eComm 2009 - Euro Edition - October 28-30

If you follow my blog, you know I was pretty involved with eComm earlier this year, which was held in San Francisco. Building on the momentum from that show, Lee has developed a European-focused edition, and is coming up later this month in Amsterdam.

I've been meaning to do a shout-out for Lee for a while, and it's fortuitous that I'm doing this now. They've just finalized the speaking program, so you should rush over to the eComm site now to see what's on tap.

As you'll see, it's the same format as before - rapid fire, short presentations/talks by an absurdly long list of very connected people who will give you 100 perspectives on how telecom is evolving. Lee favors eclectic and disruptive over tried and true, so most of the speakers will not be household names. However, you won't find a better mix of leading edge ideas and people anywhere, and that's really the value proposition Lee has carved out for eComm.

It's impossible to absorb everything at eComm, so in a way, it's just like the Internet. However, eComm isn't free, but the quality of experience is infinitely better, and you will absolutely come away with at least a few inspirational big ideas as well as meet some really interesting people from both inside and outside telecom. The show has healthy presence in terms of event and media sponsors, and it's great to see eComm getting continued support in these critical areas. The other critical area, of course, is attendance, and I sure hope it draws well. It's a very Euro-centric lineup, and I'm quite certain it will.

Unfortunately, I won't be attending, but as an eComm alumnus, I will follow the daily updates and share them here. I'd love to be there, but my travels never take me overseas, and hope that the stars line up better for me when eComm returns to the U.S. next year. Until then, here's the next best thing I can do: if you follow this link, you can get a 10% discount on the registration. Am not sure how long the discount is in effect for, but don't wait too long!

Fonolo - More Good News From Canada

I've been following Fonolo for some time, and have been posting recently about a few good news stories coming out of Canada's tech/telecom sector. You may recall a recent post where I highlighted the news that Fonolo made Time Magazine's list of Top 50 Websites for 2009.

That's a hard act to follow, but I wanted to continue the thread regarding subsequent accolades and developments for Fonolo. It seems that one thing leads to another, and I finally had the time to pull these all together.

First, if you haven't tried Fonolo, it's now easier than ever before. They've posted a widget now to their website where you can get a hands-on sample of the deep dialing concept. If you don't know what deep dialing is, you'll get it pretty quickly after trying any of the demos there. Have a look at the Fonolo Airlines widget and see for yourself.

From there, Fonolo has been getting some good media attention lately, and all of these are worth checking out.

- interview with Fonolo CEO Shai Berger on BNN TV. Shai does a great job outlining the problem set that Fonolo addresses and explains how it works in plain English. Here's the link.

- Fonolo goes viral, with this clip from KXLY TV in Spokane, Washington, that made its way to YouTube. We're not sure how this happened, but they picked up on Fonolo's buzz and did their own feature about the company and how deep dialing works. Gotta love that.

- Finally, our main national daily - the Globe & Mail - included Fonolo in a small business feature last week about some promising local Web 2.0 startups.

The media sometimes works in strange ways, and it's great to see Fonolo getting this breadth of attention and helping Canadian companies shine a little brighter. If more of our tech companies got coverage like this, I'll bet some of them just might get funding, and then we can really show the world what Canada can do in this space. Flag waving aside, I'd love to hear your thoughts on Fonolo and where else you think deep dialing would make your life easier.

MetaSwitch and XConnect - Good News Items

MetaSwitch and XConnect are very different companies, and normally have no reason to be featured in the same place. However, I've followed both for a long time, and both have recently had some good news to report. Occasionally I'll do a post like this, where this is the only common thread. In this case, I wouldn't say it's a big trend, but the economy is still weak, and signs of life are noteworthy. The big deals - like Cisco/Tandberg or Avaya/Nortel - get all the headlines, and smaller companies like MetaSwtich and XC fly low on most people's radar - but that's my bread and butter - and I'm here to tell you these companies are doing alright.

