Videoconferencing News - GIPS and SightSpeed

Two companies I have some history with in the videoconferencing space had some news yesterday - GIPS and SightSpeed. I was set to post this yesterday, but we had a power outage at an inopportune time. After that, one thing led to another, and it just didn't happen as intended. Defeated by technology, again...

I'll start with GIPS - Global IP Solutions - since I have more history there. They've just published a white paper along with a video to demonstrate how far desktop videoconferencing solutions have come. I won't say any more than that since I'm the author of the white paper, and I'm not in the PR business. However, I am pleased to see how much attention this has been getting, so if you haven't come across this yet, you can find it in a few places - Fierce VoIP, Conferencing News, and an in-depth review/analysis from Jim Courtney on Skype Journal.

For more detail, you can read the press release here, and download the paper as well as view the demo video here.

SightSpeed had some very exciting news of their own on the same day, so there must be a trend happening. In short, they were acquired by Logitech for $30 million.

Aside from being a great exit for Peter Csathy's company (his third), I see this as nice validation for the good work GIPS is doing. I've got some nice history with SightSpeed as well - and have been a happy user - so it's personally satisfying to see a company I've been following for a while get a buyout like this, especially in such a difficult economy.

Finally, to tie things up nicely, colleague Alec Saunders featured both companies on yesterday's Squawk Box podcast. Guess I'm not the only one seeing a trend here!

Technorati tags: GIPS, Jon Arnold, SightSpeed, videoconferencing

The Ericsson Experience Center Comes to Town

It's not quite the circus coming to town, but the Ericsson Experience Center isn't too far off when it comes to a very cool road show that only analysts and the media could love.

I was one of those analysts invited to attend the Toronto stop on their travelling roadshow today, and as vendor experiences go, this one was right up there. I've seen these types of roadshows before, and you really have to see it to appreciate how sophisticated the inside of a trailer can get.

It's a great way to showcase all the cool things Ericsson is doing with both wireless and wireline technologies. We started first with wireless, and got a look at some of the equipment they're using to support HSPA and LTE, both for in-home and backhaul. I'm not an expert in wireless infrastructure, but this has long been a strong suit for Ericsson. They made it clear that these technologies have utility in both emerging markets with little existing telecom infrastructure as well as urban markets that need higher speeds than what their wireline broadband connections can deliver.

On the wireline side, we saw some really neat demos of IPTV, some of which is in the market today, and some just in the lab. They did a nice job showing how well integrated video and wireless services can be. One example was demonstrating how live streaming video from a cell phone can be uploaded to television to report a robbery in progress. Citizen jouralism 2.0 at its best. Other examples included a more interactive experience for watching sports, and using all the multimedia tools while watching TV - voice, chat, email, ordering concert tickets, etc. If the IMS vision ever truly comes to fruition, it sure looks like we'll never, ever have to get up from the couch except to replace the batteries in the converter.

All told, it was a great way to get an up-close look at what Ericsson is doing. Since most of this happens under the hood, I can't think of a better way to understand and experience all the technology they bring to enable these cool services. Am sure glad they came to town, and even gladder they invited me.

Ericsson Canada CEO/President Mark Henderson









Amit Kaminer of Seaboard Group - thanks for modelling this to scale! He was at Avaya this week too, so we've seen a lot of each other the past few days.




Technorati tags: Ericsson, Jon Arnold, Canada

Avaya Global Analyst Conference - My Take

There was a lot to look forward to at this year's Avaya global analyst event, and on the whole, I'd say they lived up to expectations quite well. Yesterday I had a chance to post some photos, and now I'm set to share my overall impressions.

The big change is that being a private company now, there is less transparency in how they're doing. I'm not a financial analyst, so this is a bit less important for me, but still, this is a great opportunity to get an inside look as to how Avaya is faring since going private. The other development is in their leadership, with Charlie Giancarlo moving in from Cisco to serve as interim CEO. Lots of history there, but basically, Cisco's loss is Avaya's gain.

As with all analyst events, attendees are under NDA, either explicitly or implicitly. So, I'm not going to cite performance data, even though we did get a few glimpses. There was a lot of interesting messaging, and I'm just going to hit the high points here.

Charlie Giancarlo set the tone right away by stating Avaya's goal is to be 'the #1 global supplier of enterprise communications systems'. Take that, (enter any Avaya competitor here). While the definition of 'communications systems' is open for debate, the aim of being number one is not, so it's clear Avaya is intent on making the most of being private.

In terms of the grand plan, he shared Avaya's roadmap through 2010, by which time all the moves to refocus/reinvigorate the company should bear fruit. He didn't rule out going public again, and cited Seagate as a successful model to follow. They were taken private for $6 billion, and a few years later had doubled in value and went public again.

Some of the big initiatives underway to duplicate this feat include stronger regional alignment with corporate objectives to make Avaya more of a global organization, and a more channel-centric go-to-market model for driving sales. Another key Cisco hire was Todd Abbott, and I was very impressed with his vision for building the kind of sales organization to support these initiatives. It's all about sales at the end of the day, and he brought a lot of 'his people' over to Avaya, and this may well have as much bearing on Avaya's ultimate success as having Charlie Giancarlo on board.

