Why Audio Quality Matters for Conferencing

That's the title of my latest post for UCStrategies, and is one of those topics we don't think enough about.We tend to take voice quality for granted, and I mean that going both ways. Audio quality for legacy telephony has been the standard for so long, it's hard to believe that something can actually be better. It's very good, but what people tend to really value is the consistent experience. When it works well all the time, you get used to the audio, and only notice the shortcomings when something better comes along.

Think about the first time you saw HD TV. Nobody was complaining before that about their viewing experience, but once you experience HD, there's really no going back.

Conversely, by the way, we've become so accustomed to crappy voice quality on mobile devices, legacy audio quality stacks up very nicely, so there's no reason to think there's something better. Of course, there is something better, and HD is a big part of that story. When it comes to conferencing, many other factors impact the experience, and it really takes a holistic approach that goes beyond just having HD audio.

That's what my writeup covers, and if you've had your share of poor conferencing experiences, you'll find this a good read. For transparency, the post is sponsored by Revolabs - they're a really interesting company actually - but the content is mine. As always, comments and sharing are most welcome!

Making Music - Again - with the SIPtones in Indy - Video Highlights

Another hat I wear is music-making, which I would do all day long if I could spare the time, but that's a longer conversation. I got to play again with the SIPtones - again, at the 2015 Interactions conference put on by Interactive Intelligence back in June.

This time around, we got to play two full sets, and I played keyboards on about half the songs. As always, it was great fun, and band leader Rick Hathaway did his usual video compilation, and he's just posted that to YouTube.

Lots of music that night, so it's a 16 minute clip, and I'm sure you'll recognize most of the songs. The audio isn't great, but maybe next year we'll get a video sponsor and a get a full camera crew - any takers?

If you like the music, we also played at last year's ININ conference, and here's the link that includes the video highlights from that set.

Next Smart Grid Webinar - Predictive Analytics

If you don't know, I wear two analyst hats. My main hat is in the collaboration space - VoIP, UC, cloud communications, IoT, contact center, etc. For several years, however, I've also been active in the Smart Grid space, which now encompasses Smart Homes, Smart Cities, etc. Lots of great tie-ins between these worlds, and I see a lot of opportunity, as do many of the vendors I closely follow.

Along the way, I've been working with Austin-based Zpryme Research, and I'm an Advisor to their booming Smart Grid/Clean Energy market research practice. If this is new to you, here are two posts of mine from our latest conference, ETS 15.

I regularly moderate their webinars, and the next one is coming up a week from now - September 10.

The topic is predictive analytics and how this is shaping the direction of Smart Grid evolution. Our featured speakers are Dr. Noa Ruschin-Rimini of GRID4C, and Robbie Wright of Direct Energy. The registration page just went live, and it should be an informative session - hope you can join us!

August Writing Roundup

Despite being the height of summer and not blogging a whole lot, I kept plenty busy on other fronts with writing and research. Here are the highlights from August - hope you enjoy these, and any sharing would be greatly appreciated.

Replacing your Phone System, Scenario #2 - a Different Vendor, Toolbox.com, Aug. 24

My "Coffee with Chris" Podcast - Comms Technology, Disruption and Millennials, my blog, Aug. 21

My New White Paper for Cisco - The Omnichannel Experience, my blog, Aug. 19 - also, infographic here

3 Replacement Scenarios for Legacy Phone Systems, Toolbox.com, Aug. 17

What you need to Consider Before Buying VoIP, TechTarget, Aug. 17

ADTRAN Connect - First Take, my blog, Aug. 14

UCStrategies Podcast - is There Really a UC Market with SMBs?, my blog, Aug. 10 - podcast based on an article I recently posted to UCStrategies

Five Reasons to Keep your Legacy Phone System, Toolbox.com, Aug. 7

My New E-Guide - 3 Hot Buttons for Hosted UC, my blog, Aug. 6 - available here on ShoreTel's website

Three Use Cases that Highlight the Benefits of VoIP, TechTarget, Aug. 4

Back to Work - Gartner UC Magic Quadrant Podcast

No complaints about being away the past few days, and the world is still intact, so it's ok to shut down and recharge every so often.

Since being away, I wanted to share this post from last week's UCStrategies podcast about the current Gartner Magic Quadrant report on the UC market. Many nuances to discuss, so it was a lively session. It's worth noting that the vendors in the UC MQ are unchanged from last year, and that's a sign that the space is maturing somewhat.

Maybe so, but the waters are far from still and we all had something to say about that. If you haven't caught it yet, here's where you can access the podcast, and you can pick up my comments at the 20:42 mark. Don't stop there, though - lots of interesting perspectives from the group from start to finish.

My "Coffee with Chris" Podcast - Comms Technology, Disruption and Millennials

Chris Gorog is an interesting guy, and it's easy to think of everyone in the tech space purely in those terms. We crossed paths around VoIP security, and from there, he's taken me to his real passion, Logic Central Online.

