February-March Telecom Reseller 2013 M

TMTelecomResellerTelecomReseller

TELECOM RESELLERP.O. Box 1826Stuart, Florida 34995-1826

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VOLUME 27NUMBER 2 February/March 2013telecomreseller.com 800 667-8965

T H E V O I C E O F U N I F I E D C O M M U N I C A T I O N S

A

N E T W O R K S • I P / I P - P B X • V O I P • S I P • S O F T W A R E • S E R V I C E • M A I N T E N A N C E

MEDAK1MEDAKPage 11

ROYERPage 6ROYERPage 6

ROOTPage 5ROOTPage 5

CROSSOnlineCROSSOnline

OSIKABelowOSIKABelow

MUELLERPage 5MUELLERPage 5

©2013 GENBAND. All rights reserved.

GENBAND enables smarter communications for enterprise, delivering reliability, scalability and e�ciency. When it comes to your business, our experience matters.SMARTER

MAKING NETWORKS

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CISCO LIVEOrlando, FLJune 23–27

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CLOUD COMMUNICATION

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FOSE 2013May 14–16

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ENTERPRISECONNECT

Orlando, FLMarch 18–21

FLANAGANPage 17FLANAGANPage 17

RUFFINPage 30RUFFINPage 30

LYNC REPORT INSIDE UNLEASHING NETFLOW PAGE 17 VIDEO CONFERENCING PAGE 5

BYRD

OSIKA

Understanding fi ve nines

By David Byrd, CMO, ANPI

Five nines or 99.999% has always been an overused and not understood stan-dard for discussing availability. At

best the use is often inaccurate, misleading or not applicable. A network is designed, built and operated with the goal of deliver-ing 99.999% network availability to cus-tomers. This uptime commitment translates to a downtime of 5.256 minutes per year.

To achieve this level of network availability much time is spent on ana-lyzing design and supporting equipment. However, there are a number of factors that affect availability. These include the loss of electrical power resulting in routers and servers powering down with most phones also turning off, software availability, and operational support process management to minimize human errors.

See BYRD, page 14

Mobile carriers,key trends promise painand prospects

By Chris Osika, Senior Director, Global Lead, Service Provider Practice, Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG)

Mobile carriers face no shortage of pain points as new datastreams create unprecedented and stag-

gering amounts of information. But it is important to remember they often arrive in tandem with new opportunities.

From my perspective, observing the driving forces shaping the mobile indus-try, some key trends stand out. All are laced with challenges and opportunities, and each represents a core element in an interconnected system that is pushing the entire marketplace forward while demand-ing innovative breakthroughs in monetizing and optimizing data.

Video. We are already seeing where it becomes mainstream on multiple devic-es. Its mobile and nomadic consumption,

See OSIKA, page 28

BYRDUnderstanding Understanding fi ve nines

By David Byrd, CMO, ANPI

By Chris Osika, Senior Director, Global Lead, Service Provider

Fragmentationin the

Call CenterPage 15

snom devices work seamlessly in any unifi ed communications environment. Add a new dimension of voice functionality to your communications and future-proof your network with snom. One step beyond.

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TMTelecomReseller TMTelecomResellerTelecomResellerMUELLER ROOTHuman factor in workforce optimization

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By Tim Root, CTO and EVP of new business development for Revolabs

There are a variety of videoconfer-encing solutions available for both individual and group use, from com-

pact, portable products for the desktop to more expensive, fi xed solutions for the conference room. When it comes to audio, however, they all have one have thing in common: limitations that directly affect the user experience and effectiveness of the meeting. Fortunately, each of these limita-tions can be directly addressed with the right wireless microphone system.

For individual users, executive desktop systems typically combine fi xed cameras, speakers, microphones and an integrated video codec all in one unit, while utilizing a PC display for the incoming video. These solutions represent a small portion of the

Audio limitations in videoconferencingsolutions

market, but their form factor has made them popular with senior management or educational and medical applications. With the rise of platforms such as Skype and FaceTime, videoconferencing via a laptop or desktop PC has become increasingly common in the enterprise -- all that’s need-ed is a network connection. These applica-tions have also made it simple to extend the experience to mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones.

The downside of these solutions is that to achieve quality audio, users will most likely have to rely on a cumbersome head-set that leaves them tethered to their work-space. In executive desktop systems, the built-in microphones work well, but they are intended for private, closed-door envi-ronments. Once you lose the privacy, you

See ROOT, page 6

By Marco Mueller, Chief Operating Manager, ASC telecom

The increasing prevalence of work-force optimization (WFO) is creating a change in both the quality of cus-

tomer service and impact of contact centers on an enterprise-wide basis. The informa-tion gleaned from agent interactions can be used to identify trends, adjust campaigns, improve processes and even affect product development.

Tools such as speech analytics, e-learn-ing and coaching, and workforce manage-ment are being used to expand quality management and communications record-ing, but their essential power derives from providing insight into what the customer wants and how to provide it.

WFO solutions recognize the fi nal out-come of customer service is inextricably tied to a human interaction. How that devel-

ops is based on a wide variety of factors centering on the agents’ performance and their ability to meet customer needs.

WFO systems handle agents as unique individuals through e-learning and coach-ing modules designed to determine and address the unique strengths and weakness-es of each one. The ability to push training to agents in a customized manner creates a loop of continual learning, allowing reps to make progress by focusing on the weakest links in their capabilities.

Workforce optimization also recognizes the centrality of a happy, knowledgeable customer representative, so unlike previous systems the agent is fully incorporated into the evaluation process. Agents can contest supervisor evaluations by requesting a second opinion, and customer feedback modules can be used to provide or deny verifi cation.

See MUELLER, page 28

February/March 2013 6 Telecom Reseller

ROYERSocial media/telemarketing scams: The dark side for the elderly?By Diane Royer

Many of us get excited over new social media applications or soft-ware that improves the success

of overall communication operations and the customer experience. I’m clearly one of those people who thrive on learning about communication apps that drive great-er business value while also having the cutting-edge factor. Unfortunately, there’s sometimes a dark side to good things.

With the rapid increase in the number of senior citizens who are delving into social media and actively using their mobile devices for regular communications, they are now becoming an even bigger target for scams. So who is looking into ways to make it safer and easier for them to enjoy the Internet , social media and new com-munication devices?

Retirees age 65 and older are the fastest-

growing group of social networkers on sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace, according to a 2012 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project. The report found that 40 per-cent of Internet users older than 65 use Facebook, up 150 percent since 2009. The great part is that seniors can use social media to keep up with family members and not feel so disconnected or alone. The downside is that they can fall easy prey to scams and get ripped off from unscrupulous Internet prac-tices such as phishing and pop-ups.

Telemarketing fraud has cost victims more than $40 billion a year, and much of that comes from seniors. Scam artists target them because they are often more willing to continue a conversation—they may live alone, have free time to talk, be less likely

to hang up the phone because they see that as rude, may have memory impairment, or may be more trusting.

My dad is 90 years old and he enjoys cruis-ing the Internet to read the latest news stories and get his email. I’ve given him all the warn-ings about those crazy pop-ups that try to lure you to sites or trick you to buy things.

To help with some of those annoy-ing telemarketing callers that are some-times hard for a kind-hearted senior citizen to hang-up and disconnect the call, I’ve just heard about an Easy Hang-up Device. Basically it’s a simple button that you can press. It then plays a pre-recorded message and disconnects the call.

Turning the focus back to the developers of social media apps, computer software

ROOTContinued from page 5

lose the quality. For PC audio, microphone pick-up tends to be extremely poor due to noise from the moving motor of the hard drive, internal fan, and electronic noise from the motherboard. Most of the time, the audio experience is going to be very poor.

In all of these videoconferencing appli-cations, utilizing a compact wireless wear-able microphone with accompanying ear-bud can provide the desired audio quality without the bother of a tethered headset, while providing the additional benefi t of unchaining users from their desks. For tablets and smartphones Bluetooth solu-tions are useful, while plug-and-play USB units are perfect for PCs as they allow for simple setup in seconds without the hassle of installing drivers.

Dedicated videoconferencing solutions for group use are generally more sophis-ticated but they too have limitations. In smaller conference rooms, the systems typically used are generally equipped with decent wired microphones and speakers. However, a wired microphone is a prob-lem in collaborative applications, where someone might need to leave the confer-ence table to use a whiteboard or present slides. Once they leave, the microphone quality fades quickly. Wireless systems that support one or two microphones work well in these settings to augment the wired solutions on the table. In particular, those systems with support for an external audio input with echo cancellation and noise reduction will provide the highest audio quality. To move freely about the room and still be heard, wearable microphones or XLR adaptors for dynamic handheld microphones can be used.

In medium to large conference rooms, the table microphones that come with the typical dedicated system are simply not enough for the space. They need to be aug-mented with higher density 4- or 8-channel wireless systems that can support a large number of microphones in one area without interference. Systems that utilize the DECT protocol are a good choice. Unlike UHF and Wi-Fi products that need to be manu-ally recalibrated to a new frequency when they encounter interference, DECT micro-phones automatically look for and change frequencies themselves.

While the microphones included with videoconferencing solutions might not be of poor quality, they are often inadequate for the environment and application in which they are being used. This can eas-ily be overcome, however, by utilizing the right wireless microphone system with your videoconferencing in any setting. ☎Contact the author at [email protected].

programs and communication devices – wouldn’t it be useful to have software programs with pop-up/audible reminders and guidance for seniors to avoid some of the latest scams? For the annoying telemar-keting calls, I can envision an outsourcing service that takes care of things like put-ting that senior on the do-not-call list. For those pesty scam callers, it would capture the phone number and then call back with a pre-recorded warning message and also send an alert fi le to family caretakers.

