Unified Communications - 2012 Outlook Podcast

Sure feels like ages since my last post, and now that I check, it has been ages! Wow, time flies, esp when you're in holiday mode and have family coming to visit. That's all passed now, and it's back to work - and blogging.

For my first 2012 post, I was part of a great podcast earlier this week on UCStrategies. Our last podcast was the year in review, and this time around it was our look ahead to 2012. Not surprisingly, everyone has an opinion, and this session could have gone on for a long time.

The podcast has now been posted and transcribed to the UCS portal, and if you want a solid sendup of where Unified Communications is going this year, this will be 40 minutes very well spent. My focus was on how UC offerings will continue to move away from being telecom-centric, and I'll have more to say about that in my next UCS writeup this month.

My 2011 Unified Communications Takeaways

Building on our UCStrategies podcast earlier this week on the UC year in review, I've added another take in written form.

In short, disruption was the big driver, and it's hard to imagine this degree of change being the norm for 2012 - but you never know! I've had a chance to gauge the landscape both here in Canada as well as the U.S., and disruption comes in many flavors. Some is welcome and some is not, and my take on what it means for UC is the focus of my summary. It's posted now on the UCStrategies portal, and I welcome your thoughts after you've had a chance to give it a read.

Unified Communications - 2011 Year in Review Podcast

We're getting that looking back/looking ahead time of year, right? The latest UCStrategies podcast served as our 2011 review in this space, and there was lots to talk about.

This is as complete of a roundup on what happened in Unified Communications this year as you're going to find, so if this space is on your radar, you'll want to give it a listen. The podcast - and transcript - is posted now on the portal, so head on over to hear what we had to say.

We're off next week, but our next podcast is the following week, and we'll address our 2012 UC outlook/predictions then. Can't wait!

ITExpo East in Miami - 41 days and counting...

Just a quick shout-out before people get too scattered for the holidays.

TMC's ITExpo East is just 41 days away, and before you know it, we'll be in Miami - nothing wrong with that, right? The show builds on strong momentum from the Austin expo back in September, and the upcoming program is as strong as ever. They recently announced Sir Terry Matthews as a keynoter, and you will not want to miss that. Great choice!

I'll be plenty busy as well, moderating three panels, and I'll provide more details on those as the speakers get confirmed.

1. Wed. at 11am - Building the UC business case

2. Wed. at 1:30pm - How call centers are being reshaped by smartphones, social media and fed-up consumers

3. Friday at 10am - Can UC get social?

Looking forward to all of those, and I hope you are too. Lots more to come about this and the Expo - stay tuned.

SMBs and the channel - Canadian update - where's the innovation?

This morning I attended a breakfast session hosted by IT World Canada, and it was a good update on the state of the channel, especially for serving the SMB market. They served it up as a debate, with speakers from two channels, and facilitated by the venerable Paolo Del Nibletto from IT World Canada - with a specific focus on the publication, CDN - Canadian Dealer News. Joining Paolo was Joe Ussia of Infinite IT Solutions, and Christopher Woodill of Navantis.

For SMB, the channel is where the business really happens, and where vendors put their trust in their partners to effectively deploy their solutions. As we heard, SMBs are cautious, both in terms of adopting technology and spending. Paolo shared some data showing that 50% of Canadian SMBs will have have flat IT budgets in 2012, and 22% will actually drop. Not surprisingly, he shared data showing that the biggest concerns among channels are - the state of the economy (healthier than the U.S., but not great), margins, and sales growth. Totally makes sense, right?

Of greater concern to Paolo - and I fully agree - is how little importance the channels are placing on innovation and R&D - these scored much lower on the priority list in the research he shared. This is pretty typical for Canada, and while SMBs generally don't flock to cutting-edge technology, the channel players risk becoming commodities if they're all pushing the same stock solutions.

Note to self and Paolo - next time, show some research regarding what SMB priorities are. I wouldn't be surprised to see innovation and R&D higher up on their list - and if so, there really would be a disconnect between channels and SMBs. Paolo - I'm ready to do the research when you are!

