Metaswitch Announces New CEO

Was just on a briefing call about some news from Metaswitch. I don't track news items as a matter of course, but this announcement came my way on short notice, and being a company I follow closely, it's worth noting.

Metaswitch is a great example of a company that goes about its business quietly, deliberately and effectively. These really aren't 2.0-style virtues, but I'll take their track record any day over the fast and furious.

The news item is pretty pedestrian - Kevin DeNuccio takes the CEO reins from John Lazar, who now moves into the Chairman spot, in turn from Ian Feguson, who remains on the board. You can read the details here on the press release that just ran this morning.

Kevin has big company experience from Redback Networks and Cisco, and it looked like a good move when he came on board as a director in 2008. I've seen this with other companies who are ramping up for growth and/or targeting bigger customers. This type of pedigree can be invaluable on a few levels, and it's not surprising to see Kevin now in the CEO spot.

You could argue the company wanted more of a U.S.-based/style of CEO, but I think that's the short answer. Their culture is too strong, and I don't see them becoming a rah-rah type of company trying to get really big by acquiring competitors and raising lots of money to fund it. That's not their style.

I see this more as another step along the way to deepen their management team, and position the company for continued, global growth. Metaswitch is definitely growing into new frontiers, namely wireless and developer-based applications, and of course moving further up the chain with bigger telco customers. I can see Kevin's presence helping with bigger telcos, but I'm not as sure about these other areas.

Regardless, I think this sends a positive message that Metaswitch is well positioned for 2010, and having gone through some corporate re-jigging/branding last year, they have a plan in place, and this news is just part of how they're executing on it.

I'm still not entirely sure why this move is happening and why now, and we'll just have to take it on the faith that it's all for the best. My only concern is their ability to assure core customers that nothing changes for them. They've done a great job acquiring - and keeping - Tier 2/3 carriers, and will need to be careful not to give them a reason to think they're moving away to chase bigger game. We got assurances on the call this won't happen, and I'm confident that's how things will unfold. They know their roots too well - just consider where their next customer forum takes place - Nashville. Great music aside, I can't think of a better spot to be among your people. I hope Kevin likes country and bluegrass....

UC Strategies - ITExpo/Industry News Recap

After a brief hiatus, I was able to join the weekly UC Strategies podcast on Monday. This week, the focus was a recap of recent industry events as well as news of note, namely the iPad launch.

A few industry events were discussed, but ITExpo was the only one I had attended. I shared my thoughts on the Expo along with others who were there such as Jim Burton and Dave Michels. All told, it's a nice recap, esp from Dave, who was attending for the first time. Towards the end, we also talked about the iPad, and I managed to add my take to the mix.

The podcast is running now on the UC Strategies portal, and you can access it here. Hope you give it a listen, and if you attended the ITExpo, by all means, let us know what you thought of it.

DAVE Wireless/Mobilicity - the Next Wave in Canadian Wireless Competition

The second shoe dropped today in terms of new entries for Canada's wireless market. I've been following this space for some time, and the winners of last year's AWS auction are starting to make moves to shake things up here. About six weeks ago, the most ambitious entry - Wind Mobile - was the first to launch. I've generally been skeptical of the chances for these new players, and as first movers go, I haven't been overwhelmed with Wind.

Enough said for now - but we can talk more about that later. Let's focus on today's news, which has a few angles of interest. The next entry making noise is DAVE Wireless. The acronym is awkward and misleading - Data and Audio Visual Enterprises - but guess what?

Breaking news - they've just done their branding launch, and I like the new name MUCH better. They're coming to market under the moniker Mobilicity, and the press release just hit the wires. A bit like Sex and the City - rolls off the tongue nicely and hints at adventure, and combines two words that define their value proposition - mobility and city. I also can't help but notice the subtle homage here that comes from their CEO's former role as head of Toronto Hydro Telecom, the telecom arm of our local electric utility.

While that news is very much here and now, let me rewind to earlier this morning, where I attended the first public address about their plans at the Toronto Board of Trade. That's what I'm trying to post about, but the re-name news just came out while writing this up.

So, bright and early at 8am, DAVE Wireless's CEO, Dave Dobbin addressed a very full house about their latest news. First off, the service hasn't launched yet - that's coming in the spring. This gives Wind a 4-5 month head start, but if DAVE really is as distinct as promised, it may not be much of a factor.

Dave's main message this morning was to set the stage for their launch by explaining why competition is a good thing for consumers, and how their service is going to be different. Just a quick aside - TELUS is one of the sponsors of this breakfast speaker series, and in my recent conversations with them, it hasn't been lost on them that their dollars are helping provide a stage for a new competitor to tell their story. Am sure Mr. Dobbin sent Mr. Entwistle a friendly text message to thank him.

Back to the presentation. I certainly like the opening comments, where he noted that the mere threat of competition has already benefitted consumers. That's very true, esp considering that the AWS auction seemed to be ages ago, and so far, only one new service has actually come to market. Despite that, prices are lower today, system access fees are going away, and Canada now has 6 3G networks. Well, if that isn't progress, I don't know what is. Nice way to start things off.