Let's start with MetaSwitch. There's a lot going on here, and it's all good - and these things always seem to happen when I'm away and too busy to blog about! Well, better late than never. Aside from being one of the most stable, straight-up companies out there, I can't think of any other private company in our space that reports its financial results. Talk about transparency. Of course, it helps when you're growing and making money. As reported in their update, revenues have now broken the $100 million mark ($113.7), and operating margins remain north of 20%.

The closest thing to this would be Mitel, who just reported results, including a hefty loss. Although private, Mitel's base of shareholders exceeds the threshold required by U.S. securities regulations for reporting purposes. To be fair, the loss is mostly a one-time event reflecting the Inter-Tel acquisition, and revenues were slightly up. Hopefully, they'll be in the black soon.

The main difference between these two private companies is that Mitel has to report these results (which I'm sure they would have preferred not to do), whereas MetaSwitch does so by choice. Both are reasonably large companies, and I see MetaSwitch as a yardstick for smaller vendors to follow to show that you can be profitbale as you get larger, and that's worth waiting for, especially to make your investors happy. I can't really say whether smaller companies prefer to remain private or to go public once they get big, but my gut says private ownership is the way to go.

Aside from the good financials, the company has done some rebranding, incorporating the Data Connection name under the MetaSwitch Networks brand. This is part of a bigger process announced at last year's Forum, whereby the carrier systems and network equipment operations have now been consolidated into a single entity.

In terms of broadening their reach, I'd like to add they've done some interesting things this year, showing a willingness to try new things. Most recently, they were the lead sponsor of the Latin America Summit at the re-launched VON event in Miami; and earlier this year they were a sponsor of eComm in San Jose. They've also re-tooled their website, which includes blogs from some top executives, which is always good to see. And if you're going to Supercomm - John Lazar will be speaking, they'll have a new booth to showcase the new branding, and you can find me hanging out with them at their House of Blues party Wednesday night!

Onward to XConnect - another company with strong U.K. roots, by the way. Their most recent good news came in the form of a $10 million funding raise, which will enable them to fulfill their 2.0 roadmap, branded "Interconnect 2.0". Basically, it's a two-pronged plan, whereby 1.) they seek to build a global ENUM-based peering federation - the Global Alliance", and 2.) their service reach will go beyond voice to encompass multimedia communcations.

The latter is really the ultimate goal for peering, where all forms of IP traffic - voice/data/video - can connect directly between any two networks, and essentially dispense with the need to traverse legacy networks. It's an ambitious agenda, and XC is not alone in recognizing that peering has been slow to catch fire in the core market of wireline VoIP services.

The economic rationale has simply not been strong enough yet for mass adoption, but XC is trying hard to change that. As such, peering needs to move up the value chain, particularly to handle video, and as the mobile world moves to 4G, LTE, etc., to address wireless traffic. These are the real growth areas for communications, and as these types of traffic begin to seek end-to-end IP routes, the value proposition for peering becomes stronger.

XConnect has been moving towards wireless for some time, and last month announced a partnership with GSMA that positions them well in this market. It's basically an interop arrangement between XC's ENUM registry and GSMA's PathFinder ENUM registry, a centralized database for mobile operators to translate phone numbers into IP addresses. PathFinder is managed by NeuStar and extends to fixed networks too, but the main idea here is to broaden XC's reach to mobile operators.

To conclude, both companies are showing signs of growth in the IP comms market; with MetaSwitch posting profits and strong revenues, and XConnect raising new money. Both can be done by having the right vision and ability to execute to plan. These are easier said than done, and you don't have to look far to find good startups struggling to raise money or good companies getting acquired for all kinds of reasons. While Cisco, Google, Avaya et al will continue to get bigger at the top end, there are still good stories to be told at the mid or lower levels of the market, and I'll continue talking about them as they pass my way.

Intelepeer's Entry to CaaS

IntelePeer is the latest entry to cross my path that's bringing their CaaS story to market. As the cloud and hosted services continues to blur the line between connectivity and applications, Communications as a Service is gaining momentum. Having just returned from Interactive Intelligence's partner conference, and hearing a lot about their CaaS vision, it's pretty fresh in my mind.