Is anyone else experiencing these prob-lems with your elderly relatives? I would love to hear your views on how to increase communication access points for them while minimizing their vulnerability and risks. ☎Follow me on Twitter @ Royer_Edge.

POWER

Telecom Reseller 7 February/March 2013

800.797.2983www.a1teletronics.com

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As an Independent Distributor, A1 Teletronics, Inc. is not affiliated with the manufacturers of the products it sells except as expressly noted otherwise. Any and all trademark rights associated with the manufacturers’ names and products are owned by the respective manufacturers.

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A1 Teletronics can help you preserve the life of your telecom equipment and save you from having to invest in new systems through our repair services and refurbished equipment.

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TE S T E D

Emerson network power

Emerson Network Power, provider for protection and optimization of infra-structure for IT and telecommunica-

tions, is uniquely positioned to understand the increasing convergence of voice and data. They released an infographic that illustrates just how rapidly convergence is happening and what it means for consumers and providers.

“The speed of the mobile revolution has been relatively well-documented, but it isn’t until you stop and look at the data that you understand what has happened over the last decade,” said Scott Barbour, executive vice president. “The distinction between voice and data is evaporating, and this infographic illustrates not only how quickly it has happened but what it means for providers and their customers.”

Some of the facts explored:• The world is more connected than ever

before. Advent of the smartphone has fundamentally changed the way consum-ers access information. For example, in 2007 consumers purchased almost 300 million PCs. In 2011 that number was 350 million but was surpassed by 360 million smartphones purchased.

• Consumers aren’t just buying mobile devices, they’re using them in huge num-bers. In 2007 about 1.1 billion people accessed the Internet from PCs and about 400 million from mobile devices. That gap will disappear this year, and by 2015 mobile access will outpace PC access by about 300 million users. About 33 percent of Facebook’s traffi c came from mobile devices last year, up from just 5 percent in 2008.

• Providers are racing to keep up. The change in behavior isn’t as simple as sell-ing more smartphones. Network require-ments are changing. The infrastructure that supports a 15-minute 4-megabyte phone call is drastically different from the one that supports 15-minute 150 giga-byte HD video. 4G download speeds can be anywhere from 4 to 10 times faster than 3G while reducing the cost per bit to providers by as much as 80 percent.To view the infographic as a PDF go to

tinyurl.com/ahntz8z. ☎For more visit emersonnetworkpower.com.

Tadiran receivesVMware Certifi cation

Tadiran Telecom announced that Aeonix, its software-based unifi ed communications and collaboration

solution, achieved VMware Certifi cation. This allows customers to deploy Aeonix in a virtual environment on-premise or a private cloud, minimizing IT overhead and footprint while enjoying the full range of functional-ity. The certifi cation followed successful implementations of the new Aeonix UC&C solution and an in-depth evaluation process, and demonstrates Tadiran's commitment to meet current and future challenges of distrib-uted organizations.

President and CEO Eldad Barak said, “Many customers need a high degree of con-trol over their datacenter or have strict secu-rity requirements. We have made deploying Aeonix simple, reliable and scalable, reduc-ing TCO. Integrated with VMware’s hosted technology, Aeonix will enable customers to enhance datacenters without compromising control or governance and obtain maximum agility for growth and integration of new solutions.” ☎For more visit tadirantele.com.

Tadiran receives

VMWARE


WEBRTC

By Lindsay Kintner, VP Product Management

Advances in technology and web browsers are establishing Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC) as

a new media format and standard. Customers will be able to talk to agents as they shop or browse company websites from their home computer. Remote workers will be able to communicate with the home offi ce without need to deploy additional hardware such as an IP telephone. Mobile medical and fi eld support personnel will be able to transmit real-time video to other co-workers for visu-al inspection from mobile devices.

With the growth of mobile or home-based workers and the performance and functionality of smartphones, some are ask-ing, “Why invest in a PBX?” Enterprises will still need a telephony system, along with applications like contact centers and messaging systems for workers at physical offi ces. The task for UCC manufactur-ers like Tadiran Telecom is to develop gateways and application control that take advantage of WebRTC.

Tadiran sees it as an extension of the Aeonix UCC platform, the basic founda-tion of which is to decouple hardware from applications. It allows browser applications for voice calling, video chat and peer-to-peer fi le sharing without web plugins.

SIP communications have an inherent weakness. The devices are required to report their state to a call agent., which requires bandwidth, processing power, and is prone to failure (e.g. dropped packets, unsynchronized states). WebRTC removes

Tadiran’s vision on WebRTCthe state reporting from the device, using signaling via websockets which initialize and close communication requests, report network confi guration and media handling.

WebRTC is a peer-to-peer architecture. However, many companies require central-ized trunking for control, recording and eco-nomics. Remote workers will still be able to use it as a transport through the use of gate-ways that will convert calls from WebRTC at the company’s headquarters. Customers who are using it to communicate with the contact center will use these gateways to connect to agents within the company.

For mobile and remote workers, it will not make any sense to deploy WebRTC if it is not easy to use. They will require the same telephony functionality as with traditional or VoIP devices (e.g. answer, hold, conference, transfer, consult, mute). HTML5 and advances in web design will allow users to have call control as if they had a physical telephone.

Application deployment using WebRTC will be easier. With a laptop, tablet or mobile telephone using a supported brows-er, companies will be able to get workers up-and- running faster. Web-based appli-cations will be able to pass information regarding the caller between browser ses-sions, empowering workers.

Tadiran sees WebRTC as a continuing evolution of communications. As standards become fi nalized, products and applications will enhance the customer experience, ben-efi ting everyone. ☎For more visit tadiran.com.

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Avaya® CommunicationManager / Definity®Basic AdministrationTraining January 7-11

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Training Maintenance Equipment

April 1-5 April 15- 19 Call for Class Dates Call for Class Dates Call for Class Dates

By Walt Medak

Q Our company is getting ready to implement a new procedure wherein our call center agents

will need to transfer a caller to an outside resource, in this case various insurance companies. However, when I have made test calls it will allow the agent to transfer me to someone else internally but not to the outside. I’m sure it’s just a setting somewhere, but I’m new to this system and don’t know where to look.

A This is actually a simple fi x, but there are a lot of other issues to take into consid-

eration. First of all, the feature you are talk-ing about is called Trunk-to-Trunk Transfer. If you look at the system-parameters features screen, it is one of the fi rst options. It was usually set to “none” by default. Setting it to “all” would allow everyone to transfer an outside caller to another outside number. You can limit the ability to the call center agents leaving that setting as none and going into the COS screen and changing the setting “Trk-to-Trk Transfer Override” to “y” on the COS used by agents.

However, there was a reason it was nor-mally set up this way, and that is to help prevent toll fraud. Imagine if a call comes in and one of your agents transfers it outside.

The outbound call is coming from your system so it is billed to your company, not the original caller. It used to be common for someone to call in and say they were calling from the phone company and try to get whomever answered to transfer them back out to the operator. If the employee did that, the person calling in could then have the operator transfer them anywhere in the world and you would get stuck with the bill. It comes down to training agents to make sure they know the call that needs to be transferred to the outside is legitimate, and only transfer to numbers they know.

Q We are still using the old type of De� nity Audix voicemail system that takes up 5 slots in the

cabinet. There was an alarm in the system that the documentation said to try a reboot as the � rst step. I ran the command “reset system reboot” as it said, but now it appears to be down completely. I can’t get any response when I try to log in. What can I do?

A In the case of an emergency like you are having, the fi rst step would be to

press the BOOT/SHUTDOWN button on the front of the Audix. You will need a small screwdriver or other pointed object to push and hold the button for a few seconds.

MEDAK


Walt Medak & Associates, Inc. Walt Medak & Associates, Inc.


Learn about our training and maintenance programs at medak.com or contact [email protected] 800-452-6477 x3007

Avaya® CommunicationManager / Definity® Basic AdministrationTraining January 7-11





There is a small LCD display that should start fl ashing when the reboot sequence is started. The display should show that the system is going through a number of steps in the boot process including BTEST, BOOT, OSINIT and AINIT. When the sys-tem is up and running the display should show ADX to indicate the Audix software is running. The boot process can take 10 or 15 minutes, which seems like an eternity when you have people complaining that voicemail isn’t working.

If this doesn’t work, backing the Audix system out of the carrier and reseating it is a last resort. It is never recommended to unseat the Audix without doing a proper shutdown because it can corrupt the system software on the hard drive. Even if one of these pro-cedures is able to get the Audix rebooted and working again, it is probably time to start planning on a replacement voicemail system. It is getting very diffi cult to fi nd working parts for those old systems, not to mention that the tapes used for backups are essentially as extinct as the dinosaurs. ☎For more visit medak.com.

And as always, if you have any questions please call 800-452-6477.

Avaya Demystifi edBy Walt Medak

QOur company is getting ready to implement a

MEDAKAvaya Demystifi edAvaya Demystifi ed

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Grandstream new high density analog VoIP gateways PBX revenue falls despite demand,shipments growGrandstream, manufacturer of IP

voice/video telephony solutions, introduced new high density, high

performance analog VoIP gateways for SMBs with large voice call volume. The GXW42xx series supports Gigabit Ethernet for increased speed, backlit graphics LCD display and comes in four model sizes. The SIP-based VoIP gateway, with secu-rity protection and remote provisioning capability, offers a hybrid IP and analog telephone system that allows businesses to enjoy the benefi ts of VoIP communications while preserving investment in existing analog phones, fax machines and legacy PBXs.

