TELECOMWORX

VoiceAdvantage Hits Moving Targets

2012-01-23T09:43:00.001-05:00

The hiring process isn't something that brings a smile to many, and it can certainly be taxing to the employers trying to find the right fit for positions. I remember an old feature built for the insurance industry by Rockwell International used in the call center, known as the "screening gate." Agents would answer initial calls and say, "Good day, thank you for calling Company X, would you like sales, service or claims?"

Now that the above process has long been replaced with automated attendants and ARUs, a similar process in recruiting and hiring needs forklifting too. This is what got my attention whenHarQen announced the addition of an in-browser recording to VoiceAdvantage. This product allows those doing the hiring to use their phone and a simple web-based dashboard to create and distribute custom, recorded phone interviews. Job candidates can now use Voice Advantage anywhere they have an Internet connection and browser.

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You're Going To Do What To My Customer?

2012-01-18T11:17:00.001-05:00

I've marveled in the past about decisions that customers make based on input from a consultant or IT guy, unaware of the reality of what it'll take to achieve the desired goals. Herein is the first problem, and that is selling the customer on something when the seller has no idea what's involved in delivering the customized products and services that the customer really requires.

In the case of one customer, the same group of "players" contend that, because the customer is investing roughly $1M in an Electronic Medical Records (EMR) effort, that buying into a 10Mbps span connecting the offices is going to solve all the existing issues the customer has--and do note that the issues are "resident," meaning it's only been three years with the same issues not being resolved. The justification now is that, by upgrading the spans to 10Mbps, the issues will go away, but, "We were wondering if we could move your voice traffic too because there may be significant cost savings."

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iFamily

2012-01-11T11:48:00.001-05:00

It wasn't originally a planned migration to make my household i-Everything. My i-Mania isn’t really an issue at all, especially when family members talk to friends and co-workers and discover that i-Stuff is pretty cool. Consumer and even SMB attitudes about spending more money for quality that delivers better experience does change. Maybe it's the marketing that helps soften attitudes or loosens consumers' grip on their cash, but both consumers' and businesses' willingness to spend more on Apple products is growing. Most of Apple's success, I believe, hinges on the experience.

Since confession is good for the soul, I will state that I caved in this past holiday season--my wife and I now sport an iPhone 4s. Not so secretly, I am glad to have a new and improved model that actually lives up to the expectation of "smartphone."

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Understanding Lync

2012-01-03T07:52:00.003-05:00

When discussing Microsoft Lync, keep in mind the question--what Lync for what service--since Microsoft is trying to be all things to all users, it gets overly complicated. Maybe the former doctrine of KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) no longer applies.

A recent cutover that left me wanting doses of Tylenol was only successful because we delivered what the customer wanted--a simple telephony solution. The solution was anything but simple since the wiring job wasn't standard or acceptable and added in days of extra work. The customer had grown accustomed to their Nortel system of over 20 years, and while we didn't originally sell it to them, we've de-installed it three times and relocated the system twice. Former Nortel customer complaints over the decades were that the Auto Attendant/Voice Mail system was overly complicated and unless you purchased desk phones with a surplus of buttons, you found yourself forgetting or using the wrong feature codes. This is chiefly what Microsoft argued about traditional telephony in their old anti-PBX ads; only their Nortel telephony experience doesnt mean everyone else's experiences were similar. For the most part, Nortel customers experienced a product with proven quality.

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Don't Knock Figgy Pudding

2011-12-28T17:13:00.004-05:00

The Victorian Era may not be for you and romanticizing it wouldn't likely convince you that they were the good ol' days. Mortality rates, conveniences, lifestyles and even taxes weren't what we have today. Relatively speaking, the technology for the era was booming with an entrepreneurial spirit of creativity. During this time--steamships, railways and the electric telegraph were changing our world with fortunes made, lives transformed and the entrance of networks.

Fast-forward to today and we have engaged in an addictive emphasis and dependency on the network. There is no doubt our era is being transformed by the network that impacts every area of our lives. Opportunity exists in so many places and it's clearly visible unless of course your enterprise is just another fat cat standing by for an easy meal.

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Verizon Rent Lord

2011-12-19T16:01:00.001-05:00

Anyone not reviewing their telecom bills and asking the right questions could be in for some surprises. I hounded Verizon for months over their $10 monthly billing mistake until they made good. They've become too big, too fat and too powerful for the greater good. While that just sounds like carrier bashing, since most would not spend the time over a $10 monthly charge, that is the second mistake that many companies make--not spending the time to ensure their billing is right.

Our summer vacation was great, only something didn't add up towards the end. With laptop in hand, I felt comfortable connecting and being responsive to concerns while enjoying vacation. The VPN connection to one customer just wouldn't allow my dealer apps to do their thing. When downloading data to my machine, it would simply timeout and disconnect the link to the PBX.

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Enterprise, Federate Yourselves

2011-12-14T09:16:00.005-05:00

Vendors, IT staff and consultants may be pitching the right message to enterprises, but some organizations can't let go of embedded controls. They are either knowingly or unknowingly resistant or reluctant to fully capture the benefits outlined in an earlier white paper by Marty Parker and Don Van Doren in Capturing CEBP Value.

The attitudes seemingly prevail among businesses operating call centers--to view them solely as cost centers erected for the sole purpose of either damage control or processing orders. When they are revenue based as opposed to service based, inclinations change. These call centers can either make things right or ease customer pains, but do they really resolve core issues?

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RootKit Discovered: Got Mobility Concerns Yet?

2011-12-05T20:29:00.001-05:00

Last week, ZDNet posted a story that a 25-year-old named Trevor Eckhart discovered and documented a rootkit hidden in millions of cellphones including Apple iOS handsets. Users running iOS 5.0 or later. (iPhone 4S and upgraded iPhone 4 and 3GS handsets) can disable the Carrier IQ rootkit on their phones (see here). Since August, 2010 I’ve been among the many users beating their heads against the wall trying to figure out why the iPhone data usage is seemingly wrong. Granted my iPhone is now a relic (original iPhone iOS 3.1.3), and the disputed data usage that customers have spans internationally and with different carriers.

Carrier IQ, the originator of the rootkit, threatened legal action to silence Eckhart but the Electronic Frontier Foundation stepped in and Eckhart got an apology instead from Carrier IQ.

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Intermopability

2011-12-02T09:15:00.001-05:00

It's been awhile since I've seen my buddy Fred and whenever he comes out with a post on NoJitter, it stirs things up and gets folks into a frame of mind that makes them think about what it is he is bringing to the table for discussion, as he did recently.

I told Fred long ago that I thought VoIP and IP-PBXs are akin to operations on a submarine and I still believe that. "Flooding" is always a negative connotation or alert, as is "fire," and then knowing when to use the words "ballast" and "away" in lieu of the former is pretty important forbubbleheads. It's all about choice and the right choice for the right reason. Use of each of those words nets you different responses and actions so long as you are onboard a submarine. Throw it all out when you board a surface vessel, walk down the hall of your office or enter an Army base. Tell your IT guy you've got flooding and you will get a different reaction than you would from your plumber. In the same way, standards simply don’t always apply or fit at different times and situations, let alone glue what it is that you want glued together.

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Hosted Lync For Mac

2011-11-29T07:34:00.001-05:00

My gut told me to stay on this and I'm glad I did. In my last post and reply to Kevin Kieller, I mentioned the trials and confusion associated with Apple users and even Microsoft users in determining which Microsoft client to use. After providing my findings to the host, they updated their site with the Microsoft fix (update) for the Lync-for-Mac client software. Communicator for Mac dials only other users (on net) using email addresses. Lync for Mac includes the ability to dial on and off net.