The news from IntelePeer was announced last week, but my focus on ININ has kept me from posting about it until now. Under the banner of the AppworX Open Communications Platform, IntelePeer has come to market with a hosted platform for developers to create the latest and greatest Web + voice applications. As cited in their release, AppworX is all about mashups and the pursuit of CEBP - Communications Enabled Business Processes - which many are touting as the savior for enterprises and especially legacy telecom vendors.

Of course, with the exit bar being set so high by Ribbit last year, there is no shortage of innovators/disruptors like Voxeo, Jajah, Ifbyphone, Jaduka, etc., entering this space with hopes of doing the same. Enough about that - back the storyline and IntelePeer.

Not being a developer, I can't comment on how friendly AppworX is compared to other platforms such as ININ or BroadSoft's Xtended, or even the mobile app stores for that matter. For those of you who are developers - or just curious - you can get a closer look for yourself at the AppworX website. The key here is attracting a critical mass of developers who in turn will make IntelePeer's platform attractive for service providers. And with the platform being hosted in the cloud, it appeals not just to established operators, but virtual operators who may only be focusing on a specific demographic or industry vertical.

The possibilities sure are interesting, and IntelePeer brings a unique twist to the market that makes this more than a me-too apps platform. Aside from just being an open platform - as the name implies - Intelepeer operates their Voice Peering Network, which provides full integration across TDM and IP networks, including all the main variants of SIP. By taking interop issues out of the equation, IntelePeer essentially offers a turnkey solution which is especially attractive to virtual operators, or any provider who wants to build a business offering around rich services and productivity-focused applications. No doubt this offers an attractive way forward for operators looking get off the commodity treadmill of telephony, and as my path increasingly crosses with theirs, I'll be revisiting IntelePeer's progress soon enough.

ININ Wrapup/Dead Circuits Debut!

Following Monday, the remainder of ININ's Partner Conference was mostly breakouts, a few of which catered to analysts/consultants, but the majority were more hands-on technical or sales sessions for partners. Quite a few were about selling ININ against specific competitors, and I like how they're addressing the reality of a quiet up-and-comer competing against - often successfully - the majors.

I took in a handful of these, and was impressed with how friendly and accessible everyone was, and it was a great way to get to know each other. They're trying hard to get more on our radar, and we need to understand their business better, and I'd say everyone will go home happy. They spent a lot of time on IPA - covered in my earlier post - and while it's too early to know how the market will take to it, they were upfront, addressing both the potential upside, as well as the realities of offering a new type of expertise to help customers become more efficient by working with ININ.

Those are my key takeaways for now, and if ININ isn't on your map for 2010, you need a better map. I'll leave you with a few photos...


One of yesterday's breakouts - Allan Sulkin giving his state of the union update on enterprise telephony.



This morning's analyst breakfast with Don Brown - a bit on the early side, but very engaging.




And now the fun stuff - the Partner Awards Dinner followed by the Battle of the Bands



A few Rock Band stations to get people into the mood. Go Blair!



Making our debut, sans rehearsal, The Dead Circuits - our singer, Pierre Deguire, myself on guitar, and not pictured, ININ's Chris Majer on drums, and ringer Chris Santillo on bass. We didn't win, but we sure had fun, despite no warning about our instruments being tuned down a half step and not being able to hear ourselves. The 5 minutes of rock star fame was worth it, and we'll do it again for sure - but I'll keep my day job. Photo courtesy of Alice Deer - thanks!



The night was young for some of us, and we made our way to the Slippery Noodle, a local blues bar. The band was very friendly, and a few of us joined them at various times on some tunes. Here's Pierre workin' his harp...

September Media Roundup

September was light for regular media coverage, as my focus was on the Smart Grid Summit at the beginning of the month. As such, most of my citings were grid-related, but I managed a few other items of note. The first two months of our portal have generated very strong traffic, and to support that trend, my media activities in that space will become more prominent.

