Telecom and Networking Industry Needs Attrition More than Mergers and Acquisitions
Posted by Zeus Kerravala, The Yankee Group | Aug 21, 2008
Over the past couple of years we’ve seen a tremendous amount of companies merge, be acquired or turn private in our industry. Alcatel bought Lucent, Siemens went private and will be merged with Enterasys, NEC acquired Sphere, Mitel purchased Inter-Tel and AT&T bought Interwise to name a few. Currently there is speculation around Silver Lake acquiring Tandberg and folding it into Avaya, raising speculation around Polycom’s future. Typically, as markets mature, a logical market leader, number two and three vendors mature and the number of vendors eventually rationalizes down to a quantity that can be supported.
SpeechTek Virgins and Other Musings
Posted by Sheila McGee-Smith, McGee-Smith Analytics | Aug 21, 2008
This year SpeechTek competed neither with VoiceCon San Francisco nor my annual trip to the Jersey Shore. Given my office location just 50 miles north of Manhattan, I took the opportunity to drive down to the Marriot Marquis on Monday to attend my first SpeechTek. I was not alone. The Grand Opening of the show floor Monday evening was wall to wall traffic.
Masergy Connects Telepresence
Posted by John Bartlett, NetForecast | Aug 21, 2008
I discussed the telepresence (and video conferencing) global connectivity problem and the solutions from IPV Gateways and Virtela Networks in my last 3 posts. Today let’s look at how Masergy has structured their MPLS network and the Masergy Video Exchange (MVE) to help solve this problem.
Note to The FCC: Bargain for a Better White Space Plan
Posted by Michael Finneran, dBrn Associates | Aug 20, 2008
Come September, the FCC will decide if and on what basis they will allow use of TV white space for unlicensed or “lightly licensed” operation. The outcome of this decision can have a major impact on the entire wireless market, from cellular to WiMAX, Hot Spots, and even wired broadband access.
Stealth Player in Unified Communications? Maybe : Voxeo Acquires SIP Player and Announces Prophecy 9
Posted by Nancy Jamison, Jamison Consulting | Aug 20, 2008
I’ll bet that when you think unified communications companies, Voxeo doesn’t immediately leap into your mind. Until this week they weren’t really positioned in my mind that way either.
What Is Visionary About Microsoft OCS?
Posted by Marty Parker, UniComm Cnslt'g/UC Strategies.com | Aug 19, 2008
In response to the several posts about Microsoft’s appearance in the Visionary section of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Corporate Telephony, a comment from “Bithead” asked a great question as to "What is visionary?" As a long-time business strategist, I often ponder that question in any technology-based industry, including ours, because of my interest in disruptive technologies (ref. Clayton Christensen). This can apply to many areas such as hybrid cars, cable television (which turned into home networking), or corporate telephony.
Future of the "IT" Organization?
Posted by Eric Krapf | Aug 19, 2008
From the comments to Brian's latest post, commenter AS147 offers up a really great portrait of an enterprise juggling the issues around implementing IP telephony, with its relatively mundane concerns like Message Waiting Indicators, while also preparing for UC. Read the whole thing. Of particular interest to me was this aside:
The Big Picture on Gartner & Microsoft
Posted by Eric Krapf | Aug 19, 2008
Here's the complete Gartner Magic Quadrant spiel on Corporate Telephony, the one that Marty blogged about last week, you know, the one that Microsoft made its way into for the first time. I'm posting the link so that you can judge for yourself whether you agree with Gartner's reasoning, and with their relative positioning of the vendors.
Does Avaya's Owner Want Tandberg?
Posted by Eric Krapf | Aug 18, 2008
Via Fierce Telecom, we learn that Silver Lake, the private equity firm that owns Avaya, may be the company that's been rumored to have approached Tandberg about acquiring the video vendor.
