Jon Arnold's Analyst 2.0 Blog

Welcome Aculab - new blog sponsor

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:26:00 +0000

Just a quick update - notice anything different about my blog today? Aculab is now running a banner in support of their current campaign around Aculab Cloud.

I've worked with Aculab off and on, and they're doing some interesting things with the cloud - you'll be hearing more about that shortly. The cloud, of course, is a big theme in 2012, and Aculab is going with the flow here, extending what's possible, not just for traditional customers, but also for reaching new customers who could not previously integrate telephony with their services or applications.

Closer to home, as an analyst, I'm happy to see them using Web-based media such as blogs to help get the word out. It's a natural fit for developers, and I hope they achieve the desired results!

I'll be leaving today for Miami and TMC's ITExpo, and I won't be hard to find there. The same goes for Aculab, so if you're attending the Expo and want to learn more about Aculab Cloud, you'll have no problem finding them at the Cloud Communications Expo, co-located with the main event. To be continued, but gotta get back to packing...

MobileMonday Toronto - Feb. 6 - You There?

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:31:00 +0000

Just a friendly shout-out for this event before I head off to Miami on Monday for the ITExpo. On Monday, Feb. 6, I'll be moderating the "Meet the Analysts" event at MobileMonday Toronto. It's part of a regular series held at the MaRS facility downtown, which is probably Canada's leading business incubator, especially for technology and health sciences startups.

This will be a fun panel, as we'll share our views on the outlook for mobility in 2012, with a particular focus on how the financial sector sees this space. Joining me will be buddy Ronald Gruia from my alum Frost & Sullivan, and Mike Abramsky from RBC Equity Research. Don't worry, it's free! Registrations have been strong, but there's still room, so it's not too late. Plus, if you're going to MWC, this will be a great networking event to get caught up on where mobility is going.

ITExpo - How Smartphones and Social Media are Re-shaping Call Centers

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:42:00 +0000

Got one more panel to tell you about for next week's ITExpo in sunny Miami. This is the third panel I'll be moderating, and it should be a lot of fun. As consumers, most of us can vouch for less-than-perfect contact center experiences, and our expectations sure are changing with smartphones and social media. Whether you're in the contact center space or just a frustrated customer, you really should come out to our session.

Joining me will be fellow Torontonian, Shai Berger of Fonolo, along with Rick McFarland of Voice4Net and Tina Valdez from TeleTech. We'll be presenting on Wednesday at 1:30, and you can find us in Room B210. Our session is part of the CE track - Customer Engagement - and you can read all the details here. See you there!

Using UC to Re-invent the Channel

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:06:00 +0000

Busy week here - and will be even busier next week at ITExpo. Well, the title of this post is self-explanatory. Earlier this month, we did a UCStrategies podcast about how the channel is evolving to support UC.

Lots to talk about there, but each of us only gets to speak for a minute or two. I wanted to expand on my ideas, and have done that in my latest posting on the UCStrategies portal. It's running now, and I hope you read it - I think there's a lot opportunity here for VARs and SIs to add new forms of value to UC that businesses will really like.

ITExpo Miami Preview #2: Building the UC Business Case

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:26:00 +0000

Show time, go time. A week from today, TMC's ITExpo in Miami gets underway with the full program. Tuesday is a pre-con day, but I'll be there as part of the team for TMC's Editors Day.

I'm moderating 3 panels, and this is a shout-out for the first one on Wednesday. As you probably know, UC keeps me pretty busy, and this panel speaks to business case issues. Sure, we'll touch on ROI vs. TCO, but there's lots more to explore, so come on out and join us. Alongside me will be fellow analyst Irwin Lazar from Nemertes, and two vendors - Nancy Maluso from Sonus Networks, and Chris Hasenauer from Allworx/Windstream.

Our session runs from 11:00-11:45 on Wednesday, and we're on the C&C track - Communications and Collaboration. You're coming, right?

12 Ways of Finding Jon Arnold

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:07:00 +0000

We're all busy, and we all seem to lead multiple lives these days - some real, some (or more) virtual. Being an independent analyst, I wear many hats and work in a variety of ways/places to make a living.

I don't expect you to be up on everything I do, but am pretty sure people I work with only follow me selectively - nothing wrong with that. Since I wear the Marketing and PR hats around here, every now and then I need to make sure my followers get a bigger picture update.

