About Us

Marc Robins

IP Communications Insights co-founder Marc Robins has been involved in the telecommunications industry as a reporter and analyst, editor and author, trade show producer and publisher, and marketing executive and consultant for more than 25 years. With a perspective honed by decades of consistent industry analysis and coverage, Robins is an internationally recognized authority in the field of IP telephony and new IP communications technologies and their commercial applications.

Marc is the founder and Chief Technology Evangelism Officer of Robins Consulting Group (RCG), an IP Communications industry consultancy founded in 2003 that offers market intelligence and strategy; advisory services, and comprehensive marketing, high-value communications and promotional support to companies in the IP communications industry. RCG also serves as a producer of a number of special technology workshops and industry conferences.

Marc also serves as President of SIP Forum LLC (the operating U.S. subsidiary of the SIP Forum) and as the consulting Managing Director of the SIP Forum. The SIP Forum is a prominent IP communications industry association that engages in numerous activities that advance and promote SIP technology, such as the development of industry recommendations, the SIPit interoperability and testing events, special interoperability workshops, and general promotion of SIP in the industry.

Over the course of his career, Marc has authored hundreds of articles and columns for leading industry magazines. He continues to evangelize new IP communications technologies as a regular contributor to mainstream and business publications, and as the author of columns in various industry trade publications. Marc is also a frequent moderator and speaker at industry events and is a commentator for a variety of radio shows on the subject of VoIP and IP telephony.

For five years, from 1998 to mid-2003, Marc served as Vice President of Publications and Trade Shows, Associate Group Publisher and Group Editorial Director at TMC (Technology Marketing Corporation). He was the co-founder, conference architect and Co-Chairman of the popular conference curriculums at all TMC events, such as the Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO, Communications Solutions EXPO, PlanetPDA, and BiometriTech. As Associate Group Publisher and Group Editorial Director, Marc managed the editorial and sales operations of a number of leading industry publications -- including Internet Telephony® magazine, Customer Inter@ction Solutions®, Communications Solutions®, and Communications ASP®. He was also responsible for directing the operation of TMC’s online business, TMCnet.com.

Prior to joining TMC, Marc served as VP of Marketing at Linkon Corporation – a computer telephony software and communications board vendor, where he successfully repositioned the company to focus on the IP telephony marketplace.

In 1988, Marc founded Robins Press, a leading publishing, market intelligence and consulting firm specializing in emerging telecommunications technologies and their commercial applications. Areas of focus included voice and fax processing, call center automation, computer telephony integration, and speech synthesis and recognition. Robins Press also published a number of best-selling and award-winning books and industry publications. Consulting clients included Hewlett Packard, IBM, AT&T, MCI, Nynex, British Telecom, France Telecom, Applied Voice Technology, Bank of America, Chrysler, Kodak, and Dialogic.

In the mid-1980s, Marc worked with Harry Newton, the original publisher of Computer Telephony, Teleconnect and Call Center magazines and producer of the Computer Telephony trade show, as an associate editor and author, and in the early 1980's worked with Kennan Research and Consulting, performing market research and analysis for a number of Fortune 500 clients.

 

Jon Arnold

Jon Arnold is the Principal of J Arnold & Associates, an independent analyst and marketing consultancy with a focus on IP communications. More specifically, the practice has expertise in VoIP, cable telephony, enterprise IP telephony, peer-to-peer, Open Source, IPTV, Web 2.0, VoIP security, VoIP peering and WiFi/WiMax. The consultancy was launched in March 2005, and from its base in Toronto, Ontario, serves clients across North America as well as in Europe.

Previously, Jon was the VoIP Program Leader for four years at industry analyst firm Frost & Sullivan. While there, he was responsible for managing their subscription service for Global VoIP Equipment Markets, and through his active participation in the industry, created a strong presence for the firm and an unprecedented profile in the media.

Prior to Frost & Sullivan, Jon founded Research Solutions, an independent marketing research consultancy that operated for 15 years. During that time, Research Solutions conducted both qualitative and quantitative research projects for clients across a wide range of industries, including telecommunications, software, electronics, financial services, diagnostic equipment, transportation, energy, management training, trade publishing and professional associations.

Jon is frequently quoted in the business and trade press, radio and television, including Business Week, Forbes, Boston Globe, Financial Times, IT Business Edge, TheDeal.com, TheStreet.com, CNET News, Light Reading, Globe & Mail, Financial Post, Toronto Star, IT Business.ca, IT World Canada, CBS Radio, Bloomberg Radio and BNN TV. Recent media citings can be reviewed on Jon's blog page.

VoIP News has included Jon on their 2007 Top 25 VoIP Blogs list, and his widely read IP Communications blog was recently rated the #4 VoIP blog. Jon writes a bi-monthly column - Service Provider Views - for TMC, and serves as the Portal Editor of IP Communications TV. He is also a Gerson Lehrman Group Scholar, where his advice is regularly sought out by the finance and investment community.

For over two years, he has produced a weekly podcast for Pulvermedia, and written a monthly newsletter for a well-regarded U.S. investment bank. Jon is a member of Microsoft Canada’s Unified Communications Vision Team, is on the Advisory Boards of IT360 and Trender Research, and serves as an Advisor to several emerging companies.

He is a regular speaker and participant at VoIP and telecom conferences, including VON, Internet Telephony, eComm2008, Nextcomm, Pacific Telecom Council, Enterprise Networks, IT360 and The Canadian Institute. Building on his extensive experience at industry conferences, as well as radio and television appearances, Jon is available for Speaker Bureau engagements.