Microsoft OCS and Telephony: Please Don’t Shoot the Messenger (Again)
Posted by Brian Riggs, Current Analysis | Aug 18, 2008
There’s been a whole lotta analyst hatin’ over on this other NoJitter thread, so please forgive me for being a bit nervous about returning to the topic of Microsoft as a developer of telephony software. I’ll overlook all those disparaging remarks made about my fellow analysts. (After all, I disparage them all the time!) Instead I want to focus on the contention Microsoft lacks the ability to provide the most basic core telephony functions and because of this the company should not be referenced in the Mystic Dodecahedron … or whatever Gartner calls that report of theirs.
Get Ready for Video (Finally!)
Posted by Irwin Lazar, Nemertes Research | Aug 15, 2008
For years we’ve heard that the age of ubiquitous video conferencing was just around the corner, but now a perfect storm has formed, driving demand for video conferencing within the enterprise, and causing potential for chaos for network managers.
UC: A Key Factor in Global Energy Policy?
Posted by Marty Parker, UniComm Cnslt'g/UC Strategies.com | Aug 15, 2008
For the past month, I've listened to the political positioning about energy and oil, so I decided to do some homework. What I found is startling and compelling: According to data published by the U.S. Energy Information Agency and the CIA, the U.S. has only 1.6% of the world's oil reserves and only 3.2% of natural gas reserves, but it accounts for 25.9% of global oil consumption and 20.1% of natural gas consumption.
More on IP-PBXs and UC: Look at the Big Picture
Posted by Jim Burton, CT-Link/UCStrategies | Aug 14, 2008
I appreciate Eric's kind words and support. My message on this subject is very simple – enterprise customers need to start thinking differently about communications. They have communications silos in their organizations with staff managing and supporting each of these silos – often with different staff for different silos. The PBX has been a critical component in enterprise communications and tradition would dictate that if you are evaluating changes to communications, the first place you look is the PBX.
IP-PBXs and UC: Where Are the Improvements?
Posted by Marty Parker, UniComm Cnslt'g/UC Strategies.com | Aug 14, 2008
I agree with Eric that PBXs and voice communications are already a major part of business processes. "Call the customer" requires some sort of telephonic voice device--desk, wireless, PC, home, hotel, etc.--and there are a lot of other cases where PBX-based communications are part of business processes, such as conference calls, intercoms and more.
Microsoft Makes the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Corporate Telephony
Posted by Marty Parker, UniComm Cnslt'g/UC Strategies.com | Aug 13, 2008
Here’s some breaking news! As of last Friday, August 8, Microsoft has entered the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Corporate Telephony. Based on the latest version of the Microsoft Unified Communications suite, Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS 2007), Gartner places Microsoft in the Visionaries quadrant – high scores on "completeness of vision" but yet with limitations and unproven factors relative to "ability to execute."
Nortel Acquires Pingtel (Updated)
Posted by Eric Krapf | Aug 13, 2008
Nortel announced this morning that it's buying Pingtel, which helped pioneer the concept of open source IP telephony. Nortel bought Pingtel from Bluesocket, a wireless LAN company that had, itself, acquired Pingtel last year. Terms were not disclosed.
IP-PBXs Aren't UC; Is that a Problem?
Posted by Eric Krapf | Aug 13, 2008
Last week, Jim Burton wrote a piece entitled, "UC: It's Not About Buying a New IP-PBX." I agree with Jim, which is usually the smart thing to do, but at least to me--Jim may disagree--his mantra doesn't mean that you shouldn't buy a new IP-PBX. It's just that the IP-PBX is not synonymous with Unified Communications.
Social Networking Tools for Business Can’t Come Too Soon
Posted by Sheila McGee-Smith, McGee-Smith Analytics | Aug 12, 2008
There have been a more than a few articles lately about the value of social networking tools like Facebook and My Space in the work place. One example is The Motley Fool’s July 23rd article, Facebook: Tool or Toy. A number of articles were prompted by a Gartner press release issued last week to hype a recent report, "Establishing Policies for Social Application Participation."