One reason for doing this now is the fact that both my blog and website trended upward in traffic last year, and have been maintaining those levels nicely for a while. Companies have noticed, and I'm about to add my second sponsor later this week. Am in discussion with another one - a major vendor - so something must be working here. There's room for you too - operators are standing by to take your call...

So, just to be sure you know how to find me across the spectrum of my activities and writing, here's a summary with all the links you need. Hope you add a few new ones, and maybe subscribe to some new feeds. Thanks!

1. My website - J Arnold & Associates - the blog is for my telling, and the website is where I do my selling. This is where you need to be to learn about my analyst practice for thought leadership, research and strategy.

2.Upcoming events/conferences - this page on my website tells you where I've been lately and where I'll be the next few weeks out.

3. My regular UC postings on the ADTRAN UC blog

4. My monthly column on hosted contact center trends - on Exony's website

5. My regular posts, articles and podcast contributions around the UC space - on the UCStrategies portal

6. How you can hire me for speaking engagements

7. Follow me regularly on Twitter

8. Follow me less regularly or network with me on Linked in

9. Check out my latest published articles, white papers, podcasts, webinars, TV appearances, and various other citings here on my website

10. Review or purchase a report on the U.S. Renewable Energy market I co-authored with my smart grid research partners, Zpryme. It's still pretty timely, and custom inquiries are always welcome!

11. On the lighter side, you can follow my YouTube channel. Don't post there much these days, but my Cisco TelePresence demo has over 120,000 views, and if you want to see prime video of the-world's-best-cover-band, the Herding Cats, you will not find better clips than here. Remember when live rock was fun? Gotta see these, esp Whole Lotta Love (in 3 clips) and You Give Love a Bad Name - these guys are great!

12. On an even lighter side, if you need a guitar or piano player for a pickup rock or blues band at your next event, I'm there. Here's one from the Battle of the Bands at the 2009 Interactive Intelligence event. Gotta have some fun, right?

Got all that? How many ways are you following me now?

Re-thinking Service Levels in the Contact Center

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:58:00 +0000

There's been holiday-hangover lag in getting my latest analysis posted on Exony's website, but that's been fixed now. Contributing to this is their site refresh, which I quite like - you be the judge.

Regarding service levels, my previous writeup focused more broadly on the topic, whereas this one takes a closer look at the implications when following the hosted or virtual model for running a contact center. I welcome you to give it a read here, and would love to hear your thoughts. Until then, I'm working now on my next topic in this space - outsourcing - so look for a new writeup on that very soon.

Know Your Alternatives Conference, Toronto - SIP Trunking Session

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:31:00 +0000

I have a very busy two weeks coming up, and am sharing updates here with a series of posts this week. By now, you probably know I'll be at TMC's ITExpo in Miami next week, and I have some shout-outs coming on that this week. The following week, I have two one-day events here in Toronto, and I posted about one of them - MobileMonday - the other day.

Later that week - Thursday, Feb. 9 - is Know Your Alternatives, a locally-produced event with a strong IT focus. I'm presenting on the SIP Trunking panel, and will provide the current state of adoption in the Canadian market. The other speakers will have a U.S. perspective, so it will interesting to see how these compare. If you can make it, we're in Breakout 3, running from 11:30 - 12:30. Whether you're there or not, you can easily follow the run-up to the event - as well as during - on Twitter: @KYAlternatives

MobileMonday Toronto - 2012 Outlook for Wireless

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:24:00 +0000

If you're local and interested in where mobility is heading in 2012 - and who isn't? - you'll want to join me at the next MobileMonday Toronto event. The date is February 6, and it's at the regular location - MaRS - not the planet, but the MaRS Discovery District downtown. If you don't know what MaRS is, then you should come out just for that. It's free, and aside from the program, it's a great networking opportunity for those active in wireless.

The theme is "Meet the Analysts", and I'll be moderating a panel discussion where we'll cover the big mobility themes happening now, not just locally, but globally. Joining me will be long-time colleague Ronald Gruia (Frost & Sullivan) and veteran analyst Mike Abramsky from RBC Equity Research.

I'll do another shout-out closer to the date, but if you want to book it in your calendar now, here's the event web page, along with the registration form. See you there!