First, my regular mix of media coverage:

Macleans Magazine - Google Voice: "Too Hot for iPhone"

InfoExecutive Magazine - Nortel: "Latest Nortel sale could give customers ‘the jitters’ if not handled right: analysts"

Service Provider Views column - Skype: "Why Skype Is Good News for Service Providers (Part 1)"

VON Expo Blog - "The Blogosphere Responds to the VON Expo "

UC Strategies podcast - "UC Experts Discuss Avaya's Acquisition of Nortel"


Now for the Smart Grid-related citings:

Smart Grid portal article - "Verizon: Bridging the Telco-Utility Divide"

Smarter Technology: "Smart Grids: The Battleground of Tomorrow's Internet"

Smart Grid portal article - "Reflections on the Smart Grid Summit"

Service Provider Views column: "What Service Providers Can Learn from Utilities"

Interactive Intelligence Conference - Day 1

So far so good here at Interactive Intelligence's Partner conference. CEO Don Brown set the tone with a bright picture about the company's strong financial performance. I wouldn't underestimate the importance of this, especially with so many major vendors being on shaky ground. They also have a healthy cash balance, and having made their first acquisition with AcroSoft, ININ is in a nice spot to become a consolidator. Don made a good point about ININ being the tortoise, growing slow and steady - while the competitors around them and struggle for a variety of reasons.

The main focus for Don, though, was the launch of IPA - Interaction Process Automation. This is their new focus to enable the mapping of business processes to ININ's underlying contact center technologies. Pretty ambitious idea, since vendors like this generally don't have business process expertise. However, during the demo, Don pointed out that they listen to their customers and learn how to understand their problems. They've applied this to their solutions, and a demo was presented using the process of filing an insurance claim to show how IPA works.

It was an effective way to show how various steps in this process can be automated, but what I really liked was how Web 2.0-style tools were integrated into what otherwise would be a normal phone call between a customer and an agent. In particular they used chat, as well as Google Maps so the agent could visualize where the vehicle was. Lots of interesting possibilities here, although it remains to be seen how much faith customers put in ININ to automate these processes for them.

Basically, I see IPA as a nice value-add and differentiator for existing customers, but it's probably too early to use it as a lead application to attract new customers. On that note, I agree with Don's comment that IPA allows them to gain a deeper understanding of their customers, making it a bit of a Trojan Horse that may open the door for additional ININ offerings.

Later in the morning, Jim Burton of UC Strategies gave a nice overview of the state of the market for telephony vendors. He provided good insights on Avaya/Nortel and the competitive landscape for all the other majors. The main message for me is that telephony is becoming reduced to being a feature server, and call control is no longer the domain of legacy vendors. He pointed out that it only took Cisco 5 years to master this, and Microsoft will get there too.

Bottom line - telephony as a standalone offering is no longer viable or valuable. There are too many ways to get voice - including the cloud - and he sees the best strategy for the telecom vendors being to go vertical and focus on a niche they can dominate. Software vendors, on the other hand, are horizontal solutions, and can't compete as well this way.

Furthermore, the PBX is quickly losing its primacy as an endpoint device, with most of the momentum and new adoption shifting to mobility and softphones. Early on, Jim noted that we communicate more via email than telephony, and this trend will just continue. This makes it pretty hard to keep end users tethered to a desk phone, especially when we travel so much and work increasingly from home.

It's not a great scenario for telecom vendors, and not surprisingly, Jim's message was that if they're to survive this transition they have to integrate voice into business processes - i.e. CEBP. It's a welcome message for this audience, and I guess that was the point. ININ totally gets this idea, and this conference is very much about using business processes to create new forms of value for end users, and of course the channels, who do most of the selling for ININ.

More to come for tomorrow, including the Battle of the Bands in the evening. Our group is The Dead Circuits, and we hope to have our mojo working...

Joe Staples



Don Brown







Jim Burton

Deloitte Technology Fast 50 - Canadian Tech Leaders

I've been following Deloitte Canada's Fast 50 listings for a few years, and it's a great barometer of success for our tech sector. The 2009 list was just published as the cover story in Backbone Magazine - you can read the full feature here - and you won't have to look far across Canada's PR landscape today for announcements from the companies that made the list.

Actually, there are a few lists, but the Fast 50 is the big one. It's my duty to wave the Canadian tech flag where I can, and I'd like to highlight companies from the list that I'm familiar with. Some are clients, and I'd love for the others to be clients, but let's keep the focus on them!

