We covered a pretty interesting topic on yesterday's UCStrategies podcast - the consumerization of IT. We all know how the personal experience with the Web, smartphones, social media, etc. has raised expectations about what's possible in the workplace, and we explored a few facets of this on the podcast. We tried to frame the discussion from the IT perspective, and as you can imagine, they're under all kinds of pressure these days, and the consumerization angle only adds to this.
So, it's there now for you to take in on the UCStrategies portal. You can simply listen to the podcast, or as usual, the transcript is there if that's easier. Either way, I hope you enjoy our comments, and yours are welcome any time.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Contact Centers and the Cloud
The cloud continues to be a big trend in communications, and contact centers are well along that path now. I've been writing about this recently in a few places, with the most recent being today on the UCStrategies portal.
Many of you know that I'm a regular contributor there, and this article actually kicks off a four part series on the topic. The next three pieces will be written by other UCS contributors, and if hosted contact centers are of interest, then you'll want to read them all. Hopefully you'll get started by reading my piece, and if that gets your juices going, join in and post a comment.
Many of you know that I'm a regular contributor there, and this article actually kicks off a four part series on the topic. The next three pieces will be written by other UCS contributors, and if hosted contact centers are of interest, then you'll want to read them all. Hopefully you'll get started by reading my piece, and if that gets your juices going, join in and post a comment.
Renewable Energy Report Now on ResearchAndMarkets.com
As you may know, our report on the U.S. Renewable Energy Market was recently published, and we are pursuing various channels to build awareness and drive sales.
One of these channels is ResearchAndMarkets.com, which is the world's largest online distributor of market research reports. We're quite pleased to have this relationship in place, and information about our study has just been posted to their portal. It's not the only way you can buy our report, but it gives us reach well beyond our direct efforts.
One of these channels is ResearchAndMarkets.com, which is the world's largest online distributor of market research reports. We're quite pleased to have this relationship in place, and information about our study has just been posted to their portal. It's not the only way you can buy our report, but it gives us reach well beyond our direct efforts.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
M5 - Another Acquisition - Callfinity
M5 Networks just announced the acquistion of Callfinity this morning, and it looks like another small step forward in the much-expected consolidation of the hosted communications space.
This is actually a contact center play, and is very much in line with the trends I've recently started following via my column for Exony. I definitely think M5 has the right idea here, as hosted/managed contact center capabilities are starting to make a lot of sense as these technologies mature, as well as prove themselves on a large scale.
Callfinity is a different type of pickup for M5 than their previous deal, when they acquired Geckotech late last year. That was a similar business, and it simply allowed M5 to expand its customer base along with gaining a physical footprint in a new urban market - Chicago.
I've been following M5 for many years, and having turned 10 last year, they sure have come a long way. That's not to say that every hosted player needs to be around 10 years before they can start doing this, but M5 has earned their keep, and I have no doubt that their thinking around Callfinity is pretty sound, and is part of a well-planned growth path that will help re-define this space as it comes of age.
This is actually a contact center play, and is very much in line with the trends I've recently started following via my column for Exony. I definitely think M5 has the right idea here, as hosted/managed contact center capabilities are starting to make a lot of sense as these technologies mature, as well as prove themselves on a large scale.
Callfinity is a different type of pickup for M5 than their previous deal, when they acquired Geckotech late last year. That was a similar business, and it simply allowed M5 to expand its customer base along with gaining a physical footprint in a new urban market - Chicago.
I've been following M5 for many years, and having turned 10 last year, they sure have come a long way. That's not to say that every hosted player needs to be around 10 years before they can start doing this, but M5 has earned their keep, and I have no doubt that their thinking around Callfinity is pretty sound, and is part of a well-planned growth path that will help re-define this space as it comes of age.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Skype's Take on the Changing Workplace
Some pretty interesting research that Skype has just released. They call this "The Living Workplace", and it explores how technology is changing how we work, how we view work, where we work, when we work, etc. No doubt, these things are all up for grabs, and research clearly shows how we're steadily moving away from telephony and email to the newer modes of IM, chat and of course, video. It's an exciting time if you're on the right side of the tech curve, but more challeging if you're not.
Most of the findings are pretty intuitive, and we're all living it, esp if you're from the Net generation. It's just nice to see it all pulled together and supported by substantive research. I'm not going to deconstruct and re-present other people's research here, so I'll just steer you to the source and you can draw your own conclusions. I've been doing market research for 25 years, so I certainly have my take on these things, but you won't see that here.
Anyhow, my main message is to draw kudos to Skype for undertaking this research. Sure, it plays well to their business model, but I'm sure you can see there's a much bigger story that all of us want to follow. To do that, exit stage left, and continue reading at Skype's Living Workplace website.
Most of the findings are pretty intuitive, and we're all living it, esp if you're from the Net generation. It's just nice to see it all pulled together and supported by substantive research. I'm not going to deconstruct and re-present other people's research here, so I'll just steer you to the source and you can draw your own conclusions. I've been doing market research for 25 years, so I certainly have my take on these things, but you won't see that here.
Anyhow, my main message is to draw kudos to Skype for undertaking this research. Sure, it plays well to their business model, but I'm sure you can see there's a much bigger story that all of us want to follow. To do that, exit stage left, and continue reading at Skype's Living Workplace website.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Contact Centers - When to Consider Shared Services
Here's another writing update. I've been doing regular research/writing lately in the contact center space, and the work is being featured on Exony's website.
My latest writeup is about shared services, a pretty interesting approach taken by large enterprises to manage what is usually a sprawling and unwieldy contact center environment. To get the full story, I welcome you to read it here. Comments, as always are welcome, as are suggestions for future analysis.
My latest writeup is about shared services, a pretty interesting approach taken by large enterprises to manage what is usually a sprawling and unwieldy contact center environment. To get the full story, I welcome you to read it here. Comments, as always are welcome, as are suggestions for future analysis.
New Focus Guide - Enterprise Phone Systems
Been busy on a few fronts, and that cuts into blogging/tweeting time. Lots of writing lately, and one of those efforts is now published. I've been contributing various things to Focus.com for almost a year now, and I'm the co-author of their latest guide.
The Enterprise Phone Systems Expert's Guide was just published, and as the title implies, it's intended to help buyers make informed decisions here. It's a short guide by design, but is one of their most popular resources. To get your copy, you just need to register here, and then it's yours.
The Enterprise Phone Systems Expert's Guide was just published, and as the title implies, it's intended to help buyers make informed decisions here. It's a short guide by design, but is one of their most popular resources. To get your copy, you just need to register here, and then it's yours.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
RSS Feed