ITExpo Preview - "Can UC Get Social?"

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:30:00 +0000

TMC's ITExpo 2012 East is less than two weeks away, and it's time for some updates. I'm moderating three sessions and will be participating in TMC's Editors Day on Tuesday, so I won't be hard to find.

This post is shout-out for a session on the C and C track - Communications and Collaboration. As the title implies, we'll be looking at the impact of social media on UC, and what businesses need to be thinking about. I comment about this topic regularly, and am looking forward to getting the conversation going.

Joining me will be Paul McMillan from Siemens Enterprise Communications, Mark Castleman from Vobi, and Mike Ross from 4PSA. The session is Friday morning at 10am, and we'd love for you to join us. For more details on our session as well as the overall program, here's the conference overview.

Deloitte 2012 Predictions - Canadian tech outlook - some takeaways

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:39:00 +0000

Deloitte Canada has been running this event for 11 years, and yesterday's TMT Predictions 2012 in Toronto is the biggest one yet. I've attended and blogged about this event for a few years years now, and they had over 1,400 registered for this one. Pretty strong turnout, and they've built this up into a great showcase not just to share thought leadership about their TMT practice - technology, media and telecom - but also to brand Deloitte as more than just dull audit and tax advisory stuff.

Duncan Stewart is the star of the show, and this is his stage to be the public face of a worldwide team of research - mostly internal - who pull all this neat stuff together. Most of these trends are global, but he does his best to put it in a Canadian context to make it more relevant for the audience.

The presentation was built around 10 key findings, which is a subset of a more complete set of conclusions, but there was plenty there to think about for any business. No huge surprises for people like me, who follow these things closer than most of those in attendance, but well put together, nonetheless. I just wanted to pass on few notable takeaways here, and you can ping me if you really want to hear more!

- Tablets are really about the Internet of things. They're just the latest step along the way to ubiquitous computing made possible by cheap, mobile broadband. This speaks to the much broader trend of M2M, where we'll all be using multiple broadband-enabled devices - some of us with more than one tablet - to communicate with other broadband-enabled devices as much as we use them to connect with people. Scary.

- We appear to have moved into the "post-PC era", where the action has shifted to mobile devices. Duncan cited some nice data points showing how unit sales of the former have now eclipsed PCs. Fair enough, but to counter that, he also presented data showing that we still spend far more time on our PCs. So, we're not quite there yet for being in a post-PC world, and I think that speaks volumes about how important the end user experience is. In that regard, size matters, and the PC will never lose that tete-a-tete here.

- For all the flexibility we have to watch TV shows where we want and when we want, old habits are really hard to change. I found this data fascinating, and Duncan was sharing some very current findings. On average, we watch 33 hours of TV a week, compared to only 4 hours on the Internet. Of course this will vary by age - and applies to home-based use - not work-related - but TV still rules. More to the point, households are only watching about 2.5 hours of time-shifted TV per week, and less than 0.5 hour watching Web-based video programming. Bottom line - over 90% of all TV content is viewed within 24 hours. Say what you want about TV networks being on the decline - that's where the advertising dollars go - and stay - simply because that's where the viewers are. Sure, teens aren't watching TV like they used to, but in broad strokes, TV audience behaviors are not changing compared to the way our behaviors are with mobility usage. The world of online advertising and branding still has great potential, but it's a different world than TV (which Duncan touched on later in the presentation).

- It's good time to be in the tech business. This is a trend that I've been attuned to for a while now, and am glad to see it presented in this environment. In terms of how consumers spend their money, tech products and services provide high utility, and are relatively affordable. I've been saying this for a while. Despite our no-growth economy, people always seem to find money for the latest iPad, Android device or notebook. We've become so addicted/dependent on these things, we'd rather drive our cars another year, keep wearing last year's boots, put off that home renovation project, etc., in order to stay current to enjoy the latest YouTube videos and share Facebook updates virtually every waking moment. Surely, this is the sign of an advanced civilization...

Enough takeaways, and I'd better stop there - this is no place for a rant about how the Internet makes us stupid. :-) Let's end on a high note and just say that Deloitte's research shows that innovation is alive and well, and Canadian businesses need to pay attention - things are moving too fast these days, and the stakes are getting higher if you bet wrong or simply stay still.

Is the Cloud Ready for You?