Beyond this trial there was yet another event unfolding here within my offices. The one user holdout using a Dell (Windows) PC, who I moved over to a new Mac recently, voiced some discontent with some of the Mac apps--namely Pages. Our old Office for Mac 2004 software won't run on Apple Lion and I read of issues with Office for Mac 2011 that encouraged me to hold off buying the newer software.

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Blue Jeans Network: Interoperability For Skype, Lync and More

2011-11-21T13:36:00.001-05:00

Blue Jeans Network of Mountain View, CA staked a claim in the videoconferencing turf last week at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference when they announced then demonstrated a videoconference connecting Skype and Lync users to each other along with other video conferencing endpoints including Cisco/Tandberg, Polycom, Lifesize, Google and others.

When I spoke with Stu Aaron, Chief Commercial Officer and Alagu Periyannan, CTO of Blue Jeans Network, they explained to me the business problems that Blue Jeans was founded to solve.

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WorkSpace Communications Enters the Sweet Spot

2011-11-14T16:55:00.001-05:00

Intel AppUp Small Business Service offers small businesses the combination of a locally hosted, on premise server that inter-operates with "cloud" based software and services available on a subscription pay-per-user basis. So what does this have to do with telephony?

WorkSpace Communications struck a deal that reminds me of when I wrote in VoIP: What About Apple?, "Why doesn't Apple just stuff pbxnSIP or other IP-PBX software in the application folder?" WorkSpace has done this with Intel’s AppUp offering by placing client software for hosted Lync on the server. Customers have a convenient choice and I think it's dangling fruit in front of them. Not that Apple doesn't dangle fruit, but Apple fails to see or act on the same opportunity that they've had since MobileMe. Apple hasn't moved or shown any interest and that's the difference. pbxnSIPwas among a few that Apple didn’t shake hands with to do the same thing using any of the Mac servers.

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Whaleback Systems Focus On Tools and Reliability

2011-11-07T09:16:00.000-05:00

Several weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak with Whaleback Systems of Portsmouth, NH; I talked with Karil Reibold, CEO, Wray West, CTO and Angela Boudreau, Channel Manager. Whaleback guarantees full end-to-end support. Whether customer problems are in a handset, LAN, remote office, in the access or public network; they claim that they can see it and fix it. In many cases they can identify and resolve problems before customer's services are impacted--right down to the bothersome cord un-tanglers that will send many off on the wrong path attempting to troubleshoot and resolve the problem they believe must be elsewhere.

Whaleback is unlike many retail voice over the web companies, offering no or few capabilities that drill into the customer premises.

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Hosted Lync: Digging Deeper

2011-10-31T12:01:00.003-04:00

The virtual Microsoft desktop running on my Mac is getting a proverbial workout. Maybe I should make a disclaimer that I'm not trying to sell you Lync. I'm not, however if you do want hosted Lync, I'd love to someday be the guy getting the deal. This is how I feel after being given the opportunity to evaluate hosted Lync on its merits for the SMB.

While I'm not yet ready to sell Lync to our customers, it is a viable alternative for call-ins that we get demanding a hosted solution. We've even entertained hosting our own wares, but it comes down to what I've already written about: There are plenty of others hosting what they call voice solutions that are banking on racking up subscribers to keep the cash flowing and the pipeline greased. These are not voice solutions, they are lures to snag customers to provide what anyone can provide. Not all voice hosted providers are like this, but it will be obvious by the ones that are that they will cause resistance to viable hosted solutions (customer attrition), disruption to business (lack of support tools in the right places), and no value add to their customers. This isn't the kind of service that I want to offer my customers.

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Hosted Lync: Can You Do This?

2011-10-24T22:02:00.000-04:00

In my last post, Hosted Voice: Lync Better Than Most, there are three attributes (Proprietary, Integration,Value) of Lync that stand out above competing hosted voice services. The mindset of saving money isn't exactly happening unless customers view only CAPEX and completely ignore OPEX. The basic question customers fail to address is payback. How many months of paying for hosted does it take to buy your own solution? But there's a second question to ponder and that is if you do buy/lease your own solution, then how long will it last? This leads to the third question, what will it cost to maintain the solution to the degree that it makes sense?

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Hosted Voice: Lync Better than Most

2011-10-16T23:08:00.003-04:00

When one of my IT buddies told me that "proprietary is not a bad thing," I listened. Hosted Voice isn't as good or as carefully crafted for most businesses as it should it be and I've pondered this ever since Dave Michels and I debated Lync inMicrosoft Lync: Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down?

What's changed since our debate? The more I review hosted voice services among the competitors, the less I like what I find. One of my buddies came to me early in the year for a recommendation for a hosted voice solution. Nothing seemed to fit just right. After speaking with a couple of hosted Exchange providers, I felt empty-handed in relaying to my buddy that Lync wasn't quite ready for the hosted space. That particular provider that wasn't Lync ready was bought by another competitor. Later, I spent hours on a conference call with SalesForce and my buddy but got nowhere. In fact while my buddy hammered the tech at SalesForce with integrating-voice questions, I gathered all the voice integration notes from the SalesForce knowledge base that I could find. This led nowhere quickly. I even contacted a SIP provider that had integration notes on their site to work with Sales Force--again, I got nowhere.

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Hosted Voice: Dominant Carriers Go Dink

2011-10-10T10:14:00.005-04:00

Businesses that flock to hosted solutions are playing the telecom shell game by investing less in CAPEX and taking on a higher hit on OPEX. Still, it makes some sense for small businesses because their cash flows are tight, and often trend negative. The 3% churn rate of hosted voice customers is reportedly tolerable for the providers. Providers push for new signups to add to their subscriber base and to them, cash is flowing in easily, while half of attrition is due to customers that simply go out of business. I mentioned before that hosted voice is very lucrative and it is, so long as you keep the subscribers coming.

Independent hosted providers today and in the foreseeable future will be merging, purging and dropping like flies because of inconsistency, lack of presence, scalability and the ability or inability to compete against dominant carriers. My buddy insisted on going hosted for his office and he had his mind set on buying Cisco phones. He wasn't even cut over a week and his provider was bought by a competitor.

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Hosted Voice: Smoke and Mirrors

2011-10-02T22:09:00.000-04:00

Today, I think hosted providers are capturing the 1-10 station segment. In my prior posts about SMB Failures, statistics report on the dismal failure rates of these small businesses. Since these companies fail at a high rate, hosted services for small numbers makes sense.

For the Startup, it really makes more sense to build a cash reserve. More often than not, what really happens is the burn rate of cash leaves companies high and dry. When they call on their banks and lines of credit, about 30% of SMBs remain underfunded. Those successful in getting credit may prolong the death of their companies, or they might recover. Those that recover aren't necessarily more profitable or viable, because interest erodes their profits and increased output isn't a guarantee for more revenue. Then, because the SMB companies that do grow, often grow at greater risk of failure--and they do fail more as they age. This sounds pretty glum but it’s the nature of SMBs—however, it's not the nature of all SMBs, just most of them.

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Communications & Collaboration--Are You Gorilla or Human?

2011-09-25T22:10:00.001-04:00

My wife says, "It's a phase we have to go through." Yeah, right. When did our daughter discover boys? I'm not complaining about technology and I'm not denying the collaborative need between humans. I simply don't want boys around my daughter.

What Melanie didn't mention in her post Collaboration Makes Us Human is that humans do communicate in varied capacities with other humans. That scale can climb above or dive below simple/complex reasoning skills, visual and verbal cues and tones and reflections. How complicated can it be? Melanie's post got me thinking because chimps do understand primal visual and audible cues, as should a young man should approaching the front porch of my daughter's home seeing gorilla Dad shaking his head no way.

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Hookflash: Making Social Networking Dreams Come True

2011-09-19T10:53:00.003-04:00

I received a late hour press release announcing Hookflash of Santa Clara, CA is demonstrating their initial release of Hookflash for iPad at DEMO. Hookflash combines the top features of corporate phone systems with group video conferencing and group messaging. The key differentiator is that participant profiles are automatically created from information extracted from business and social networks.