Pockets of Presence
Posted by Brian Riggs, Current Analysis | Aug 11, 2008
While speaking with Polycom the other day about its recently released Converged Management Application, I learned it includes a desktop client that presents end users with the familiar “buddy list” interface so common to unified communications solutions these days. Status changes on the presence and availability of coworkers are automatically pushed out, letting end users determine who is or is not available for a video session or a text chat. As far as I know this is Polycom’s first flirt with presence and availability of the unified communications variety. With Polycom’s CMA Desktop app, launching a video conference becomes as simple as clicking to call.
Virtela Connects Telepresence
Posted by John Bartlett, NetForecast | Aug 11, 2008
I’m still working through the issue of how to connect multiple WAN providers to get the best global connectivity for Telepresence. I described the problem in this post, and then last week discussed one solution in this post. A few weeks ago I had the privilege of spending some quality technical time with Jason Redisch, Principal Architect for Virtela Communications, and he described their solutions for this challenge.
Apple Opens iPhone to VoIP
Posted by Matt Brunk, Telecomworx | Aug 11, 2008
Today, GIPS (Global IP Solutions), a leader in IP media processing, announced it is enabling VoIP for Apple's iPhone. Using the GIPS VoiceEngine Mobile, allows application developers to quickly integrate real-time VoIP applications.
UC: It's Not About Buying a New IP-PBX
Posted by Jim Burton, CT-Link/UCStrategies | Aug 8, 2008
I've observed lots of discussions about Unified Communications on the web this summer, and am convinced that the reason this dialogue continues after several years comes down to one thing: Positioning. To be perceived as thought leaders in the UC space, some consultants and analysts are providing revised, updated or alternative definitions of UC in an effort to appear as leaders of the UC parade.
What Unified Messaging Can Do for You
Posted by Eric Krapf | Aug 7, 2008
In yesterday's VoiceCon webinar with Hardy Myers of AVST and Blair Pleasant of COMMfusion, the focus was on implementation of Unified Messaging as a way to gain some quick productivity benefits. UM isn't the same thing as UC (Unified Communications), but I came away from the webinar thinking it's not a bad first step, at least on the communications-integration side.
Is UC Making Headway in the Contact Center?
Posted by Eric Krapf | Aug 7, 2008
This article discusses an Aberdeen research report whose key finding is that almost a quarter of contact centers already use Unified Communications. According to the article, Aberdeen defines UC as "the convergence of such technologies as instant messaging, e-mail , voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), presence and e-commerce in or near real-time."
Is Process Automation the Key to UC?
Posted by Eric Krapf | Aug 6, 2008
When you talk to the CEO of a company that makes PBX, IVR, ACD and similar kinds of software, and you talk about their competitors, you expect names like Avaya or Nortel or Cisco to come up. But when I visited the headquarters of Interactive Intelligence last week, I got a different picture.
AT&T Wireless Confirms: Stiffing Customers is Still a High Priority
Posted by Michael Finneran, dBrn Associates | Aug 5, 2008
For any enterprise users who have the misfortune of dealing with the cellular carriers, our headline should come as no surprise. In their ongoing effort to pump every dime out of their customers while making no attempt to deliver any service that might provide a cost advantage to the enterprise, the cellular carriers have once again solidified their position as the Wireless Bell System. With an arrogance born of an entrenched oligopoly for wide area wireless service, the cellular industry continues to flaunt the fact that they have no incentive to do anything that might be to the benefit of their enterprise customers.
IPV Gateways Connects Telepresence
Posted by John Bartlett, NetForecast | Aug 4, 2008
Connecting telepresence across the globe may require the services of more than one WAN service provider. I discussed this in detail in last week’s post, and talked about the problems that this presents. Today I want to take a look at one solution to this multi-network-with-QoS conundrum, and see how one company, IPV Gateways, solves it for their enterprise customers.
The Industry Should Learn From Alcatel-Lucent
Posted by Zeus Kerravala, The Yankee Group | Aug 4, 2008
Earlier this week Alcatel-Lucent announced that CEO Pat Russo and chairman, Serge the Merge Tchuruk would be leaving the organization. The departures of these executives were no real surprise to people that have followed “Lucatel” since the two companies merged. Russo and Tchuruk were the main driving forces in the merger, which hasn’t yielded near the results that they had initially predicted.