Feature highlights include:• 16, 24, 32, and 48 telephone FXS port

support with both RJ11 and 50-pin telco connectors, as well as per port phone connection LED.

• 2 SIP server profi les per system and inde-pendent SIP account per port.

• Supported voice/fax codecs include G.711, G.723.1, G.726, G.729A/B, iLBC, T.38 Fax.

• Carrier-grade 128ms-tail-length line echo

Market research fi rm Infonetics Research released vendor

market-share and prelimi-nary analysis from its 4th quarter 2012 (4Q12) and year-end Enterprise Unifi ed Communications and Voice Equipment report.

“Following two years of modest growth, the PBX market had a tough 2012. While shipments grew, com-petitive pricing pressure per-sisted, driving down world-wide revenues, exacerbated by Europe’s tough economic conditions,” noted Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS. “On a brighter note, unifi ed communications ended the year on a high note, led by Microsoft and its Lync platform, We expect the PBX market to move back into positive territory in 2013 with moderate growth in addition to contin-

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for enhanced reliability (ITU-T K.21 Basic Test Level).

• Support VMWI, neon LED and stutter tone for message waiting indication.

• Automated provisioning using TR-069 or AES encrypted XML confi guration fi le; TLS/SRTP/HTTPS for security and privacy protection.“We are pleased to announce the new

gateways,” said David Li, CEO. “Analog VoIP gateways are useful transitional solu-tions for businesses that wish to preserve and maximize their investment in existing analog systems while taking their time to evaluate and migrate to an all IP-based infrastructure.” ☎For more visit grandstream.com.

ued strong adoption of UC applications by large and mid-market enterprises looking to improve fl exibility and productivity.” ☎To buy the report contact Infonetics at infonetics.com/contact.asp.


VERSADIAL

As an Independent Distributor, A1 Teletronics, Inc. is not affiliated with the manufacturers of the products it sells except as expressly noted otherwise. Any and all trademark rights associated with the manufacturers’ names and products are owned by the respective manufacturers.As an Independent Distributor, A1 Teletronics, Inc. is not affiliated with the manufacturers of the products it sells except as expressly noted otherwise. Any and all trademark rights associated with the manufacturers’ names and products are owned by the respective manufacturers.As an Independent Distributor, A1 Teletronics, Inc. is not affiliated with the manufacturers of the products it sells except as expressly noted


ISO 9001

AscdAscdA iNatdNatdNaThe global alliance of the it channel

Inc.



A1 Teletronics can help you preserve the life of your telecom equipment and save you from having to invest in new systems through our repair services. A1 technicians will diagnose and repair your equipment down to the component level if necessary, and will return your equipment backed by our 24-month warranty.

Enterprises GloballyEmpowering Small

Epygi Technologies, Ltd.6900 North Dallas Parkway, Suite 850Plano, Texas 75024

Epygi offers enterprise-grade, VoIP telephone systems starting at only $795 and can scale to 1,000 extensions.

Web: www.epygi.comPhone: (+1)972.692.1166 Email: [email protected]

Auto-provisioning with leading IP phone partnersAutomatic Call Distribution with barge-in Integrated video and voice conferencingBuilt-in call recordingDesktop Call Control

Attention IT managers: call recordingtechnology could make YOU the hero of your Organization (Part 1 of 3)By Corey Tolmaso� , Director of Marketing, Versadial Solutions

IT Managers are totally unappreciated in their time, aren’t they?

Keeping a large call center humming is no easy feat, but it certainly looks that way on the surface. That is, until something stops working and you get the call that the “Gizmo’ isn’t working right, never works right and is ruining the operator’s life.”

Geez, where’s the appreciation for ensuring that every arm of the “Great Mechanical Octopus” is doing its job?

Where’s the praise for making sure the four right hands know what the four left hands are doing?

Wouldn’t it be great if you could give everyone in your organization something to rave about, instead of just something to rant about? The answer could lie in a tech-nology that’s been available for years, but which some call centers still aren’t using…

The Hidden Cost of NOT Using Call Recording Technology

Everyone gets excited about new tech-nologies; especially when those technolo-gies make peoples’ jobs less stressful and more productive. People also love anything that helps them earn more money for the company or for themselves.

The sales manager wants to make more sales, the CFO wants something positive to report on the company earnings sheet, and the owner defi nitely loves seeing more money on the books. A dependable call recording and archiving system can accom-plish all of these quite nicely.

Yes, “call recording technology…” sounds like just another geek toy, doesn’t it? And at the price tag of at least $5,000, it might not seem “cost effective” to invest in it…especially if you’ve been getting along fi ne without it.

But that’s where the hidden cost of NOT having call recording technology comes in. If your sales manager is worth their salt, call recording technology could reasonably increase their rep productivity and retention rate while increasing overall company sales and cutting back dramatically on customer service “emergencies.”

There are three reasons for this…Reason #1: Call Recording Technology

Means Better Than Real Time TrainingConsistent training and improvement is

the only way to build a highly productive and low stress call center. This is true in customer service and in sales. You can’t improve what you’re not monitoring and measuring, and there’s no way even the best manager can be in all places at once to monitor every call.

But with the right call recording technol-ogy, they can quickly dial up ANY conver-sation, from ANY rep and from ANY date, just with the click of a few buttons.

Then, they simply call the representa-tive into their offi ce and highlight the places where the rep could have handled the call better. This accomplishes more training in 5 minutes than what would normally be accom-plished through hours of sales meetings.

Everyone learns better through specifi c, customized training examples, especially when the example is extracted from a live experience.

Call recording technology allows a man-ager to recreate the real life experience so that the representative can sit on the outside and observe the places where they could have communicated more clearly, more vividly and (if the call was a sales call) with more urgency and/or enthusiasm.

This could turn even an average rep into an above average rep in a very short time. Multiply that by a factor of 12, or 20 or 50, and you end up with a more effi cient call center, and you get there much quicker than you could have through generalized training.

In the next two articles of this series, we’ll discuss the second and third way to boost your company ROI using call record-ing technology.

Stay tuned . . . ☎For more visit versadial.com.


STRATEGY

S I M P L E R S M A R T E R V O I C E

Your customers would love to know they could do more with recording than just capturing voice. So show them the verylatest innovations from Red Box Recorders. We offer Quantify – great value software-based recording that’s a dream to install. With it, customers can take advantage of a full set of superb easy-to-use applications. What’s more, Red Boxupdates come free with support, excellent for making the most of existing systems. Call us now on +1 (212) 209 1020 or go towww.redboxrecorders.com/tr

Red Box Recorders Tel: +1 (212) 209 1020 [email protected] www.redboxrecorders.com

We’ve loads of fresh things to tell your customers about.



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Aspect Software announces strategic partner-ship with leading back offi ce optimization

Aspect Software, a leading provider of next generation customer contact and enterprise workforce optimi-

zation announced an equity partnership with back offi ce optimization software and services expert eg solutions, plc. The agree-ment provides Aspect exclusive distribu-tion rights to eg’s products and services in the Americas and the Asia Pacifi c region and formalizes the partnership model for both companies to address customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

“As the number of back offi ce work-ers continues to grow in organizations, managers are being asked to improve pro-ductivity, cut costs, optimize employee utilization and reduce risk, while at the same time improve the customer experi-ence. Back offi ce workforce optimization (WFO) suites have emerged in the last two years to assist enterprises with this chal-lenge,” says Donna Fluss, DMG Consulting president and contact center/back offi ce industry analyst. “These suites are based on contact center staff optimization concepts and techniques that have been enhanced to address the dynamics of the back offi ce.” Fluss cautions that WFO solutions “can be highly effective as long as they are custom built to take into account the unique char-acteristics and needs of the back offi ce.” It is the recognition of that market need that brought Aspect and eg together.

Aspect is the leader in workforce man-agement, offering capabilities to align peo-ple’s time and skills for best-in-class cus-tomer interactions with the contact center. The eg partnership creates the ability for Aspect to ensure that the people, processes

and tasks that support these interactions across both the front and back offi ce can optimize the total customer experience.

“The market is looking for a single solu-tion to optimize the many different resourc-es and tasks that affect customers directly or indirectly. Aspect will now be able to seamlessly orchestrate the people and processes that fl ow within and between the back offi ce and front offi ce to optimize how service is delivered,” says Spence Mallder, senior vice president, general manager of the Workforce Optimization division and chief technology offi cer at Aspect. “eg’s

See ASPECT SOFTWARE, page 22

BYRDContinued from page 1

Power availability can be addressed through the installation of uninterruptable power supplies and generators. Phones can be plugged into a UPS or have internal bat-teries. While there are multiple approved methods for estimating hardware reliability with the parts count method and mean time between failure analysis being the most common, there is no such accepted method-ology for estimating software availability. Therefore, this is measured over time. As a software package accumulates runtime, bugs and code defects can be corrected. It is also important that the software has a quick restart time or the fi ve nines target becomes increasingly elusive.

Finally, there is human error. Having good processes for maintenance, change management, provisioning, network moni-toring, fault detection and repair can mini-mize this. In addition to stringent and well-developed processes, human error is also addressed through higher levels of expertise and experience.

A network can be designed to meet the 99.999% availability but due to all of the factors that can affect it, actual ser-vice delivery is usually estimated between 99.9% and 99.99%. However, defi ning ser-vice delivery in terms of minutes of down-time per year misses the most important point. Service interruptions cost money, time and potentially lives, and users want the service to be available when they need it. Therefore, a service provider must view availability as an absolute requirement and make every effort to meet the standard. Through continuous improvement and dili-gence such a goal can be met. ☎Contact the author at [email protected].


