right to vote, eh!
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