Moving on to the more pressing questions, things are a bit less clear cut. Dave focused on the three questions his company gets asked about the most - is there room for DAVE?, can you afford to build out a network to be competitive?, and how will DAVE compete?

On the first question, I have no issues. I've long felt the Canadian market is too small to support more than 3-4 wireless operators, but there's no doubt there are many ponds to fish in for customers. Sure, there's the greenfield opportunity (but I think it's overrated), and we'll get our share of wireless substitution up here. The bigger variables are the unhappy subscribers they can siphon off from the Big 3 as well as the prepaid plans where there are no contracts to lock people in. To reel in their share of customers, DAVE simply has to have a great marketing plan and execute on it. This isn't about technology - it's about meeting customer needs better than the other guys.

I also agree strongly with Dave on the second issue. Our incumbents have been crying for ages that it's taken almost 20 years to start truly becoming profitable given the high costs of building cellular networks. This is why they've fought competition for so long, as they'll now have to share those profits with newcomers. It's a bit like the pharmaceutical game where patent protection is necessary to enable a payback on the long R&D cycles to develop new drugs. Of course, this is one of the great things about Canada - all those low-cost generics, thanks to the absence of patent protection here. The tradeoff is simple - we get cheap drugs, but all the R&D is done elsewhere, and with that come lots of high value jobs. You can't have it all, right?

Anyhow, I've long concurred with Dave that networks can be built more quickly, more cheaply and more flexibly today, so cost isn't the issue it once was. I've certainly followed this long enough in the VoIP world, and it's no different for wireless. Dave added another important point that works in DAVE's favor - they're not building a national network. They're only serving the top 10 urban markets, so they're optimizing both their spend and coverage - good idea.

On to the third point - how will DAVE compete? That's really the big one, and I'm not entirely convinced they can bring enough differentiation to make a huge impact. On the other hand, maybe they don't need to. They're not as leveraged financially as Globalive, and to their credit, don't have any foreign ownership issues to hold things up (which I believe hurt Globalive by causing them to launch after the Xmas season rush). Aside from being a low cost operator and having a high value offering for a distinct segment of the market, I'm not really sure what their service will actually look like. Dave talks about having a flexible business and following the best of breed partering approach - Amdocs, Ericsson, Ingram Micro, etc. Nothing wrong with that, and it sure makes the risk factors more manageable.

It seems to me they'll be targeting urban users who are somewhere between the prepaid market and high end power users. There's a big middle ground there, and I'm sure with some well executed marketing, backed by reliable market research they'll hone in on this target and hit it pretty well. Dave also made it clear they won't be competing directly with the incumbents - again, a good idea. However, I think that's easier said than done. We don't know how the majors will respond, but whether it's their prepaid plans or postpaid plans, I have no doubt they'll find ways to counter any new entry that makes life difficult for them.

On that note, my impression is that the weak link for DAVE is channels. All Dave would say is they'll have "some forms of national retail". I don't think he means Sears or Walmart or Canadian Tire - or maybe this is just a red herring. There's a reason why Bell Canada bought The Source (Radio Shack) - to take another channel away from new entries. Sure, DAVE will have their own stores and independent dealers, but I suspect they'll need a lot more to get beyond grassroots support. If you look at my post about Wind that I cited earlier here, there are some photos of their kiosk, and it's not very encouraging. Guess what? I pass by that kiosk a few times a week, and it looks the same every time. With this kind of traffic, I don't think the incumbents have too much to worry about.

That said, with DAVE being a pure consumer play, and no other bundled service to piggyback on, having strong retail channels will be paramount. Otherwise, you get stuck on the Vonage treadmill and black hole of marketing spend to acquire - and keep - new customers. No thanks.

To wrap up, do I think DAVE will succeed? It won't be easy, but so far, I like their chances better than Wind. It's not quite as ambitious, and maybe that's the point. There are plenty of free radicals out there up for grabs, so why not DAVE? From where I sit day-to-day, I'm not seeing anything truly innovative here, and not once did I hear "applications" mentioned. I think there is a world of opportunity for wireless operators to reinvent their business - with or without smartphones. This holds equally for DAVE as it does for the incumbents, and if DAVE does what Dave says they will, they have as good a chance as anyone to make this work. More chapters to be written on this topic, so don't go away for too long.




Great to see a packed room for this


Our backroom media scrum after Dave's presentation

january media roundup

Fairly light month in terms of media coverage, but I certainly had my hands full with the Smart Grid Summit. No quotes in the press - which hasn't happened in a long time - but I've already done a couple of stories that will run this month.

Basically, my citings are all article-based - three written by me, and one as an interview about the Summit. Let's start there:

- PR Vibes - Smart Grid Summit Preview, Q&A with Jon Arnold

- UC Strategies - Interactive Intelligence Moves Toward CaaS for Contact Center Automation

- Service Provider Views - Google in China - What Business are you Really In?

