Calling all Conferencing Users - Share Your Experiences in a Survey (with prizes!)

I'm a market researcher by trade, and when LifeSize told me about this survey they're running, I figure why not help out and make more people aware of it.

Actually, I wish every company would do surveys like this (especially if they hire me to do it!), as I think end users need to be better understood. Whether doing quantitative surveys like this, or qualitative research such as focus groups, there is no substitute for learning first-hand from end users. If you're not familiar with the virtues of market research, there's a primer about the basics on my website, and I'd be happy to tell you more any time.

Enough about me. Here's the pitch, along with a link to the survey and a chance to win a $200 Amazon gift card:

5 minutes – 5 winners!

$200 Amazon Gift Card

One of the keys to a developing a great product is when a company truly understands its consumers wants and needs.  LifeSize, a pioneer and world leader in high-definition video conferencing systems and software applications is doing just that.

Please take 5 minutes to tell us about your usage and experiences with audio and video conferencing solutions in the workplace and you’ll automatically be entered to win one of five $200 Amazon Gift Cards. Five winners will be randomly selected from all completed entries between received between April 7 – April 18, 2014. 

Survey:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/59BNM2L

February Writing Roundup - My Top 8 Picks

Thought I'd start doing a monthly roundup post for my followers who don't religiously read every single post or article of mine. As you may know, I write in a variety of places, and I don't expect anybody follows them all - although you really should! - and even if you wanted to, you may not know where to find them.

On that note, if you don't know, a handy reference would be this page from my website. You might want to bookmark that.

Aside from Ziff Davis, the links there take you to my profile page where you can see an archive of my current posts - UCStrategies, ADTRAN, InformationWeek and Internet Telephony Magazine. For now, Ziff Davis is a challenge, but I will be getting a profile page there soon. Until then, the only way to see my writing there is to follow my tweets (@arnoldjon). I post there 2-3 times a week, and I tweet whenever there's a new article.

With that out of the way, this roundup post is for people who like my writing. I plan to do a monthly digest, so in one place you can click and read what I consider are my most notable posts for that time period. My intention is for you to get a fuller sense of the topics I write about - aside from my regular posts here on this blog - as well as the various outlets I share content with.

So, here are 8 posts from last month that showcase my latest thinking on the IP communications space:

All You Need is Lync - InformationWeek (if you like that, read this too)

How Bob Newhart Would Respond to UC - UCStrategies

Amazon Mayday - What it Mean for Your Contact Center - Internet Telephony Magazine, Jan/Feb issue

External Risk - Another Layer to Consider with UC - ADTRAN Blog

Is VoIP Putting Your Network at Risk? - guest post on No Jitter (more here on VoIP security)

Evolution of VoIP and Early Beginnings - Toolbox.com (Ziff Davis)

No Office? No Problem! Decentralize Your Phone System with Hosted VoIP - Toolbox.com

What you Need to Know About POTS vs PBX - Toolbox.com

What Trends Will Fizzle in 2014 - UCStrategies Podcast

We can't all be winners, and UC is really no different from other tech waves that come and go. In the early going, everyone is a winner until the novelty wears off and vendors have to start making money. We try lots of new things - some just streamline things we've been doing all along or make them more accessible, like desktop video. Others are more radical - like WebRTC - that threaten to reinvent the whole space.

I'd say we're past the novelty stage with UC, and there's already been a fair bit of consolidation, but there's more to come. This just means the stakes get higher for everybody - vendors, operators, channels and even IT decision-makers - and it already looks like the top end of the market is a two-horse race between Cisco and Microsoft.

There's lots of life left to UC, though, and the future is still be written, but not everything we've been trying over the past year or two will survive through 2014. Depending on who you speak to, the casualties will vary, and that's what we talked about during last week's UCStrategies podcast.

A fundamental challenge with UC is its fluid nature - it can be almost anything you want it to be, and that makes it really hard to know when you're done - or able to add something new. So, we covered a lot of ground, including social media, BYOD, video and WebRTC. All of these things have been trying to find a home within the UC envelope, but vendors can only keep trying for so long, and then you reach a point where something has to change. Either you drop it and move on, somehow keep it going as a loss leader, or go back to the drawing board and keep tweaking until it hits a nerve.