UC: Unifying What, Unifying How?
Posted by Tom Nolle, CIMI Corp. | Aug 1, 2008
There’s a lot of undefined and multiply-defined things in our industry, so picking on unified communications for lack of definitional rigor might be considered unfair. On the other hand, everyone seems to be waiting for UC to “take off” and it’s fair to presume that without some clear idea of what it is, user adoption and measurement of user acceptance would be equally difficult. It would also be hard to know just how we might expect it to look when/if it arrived.
The History of Human Latency
Posted by Eric Krapf | Aug 1, 2008
Last week's post on human latency got things cooking here, because my description of the concept of human latency really didn't do justice to the concept the way that (as it turns out) most people see it. Brent Kelly, Marty Parker and Art Rosenberg all weighed in to correct me.
What'dya Done for Me Lately?
Posted by Fred Knight, Publisher, No Jitter | Aug 1, 2008
For some of the most storied names in telecommunications, yesterday was both an end and a beginning. The spin-off of Siemens Enterprise Networks (SEN) and a leadership shake-up at Alcatel-Lucent, both a long-time coming, are finally under way, and the ripple effects will be felt by many within our industry, and for some period of time.
The Siemens Joint Venture: Customer Implications
Posted by Marty Parker, UniComm Cnslt'g/UC Strategies.com | Jul 31, 2008
You’ve seen all the news on the Siemens Enterprise Networks (SEN) spinout into a Joint Venture with The Gores Group. As an independent consultant to enterprise customers, I’ve spent most of my time thinking about what this might mean to them--the customers. Three words come to mind: Change, Focus, and Innovation. These may seem contradictory, but maybe not so much.
Siemens’ Partnership Shuffles the Deck for Wireless
Posted by Michael Finneran, dBrn Associates | Jul 31, 2008
It will take a while for all of the ramifications of Siemens Enterprise Networks’ (SEN’s) 49-51% partnership with the Gores Group to become clear, but the outcome in the wireless space is pretty straightforward. In any combination of this sort the dreaded s-word, “synergy”, will quickly enter the discussion and in the wireless space there is some obvious overlap between Siemens and joint venture partner Enterasys.
Captain Kriens Steps Aside As Captain of the Starship Juniper
Posted by Zeus Kerravala, The Yankee Group | Jul 30, 2008
Last week Juniper announced that Microsoft executive Kevin Johnson has been named the new CEO of Juniper Networks, ending the 12 year Kriens era. Scott Kriens’ tenure saw Juniper’s meteoric rise, where it did the unthinkable and took router market share from 800 pound gorilla Cisco. Juniper succeeded on the strength of its technology, but under Kriens, was never able to break away from competing purely on technical strength.
Siemens Wednesday-Morning QBing
Posted by Eric Krapf | Jul 30, 2008
Business Week has the Alec Gores interview for its article on Gores Group's Siemens acquisition and joint venture. The article highlights the financial straits that SEN was in before the acquisition: Almost $1 billion in losses last year, declining market share, stiff competition from incumbent and new vendors. Even more revealing is Gores' hints about how he'll go about fixing SEN.
Siemens Deal: The Enterasys Perspective
Posted by Eric Krapf | Jul 29, 2008
During this morning's Siemens press conference, Gores Group representatives stressed their track record in turning around technology companies, citing as a prime example one of the companies that will be part of the new Siemens Enterprise (SEN) joint venture: Enterasys. I just had a chance to talk with Enterasys CEO Michael Fabiaschi, and I started by asking him how Gores group turned Enterasys around and made it profitable.
More on Siemens Enterprise and The Gores Group
Posted by Sheila McGee-Smith, McGee-Smith Analytics | Jul 29, 2008
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No Jitter has been following this breaking story since early this morning, specifically Eric Krapf and Allan Sulkin. I’ll now add my perspective fueled by an interview today with Siemens Enterprise Communications Chief Operating Officer Thomas Zimmermann.
One of the goals articulated by Siemens since the beginning of its quest to find a partner for its enterprise business two years ago was to strengthen Siemens’ market position in North America. How will the joint venture with The Gores Group achieve that?
