UCStrategies Recap of BroadSoft and Nextiva Conferences

Better late than never on this one, but a few weeks back, these two companies had conferences at the same time. Too bad, since many of us at UCStrategies were invited to both, and being indies,  we can only be at one place at a time.

To make amends, we pooled attendees from each event into one podcast, so if you're still wondering about where each of these companies are heading, this will be a handy one-stop-shop. The podcast has been posted to our portal now, and if you attended either, we'd love to hear your thoughts after giving ours a listen.

My Next Webinar - 2017 VoIP Opportunities

VoIP may be old hat for some, but it's still new for a lot of businesses, and there's a bigger picture to consider.  Technology is moving quickly, and as we see more from UCaaS, CPaaS, IoT, AI and the like, VoIP will become more than just cheap telephony.

That's the ground I'll be covering on my next Ziff Davis B2B webinar, and I've piqued your interest, I hope you can join me. The webinar is next Thursday, December 15 at 2pm ET, and all the details for registering are here.

My Next Webinar - Choosing the Right Partner for VoIP

This week marks the start of my "busy season" where I'm either speaking at or attending industry events, and I've already got my calendar mapped out through December. I'd be happy if nothing else comes up between now and year-end, but that's wishful thinking, and wouldn't be good for business.

Along the way, I have to get paid work done of course, and that includes webinars. I've another one coming up with Ziff Davis, and the title in this post is pretty self-explanatory. These webinars consistently draw well, and am looking forward to the next one, which will be Tuesday, October 4. If the topic is of interest, I hope you'll register and join me then. I'll post about it again as the date approaches, but to sign up right now, here's the landing page with all the details.

Why Are We Still Using Email?

That's a good question, and that's the title of my current column in Internet Telephony Magazine, and is a follow-on to my previous column, titled Why Are We Still Using Desk Phones?

These are valid questions and they speak to a radically changing landscape driven both by new technology and changing expectations among end users. There's a lot to explore here, and you might be surprised by the issues raised in my column. I hope you give it a read - and the previous one - and if either spurs a reaction, I'd love to hear from you and even more so if you care to share.

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.

Will the Cloud Kill Telecom Vendors?

Am I the only one asking this question? It's been on my mind lately for good reason, and I think there's something to this. The cloud is a big topic, for sure, and on my latest Service Provider Views column for TMCnet, I take my first stab at what this ultimately could do to/for telecom vendors.

You can read my article here, and as always, your comments are welcome!

Focus.com - My First Brief Published

Blogging has been sporadic the past week or so, but for good reason. I've noted recently that I'm working on some new things, and these are starting to take root now. Some of you are seeing me pop up now and then on Twitter, and it's great that so many of you are welcoming me - or asking what took so long? I'm still trying to normalize myself to this, and I can see already how it's cutting into blogging time, and that's going to take a while to balance out.

Focus.com is another new front that I'm enjoying quite a lot. They have a pretty extensive and engaged community, and it hasn't taken long for me to find topics to comment on. It's a great portal - among other things - and if you follow me, you should hang out more on Focus.com. I'm now a Focus Expert, which means I'll be regularly writing Focus Briefs. These are short analyses of various IT/IP comms topics, and I just published my first brief, which talks about things to consider when looking at hosted services. As with everything on their portal, comments are welcome, and I hope to see you there soon.

Mitel Mobile - Shape of Things to Come?

This posting seems fitting in the wake of Canada'a post-Olympic glow. Ottawa-based Mitel recently added an interesting twist to their expanding portfolio of advanced communications offerings.

Just when you thought the UC umbrella was wide enough, they launched Mitel Mobile in late January. I've written about this before, and when vendors start competing with carriers, you know the status quo is a thing of the past.

I'm just adding another perspective in the form of my latest Service Provider Views column on TMCnet. It's based on an interview with Laith Zalzalah of Mitel NetSolutions, and you can read about it here. I'm sure I won't be alone in tracking their progress, and it will be interesting to see if this is a one-off variation, or a new model for other vendors to emulate.

Microsoft Cuts Include Response Point - One Step Backwards

Last week's cuts by Microsoft got lots of attention, but I've barely seen anything about the fallout for Response Point. I actually didn't catch wind of this until yesterday, and since then I've had dialog with a couple of Response Point team members to better understand what's happening.