CHANNELTHE CONTACT CENTERFragmentation in the contact centerPart 1: How fragmentation affects your customerBy Rick McFarland, CEO, Voice4Net

One of the most frustrating chal-lenges facing contact centers today is fragmentation, characterized by

pockets of customer information collected by disparate applications that don’t always interact or integrate with another. Imagine an operation with ACD phone solution from one vendor, IVR from a different one, live web chat from yet another, a text, email or social media solution introduced into the mix from a completely different source, and an agent desktop solution that existed before most of these newer systems were added. This, the fi rst in a three-part series, examines how non-integrated solutions can be a detriment to your organization’s ability to provide superior customer service.

Under the scenario above, it’s not hard to imagine why throughout a call the cus-tomer has had to repeat the same basic information multiple times. This occurs because none of this data was harvested, either through recognition of the phone number from which the customer called or by automatically carrying the information from one application to another. With each repetition the customer’s patience steadily diminishes, and his or her view of the com-pany continues to sour in direct proportion to the level of frustration. This is only made worse when the contact is a service call and the customer was already frustrated to begin with. On the other end, the agent has six or seven different applications open

at once, each utilizing a different OS and GUI, and over time has had to learn, man-age and become profi cient in every one.

Chances are the company deployed these systems for all the right reasons: to increase productivity, remain current in technol-ogy, and push the cutting edge in customer relationship management. Yet ironically they are often left with quite the opposite, a contact center rich in diverse technology, however poor the customer care. In other words, an environment of several heteroge-neous systems but a fragmented operation.

The danger of this is the negative impact it creates across the constituents and func-tions of the center. Think about the impact on the agent, who is expected to juggle these disparate systems. What’s the detri-mental impact on call duration, and how does that lower productivity? What’s the impact on supervisors, who must allocate people and resources with call volumes that ebb and fl ow? What’s the extended impact on the company from a cost and image perspective? And most importantly, what is the impact on the customer, whose call experiences are being defi ned by this prevailing ineffi ciency?

For a fi nal dash of irony, these scenarios are playing themselves out every day with-in work environments driven by mission statements that claim to put the customer fi rst. How can the company realistically champion the customer when its contact center consistently creates precisely the

opposite: call experiences that leave cus-tomers increasingly frustrated even before human contact has been made? How can a company purport to put the customer fi rst when fragmented technology unwittingly puts customer’s needs last?

If the situation were not so pervasive and universal and yet totally avoidable, one could hardly believe it to be true. And how risky is this situation with today’s instanta-neous social media, where frustrated cus-tomers can quickly make their opinions public, asking, “Why am I doing business with this company when they can’t even get their systems to talk to each other?”

Companies can ill-afford even one disil-lusioned customer, let alone multiple and digitally-vocal ones. Don’t be vulnerable to such criticisms and their long-term effects. Smart business owners should pinpoint areas of fragmentation in their solutions and fi nd a way to bridge technologies or they will suffer. ☎Part 2 to follow: Root Causes of Fragmentation

GET YOUR OWN DELIVERED FOR

FREEVisit www.telecomreseller.com

Anpi channel program

Anpi, provider of wholesale long-distance, data and carrier solutions to ILECs, CLECs and wireless

operators throughout the United States, has launched a program (APP) to support VARs and agents in selling their products. It provides the opportunity for partners to expand their offerings to attract new cus-tomers and extend cost-savings to existing ones. With each sale APP pays a bonus and provides monthly recurring revenue in the form of sales commissions. The program provides a comprehensive onboarding pro-cess, dedicated sales support, online quot-ing tools and account management portal.

Don Kinison, vice president of business sales, said, “At Anpi we are continuously improving our ability to collaborate, inno-vate and deliver. Our employees and part-ners endeavor daily to meet the challenges of our industry.”

They are recruiting members for the program nationwide as the product can be sold anywhere in the contiguous United States. Six initial channel managers have been hired in each region of the country to localize support for members. Additional ones will be added to ensure coverage and support for the indirect channel are respon-sive to their needs.

Chad Krantz, national channel director, added, “I am excited to have the oppor-tunity to lead the channel team and build strong partnerships. The managers and pro-gram will be indispensable as our company endeavors to address the broader needs of the marketplace including communications, collaboration, connectivity, business conti-nuity and security.” ☎For more visit anpi.com.

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FLANAGAN

Unleashing the power of

NetFlow and IPFIX:A practical guideAuthor: Michael Allen Patterson and seven contributors Softcover: 155 pagesPublisher: Plixer International, Inc. (2012)ISBN-13: 978-0-615-68964-7List Price: $40 from Plixer at plixer.com/Book- Order-Form.pdf

Reviewed by William Flanagan

The value in this small volume is the practicality of its guidance. The author clearly knows his stuff and

shares his insight with the reader. For example, there are recommendations for choosing between NetFlow and IPFIX based on what you want to monitor and what information you want to collect.

See FLANAGAN, page 27

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Gigamon turns big data into manageable data

Gigamon, provider of traffi c visibil-ity solutions with their Visibility Fabric architecture, announced a

development that transforms Big Data into manageable data for mobile carriers. It is intended to facilitate a cost-effective solu-tion for connecting single or multiple 40Gb and 100Gb pipes to 10Gb and 1Gb analytic tools. This technology, under development, will be able to take the network traffi c fl owing through the large pipes and control the volume of data being forwarded to the tools. The process will reproduce the data on a smaller scale, retaining its stateful condition with session awareness. Single tools can then effectively process through-put of what was originally 100Gb or 40Gb traffi c fl ows.

When commercially available, this will work in tandem with Gigamon’s Flow Mapping and GigaSmart applications tech-nologies. Flow Mapping enables fi ltering of individual network traffi c packets that are forwarded according to a set of user-defi ned rules optimized to provide cus-tomers with granularity and scalability. GigaSmart applications modify, manipu-late, transform and transport packets, along with the information they carry, in order

See GIGAMON, page 28

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THE CHANNEL MILESTONE

By Carl Ford, CEO of Cross� re Media

Do you remember the comedy of the Old Philosopher Eddie Lawrence? It listed a litany of woes and then

he would end with the line, “Never give up, never give up, never give up that ship?”

The problem we are facing is that the ship, the PBX hardware, has become a bit of a boat anchor.

Let’s face it. We have been doing VoIP now for over a decade and features and functions are not much different than they were in the 60s. When I worked on the fi rst Class 5 softswitch, our partners came in and said, “Give me Class 5 features and forget the rest of the switch”. This was a California company and if they could not imagine doing more than simply mimicking existing technology it should have come as a warning sign.

In the Enterprise, it was easier to sell when the customer wanted a bunch of executive handsets at every “exec’s” desk. Now you walk into the customer’s premises and they are talking on their smartphone. I have had conversations with CIO’s who swear to me that they are controlling their employee’s choices while pulling out their own (personal) smartphones to answer an internal call: so much for control.

Clearly the world has changed since the iPhone was introduced. Smartphones ads should borrow from the Swiffer commer-cials and have the desktop phone look for-saken and placed in a corner like the old mop.

The folks at Unifi ed Offi ce have an inter-esting approach that may bring relevance back to the concept of corporate commu-nication. Unlike the companies offering unifi ed communications, which is often nothing more than a band-aid on the exist-ing system, Unifi ed Offi ce starts with the premise of managing the BYOD. It’s like the “unPBX” for wireless. The principle notion is that in this age of Mobile Device Management, and other terms for say-ing the premises is virtual, Unifi ed Offi ce enables smart clients on mobile devices to be the entire story. They are also rolling out a suite of HTML5 applications that allow you to build the “ultimate” virtual offi ce. If you had a “greenfi eld” customer and they wanted to start fresh, Unifi ed Offi ce could make it so no handsets were needed at all.

On the other hand, if the customer has equipment they want to augment, Unifi ed Offi ce is agnostic and can live beside the legacy. For one particular school district, they integrated with the school’s intercom system making it so the teachers’ iPads were interfaced in such a way that they could make announcements whether they were at home or in the classroom. That could also be of value to schools concerned with the equivalent of an internal reverse 911 for example.

Unifi ed Offi ce is also a managed service with great diagnostics on what impacts the quality of the voice call and has been known to identify carriers’ practices that inhibited good quality to get those carriers to modify their confi guration. After all,

You don’t have to become extinct(Just because your products are at the end of their life cycle)

some carriers are pretty smart about how they deploy those dumb pipes.

If you have legacy systems, where the customer is looking at you and the old system like the mop in the Swiffer commer-cial, I recommend you take a look at what Unifi ed Offi ce can do to bring you back to a new life cycle. You don’t want to be swept away like the old mop.

Carl Ford is CEO of Crossfi re media. He can be reached at carl@crossfi remedia.com. ☎For more visit www.uni� edo� ce.com/.

telecomreseller.compodcast

PODCASTS

En Pointe Technologies announced its 20th anniversary at its annual national sales meeting. Employees

and partners gathered while participating in educational workshops, sales training and network events that explored solutions around the desktop, data center, virtualiza-tion, cloud, security, networking and device management.

“Over the past twenty years we have been through exciting times and a few challenging moments, but we advanced, overcame, and continue to innovate, grow and improve,” said chairman and CEO Bob Din. “As the business landscape continues

En Pointe celebrates twenty yearsto change we will continue to adapt, make internal changes and add new innovative offerings.”

In 1985 Din established himself in the IT channel with a ComputerLand franchise in Los Angeles. In 1993 he launched En Pointe, growing it from revenues of $19M in year one to a public company in 1996. By 1999 they grossed nearly $700M.