It's clear that Avaya has worked hard to get the right management/leadership team in place, and it was really interesting to hear them say that this was easier to do as a private company. I never really thought about things this way, but when the stock equity of your employer gets weaker by the day, the harder it becomes to stay motivated. In today's market, the prospects of moving over to a company with a great brand that's just gone private and is in rebuilding mode become very attractive for all kinds of reasons. I get that, and now we're looking at a company with a top tier team, big money behind them, and free of the pressures of meeting quarterly earnings calls. That's a pretty good recipe for success, especially since the markets are not going to turn around any time soon.

Another interesting view from Charlie was the classic 'flight to quality' angle that will help drive growth. He took pains to point out that Avaya is one of only two financially stable vendors now ' the other one remaining nameless, but not hard to figure out. The financial mess we're all in has yet to take its toll, and sure, there will be casualties, and logic dictates that Avaya will be seen as a friendly haven for nervous customers and will get their share of business.

Fair enough, but he made another point that is probably more telling about the current market environment. That is, meaningful market share shifts happen in bad times, not good times. I've been out of MBA school too long to remember such things, so I don't have any empirical evidence to validate this, but it does make sense. If that holds true, and if Avaya executes well, then, sure, they are poised to capture market share. Whether it comes from above ' the other stable vendor ' or below ' everyone else, many of whom are in a weaker state ' I'm sure they're just happy to be growing.

There was a strong, recurring theme about focusing on channel support and moving away from the conflicts caused between direct sales efforts competing with the channels for business. In Avaya-speak, they call this being 'fulfillment neutral'. Okey dokey. More importantly, the new mantra is to become 'high touch, channel centric'. Let the channels do the selling, and provide more touch points to support them with things like training, certification, better order fulfillment and more marketing programs. This also means new compensation models to better incent them. Details weren't provided, but it was explained how some types of sales did not generate income for some channel partners, and they're moving now to address things like this. Sometimes it pays to build on best practices, and in this area, I'd say there's a lot of Cisco thinking here, which is not a bad thing. Todd Abbott summed this up best by saying this new focus on channels is 'a corporate strategy, not a sales strategy'.

Aside from being channel-centric, there was a lot of talk about becoming customer-centric. Really focusing on the needs of end users and getting beyond voice solutions. Karyn Mishima touched on how the consumer experience is now driving change and expectations around what Avaya has to deliver today in the enterprise. Not just new ways to communicate ' Facebook, Second Life, etc., but in new contexts such as retail kiosks in banks and telemedicine. There wasn't the Web 2.0 focus I saw at BroadSoft Connections earlier this month, but Avaya is playing in a different league, and are bringing elements of 2.0 in their own way. I saw some pretty interesting Web/voice mashups in their Demo display, but these are still in the lab. They won't be coming to market until next year, and what I saw looked very much like what's running today on BroadWorks Xtended.

I'm not an IT guy, and given Avaya's Bell Labs pedigree, there were a lot of technical presentations that I could only follow to a degree. However, it's clear to me that they're leveraging their Ubiquity acquisition pretty heavily, especially for their Unified Communications Solution. It was often mentioned how the majority of the installed base out there is still TDM, and to bring customers along into IP, they need to seamlessly support H.323 and SIP.

Other updates of note include One-X Mobile, which extends the PBX feature set to the mobile phone, with support for all the major handsets (and not just smartphones) and operating systems. For the broader Unified Communications solution, Jorge Blanco provided an extensive progress report, talking about how they've established a reference architecture to support enhancements across all touchpoints and applications ' the desktop, mobile phones, Web access, messaging and conferencing. Other developments of note include their Intelligent Presence Server which aggregates presence across multiple communication modes, and Session Manager, which among other things provides better interoperability for third party application developers. That said, there was not much about videoconferencing or social media/collaboration solutions, but there's plenty here for most enterprise uses.

SME is another key focus, and while Cisco has made similar proclamations, this space seems like a better sweet spot for Avaya. Geoffrey Baird runs this unit and pointed out how fragmented this market is. Nothing new there, but going into a down economy, this matters for both vendors and buyers alike. Avaya is profitable and well-capitalized, and not many of their competitors can say yes to both of these. Vendors with a focused offering who execute well and develop strong channel programs will do well, and that's the story we were being told/sold. I came away feeling pretty good about Avaya's chances here with IP Office, and Geoffrey cited some solid proof points to back this up (but I can't share those).

To get SMEs buying IP communications solutions in today's market, they really need to see attractive ROI metrics. I think there's a real opportunity here for vendors to tailor their ROI stories in the context of a business slowdown. SMEs will be looking to cut costs wherever possible, and while I didn't see any Avaya ROI scenarios, it sounds like they understand its importance for nervous business owners. SMEs also need manageable financing or leasing programs, and this is an area where Avaya's financial strength gives them a competitive edge. All else being equal, this can be the deal maker for SMEs deciding among comparable solutions from multiple vendors, and it looks like Avaya is playing that card pretty well.

I could go on, but will leave it at that. They packed a lot into a day and a half, but it felt about right, and it certainly was time well spent. Overall, I'd say Avaya is about as well positioned as one could expect, and I sure like their chances. The overall mood seems upbeat and energized, and based on my impressions from talking to people there, the move to privatization was the best medicine. It will be interesting to see who fills the full time CEO role, but the team in place today looks pretty solid to me, and next year should give us some strong clues as to how well this translates into growth.