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:28:00 +0000

How's that for a twist? Everyone is talking about how ready, willing and able businesses are to move things out to the cloud, but is the cloud up for all this? My concern is that the hype cycle for cloud is a bit much, and maybe businesses need to think a bit harder about what they really should be entrusted to the ether.

It's a big topic for sure, and I wanted to share an article I wrote about this for Internet Telephony magazine. This was prepared under the UCStrategies umbrella, so my article has a strong focus on implications for UC.

If you get the print edition from TMCnet, you may have seen this already - it ran in the December issue. They post content online a bit later, and the article was just posted on their portal last night, so everyone else can read it now. So, here's the link, and I'd love to hear your thoughts - am sure this will continue being one of the big themes for 2012.

UC opportunities for VARs and SIs in 2012 - podcast

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:49:00 +0000

This week's UCStrategies podcast focused on the channel, which most vendors depend on for getting to market. UC presents a host of new challenges, especially for VARs and SIs who think in terms of selling products and boxes. These days, UC is pretty much about software, services and solutions. It's not capital intensive and the business model is built more around recurring revenues than upfront purchases and installations.

I'm not a channel expert, but plenty of others on the UCStrategies team are, and this week's podcast session reflected that. I added some thoughts towards the end, especially around the opportunities they have to re-invent themselves. Overall, if you're wondering how UC is impacting the channel, this is where you'll want to spend the next half hour of your life.

Top Tech Winners/Losers for the Last 25 Years - Cool!

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:27:00 +0000

Channel Partners magazine tapped me recently for my take on this very fun topic. Am not sure how many people they canvassed, but I was glad to be part of their information gathering. I really enjoyed doing this and just got the link today to their article.

25 years is a long time in the tech world, and there weren't too many surprises here. All the big names are there, but it was also nice to see some lesser known names in the win column, such as Paetec, as well as VoIP Inc. on the what-were-they-thinking side of the ledger.

Things change fast, though, in this world, and I suspect if they did their research a couple of months later, RIM just might have made the loser list. In defence of Canadian tech, I'm glad to say they're still with us, but 2012 sure looks like a make-or-break year for them.

Anyhow, I won't keep you in suspense much longer. Here's the link to the slideshow that summarizes their findings. You have to register on their site first, but that just takes a moment - really, that's all. If you're having trouble, or are just too bloody lazy, drop me a line and I can send you a soft copy. Either way, it's a good read, and I hope you check it out.

Unified Communications - 2012 Outlook Podcast

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:09:00 +0000

Sure feels like ages since my last post, and now that I check, it has been ages! Wow, time flies, esp when you're in holiday mode and have family coming to visit. That's all passed now, and it's back to work - and blogging.

For my first 2012 post, I was part of a great podcast earlier this week on UCStrategies. Our last podcast was the year in review, and this time around it was our look ahead to 2012. Not surprisingly, everyone has an opinion, and this session could have gone on for a long time.

The podcast has now been posted and transcribed to the UCS portal, and if you want a solid sendup of where Unified Communications is going this year, this will be 40 minutes very well spent. My focus was on how UC offerings will continue to move away from being telecom-centric, and I'll have more to say about that in my next UCS writeup this month.

My 2011 Unified Communications Takeaways

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:26:00 +0000

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.

Unified Communications - 2011 Year in Review Podcast

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:26:00 +0000

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!

ITExpo East in Miami - 41 days and counting...

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:59:00 +0000

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.

SMBs and the channel - Canadian update - where's the innovation?

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:45:00 +0000

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

Rogers Wireless "One Number" Launch - Upping the Stakes

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:23:00 +0000

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.

Know Your Alternatives 2012 - Program Announced

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:39:00 +0000

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.

Canadian Blog Awards - don't forget to vote!

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:11:00 +0000

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!

Avaya Night in Canada - IP Office 8.0 Update

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:01:00 +0000

I was invited to attend an update here in Toronto yesterday on Avaya's IP Office, which inluded a preview for Release 8.0, scheduled to launch on December 12. Lots of Avaya folks on hand, along with the sponsors, Smart IP. They're one of Avaya's top 10 Canadian reseller partners, and having started out as a Nortel shop, they know the territory pretty well.

Oh - Canadians will clue into the title of this post right away - more on that later.