Nobody ever said innovation was easy, and to hear what we think are prime examples of this, you'll want to give this a listen. This week's podcast was moderated by Michael Finneran, and you can download the audio file here. If you think we're off the mark or missing something big, we'd love to hear about it - thanks!

ITExpo Preview #1 - Ontario Pavilion Briefing

TMC's ITExpo East is now less than two weeks away, and it's time to start talking things up. Am sure you're getting regular updates on the keynotes and sub-events, and it looks like they've settled into a good thing with the Miami Beach venue. The size is about right - although it might feel crowded if the event gets much bigger - and nobody is complaining about going to South Beach in late January. We survived the Ice Storm here in Toronto, so the change in scene will be very welcome!

I'll be moderating some sessions and participating in Editor's Day, and posts are coming with more details. Thought I'd start this series off talking up what the government of Ontario is doing with their trade mission to the Expo. They're returning to the show with their Ontario Pavilion, located in booth #815. I've been involved with this initiative at previous Expos, and the idea is to showcase Ontario companies in our space. Like any trade mission, it's an economical way for these companies to get direct exposure to new markets, and a chance for attendees to see what Ontario has to offer.

At present, the delegation consists of eight companies: Advance Software Concepts, Cloud Dynamics, Excelocity, In-Touch Insight Systems, Myplanet Digital, Phybridge, SVK Software, and Telax. They're all doing interesting things, and will be on hand there throughout the show.

Aside from that, the pavilion is hosting a market briefing and meet-and-greet at the booth on Friday, from 10-11am. I'll be providing an informal briefing about market trends and opportunities that these companies are addressing, and a delegate from the Canadian Consulate in Miami will be on hand. So, if you want to see the latest and greatest coming from Ontario, please join us.

I'll also be particpating in a VIP breakfast being hosted by the Ontario government, plus there's a general reception from 2-4pm on Thursday at the booth, which has been well attended in the past. See you there - go Canada!

2013 in Review for UC - UCStrategies Podcast

Last week, we focused on 2013 highlights for our weekly UCStrategies podcast, and we really had to cut things down, as there was so much to talk about. The podcast was moderated by Blair Pleasant, and I added to her thoughts about the focus on the user experience.

There's lots more worth listening to, and the replay has now been posted to the portal. I hope you give it a listen, and next podcast, we'll be looking ahead to what we think UC holds in store for 2014.

Cisco Collaboration Summit and Q1 Earnings - is Their Mojo Back?

It's a tricky question, and I know some people would love to say YES and some would love to say NO.

I'm leaning towards yes, but this is no slam dunk, especially if you're an investor. I attended their annual Collaboration Summit a couple of weeks back in Boca Raton - what's not to like? - and Cisco had their Q1 earnings call last week. I felt badly because I didn't get a chance to blog about the summit, but the stars have lined up for now, and I found that after the Q1 earnings call, there was actually a better story to tell.

That's what I've done for this month's contribution to the UCStrategies portal. Whether you're inside or outside the Cisco tent, I think you'll find this is a good read, and would love to know if you think they've got their mojo back.

Amazon's "Mayday" Button - Contact Center Implications - Webinar

Amazon's "Mayday" feature is getting a lot of attention, and while the vast majority of businesses lack the scale to offer this service promise, it sure raises a lot of questions for contact centers. One of those is "just because you can, does it mean you should?", and from there many other implications pop up. It's too early to tell if this will be a passing blip or a new stage in delivering JIT customer service, but people are talking about it now, so the webinar is definitely timely.

Thanks to the Internet, our attention span is now measured in seconds, and if you take this level of instant gratification seriously, then you need to think about what Mayday could mean for your business and how you support your customers.

If this is on your mind, then you'll want to join us on Thursday, November 11 at 2pm ET. I'm part of a panel that will be discussing the various ramifications, and will be joined by well-known consultants Neal Shact and Dennis Goodhart. TMC is hosting the event, which is being sponsored by SAP, a company that certainly wants to know where this could take things as the pathway between customers and agents gets shorter.

We're still fine-tuning the agenda, but all the pertinent details are here, including a link to the registration page. I'll have more updates as we get closer to the date.