Technorati tags: Avaya, Jon Arnold

Avaya Global Analyst Conference - Photo Highlights

Am attending the global analyst conference for Avaya in Boston this week, and it sure has been great. Got lots of impressions to share with you, but that will have to wait another day or so. Just been too much going on, and for now, all I can do is post some photos from today's keynotes. I'll have some commentary and overall impressions once I have time to gather my thoughts.




Interim CEO Charlie Giancarlo




Strategy/Tech SVP Karyn Mashima




Sales SVP/President, Field Operations, Todd Abbott



Executive Q&A




Technorati tags: Avaya, Charlie Giancarlo, Jon Arnold

Service Provider Views - BroadSoft as a Platform Play

My latest Service Provider Views column is running now on TMCnet. It's another variation on the platform play theme, and my focus this time is on BroadSoft.

This may not be what comes to mind right away for most of you, but you might just think otherwise after reading my article.

I've followed BroadSoft for ages, and after spending time with them last week at Connections 2008, I'm sure seeing a lot of Web 2.0 and mashups, and that says platform play to me. What do you think?


Technorati tags: Service Provider Views, Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates, TMCnet, BroadSoft

My Jazinga Review

I?ve been trialing Jazinga for a while now and have waited for the most recent updates to get this review done. I?m really enjoying using it, and it?s become my default telephony system. I use that word loosely, since I work solo, and am not exactly a typical PBX user. I don?t have anyone to transfer calls to, but there are many other features that make my life better and my work day more productive.

Before sharing my thoughts about Jazinga, I didn?t realize the most obvious thing about Jazinga until sitting down now to write about it. I?m a marketing guy at heart, so these things keep me up thinking more than most other people. Jazinga is a catchy name for a company, and it?s just hit me that the product itself doesn?t have a name, so by default I don?t know what else to call it. Maybe it?s time for a name-that-product contest???

I?ve gotten to know the Jazinga folks pretty well now, and in case you?re wondering, yes, they?re very typical of a tech startup ? heavy on engineering and light on marketing. That?s ok by me ? at this stage it?s much more important to get the technology right, and in my books, they?ve done a great job there. The marketing and branding will come, and along the way, I?m sure they?ll come up with a clever name for their offering. I hate to call it a product ? seems so pedestrian ? and it?s only partially correct, so giving this a name will be trickier than you might think. I?ll leave that hanging out there for now, and move on to my review.

I?ll start by saying that other beta users have reviewed Jazinga already, and they?re more techhy than me. You can find these posted on Jazinga?s website, and there?s some good commentary about what?s under the hood. I?ll focus more on what?s outside and my everyday experiences.

As others have noted, Jazinga is an interesting a hybrid ? the box is a both a router and an IP telephony system. You basically get all the features of a PBX and QoS, as the system is able to prioritize voice over your broadband connection. Not only does that give you reliable service, but the audio quality is noticeably better than regular VoIP. For small businesses, this strikes me as a very important selling feature.

From a buyer?s point of view, Jazinga is a great value. They?ve used a lot of open source, which helps keeps the price down, and provides flexibility for adding new features and self-provisioning. It?s about as end-user centric as you can get, and ease of use is another hallmark of Jazinga. The earlier reviews have all picked up on the ease-of-use angle, and I can certainly vouch for that. Setting up the system takes little time, and is largely self-provisioning, so it?s ideal for SMBs, as they typically don?t have much in the way in-house IT support.

Not only does Jazinga come with all the telephony options you?d typically want to see, but they are continually adding new ones. It?s very easy to set up an auto attendant with greetings for each employee, and then customize how each person wants to receive their calls. For me, the conferencing feature has the most utility. It?s easy to set up, and very handy for initiating concalls on the fly. The only downside is that callers have to dial in to a toll number, but these days, most people don?t have a problem with that.

Another great thing about Jazinga is that it?s extensible. It?s built to keep taking new features, and end users don?t have to pay extra for these. The most recent releases - beta 1.11 and 1.12 ? have some noteworthy additions:

- Status screens in the Administration UI to monitor your Internet connection and system configuration

- Forwarding of voice mail to email

- Addition of portals for individual users. Previously, only system administrators had portal access. This means end users can now access their voicemail via the portal and update their personalized settings.

- System configuration and backup settings can now be saved to the desktop, giving end users more control and access to their communications tools.

- Two new calling features to make the telephony service more valuable to SMBs:

1. Dial around ? you can now call into and through Jazinga from any phone, anywhere and save on long distance charges.
2. Callback ? another way to do this, and works like other mobile VoIP callback services.

To use Jazinga, you need an IP phone, and they support all the major brands ? Cisco, Linksys, Aastra, Polycom and Snom, so it won?t be too hard to get this going. Once you see it up close, you may wonder why anyone would need a PBX. Aside from being easy to use, you feel empowered right away, as each end user can customize their greetings and call control preferences - and just as easily change them as their needs dictate. It?s also fun setting up the front door, which is where you record your IVR greeting prompts for each extension and conferencing options. Then you can add your own music on hold and really make it your own.

Being open source, Jazinga has made it easy to keep adding features without increasing your costs. That?s a pretty strong driver, as the system always stays current and keeps getting more powerful with each release. SMBs have never really had it this good before.