On a conference call with co-founder CEO Trent Johnsen, the very first question I asked, "When can I get rid of my PBX?" Trent's elated response was, "We hope soon." Trent wasn’t kidding.

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On the Road With Matt: The Demarc

2011-09-12T09:12:00.003-04:00

Some folks are intimidated by the demarc. Large enterprise relies on outsourcing and the outsourcers rely on contractors and sub-contractors. Those charged with reducing costs and improving service seldom see or even visit the demarc. For customers that do venture out visiting their own demarcations, they often appear with a sense of awe and usually shock when they see the demarc in disarray--and wonder, "How can anyone work in this environment?" Confusion over what goes where and who does what is only part of the ongoing amassed collective abuse that is played out daily in customer demarcations. Behind it all there's potential billing errors and then there’s reliability and service issues that end up being mismanaged at the customer demarcation.

The photo below may look vaguely familiar and in my last post I only revealed the bottom right corner of this cable can. This particular site is a small campus and not really a large install compared to larger mid-rise buildings and some factories that we serve. But all demarcations have commonalities regardless of customer size or where you are in the U.S.

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On the Road With Matt: Obstacles

2011-09-06T07:07:00.000-04:00

The last thing any customer wants to do to existing buildings and infrastructure is to rig and dig, break concrete and sidewalks and then cut the asphalt. The costs are higher, it takes longer and it can be a frustrating process. The end goal was to unify the campus and provide a fiber backbone network, removing individual services at three separate buildings, and to provide one campus network.

One of the things we do before we issue material orders and commit schedules is to do test pulls of underground conduit. We did a pull test of strings between two buildings with no problems. Then, we taped off the end of a metal fish tape and did a short test run to "fish" or push the metal tape through the occupied flexible duct inside underground conduit towards a third building. We easily pushed the tape through 13 feet and then removed the fish tape and found it wet, and that is a warning sign of what may be ahead.

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On the Road With Matt: Inspecting

2011-08-30T14:09:00.000-04:00

This past week's East Coast 5.8 earth rattling event set in motion the need for customer site reviews. Unlike the West Coast, some folks here in the East don't have any inkling about measures to prevent injury and property loss caused by earthquakes and other potentially catastrophic events. We were later hit with Hurricane Irene and fortunately in my area most of the issues were minor flooding, power outages, downed trees, disrupted aerial Telco cables, and just one of our customers had complete loss of Internet access and dial tone. Still, I've been coast to coast and find similar issues in infrastructure and installation practices that expose customers to unnecessary harm and property loss.

One of our jobs scheduled for a campus involves installation of a fiber backbone network. We visit a site to determine switch locations, estimate lengths and other requirements for each project. We always do a second visit with notes from the first and review what it is we want to accomplish. The photographs are a means to document for visual reference and then to ask pertinent questions. Once you leave a site or an area, your notes can fail you just like your memory.

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Solar Storms Arriving

2011-08-22T11:16:00.000-04:00

Last year in EMP Defeats the Hardened Data Center, I noted:

NASA reported in Hazards of Severe Space Weather that, "The sun is currently near the minimum of its 11-year activity cycle. It is expected that solar storms will increase in frequency and intensity toward the next solar maximum, expected to occur around 2012." Recently, I saw a news release, Power companies prepare as solar storms set to hit Earth.

The storms are just reaching earth and as the article mentions, "Major disruptions from solar activity are rare but have had serious impacts in the past." As these storms reach earth and intensify reaching the "solar maximum," some will wonder and ponder whether or not their systems will be affected. Earlier this summer the Space Weather Enterprise Forum (SWEF) members met to discuss the same things: Solar Maximum: Can We Weather the Storm?NASA Science News, Dr. Tony Phillips reports in, Getting Ready for the Next Big Solar Storm

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Harden Your Power Defenses: UL1449 3rd Generation

2011-08-15T09:43:00.000-04:00

Power is the leading disrupter of what we often take for granted. We’ve been ingrained with a sense of fear that it’s the backhoe operator that we should worry about the most. Thus was born “Miss Utility” and today we have a new and improved "Miss Utility" reached nationally by dialing 811. The 811 service is the new FCC designated national three-digit number created to eliminate the confusion of multiple "Call Before You Dig" numbers across the country.

Still, the U.S. has a susceptible terrestrial power grid; the National Lightning Safety Institutereports that 30% of all losses paid for power damage are due to lightning, and result in annual losses exceeding $1B USD. So you know you need to harden your defenses with upfront gear to prevent lightning damage. Even if you do, it may fail and you could still suffer damage and losses. When you don't do anything, you will eventually suffer damage and losses because the odds are stacked against you.

But what about the remaining 70% root causes of power disruptions and losses to customer gear?

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Understanding the SMB

2011-08-07T17:46:00.001-04:00

SMB owners wear numerous hats and their needs aren’t always boilerplate--and they often avoid any formal RFP process. Demands are driven by customers, users and immediate operational needs--but not as often by the IT department even when there is one. More SMBs are influenced by IT contractors than resident IT staff and this is important to understand.

Still, oftentimes the acquisitions are very informal. Vendors sometimes face a collection of requirements when SMB customers rattle off what they want in a solution after meeting several vendors. Larger SMBs that many call "the sweet spot," are from 40 stations upwards to 100. This customer class tends to buy solutions and application-driven solutions relying more upon one vendor. This doesn’t mean one brand; it just means more buying opportunity from the servicing company that can deliver more of what the customer needs.

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Zultys: Onboard Toolbox

2011-08-02T09:54:00.000-04:00

In my prior review, Zultys: A Look Under the Hood, I briefly noted the onboard tools offered in their solution. Having the opportunity to review Zultys's system, I can say they've thoughtfully placed the right tools in the right places. Here's why.

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Bria iPad Edition Softphone

2011-07-26T14:41:00.002-04:00

CounterPath announced their new Bria iPad Edition and cite that nearly one in four enterprises already use tablets and by 2013 so will most businesses. Apple touted at the WWDC that there are over 200 million active i-devices. I spoke with Todd Carothers, Senior VP of Marketing & Products at CounterPath about the new Bria client.

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Predatory Telecom Taxing

2011-07-21T08:41:00.000-04:00

"The disconnect that government (Local, State, Federal) retains is their myopic thinking hinged on lining the tax war chest instead of providing the best-in-the-world infrastructure that will grow and change as fast as our technology and still remain affordable. Government for over 100 years continues to throw our money at attempts to solve problems that just don’t go away. It's not that I think we shouldn't pay any taxes, it's that our telecom taxes and fees are misdirected and the opportunities to build value into a better infrastructure are misguided and this will affect our competitiveness as a nation.

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VYCON Flywheel Spins Green Benefits

2011-07-18T11:16:00.000-04:00

Recently I spoke with Dann McKeraghan, VP of Sales for VYCON about benefits of flywheeltechnology. What I didn't know about VYCON's flywheel is that they provide dual conversion, meaning that the utility feed passing through to the equipment side is protected. But there's more to it than just dual conversion. VYCON recently accomplished an improvement in flywheel efficiency. Flywheel technology is greener, saves money, protects equipment and ensures continuous operations. Dann said, "98% of all power sags and outages last less than 10 seconds and most generators take 12 seconds to come online." During this time is when batteries are stressed and even fail because of the great load put on them. Batteries still require maintenance, venting and a lot of space in data centers and they still remain the weakest link in power configurations. Batteries' useful life will vary with the quality of power and the number and type of electrical issues. According to the National Survey on Data Center Outages, battery failures account for 65% of unplanned outages in data centers.

