Innovation comes in many forms, and that's what makes the communications market so interesting. I come across all types of this, both within and from outside the space, and am always interested in finding better ways to communicate.
In my latest Service Provider Views column, I touch on a few of these, namely Vonage partnering with Amdocs, and a company I just wrote about, Ringio, who have a pretty attractive cloud-based CRM solution for SMBs. The article is running now on TMCnet, and you can read it here. As always, comments are welcome!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
BroadSoft Goes IPO
Well, the big day has finally come for BroadSoft, a company I've been close to for about as long as I've been following telecom. It's a long road to IPO, and a lot of things have to go right, not just on opening, but after all the hoopla dies down.
I've been too heads-down today to jump on this, and a hat tip to Larry Lisser who IM'd me earlier to say the stock opened today at $9. That's at the low end of the expected range of $9-$11, and last I checked it has traded today as low as $7.83, and is now around $8.40. I'm not a financial analyst and don't really follow stocks on an intraday basis, so I'll leave it at that.
The bigger picture is the news that they've gone public, so congrats to Mike Tessler and his loyal team for getting this done. If you follow my blog, you'll know that BroadSoft has been doing a lot of things right for a while now, and they earned their stripes. Of course, being a public company brings a whole new set of pressures, and it remains to be seen if the profits are there to keep the markets happy.
For lack of a better word, VoIP IPOs have not fared well, so BroadSoft has its work cut out. In recent times, the likes of Vonage, Veraz and even Mitel do not bode well. However, when you look at Acme Packet, things are a bit brighter. Like Acme, BroadSoft is very strong in their space - not quite as dominant, but strong enough that their market position can sustain long term success and profitability. Acme's stock price did languish for some time, but it's very hot right now, so when the market catches up to how well you're doing, good things can happen. There's no reason why BroadSoft can't turn out the same way, and at the very least, it's a good day to be in VoIP - or whatever you choose to call the business BroadSoft is in!
I've been too heads-down today to jump on this, and a hat tip to Larry Lisser who IM'd me earlier to say the stock opened today at $9. That's at the low end of the expected range of $9-$11, and last I checked it has traded today as low as $7.83, and is now around $8.40. I'm not a financial analyst and don't really follow stocks on an intraday basis, so I'll leave it at that.
The bigger picture is the news that they've gone public, so congrats to Mike Tessler and his loyal team for getting this done. If you follow my blog, you'll know that BroadSoft has been doing a lot of things right for a while now, and they earned their stripes. Of course, being a public company brings a whole new set of pressures, and it remains to be seen if the profits are there to keep the markets happy.
For lack of a better word, VoIP IPOs have not fared well, so BroadSoft has its work cut out. In recent times, the likes of Vonage, Veraz and even Mitel do not bode well. However, when you look at Acme Packet, things are a bit brighter. Like Acme, BroadSoft is very strong in their space - not quite as dominant, but strong enough that their market position can sustain long term success and profitability. Acme's stock price did languish for some time, but it's very hot right now, so when the market catches up to how well you're doing, good things can happen. There's no reason why BroadSoft can't turn out the same way, and at the very least, it's a good day to be in VoIP - or whatever you choose to call the business BroadSoft is in!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Unified Communications Market Update
Yesterday, the UC Strategies group had their weekly podcast. I try to make these when I can, and while I was able to listen in, some unexpected disruptions kept me from adding my take.
The basic theme was market deployment successes, and there were some good accounts of how UC is being used. Most of the UCS consultants have first-hand experience with how businesses are using UC, and it was interesting to hear the various scenarios. The common thread to me is that businesses don't generally come to these consultants asking for Unified Communications. They talk about specific business problems, which the consultants are then able to frame in the context of UC. So, in many cases, they're getting UC but may not really know it. That works for me. I think trying to sell UC as UC is more of a solution looking for a market rather than the other way around.
Also of note is the fact that most UC deployments have a vertical focus. Health care came up quite a bit, and again, I think this is a big part of the UC value proposition. By understanding the processes and bottlenecks that drive a business, it's much easier to show where, how and why UC solutions can really add value.
Even though I didn't add to the conversation, I wanted to share this with my readers here. UC is still a work in progress, but when it's thought through correctly, there's a lot of value for businesses. An MP3 file of the call has been posted to the UCS portal, along with a full transcript if you just want to read the commentary.