So, here they are in rank order from the Fast 50 list: Impact Mobile (5), BelAir Networks (10), Immersive Media (12), Sandvine (17), RIM (19), TelcoBridges (21), March Networks (24), BlueCat Networks (27), MyThum Interactive (39), and Sangoma (40). Congrats to all!

Also, wearing my Smart Grid hat, Toronto-based Ecobee made the Green 15 list. That's great news, and we've already posted a writeup about it to our portal.

You can review the lists via a separate link, which includes basic details about the companies as well as their percentage growth rates over the past 5 years. Many of the growth rates are astronomical - 4 figures and 2 with 5 figures - but that's to be expected from startups and smaller companies. However, you really have to tip your hat RIM, for continuing to rank so high, with a 910% 5 year growth rate. They're probably bigger than all the Fast 50 combined, and it says a lot about how a company of this size can sustain such fantastic growth year over year.

Next Stop - Indianapolis and ININ

October is the busiest travel month I've had in a long time, and my first stop is Indianapolis for Interactive Intelligence's Global 2009 Partner Conference. I've been learning more about them recently, and they're doing some interesting things, especially in terms of integrating their contact center applications with business processes. There's lots of room for improvement here, and ININ has done a lot of reverse engineering to figure out how communications technologies can be tied to these processes to make them more efficient.

It's my first ININ partner event, and I'm looking forward to meeting their whole team and learning more about where they're adding value in a space that needs a lot of help.

On the fun side, they're having a Battle of the Bands event, and I'm going to be in one of the groups. I don't play music as much as I used to, but still love it, and couldn't resist throwing my hat into the ring. It looks like one of the names I came up with is going to stick - The Dead Circuits - and as the email threads get longer, this thing is somehow coming together. Time to tune up the guitar...

Cellwand's #TAXI Now U.S.-Wide

I've been posting about Toronto-based Cellwand Communications for ages, and they had some great news yesterday that's worth sharing. True, I may be a shareholder, but I'm doing this because it's another flag-waving moment whereby a Canadian company has gained market-wide coverage in the U.S.

Cellwand has been producing LBS - location based services - applications for mobile devices for many years, and #TAXI is their flagship product. It's a better way to get a cab than calling 411 and then phoning up a local taxi company. You'd be surprised how often people can't flag down a cab when they need one, and for that, #TAXI is the answer. Of course, this presumes you have a mobile phone, which wasn't always true when this service was first launched - but it's a pretty safe bet today.

What I really like about #TAXI is that it's a simple application - works on any mobile device, and you just dial the number to use - don't need to download anything. Smartphones weren't even invented when the service came out, so this isn't some trendy app you get off an apps store. #TAXI actually has a business model behind it - it's pay per use, and users get a tangible benefit - pretty simple.

Yesterday's news marks the first time that #TAXI has become an effectively ubiquitous service across the U.S. The main item in the press release is that Sprint is finally on board, and are now offering the service to their mobile subscribers. Cellwand already has AT&T and Verizon in the mix, so now pretty much all U.S. mobile subscribers can access #TAXI - 215 million people as the press release proclaims.

Wearing the red and white, I'd say that's a notable accomplishment, and I can't think of too many Canadian mobile services - paid apps - not free - that are this widely-available. Cellwand has had the Canadian mobile market covered for a long time, as our 3 wireless operators - Bell, Rogers, Telus - all offer #TAXI. I can tell you that getting mobile operators to adopt a service like on their network takes a lot of work, and Cellwand has been at this a long time.

Their hard work is paying off now, and as we head into the holiday season, #TAXI is ready when you are, pretty much wherever you are, whatever handset you have, and whatever carrier you're using. Sounds like a pretty good spot to be in, so kudos to Cellwand, and if you ever need a cab in Canada or the U.S., there's nothing stopping you now from using the service.

Why Skype Could Be Good News For Carriers

Last week I posted about Skype's keynote VON, given by their CSO, Christopher Dean. It was a pretty interesting talk, and it's clear that Skype is taking some big steps forward to serve the business market - not just by themselves, but in partnership with carriers.