Pros and Cons of Desktop Video

My regular followers will know that I recently attended the LifeSize Tech Day, held at their Austin, TX HQ. As per my recap post, it was a great experience; not just to see their offerings up close, but also to be immersed in the video space for a day and a half. In the spirit of using video to collaborate and extend our group experience beyond the onsite visit, LifeSize is engaging us in a series of occasional video-based briefings to more fully explore various aspects of this market.

There is always something new to learn in sessions like this, and last week they did one on desktop video. Ironically, I had yet-to-be-explained technical difficulties logging in, but was able to follow enough to gather some takeaways to share with you here. This actually merits a brief sidebar that touches on an unspoken issue which all vendors struggle with - simply getting video to work.

When you're living with video conferencing tools all day long - as these vendors typically do - it's easy to forget how complex the underlying technology is, especially with all the different standards and interoperability issues. The seamless one-touch experience is wonderful when it works as advertised, but we've all lived through much worse.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying this to pick on LifeSize. They certainly know what they're doing, and all vendors have issues here. It's an important sidebar, however, since first impressions are critical for the adoption of any new technology - especially something as intimate as video.

I think it's fair to say that many people - perhaps the majority - are skeptical about using video. Some of it is generational, and people on my side of 40 are not reflexively in a rush to go straight to video when using tools like Skype. By the way, I'm saying this as someone who is interviewed on TV from time to time, so I know what it's like to be on camera.

Another reason, though, is basic ease of use. Whether you see this as perception or reality, ease of use is not typically what comes to mind right away with video - it's almost like you expect there will be problems. When things work smoothly, it's a great experience, but when there are glitches with video, we tend to tune out real fast and not bother much trying to fix it - because we don't know what to do.

So, holding that thought in mind, if you think the tiny hiccup I had with LifeSize was an I-told-you-so moment, how do you think the analyst community felt this Tuesday when Siemens did their much-hyped re-brand for Unify? This was the biggest corporate level refresh I can remember in this space, so there was a lot riding on those first impressions.

Well, as anyone trying to watch the live video stream would attest, it was very problematic. I was hardly alone in not being able to get the feed, and when it did kick in, it was so intermittent as to be simply unwatchable. I'm not much of a twitter fan, but this was truly a good example of its value by seeing in real time that others were having the same experiences. There were tweets from all over the world with the same problem, and I had to feel badly for Unify here. Definitely a case where you live and die by the same sword.

So much for the short sidebar.

In the interest of your attention span, let me quickly come back to the topic - desktop video. Basically, what I wanted to say was how the briefing reviewed the use cases, along with the pros and cons of the applications we commonly use. Both video conferencing/calling and web conferencing were cited, with the leading exponents being Skype, Google Hangouts, WebEx and GotoMeeting.

We all know how these work, and they're easy choices for many reasons. However, it was instructive to review the limitations, such as variable video quality, limited scalability, number of steps required to get a session going, lack of support for multiparty calls and common directory integration to support everyone you want on the session.

To me, this speaks to the "good enough" nature of these applications. Nobody is expecting telepresence here, but there are plenty of use cases where the fit is good. For a lot of conferencing needs, the quality doesn't have to be HD, and if the groups are small and the nature of the meeting is fairly informal, the cost/quality tradeoff is acceptable.

No issue there, and where LifeSize comes to the table is for situations where "good enough" is not good enough. If there's one thing I've learned about video, it's the breadth of scenarios where it brings value. LifeSize does a great job explaining this, and in short, the more formal the meeting and the higher the stakes, the better the solution you're going to need.

This doesn't mean you stop using the likes of Skype or WebEx - there will always be a place for these. Rather, the higher-end solutions like LifeSize become additive to your overall toy box. When you need a better experience and a more engaging collaboration environment, it's just good business to have a room-based system where a team can gather and interact at a high level with remote co-workers.

There's a huge mid-market that doesn't need or want telepresence, but has both showing and sharing requirements that go beyond what OTT Web-based applications can deliver. LifeSize sees this as their sweet spot, and after our Tech Day experience, I can see why.

I'll be posting again when they have another deep dive session with our group, and hopefully will have a better sense by then as to how well that market opportunity is panning out.

The Consumerization of Video Conferencing

I've got another item to share with you from the LifeSize Tech Day I attended a couple of weeks back. I was part of a group of "influencers" invited to attend, as was Andy McCaskey, who writes for SDR News. We hadn't met before, but being a small group, we all got to know each other during the event.

