Just a quick note to share my latest article running in TMCnet's Internet Telephony magazine. This is part of my regular monthly column titled Rethinking Communications, and the current article focuses on the value of collaboration to employees. My previous column looked at the value to the business, which has a different set of drivers.
Here's the link to the article, and as always, your feedback is welcome, along with suggestions for future topics.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Buying and Selling UC - My Webinar This Friday
Just a quick shout-out for my webinar this Friday at 2pm EST.
This continues a series I've been doing with Ziff Davis B2B, and this time we're moving up the value chain to focus on Unified Communications. The twist here is that rather than focus on the technology issues, I'll be talking about two different hats IT needs to wear when going down this road.
First regards the range of things that need to be done to make good buying decisions - which entails more than you might think. Second is the job of selling IT - not only must you convince management this is a good investment, but also to convince employees that it's a good idea to use UC.
There's plenty of ground to cover, and I hope you can join us. It just takes a minute to register, and you can also read more about the webinar here on the web page.
This continues a series I've been doing with Ziff Davis B2B, and this time we're moving up the value chain to focus on Unified Communications. The twist here is that rather than focus on the technology issues, I'll be talking about two different hats IT needs to wear when going down this road.
First regards the range of things that need to be done to make good buying decisions - which entails more than you might think. Second is the job of selling IT - not only must you convince management this is a good investment, but also to convince employees that it's a good idea to use UC.
There's plenty of ground to cover, and I hope you can join us. It just takes a minute to register, and you can also read more about the webinar here on the web page.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Know Your Alternatives - This Thursday, Toronto - Am Speaking There
Busy week! Just back from a great ITExpo event in sunny Miami, and on Thursday, I'm speaking at the Know Your Alternatives event here in chilly Toronto. Am also doing a webinar on UC on Friday, but I'll have a separate post about that.
So, the third Know Your Alternatives event is coming up fast - this Thursday at the Metro Convention Center, North Hall. First off - it's a solid event - I was there last year. We have very few telecom events up here, and the fact that this one is run by an IT consultant tells you just how different this space is from the U.S. KYA is only a day long, so it won't take up too much of your time. If you're local, it's not too late to register, and hopefully I'll see you there.
I'm speaking at 11:30 on Track #4 - Business. The session is titled "Why VoIP Now? End of Life Scenario Opens the Door to UC", and it's a fireside chat format. I'll speaking along with Emily Nielsen - she's the show organizer, as well as being President of her IT consulting firm. So, we'll be contrasting perspectives between an analyst and an IT consultant on the roadmap leading to UC. We'll have lots of time for audience participation, so please come see us if you're attending!
So, the third Know Your Alternatives event is coming up fast - this Thursday at the Metro Convention Center, North Hall. First off - it's a solid event - I was there last year. We have very few telecom events up here, and the fact that this one is run by an IT consultant tells you just how different this space is from the U.S. KYA is only a day long, so it won't take up too much of your time. If you're local, it's not too late to register, and hopefully I'll see you there.
I'm speaking at 11:30 on Track #4 - Business. The session is titled "Why VoIP Now? End of Life Scenario Opens the Door to UC", and it's a fireside chat format. I'll speaking along with Emily Nielsen - she's the show organizer, as well as being President of her IT consulting firm. So, we'll be contrasting perspectives between an analyst and an IT consultant on the roadmap leading to UC. We'll have lots of time for audience participation, so please come see us if you're attending!
Friday, February 1, 2013
ITExpo Highlights
Time sure flies, and that's not a good thing when the weather is sooo nice in Miami Beach. ITExpo is finishing up this afternoon, but I need to get on my way now. Guess I won't be winning the Jeep, but you can't have it all, right?
Seen a little of everything this time around - all the sessions and speakers I heard were quite good, but attendance was variable. I ran 3 panels - 2 were well attended, and 1 hardly at all. Video seems like the hot topic - those sessions were busy, as was Ingate's SIP Trunking program and Crossfire's M2M tracks. I'm not the only one feeling this way, and it's no reflection on the content - just a lot of demands on our time. Between visiting the show floor, catching keynotes, doing briefings, stepping outside for some sun, networking in the hallways and dropping in on sessions, there's a lot of ground to cover. This means attendance of your session has a lot to do with what else is going on at that time, and every conference has to deal with that.
Overall, TMC does a great job keeping things moving along, but I think the stress level would be lighter if there were fewer things to be running to. No time was wasted, and everything I saw was worth getting to - just wish I could have seen more.
With that, I have a highlight and a lowlight to share.
