Podcast - Socialcast - Social Media in the Enterprise

I'm an occasional contributor to Business Trends Quarterly, and they recently invited me to do a podcast on social media in the enterprise. My guest was Tim Young, the Founder and CEO of Socialcast, an interesting company in this emerging space.

We had a pretty long chat, and covered things like what Enterprise 2.0 is starting to look like, and the role that tools like social media are playing. Tim is somewhat of a pioneer in the space and talks about what companies like Socialcast are doing to help enterprises harness the potential of social media and actually get their money's worth along the way.

The podcast is quite long - about 42 minutes - so you might want to download it to your iPod and listen to it on the go. I've got two ways for you to access the file. One way is to pick up the link from my website. Just look for the Socialcast podcast on the Media Citings section of the site.

Another way is to download it directly from the BTQ website, but you have to register first to get it. If you like podcasts from a wide range of thought leaders, it's worthwhile since there's so much good content there. To find my podcast, you need to go the Web Events section of the BTQ site, then scroll down - quite a ways down actually - to Web 2.0 podcasts. It's the last topic listed there, and once you're at Web 2.0, it won't be hard to find the link, along with my photo.

Either way, I hope you give it a listen, and would love to hear your feedback.


Technorati tags: Business Trends Quarterly, Jon Arnold, Socialcast, social media, Enterprise 2.0

Next Stop - Cisco C-Scape, San Jose

On Monday I'm on my way to San Jose for Cisco's 2008 C-Scape analyst conference. This will probably be my last trip for the year, and as it gets colder here by the day, San Jose isn't such a bad place to be.

I was there last year, and given the current economic climate, I suspect things will be more scaled-back next week. Cisco is being very practical and encouraging analysts to participate virtually, and we all know they have the tools to make that a viable option. The gods must like me, and I feel lucky to be going in person, and will do my best to share the highlights via my blog.

If you happen to be in San Jose next week and want to meet for a drink, I won't be hard to find!


Technorati tags: Cisco C-Scape 2008, Jon Arnold

Avaya Canada Analyst Day

Yesterday I attended Avaya Canada's analyst day here in Toronto. I participated last year, and it was good to gauge their progress since then. The local analyst community is pretty small, so it was a very friendly session.

For most of us, the main attraction was meeeting the new head of Avaya Canada, Gerard Baglieri. For what it's worth, he goes by the title VP/GM, so I really can't say CEO. Maybe Avaya's culture is more egalitarian than most, and maybe it's just a Canadian thing. Anyhow, Gerard is from NY, and during my 1:1 session, he strikes me as being very capable and focused, so don't let his title fool you.

I attended Avaya's global analyst event a few back in Boston, and for those of us who were there, most of yesterday was familiar territory. As such, I don't have much news to report, other than the fact that Avaya Canada seems very well aligned with the corporate storyline.

They did address some of the structural differences and dynamics of the domestic market, and how their plans to expand the channels up here will be more challenging. The difficulty with Canada is that the SMB market is more heavily skewed towards the very low end of the scale, and these businesses are often not a good fit for Avaya's offerings. Of course all vendors face that problem here, but it's fair to say Avaya will have to be more aggressive in Canada than the U.S. to achieve their stated target of driving 85% of their sales through channels within the next 3 years. Gerard has a tall order ahead, and time will tell.

We saw a variety of presentations throughout the day, and they all reinforced the core themes we saw in Boston - namely, Avaya feels they are ready now to become the #1 player, the company is now very focused on two main markets - Unified Communications and Contact Centers, and the overall business strategy is to become more channel-centric.

I elaborated on this further in my Boston post and elsewhere, and will say again that there's a good story here. Yesterday's session had both analysts and media, so there was some public coverage in the trades. I can steer you to one of these if you care to read more.

To wrap up, here are a few photos from yesterday...

Gerard Baglieri



Todd Abbott - he presented in Boston - was nice to see him come up to Toronto for this



Amir Hameed talking about contact centers



Colleague Ronald Gruia from Frost checking out the bat-phone, with a bit of a halo around him. He's special, but not that special! :-) He just happened to be standing close to the overhead light, although it sure looks like he's radiating brilliance....





Technorati tags: Avaya Canada, Jon Arnold

Vidtel Launches Today!

Been trying to get this post out all day. Scott Wharton is one of the few people I know in this space going back to 2001 when I started at Frost & Sullivan. He had a great run at BroadSoft, and it was surprising to hear him make the jump to his own startup this summer. Not only doing a startup for the first time, but moving from the East coast to the West coast to do it. That takes commitment, and he's done it on a shoestring.