This was a pitch event to prospective IP Office customers, and being the only analyst, it gave me a pretty interesting perspective on how the story is told and how the value proposition is communicated. Release 8.0 is targeted at the SME market, and serves up to 384 lines. So, there will be some small business here, but it's really mid-sized customers, meaning that they'll have some IT competence. In other words, this is strictly about premise-based systems - there was absolutely no mention here of cloud, hosted or virtual solutions.

If you didn't pay close attention, you would think the focus was 100% about telecom. In many ways it was, as most of the presentation materials covered the feature set of the phones, and how Release 8.0 has full backwards compatibility with Nortel BCM. Fair enough - that's a very important message to communicate, given the huge installed base of Nortel in Canada, and the need for Avaya to retain that business as they transition away from BCM. To that point, a key takeaway was an EOS date of March 1, 2012 (end of support)for Norstar/BCM - at that point, only Avaya products will be supported.

Getting beyond that, yes, there was talk about SIP trunking and unified communications, but not in a huge way. It was good to hear about advanced IP-based features such as built-in ACD, built-in conference bridges, and how modular and scalable the systems are. All good, but most of the talk was about how the BCM features are fully migrated to the Avaya phones. This is really important for long-time Nortel users, who don't have to think about the codes they use for routine things like call transfer, call forwarding, last number redial, DND, etc. They'll use the same codes with Avaya, which translates into faster/easier adoption, lower install costs and less need for retraining. I'd say they've done a great job here, and that speaks to the broader, more strategic message they have about investment protection for this migration.

Wearing my UC hat, this seems a bit dull, but it's a clear reminder that telephones still matter big time, and the phone system is still very much the heart and soul of most communications systems - certainly among this customer set. Most VARs still have telecom as the core offering, but we all know how things are changing.

This brings me to the fun stuff - one-X, and what 8.0 supports at the desktop and for mobility. Now we're getting closer to UC, and Smart IP has the right idea to help move their customers along with Avaya as a solution for both today and tomorrow. I'll be short here, but basically, one-X has an Outlook plug-in that brings all the web-based UC features - presence, IM, conferencing, federated contact lists, voicemail, etc. - into that interface. Avaya knows this is where end users spend most of their on-screen time, so this way they don't have to leave the Outlook page to do all these things. It's a great ease-of-use example, and speaks to the end user experience as a key value driver.

The other interesting one-X update is mobility integration. It's only available on the higher-end IP Office solutions, but it does all the things you'd expect when extending the deskphone/desktop UC feature set out to the mobile environment. This definitely plays well for a UC solution, but what really stood out for me is their choice of devices supported by one-X. They're launching with Android first, and that's what the demo was based on. Early next year, iPhone will added, but no firm plan is in place yet for RIM. Wow. I think that speak volumes, not just about mobility, but how handset trends are driving things. Two years ago, it would have been RIM and only RIM - and now, they're not even on the table. Incredible.

It was also nice to see them talk about DevConnect and their partner ecosystem who have developed a range of vertical applications - fax servers, appointment reminders, enhanced IVR, call reporting, call recording, CRM integration, etc. This isn't a leading value driver for IP Office, but it really helps prime customers to think beyond everyday telecom.

I could go on, but on the whole, I think Avaya is on the right track with 8.0, especially for the Nortel base. You also need to keep the audience in mind. You can only throw so many ideas out there, but the sale will ultimately be based on how comfortable the customer is in transitioning Nortel BCM over to Avaya IP Office. Collaboration was discussed a bit, and I don't think video was mentioned - same for Aura, social media or Flare - but that's totally fine. These things will come - and can only come once the customer buys into the IP Office story - and of course, Smart IP's competence to get them there.

Ok, now the title of this post starts to make sense. This is Joe Bowen - the voice of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was very engaging and funny - thought he was great. Joe speaks from the heart and what I enjoyed most were his feelings about how hockey and its culture are rooted in the character that makes Canada special. I've played and avidly followed the game long enough to know where he's coming from. I may not be a Leafs fan, but I found it a bit ironic to hear Joe extol the Canadian virtues that make hockey great, yet here we were listening to how Avaya is transitioning customers away from Nortel, Canada's greatest tech icon. Ouch.

Here we are - Avaya Night in Canada - cool, huh? Gondola seats - can't get up any higher than this at the ACC. Thanks Avaya and Smart IP!