I've been following Response Point for some time - such as here - and have always thought it was a great entree for Microsoft to serve the SMB voice market. There's so much at stake these days for owning the customer, and Microsoft knows it can't do this with software alone. They've invested a lot of time/energy/money to develop an SMB solution that bring the best of both worlds in terms of software and hardware, and that's what Response Point is all about.

In terms of public news about how the cuts impacted the Response Point team, I can steer you to two sites - their own blog, and the Mini-Microsoft blog. The latter post is more about the overall cuts from last week, but if you sift through the comments, you'll find references to Response Point.

My understanding is that Microsoft had to cut back support for initiatives that weren't delivering short term profits, and being a startup, Response Point clearly falls into that category. From all accounts I've seen, Response Point is not going away - they'll just have to make do for now, and support the current version as best they can.

Basically, this means living with Version 1.0, which launched in early 2008. They've been building their early momentum with this, but most people are looking to Version 2.0 to make Response Point a mainstream SMB solution. This version is more voice 2.0-oriented, and includes new features such as a softphone, Key System functionality, better branch office integration, and remote user connectivity. Unfortunately, the air has come out of this balloon with the funding cuts, as Version 2.0 was not slated for release until later this year.

So, development is now on hold until these cuts have been digested. Presuming Microsoft is performing better a couple of quarters from now, hopefully, they'll be able to revisit funding then and get 2.0 launched. Until then, the team needs to consider possibly launching a few core 2.0 features now to make Response Point more competitive, as the market is continually evolving.

This last point is the most troubling aspect of what these cuts mean, not just for Response Point, but Microsoft itself. We all know there's a huge land grab in play now for the massive SMB space, and there are tons of solutions to choose from. Response Point makes a lot of sense for SMBs who are Microsoft-friendly and want an easy-to-use solution. Furthermore, with so many new entries, buying from a trusted brand is an important comfort factor for an audience that is generally not that tech-savvy.

The problem facing Response Point is all the time they lose now to develop Version 2.0. This creates a bit of a vacuum that will quickly be filled by solutions that Microsoft will have a hard time competing with 6 months or so from now. Web-based offerings like Phone.com and Vocalocity are starting to find their niche, as are hybrid PBX/router solutions like Jazinga. And then you have the whole Open Source ecosystem, along with a growing variety of hosted, managed and cloud-based offerings.

These cuts also reflect on Microsoft, who simply had to make a business decision to adapt to current market conditions. However, it sends a message that SMB is not their top priority (which is probably true), but for the legions of vendors, VARs and developers supporting Response Point, it's a step backwards for what most would see as a winning strategy for Microsoft. Tough choices for tough times, and I do hope that the Response Point team keeps things moving forward, as I think their offering could be a major cornerstone for Microsoft's value proposition in the SMB market.

Aastra - Another Canadian Bright Light

Following my post the other day about MTS Allstream, I wanted to highlight another Canadian company that's on a roll these days. That company is Aastra, and I've blogged about them in the past. This is a company that has slowly built up a strong position in the IP telephony market, via both organic growth and a series of acquisitions, particularly in Europe. Aastra is one of a handful of Canadian telecom players that is publicly-traded and truly has a global reach. I know, this sounds a lot like another Canadian company that used to be a stock market darling, and if the truth be known, among Canadian telecom equipment vendors, I think Aastra is now poised to be what Nortel used to be.

Furthermore, their stock has held up well relative to other tech stocks, with a strong bounceback that has shares trading higher now than before the markets crashed last year. Much of this rides on their Q1 results which came out about 2 weeks ago. Sales took a big hit - down 16% - compared to Q4 2008, but more importantly, they're 56% higher than Q1 a year ago. Add to that rising gross margins, a sustained commitment to R&D, very little debt, and manageable operational expenses, and you have the making of a good growth story.

On the product front, they continue to innovate, and I think that has a lot to do with their success. It's hard to compete directly with the Polycoms, Avayas and Ciscos of the world, but they keep finding ways to add value to their lineup of SIP-based phones. One example is AastraLink RP, which integrates with Microsoft's Response Point, and won a 2008 TMC Product of the Year Award. Another would be ViPr, their touch screen videoconferencing solution which works with most any existing PBX. These are recent examples of how they're attacking specific niches and applications, and have many others in the mix, including Unified Communications, mobility and contact centers.

All told, there's a lot to like about Aastra, and in true Canadian style, they're doing it quietly but effectively. They should be familiar to many of my readers, but maybe not familiar enough, and with the flag-waving I'm doing this week, hopefully that will change now for the better.