The highlight, as expected, was John Sculley's onstage interview during StartupCamp7. Larry Lisser has done a great job with this, and it always draws a full room. Quickly, the format is to have 4 startups do a 5 minute pitch, then take questions from an expert panel as well as the audience. There were two winners - the audience went with Verbalizeit, and the panel went with Thruview. I liked Thruview the best as well, but none really did that much for me. Seems like everybody is in the mobile apps business now, but they all face the same challenge of monetizing a cool idea. Enough from me on that - you can read up on all this on the Expo website.
Back to John Sculley. I didn't know much about him, but his story sure is a good one. I actually found his Pepsi experience more interesting than his time at Apple. Sometimes you have go way back to revisit ideas that really matter now, and he's a great example of that. Looks like he was the driving force that made Pepsi a major player based on a simple twist of marketing logic - "don't sell the product, sell the experience".
With so much commoditization in the communications space, this is probably the most important message to impart. If it could work with Pepsi, it sure can work with UC, video, social media, mobility, etc. That's my big takeaway and highlight. When engineers run a company, it's all about the product; but when marketers are in charge, it's all about the experience. Ideally you want a balance, and that's why Steve Jobs was so successful. Obviously, it's hard to do, but it absolutely should be driving every company in our space.
Lowlight? Well, for me, it was my panel yesterday, which ended up having two speakers - BroadSoft and Metaswitch. How often does that ever happen? In headier times, this would have a been an SRO session, with everyone anxious to see how they would square off. Well, we played to a near empty room, so we ended up talking about more mundane things. Too bad - this could have been a very lively panel, but we were up against too many other things at that time, and that's the way it goes. Too bad. Maybe next time we'll be the headliners, and then we'll really have to be ready. I'm up for it!
Seen a little of everything this time around - all the sessions and speakers I heard were quite good, but attendance was variable. I ran 3 panels - 2 were well attended, and 1 hardly at all. Video seems like the hot topic - those sessions were busy, as was Ingate's SIP Trunking program and Crossfire's M2M tracks. I'm not the only one feeling this way, and it's no reflection on the content - just a lot of demands on our time. Between visiting the show floor, catching keynotes, doing briefings, stepping outside for some sun, networking in the hallways and dropping in on sessions, there's a lot of ground to cover. This means attendance of your session has a lot to do with what else is going on at that time, and every conference has to deal with that.
Overall, TMC does a great job keeping things moving along, but I think the stress level would be lighter if there were fewer things to be running to. No time was wasted, and everything I saw was worth getting to - just wish I could have seen more.
With that, I have a highlight and a lowlight to share.
The highlight, as expected, was John Sculley's onstage interview during StartupCamp7. Larry Lisser has done a great job with this, and it always draws a full room. Quickly, the format is to have 4 startups do a 5 minute pitch, then take questions from an expert panel as well as the audience. There were two winners - the audience went with Verbalizeit, and the panel went with Thruview. I liked Thruview the best as well, but none really did that much for me. Seems like everybody is in the mobile apps business now, but they all face the same challenge of monetizing a cool idea. Enough from me on that - you can read up on all this on the Expo website.
Back to John Sculley. I didn't know much about him, but his story sure is a good one. I actually found his Pepsi experience more interesting than his time at Apple. Sometimes you have go way back to revisit ideas that really matter now, and he's a great example of that. Looks like he was the driving force that made Pepsi a major player based on a simple twist of marketing logic - "don't sell the product, sell the experience".
With so much commoditization in the communications space, this is probably the most important message to impart. If it could work with Pepsi, it sure can work with UC, video, social media, mobility, etc. That's my big takeaway and highlight. When engineers run a company, it's all about the product; but when marketers are in charge, it's all about the experience. Ideally you want a balance, and that's why Steve Jobs was so successful. Obviously, it's hard to do, but it absolutely should be driving every company in our space.
Lowlight? Well, for me, it was my panel yesterday, which ended up having two speakers - BroadSoft and Metaswitch. How often does that ever happen? In headier times, this would have a been an SRO session, with everyone anxious to see how they would square off. Well, we played to a near empty room, so we ended up talking about more mundane things. Too bad - this could have been a very lively panel, but we were up against too many other things at that time, and that's the way it goes. Too bad. Maybe next time we'll be the headliners, and then we'll really have to be ready. I'm up for it!
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Feb. 8 Webinar - Buying UC and Selling UC
Am doing another webinar with the Ziff Davis B2B group. It's on Friday, Feb. 8, at 2pm EST.