One of Andy's post-event follow-ups was for us to do a video interview. Basically, he wanted to get my take on where video conferencing is going and how it fits into the Unified Communications value proposition. From there, we talked about the LifeSize event and where we see them going in this market.

We did the interview late last week, and it's posted now on the SDR News portal. It runs about 14 minutes, and if you get a chance to watch it, I encourage you to look at the other content there afterwards. I know Andy has interviews coming with other attendees from the LifeSize event, but they're not posted yet.

Just a quick caveat on the segment he did with me. I didn't know this was being done as a formal interview for broadcast, so the quality is far from optimal. Had I known, the video setup would have been much different and easier on the eyes. Well, it's what we say that really matters, right? And, hey, this is a simple dose of realism - something that we don't talk about when trying to explain why we don't use video all the time.

Bottom line, video does not translate well for ad hoc communication, which happens to be the way that a lot of communication actually takes place. Am not sure we're ever going to fix that, and since I'm not auditioning for a job at ESPN - that would be so much fun! - I'll just leave it at that and hope you can see past what's on the screen.

Collaboration vs. Connectivity - my updated view of the video conferencing space on UCStrategies

Regular followers will know that I attended the LifeSize Tech Day last week in Austin, TX. I learned a lot there, not just about what LifeSize is doing in the space, but also about how the overall vendor landscape is shaping up.There are a lot of ways to look at the market, but for me, two value drivers say it best - connectivity vs. collaboration. Most vendors do one of these very well, and in terms of delivering the right mix of price/performance, they generally fall on either end of this spectrum.

LifeSize stands out for me since they seem to be going for the middle ground here, and while I think the opportunity is attractive, the market first needs to "get it". That's not so easy to do, especially with cloud and WebRTC nown starting to change the rules of the game in a big way. There's a lot of evolution coming for this space, and based on my takeaways from Austin, I've put together an overview of how I see the landscape today. Since video is a key component of UC, I thought it best to do this on the UCStrategies portal for my September contribution there. My post is running there now, and I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Microsoft Technology Centre/Lync Love Day - Toronto

Am trying to keep pace here, and a headcold right now isn't helping.

This post is a bit belated, but definitely worth sharing. Last Wednesday, as part of Microsoft Canada's Lync advisory group, I was invited to attend to attend Lync Love Day, along with a tour of their newly-opened MTC - Microsoft Technology Centre. The timing was good, since the day after I was on the analyst concall where the U.S. Lync team gave their update on things. So, I've had a full dose of MSFT lately, and feeling pretty in tune with where they're going.

The MTC, btw, is their first in Canada, so I'm in the early cohort of people to see it. If you've been there or to any of their other MTCs outside of Canada, am sure you'd agree they've done a great job. These days, all the vendors are trying to get/stay close to technology buyers/influencers/decision-makers, not just because the market is so competitive, but also because their new technologies are complex and the stakes are getting really high for IT folks to make the right bets.

I've got some MTC photos below, but most of our time was spent getting updates on Lync. Overall, the message there is about "delivering an experience - and not just communicating". Key areas we heard about included how Skype and Lync will be integrated, extending Lync to the mobile space and driving more enterprise voice adoption via the cloud.

It's still not clear if they know how to monetize Skype, especially when talking to enterprises. Skype definitely has a play with SMBs and SOHOs, but my concern is that enterprises will associate Skype with being consumer-grade and PC-based, both of which run counter to Lync's value proposition for this end of the business market. To me, whatever they do with Skype will be a bonus, and with RIM imploding, I'm sure moving into enterprise mobility space is a higher, more lucrative opportunity.

Video, of course, is another piece of the puzzle, and having been at the LifeSize event earlier last week, I wanted to address this separately. As a sidebar, for both of these events, I was the only analyst in attendance, so you won't likely get this type of perspective from anyone else unless you follow a pretty broad circle of people like me.

Since Cisco staked their claim on video and telepresence being about collaboration, all the other vendors have fallen into line for this to be the main driver. I've now seen how LifeSize is delivering their take on collaboration, and MSFT gave us a great demo for theirs. Of course, the big advantage with Lync is the natural integration with Office and everything else MSFT, and so as long as they can provide an easy-to-use high-touch environment, they have a great solution.