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Aerohive Networks New Learning Model

2011-07-11T09:30:00.000-04:00

Aerohive invited me for a Webex discussion on their new software Student Manager. They published several case studies and the one that interested me is the Pender County school district Pender County school district with 17 schools located in Burgaw, NC. They have approximately 8,300 students and about 560 FTE teachers on staff. I scheduled a visit with Landon Scism, CTO, Pender County School District, on my summer road trip.

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iPhone Data Pains

2011-07-05T12:09:00.000-04:00

Users are discovering that caps on data plans are pinching their budgets. The iPhone phantom data usage is still an issue, at least according to a developer in Toronto that I spoke with. Kengwei Lu of kvvlu created Threshold, a new app for the iPhone to help identify data usage and phantom data. Kengwei said, "Threshold can isolate data usage by the hour and even track data usage accurately in real-time by showing usage by the second."

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Council of Europe Proposes WiFi & Cell Phone Ban in Schools

2011-06-27T18:23:00.000-04:00

The Council of Europe in a draft resolution wants WiFi networks and cell phone usage banned in schools. In, "The potential dangers of electromagnetic fields and their effect on the environment," they write:

While electrical and electromagnetic fields in certain frequency bands have fully beneficial effects which are applied in medicine, other non-ionizing frequencies, be they sourced from extremely low frequencies, power lines or certain high frequency waves used in the fields of radar, telecommunications and mobile telephony, appear to have more or less potentially harmful, non-thermal, biological effects on plants, insects and animals, as well as the human body when exposed to levels that are below the official threshold values.

The real concern of not knowing what we don't know is where the environmental arguments enter.

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The New Desk Phone

2011-06-22T08:46:00.000-04:00

If we could mold the perfect desk telephone for you, what would it look like?

Maybe my buddy Dave Michaels has touched on something in his post, "Time To Re-invent the Desk Phone." Just make sure you change the right things for the right reasons.

Dave knows that the good ole' desk phone lasts a long time. Dave says that, "Buttons are for suckers." He has a point when he writes that, "'I will try to transfer you, but I might lose you' is an expression frequently uttered by people quite capable in a broad array of other tasks. So common that our response is typically one of sympathy rather than outrage." Then Dave goes on to add that soft buttons with more intuitive design need to be included.

Read the entire post here.

Zultys: A Look Under the Hood

2011-06-20T08:27:00.000-04:00

Neil Lichtman, CEO of Zultys recently told me how Zultys improved their products (Zultys Delivers Value & Wins Deals) for simplicity and reduced installation steps. Zultys announced their win with Martin Engineering (see Zultys Wins Global Rollout) and I wanted to have a good look under the hood for myself. Neil took me up on my offer to review the Zultys platform.

The MX30 is just a little bigger than the Apple Mac Mini Server. The tested phone was the ZIP 55i Zultys label using the Aastra (6755i model). I liked the phone, its appearance, real estate (buttons/soft keys) and balance (feel). I got curious and visited Zultys' website to find their phone lineup here: Zip Phones

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Zultys Wins Global Rollout

2011-06-13T09:35:00.000-04:00

Zultys' easy-to-use, all-in-one solutions are fully integrated and require no third-party equipment, software or configuration, which eliminates new infrastructure costs. SIP-based communications support is included, as are features such as automatic call recording, integrated fax server, and comprehensive backup and recovery.

"We quickly realized that the Zultys solution was an ideal fit for Martin Engineering's needs," said Jason Smith, VP of Midland Communications. "Zultys' native SIP solution is efficient, powerful and flexible.

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Apple iCloud Golden Arches Hopeful

2011-06-07T16:21:00.002-04:00

Apple's World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) 2011 keynote yesterday drew a packed house and some pretty cool announcements from Apple. Apple took their opportunity to shoot the competition by also laying out some Apple statistics.

There are now 54 million Mac users globally and the Mac has outgrown the PC industry every quarter for the last 5 years. "Kick ass" was the message used. 73% of Macs are notebooks and Apple does have a flair for keeping users happy. Apple's iOS holds 44% of the mobility slice, the company claimed. iTunes customers have downloaded 15 billion songs. iBook customers have downloaded 130 million books thus far and the App Store has over 425,000 apps boasting 14 billion downloads. Maybe Apple should put an online neon digital counter of each category of what's been downloaded or sold like McDonalds did long ago.

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Single Number Service Reality by CounterPath

2011-06-06T13:04:00.000-04:00

CounterPath's Text that's linkedNCG Exchange's (Network Convergence Gateway) highly flexible, network- and device-agnostic architecture means a wireline operator's customers now can put a single phone number on their business cards with the confidence that they can always communicate with a single number by voice, IM and SMS--an ability that goes beyond rudimentary find-me/follow-me services.

NCG Exchange provides Telcos, cable operators, hosted VoIP providers, Internet telephony service providers, CLECs and other wireline operators with a rapid, cost-effective way to expand into the mobile market while targeting enterprises that have a large and growing number of mobile workers. With NCG Exchange, wireline operators can immediately provide their enterprise, SMB and SOHO customers with mobile VoIP and messaging services that are delivered over-the-top (OTT) of mobile networks, regardless of which carrier the customer uses.

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iPhone Users: No Mercy For Phantom Data Usage

2011-05-31T09:54:00.001-04:00

AT&T argues that there is a misunderstanding on how users consume data and are billed for it after responding to another lawsuit brought against the carrier. Thornton, Davis & Fein, a law firm of Miami, FL paid independent researchers $80,000 to test the iPhone data usage and found that AT&T overcharged iPhone and iPad users between 7% and 300% for data usage. This is the second lawsuit, with a prior suit brought earlier in January that went to the Supreme Court in April that ruled 5-4 in AT&T's favor that companies can block unhappy customers (consumers and businesses) from banding together in a class-action lawsuit.

Read entire post here.

Start Up

2011-05-23T09:40:00.000-04:00

Today's menu of telecommunications services is flexible and dynamic. Vendors need to understand that a customer company’s success is vital to their own, and I think this lesson in the startup and SMB space may just apply as much to large enterprise. There's been a tremendous amount of lip service attributed to UC, and vendors can save their breath when it comes to the SMB space unless they’ve got something tangible that delivers not just value but something that impacts the P&L of the organization. Razor-thin budgets are the new force to be reckoned with, and this means the sales person not only has to stand but deliver on accountability. Take note of vendor focus because it is changing and no vendor can be everything to everyone, especially when everyone can’t afford what you have to offer.

Read entire post here.

SMB Failures

2011-05-16T08:26:00.000-04:00

After the recession of 1990, startup companies seemingly abounded. Companies created before March 1993 have dismal survival rates according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with less than half of these companies surviving beyond just 5 years. Companies starting after 1993 haven’t fared much better. Since 2006, startups (new business openings) have declined over 24%. There are other statistics that show that as startups add employees, their risk of failure substantially increases. Government reacts with the hope that promoting small businesses will grow the economy. Programs, grants, loans and policy changes often follow post-recession periods to encourage small businesses. With the overwhelming odds against small businesses and startups, is new thinking required?

One certainty is that Cash is King and SMBs forgetting this must Pay the Piper.

Read entire post here.

Squeezing & Compressing

2011-05-09T12:51:00.001-04:00

In 2004, my office made significant changes to our communications infrastructure that took over a year to implement. Afterwards, we've made smaller adjustments until 2010 when we implemented SIP trunks. Prior to 2010, we tested SIP trunks for 12 months before deciding to make the change. Overall, we're spending 59% less today than we did prior to 2004. Prior to 2004 we had many vendors, more than we have today--and we still think we have too many vendors. We have more choices and we now have that SMB feel that goes along with these choices that allows us to move in and out of these services with minimal or no disruption and with greater comfort.

Read entire post here.

Conducting Presence?

2011-05-02T14:28:00.000-04:00

Several weeks ago I was invited to attend a WebEx session about VoIP from a particular manufacturer. WebEx is an excellent tool to hold sessions on topics and provides adequate visual and audio tools.