This would be enough for most IP telephony solutions, but Jazinga is thinking further out, and this is where it gets more interesting for me. For SOHOs and some SMBs, many, if not all end users will be home-based. Jazinga can very easily be used as the hub for both home and business communications. No reason why your landline ? analog or VoIP ? can?t be hooked up, giving you PBX features in the house. How about that? Think of the fun you can have with your greeting prompts ? ?for the kitchen, press 7?, or ?for Mom, press 6?. How can you not want to do this?

Let?s take this a step further. Once you?ve got home and business all running off Jazinga, why stop at voice? Here?s where the magic of open source comes into the picture. With wireless IP running all over the house/office, you could provision all kinds of other services ? remote printing, FMC handoffs, etc. Let?s not stop there. As we start broadband-enabling all kinds of devices and machines, the possibilities really open up, especially around smart home-type services. Think about starting the roast remotely, controlling the thermostat or monitoring your home security or surveillance systems.

I?m getting a bit ahead of the game, but the likes of Microsoft are well along that path, and Jazinga could become a perfect hub solution sooner than you think. You just have stop thinking about this as just an intelligent telephony router. When you do, you then need to start wondering why service providers aren?t running to partner with Jazinga. Not just telcos, but anyone with a wire into the home ? ISPs, cablecos, utilities, etc. Lots of possibilities here for sure.

It?s a very important part of the puzzle, simply because Jazinga isn?t a service provider. You could certainly buy the box retail or through a distributor channel and just go with the BYOB model. That works, but then it?s just a sell-through box solution for Jazinga. That?s ok, but then it starts to sound too much like Ooma, who I?ve written about ? and still use. It?s a great service, but like Jazinga, it?s just another box on my desk, and I really don?t give it a thought. That?s too passive a model for me.

I?ve been saying this about Ooma from the beginning ? the service provider is their best friend and route to market. Let them brand Jazinga and roll it out to their subscribers as a total package. That makes so much more sense to me, and is a real win-win for both parties. Think about how effective that would be for any carrier trying to break through the clutter in the SMB space. I know Jazinga is thinking this way too, so give it some time, and I?m pretty confident this will be a much bigger story going into 2009.


Technorati tags: Jazinga, Jon Arnold, SMB VoIP

Loose Ends - Skype and the Great Firewall of China, VON/Virgo Deal, Oz/Nokia Deal

I don't get paid to blog, so when I'm busy with consulting work, I fall behind on the news. There is always interesting stuff going on, and before the week is out, I wanted to quickly draw attention to three stories of note. These are all of interest to me, but it's way too late to post about them. So, for the laggards out there, here are three items you might want to explore further.

1. Skype - China/censorship/privacy - you get the idea. Wow, this is an interesting - but not altogether unsurprising story. Barely a month after the Beijing Olympics, here we go again, with the dark side of state-run media rearing its ugly head.

You don't have to look far for coverage of this story, or think too hard about how insidious all this is, but it's another reminder of how the Internet is impacting our lives. Ultimately, it may be a borderless technology, but as they say, the "great firewall of China" isn't quite onside yet.

I'd start first with Phil Wolff's posting on Skype Journal, then Om Malik, and I'm sure you'll find many others from there. I should also add this is not a new problem, and Skype is not alone in this morass - other IM platforms have had similar issues. RIM too, by the way.

Aside from the coverage you've already seen on this, I wanted to add some local coverage that I thought was really great. It ran in today's Globe & Mail, and talks about how a lab researcher here at the University of Toronto - Nart Villeneuve - uncovered some online trails that led him to all kinds of censorship and monitoring in China with Skype traffic. It's a great read, and am pretty sure will add valuable first-hand insight for anyone following this story. I should add that local colleague Jim Courtney - a regular Skype Journal contributor - picked up on this today, as have others like Om Malik.

I'll end on that triumphant note, as it's great to see some homegrown investigative work getting to the bottom of a truly international issue.

2. Virgo acquires VON. This is a much smaller scale story, but still of interest to many of us in the space. Several of us got wind of this news at the IT Expo a few weeks back, but it's just becoming official now. Andy Abramson had a good wrap on this the other day, and there's not a whole lot more to say about it right now.

Well, there is, but it's end of the week, and I'm kind of done now. That said, I wanted to at least acknowledge the story because it's evident from my recent conversations that most people don't know this has happened. Now you do.

3. Nokia acquires Oz Communications. Yet an even smaller story, but also of interest to me. Everyone knows Nokia and how they're doing lots of cool things with Ovi and just launched their iPhone killer. But most of you don't know Oz - a bit like saying you don't know Jack.

I've followed them for a while, and it's another great Canadian success story. So, add a notch for our win column, which is a nice way to end the week as the weather gets colder and my Red Sox look to keep winning.




Technorati tags: Skype, Jon Arnold, Nart Villeneuve, VON, Oz Communications

Ooma No Go Booma

Well, this sure was interesting news on a few levels. I'm not going to rehash the history, but I've been following Ooma from the begining, and not long after, Tom Howe got into the mix and made a public wager they would not last a year.

Looks like Ooma has proven him wrong as they just raised $16 million, and not a day too soon with the markets being in meltdown mode now.

This has all unfolded in the past couple of days, and it's just bubbling up on my radar. It's newsworthy - not just because a company that most people I know are highly skeptical of in terms of staying power - but because fellow bloggers Alec Saunders and Tom have responded accordingly to make good on the wager.