We saw that in spades, and there's a photo below to give you a taste. Their approach to collaboration is different, as instead of fixating on a passive video screen to watch other people or share content, there is also an interactive element via whiteboarding. It's a very natural, cool way to work, especially since the work can be shared and edited in real-time and then saved for sharing later. Nothing new here, but collectively all the pieces are offered as the LRS - Lync Room System, and it's a pretty compelling mix of collaboration, content sharing and live interaction for anyone connected to the session. And, yes, it works across most mobile devices, so you can join a LRS meeting pretty much from anywhere.

As with any other UC vendor, video is a big part of the story, but just as important is how seamlessly it works across all the tools and applications we use every day. Yes, it costs money, but it's a lot less than immersive TP, and a far richer experience than desktop, cloud-based video conferencing services. This should be a great way to enhance the Lync value proposition, and since there's hardware involved, LRS looks to be pretty channel-friendly. We saw pieces from SMART Technologies and Crestron - hardly household names, so there's a lot riding on them are partners. Polycom is also a LRS partner, but we were told they're not ready for market yet. Hmm - should that be a concern? I'll leave that out there for consideration - time for some pictures....

Mark Hickson demo'ing LRS - behind him is the whiteboard, left; and on the right screen are 3 live video panels - 1 for him, 1 for a remote attendee, and a hard-to-see panorama showing each of us there in the room with him. He's holding up a tablet to show the video there as well, and later he did the same with the other mobile device on the table in front of him.

One of the testing/interop rooms during the MTC tour

Fellow UCStrategies colleague, Roberta Fox, checking out the gigantic touch screen in the MTC lobby - this was pretty impressive.

Last stop on the MTC tour - the Envisioning Centre. Very cool - theater setting where they simulate various work environments to show us just how seamlessly their technology works across the spectrum of settings.

LifeSize Tech Day - Quick Thoughts and Cool Photos

Earlier this week, I attended a Tech Day with LifeSize at their Austin, TX HQ. Technically it was a day and a half, but y'know, everything is bigger in Texas, right?

I love Austin - just search my posts here to see why - and this being my first in-depth exposure to LifeSize, I wasn't sure what to expect. As a rule of thumb, I don't love too many companies, but I sure came away liking this bunch a whole lot. I was part of a small group of "influencers" at this event, and we got a pretty good close-up of their products, their people and their roadmap.

My week has been pretty jammed and only have time here for some flash impressions and photos that I think tell an interesting story. I'll have more to say in the next week or so, including my thoughts on how I now see the video conferencing vendor landscape shaping up. That piece will run as my monthly column on UCStrategies, and in light of yesterday's funding news for BlueJeans, this space won't stay still for long.

This brings me to my elevator pitch takeaways. As you may know, Logitech is the parent company of LifeSize, and as we learned, having a B2B company owned by a consumer-focused company cuts both ways. When you're a Tier 2 player, the pedigree and financial heft of a big name like Logitech does come into play when trying to win those bigger deals. On the other hand, there can be some challenges getting them to understand the realities of your business, and it's not so easy to create magical synergies - just ask Microsoft about that with Skype.

As a sidebar, LifeSize isn't Logitech's first foray into this space. I've been following the comms market for a while now, and about 5 years ago, they acquired SightSpeed for $30 million, and I'm told it's still in the mix somewhere. I don't expect you to know or remember that, but I was an early follower of SightSpeed, and if you care to know more, here's one of my posts about them. There's a reason why companies are acquired, and clearly, Logitech sees a long-term play here.

Hey - did you catch that? Clear. See. No? Their desktop video application - ClearSea. Nevermind. Well, Sheldon Cooper would have gotten it, and of course he would have chided me on the difference in spelling and only given me half-credit for being half-clever (how's that for a subtle homage to Texas, btw?). Bazinga!

So, LifeSize soldiers on, with great home-grown technology, and they showed us how they've been a pioneer in this market. Of course, that's no guarantee of success, but they sure know this business from the bottom up. The company is probably doing about as well as can be expected, and they're certainly not alone among video vendors trying to figure this market out. Video is the most touchy-feely of all communications technologies, and finding the right balance between price and end user experience is the Holy Grail all these vendors are after.