It's an intriguing proposition, and I mentioned I'd write further about it in my Service Provider Views column. There's a fair bit to explore, and while putting this together, I decided to make it a 2 part writeup. So, Part 1 is running now on TMCnet, and you can read it here.

If you want to follow this to completion, I'll have Part 2 ready in early October, so watch for it then.

BroadSoft's Move Into Consumer Communications

Some noteworthy news from BroadSoft last week that I haven't seen much coverage of. Being at VON kept me too busy to post about this, but it may still be news to many of you. I was pre-briefed by BroadSoft prior to the announcement, but couldn't talk about it until the news, which came out on Wednesday.

Branded the "Consumer Experience", BroadSoft is building on their strong foundation of business end users to move into the residential market. With over 450 carrier customers in 71 countries, they have the critical mass and footprint to serve new markets, and for many of their customers this will open up new opportunities.

BroadSoft has had residential capabilities for some time, but they've never gone to this extent to position BroadWorks as a total solution for this market. Early on, the focus was on providing telephony, and enabling carriers to offer Vonage-style subscription services. Needless to say, the market has evolved considerably, and VoIP is just one element for today's residential offerings. BroadSoft is talking about enabling "the new consumer carrier", which translates into a ubiquitous communications experience, much like what we often hear for the emerging world of Telco 2.0 - multiple services over multiple devices and screens, anywhere, any time.

What I find most interesting about BroadSoft is their focus on the devices and multimedia communications. By shifting from telephony to communications, they enable carriers to sell a more comprehensive service. So, in addition to the telephone, BroadSoft now touches a wide variety of devices - TVs, PCs, set top boxes, video cameras (surveillance), Internet appliances (this is going to be a growth market), touchscreen devices, etc.

With BroadSoft's Xtended Web 2.0 capabilities, they're also reaching out to support social networking, which may be the stickiest mode of communication with consumers these days. And yes, we're talking both fixed and mobile devices, so pretty much any type of carrier can get in the game with BroadSoft.

By connecting all these pieces with a single platform, BroadSoft's carrier customers can now brand their services on pretty much every communications device used in the home, and if you walk around and count them all up room by room, that's a lot of exposure. I can't say for sure that BroadSoft is the only platform out there that can do all these things, but it's a much broader vision for residential services than what carriers typically have to choose from.

If Microsoft hasn't come to mind yet for a parallel here, it will soon. I've seen a very similar storyline from them - especially around the digital lifestyle - but they're coming at it from a software angle. I'd say this will not be as intuitive for consumers to understand compared to hearing it from their service provider. Like Microsoft, BroadSoft is positioning their solution in terms of the overall consumer experience, and this is the type of messaging that a carrier wants to hear that tells them BroadSoft understands their needs. There's a nice example of this on their website - it's an online slideshow titled "A Day in the Life of a Connected Consumer".

All told, it's about more choice for consumers, more devices to communicate with, and more ways to add value with personaliztion and integration with Web-based services. It's long way from VoIP, and another step forward for BroadSoft. I should add that it's in the market today, and the press release cites some success stories, so you might want to look at those for specific examples of how it's being deployed.

VON - Final Day/Skype Keynote - Seeking Channel Partners

Yesterday was a transition day here, with VON running til early afternoon, and then the focus shifted to the Channel Partners event. It was a bit strange seeing all the signage, etc. for VON in the morning, then disappearing and being replaced by Channel Partners. Am sure some people came for both events, but it was hard to tell.

I moderated one of the morning sessions - it was on mobile applications for the enterprise. We had Nancy Colwell from Divitas, Thomas Monopoli from MetaSwitch, and Tom Howe from - well you know Tom, right? I thought it was a very balanced panel, and Tom did a great job filling in for Voxeo who was a last minute scratch. The biggest surprise of the session was discovering that most of the people in the audience were Engineers, so it didn't take much for the conversations to get technical, and that was a good thing. It's pretty clear that mobile apps are new to this crowd, but I think we did a good job showing them what is possible, especially with the success stories that Nancy cited.