So, with all this uncertainty out there, it's no surprise that uptake on hosted or cloud offerings is slow. As the speakers noted, SMBs still like a sense of IT ownership and control, but they do value what VARs and integrators bring to make multi-mode - and multi-vendor - solutions work. It's a tricky balance in that SMBs aren't spending a lot on Capex for premise-based systems, plus they're also cautious about the cloud.

Perhaps the strongest takeway from this was the path SMBs seem to be on with cloud. They seem happy and comfortable buying point solutions such as Salesforce or CRM that run in the cloud - but this just results in a mish-mash of applications with no integration, which of course, is where the channels earns its keep. As such, the channels concede we'll be in a hybrid market for some time - premise isn't going away that quickly, and cloud adoption will be gradual for communications applications.

Nothing ground-breaking here, but certainly a healthy reality check on what Canadian SMBs are doing, and how the channels are responding. Kudos to Paolo and his team, and I look forward to the next event.

Paolo leading the discussion with Joe Ussia and Christopher Woodill

Rogers Wireless "One Number" Launch - Upping the Stakes

At its core, Toronto-based Rogers is a cable company, but wireless is where the action is, and that's where they're doing the most interesting things. They bet right on GSM - which begat their iPhone monopoly until recently - and through some shrewd moves, have become Canada's #1 mobile operator. They really are a one-of-a-kind entity, as no major MSO I know of has their mix of assets, all of which make money.

Along those lines, Rogers Wireless is set today to launch their beta of a new service called One Number. It's exactly what you think - one number to manage all your communications. If there's one key to success with consumer services - especially technology - it's simplicity. Skype taught us all about that and they haven't looked back since. Doesn't get much simpler that this - one number - that's all you need to worry about. It's the same mentality that goes with bundling, which they've been very successful at. If you like the bundle, you'll probably like One Number.

This is hardly a new concept, and anyone in Unified Communications circles would yawn. They shouldn't, though. UC is really for the business market, and the telecom piece is built mainly around the desk phone. The twist with One Number is that it's built around the mobile phone, which is pretty much where consumers live, breath and sleep these days. Rogers Wireless has read the tea leaves right, and to make their bundle even stickier, One Number basically integrates mobility with your desktop. So what? So this. Now you can hand off mobile calls to your PC - or vice versa - as some people do with Skype. Same for texting and messaging - what you do on your mobile phone you can now do on your PC. And of course your contacts will synch between the devices so the experience is seamless.

Pretty cool, pretty easy and pretty familiar. Sounds like Google Voice, huh? Problem is you can't get it here in Canada - something to do with how the big 3 operators like to do things. Anyhow, it's very much a Web 2.0-meets mobility-meets VoIP mashup, and I think consumers will love it. Most people under 30 have long moved on from a landline, and with One Number, their PC simply becomes an extension of their smartphone - you just don't need anything else. Clever, huh? If you can find a way to use Google Voice, there's no need now. Skype. Well, it's always there, but hey, if most of your everyday contacts are in your smartphone directory, it will just make more sense to call them from your PC that way, especially since those calls are largely free.

There are some other twists to this, but I'll leave those details to the real geeks. I just find it very telling how this is all being driven by wireless now, and One Number is a neat way to marry this with the PC. Of course, all of this will depend on the end user experience - if handoffs drop, or call quality is crappy, One Number will quickly and quietly disappear. In that regard, there's a nice Canadian angle, as the PC platform is from CounterPath, a company I have followed for some time. Their Bria soft client is quite good - I trialed it recently, and the company is doing well - their Q2 numbers were just released today. At a time when 6 of Canada's 7 hockey teams are mired in total mediocrity, it's great to see some good news coming from these companies.

As a coda, I should note that there's more to consider than just making the Rogers bundle stickier. Last night I was at a holiday party for one of the new wireless entrants, and it's very interesting to hear their take on the competitive landscape. Canada's wireless market has some challenging dynamics, and the regulators are doing everything they can to legislate competition. The new operators are pureplay mobile services, and One Number is another way for Rogers to differentiate and keep their ARPU up where investors are happy.

Not everybody needs or wants to integrate mobility with their PC, but those who do are pretty valuable customers. Rogers gets that, and One Number will help keep those customers under their tent. If this works, I have no doubt that TELUS and Bell will soon offer similar services, if only to keep their customers from going to Rogers. Until then, it's Rogers out in front again, and I'm sure CounterPath is hoping that everyone wants it.