Complicating this is the fact that video is a hybrid of product and service, and their room-based systems fall squarely into that category. Going back to my MBA Marketing days, this is probably the biggest challenge in all of marketing - short of trying to create demand for something where none has previously existed. It's much easier to market one or the other, but products and services together is very tricky, especially where most decision makers struggle to see the business value of video.

There are lots of players making a go of just selling one or the other, and while this market is still finding its legs, I believe there's plenty of room for what LifeSize offers. We heard lots about how well they understand the opportunity, and I'm onside with their thinking. They certainly know how to make the technology work, and while their user interface needs to be more intuitive, the big challenge is getting their value proposition out there and better understood. Video has to be experienced for best effect, and it's pretty hard to sell people on the merits of a 55" HD monitor from a demo on your PC screen.

Most video vendors struggle with this, so LifeSize is hardly alone. Bigger picture, though, is the shift happening to the cloud and virtualized services which looks poised to redefine video altogether. Things have come a long way from when Polycom owned this business - something LifeSize's management team knows a lot about - and I'd say we're in the midst of another cycle of creative destruction. I'm not sure where that leaves LifeSize, but if they play their cards right, they'll be fine. That said, I don't know what the right game is to be playing right now, and that's where I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Stay tuned, more posts to come! Until then, let's shift modes as well as technologies and have a look below.

Just one of many testing areas we saw during our lab tour. Every interop permutation you can imagine is going on here, so if you want best-of-breed, LifeSize is pretty solid.

Fun, wow - the audio testing chamber - it's so quiet in here you get a headache hearing yourself think. This is a great example of doing their engineering in-house, and with lots of trial and error, this is how you build the perfect speakerbox for conferencing. R&D is definitely a core asset, but I'm pretty sure you only get these things in black. No harm in stealing a page from Apple -why not other colors?

I know - crappy picture - room was dark and my battery was on fumes. It's not a microwave oven or a TV, but let me connect the dots with the next few pix.

What's this? A PC monitor next to the mystery box above. It's hard to see, but this is a design rendering of car chassis and the wheels. Is this starting to make sense now?

Now picture Bob Barker saying... "it's a brand new carrrrrr!!!" Much smaller than a Fiat, and it doesn't come with an Italian family of 3 (if you don't know what I'm talking about, watch this brilliantly funny commercial - it's just 3 minutes - but only after you finish here, ok?).

No really, it's not a bar of soap - this tiny car has wheels that turn and pistons that go up and down!

And gears and a crankshaft underneath to make everything go - wow!

Figured this out yet? 3-D printing, yup. I want one of those. Maybe LifeSize is in the wrong business, or this is a hint of what their real roadmap is. I'm sure with all that engineering in-house, they've got some other things cooking, and I doubt that means making a 6 cylinder version or offering a metallic neon green finish.

ITExpo 2013, Las Vegas - Day 1

Yesterday was Day 1 of this year's ITExpo West, being held for the first time in Las Vegas. Much bigger here in many ways than Austin was last year. Too early to tell how this location plays out, but there are definitely lots of people here. Just sharing a few high level thoughts from what I saw yesterday.

Things kicked off with a roundtable panel on tech trends, with voices from TMC, analysts and consultants. There were a lot of good ideas and food for thought, and the hour flew by fast. Topics covered included M2M, white spaces, WebRTC and the need for IPV6. Bigger picture, a key theme was the idea that our personal identities have value - as we better understand that, the relationship between buyers and sellers will change, and this has implications for everyone in the room - both as consumers and as businesses trying to make money in telecom.

Moving on, I moderated a well-attended session on how technology can be used in the contact center to improve the customer experience. Lots to talk about there, and it's clear that things like social media, mobility and multichannel communication are presenting big challenges for contact centers. It's also worth noting that almost everyone in the room was a first-time ITExpo attendee. This happened as well in the panel I ran this morning on hosted PBX. I'm sure the Las Vegas location has something to do with that, and maybe TMC is tapping into a new audience - time will tell.

Otherwise, yesterday was full with briefings and from there, everyone went to StartupCamp8. Over the past few ITExpos, this has been the most engaging session, helped in large part by the open bar, but also the content. The format is well honed now, and 4 startups gave their pitches, followed by some feedback from the judges. After that, the audience voted on winner, which turned out to be a local startup, Alice Receptionist. None of these really stood out for me, but I have a more detailed post coming about these startups - it will run on the UCStrategies portal, hopefully before the week is out.