The basic theme was market deployment successes, and there were some good accounts of how UC is being used. Most of the UCS consultants have first-hand experience with how businesses are using UC, and it was interesting to hear the various scenarios. The common thread to me is that businesses don't generally come to these consultants asking for Unified Communications. They talk about specific business problems, which the consultants are then able to frame in the context of UC. So, in many cases, they're getting UC but may not really know it. That works for me. I think trying to sell UC as UC is more of a solution looking for a market rather than the other way around.
Also of note is the fact that most UC deployments have a vertical focus. Health care came up quite a bit, and again, I think this is a big part of the UC value proposition. By understanding the processes and bottlenecks that drive a business, it's much easier to show where, how and why UC solutions can really add value.
Even though I didn't add to the conversation, I wanted to share this with my readers here. UC is still a work in progress, but when it's thought through correctly, there's a lot of value for businesses. An MP3 file of the call has been posted to the UCS portal, along with a full transcript if you just want to read the commentary.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Electric Vehicles - Now That's Progress
Switching hats, I want to quickly post about smart grid. Our next Smart Grid Summit is in October, but next week, I'll be attending a conference focused solely on electric vehicles. This is a really exciting space, and I'm really looking forward to it.
In short, this is the Electric Vehicle Consumer Adoption Summit, and it's hosted by IQPC. Initially I was invited to speak, then moderate, and now I've topped out and have become the event Chair. I must be doing something right, and if you're in San Francisco next week, let me know. It would be great to see you there, and to find out more, I've written a backgrounder on the summit that's running today on our Smart Grid portal.
In short, this is the Electric Vehicle Consumer Adoption Summit, and it's hosted by IQPC. Initially I was invited to speak, then moderate, and now I've topped out and have become the event Chair. I must be doing something right, and if you're in San Francisco next week, let me know. It would be great to see you there, and to find out more, I've written a backgrounder on the summit that's running today on our Smart Grid portal.
Alteva - Hosted VoIP and Microsoft is a Strong Combination
Continuing on today's back-to-blogging theme, I have another new writeup running, this time on UC Strategies. Alteva is a hosted provider I've known for a while, and they've done a good job staying ahead of the pack with advanced applications. Their most recent focus has been integrating VoIP more deeply with Microsoft to give it a stronger unified communications foundation. This is good news for SMBs, as most hosted providers don't take VoIP this far, preferring instead to offer it as a standalone service.
Alteva understands where the clould is going - not just for their business, but what it means for their customers. SMBs constantly need to reduce costs and get the most out of IT, despite having little or no in-house technical expertise. That's where I think Alteva has a good read on what the market needs, and if you want know why, you can read my take here - it's running now on the UC Strategies portal.
Alteva understands where the clould is going - not just for their business, but what it means for their customers. SMBs constantly need to reduce costs and get the most out of IT, despite having little or no in-house technical expertise. That's where I think Alteva has a good read on what the market needs, and if you want know why, you can read my take here - it's running now on the UC Strategies portal.
Back to Blogging - Ringio and the Cloud
Where does the time go? Sometimes you get heads-down busy with business development, fulfilling projects and a bit of travel. Then you realize things like blogging have gone quiet - well, that's the cycle I've been caught in lately. Have just come through an intense two week stretch like that, and am heads-up now to blog a bit.
First up will be a review I just wrote about Ringio, a pretty interesting company I briefed with the other day. I've been coming across a lot of cloud-based communications services recently, and this one is a great example of bringing a valuable application to SMBs that they really cannot get otherwise. Ringio's application is best thought of as intelligent Caller ID and CRM with some desktop collaboration.
These things are always best understood with a demo, but at least my writeup will serve as a starting point for you to learn more. It's running now on Focus.com, and you can read it here.
First up will be a review I just wrote about Ringio, a pretty interesting company I briefed with the other day. I've been coming across a lot of cloud-based communications services recently, and this one is a great example of bringing a valuable application to SMBs that they really cannot get otherwise. Ringio's application is best thought of as intelligent Caller ID and CRM with some desktop collaboration.
These things are always best understood with a demo, but at least my writeup will serve as a starting point for you to learn more. It's running now on Focus.com, and you can read it here.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Is Skype for Business Enterprise-Ready?
Now, there's an intriguing question for Skype followers. I'm one of them, and have been following them closely since the beginning. The most recent iteration of Skype for Business is targeting the enterprise market, and I think there's a good story here.
That's the focus of my latest Service Provider Views column on TMCnet, and it's running now. You can read it here, and I'd love to hear your thoughts!
That's the focus of my latest Service Provider Views column on TMCnet, and it's running now. You can read it here, and I'd love to hear your thoughts!
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