As the title implies, there are two aspects to getting UC going inside your company. First, you need to buy UC, and that actually entails quite a few things. Perhaps just as important, though, you have to sell it - IT needs a lot of buy-in to make this work. I'll be exploring 3 angles there - selling yourself on UC, and then getting buy-in from management and end users. I'm not going to say which has to happen first, but the buying and selling of UC are equally important.
So, if you're wondering just how you should go about this journey, you'll want to join us. The webinar is free, and here's the link for more details about what I'll be talking about, as well as how to register - just takes a minute.
As the title implies, there are two aspects to getting UC going inside your company. First, you need to buy UC, and that actually entails quite a few things. Perhaps just as important, though, you have to sell it - IT needs a lot of buy-in to make this work. I'll be exploring 3 angles there - selling yourself on UC, and then getting buy-in from management and end users. I'm not going to say which has to happen first, but the buying and selling of UC are equally important.
So, if you're wondering just how you should go about this journey, you'll want to join us. The webinar is free, and here's the link for more details about what I'll be talking about, as well as how to register - just takes a minute.
Monday, January 28, 2013
Next Stop - Miami and ITExpo
Living in Toronto, it's a great time of year for Miami Beach, and that's where my first travels of 2013 are taking me. I'll be at TMC's flagship event, the ITExpo, where the winter edition has a nice home at the Miami Beach Convention Center.
If you've been following me, you'll know I'm a regular there, and this show has survived, thrived and keeps things fresh by covering the gamut of IP communications. It's fair to say things are spread impossibly thin, and one person can only take in so much, but you can't go there and not learn something new. Lots to look forward to as always, and to keep tabs from wherever you are, follow their twitter feed - @ITExpo - and it couldn't hurt to track @TMCnet as well.
I won't be hard to find, and would be happy to hear from you. I'll be taking part in Editor's Day tomorrow, and will be briefing with companies from 4-6pm. During the next 2 days, I'll be moderating 3 panels, which you can get details on by scrolling through the conference program here. I've also been blogging about each panel the past few days, and details are also posted on my website.
Enough about me - how about you - will you be there?
If you've been following me, you'll know I'm a regular there, and this show has survived, thrived and keeps things fresh by covering the gamut of IP communications. It's fair to say things are spread impossibly thin, and one person can only take in so much, but you can't go there and not learn something new. Lots to look forward to as always, and to keep tabs from wherever you are, follow their twitter feed - @ITExpo - and it couldn't hurt to track @TMCnet as well.
I won't be hard to find, and would be happy to hear from you. I'll be taking part in Editor's Day tomorrow, and will be briefing with companies from 4-6pm. During the next 2 days, I'll be moderating 3 panels, which you can get details on by scrolling through the conference program here. I've also been blogging about each panel the past few days, and details are also posted on my website.
Enough about me - how about you - will you be there?
Thursday, January 24, 2013
ITExpo Shout-Out #3 - Turning UC into Revenue
I don't mean to confuse you, as this message isn't meant for IT managers deploying UC - although that could be a worthwhile topic to explore - creatively. What I'm talking about here is for service providers - how they can leverage Unified Communications as a way to drive new revenues. This is pretty much a mobility story, where operators are struggling to keep up with our ever-changing wants - you can call them needs, but we've survived for thousands of years without these goodies - to satiate our smartphone and tablets obsessions. There's definitely money to be made here, and UC actually provides a lot of value to businesses trying to make sure their employees stay productive when out of the office.
That's the set-up, and for the rest, you'll have to join us next Thursday at 3:30 for our panel. I'm moderating, and will be joined by Chris Carabello of Metaswitch, Leslie Ferry of BroadSoft and Payam Maveddat of Taqua. These are all familiar faces for me, so it should be a lively session.
So, where and when? Almost forgot - Miami Beach - you ok with that? Of course, it's TMC's ITExpo, and this is the third session I'm moderating at the show, so I won't be hard to find. As with my earlier posts about my sessions, you can get all the details here - just scroll down to Thursday and you'll find us on the Service Provider Solutions track. See you there!
That's the set-up, and for the rest, you'll have to join us next Thursday at 3:30 for our panel. I'm moderating, and will be joined by Chris Carabello of Metaswitch, Leslie Ferry of BroadSoft and Payam Maveddat of Taqua. These are all familiar faces for me, so it should be a lively session.
So, where and when? Almost forgot - Miami Beach - you ok with that? Of course, it's TMC's ITExpo, and this is the third session I'm moderating at the show, so I won't be hard to find. As with my earlier posts about my sessions, you can get all the details here - just scroll down to Thursday and you'll find us on the Service Provider Solutions track. See you there!
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