Know Your Alternatives 2012 - Program Announced

Newsflash - a Canadian telecom event! This is a rarity up here, and I'm glad to say I'll be part of it, so stay tuned for details.

The event is called Know Your Alternatives, and runs here in Toronto on February 9, 2012. Sure, it's a small event and just one day, but I'll take it. There are just so few events in this space in Canada, and hats off to Emily Nielsen and her team at Nielsen Consulting for putting this together.

She's lined up a solid roster of sponsors - Bell, Microsoft, Cisco, Avaya, Mitel, ShoreTel, NEC, Dialogic - and the program is very strong. At this point, I'll be speaking on the SIP Trunking session, which is familiar ground for me, so this should be a fun panel.

Have a look at the website for details, and there's a bonus draw if you register before December 16. There's a newsletter you can sign up for as well, and I'll update you here and on Twitter as updates come along.

Canadian Blog Awards - don't forget to vote!

Just a quick shout-out to keep the Canadian Blog Awards on your radar. You can view the full list of nominees across several categories here. If you scroll down towards the end, you'll find the Science and Technology category, and my blog is in that group.

I'm not sure when voting closes, but hey, just head on over the site and exercise your right to vote, eh!

Avaya Night in Canada - IP Office 8.0 Update

I was invited to attend an update here in Toronto yesterday on Avaya's IP Office, which inluded a preview for Release 8.0, scheduled to launch on December 12. Lots of Avaya folks on hand, along with the sponsors, Smart IP. They're one of Avaya's top 10 Canadian reseller partners, and having started out as a Nortel shop, they know the territory pretty well.

Oh - Canadians will clue into the title of this post right away - more on that later.

This was a pitch event to prospective IP Office customers, and being the only analyst, it gave me a pretty interesting perspective on how the story is told and how the value proposition is communicated. Release 8.0 is targeted at the SME market, and serves up to 384 lines. So, there will be some small business here, but it's really mid-sized customers, meaning that they'll have some IT competence. In other words, this is strictly about premise-based systems - there was absolutely no mention here of cloud, hosted or virtual solutions.

If you didn't pay close attention, you would think the focus was 100% about telecom. In many ways it was, as most of the presentation materials covered the feature set of the phones, and how Release 8.0 has full backwards compatibility with Nortel BCM. Fair enough - that's a very important message to communicate, given the huge installed base of Nortel in Canada, and the need for Avaya to retain that business as they transition away from BCM. To that point, a key takeaway was an EOS date of March 1, 2012 (end of support)for Norstar/BCM - at that point, only Avaya products will be supported.

Getting beyond that, yes, there was talk about SIP trunking and unified communications, but not in a huge way. It was good to hear about advanced IP-based features such as built-in ACD, built-in conference bridges, and how modular and scalable the systems are. All good, but most of the talk was about how the BCM features are fully migrated to the Avaya phones. This is really important for long-time Nortel users, who don't have to think about the codes they use for routine things like call transfer, call forwarding, last number redial, DND, etc. They'll use the same codes with Avaya, which translates into faster/easier adoption, lower install costs and less need for retraining. I'd say they've done a great job here, and that speaks to the broader, more strategic message they have about investment protection for this migration.

Wearing my UC hat, this seems a bit dull, but it's a clear reminder that telephones still matter big time, and the phone system is still very much the heart and soul of most communications systems - certainly among this customer set. Most VARs still have telecom as the core offering, but we all know how things are changing.

This brings me to the fun stuff - one-X, and what 8.0 supports at the desktop and for mobility. Now we're getting closer to UC, and Smart IP has the right idea to help move their customers along with Avaya as a solution for both today and tomorrow. I'll be short here, but basically, one-X has an Outlook plug-in that brings all the web-based UC features - presence, IM, conferencing, federated contact lists, voicemail, etc. - into that interface. Avaya knows this is where end users spend most of their on-screen time, so this way they don't have to leave the Outlook page to do all these things. It's a great ease-of-use example, and speaks to the end user experience as a key value driver.