And then you just have to wonder how Ooma can keep attracting capital while really cool startups like Iotum and Fonolo struggle to just get a few crumbs. Life doesn't seem fair, does it?

Anyhow, you can read all about it on Tom's post, and it will be one more thing for us to talk about next week at BroadSoft Connections.


Technorati tags: Ooma, Jon Arnold, Thomas Howe

Jazinga Launches

Somehow, in the midst of everything else that kept me busy last week, I neglected to post about Jazinga's launch. Being Toronto-based, I'm always keen to support a local startup, especially one that shows this much promise. I've been beta testing their service for a while, and will be posting a review fairly soon. I've been waiting for the latest upgrades, which came just before my last conference. I hope to get this done before the week is out.

Back to the news. For those who don't know Jazinga, they have a premises-based IP telephony solution that's great for SMBs and SOHOs like myself. We all know about IP PBXs and open source-style solutions. Jazinga is a very practical, affordable alternative that's built around ease-of-use and a rich feature set. While most solutions are totally hosted or web-based, this has all the intelligence in the box, which doubles as a WiFi router/ATA.

I'll let the links tell the rest of the story, but if you want to hear more about it, I'll steer you to a podcast I did recently with their CTO, Shidan Gouran when I guest-hosted on Squawk Box.

So, a belated congrats to Jazinga on the launch, and here is some of the better coverage that I recommend you read - Telco 2.0,Garrett Smith, Andy Abramson, and PhonePlus Magazine.



Technorati tags: Jazinga, Jon Arnold, SMB VoIP

Cisco Goes Big on Collaboration

Yesterday, I attended an advance briefing at Cisco Canada's offices about their news today announcing their collaboration portfolio. I was one of four analysts/media people getting the full presentation yesterday - delivered, of course, via Telepresence by Laurent Philonenko in San Francisco. It's always fun to do things this way, and it sure is easy to get spoiled with TP. The rest of the world sure doesn't live this way, but that's another topic.

The press embargo ended this morning, but I haven't been able to blog til now. If you read the news, you've probably seen the press release by now, so I'm not going to rehash the details.

Basically, Cisco has pulled a lot of existing pieces together under what's now called the Cisco Collaboration Portfolio. There's really nothing new here, per se, but it certainly keeps Cisco up to the minute in terms of what's happening in the workplace. Actually, there are two new things, but are just an adjunct to this announcement. Last week, Cisco announced their acquisition of PostPath, and then Jabber. These are relatively small deals, but they add some strong capabilities to support this overall focus on collaboration. I have no doubt there is a method to all this, and Cisco wants to be sure it can deliver the whole package here.

Anyhow, during our briefing, we heard about the big themes that are driving collaboration. Nothing new there, but the main point from their perspective is that the network enables all of these tools. So, by extension, Cisco is right there, behind the curtains making all this possible. Fair enough.

Getting beyond this, what I liked hearing was how Cisco is bringing two distinct worlds together now - the network and the cloud. By doing so, Cisco can enable collaboration universally, whether you're tethered to the network at the office, or working remotely, and connecting over the Web and using Web-based applications. This is certainly not the Cisco of a few years ago, and I guess this is their way of saying that meaningful work takes place off prem, and they can now support collaboration in any environment.

They have defined their Collaboration Portfolio along three lines of business - Unified Communications, Video and Web 2.0. Each of these consists of many solutions, such as IP telephony, conferencing and Telepresence. These pieces will be familiar to any Cisco follower, but I do like this taxonomy. Each plays a distinctive role in the collaboration process, and by tying them together under a single portfolio, the intended result is a richer, more complete collaboration experience. It's a big-time promise, and time will tell if it delivers.

While all this makes perfectly good sense to those of us attending, I had to ask Laurent if the market will see things this way. During the presentation, the strategic messaging was "collaboration is the platform for business", and "the network is the platform for collaboration". Hmm. My most recent recollection of the Cisco mantra was that "the network is the platform".

Laurent concurred that the latter is still very much true, but it has now been extended to collaboration. I can see the logic, but I'm concerned that Cisco is now trying to position itself as more of a collaboration play than a network play. Nobody can challenge them for network supremacy, but collaboration is much more of a Web 2.0 story, and it's not clear to me if the market is ready to see them this way.

While Telepresence was largely built from the ground-up internally, most of their 2.0 capabilities have come from acquisitions, both large (WebEx) and small (Jabber, PostPath, etc.). I think it's much harder earning your stripes following the latter path, but with Unified Communications still trying to break out of the gates, I don't think anybody has a monopoly yet making the whole collaboration thing work. So, it's hard to see how Cisco could go about this any other way, and this portfolio is probably as comprehensive as anything out there right now.

Regardless, they've made a statement today that collaboration is the new black, and they're telling the world they can have it in any color, so long as it's black - Cisco black. Let's see what the market thinks.


Technorati tags: Cisco, collaboration, Jon Arnold

Fonolo - Top Pick by Judges at Mobilize

Here's another very good news story from another colleague, and this one is closer to home. Fellow Torontonian Shai Berger, and his company Fonolo made it to the list of companies presenting at GigaOm's Mobilize event this week in San Francisco.