The highlight of the day, though - and the event in my view - was the Skype keynote to close out the event - which was very well attended. Christopher Dean is Skype's CSO - Chief Strategy Officer - and the fact that someone from Skype actually has a title like this says a lot about how much the company has matured.

Most of Christopher's presentation reviewed major trends in communications and as they align, how well things line up for Skype. He did a nice job citing data points to show the rapid growth of things like smartphones, 4G, mobile VoIP, broadband adoption, UC, cloud computing, FMC, etc. Nothing new there, but he then outlined how Skype is addressing these opportunities, especially for the business market.

Most of us know this is a top priority for Skype, and the most newsworthy item from the keynote was their new focus on channels, which of course ties in nicely with both events here - VON and Channel Partners. The main idea here is that Skype will be launching a service provider VAR program later this year. Christopher provided a URL about the program for reference, but as you'll see, there's not much there yet.

So, in the course of a few minutes, the audience heard about how Skype is looking to cross the chasm and partner with service providers. That creates all kinds of interesting scenarios, and Christopher pointed out how this is part of their bigger vision to be more open and partner-friendly in the post-eBay world. On that note, he didn't have much to say about the Extras program other than they understand how important it is, and are overhauling it now. So, it's not quite dead yet....

Lots more to talk about, and I'm saving that for my next Service Provider Views article, which should be out early next week. I hope you give that a read.



Virgo's Richard Martin introducing the keynote. Kudos to Rick, btw, for pulling this event together and giving VON a second life, so to speak...





VON's over - time to wander a bit. A few shots here from Lincoln Road. Going back to Toronto today, and this was pretty much my last shot at enjoying the weather - wouldn't you have done the same?

Tuesday Afternoon in Miami

Had a full morning at VON yesterday, and saw a bit of the Latin America Summit. That's probably the most distinctive twist for the show - it may not be for everybody, but if you have an eye on this market, this looked like a good reality check. I didn't see enough to draw strong conclusions, but it's a huge market opportunity, which anyone here in South Florida knows all too well. I'll steer you to a wrapup post off the VON Daily by Tara Seals for more detail.

The rest of my day was spent in onsite and offsite meetings. Can't complain about the latter, and it's not everyday you get a view like this - what's not to like?

VON - So Far

Well, I got to see a handful of sessions yesterday, and have walked the floor a few times. Otherwise, I've been living in the Press Room, and doing my share of briefings and biz dev meetings.

So far, I'd say VON is turning out pretty much as expected. Not too big and not too small. It's a different VON, that's for sure. No Hawaiian shirts (but it sure is hot and humid here), no purple minutes, no rock and roll blowout parties, etc. But, the caliber of speakers and sessions has been very good so far. I really liked what I saw, and the sessions were well attended. The Latin America Summit is running today, and tomorrow, the venue transitions from VON to the Channel Partners show. This really makes VON and a 2+ day show, and it's probably the right amount of time.

Not sure how much of the LatAm summit I'll see, but I have my own session to moderate tomorrow on mobile enterprise apps. Tom Howe is a last minute stand-in for Voxeo - am sure things will turn out just fine. I'm quite looking forward to seeing Skype's Christopher Dean close things out tomorrow. It sure has been a busy week for Skype, and I talked to the press a couple of times yesterday about the latest developments, which could potentially derail the deal altogether. Let's leave it at that and see what comes tomorrow.



Different VON, but many familiar faces - which is not a bad thing!

VON - Last Call

Just a final shout-out for next week's VON event in Miami. I'll be there through Wednesday and let me know if you're coming - I won't be hard to find.

I gave kudos to Rick Martin the other day, and wanted to share his thinking on why VON is going to be a strong event. He posted a piece today to the VON eDaily titled "5 Reasons VON Will Be Successful". I like 'em all, esp #5 - the Dolphins hosting the Colts Monday night. Haven't thought about going - am more focused on the Patriots/Jets matchup on Sunday - but a lot can happen between now and then. :-)

What Service Providers Can Learn From Utilities

My latest Service Provider Views article is posted now on TMCnet. With the above title, it's no surprise that they've featured the article on our Smart Grid portal, and you can read it here.