Let me describe the social maladies of the conference session--I attended 10 minutes of the scheduled 60.

Read entire post here.

Energy Watch Dogs

2011-04-25T12:24:00.000-04:00

It's tough trying to convince people that energy efficiency and conservation are the immediate and key actions to reduce costs and wastes. In the past I've written warnings that companies and individuals must do these voluntarily or face the hand of government that makes people disdain government. I've also warned that when people and companies are energy efficient, that government is going to react negatively because it threatens their tax revenues and so there is an ugly side to energy conservation and the green movement.

Read entire post here.

iPad2 Rocks School With Student Pilot Program

2011-04-18T16:24:00.000-04:00

Recently, Matthew Reisburg, Administrator of Mt. Airy Christian Academy (MACA) invited me to attend a presentation by school staff discussing their technology plans for "Digitally Enhanced Learning/Teaching." MACA will provide all high school students with an iPad2 as part of their new one-to-one technology initiative. The goal is to integrate the use of technology with all aspects of learning and to keep students engaged.

Read entire post here.

Cisco Slides; Adtran Surges

2011-04-14T14:09:00.000-04:00

Again, I ask why does large enterprise think that Cisco is best in class when they always aren't and while they may be the most expensive in their class--there is a difference. The WSJreported: "The competitive market is requiring a faster roll-out of newer, lower-margin products, which means Cisco has to sell two to three times as many units to get the same revenue."

Read entire post here.

Zultys Delivers Value & Wins Deals

2011-04-11T09:31:00.000-04:00

In 2010, Zultys doubled sales and added over 100 channel partners including partners in Australia, Brazil and Europe.

A key differentiator that Zultys holds over many solutions is their software development efforts for Unifying the Users of Microsoft, Apple and Unix OS. What MX 6.0 really shows is a sharp distinction in that Zultys is open standards, not open source, and that they are committed to delivering that old time mojo in a box from the factory--only their mojo is modern and in step with what folks are buying and using.

Read entire post here.

Caller ID Spoofing: Prop the Screen Door

2011-04-04T11:26:00.000-04:00

When I called the FBI field offices, the agents were also mindful to tell me that it's not the technology that is illegal but the acts. I've pondered over this issue a long time and the politicians did get it right. They didn't jeopardize any of our liberties or infringe upon our needs to use Caller ID spoofing legitimately. Even still, prevention and preventive measures by carriers wouldn't hurt. Recently, an Illinois man that used a Caller ID spoofing system faced charges in a federal court for leading police on bogus emergencies that resulted in SWAT team responses.

Read entire post here.

SIP Trunks: A Year Gone By

2011-03-28T14:12:00.000-04:00

It's been over a year since I moved my office voice service over to all SIP trunks and saidgoodbye to an old era. Now I can report back on the new era experience and what it may mean for businesses and to those supporting the move over to SIP trunks.

Not long after cutting over I decided to move a back office line over to SIP too. My attitude is, better to put that money in my pocket than Verizon's. So the savings went up to about 43%. Originally when Verizon FIOS was initially deployed, customers complained that they could not just buy FIOS for Internet. We migrated out of Verizon voice provided via our FIOS service, and the bill stayed static until this year after receiving a notice from Verizon that our old FIOS pricing was no longer available. We upgraded our FIOS service to 15/5 Mbps.

Read entire post here.

Some Magic Act

2011-03-24T15:52:00.001-04:00

Nothing, I think will surpass Houdini not even the industry's current state of affairs. Fred Knight questioned, Are We In a Post-PBX World? Today on Houdini's birthday, I wonder whether or not mojo is eluding companies and purveyors of telecommunications products and services. It seems the industry istrying to pull a magic act all of its own making. I am going to focus on two key claims where I think the magic resides. Customers say they feel like they are getting sucked in, and it's usually after the deal is done.

Read entire post here.

Panasonic Responds To Tsunami Disaster

2011-03-21T10:52:00.000-04:00

There are many lessons that we are gleaning from the tsunami disaster in Japan. On Friday, Panasonic sent word out to their partners addressing their supply chain disruption. This may be a good time for those in enterprise to check with their suppliers and vendors to take a pulse of what to expect.

Read entire post here.

Greening Cellular

2011-03-14T10:44:00.000-04:00

e-Cycle is tenacious about recycling and providing safe and secure disposal of smartphones, cellphones and iPads. These products contain precious metals that are sent to Abington Reldan Metals, LLC that reclaims 100% of the precious metals.

Read entire post here.

Adtran UC Goes Virtual

2011-03-07T09:27:00.000-05:00

By putting their recently acquired Objectworld on an IT diet through virtualization, Adtran has quickly gotten over another technology hump. I've mentioned in the past that Adtran’s progress has been purposeful and effective and I think they've delivered once again a key capability. PBXs aren’t dead and customers have one foot in IP and the other in TDM, an observation made by Zeus Kerravala during Day One at Enterprise Connect. Adtran's Netvanta UC can fit in both worlds and that's another reality that companies are awakening too in this not so-post-PBX era of communications.

Read entire post here.

Qi: The New (Charging) Standard

2011-02-21T13:05:00.001-05:00

Qi (pronounced chee) is a new universal standard for inductive charging that was established by the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC). Qi charges smartphones, cameras, mp3 players and anything else that needs 5W or less without directly plugging the devices into separate chargers. Since it is an open-sourced, interoperable standard, it is very similar to other open standards like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

The members of the WPC anticipate that the Qi standard will be broadly adopted to provide users the freedom to charge all Qi-enabled devices on a single station without multiple cords and eventually without required accessories (sleeves). The first phone with integrated Qi power receiver was released at CES. That phone is an LG Revolution (Android) phone for Verizon's new 4G network.

Read entire post here.

Apple iPhone Phantom Strikes Again

2011-02-14T10:36:00.000-05:00

I followed up with the FCC with several questions; their response:

For the specific information you want on the complaints we have received, you'll have to file a FOIA request at www.fcc.gov/foia. Commission staff is actively looking at several disclosure issues emanating from the Notice of Inquiry concerning consumer information and disclosure that the Commission released in August 2009, and the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking concerning Bill Shock that the Commission released this past October. Commission staff is also actively looking at privacy and cybersecurity issues. Any investigations we might be conducting are confidential.

Next, I followed up with AT&T's Office of the President to discuss the details of the response they sent to the FCC and was told that I'd have to talk to a media contact since it was they who responded. No comment or contact received yet.

Read entire post here.

Sotto Voce: Data Conquers Voice: R.I.P.

2011-02-07T10:24:00.000-05:00

The industry and voice solutions range from extremely old TDM, PBXs, Centrex, Skype, hosted services or voice in the data center. With numerous solutions in between, I don't see data conquering voice but I do see another wave of transitioning old systems and old solutions into something better than before. It won't be one or the other but both. It's easy to forget about the sheer size and width of this industry as an embedded base. Just like the demarc; when you haven't seen it or tested all the cable pairs and reconciled it against the actual bills and then have the expectation that outsourcing resolves inventory and management problems, you get a disparity from reality. Many of these proclamations fail because they don't see voice outside of either their control or large enterprise. Maybe "hybrid" is overused but so is the death call on an industry that just works. As fractured as telecommunications is from disruption, gluing it back together again is going to be a process involving more than just learning new skill sets because it is complicated. How complicated do you want to make voice, and what is going to end up in your attic?

Read entire post here.

Apple iPhone: Phantom Data Outstrips Bandwidth Supply?

2011-02-03T11:08:00.000-05:00

Apple isn't the only one having problems. A few days ago, Microsoft Windows Phone 7 users complained of inexplicable data usage being charged to their cell data accounts. The difference is Microsoft, to their credit, tracked down the "phantom data" bug that they attributed to a third party. Apple continues to remain silent and some customers of the iPhone in the U.S. and abroad continue to complain to their carriers about "phantom data" usage.