It's ok if you're doing a double take here. Turns out that Mobilize and the IT Expo are the same week, and a number of people split their time at both shows. I saw Shai several times during the Expo, and wished him good luck when he left for SF on Wednesday.

So, it's been a good week for people I try to keep close to - Shai and Tom Howe, whose good news I just posted about earlier this morning.

Back to Fonolo. Twelve companies were selected to present their story at Om's Launchpad, with each being reviewed by a panel of 4 judges. I wasn't at the event, and am just getting this off the GigaOm post, which I strongly recommend you read to see how everyone did. Each company is summarized in the post, and goes on to show that Fonolo was the top pick overall among the judges, and rated third overall by the audience.

I don't know about you, but it's great news, and another in a growing list of accolades that Fonolo is compiling in its very short history.

Even though I'm an Advisor to Fonolo, I think it's pretty fair to say this is a company to watch, and I have no reservations about waving the flag too. We've got a lot of great companies in Canada, and it's especially nice to see one in my own back yard of Toronto doing so well on a big stage like Mobilize.


Technorati tags: Jon Arnold, Fonolo, Shai Berger, GigaOm, Mobilize

BroadSoft's Mashup Contest - Thomas Howe Takes Top Spot

Call me a homer, but I think it's great news to hear that colleague Thomas Howe took top prize at BroadSoft's voice mashup contest. Readers of my blog will no doubt know Tom, and I've spent a fair bit of time with him this week at the IT Expo.

I actually had an advance copy of the press release on Wednesday, and Tom didn't know he had won until I told him later that night. Whoo hoo. The press release was released yesterday, but I haven't had a chance to post until now.

As the press release explains and as the name implies, Disaster Dispatcher is targeted at emergency workers. It integrates Twitter with the BroadWorks platform to centralize all the information needed to do their jobs more efficiently. The payoff is very nice, as Tom gets $5,000 cash, a trip to their Connections event next month, and an exhibitor showcase to profile his company at the event. I'll be attending Connections as well, and look forward to buying Tom a drink there.

I'm very happy for Tom, and want to congratulate him here, and share the news with anyone who hasn't heard. I also want to give kudos to BroadSoft, who have really embraced voice/web 2.0 and recognize the value of mashups for their customers, as well as the importance of nurturing an ecoystem of avid developers.

I should also mention that the second and third place prizes went to Project ARTCTIC and QuickSet. I'm not familiar with either, but that should change once I get out to Connections.


Technorati tags: Jon Arnold, Thomas Howe, BroadSoft

Latest Service Provider Views - Making Voice a Killer App

Got a pretty full plate here at the IT Expo, and I'll have a blog post and some photos coming about Day 1.

Until then, my latest Service Provider Views column on TMCnet was published today, and with the Expo upon us, I think you'll find it a good read. My focus here is what a couple of companies - Mobivox and Jajah - have been doing lately with voice activated services. I think it's a great way for service providers to add value to voice without really doing much. The article was just posted this afternoon, and you can read it here.

Hopefully you'll feel the same way, and I'd love to hear your thoughts. Back to the Expo now...


Technorati tags: Service Provider Views, Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates, TMC IT Expo, Mobivox, Jajah

Media Summary - August

August is a pretty slow month all around, so I didn't engage that much with the media. That said, I did manage to turn up in a few places, as well as publish my bi-monthly column, Service Provider Views for TMCnet.

- Chicago Sun-Times - Ifbyphone profile story

- IT World Canada - Q9 Networks privatization

- Ottawa Business Journal - Espial outlook in IPTV market

- Service Provider Views - "Ribbit - Why BT's $105 Million Was Well Spent"

- Service Provider Views - "Platform Play Updates - Solid Proof Points for Service Providers"


Technorati tags: J Arnold & Associates, Jon Arnold

Fonolo Gets Some Airtime

For regular readers of my blog, you probably know I'm a fan of Fonolo. I'll be upfront and say I'm an Advisor, but that aside, you have to admit they've got a pretty cool application.

I don't do their PR, but feel obliged to share some great mainstream exposure the company got yesterday. As you may know, Fonolo is based here in Toronto, and CBC is our major national broadcaster. They do great work and have a wonderful radio program called Spark. It's got a solid following and they are a great showcase for how technology is impacting modern life.

The CBC produces first-rate public programming, and I have to say it's one of the nice things about Canada. The media is more democratized here and it's more open to varying points of view. NPR is the closest I can think of for a comparable service in the U.S., but I suspect CBC has a more mainstream and very loyal following. If I'm sounding a bit too pro-radio, I'm showing my true colors. Radio has always been my favorite medium - nothing beats it for immediacy and intimacy - and it's sooo low tech - and it's free!

With that little op-ed out of the way, let's get back to Fonolo. Their CEO - Shai Berger (who is on his honeymoon right now - congrats!) got a great feature spot to open up yesterday's program. I missed the broadcast, but you can listen to the podcast here. Fortunately it's the first segment of the show, and runs about 5 minutes. So just click and enjoy - and then go check out the video demo that Shai talks about during the interview.

And if this doesn't explain why Fonolo has got a good idea, let me know and I'll do it myself.


Technorati tags: Fonolo, CBC Spark, Jon Arnold, Shai Berger, Canada

BroadSoft Acquires VocalData

Interesting story from yesterday about BroadSoft acquiring what used to be known as VocalData. It's not huge news and hasn't received much attention, but for people like me who have followed these companies pretty much from the beginning, we notice.