In short, my article talks about ways that service providers could apply Demand Response principles to their business. The ideas may not be that obvious, as the dynamics of the energy business are very different, but not entirely off the table.

I'm also doing this to show that utilities aren't the only ones who could stand to learn from others in the Smart Grid space - telcos have far greater competitive pressures, and should be willing to take good ideas from wherever they come.

Smart Grid Summit, Miami - Call for Papers

Seems like our inaugural Smart Grid Summit was just yesterday, but we're already in planning mode for the sequel, which takes place in Miami, January 20-22, 2010.

I've been remiss about getting the word out for speakers here, so I'm telling you right now that we do have a Call for Papers out there, and you're welcome to submit ideas for presentations or topics. For basic guidance, here's a range of topics we're thinking about:

- Industry Standards and Interoperability
- Emerging Smart Home Applications
- Demand Response
- Home Energy Management
- Utility Success Stories
- Grid Security, Privacy and Resilience
- Regulatory Issues
- Wireless Broadband Opportunities in the Smart Home
- Wireless/WiMAX Opportunities for Utilities
- Smart Grid Startup Showcase
- VC/Investor Perspectives
- Emerging Business Models for Utilities
- Monetizing the Grid
- VC/Investor Perspectives
- Emerging Business Models for Utilities
- The Green Grid
- The Clean Grid
- Best Practices – Global Perspectives
- What Utilities Can Learn from Telcos
- What Utilities Can Learn from Software Providers
- Broadband Stimulus Strategies
- Smart Grid Crystal Ball Outlook
- Smart Grid Startup Showcase
- A Smart Grid for Distributed Generation
- Electric Cars and the Grid
- Energy Storage and the Grid
- Social Networking and Energy Awareness

We won't be able to do all of these, but at least you'll get an idea of what we have in mind. You can access the basic submission form and more details here and by all means, drop me a line if you have any questions.

Inc. Magazine Top 5000/Telecom Leaders

The September issue of Inc. Magazine has their annual Top 5000 listing of fastest growing small companies. That sure covers a lot of ground, and I'm just going to focus on the Telecommunications category here. They have lots of categories, and just be sure, I checked several others such as IT, Software, Computer Hardware, etc., and really didn't see any companies of note that fall under my radar.

Within telecom, however, there are a handful companies I follow that made the list, and here they are in rank order by percent growth rate: GenBand, Bandwidth.com, M5 Networks, VoIP Logic, Grandstream Networks, VoIP Supply, and Empirix.

You may well recognize other companies there, and here's the link for the full set of Top 5000 lists.

Many of these were repeats from last year's list, which I take to be a good thing. That means these companies are sustaining their healthy growth rates, and in this economy that's a pretty good sign of success.

So, kudos to these companies, and a hat tip to buddy Mostafa Razzak of JMR Worldwide, whose PR shop represents VoIP Logic, one of the above companies.

Next Stop - Miami and the New VON

The VON conference returns next week in Miami, and presumably you know it's under new management, so to speak. We know it will be new, but whether it's improved remains to be seen. Virgo Publishing has taken over the event and led by Richard Martin, they've been working hard to re-brand VON and keep it relevant for today's market.

There's always a lot of anticipation around new events, and based on the lineup so far, it should be a strong conference. I'm particularly keen to see Christopher Dean speak at the close of the show - he's the Chief Strategy Officer for Skype - especially to hear his thoughts on why the Extras developer program was dropped, and of course, where things are going post-eBay.

Another interesting feature of VON is the LatAm Summit, which starts on Tuesday. Miami is a natural hub for anyone serving this market, and there's a lot of opportunity in this part of the world for IP comms companies of all stripes. Too bad I don't speak Spanish!

For myself, I'll be there Monday through Wednesday, and am moderating a panel at 11am on Wednesday. Our session is about mobile apps for the enterprise, and features speakers from MetaSwitch, Voxeo and Divitas.

If you're going, I hope to see you there - and if not, I'll be posting here as time allows.