“Congratulations to En Pointe on their 20th anniversary, a major accomplishment for any company in the IT industry,” said Dick Csaplar, senior research analyst, virtu-alization and the cloud, Aberdeen Group. ☎For more visit enpointe.com.

Many outsourcers will disappear, but which ones and how fast?

Gartner predicts that by 2014 market consolidation will displace up to 20 percent of the top 100 IT services

providers. In fact, in the past fi ve years, the infrastructure outsourcing (IO) market has experienced a tough market environment with limited growth in most geographies.

In the report “Market Insight: The Five Regrets of the Dying Infrastructure Outsourcing Service Provider,” Gianluca Tramacere, research vice president, said traditional IO providers are at serious risk of extinction. On one hand, the traditional approaches are unable to deliver continu-ous cost reductions to clients or operational effi ciencies to service providers and the model is not producing the fi nancial returns expected by most IT outsourcing providers. On the other, the new industrialized cloud-oriented models are still a work in progress.

In the past decade many outsourcers have procrastinated, failing to make the changes needed to transform challenges into opportunities. Many will disappear, some slowly, some rapidly. But the ques-tion is, which ones and how fast?

As IO continues its journey toward industrialization, there are outsourcers’ regrets, which will result in their own com-placency or inability to timely act, and they will not survive.1 We should have built, validated and

implemented a long-term strategy.2 We should have rationalized the portfolio

and adopted service lifecycle manage-ment processes.

3 We wish we had aligned and connected our sales force to our strategy, portfolio and delivery capability.

4 We should have gutted the marketing function and rebuilt it so that it could articulate the tangible value we deliver.Traditional infrastructure outsourcers

can no longer survive in their current state. The market won’t allow it and customers are demanding much more. CIOs and IT leaders must take immediate action. Those that fail to do so or remain complacent about actions they have started but not com-pleted are very likely to disappear through a merger, acquisition or divesture. ☎For more visit gartner.com/resId=2338015.

Many outsourcers will

FORECAST

A

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He prefers to use email

And I’m his preferred agent

His emails get routed to me

I check his contact history

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Makes him happy

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PARTNER NEWS



ISO 9001


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Solutions integrator NACR has deployed an Enterprise Session Border Controller (E-SBC) from

Ingate Systems for a large-scale call cen-ter installation. It replaced an existing one in order to handle the high call volume required by the customer.

Ingate SIParator 95, a high-performance, high-capacity E-SBC that enables secure SIP communication such as SIP trunk-ing and unifi ed communications applica-tions beyond the enterprise network, was deployed. It can handle up to 1,800 concur-rent voice calls and supports 50 call setups per second.

“The customer required a solution to accommodate the signifi cant increase in call volume,” said Tom Roel, Pre-Sales Convergence Engineer, NACR. “We found that Ingate offered a cost-effective E-SBC that would commit to the call setup rate.”

The SIParator’s SIP Proxy provided protocol normalization and also TCP to UDP conversion, which allows for reliable

transmission of data.“Ingate E-SBCs enable SIP trunking

quickly, easily and cost-effectively,” said Steven Johnson, President. “We are thrilled to work with NACR in installations that meet every customer’s needs.” ☎For more visit ingate.com.

NACR deploys Ingate E-SBC

COLWELLWILL BE BACKNEXT MONTH


GENBAND, a leading developer of mul-timedia and cloud communications solu-tions, announced a unique alliance with Samsung Telecommunications America, LLC (Samsung Mobile) that creates a sig-nifi cant evolution for the enterprise com-munications experience. By integrating Samsung Mobile’s market-leading SAFE (Samsung for Enterprise) designated devic-es with GENBAND’s SMART OFFICE mobile Unifi ed Communications (UC) applications, these companies are bring-ing a “SAFE, SMART, and SIMPLE” user experience to the enterprise, creat-ing mobile solutions that extend or even replace the standard offi ce communications environment. The solution delivers voice, data, and video communications and col-laboration capabilities on Samsung SAFE devices to fully mobile-enable the enter-prise market.

“This alliance with GENBAND brings powerful new communications capabilities to the enterprise, fortifying today’s mobile workforce with unprecedented on-the-go productivity,” said Tim Wagner, Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise Sales at Samsung Mobile. “Our SAFE solution, which enhances security for enter-prise devices, combined with GENBAND’s

industry leading UC software and service provider expertise, offers enterprise cus-tomers a holistic, innovative and cost-effec-tive desk phone complement or replace-ment solution that will allow employees to carry their communications environment with them, whether inside or outside of the offi ce.”

SAFE represents Samsung Mobile’s ever-growing family of enterprise solutions that include the necessary security and fea-ture enhancements suitable for business use – on highly desirable devices recognized worldwide.

“Enterprise communications are quickly evolving to include mobile devices and the cloud, yet services are not integrated,

UNIFED MARKETS

making enterprises primed for the next wave of disruptive, innovative mobile UC technologies,” said Sam Waicberg, Chief Marketing Offi cer at GENBAND. “Our relationship with Samsung, complemented by our SMART multimedia portfolio and partner ecosystem, clearly differentiates this solution from competitive offerings by simplifying and enhancing the enterprise user experience. Our vision is consistent with the vision of many CIO’s—a mobile tablet as the primary voice and multimedia communications device bundled with a car-rier grade, cloud-based UC service.

GENBAND plans to offer Samsung Mobile devices through its service provider customers and large systems integrator

GENBAND and Samsung mobile form alliance to deliver enhanced unifi ed communications solutions

The ONLY all-in-one Lync™ server appliance with a built-in VoIP gateway.

The integration of Sangoma’s NetBorder™ Express VoIP Gateway and Lync into a single, pre-loaded appliance greatly simplifi es Lync deployment. This one-of-kind single box solution makes Lync Ex-press stand alone in a category of its own in the Lync market.

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Polycom VVX business media phones

Polycom, provider of standards-based unifi ed communications and collabo-ration, unveiled their VVX 300 and

400 business media phones designed to improve productivity and facilitate col-laboration for offi ce and cubicle work envi-ronments such as call centers, front desks and administrative and corporate offi ces. The solutions extend the existing portfolio which also include business phones with video capabilities. New plug-in expansion modules for the VVX 300, 400, 500 and 600 also add more programmable line keys, making it easier for power users to manage a high volume of calls and contacts.

“Polycom VVX business media phones are an enterprise-grade solution that seam-lessly connects with employees’ exist-ing workfl ow and applications such as calendars and address books,” said Jim Kruger, Senior Vice President, Product and Solutions Marketing. “Having now shipped 10 million audio devices, our con-ference phones have brought billions of people together for more productive work outcomes.”

“The phones have collaboration features that give us the communication power we need at a price we can afford,” said Peter Nowak, President, Design Electric, a full-service electrical contractor specializing in commercial, industrial and residential buildings. ☎For more visit polycom.com.

Polycom VVX business POLYCOM

partners. Enterprises will have access to GENBAND’s Innovation Exchange, ensur-ing a constant stream of new UC solutions developed specifi cally for the enterprise community and industry verticals.

“Together with Samsung Mobile we are offering our 600 service provider customers and channel partners turnkey solutions for SAFE, SMART, and SIMPLE unifi ed com-munications,” said Charlie Vogt, President and CEO for GENBAND. “Our Samsung alliance and Making Networks Smarter approach will defi ne the ultimate mobile offi ce communications environment for the next decade and beyond.” ☎For more visit www.GENBAND.com/company/safe-smart-simple.


PODCASTS

MITEL NEWS UPDATEScientifi c publishing house Brill moves to a Mitel cloud solution

Mitel, a leading provider of cloud and premises-based unifi ed communica-tions software solutions, announced

that publishing house Brill is replacing its legacy communication platform with a Mitel cloud solution. The new system (designed, implemented and managed by Mitel partner Detron) aims to unify and simplify every-day communications for the company’s 150 employees around the world, and signifi -cantly improve their ability to engage, sup-port, and connect with their customers and suppliers regardless of location.

Marcel Prins, IT coordinator at Brill, said, “Our system was really dated and dif-

fi cult to manage. With locations in several countries and people working from differ-ent places, we were looking for a communi-cation platform that supports all our imme-diate needs, and gives us the fl exibility to grow and change in the future. The Mitel solution fi ts in our virtual strategy and will enable us to collaborate more effi ciently regardless of location.”

The publishing house, with a focus on scientifi c publications, replaced its legacy communication platform with the cloud-based Virtual Mitel Communications Director (vMCD) platform. Once fully implemented, the company’s teleworkers in Germany, Switzerland and the United States will be connected and integrated on a single system, centralizing and simplifying management, and fostering more effi cient communication and collaboration between

S I M P L E R S M A R T E R V O I C E

Your customers would love to know they could do more with recording than just capturing voice. So show them the verylatest innovations from Red Box Recorders. We offer Quantify – great value software-based recording that’s a dream to install. With it, customers can take advantage of a full set of superb easy-to-use applications. What’s more, Red Boxupdates come free with support, excellent for making the most of existing systems. Call us now on +1 (212) 209 1020 or go towww.redboxrecorders.com/tr

Red Box Recorders Tel: +1 (212) 209 1020 [email protected] www.redboxrecorders.com

We’ve loads of fresh things to tell your customers about.

employees in the head offi ce, teleworkers, and those working in the company’s inter-national offi ces. ☎

Frost & Sullivan lauds Mitel

Based on its recent analysis of the unifi ed communications (UC) vir-tualization market, Frost & Sullivan

has recognized Mitel with the 2013 North America Award for Product Leadership. Mitel gained recognition for its pioneering product developments in real-time com-munications software virtualization, a criti-cal technology that enables customers to migrate part or all of their business com-munications to the cloud.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that demonstrates


innovation in product features, and func-tionality that provides enhanced quality and higher value to customers. The award recognizes the rapid acceptance such inno-vation fi nds in the marketplace.