You can tell I'm old school because I talk about VocalData. The more current explanation - which you can see in the press release - is that BroadSoft acquired "GENBAND's M6 Communication Applications Server" - formerly known as VocalData.

Genband - formerly General Bandwidth - is a story unto itself with a history of acquiring and divesting, and VocalData came along with their last big deal. I've never been able to figure out how all their moves really add up - and I'm not alone - but it's pretty clear they're steering now more towards the media gateway space and away from the applications space. Fair enough - it's very hard to be really good at both.

I haven't heard anything yet about how much the deal was worth, but I honestly can't imagine it was a lot, and very likely under $10 million. The important thing is that BroadSoft is consolidating what little is left among pureplay application server vendors. There was a time when the U.S. market had 3 major players - BroadSoft, Sylantro and VocalData, and I tracked them all when I covered this space at Frost & Sullivan. I always liked VocalData, but they couldn't keep pace, and in time, this became a two horse race.

I've long been friendly with both Sylantro and BroadSoft - and have attended their customer events - but most people would tell you that BroadSoft is the stronger player these days, and continues to innovate on many fronts. Adding VocalData pushes up their revenues and customer base - which the press release says now stands at 435. That's a pretty nice book of business, and I have a pretty good feeling that you'll be hearing about bigger and better deals from them before the year is out.

Before moving on, I should clarify that BroadSoft may be the #1 app server vendor for North America, but globally, Comverse/NetCentrex is bigger, mainly by virtue of some very large residential VoIP deployments in Europe.

Technorati tags: BroadSoft, Genband, Jon Arnold, VocalData, application servers

Inc Magazine - Top 5000 List/VoIP Companies

Colleague Garrett Smith had a post on Monday that I just saw and wanted to echo in case you missed it.

He cited Inc Magazine's current list of fastest growing companies. It covers the top 5000 in the U.S., which is a huge list, and it's something Garrett has been following for a while. His post cites the rising stars in the VoIP space, and it's worth reading to see where they stand in the rankings.

Of the top 10 in his list, I really only know 2 reasonably well - his own company, VoIP Supply, and Bandwidth.com. He also noted some familiar honorable mentions - M5, Grandstream and VoIP Logic.

I did an additional filter of my own, just on telecom companies, and have one more to add of note that has a strong VoIP focus - Genband.

I'm not familiar with many of the other companies here, so I could well be missing a few, but these are the ones that fall into my everyday purview. No doubt you'll find others of note if you care to wade through the lists.

Garrett has done most of the heavy lifting, though, and I trust his judgment enough to say this is a pretty good barometer of who's doing well in our space, at least in terms of what the mainstream business press is looking for.

If you want pick through the lists and shout out a few others we should know about, by all means, join the conversation.


Technorati tags: Inc Magazine, Garrett Smith, Jon Arnold, VoIP

Blackberry Bold - Rogers is First to Market

Just wanted to briefly share some news that will be of interest to any RIM watcher.

The much-hyped Blackberry Bold was launched yesterday here in Toronto by Rogers, and is worth citing for a few reasons. I'm not much of gadget guy, but the Bold is a big deal, and I'll just wave the flag a bit here to say that Rogers is the first operator in North America to offer it. We're not winning a lot of medals in Beijing (although it's been a very good week!), and it's nice to talk about being first in something.

I wasn't at the launch, but local colleague Jim Courtney was, so I'll leave it to him to tell you about it first-hand. Jim knows RIM very well and had a great writeup about the launch that was posted last night.

Aside from the fact that Jim's post is a good read on the launch event and what the Bold means for Rogers (more than you might think), it was published as a guest post on GigaOm. That was really great to see in terms of giving Jim's post tremendous visibility and letting the world know that Canada does get its share of firsts.

An interesting subtext to this launch is the ever-evolving battle between Rogers and Bell for supremacy in Ontario, as well as nationally on the wireless front. Rogers has a killer one-two punch with the iPhone and now the Bold that keeps them top of mind in both the consumer and business markets.

Bell, of course, is trying to re-invent itself in the wake of privatization, and a big part of that has been their very new and very different branding campaign that's re-positioning them as a leading edge provider. And if you're local, you'll know why I said "providER". Lots to talk about there, but another time - this post is about steering you to Jim's review. Enjoy.


Technorati tags: RIM, Blackberry Bold, Jon Arnold, Jim Courtney, Rogers, GigaOm

Nortel Acquires DiamondWare

Got another acquisition story to tell you about, and one that I'm really glad to share on a few fronts. This morning, Nortel announced its acquisition of DiamondWare, one of those really cool, stealth-type companies most people have never heard about. Most - but not all. They were nice enough to cite me in the press release, and it probably helped that I'm one of those few people who have heard about DiamondWare.

This story has been a long time in the making, and I'm pretty certain that I'm the only industry analyst who has had direct exposure to both DiamondWare and Nortel's web.alive collaboration initiative. I'm not going to rehash the details, but you can read more about DiamondWare in my post from early last year, and web.alive in my post from May summarizing the highlights of an analyst/media day that Nortel hosted in Ottawa.