Liveblogging Siemens Press Conference
Posted by Eric Krapf | Jul 29, 2008
9 AM Eastern: Press conference is under way; they're doing it from Munich, in English.
Joe Kaeser, CFO of Siemens AG, opens it up. "We were not interested in a quick sale."
Gores Group has majority stake in new joint venture. Gores assumes managerial responsibilities; Siemens has 2 board seats and super-majority rights.
JV will have right to use Siemens logo.
Investment will be to acquire technology providers and facilitate the transition from hardware to software.
Equity Firm Gores Group Acquires Siemens Enterprise (Updated)
Posted by Eric Krapf | Jul 29, 2008
Confirming last week's rumors, Siemens announced today that its Enterprise Communications division will be acquired by Los Angeles-based private equity firm The Gores Group. One of the most intriguing parts of the deal is that Gores Group, which we noted last week also owns Enterasys, is going to combine Siemens Enterprise, Enterasys and another one of its portfolio companies, SER Solutions, which makes contact center systems, into a joint venture.
More About Human Latency: Art Rosenberg Weighs In
Posted by Eric Krapf | Jul 28, 2008
That Human Latency post of mine has earned me another rebuke, this from Art Rosenberg. Art writes:
Human Latency in UC: What Does the Business Process See?
Posted by Marty Parker, UniComm Cnslt'g/UC Strategies.com | Jul 28, 2008
Last Wednesday, Eric Krapf wrote that, "Human latency, for those not buzzword-current, is the time it takes for workers to move from one communications channel--say, email--to another one--say, the telephone--to respond to whatever issue they're dealing with." He was writing about latency to reinforce the view of Zeus Kerravala, who is puzzled about the slow adoption of UC and is, "...not fully convinced that desktop based unified communications dramatically alters the way I work." Zeus goes on to say that switching between modes of communications is more important in mobility situations than at the desktop
Global WAN Connectivity for Telepresence
Posted by John Bartlett, NetForecast | Jul 28, 2008
A majority of the enterprises I have worked with on telepresence solutions have offices distributed around the globe. To connect these far flung offices, the enterprises need a carrier who can provide the high bandwidth and high quality transport that telepresence demands to all these global locations. The best solution is a single carrier who can provide an MPLS link to every office. This isn’t always possible.
Microsoft’s Response Point Matures
Posted by Gary Audin, Delphi, Inc. | Jul 25, 2008
Response Point, Microsoft’s other approach to VoIP, has its first Service Pack (SP1) available. SP1 was announced at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2008 in Houston TX. I first discussed Response Point in my blog, “Microsoft’s Response Point, Good for the Enterprise?” Response Point is Microsoft’s software based small IP PBX.
The Role of Presence in Unified Communications
Posted by Blair Pleasant, COMMfusion/UCStrategies | Jul 25, 2008
There’ve been some interesting discussions recently about the role of presence in unified communications, and of course I want to put in my two cents. I strongly agree with what Zeus and Irwin wrote about presence (yes, sometimes analysts agree with each other) - presence is key, it is core, it is the dial tone of the 21st century, yada yada.
With Inter-Tel Integrated, Mitel Moves Ahead
Posted by Eric Krapf | Jul 24, 2008
Mitel's 2007 acquisition of Inter-Tel seems to have bolstered both its product portfolio and its channel at the SMB end of the market. I had a chance to chat with Doug Michaelides, VP of global marketing at Mitel, and Asif Rehman, the company's director of solutions marketing, and they pointed to Mitel's recent announcement of a new SMB package, as well as to specific progress in expanding Mitel's channel.
Brent Kelly on Human Latency
Posted by Eric Krapf | Jul 23, 2008
Brent Kelly of Wainhouse Research dropped me a note about my recent newsletter/post about human latency. With his characteristic insight, Brent made some points about what's really at issue here, and he graciously agreed to let me share them with you here:
Wait and See on Latency
Posted by Eric Krapf | Jul 23, 2008
Zeus makes some valid points about the whole "human latency" issue around Unified Communications. Human latency, for those not buzzword-current, is the time it takes for workers to move from one communications channel--say, email--to another one--say, the telephone--to respond to whatever issue they're dealing with. UC gets touted as the way to automate these multi-channel transitions, saving time and therefore money. For example, you get an email, and can see, within the email, the correspondent's current presence status, availability on various communications channels, and you can invoke the appropriate channel to respond without leaving the email program.