- Service Provider Views - 2010 - it's only January, and Already so Many Questions About Service Providers

Service Provider Views - Why Life is getting harder, not easier

My latest Service Provider Views column is running now on TMCnet. Having just come back from the ITExpo, a few things struck me there that would work well for my next article. This would have been enough material, but on top of that, the last week or so has been full of news that pose new challenges and raise new questions for service providers. Not the least of which is the iPad launch, Jajah's acquisition by Telefonica, and the latest earnings news from AT&T and Verizon.

I could probably squeeze a few more columns out of this morass - and I just might do that - but for now, I've managed to hit the high points in today's column, and you can read that here.

Any way you look at it, January has had more than its share of news that impacts service providers, and could be an ominous way to kick start the new decade. I can't wait to see what February holds in store.

Toronto Blues Society Awards Night - Oscars for Canadian Blues

This post is just for the record, and is part of the backlog from last week I'm trying to clear up. We all have busy lives outside of work, and for me, music is one of those lives - especially blues. I'm not one to post much about my personal life, but in the blues world, this one is worth sharing.

I've been a long-time supporter and board member of the Toronto Blues Society, and one of our marquee events is the Maple Blues Awards. I've posted about this before, and the MBA is Oscar night for Canadian blues. We have a great blues scene up here, and the TBS is right in the middle of what happens here in Toronto. Over the years our MBA program has evolved into a national event, and it's a great barometer of the best blues going from coast to coast.

Last Monday was this year's event, held for the first time in brand-new Koerner Hall in downtown Toronto. The venue was a bit uptown for blues, and is really built for acoustic music, but things worked out just fine. I had to fly out early the next day for the Smart Grid Summit, and combined with a technical glitch, I haven't been able to post this until now.

For all kinds of reasons, I'm happy to do shout-outs like this for the TBS, especially in 2010, as we mark our 25th anniversary (and I've been there since Day 1). The Canadian blues scene is world class, and if you like the blues, there's a lot to like about our artists. The MBA showcases this in spades, and if you're in Toronto next MLK Day - an appropriate date for the awards - you really should attend.

For this year, the full list of winners and nominees is summarized on our website. These won't be household names to most of you, but that shouldn't matter. The music is first rate, and I'll share a couple of photos here. If you poke around the Net, I'm sure you can find some video clips as well. Better yet, come to TO, and I'll take you around to the clubs. And - if it's a Tuesday, you can check out my 13 old son and myself at a local blues jam!

The Maple Blues All Stars - the best blues band in the land - really...



The Twisters - these guys were FUN...

ITExpo Photo Highlights

Never a dull moment at the ITExpo last week, and as per my earlier post today, here are some highlights of goings-on I caught outside the Smart Grid Summit. I'll preface this by tipping my hat to Rich Tehrani and his 24-7 team for putting on another successful ITExpo. More importantly - and as noted more extensively in a previous post - TMC continues to be open to new ideas for making the Expo a richer experience as well as reaching new audiences.

I'm very appreciative of the support they've shown for our Smart Grid Summit, and no doubt my cohorts feel the same for the other co-located events run under their tent, namely 4GWE, M2M, the Cloud Summit and Startup Camp. From what I can tell, all were successful, and I'm sure all of these will be back bigger and better this October for the LA ITExpo. With that said, here are a few photos to give you a flavor for what I mean.


Rich Tehrani kicking off the ITExpo keynotes


Rich hosting the lunch time panel exploring the implications of the Avaya/Nortel deal


Perhaps the sleeper event of the week - Larry Lisser's Telecom Startup Bootcamp. A bit like American Idol - here are the judges who gave their feedback after each startup pitch. The room was packed, which says a lot considering the event took place Thursday night after a full day of ITExpo activity.


Shai Berger of Fonolo during his pitch. I had mixed feelings about the pitches I saw, but they all had interesting ideas for sure. Shai shares his thoughts on his blog, which in turn takes you to Andy Abramson's blog, both of which are good reads. Like Andy, I have a vested interest in Fonolo, so I'll leave it at that for now.


Next stop - the show floor. Not as big as in the past, but healthy traffic. I didn't get to spend enough time with exhibitors to gauge the quality of attendees, but the energy level was high every time I got out to the floor. First, a couple of shots from the Smart Grid Pavilion - small today, but should be much bigger for the next summit. Below is the Redline booth and then Livecage, who did a series of video segments for us.




Here's the Ontario/Canada pavilion - busy as always


Keeping on the Canadian theme, here's the reception they hosted Wednesday night. An open bar and a motorcycle giveaway will always draw a crowd, but I'd like to think people were at least a little bit interested in what our companies are doing up here...


In what's becoming a tradition, no Expo is complete without an invite to Andy Abramson's wine dinner - good to the last drop. Big thanks to Andy for sharing his wine with us as well as Andrew Hanson and Freetalk for sponsoring. If you haven't seen how Skype is approaching the small business market with a Jazinga-based IP PBX system, then you need to do some homework. Or just call me.