Love seeing these Cup banners right in your face sitting up so high. Oh, y'know, there once was a time when this happened regularly around here (I'll keep my reigning-Cup-champs-Bruins gloating to myself), but I think the wait will go on for a while yet...

UCStrategies Podcasts - Now on iTunes/Welcome Kevin Kieller

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:43:00 +0000

Just wanted to share this item, which is good new for our growing followers at UCStrategies. UCS readers will know that we do regular podcasts (ideally every Tuesday, but we miss a few weeks here and there), and it's a great way to get a roundup of expert opinions on topical issues in the UC space.

When those are posted, we do our best to get the word out, and you can certainly get automated updates via the RSS feed, but now we have yet another way to do this.

As Apple continues to rule our digital lives, we've gotten with the program, and our podcasts can now been downloaded from the iTunes Store. It's pretty simple - free, of course - and even I could do it. Just open up your iTunes account, go to the iTunes store and find the podcasts section. We're in the Technology category, sub-head is "Tech News". If that doesn't take, just search ucstrategies (it's one word - no space in between) in the Podcast search bar, and our podcasts will be there. Got that? Now go get it!

While I have you, I'd like to pass on a welcome to our latest UCStrategies member, Kevin Kieller. He's based in Toronto with me, so I like him already! He's contributed his first post, so that's a good way to get an introduction. Welcome Kevin, and am sure we'll be speaking soon.

ADTRAN Connect - Day 1 - Takeaways, Photos and the Bicycle That Saved the World

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Arnold) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 04:17:00 +0000

ADTRAN Connect 2011 has gone pretty much to plan so far. Day 1 had a balanced mix of updates from execs, deeper dives on enterprise and carrier offerings, and candid realities from customers. Being a public company, it's not hard to find evidence of success, and we heard our share of metrics to validate their growth story.

It's always good to hear about companies doing well in this space, and having been to several vendor events recently, they're not the only vendor struggling to get more brand recognition. Technology always has this delicate balance to manage between complexity and delivering benefits that people can articulate, and it's not easy to do both.

I'll keep this short and simply say that ADTRAN is doing a lot of things right, and if you follow the twitter feed (#adtranconnect), you'll get a richer sense of that. ADTRAN also has its share of challenges, and aside from becoming more of a household name, they need to keep building their channel, as this is their main route to market. Carriers are a major part of their business, not just for their own infrastructure, but as a channel to the enterprise market.

Hosted is definitely a strong storyline here, and that's good news for their platform partners - BroadSoft and Metaswitch. There's a good wireless story happening around their acquisition of Bluesocket, and ADTRAN looks to be on the right path here with wireless LAN. We also got a good update on their cloud initiatives, so they do have a longer-term plan to evolve beyond hardware.

We're hearing some messaging around UC, but for ADTRAN, it's more about the infrastructure than the applications. However, it's an important part of their value proposition, and there is good momentum building around both hosted and premise-based solutions. Conversely, we're not hearing much about video or social media, but that's ok. They know their market pretty well, and clearly these pieces are not must-haves for everybody right this minute. As those needs evolve, I have no doubt that ADTRAN will find a way to keep pace.

Gary Bolton along with Rick Schansman and Jay Wilson

CEO Tom Stanton

Kevin Morgan and two rural carrier customers - Valley Telecom and Consolidated Companies

They have their share of patents, so innovation definitely lives here.

It's not hard to see why people hardly ever leave here.

Before our sessions, we had a tour on Tuesday night at the famed U.S. Space and Rocket Center. If you like rockets and space travel, this place is for you - and you have no idea why Huntsville is one of the top tech hubs in America, this is a good place to start.

So, did this bicycle save the world? Well, maybe. All I'm going to say is that without it, there may not have been the Saturn rocket, Apollo missions, the Space Shuttle, the Russians would probably have won the space race, and the Berlin Wall just might still be standing. If that doesn't pique your interest, I don't know what will. There's definitely a Hollywood movie to be made here, and I'm up for writing the screenplay. Until then, let your imagination roam and do your own research. Then give me a call!

They sure don't build rockets like they used to. You really have to be there to get a sense of scale and mass for what a full-sized Saturn V rocket looks like. I posted more photos during our first visit there in 2009, so here's the link if you want my first impressions.