Preceding the pitches, we heard a good keynote from Jeff Bonforte of Yahoo!. Aside from telling us how they missed out on acquiring Twitter for pocket change in its early days, Jeff covered 12 elements that characterize innovative organizations. Overall, this sounds like a good recipe for success, and clearly most businesses simply aren't wired this way. Aside from things you'd expect to hear, I enjoyed his take on the need to fail before you can succeed. For companies that can learn from this, the main idea is that the more you fail, the more likely you'll find something that actually sticks. It seems countertintuitive, but when you compare the culture of startups against enterprises, it's not hard to see why this is standard procedure for the former type of business.

I'll get another post out by end of the week, and I'm sure the buzz will be great when the show floor opens later this afternoon.

Rich Tehrani kicking off the show

 Technology trends roundtable

 View of the strip from the 62nd floor during the reception following StartupCamp8

ITExpo Preview - Session #3 - VaaS

Last but not least, my third session at the upcoming ITExpo is titled: "VaaS - Leveling the Playing Field for SMBs". Add one more acronym to your alphabet soup canon in this space - now we're talking about video as a service. With cloud, you just know that sooner or later, everything will get their "aaS" moniker, just like finally getting added to the Apps store up in that same cloud.

Well, if any application can truly benefit from the cloud it's video. This is the most expensive of all communications modes to provide with a premise-based solution, and now that the technology is "good enough" for just about any endpoint, the market is finally here. This certainly isn't what Cisco had in mind with telepresence, which is such a great experience, but really just for the Fortune 1000 set. Cloud-based services are nowhere as good, but my favorite tag line of "good enough" definitely applies here, and that's one of the themes we'll be exploring on the panel.

Our session is Thursday, August 29 at 1pm, and is part of the the Cloud4SMB Expo, which runs under the ITExpo tent. I know it's one of the last sessions of the conference, but if you're not dashing off to catch a red-eye back East, this should be a fun session.

Joining me will be Vishal Brown - Yorktel, Mark Cray - AGT, and Steve Vobbe - Glowpoint. Full details are here, and hope you can join us.

Am on vacation next week, and blogging gets a break too, so I won't likely post again til just before the Expo. As a reminder, I'm also moderating panels on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I posted about them here and here. See you in Las Vegas!

ITExpo Preview - Session #1

TMC's ITExpo is now just 12 days away, and there are lots of loose ends to manage as usual. I'm moderating three sessions, and am doing separate posts for each. They're all different, and I hope to see you at some or all of 'em.

As you probably know by now, this year's West event is in Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay. It's a pretty hot time of year to be in the desert, but that's the story. This is actually TMC's 3rd locale for the West ITExpo in 4 years, so we're all looking forward to seeing how they've changed things up. Los Angeles was their base for several years, but they pulled roots and had the last two Expos in Austin. I loved it there, but it's not really a Western spot and I guess it just didn't pull right, so off to Mandalay Bay we go.

I'll be there the full time, and my first session is Tuesday, August 27 at 10am. This will be a topic I really enjoy researching, and it's going to be fun. It's called "Solving the Customer Experience Equation", and we'll be exploring the relationship between communications technology and contact center agents, and how best to marry those for providing great service.

Joining me will be Steve Brubaker from InfoCision Management Corporation, Steve Chirokas - VoltDelta, John Cray - Zeacom, and Ann Sung Ruckstuhl - LiveOps. With four speakers, the time will fly, but you'll definitely hear some pretty sharp perspectives.

If you want get regular updates on the show, follow my twitter feed, and along with TMC's - @arnoldjon and @ITExpo.

2013 Contact Center Trends - Three Wise Guys on Google Hangouts

A couple of weeks back, Fonolo's Shai Berger hosted a fun analyst roundtable on Google Hangouts. Bigger companies spend tons of money doing webinars, podcasts, etc. - of which I'm often a happy beneficiary - but there are lots of tools out there to do a nice job without spending anything. Google Hangouts is one such tool, and kudos to Shai for not being shy (yes, that rhymes - now you know!) to go this route.

Shai, of course, is widely followed on his Customer Service Blog, which you can find on the company's website (and often on Twitter), and that's where you can find the replay of our roundtable. I'm one of the analysts, along with Dave Michels and Dan Miller, and we had no shortage of things to talk about.