“While Mitel has used its fi rst-to-market advantages optimally, it has also regu-larly improved its single software stream to provide the same features, quality of ser-vice, warranty, and software assurance pro-grams, no matter how customers choose to deploy its solutions,” said Frost & Sullivan Senior Analyst, Robert Arnold. “The com-pany has streamlined development, sales, training and support, to provide a consistent user experience across private cloud or customer-premises equipment, hosted or public cloud confi gurations.”

Mitel is among the select few that can address customers of nearly any type and size. Benefi ts, such as hardware consoli-dation and unifi ed management, attract small and medium businesses unwilling to acquire the numerous hardware servers that traditional UC architectures require. Large organizations gain even greater ben-efi ts, which are enabled by streamlined operations, including faster installation and upgrade cycles, centralized provisioning, management and control, integration with VMware processor optimization, and busi-ness continuity.

More than 40 percent of the company’s UC applications sold today are confi gured for deployment on virtual machines. In addition, more than 4,000 Mitel virtual appliance systems are running at customer sites, and over 45 service providers world-wide have deployed or are planning to deploy Mitel cloud communication solu-tions using virtualized server infrastructure.

“Despite the current availability of a plethora of virtual UC server solutions, Mitel has successfully sustained its prod-uct differentiation,” noted Arnold. “The breadth and depth of its virtual UC solu-tions, which leverage a common software stream not yet uniformly supported by Mitel’s rivals, stand out.”

Mitel offers a well-rounded cloud ready portfolio of virtual UC server solutions. The company’s virtual MCD (vMCD) vir-tual call control server, developed in part-nership with VMware, earned Mitel its fi rst-mover status in the deployment of call control solutions leveraging hypervi-sor technology. The portfolio also includes its multi-instance communications director (MiCD), a consolidation of independent call servers on an optimized hypervisor layer, and the virtual Mitel applications suite (vMAS), which supports a full suite of UC applications running on a single virtual machine, created waves in the market. ☎

Mitel sells DataNet CommSource Business Unit to EarthBend

Mitel, a leading provider of cloud and premises-based unifi ed com-munications software solutions,

announced it has completed the sale of its DataNet CommSource business unit (“DataNet”) in Sioux Falls to EarthBend, a provider of telephony and IT solutions with headquarters in the U.S. Midwest.

Effective immediately, all DataNet CommSource employees have transi-tioned to EarthBend, positioning them to provide seamless continuity of ser-vice to existing DataNet CommSource customers and channel partners.

“I am excited to be joining an expe-rienced team of more than 40 dedicated employees, led by General Manager

See MITEL, page 27


MOBILITYMONITOR

By Carrie Pawsey, telco strategy analyst at Ovum

Ovum forecasts that emerging mar-kets will be the key source of future mobile connections growth, partic-

ularly in Africa and Asia-Pacifi c. Between 2012 and 2017, they expect there will be 1.6 billion new mobile connections across the world, with 61% of these coming from Asia-Pacifi c. While connections growth in Asia-Pacifi c will begin to slow towards the end of the forecast period, the region’s 4.4 billion connections in 2017 will make it the greatest contributor to global connections.

Acme Packet announced Palladion 3.0 for quickly and securely migrat-ing service providers to IP networks,

reducing operational costs, increasing cus-tomer satisfaction, preventing voice fraud and minimizing churn. The new solutions provide real-time monitoring, troubleshoot-ing and analysis of service provider IP net-works including IMS, LTE, and consumer and business VoIP.

A non-intrusive monitoring solution, it consists of three new management options: Communications Operations Monitor to track network signaling and media in real-time and enable detailed troubleshoot-ing capabilities, Fraud Detection and Prevention to discover and prevent voice fraud, and Control Plane Monitor to track

Mobile will connect the next billion Internet users, but at what cost?

Acme packet real-time monitoring solution

Growth in the region will largely be driven by the emerging markets of China, India, and Indonesia, which will have 3 billion connections between them in 2017.

While Asia-Pacifi c will generate the most new connections, Africa will be the fastest-growing region. These connections will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 6.5% between 2012 and 2017, increasing from 683 million in 2012 to 935 million in 2017. ☎For more visit ovum.com/research/global-mobile-market-outlook-2012-17.

and troubleshoot signaling traffi c in IMS and LTE networks.

Benefi ts and features:• Real-time end-to-end call correlation and

analytics.• Segmentation of the network path for fast

and accurate problem localization.• Instant troubleshooting down to the indi-

vidual subscribers.• Historical and current session data to

assist in preventing fraud.• Media quality analysis including R

Factor and MOS.• Vendor-agnostic across VoIP protocol

stacks.• Probe availability on Net-Net Session

Director and third-party hardware. ☎For more visit acmepacket.com.

Yorktel designs, integrates and manages world-class video solutions that enable visual

communication – any time, anywhere, any device.

From video conferencing to streaming video, production and broadcast of major events, Yorktel is

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ASPECT SOFTWAREContinued from page 14

domain expertise in the back offi ce along with the most open and fl exible work dis-tribution solution on the market made them a natural strategic partner for Aspect. The complementary software and expertise of eg and Aspect create a very powerful pro-cess optimization solution that effi ciently delivers a cohesive, customer-delighting service experience.”

When organizations optimize back offi ce processes and employee performance in such areas as IT, HR and accounting, the benefi ts carry over to customer interactions. eg prod-ucts and services are used to monitor work from any source, can integrate with multiple CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and BPM (Business Process Management) environments, and provide a view into how work is being executed – all measured against operational goals and objectives that align to customer expectations.

“The partnership with Aspect creates true end-to-end insight into, and control over, the full customer service process which will deliver measurable value around tasks and resources, regardless of who is serving the customer – front offi ce, back offi ce, or both,” says Elizabeth Gooch, eg CEO. “This global partnership creates new sales opportunities and opens up new mar-kets for eg while providing investment cap-ital for future development efforts. We’re very enthusiastic about the joint solution this partnership will bring to the market.”

“Early adopters of back offi ce WFO solutions are realizing very signifi cant sav-ings, ranging from 20% to 40%,” says Fluss.

The combined solution of Aspect and eg can help customers realize these sav-ings by:• Minimizing repeat calls for the contact

center that arise from back offi ce inef-fi ciencies

• Increasing overall customer satisfaction• Decreasing costs arising from errors,

lags, and ineffi cient back offi ce resource utilization

• Providing visibility into throughput, resource performance, quality of work and overall performance of all resources that affect customer deliverables

• Managing back offi ce knowledge work-ers and output against KPIs

• Automating common processes to enforce best practices and minimize error and ineffi ciency. ☎

For more visit www.aspect.com

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AscdAscdA iNatdNatdNa

Inc.

Connect and CommunicateRMSOURCE

rmsource, provider of private cloud and uni-fi ed communication solutions, announced that the NC-based IT consulting company has become an authorized partner of Mitel. They will now offer Mitel’s full suite of UCC solutions to more than 200 existing customers, and to small and medium-sized enterprises across the U.S. mid-Atlantic.

“At rmsource we pride ourselves on helping customers realize the promise of technology,” said Robb Hultin, VP of Sales. “With the addition of Mitel’s portfolio of cloud and premises-based communication solutions to our existing managed service offerings, we have a new set of technology tools to provide customers of any size with solutions tailored to meet their specifi c needs.”

Authorized partners must meet a series of stringent requirements in order to sell and support Mitel products in the market-place. These include ongoing training for sales and technical services, processes and benchmarks to provide quality customer service, and a high degree of expertise

rmsource joins Mitel global network of partnersin voice communications, data network-ing and applicable applications such as virtualization, conferencing, collaboration, contact centers and mobility.

“Organizations are increasingly looking for communications solutions to address their business needs and deliver cost ben-efi ts. Mitel customers depend on our net-work of partners to help them make the best choice for their specifi c needs,” said Jeff Nolan, Mitel’s vice president of Channel Development in North America. “rmsource bundles technology and objective business analysis, enabling customers to select the best communication package to meet their needs.” ☎For more visit rmsource.com.

SNAPSangoma and Broadvox

Sangoma Technologies, provider of hardware and software components that enable or enhance IP commu-

nications systems for both voice and data, and Broadvox, provider of customized inte-grated managed VoIP communication and collaboration solutions, announced certifi -cation of the Sangoma Network Appliance Provisioning (SNAP) tool for use in deploying and provisioning Sangoma’s Vega Series TDM-to-IP VoIP gateways on theBroadvox SIP trunking network.

An easy-to-use web-based application, the tool can be used by installers to con-fi gure a Vega gateway by entering three or four items provided by Broadvox into the confi guration screen. It returns a fi le uniquely provisioned for the Broadvox net-work and can be uploaded to the gateway to confi gure it for service. The process can take as little as one minute and requires no specialized training.

“We are seeing a dramatic accelera-tion in the adoption of SIP trunking by businesses looking to take advantage of economic and productivity benefi ts,” said Mike Gruszka, director of product develop-ment at Broadvox. “Sangoma’s SNAP tool and Vega gateways make it simple for our channel partners to deploy service to cus-tomers that have a legacy PBX but want to use SIP trunks for connectivity.”

The gateways support a broad range of TDM interfaces for PBX connectivity and deliver an extensive set of VoIP codecs for effi cient interworking with the SIP trunking service and SIP endpoints. ☎For more visit sangoma.com.