If you read these posts, you'll see that based on my experiences with both companies why this deal makes so much sense. It's great validation for DiamondWare, who cut its teeth on leading edge work for the US military, some of which has found commercial use in Second Life as well as most of the major gaming platforms. In my mind, if you can master these environments, enterprise applications should be relatively easy.

For Nortel, this is very nice evidence of the "new Nortel", and is the kind of acquisition that can return them to the forefront of innovation. In financial terms, it's a small deal - $7 million cash and up to $3 million for performance - but in technology value, it's much bigger. The traditional voice business is tough going for anyone battling Cisco, Avaya, etc. head-on, where margins are getting smaller and the number of competitors keeps growing. With web.alive and Project Chainsaw, Nortel is pushing the boundaries and by locking up great technology like DiamondWare, I think they've got a prime opportunity to define Communications 3.0 for the business market.

I'd say chalk one up in the win column for Nortel, and congrats to Keith Weiner and the DiamondWare team who have labored obscurely out in the desert - literally - Arizona - and now have a place to really shine.

As a footnote, to learn more about Project Chainsaw, you should check out their blog, which officially launched today.

On a personal note, I'd like to close by saying it's been a good week for acquisitions I've had some connection to. In addition to this story, on Tuesday I posted about another company I was involved with looking for an exit - Micromethod, who was just acquired by Voxeo. Not sure who's next, but when things happen, I'll be sure to let you know.


Technorati tags: Nortel, DiamondWare, Jon Arnold, Project Chainsaw, collaboration, web.alive

Micromethod Acquired by Voxeo

Got some nice news to share about a former client that hit the wires this morning. Micromethod Technologies is a tiny company most of you have never heard about, and they've been quietly doing some leading edge work in the SIP server space.

Today, at their big industry event - SpeechTEK - Voxeo announced the acquisition of Micromethod. The news was a key highlight from their event today, and colleague Dan York provided a more detailed take on the Voxeo blog.

Last year, Micromethod engaged me to help find a buyer, and Voxeo was one of several companies we entered into discussions with. During this time I got to know Voxeo, and have since become a fan. Without getting into the details, it's a great fit for both companies. Micromethod gets exposure to a large customer base to put their applications/platform to work, and Voxeo gets some entry points into Asia as well as a tightly-knit developer team in China.

This deal came to fruition after my time with Micromethod, but I'm still very glad to see them get an exit and a home to keep their technology evolving. It's a good news story all around, and some nice validation that small startups can do well for themselves if they stick to their vision and hone in on the right targets.

Since we all have to make a living, I'll just leave you with this thought - if you're in a similar situation as Micromethod and need the benefit of a third party in this space, drop me a line. Similarly, if you're in Voxeo's shoes, and are looking for emerging companies with promising technology, I can probably be of help.


Technorati tags: Micromethod, Voxeo, Jon Arnold, SIP server, Dan York

Internet Telephony Expo - Will You Be There?

TMC's Fall edition of the IT Expo is just over a month away, and it's time to start talking it up. The IT Expo West 2008 will be in Los Angeles, and runs from September 16-18, and you can immerse yourself in the program at the event website.

The IT Expo has truly been a survivor and is still one of the best horizontal telecom events around, especially for the enterprise and SMB market. There is a healthy list of keynotes from market leaders, and it's especially nice to see Jonathan Christensen from Skype in that mix. Skype is certainly making strides in the business market, and it's great to see TMC adding disruptors like Skype to the program.

I'll be moderating a session on SMB VoIP on Thursday at 2pm, so please come see us if this topic is of interest. We've maxed out with six speakers from BandTel, Broadvox, Phone.com, M5, Packet 8 and VoSKY. That really covers the bases, so this should be time well spent.

Long-time industry colleague Ari Rabban will be speaking for Phone.com, and they present a really interesting solution for those looking for a web-based, hosted approach to voice services - either home or business. Ari also authors the Phone.com blog, and had a nice Q&A with TMC's Rich Tehrani the other day about his outlook for the market - it's a good read.

I'll have other posts leading up to the Expo as things develop, and as my other plans fall into place.

Until then, I'd also like to do a shout-out to welcome TMC's Dave Rodriguez to the blogsphere! Dave has been a strong advocate for me with TMC and it's great to see him blogging now. Looks like he just got going this month, and with cable being his focus, his blog is aptly titled Cable Content Connection. So far so good, and it looks like another nice addition to TMC's stable of blogs.


Technorati tags: TMC, IT Expo, Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates, VoIP, Ari Rabban, Dave Rodriguez

July Media Roundup

I recently started doing a monthly roundup of media citings and now that I'm back from vacation, here's a quick summary of where I turned up during the month of July.

Ottawa Business Journal - Espial's outlook after acquiring Kasenna: "Taking Stock: Espying a Tough Road Ahead"

Business Week - "Can Cingular's Savior Work His Magic at Vonage?"

Chicago Sun-Times - Ifbyphone profile: "Answering the Call"

ITWorld Canada - "Rogers iPhone Rates Draw Canadian Users' Ire"


In addition, the following articles and commentaries of mine were published during July:

Service Provider Views - "SMB VoIP Trends -- Q&A with John Macario, Part 2"

Service Provider Views - "Tier 2/3 Service Providers: Leading the Way with VoIP"

Unified Communications News - "Social Media Challenges Reside with Users, not Technology"

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