To make life easier, Fonolo has broken things up into shorter segments, based on specific topics, so feel free to graze as we cover things like social media, mobility, virtual queuing, the cloud, IVR, etc. I found Google Hangouts easy to use and the results turned out pretty well.

The clips were just posted today, and here's the link. So, have fun, and if the mood strikes, pass it around and let us know what you think. What else would you like to see us cover next time around?

Also, when you're done, you can download Fonolo's free short report, Top 10 Customer Service Trends for 2013.

2013 Look-Ahead - I See Video

Last week on UCStrategies, we had our look-ahead podcast for 2013, and not surprisingly, everyone had an opinion. I certainly recommend you give that a listen to get the big picture on where UC is going - or not - and collectively, we sure covered a lot of ground.

I wanted to expand further on a theme I think is going be big for all kinds of reasons in 2013 - video. This has been a big story for a while, and has been primed to become an  even bigger story for just as long. Of course, Cisco has been betting big on video for a few years now, and even though they've had as many hits as misses, I wouldn't bet against this trend right now. I think video is the key to success for each of the Big 3 vendors in North America - Cisco, Avaya and MSFT - and there's a lot of innovation and disruption coming  from the bottom up. Startups and pure plays like Vidyo, BlueJeans and Vidtel are building nice traction now, and I'm pretty sure there are companies nobody is following now that will become hot names in this space at some point next year. I don't know who they are yet, but I am certain that's going to happen.

Enough said - otherwise, you won't get around to reading my analysis. For that, I need to steer you back to the UCStrategies portal, where you can read my December contribution and 2013 look-ahead.

Desktop Video - When Good Enough is Good Enough

That's the title of my latest article running in the current issue of Internet Telephony Magazine. I think the title is self-explanatory, and am just doing a quick shout-out in case you don't get it - either in print form or the digital edition.

I hope you give it a read, and your comments are most welcome. In case you don't know, I have a monthly column in the magazine called Rethinking Communications, and you can access the article archive here.

Empower, Engage and Innovate - my takeaways from Cisco's Collaboration Summit

I got back late last night from LA, and really enjoyed this year's Cisco Collaboration Summit. Yesterday I posted some photos and said I'd have a recap coming, and I managed to write that on the flight home.

Lots to think about, and I could have written 5 very different recaps - there was a lot to digest. Well, the first one's free, folks, and that one is running now on the UCStrategies portal. Wearing that hat, I'm looking at the UC implications from the summit, and you might not agree with me. That's fine - just calling it the way I see it, and I hope we can have some dialog, so let's hear from you. So, here's the link, and I'll leave it with you to share your thoughts.

Cisco Collaboration Summit 2012 - Quick Thoughts and Photos

This year's Cisco Collaboration Summit finished up yesterday for the analysts, and as always, there was lots to absorb. If you followed the tweets, you'll have a good sense of this, and I'm going to write my recap in a post for UCStrategies, which will likely run on Monday. Just have limited time to post before my flight home now, and wanted to share a few photos.

First, from Day 2, Lynn Lucas

Partner panel, moderated by Rich McLeod. I found this probably the most engaging session, and we heard a lot about what customers are investing in today to bring collaboration tools into their business.

Site tour of the Staples Center, showcasing Cisco's deployments, mainly around supporting video and digital signage. Nothing overwhelming, but it was great to see all the ways that these tools make the operations flow smoothly as well as to enrich the fan experience. These are two of the guys who really make it happen.

Closing keynote from Dr. Michio Kaku. Nice insights about how science drives innovation and what our world is going to look like in the future. If he's right, we'll live a lot longer and of course, computers will be everywhere - and nowhere - as he likes to say. Here's a slightly ominous double-take of him - onscreen and with an Alfred Hitchcock silhouette.

Day 1 - Colin Miles from Virgin Media talking about how they're using Cisco's collab solutions

Cisco's OJ Winge watching Colin stage-side from his virtual office

Nice demo showing how social media tools are being used in real time to drive collaboration - and of course, across multiple screens and endpoints

Murali Sitaram talking about how cloud-based collaboration will be their main platform now, and explaining their two pronged route to market - Cisco branded as WebEx, and partner-hosted HCS