PODCASTS


No. MOS is like a thermometer—it tells you that you have a temperature and that you’re sick, but it does not tell you where and what is wrong. To fix the problem, you need to know how your network is performing.

Introducing PathSolutions VoIP Monitor, a VoIP network performance management solution that:

• Installs and fully configures in 15 minutes for any size network.

• Continuously monitors performance of the entire network.

• Identifies the root-cause of VoIP problems in plain English.

Can MOS tell you the root-cause of a poor quality call?

PathSolutions VoIP Monitor is the only solution that tells you where and why your call went bad and then recommends a fix.

Try VoIP Monitor FREE for 5 days Call 1-877-748-1777, email [email protected],

or visit us at www.PathSolutions.com/TelecomReseller



ISO 9001


Inc.




RMSOURCE

rmsource, provider of private cloud and uni-fi ed communication solutions, announced that the NC-based IT consulting company has become an authorized partner of Mitel. They will now offer Mitel’s full suite of UCC solutions to more than 200 existing customers, and to small and medium-sized enterprises across the U.S. mid-Atlantic.

“At rmsource we pride ourselves on helping customers realize the promise of technology,” said Robb Hultin, VP of Sales. “With the addition of Mitel’s portfolio of cloud and premises-based communication solutions to our existing managed service offerings, we have a new set of technology tools to provide customers of any size with solutions tailored to meet their specifi c needs.”

Authorized partners must meet a series of stringent requirements in order to sell and support Mitel products in the market-place. These include ongoing training for sales and technical services, processes and benchmarks to provide quality customer service, and a high degree of expertise

rmsource joins Mitel global network of partnersin voice communications, data network-ing and applicable applications such as virtualization, conferencing, collaboration, contact centers and mobility.

“Organizations are increasingly looking for communications solutions to address their business needs and deliver cost ben-efi ts. Mitel customers depend on our net-work of partners to help them make the best choice for their specifi c needs,” said Jeff Nolan, Mitel’s vice president of Channel Development in North America. “rmsource bundles technology and objective business analysis, enabling customers to select the best communication package to meet their needs.” ☎For more visit rmsource.com.

SNAPSangoma and Broadvox

Sangoma Technologies, provider of hardware and software components that enable or enhance IP commu-

nications systems for both voice and data, and Broadvox, provider of customized inte-grated managed VoIP communication and collaboration solutions, announced certifi -cation of the Sangoma Network Appliance Provisioning (SNAP) tool for use in deploying and provisioning Sangoma’s Vega Series TDM-to-IP VoIP gateways on theBroadvox SIP trunking network.

An easy-to-use web-based application, the tool can be used by installers to con-fi gure a Vega gateway by entering three or four items provided by Broadvox into the confi guration screen. It returns a fi le uniquely provisioned for the Broadvox net-work and can be uploaded to the gateway to confi gure it for service. The process can take as little as one minute and requires no specialized training.

“We are seeing a dramatic accelera-tion in the adoption of SIP trunking by businesses looking to take advantage of economic and productivity benefi ts,” said Mike Gruszka, director of product develop-ment at Broadvox. “Sangoma’s SNAP tool and Vega gateways make it simple for our channel partners to deploy service to cus-tomers that have a legacy PBX but want to use SIP trunks for connectivity.”

The gateways support a broad range of TDM interfaces for PBX connectivity and deliver an extensive set of VoIP codecs for effi cient interworking with the SIP trunking service and SIP endpoints. ☎For more visit sangoma.com.


PODCASTS


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The ApplianX IP Gateway is a vital component in any VoIP migration strategy andsupports the inter-working of supplementary services between SIP and QSIG.

FLANAGANContinued from page 17

The basic NetFlow tuple defines a flow: IP addresses, port numbers, source inter-face, protocol and type of service. The management system applies the tuple as a filter to identify each flow and count the number of packets and basic errors per flow. Patterson makes it clear that NetFlow/IPFIX can handle any information if it has a standard format. To capture that informa-tion, add a field to the tuple that defines a flow. It could collect a time stamp, TOS bits from the TCP header, MAC address, the next-hop routing address, or anything else the hardware can report.

Other ideas of what to monitor include reports from firewalls on attempted breach-es, authentication events, and whatever is important to a network manager. Deep packet inspection in the hardware that col-lects the tuples can identify applications, like Skype, that use a port commonly assigned to another application.

Making sense of so much information requires some creativity in sorting and displaying results. Patterson recommends a dashboard widget that color-codes (R/Y/G) the numbers for quick perception of prob-lems.

Chapters focus on p r a c t i c a l ways to use the data collected in daily man-a g e m e n t . K n o w i n g what flows are doing simplif ies t r o u b l e -

shooting slow applications or high uti-lization levels. If the tuple contains the right information (e.g. application, user) the reports can help identify excessive users, malware and jabbering hosts. That is, NetFlow can help you find the bad guys.

The tone of the writing is conversational and easy to read. Boxed comments set in bold type call out key hints: • To export a non-standard data element

use IPFIX rather than NetFlow.• Never export personal information.• Make sure the index that identifies an

exported element like ingress port is the same index used by SNMP. The screen shots appear in color repro-

ductions which work much better than the monochrome images in most books, par-

ticularly for the dashboards.Though packed with information, the

book is also a bit of a tease. Patterson is a consultant and software vendor who works with NetFlow and IPFIX. As helpful as the book is, it also implies there is much more available from the source.

Can’t let a volume’s shortcoming go unmentioned. This one lacks an index, though the Contents is quite detailed. There are also more typos than average, including duplicated words and sentences, tolerable for a very informative book. %For more visit plixer.com.

MITELContinued from page 21

Ryan Donovan, who will continue serv-ing customers in the Midwest market and across Mitel’s extensive channel,” said Rob Beyer, president and CEO of EarthBend. “We will continue to provide voice, data and infrastructure solutions and services to our customers and invest in key technical expertise to support our customers’ needs.”

The divestiture of DataNet CommSource is part of Mitel’s ongoing strategy to sim-plify and focus the company’s core busi-ness. With Mitel’s shift to an indirect go-to-market model, the business need and

rationale to maintain a direct value added distribution unit and value added reseller business has diminished.

“Employees and partners are corner-stones of Mitel’s business and corporate values,” said Richard McBee, president and CEO of Mitel.

“With EarthBend, I am delighted that we identified a buyer that recognizes the skills and talent inherent in DataNet CommSource employees, and also the growth opportunity associated with ongoing support of Mitel’s channel business in the U.S.”

As previously announced in March 2012, Mitel has been exploring the sale of DataNet and therefore Mitel’s financial results have presented DataNet’s opera-tions as discontinued operations since that time. For more information about the finan-cial results of DataNet, please see Mitel’s 10-Q filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission for the quarter ended January 31, 2013.

Sagent Advisors LLC served as financial advisor to Mitel on the transaction. %For more visit www.mitel.com


OSIKAContinued from page 1

whether served by mobile carriers or local-ized Wi-Fi, is popular, commonplace, and growing rapidly. But it will completely reshape the demand side of the indus-try, creating enormous amounts of data. It threatens to load and clog networks and will demand new models for monetization.

Accelerating connections. As the Internet of Things transforms into the Internet of Everything, machine-to-machine commu-nications evolve exponentially, enabling a world where everything from cars to trees to washing machines become connected. Together with video, this seemingly end-less ocean of endpoints will fuel a tsunami of data, increasing the load on networks. Businesses, business models, innovations and infrastructure will all need to meet

these challenges. But on the flip side, the industry is beginning to embrace these changes.

Market dynamics, which I believe are driving these trends. Service providers are reaching mobile saturation in every market. They are finding new ways to sell more to existing users and monetize what users do (e.g. video). But they are also trying to find ways to connect non-subscribers, moving from people to things as consumers are sur-rounded with multiple devices and connect-ed objects. In short, new business models must evolve to coincide with the spiraling demand for data and new opportunities to monetize and optimize it.

These trends are also going to require leaps in innovation. In particular, a rapid evolution in network infrastructure will be required to handle all this mobile traffic. Wi-Fi offloading, able to handle heavy data demands in fixed locations, will be crucial.

Software-driven virtualized components will also be essential. This will enable the network to flex to facilitate irregular and unpredictable demands in ways that would overwhelm hardware-based architectures. In moving to such a cloud-based model, carriers will also be able to create a wide variety of new services and experiences for third-party businesses and consumers, all fueled by data, the glue that is going to hold all of these other trends together. It will run the infrastructure and enable the new busi-ness models. And analytics will provide the contextual intelligence that will drive an entirely new generation of personalized, targeted life experiences.

Overall, I see this as a very exciting time for mobile carriers as they adapt to a rapidly-changing landscape with new inno-vations and business models. Clearly the opportunities are there to be taken. %

MUELLERContinued from page 5

Making the customer happy often hinges on the ability to achieve FCR (first-call resolution) of problems, and many of the unique modules in WFO solutions are designed to enable this.

Improved evaluations encompass input from both agent and customer instead of just the supervisor. Agents appreciate being incorporated into the process and are more likely to be engaged in their jobs as a result.

WFO solutions also incorporate a work-force management component to ensure customers are assigned to the right agent with the right skills at the right time. Inefficiencies are avoided with agents who are either overly stressed or bored, depend-ing on call volume.

To achieve an optimal human interac-tion, a number of underlying dynamics must be addressed as well. Speech analytics help to identify customer trends by allow-ing management to mine conversations through keyword spotting. Larger contact centers with a previously unmanageable volume of interactions can search for key-words or use emotion detection to analyze problem calls.