His company is called Vidtel - gee, can you guess what the business is? - and today was the official launch. It's a bit like having a baby, so first off, congratulations Scott! You've got a good team behind you, about 100 trials going, the technology is ready now, the service is economical now, and maybe most importantly, video is hot. We're way beyond worrying about how we look on video now, and this isn't the 1964 World's Fair.

Sure, most people are camera-shy, but in the world of iPhone, Flckr, YouTube, Facebook, etc., it's not such a big deal any more. There's no shortage of people ready, willing and able to get onscreen at the drop of a hat. More importantly, Vidtel is about making an everyday experience - talking on the phone - a better experience. There's no shortage of friends and family-based situations where adding video to the mix would be welcome. Vidtel understands this, and the website does a nice job of explaining many of these scenarios and how they would appeal to different segments of the market.

To be clear, Vidtel is a consumer offering. It's not the videophone service that Packet8 was marketing to SMBs. This is a mass market concept, much like Vonage was in 2005. However, prices have come down, and video service like Vidtel is very affordable. The big BUT, of course, is how are you going to get customers? Scott's too savvy to fall into the Vonage trap of spending recklessly to acquire subscribers - especially in today's economy.

He'll start slow and virally, and will establish a loyal customer base and demonstrate proof of concept. That's what I'd be doing. It's not an expensive service to launch, and I'm sure the business can carry itself early on with a modest base of customers. After that, it's all about branding and scale - both of which can be addressed with capital and some sound management decisions.

I'm a fan - I have been ever since he told me about it. I'll soon be a beta user as well, and I'll be reviewing it once I've had some time to use it. Aside from spending time on Vidtel's website, I should add that Scott has a nice blog of his own, so if you want his personal take on how Vidtel came to be, you should read his post about it.

Again, congrats to you and your team, Scott, and it's great to see a startup like this come to life.

Technorati tags: Vidtel, Jon Arnold, Scott Wharton

eComm 2009 - Registation Now Open - Early Bird Discount

Without sounding too much like a carnival barker, I want to share this basic info with you about eComm 2009.

The registration page just went live yesterday, so you can order your tickets now. It's a good time, since you save $600 if registering before December 22. Just click here to access the form and away you go.

But wait, there's more! Lucky readers of my blog can get an additional 20% discount by using my promotion code. So, if you take the above Super Early Bird rate, you'll save a further 20%, bringing the cost down to $952. Not bad!

Furthermore, if you miss the Early Bird rate, you can still get the 20% discount using my code up til February 17. The rates will be higher then, but at least you can get this discount.

To get this discount, just drop me a line, and I'll send you the code. Fair?

While you're on the site, you should check out the Schedule page to see the latest roster of speakers. That's probably the best validation you'll need to see why eComm will be a worthwhile experience.


Technorati tags: eComm 2009, Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates

November Media Roundup

Fairly modest on the media front in November, but I did interviews for a bunch of stories that should run later this month.


For the business press, I was cited in a few articles...

Dallas Business Journal - Capex outlook

Computer Dealer News - Microsoft and Unified Communications

IT Business.ca - Avaya Canada's new CEO

CIO/Strategy Center - Collaboration solutions for global teams (if link does not work, soft copy available on request)


Toronto-based colleague Michael O'Neil runs the ITinCanada portal, which includes several microsites on various IT/communications topics. I contributed a guest post to their Unified Communications site about Avaya...

Avaya - Putting the Unified in Unified Communications


I also wrote two Service Provider Views columns last month, one of which ran yesterday - it got delayed due to the long weekend.

Microsoft and Service Providers - Why They Need Each Other, Part 1

Managing in a Down Economy, Part 2


Technorati tags: Service Provider Views, Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates

Service Provider Views - New Thoughts About Microsoft

My latest Service Provider Views column on TMCnet is running now, and revisits some earlier pieces I wrote about their Telco 2.0 strategy.

This column focuses on two main ideas. First - why service providers and Microsoft need each other, and second, a look at a few of the key industry trends that are transforming the role and definition of what it means to be a service provider in the Internet age.

There are a lot of interesting and timely themes to explore, and I'll be continuing in this vein over the next 1 or 2 columns. To get started, I'll steer you to today's piece, and hopefully you'll stick with me in columns that will follow it. As always, your comments and suggestions are welcome.


Technorati tags: Service Provider Views, Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates, TMCnet, Microsoft