The other interesting one-X update is mobility integration. It's only available on the higher-end IP Office solutions, but it does all the things you'd expect when extending the deskphone/desktop UC feature set out to the mobile environment. This definitely plays well for a UC solution, but what really stood out for me is their choice of devices supported by one-X. They're launching with Android first, and that's what the demo was based on. Early next year, iPhone will added, but no firm plan is in place yet for RIM. Wow. I think that speak volumes, not just about mobility, but how handset trends are driving things. Two years ago, it would have been RIM and only RIM - and now, they're not even on the table. Incredible.

It was also nice to see them talk about DevConnect and their partner ecosystem who have developed a range of vertical applications - fax servers, appointment reminders, enhanced IVR, call reporting, call recording, CRM integration, etc. This isn't a leading value driver for IP Office, but it really helps prime customers to think beyond everyday telecom.

I could go on, but on the whole, I think Avaya is on the right track with 8.0, especially for the Nortel base. You also need to keep the audience in mind. You can only throw so many ideas out there, but the sale will ultimately be based on how comfortable the customer is in transitioning Nortel BCM over to Avaya IP Office. Collaboration was discussed a bit, and I don't think video was mentioned - same for Aura, social media or Flare - but that's totally fine. These things will come - and can only come once the customer buys into the IP Office story - and of course, Smart IP's competence to get them there.








Ok, now the title of this post starts to make sense. This is Joe Bowen - the voice of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was very engaging and funny - thought he was great. Joe speaks from the heart and what I enjoyed most were his feelings about how hockey and its culture are rooted in the character that makes Canada special. I've played and avidly followed the game long enough to know where he's coming from. I may not be a Leafs fan, but I found it a bit ironic to hear Joe extol the Canadian virtues that make hockey great, yet here we were listening to how Avaya is transitioning customers away from Nortel, Canada's greatest tech icon. Ouch.



Here we are - Avaya Night in Canada - cool, huh? Gondola seats - can't get up any higher than this at the ACC. Thanks Avaya and Smart IP!



Love seeing these Cup banners right in your face sitting up so high. Oh, y'know, there once was a time when this happened regularly around here (I'll keep my reigning-Cup-champs-Bruins gloating to myself), but I think the wait will go on for a while yet...

UCStrategies Podcasts - Now on iTunes/Welcome Kevin Kieller

Just wanted to share this item, which is good new for our growing followers at UCStrategies. UCS readers will know that we do regular podcasts (ideally every Tuesday, but we miss a few weeks here and there), and it's a great way to get a roundup of expert opinions on topical issues in the UC space.

When those are posted, we do our best to get the word out, and you can certainly get automated updates via the RSS feed, but now we have yet another way to do this.

As Apple continues to rule our digital lives, we've gotten with the program, and our podcasts can now been downloaded from the iTunes Store. It's pretty simple - free, of course - and even I could do it. Just open up your iTunes account, go to the iTunes store and find the podcasts section. We're in the Technology category, sub-head is "Tech News". If that doesn't take, just search ucstrategies (it's one word - no space in between) in the Podcast search bar, and our podcasts will be there. Got that? Now go get it!

While I have you, I'd like to pass on a welcome to our latest UCStrategies member, Kevin Kieller. He's based in Toronto with me, so I like him already! He's contributed his first post, so that's a good way to get an introduction. Welcome Kevin, and am sure we'll be speaking soon.

ADTRAN Connect - Day 1 - Takeaways, Photos and the Bicycle That Saved the World

ADTRAN Connect 2011 has gone pretty much to plan so far. Day 1 had a balanced mix of updates from execs, deeper dives on enterprise and carrier offerings, and candid realities from customers. Being a public company, it's not hard to find evidence of success, and we heard our share of metrics to validate their growth story.

It's always good to hear about companies doing well in this space, and having been to several vendor events recently, they're not the only vendor struggling to get more brand recognition. Technology always has this delicate balance to manage between complexity and delivering benefits that people can articulate, and it's not easy to do both.

I'll keep this short and simply say that ADTRAN is doing a lot of things right, and if you follow the twitter feed (#adtranconnect), you'll get a richer sense of that. ADTRAN also has its share of challenges, and aside from becoming more of a household name, they need to keep building their channel, as this is their main route to market. Carriers are a major part of their business, not just for their own infrastructure, but as a channel to the enterprise market.