Streamlining process management and creating user-friendly interfaces help to reduce agent error and make FCR more likely. Root-cause analysis will discover trends and help prepare agents to anticipate customer needs. Functions allowing real-time assistance for problem calls directly improve FCR as well as providing a safety net to make agents more comfortable and confident.

Workforce optimization provides a lot of sophisticated technology, but its essen-tial power derives from a focus on the human element in customer interactions. %

GIGAMONContinued from page 17

to enhance and improve the value of the network traffic before delivering it to the appropriate management, monitoring and security tools.

“As data traffic from mobile devices and applications continues to grow rap-idly, mobile carriers have searched for a way to efficiently, effectively and eco-nomically monitor that traffic for per-formance and quality of service,” said Dana Cooperson, VP & Practice Leader of Network Infrastructure Telecoms at Ovum. “As connections grow to 40G and 100G, the Big Data velocity and volume challenge is further intensified. Gigamon’s approach tackles mobile carriers’ challenges by breaking down the problem into smaller, more manageable chunks while maintain-ing carrier control over QoE.”

“Gigamon recognized that the flow of data rushing through mobile carrier pipes has scaled to such levels that no technology out there can sufficiently filter and process it all, so we decided to design an entirely new approach,” said Andy Huckridge, director of service provider solutions. “Now the industry as a whole has a way to tackle the issues associated with Big Data. Through this new concept we hope to alleviate much of the data running through 40Gb and 100Gb pipes, allowing it to fit into smaller existing pipes and saving the carrier from drowning under the massive flow of data and resulting greater tooling costs.” %For more visit gigamon.com.

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VOIP

Japanese smartphone panelists are the predominant users of VoIP applications on mobile devices, according to the

latest updates by Arbitron Mobile for its smartphone measurement services in seven countries around the world.

Almost 70 percent of the smartphone panelists in Japan accessed VoIP apps during the month of January, spending six hours and 25 minutes with these multi-faceted voice and messaging apps. The Arbitron Mobile on-device software meter reported that VoIP users in the Japan smart-phone panel accessed their VoIP apps an average of 222 times in the month, three

times more than panelists in Indonesia, who at 65.9 sessions per month are the second most active users of VoIP apps across the seven Arbitron Mobile-based smartphone panels.

41 percent of Indonesia panelists use VoIP apps on their mobile devices, spend-ing an average of 2 hours and 15 minutes a month.

China panelists are the least active users of VoIP apps. Only 16.4 percent of the China smartphone panel (operated by iRe-search) accessed any VoIP apps in the month of January.

Japan leads for mobile VoIP use among seven Arbitron smartphone panels in North America, Europe and Asia

Japanese smartphone panelists, the heaviest users of mobile VoIP, spend the least amount of time—1 hour, 36 min-utes in the month—and have the fewest sessions—57.8 in the month—for carrier-

based voice calls. Indonesian panelists, the second heaviest users of VoIP, are the second lightest user of their carrier calling minutes.

Three VoIP apps occupy the leading position among Arbitron smartphone panel-ists around the world. Skype predominates

in U.S. and Europe, LINE leads in Japan and Indonesia, and Youxin is the leader in a crowded fi eld of VoIP apps in China.

In the China smartphone panel, which has the lowest penetration of VoIP access—16.4 percent—there are ten VoIP apps that see monthly access by one per-

cent or more of the panel. In the six other country panels, VoIP access is concentrated between two to four apps. ☎

Panel VoIP User % VoIP Time Spent Sessions per Month(minutes per month)

Japan 68.2 386.5 222.4Indonesia 40.9 134.9 65.9United Kingdom 22.1 79.2 35.1United States 16.5 77.6 35.6Germany 27.0 68.1 31.8France 17.4 65.2 34.3China 16.4 26.6 27.2

Panel VoIP User % VoIP Time Spent Voice Call Time Spent(minutes per month) (minutes per month)

Japan 68.2 386.5 96.3Indonesia 40.9 134.9 109.0United Kingdom 22.1 79.2 242.3United States 16.5 77.6 460.6Germany 27.0 68.1 167.8France 17.4 65.2 298.4China 16.4 26.6 225.6

Panel VoIP User Apps App User % App Time Spent Sessions per Month (minutes per month)

Japan Line 64.2 392.3 225.7Indonesia Line 27.6 156.0 79.7United Kingdom Skype 14.4 52.9 23.9United States Skype 11,5 64.1 22.5Germany Skype 17.1 53.1 23.1France Skype 12,8 44.5 19.1China Youxin 4.7 16.5 21.4x

COMPTEL

Comptel Plus Spring Convention

Comptel Plus Spring 2013 Convention & Expo is offering an interactive agenda aimed at providing attendees

with education and networking opportuni-ties. It features three days of panel discus-sions and workshops as well as an expo with nearly 100 exhibiting companies, and will take place March 10-13 in Las Vegas.

“2013 is shaping up to be a year where our industry will face many fundamen-tal challenges – from the way services are delivered and the technologies being adopted, to the policies governing compe-tition and strategies being employed for service providers to expand and strengthen

their bottom line,” said Jerry James, CEO. “We have designed our convention agenda to address these issues in an educational forum, as well as providing a marketplace where attendees can see the new products and services that can give them an edge in this dynamic industry.”

Registered attendees can take advan-tage of the Business Planner, an interac-tive application that enables users to start scheduling multiple meetings in advance with existing and prospective clients during the event. ☎Register at comptelplus.org.


RUFFINNortel notes By Phil Ru� n

Q My boss wants to work from home and have her phone working there so she can call over

our network, have her caller ID from work, make long-distance calls and such. Is that possible?

A It’s defi nitely possible to have a work phone at home, and there are several

ways to accomplish it. Which is best is for you to decide. Over the years we have used very different technologies for this.

Probably the oldest way is to use an Off Premise Exchange line from the business to her house. You pay the phone company a monthly lease to provide a pair of wires that extend the entire distance from your phone system to the house, and punch an

analog station onto the wires. Give the boss an analog phone with her extension on it. When lifting the receiver she should hear dial-tone from the offi ce. It is limiting if she’s used to having multiple lines and feature keys but does provide basic service along the lines you described.

Nortel used to make Meridian Home Offi ce, a way to provide a home offi ce setup with both network and telephone by way of a special router and leased line, but it’s doubtful you can still use that method. Some are still around if you investigate from a secondary market vendor, but it may be even more expensive than the newer, more robust method of IP.

An IP phone is your more likely solu-tion. Can you just unplug an IP phone from

QMy boss wants to work from home and have

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WMA Maintenance Plans provide enhanced services, at lower costs and can be customized to fit your unique needs.

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Avaya® CommunicationManager / Definity® Basic AdministrationTraining January 7-11





the offi ce and plug it in at the boss’s house? Not likely. You need to have your network people work out the requirements—it’s dependent upon the deployment details for the IP phones on your corporate network. In some cases you may have to provide a small router so the phone can be on a VPN that securely attaches to your corporate network for the voice traffi c.

When you suggest one or more of these methods, you need to be able to give the expected cost for your choice(s), so you need to price the various elements of each. For instance, if you suggest an IP phone you need to make sure your system has the capacity to add a phone. There is a cost for the IP license (and a few phones have annual license costs), the phone (unless it’s

a softphone on the boss’ laptop), maybe a headset, and (if you don’t have the skill) installation by your vendor. If you don’t already have IP phones, the cost to add them initially for one is wildly expensive. Don’t forget that special router (if neces-sary) and you need to make sure she has the bandwidth on her Internet service to handle the voice path comfortably.

On the other hand, if you go with the analog line or other technology that carries over copper, you need to know the cost to install and lease the line.

Good luck with whatever you propose.

Q Is it possible to install a handset lifter on an IP set? We’re getting IP phones soon and my lift-

ers don’t seem to be made for them. I have users with wireless headsets that just press the headset button to answer calls.

A Good news! If you get the newer IP sets you can add a special cable that

makes the set answer a call in the same way without having a physical lifter. You may need updated fi rmware to complete the integration. Find out the set model options you have and talk to your headset vendor to see what you need to order.

Q I make a remote backup of a couple of systems on a regular basis. but when I need to look at it

to see how something used to be programmed it isn’t readable. Is there a program I can use to peek into the archived database to get information? This only happens once in a while, but when it does I really need to see it.

A No, I don’t know a way to read those fi les. However, I do think you have

an alternate solution without having to buy a special program. Use your terminal software to make a fi le of a complete list of TNs and DNs. If you want, you can also list the BARS info and other details on the system. Keep them as text fi les with the date and system identifi ed. You can always return to them to get the information you need, and they are quite readable. Use the Find function in your word processor to locate the device or other information you need. I do this on a regular basis and it comes in very handy. ☎Contact the author at philru� [email protected].

April 1-5 April 15- 19 Call for Class Dates Class for Class Times Call for Class Times

Empires strike back—UC wars heat upBy Tom Cross

Cisco has released a white paper on key considerations when evaluating an enterprise collaboration solution

comparing Microsoft’s and their approach-es. Sorting through the fi restorm of com-ments is not easy but we all like to have a say.

Technology markets can be a bit like a gold rush. Like the many miners that came to California only to fi nd nothing but bro-ken dreams, it remains a challenge to fi nd the right solution that the market turns to gold.

There are still thousands of players and growing. There was a joke a long time ago that there were so many Novell dealers that it was easier to get a LAN than a Slurpee. There are also many great solutions from all the traditional PBX players. I would like to say it is also about sales and marketing of the solution, not just sword play between the empires.

All sides have a say in this and I look forward to hearing your thoughts about Internet communications and online cloud, SaaS, smartphone apps and other solutions. Send your ideas and products anytime. ☎

Empires strike back—

CROSS TALK

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