Unexplained phantom data usage: Customers complain of data usage and traffic that they are charged for by AT&T that, customers say, "is not attributable to their usage." Customers have called both Apple and AT&T tech support and the answers range from elusive to ridiculous in explaining why customers' data traffic is high. Customers are told to call back each month after reviewing the data usage to receive a credit after challenging the bill, track their data consumption by purchasing an application such as DataMan and/or turn off and disable applications and functions generating data traffic. Some users have found since Apple's iPhone OS update 4.2.1 with over 40 security fixes, that their data traffic is aligned with AT&T's billing, however, many users still find huge discrepancies. (Here is an earlier posted customer complaint September 2, 2010)

Read entire post here.

Rare Earth Elements: Watch Your Choice of TECH

2011-01-23T18:46:00.000-05:00

Rare earth elements (REE) are used in the manufacture of technologies such as smartphones, LED lights, Windmills, Solar PV, fiber optics, electric vehicles (EV) and numerous other applications. China mines, processes and supplies about 95% of the world’s supply. In 2009, China issued a warning about the availability of their supply and that China’s needs would be met first. A year later, China halted shipping any REEs to Japan over a dispute involving a Chinese fishing trawler in Japanese waters, and a month later expanded the embargo to the US and Europe by halting some shipments. The military, environmental and geopolitical concerns over our dependency upon REE’s are serious.

Read entire post here.

Microsoft Lync: Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down?

2011-01-18T09:43:00.000-05:00

Is Microsoft Lync the future of your enterprise communications system--or is it not ready for prime time? Two No Jitter bloggers, Dave Michels and Matt Brunk, have different answers to these questions, and so we asked them to debate the central question about Lync: Is it right for the enterprise? So that you can better compare and judge the two positions, each blogger used the same structure for his article, breaking the question down into four sections: TCO, Intuitiveness of Interface, Hardware Compatibility, and High Availability.

Read entire post here.

iPhone: Mystery Data Usage & FCC Complaints

2011-01-10T12:57:00.000-05:00

iPhone: Mystery Data Usage & FCC Complaints

Because Apple and AT&T haven't been forthcoming about the issues of the iPhone and billing of data usage, you can reasonably expect some backlash. AT&T won't comment on individual FCC cases or complaints that they have received but the good news is that individuals that lodged them will.

Read entire post here.

ERF Wireless: Oil Price Increases Pump Up Business

2011-01-06T15:16:00.001-05:00

ERF Wireless also offers a real niche service, called Mobile Broadband Trailer Systems (MBTS), to oil and gas companies that are drilling and operating in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, New Mexico, Wyoming, Louisiana, Colorado, Kansas, North Dakota and Canada. In November 2010, they signed a deal with Skybeam Inc. to add more coverage in Texas, Colorado and Oklahoma, adding more than 25,000 square miles to their footprint.

Read entire post here.

Energy 2011 Kickoff

2011-01-03T16:15:00.002-05:00

The forecast for energy is demand, demand, demand. Having completed another year of monitoring our energy consumption it would be nice to be able to say we’ve made more reductions. Our energy consumption grew to 1454 KWH monthly or 11% over the previous year. We attributed this to additions to our network that I previously wrote about here.

Read entire post here.

Plantronics Headset Cheaper Than Fines

2010-12-30T11:24:00.000-05:00

Never mind with all the busy shopping before, after and during the Black Friday madness. When Maryland legislation (SB321) quietly went into effect in October banning cell phone use while driving without a hands-free device, I went shopping early. I soon found that the Bluetooth headsets were cheaper than the $40 tickets for the first quirky offense and then $100 for subsequent offenses.

Read entire post here.

Lync: My Christmas Present To Ponderous Ones

2010-12-22T08:41:00.000-05:00

It wouldn't be sporting of me not to mention that one of the common concerns of many is stillNAT traversal.

Eyeball Networks offers AnyFirewall Engine a NAT traversal Software Development Kit (SDK) for guaranteed traversal of IP communications through NATs, firewalls and web-proxies--suitable for applications such as: IP phones, online communications, video conferencing and content sharing. AnyFirewall Engine (AFE) incorporates implementation of the IETF standards STUN, TURN and ICE.

Read entire post here.

Microsoft Lync Will Depend Upon Third Party Apps & Hardware

2010-12-21T12:35:00.002-05:00

Microsoft's Lync will depend upon third party applications and hardware. This means that the cheerleading base of Microsoft has a lot less to cheer about in their solution being solid and mature as Cisco asserts it is not mature and solid by nature comes from being "time tested and customer proven."

So for the bloggers and Tweeters that are going wild over Lync I'd say, "put your money where your mouth is but you may do better with other investments." Make no mistake, Lync is big but it's big to large enterprise that usurps the lone song played by the single band to integrate Microsoft with more Microsoft. That's commendable and it's smart for those large enterprises and global companies.

Still, I wouldn't bank on the "billion dollar opportunity" that Microsoft warriors think is in their reach. The process I think will take years.

The kind of companies that you or customers need to watch and adopt are Eyeball Networks. Their solution isn't just another today we are onboard with Lync so buy us -their solution is time tested and their deployment numbers attest to licenses en masse.

I am excited about Eyeball because they transverse NAT with 100% success. Secondly, Microsoft Lync users are going to be on all sides of the enterprise -local, mobile, at home or some other location. Lync users need that super glue and network administrators need less headaches and their companies will benefit from reduced time to successfully deploy their Lync solutions.

Being Thankful

2010-12-20T10:43:00.000-05:00

This business never ceases to amaze me, including the people that work in it everyday to deliver that sacred thing we call dial tone or successful call completion. It's bedrock to our everyday lives and businesses--and without it, we all get pretty cranky until our services are restored. There are numerous facets to this business we often ignore, overlook and sometimes just take for granted. It's imperfect in many ways because we cannot control all elements of transmission and reception. No matter how hard we try, there are snafus along the way, be it the weather, power, backhoe operators, hardware, software and people. Something always seems to give way that puts us into the reactive mode.

Read entire post here.

Lync: Questioning the Sync

2010-12-13T11:28:00.001-05:00

Is Microsoft out of sync with the industry or is it trying to boost its "un-standard" as being the "standard" for enterprise that wants Lync? Then, I can't help but think that much of the song and dance about Lync is promotion. I read with anticipation comments about my last post. Whether you agree or not that IT and Voice (people, departments) are co-joined at the hip and unified into one happy family led me into some interesting conversations, and my comments aren't unfounded. The FUD out there is created when IT endorses a solution before mastering the art and then returns numerous times with ancillary fixes and workarounds. This is akin to the phone guy hearing, "are you here to fix the phones again?" This doesn't win customer love, free lunches or cups of coffee.

Read entire post here.

eZuce OpenUC

2010-12-08T16:23:00.000-05:00

Companies may be asking, “Why would I offload existing IP-PBX traffic to eZuce?” Maybe because it’s easier, practical, low cost to own and manage and allows you to protect your embedded base of assets. There’s just one license. It could also be that one database and the ability to integrate into CRM (sales, service and support apps), ERP (operational/mfg) and financial systems. I don’t think there's an immaturity hook awaiting you as Cisco found in Lync.

Read entire post here.

Lync: Don't Tread On My PBX!

2010-12-03T09:58:00.000-05:00

Still, I know that we will face off competitors on a few deals sooner or later. I agree to the benefits of merging and converging voice into the data center and that having resiliency is imperative, as is being able to "federate" or openly exchange packets. Is it the same thing as saying, "we're running open and on standards?" I don't think it is with Lync. For me, I think relational database with lots of oil and no walls between information. So how much of a reality is federation? You can federate so long as it's Microsoft? If the answer is somewhere in between, then it doesn’t seem that Lync is differentiating itself. If the federation is really slick and with merit then pretty much anything with "open and standards" should work with Lync, right? However, keeping it simple may not be in the Lync architecture but my guess is it’s simpler than Cisco’s; but listening to Cisco--Microsoft's solution is just too immature. Aside from some of my antics, does Lync give you the Jitters?