Hosted is definitely a strong storyline here, and that's good news for their platform partners - BroadSoft and Metaswitch. There's a good wireless story happening around their acquisition of Bluesocket, and ADTRAN looks to be on the right path here with wireless LAN. We also got a good update on their cloud initiatives, so they do have a longer-term plan to evolve beyond hardware.

We're hearing some messaging around UC, but for ADTRAN, it's more about the infrastructure than the applications. However, it's an important part of their value proposition, and there is good momentum building around both hosted and premise-based solutions. Conversely, we're not hearing much about video or social media, but that's ok. They know their market pretty well, and clearly these pieces are not must-haves for everybody right this minute. As those needs evolve, I have no doubt that ADTRAN will find a way to keep pace.


Gary Bolton along with Rick Schansman and Jay Wilson


CEO Tom Stanton


Kevin Morgan and two rural carrier customers - Valley Telecom and Consolidated Companies


They have their share of patents, so innovation definitely lives here.


It's not hard to see why people hardly ever leave here.



Before our sessions, we had a tour on Tuesday night at the famed U.S. Space and Rocket Center. If you like rockets and space travel, this place is for you - and you have no idea why Huntsville is one of the top tech hubs in America, this is a good place to start.

So, did this bicycle save the world? Well, maybe. All I'm going to say is that without it, there may not have been the Saturn rocket, Apollo missions, the Space Shuttle, the Russians would probably have won the space race, and the Berlin Wall just might still be standing. If that doesn't pique your interest, I don't know what will. There's definitely a Hollywood movie to be made here, and I'm up for writing the screenplay. Until then, let your imagination roam and do your own research. Then give me a call!


They sure don't build rockets like they used to. You really have to be there to get a sense of scale and mass for what a full-sized Saturn V rocket looks like. I posted more photos during our first visit there in 2009, so here's the link if you want my first impressions.

Service Levels - Still Thinking in Terms of Telecom?

As my coverage of the contact center space continues via Exony, I'm addressing new themes that have a fundamental impact on this market. What I find interesting is how so much of this parallels what I see in telecom, and how IP is changing the way we do things.

My latest focus is on service levels, particularly around how conventional approaches really only address half of what goes into delivering a quality experience with customers. Lots to explore here, and Exony provides a great forum for me to explore these topics. My latest post is now running on their - new and improved - website, so please hop on over and let me know what you think.

Cisco Summit - Final Thoughts: "What's UC?"

I promise this will be my last post about Cisco's Collaboration Summit! As part of the UCStrategies team, I contribute a monthly writeup to their portal, and aside from everything I wrote around the event, I had some specific thoughts on where UC fits into Cisco's plans.

Well, based on my takeaways, it's not much, and I think that's an important message for the UCStrategies audience. It's not that UC isn't important to Cisco; rather, they have their own language around what most of us would consider UC. More importantly, Cisco's frame of reference for what UC delivers is network-centric, and different from most other vendors.

For my thinking, this raises a few issues and implications for anyone in this space - except, of course Cisco - and if that's on your radar, I think you'll enjoy my latest UCS post. I wrote this last week, and with all the holiday weekend backlog, it's just been posted now - enjoy.

5,216 failures = 1 great success - James Dyson and thoughts on innovation

I don't often write about tech based on what I come across via mass media, but this one caught my attention and has triggered a whole bunch of thoughts around innovation. I'll just speak to the kernal idea here, but this sure could spawn a blog of its own - hmmm....

During my usual Sunday workout, I caught a segment of Fareed Zakaria's CNN show, GPS (Global Public Square). He's always great, and he had back-to-back interviews about innovation that I really enjoyed. The first segment was about Steve Jobs - lots of good insights there about how he broke all the rules and approached innovation completely on his own terms.

You don't need to me comment on what made Apple tick, but his next guest brought the inspiration for innovation down to a more accessible level. James Dyson is not quite a household word, but he's getting pretty close, especially for anyone house proud enough to do their own vacuuming. Anyone in that camp will know how he's completely re-invented a pretty mundane product, so much so that his namesake is now synonymous with vacuum cleaners - just like Kleenex is to tissue.

