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Allan Sulkin sent us this post, and will update us from the STC meeting this week. Once again I will be speaking at this week's Society of Telecommunications Consultants (STC) Fall conference held in Reno, Nevada, attended by members of the STC and the Canadian Telecommunications Consultants Association (CTCA). Although I am no longer a dues-paying STC member (since my primary vocation is more of a management consultant than telecommunications consultant, in addition to my industry roles as analyst, writer, and curmudgeon) I have attended a good number of the Fall meetings as a speaker, usually to present my views and critiques of the enterprise communications market. I also create and conduct an annual survey of the consultant members, the results and findings having appeared in Business Communications Review articles; a No Jitter feature story on this year's survey is scheduled to appear in December (watch for it).

Allan Sulkin sent us this post, and will update us from the STC meeting this week.

Once again I will be speaking at this week's Society of Telecommunications Consultants (STC) Fall conference held in Reno, Nevada, attended by members of the STC and the Canadian Telecommunications Consultants Association (CTCA). Although I am no longer a dues-paying STC member (since my primary vocation is more of a management consultant than telecommunications consultant, in addition to my industry roles as analyst, writer, and curmudgeon) I have attended a good number of the Fall meetings as a speaker, usually to present my views and critiques of the enterprise communications market. I also create and conduct an annual survey of the consultant members, the results and findings having appeared in Business Communications Review articles; a No Jitter feature story on this year's survey is scheduled to appear in December (watch for it).I don't know the numbers for the CTCA, but I do know that STC membership has declined during the past few years, though attendance at their semi-annual conferences has been holding up thanks to a strong core of long-time members (or maybe it's to hear me lambaste the vendors, most of whom are in the audience). The membership is aging (more than a few members qualify for AARP membership) and signing up new members has been difficult, because few youngsters during the past 20 years opted for a career in voice communications as compared to computers, data networking, software programming and the Internet. In today's modern communications world Web design consultants are a dime a dozen, but telecommunications consultants that know their stuff are hard to find. Customers need to beware of individuals recently downsized from their jobs who have shiny new business cards identifying them as "Telecommunications Consultant." The consulting experience of many STC/CTCA members is measured in decades, not weeks or months.

It appears to me that overall market knowledge of voice communications, encompassing products, features, and applications, has been diminishing since the day I joined the market sector in 1980. Coupling this trend with the increasing complexity of enterprise communications systems is troubling, because companies that need to replace their aging PBXs systems with new IP telephony systems (and a host of new options, such as mobile cellular extensions and a variety of other unified communications tools) can easily be overwhelmed by the number of vendors and solutions. It takes an experienced and battle-proven consultant to provide the assistance they need, yet the telecommunications consultant ranks are dwindling. A number of vendors who offer consultative services in an attempt to replace a true consultant are, believe it or not, biased towards their own solutions (shocking, simply shocking). Members of the STC and CTCA must be totally independent without any fiduciary or contractual ties to a vendor, and abide by a code of ethics that testify to their objectiveness.

I urge young members of the telecommunications consulting community to look into STC or CTCA membership. I also recommend to companies seeking help to contact one of the two professional associations to find a consultant matching their needs (but only if you don't wish to use my services, LOL). The vendors, too, can help by continuing to support the associations, including being present at the conferences. Watch for my post next week when I review the STC Conference keynote address by Dana Rasmussen, President, Siemens Communications Inc., North America, and how I did at the casino's gambling tables.