Read entire post here.

iPhone Phantom Data Usage Goes Global

2010-11-29T12:18:00.000-05:00

The traffic between the online community that is generating the discussions about the overbilling of iPhone data usage isn’t isolated to the United States. Users with other carriers than AT&T are reporting similar issues with carriers in Canada, UK, Norway and Hong Kong.

Users are reporting substantial data usage differences that are vastly different than what AT&T is billing them. The iPhone models, carriers and countries are different but what remains the same is that users are seeing vast amounts of data usage on their bills. There are several web forums discussing the issue and none of them really addresses the solution. They all speculate and have some interesting theories such as the NSA allegedly spying through AT&T's network. More users are reporting back on the forums that they too are filing FCC complaints.

Read entire post here.

Interconnect Fever

2010-11-23T08:51:00.000-05:00

The telephony market is being fractured and it's amazing to watch. Some think that the PBX is dead, as does Microsoft and some of the vendors. Hosted providers think they have a better solution and tend to focus on OPEX. You may know how I feel: if you need more than a Mac, an iPhone and a PBX then something’s wrong with your thinking! Well, not exactly--that's how I think about our business, but if you can determine which mix of assets works best for you and provides the best return or value, then you have some success. At best it's a precarious process and then maintaining the adopted portfolio and moving forward will certainly offer some new challenges.

Read entire post here.

Sticking Up For the Carriers

2010-11-19T11:21:00.000-05:00

It seems that there's a negative economic impact and fewer benefits of expanding the reaches of Internet and service access to every corner of the U.S. to reach those 14-24 million without any Internet to solidify a national broadband plan. The other premise is that the people own the land, collectively speaking, so then why should government continue to expand itself using funds from taxes and ROW rents, when it seems prudent to provide a greater benefit to reduce costs to the general public?

Read entire post here.

Lync: Does Your Kid Need New Socks?

2010-11-18T13:38:00.000-05:00

Lync: Does Your Kid Need New Socks?

So the two key things about Microsoft are: one, they want the PBX business but don't want to sell PBXs or desktop phones; and secondly, they want you to think that using your desktop computer for everything is acceptable. Maybe I'm adding some conjecture, but my kid doesn't need socks.

Read entire post here.

Microsoft Lync: Another Death Call To The IP-PBX

2010-11-12T12:37:00.000-05:00

Lync (formerly OCS R2) was announced last month by Microsoft, and will be formally rolled out next week at an event in New York. After having spent time in beta with Microsoft’s Technology Adoption Program (TAP), the Lync brand announcement arrived with the release of an evaluation version of the product last month. Lync is expected to to be available late this year. IP-PBX vendors watch out: the bundle that Microsoft is peddling makes mention of "no additional licensing fees required out of the box."

Read entire post here.

Tone Commander Systems Offers TEO

2010-11-08T12:08:00.002-05:00

TEO is the new UC product for Tone Commander Systems who has for 30 years provided specialized telephone and network solutions for Fortune 1,000 companies, government agencies, educational institutions and small and large businesses around the world. The company, based in Mukilteo, Washington, offers ISDN and VoIP telephones, NT1 ISDN Network Terminations, ISDN Centrex Attendant Consoles, and Enhanced 9-1-1 (E9-1-1) Emergency Awareness Solutions. TEO is a value added bundle for enterprises seeking an IPT solution for 50 or more users. One minor detail--TEO doesn't advertise as being an IP-PBX but as Unified Communications.

Read entire post here.

Wicked Electrical Storm Forces Emergency Upgrade of Phone System & Presents Opportunity to Add Special Security Features

2010-11-05T09:21:00.000-04:00

Holy Redeemer Catholic School chooses Telecomworx to provide a Panasonic solution.

Resilient fiber backbone network
Managed enterprise class switches from ADTRAN with integrated WiFi
Structured wiring system
MinuteMan dual conversion UPS
Panamax circuit and AC protection
Panasonic Network Cameras
Panasonic NCP1000 IP-PBX
Unified Communications ~ Communications Assistant PRO

Read case study here.

UC Song & Dance

2010-11-01T09:22:00.000-04:00

Opponents of UC don’t believe that quantifiable benefits are attributable to UC. To a small degree they are correct but to a significant extent they are missing the bigger picture.

Management folks know of and heard about the old Western Electric studies conducted by W. Edwards Deming. Deming made observations about people and workflows. His work went on to include Statistical Quality Control (SPC) and of course his 14 Points for Management that is used for Total Quality Management (TQM), leadership circles and principles of running business today. Please review the 14 Points for Management.

Today, I believe there’s an overemphasis on ROI, immediacy and instant gratification. They reign in consumer circles and in executive management down through the ranks. I've said before and continue to have discussions with business owners in different verticals that the process of a company's workflow and behaviors are built around communications in any form. The effectiveness of communications is key to the success of the business.

Read entire post here.

To UC or Not to UC Point 5

2010-10-26T08:55:00.000-04:00

UC acts as a communications enabler by using various methods or channels of communications. That's the whole point. As I've stated before, UC is simply a natural order of convergence for business communications tools to coexist on the same platform. One of the best characteristics about UC is there is no singular definition and just like the various features across the numerous platforms and devices, UC makes sense to any business user that captures a feature or set of features that enhances "better, faster, cheaper, easier to use and maintain for their users."

Read entire post here.

iPhone Data Usage: Fighting the Man

2010-10-18T11:21:00.002-04:00

iPhone users are encouraging one another to file FCC complaints against AT&T for the phantom data usage. Primarily, users don’t believe that their actual data usage matches a true representation of what they’re being billed. Secondly, the word on the street after AT&T made its policy change about data usage billing at the end of May is what really prompted users to review their data usage by accessing their online AT&T reports. Thirdly, from June until present, both AT&T and Apple staff have failed to adequately address the phantom data usage that customers are citing. Instead, customers were given varying reasons and at various times--meaning the story changed, as did the theory for the root cause of the data usage.

Read entire post here.

AT&T or Apple: Whose Problem Is iPhone Phantom Data Usage?

2010-10-14T10:21:00.000-04:00

In my last post, iPhone: Reconciling the Data Usage, I didn’t mention some other users having the same issue. The Apple support discussions have been actively tossing around ideas about the data usage issue since June and after having read 53 pages of other users' findings, trials, tests and interactions with AT&T and Apple support, I found some revealing information about iPhones with unaccounted early morning data usage.

Read entire post here.

iPhone: Reconciling the Data Usage

2010-10-11T08:51:00.000-04:00

My recent iPhone experience with the AT&T network has netted me having only a sampling of what busy call center operators experience--which I posted about in Corking the iPhone. The sneaky use of our other cell phone’s text messaging feature to send ads for ring tones was another discovery I posted in: Cellular Bills: Who Pays For Marketing to You?

Even though our Apple iPhone data "plans" are unlimited data usage, I noted that my iPhone data usage varies from 24-58 MB.

Read entire post here.

To UC or Not to UC Point 4

2010-10-04T10:27:00.000-04:00

Nick Jones of Gartner said, "UC looks to me like an ill-assorted mix of technologies that vendors want to sell in a single bundle because it’s convenient for them, rather than because they’re what your employees actually need."

Read entire post here.

Valcom IP-Paging Primer

2010-09-28T13:42:00.002-04:00

Several weeks ago I attended a half-day seminar by Valcom to discuss the IP-paging options and configurations. Recently, a reader responded about a post I wrote about Campus Communications and wanted to know what if anything new is on the horizon for paging systems and what we are doing with our schools.