It's a great success story, and of course he's parlayed that into other areas such as hand dryers. I'm not a fan of the Dyson hand dryer, but their vacuum cleaner is great. When these products are perfected, they sure look simple, and it reminds me of Cisco's Collaboration Summit a couple of weeks back. I've commented enough about that, but the connection here is that their demos looked very easy - almost too easy. Well, you know all this collaboration technology is complex and still a work in progress, so you can appreciate how much work must have gone in to making it work so well.

Innovation is never easy, and this ties back a bit to the Steve Jobs reference. The big takeaway from that interview was his genius for translating complex technology into elegant design that makes an emotional connection with us. When you see an iPad, the immediate response is almost visceral - "I want that". Right? Dyson has done the same thing with their vacuum cleaners - the moment you see it, you know it's different, it's cool, and cleaning house will no longer be a chore.

I think Cisco has a long way to go with collaboration to get this effect, but in time, they should get there. Of course, their vision of collaboration is far more complex that sucking up dust from your floors, but ultimately, they need to make a similar emotional connection. I didn't get that feeling in Miami, but that doesn't mean it can't be done.

Coming back to James Dyson - and the title of this post - the light bulb moment from that interview was the virtue of perseverance. He didn't perfect his vacuum cleaner until the 5,217th try. He needed 5,216 failures to get 1 success, but it's fair to say the effort was worth it. I don't know if Apple had a comparable learning curve, but I suspect it's not much different.

Both of Fareed's interviews also picked up on the idea that the best products are designed by people who have a passion for them. You can't fake an emotional connection with a product, and at some primal, organic level, good design comes from those who really like the product.

Lots of food for thought here, and I'm just citing Cisco as a recent example of how hard this is to do, especially with services and applications. They're so intangible compared to physical products, and I think this could be the biggest challenge of them all as we move to hosted or virtualized environments. Endpoints like tablets, desk phones and video systems can create an emotional connection, but ultimately companies are buying the applications running over them.

Will Cisco and everyone in this space need 5,216 failures to get all this just right? Somehow I don't think they'll have that luxury, and I can't speak for the passion of their engineers. However, it's clear to me this won't be easy, and there's no getting around the lessons learned from Steve Jobs and James Dyson. Innovation represents the timeless challenge of mixing art and science, and I'd say you do whatever it takes to get both working for you.

I haven't seen a link yet for these interviews, but if you want a bit more on James Dyson, here's an essay he wrote for CNN about the need to take risks in innovation to make the U.S. a more competitive economy. Ditto!

Cisco Collaboration Summit Revisited - UCStrategies Podcast

I've done my share of blogging, tweeting and writing about Cisco's Collaboration Summit (actually, one more analysis yet to come!), but there's more good commentary out there worth following. Given our focus at UCStrategies, we have our own take on things, and the podcast we did a few days ago has just been posted on the portal. Several UCStrategies consultants and analysts were at the summit, so there's a lot of first hand commentary, especially around where UC figures into Cisco's thinking.

Without further ado, you can listen to the podcast here, or simply read the transcript if you can't spare the time. As always, comments are most welcome!

Next Stop - Huntsville, AL and ADTRAN

One more trip for November, and if all goes to plan, that will it for my travels in 2011 - sounds good to me.

So, tomorrow, I'm off to Huntsville, Alabama. If you follow me, you'll know that's home to ADTRAN - Digium and Asterisk as well - just across the street. This is my third visit there, and every year their analyst and press event keeps getting better. ADTRAN, like Huntsville, may not be a household name in tech/telecom, but once you've been there, you'll understand why it may be the best kept secret in this space. To prime you for that, just search my blog for previous posts about my visits to Huntsville - I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

As you may know, I've been a regular contributor to ADTRAN's blog for some time, so I have good reason to follow them. Stick with me here, as well as on Twitter (@arnoldjon), and I'll keep you posted on what ADTRAN has in store for 2012.

Canadian Blog Awards - will ya vote for me? :-)

Bet you didn't know there was such a thing, but voting is underway now for the 2011 Canadian Blog Awards. Whoo hoo!