Videoconferencing Market Set to Explode
Posted by Eric Krapf | Jul 22, 2008
Our friends at Wainhouse Research have released a new report projecting major growth in the videoconferencing market over the next five years. If you want to understand why that's happening, I'd refer you to this No Jitter feature by Brent Kelly of Wainhouse.
Foundry Acquired by Brocade
Posted by Eric Krapf | Jul 21, 2008
LAN/WAN switch/router vendor Foundry has agreed to be acquired for $3 billion by Brocade, the storage powerhouse. CRN and Light Reading have the overall analysis. In terms of the enterprise communications market, this doesn't have a huge impact, but it's worth a note. Foundry has been an exhibitor at VoiceCon, and has teamed up on multi-vendor partnerships aimed at putting together the pieces of an enterprise communications infrastructure, as recently as this past spring, when they joined with Mitel and Sun in just such an announcement at Interop.
Mobile Unified Communications Provides More Bang For The Buck Than On The Desktop
Posted by Zeus Kerravala, The Yankee Group | Jul 21, 2008
Unified communications (UC) has been around as a market category now for a number of years. I wrote my first report on this topic in 2003 and I know I wasn’t the first author to do so. So, UC has been a market in the making for over five years now, and despite the industry hype and age of the market, adoption of UC has remained sluggish. However, I do think the oncoming number of “mobile UC” solutions will act as a catalyst for adoption of UC as, in my opinion, mobile UC provides much more value than traditional desktop based UC and here’s why.
An ISV's-Eye View of UC
Posted by Eric Krapf | Jul 21, 2008
Here's another interesting article about UC ecosystems, from a website that covers the Microsoft ISV (independent software vendor) community. The article itself probably won't tell you a lot you don't already know about the basics of UC, but I thought it was worth a read to pick up on the perspective that you get of how the folks who supposedly will be building a lot of the new UC apps view the whole marketplace. I also thought these paragraphs near the end of the article were telling:
Good News for UC: Channel Revenue Growing
Posted by Eric Krapf | Jul 21, 2008
Our discussions here about the state of UC deployment and the market's growth have included a lot of skepticism, but here's one positive data point: According to our sister site, Computer Reseller News, IT solution providers showed almost 10% Y/Y growth in their UC-related revenues from 2006 to 2007, ranking UC behind only virtualization and mid-range servers (!) among top technologies in this sector.
IDC Adds Fuel to the Fire on UC Investments
Posted by Eric Krapf | Jul 18, 2008
Here's some more data to toss into the fray in the ongoing discussion about UC adoption, though with a slightly different approach. In reporting on 2007 worldwide IP-PBX line shipments, Nora Freedman of IDC notes that Unified Communications, particularly the new packages from Microsoft and IBM, didn't slow down growth for IP-PBX stations. The IDC release on the study took a pretty provocative tone, too:
Apple's Cloud Computing?
Posted by Matt Brunk, Telecomworx | Jul 17, 2008
During the past several weeks after announcing to MAC users that Apple would be redoing the former DOTMAC and adjusting hosted accounts for users to the new MobileMe, I received a notice earlier this week that the transition is complete.
Centrino 2 Debuts Without WiMAX
Posted by Michael Finneran, dBrn Associates | Jul 16, 2008
The fledgling WiMAX market took another shot in the chops Monday when Intel introduced the new Centrino 2 chip. While it will include 802.11n capability, notably absent was the long-promised WiMAX support. What makes this all the more notable is that Intel has been the big promoter for WiMAX. If they’re slacking off on WiMAX, who’s left? At some point you’ve got to wonder when someone’s going to notice that the king is running around in less than his Jockey shorts.