Read entire post here.

To UC or Not to UC Point 3

2010-09-24T08:14:00.000-04:00

Eric pointed out a key differentiator between consumers and businesses in his post, Facebook Phone: The Enterprise-ification of the Consumer and that is Communications Enabled Consumer Process. You see this process is different than a Communications Enabled Business Process. While on the surface they may seem the same and even act alike, they remain different.

Read entire post here.

To UC or Not to UC Point 2

2010-09-20T08:11:00.000-04:00

One the arguments against UC written by Nick Jones of Gartner is, "For the next few years UC will be a battleground between mega-vendors like Microsoft and Cisco who want to suck you in to their technological whirlpool where you’ll be trapped paying license fees for a decade."

Read entire post here.

To UC or Not to UC Point 1

2010-09-14T10:11:00.000-04:00

One the arguments against UC written by Nick Jones of Gartner is, "...it's not as if you could even make a decent business case for UC; people end up using bizarre logic involving the value of saving 15 minutes a day per employee. If you give people 15 minutes more time you won't get 15 minutes more work, they’ll just go have a chat and another cup of coffee with a friend."

Read the entire article here.

WANTED: Telephony Providers

2010-09-13T08:43:00.002-04:00

In Melanie Turek's post: More Trends from Frost & Sullivan's Telephony Markets Research, Melanie wrote that, "telephony providers have been searching for new revenue sources, such as advanced capabilities, maintenance fees, and extended warranties." The telephony providers need listen to their dealers and VARs in their collective channels.

Read entire article here.

Single Number Concept: UC Clients Sport Two Problematic Features

2010-09-07T08:38:00.000-04:00

Single number concept isn't new and I remember being around call centers dumping numerous 800 numbers to use just one number to take the place of the many. It also meant that callers could be routed based upon their area code to a specific call center, with time of day routing kicking in for some options that AT&T developed for eagerly awaiting enterprises. Today, for very small businesses and homeowners, the single number is an automated attendant that answers, then plays music or message on hold until the host system finds you to deliver the call by ringing your home, cell, office or girlfriends iPad; and if callers wait long enough they may get in touch with who they called. Google Voice is similar and I remain unimpressed.

Read entire article here.

Campus Communications: Cutting Over

2010-09-01T10:11:00.000-04:00

In a previous post: Campus Communications: Access and Control I discussed the challenges of one of our campus customers. A short time later their unprotected telephone system took a nosedive along with their phone vendor. I'm happy to report that we snagged the deal but you can be sure that the administrators were reacting and the planning and skin in the game I previously discussed was ours because the customer made little time available for discussions. School was about to open and the mandate was to get everything working before classes resumed.

Read entire article here.

CounterPath and NEC Shave Enterprise Cell Bills

2010-08-30T10:17:00.000-04:00

CounterPath introduced NEC's Smart Mobile Client that provides features and functionality from the desk phone to the cell phone using the Enterprise Mobility Gateway (EMG), a 1U Linux server. The clients currently support smart phones: Apple iPhone, Android through the Web client, Blackberry, Nokia Symbian platforms and Windows Mobile.

Read entire article here.

Cellular Bills: Who Pays For Marketing to You?

2010-08-23T14:18:00.000-04:00

Before I called AT&T from my last encounter--Corking the iPhone--I reviewed bills for the past 6 months including the nitty gritty details.

The key point is you must check your bills thoroughly every month!

Read the entire article here.

Hosted Mitel: First Time

2010-08-18T10:18:00.000-04:00

The day of cutover I thought I had it made: What could go wrong?

A financial services company that trades on the market is already using hosted Exchange services and wanted hosted telephony. My server buddy wanted his customer to speak to me about hosted telephony services, so I did and cautioned him about the perils ahead and to exercise ample time planning and iron out the details. I advised against the cheesy phones from several competitors simply because I don’t like them and am not willing to install cheap phones, and some of the competitors lacked strength in their solution.

Read entire article here.

Corking the iPhone

2010-08-16T08:43:00.000-04:00

When I did call AT&T I had to force my way through to a manager because the guy handling the call didn't understand my concerns about security and the sudden frequency of calls from Arkansas. The manager held true that tech support would call me and someone did within a few hours. The support agent took my information and a good sampling of calls from my un-erased call log. By Saturday morning calls from Arkansas seemed to subside and AT&T texted my iPhone twice--"Sorry we were unable to reach you. If you are still having issues please contact us at 1-800-331-0500. Thanks ATT Wireless."

Read entire article here.

Death of A Hybrid

2010-08-11T09:58:00.000-04:00

On July 7, Panasonic announced End Of Life for their hybrid IP-PBX lines the KX-TDA100 and KX-TDA200.

Death of A Salesman is a play from 1949 about a traveling salesman and it reminds me of some folks working in telephony today. Whether or not there is an open willingness to change remains in question; it even challenges that element of resistance that lies within.

Read entire article here.

Campus Communications: Access & Control

2010-08-02T10:17:00.000-04:00

Remember back to Cabling the Campus, I outlined a plan of one of our customers to develop a best practice blueprint to acquire and implement technology and communications. Since that post in 2008, the school has been recognized as a Blue Ribbon School. They currently have the ADTRAN 1534 WiFi, Cat5E structured wiring, managed ADTRAN 1524 ST switches and a 1Gig fiber backbone with spare fiber pairs.

Read entire article here.

Taxes Go Up, Oil Imports Go Down and VoIP Sales Show Negative Growth

2010-07-26T09:45:00.000-04:00

What does it all mean? These are interesting events seeing the highest and fastest rise in tax rates by local, state and federal governments. On the other end there are so many incentives to spend money on energy-saving appliances or making your own energy. US oil imports continue to slide and China denies they are now the largest oil consumer on the planet.Melanie Turek reported: "The world enterprise telephony systems market is estimated to have shipped 37.3 million lines in 2009--a growth rate of negative 20.4 percent year over year from 2008."

Read entire post here.

ADTRAN New AOS 17.08

2010-07-20T09:48:00.000-04:00

ADTRAN continues to improve their software and hardware to gain large enterprise attention. ADTRAN released their new AOS 17.08 and this means new roles for the LAN switches with improved capabilities in monitoring and auditing. Of course I had to load the latest firmware (AOS 17.08) on our 1335 for firsthand experience about the new software.

Read entire post here.

Automatic Renewals

2010-07-16T05:56:00.000-04:00

Carriers and MSPs and providers will write into their contracts automatic renewal clauses. The Canadians had a stink about this in their regulatory commission and you can read the fine print of the 59 points here. Last year, Network World published: Automatic term renewals: Read the fine print.

Consumers and even non-profits have some protection against automatic renewals. Accordingly these folks will label the practice of automatic renewal as unfair. For businesses seeking relief from a carrier, ISP or MSP contract that has auto-renewed, you can fight it or pay it and forget it.

Read entire post here.

Google Apps: Goodbye Unwanted Expenses

2010-07-12T12:48:00.000-04:00

Apple runs in the blind of not getting it (what businesses want) while Google runs the chance of getting more followers into their cloud thinking. Even if Apple were to charge for doing what me and other business owners want, chances are we'd pay for it. Apple has built a really good model of using the cloud but it fails to deliver an essential element. The services of the cloud offering must make sense for businesses and this escapes Apples current solution. Thanks Google for making Apple whole and it's too bad that our email is a hop, skip and a jump away from Apple.

Read entire post here.

Panasonic: May the Best Host Win

2010-07-05T13:36:00.000-04:00

The new system from Panasonic is available in two models: KX-TGP550 (1 corded base + 6 (KX-TPA50) DECT stations) or KX-TGP500 (All DECT – 6 stations). This is not an IP/SIP PBX; it requires bandwidth and a hosted SIP solution. Either solution supports 3 CCS (Concurrent Call Sessions).

Read entire post here.