My blog in on the finalist list for the Science & Technology category, and if you think I'm worthy, here's the ballot page, and I'll leave the rest to you. In the borderless world of the Web, it doesn't matter where you live, so vote wherever you are, and by all means, pass it along - thanks!

Cisco Collaboration Summit - Day 2 Takeaways, Photos and the Wizard of Oz

Picking up where I left off yesterday, here's my wrapup from Day 2 of Cisco's Collaboration Summit here in Miami Beach.

The content and speakers were equally good yesterday, and the big picture themes continued along the lines of collaboration being "the investment of the decade". It may be a bit early to make that claim, but I think it holds up pretty well for both parties - Cisco and IT managers. We saw lots of validation that Cisco is betting heavily on collaboration, and considering how nicely they've bounced back from earlier this year, the sharpened focus seems to be working.

Early in the day, we heard a lot about their architectural approach to collaboration and how this allows IT to deliver scalable tools, which in turn provides an easy to use end user experience that helps them work smarter. The messaging and demos were very effective for two audiences - IT and end users. I found this to be a pretty complete vision, as they make the case for a network-centric approach along with a people-centric approach to collaboration.

Delivering on both ends should put - and keep - Cisco at the forefront of the ever-expanding collaboration space. A lot of what they're doing - especially around Quad and Social Miner - is still ahead of the business market, but I don't see any other vendors with such a strong focus on both aspects of collaboration. Their traditional competitors are more telecom-centric than network-centric, and don't have the range of endpoints that enable collaboration across such a wide range of scenarios.

I'll expand on these ideas in future posts, but for now I just wanted to say that Cisco's collaboration story is getting stronger with each iteration, and they pretty much have things right now for making it the gold standard for others to follow.


Unified Conferencing demo showing solid interop across many endpoints - PC, Mac, Cius, TelePresence - on a hosted basis. Makes a strong case for virtualization that's scalable, flexible and more economical than premise-based solutions.


Executive Q&A session


For most of us, this was probably the highlight of the summit. In the afternoon, we had a site visit to the JW Marriott Marquis in downtown Miami. As we learned, this is a very upscale brand within the Marriott hotel family, and is totally built out with end-to-end Cisco everywhere. It's a fantastic showcase for Cisco in the hospitality sector, but more importantly for all the cool things that make the guest experience really special. We got a walk through the property and saw lots of examples, and here are just a few.

How's this for fun? TV screen embedded in the bathroom mirror. Even better were the mobile phones in the rooms. The idea is for you to use them anywhere in the hotel, plus they double as walkie-talkies. Again, another convenience element that speaks to how people like to relax - remember, collaboration is social too!



This is a full size venue for events - see that huge multi-panel video screen - guess you can figure where that came from. Aside from concerts here, this is a full size hardwood court which NBA teams can use as a practice facility. The Heat play very close by, so it's great hook to get NBA teams to stay at the hotel where they practice in private and then just walk over to the arena.



Here's my favorite - the virtual concierge. They're still experimenting with it, but the idea is you can start a TelePresence session - see the Cisco IP phone in the lower left corner? - and speak with someone just as you would with a concierge face-to-face. Pretty handy when the lineup at the desk is too long, and if you're comfortable using video. Of course, when it's not in use, it makes for a fabulous HD billboard to tell you just how fabulous this place really is.

So, you just might be wondering, who is that agent you'd be speaking with for some virtual assistance on getting directions for your night out? Glad you asked.



Well, if you turn around, you see this lovely wall in the lobby. Well, he/she is behind that wall in their contact center. How Wizard of Oz is that? Am sure a bunch of things come to mind here, and they're probably all true. Look, it's early days for high-touch consumer collaboration, but you have to give both the Marquis and Cisco kudos for aiming high here. In time, they'll make it more consumer-friendly, and from there, things should start getting really interesting. It really is a cool experience, and once people get a taste of that, you'll believe more in Cisco's mantra of using technology and networks to transform our lives, both at work and at play.

Cisco Collaboration Summit - Day 1 - What Would Studs Terkel Think?

Great start to Cisco's Collaboration Summit today here in Miami Beach. Having been to a few of these, it's really interesting to see how the overall messaging has evolved, along with all the new offerings that keep coming. I don't say that last point lightly, as Cisco is working very hard to address as many touch points as possible around how people get things done in the workplace. Sure, it all drives network usage, and that's good business for Cisco. There's a higher motive at play though, and there's little doubt that Cisco is trying to be a lead author in the next great American novel, Work 2.0.

On that note, I'll make a literary digression that seems appropos here. Studs Terkel is definitely my kind of guy, and he literally wrote the book about work in a post-war society. If you're not familiar with his work, get started here. His books are great, and not much has really changed over the years. Bottom line - people work because they have to, and while we all take pride in work's intrinsic value, we generally take the path of least resistance.

Back to Cisco, and how they're trying to address this timeless quirk of human nature. The summit is a great roadmap update, but it's also a worthwhile opportunity to hear about how technology is being developed and deployed to make work a better experience. We're hearing nicely from both sides - what Cisco is bringing to market, and how customers are using it. The last part is of more interest to me, and it's fascinating to hear how companies both embrace and struggle with all these great tools.

There's a lot to digest here, and I'm just going to pass on my key takeaways from today. Otherwise, you should follow my tweets - @arnoldjon - as well as the Cisco feed from the summit - #csummit.

- Barry O'Sullivan set the stage nicely with big picture stats about global population trends along with the scale of technology adoption. Bottom line - half of the world's 7 billion people are under 25, and their collaboration tools are very different from their predecessors. Translation - a huge market opportunity for Cisco to address. Point taken.

- Cisco is clearly in the software and cloud businesses now. I don't think I heard "unified communications" all day - it's all about moving applications into the cloud and giving us real time tools that work seamlessly anywhere and on any device. The end result sure looks like UC, but here, it's all about having the right network architecture to deliver these capabilities. We saw some very slick video and live demos that make this look like a slam dunk. Yes, it sure looks easy and makes for happy endings, but we all know how complex this really is to do. Cisco isn't the only game in town, of course, but based on what I see industry-wide, nobody is covering more bases. There's a lot of Kool Aid here, but for enterprises willing and able to go down this road, there clearly is a promising upside. Collaboration takes many forms, and I think Cisco is doing a good job of defining the high end of the spectrum.

- Social media is high on the buzz charts, but it's still a wild west environment. We heard a lot about Quad and Social Miner; yes, there's interest, and yes, companies are buying it. How they're using it is another question, and it's clear that everyone is learning on the fly. Usage policies are lacking, IT is trying to accommodate BYOD desires, and while everyone quickly learns how to be social with these tools, it's not clear how much quality content generation is going on. These things will certainly evolve, but right now you get the feeling it's mostly a vendor-driven trend. Enterprises simply can't ignore how employee expectations are changing, and coming back to Studs Terkel, you have to let them define their state of happiness. For me, that's the real secret sauce of collaboration Cisco-style. There wasn't much talk today about ROI or TCO, so there's a leap of faith where IT has to concede more control to employees with the hope that measurable productivity gains and network efficiencies will come back in return - hopefully before management loses patience.

Enough said for now, and I'll pick up the thread again tomorrow. Until then, here are a few photos from Day 1.

Barry O'Sullivan giving us the big picture. No pun intended, but he sure looks tiny against this giant visual. :-)


Live collaboration demo - nicely done


Murali Sitaram, talking about collaboration in the "post-PC era" - he makes a strong case for why the cloud is the way to go. To support this, he announced a free trial for a limited version of WebEx for 14 days. That should stir things up.


I'd be lying if I said it wasn't very nice here...

Next Stop - Miami Beach and Cisco's Collaboration Summit

Trip #2 for this month comes up tomorrow, and this week it's Miami Beach. Am always happy to go, even if the weather is still pretty mild here in Toronto. I will be back there again, though in February for the TMC ITExpo, and no doubt the heat will come in more handy then.

Back to Cisco, which is holding their annual Collaboration Summit there. It looks like Cisco is getting their mojo back - that didn't take long, huh? - so I'm really looking forward to hearing what their ever-expanding portfolio of collaboration solutions has to do with this. I'll keep you posted here and on Twitter (@arnoldjon), so check back here throughout the week.