This is a community he's building that's focused on leveraging knowledge beyond tech to help people better understand the real world around them - not the virtual world! - and lead more meaningful lives. I'm not looking for spiritual journeys, but I do like how his ideas help frame technology in a richer context that goes beyond entertainment and making us efficient knowledge workers.

One of his hats is Coffee with Chris, an ongoing podcast series built around these ideas. We did ours recently, and it's posted now on his site. He's got quite a few there, so if you like this sort of thing, there's lots to explore. Our session is CWC 44, and our chat is titled "Bridging the Gap: How the Knowledge of the Working Generation will be a Springboard to the Future for Millennials".

Whew, that's a mouthful, and I would have shortened that title up a lot. Anyhow, it's a bit about how I got into VoIP, and from there a discussion about how pervasive IP-based communications has become. We tied that into themes around Big Data, collaboration, disruptive technology, and how Millennials are adapting to all this change.

It's a bit different from what I normally do, and I hope you give it a listen. If any of this resonates, I'm sure you'll enjoy checking out the other CWC podcasts, as well as his broader Logic Central Online initiatives. I'll be doing that myself, and you'll likely be hearing more about that here soon. Until then, here's the link to our podcast, and any sharing would be great.

My New White Paper for Cisco: The Omnichannel Experience

I write a lot of white papers, and this one has been in the works with Cisco for some time. Things tend to take longer to unfold with large companies, but I'm patient, and Cisco has always been a great client to work with.

The topic is omnichannel, a topic I've been writing about for some time, and Cisco has been on the leading edge in taking contact centers to the next level with this. Like Unified Communications, the omnichannel concept is hard to define - and sell, and deploy, and use - but when all the stars align, it's a pretty powerful approach to improving how contact centers and their agents support customers.

As usual, my white papers are supported by industry-based research, and are largely vendor-neutral. The focus of this paper is very much about how the contact center space has evolved from single channel to multichannel and now to omnichannel, and from there explains where and how it provides new value to the contact center.

To promote the white paper, Cisco has created an infographic, which you can see here.

From there, a link is provided with more detail about my white paper along with a registration form to download it from their site. That's just part of the deal, as vendors generally use white papers to generate leads, but as you'll see, my analysis is about why omnichannel is important - if you want to follow up directly with Cisco after, that's your call.

That aside, I really hope you give it a read, and if the registration process isn't working for you, drop me a line. Am happy to answer questions any time, and as always, any sharing would be greatly appreciated.

My VoIP "Buying Decisions Series" for TechTarget - Parts 1 - 3

I recently started writing a 3-part series about VoIP for TechTarget, and the third post is running now. Together, these posts will be part of a bigger buyer's guide that will be published there soon.

In case you didn't know this was a series of posts, now that they're all running, here are links to all three of them.

#1 - Analyzing VoIP's basics reveals telephony's evolution

#2 - Three use cases that highlight the benefits of VoIP

#3 - What you need to consider before you buy VoIP

As always, comments are welcome, and any sharing you can do with your colleagues or customers would be greatly appreciated!

ADTRAN Connect - First Take

Am back from ADTRAN's 2015 Connect event in Huntsville, Alabama. This was their first press/analyst event since late 2011, so a lot has happened. The company continues to do well, and their big focus now is enabling broadband connectivity. One way is through their Enabling Communities, Connected Lives program to advocate Gigabit broadband buildouts. They're having good success, and this week announced a new milestone, where ADTRAN has now enabled 200 communities with Gigabit connectivity.

Another broadband focus is ProCloud, which is also seeing a lot of momentum. This is their managed WiFi offering, built on their Bluesocket acquisition, and they brought in some customers to talk about how it's being deployed. You'd be surprised at the wide variety of use cases, and this is definitely a case where if you give businesses these capabilities, the applications will quickly materialize.

Closer to my everyday focus, though, ADTRAN has moved away from the UC market, and while they continue to serve the telephony space with their NetVanta product family,it's not a core focus at present.

That said, I think their focus on Gigabit broadband is sound, especially for how it helps make their customers - service providers - more competitive for today's always-on end users. Related to this, we heard a lot about another strong focus - NFV/SDN. Again, they're on the right track, but pretty much all the carrier-centric vendors are doing this, so it's hard to say if this will truly differentiate them.

For now, I just have time for these short comments and a few photos from the event. Gotta get back to everything else, but I'll have more to say soon.

Chris Thompson

Jay Wilson

CEO Tom Stanton during the press/analyst roundtable

Dinner at The Ledges - with just a tiny bit of prodding, I got Kevin Morgan up to sing, and he pretty much stayed there all night!

A few shots from the plant tour - something you don't get to see much of these days unless you go overseas

This is their wall of patents, showcasing all the innovation coming from ADTRAN

Space Museum - this place never gets old - highly recommended. Didn't catch the name of the band performing underneath this gigantic Saturn V rocket, but very impressive.

UCStrategies Podcast - Is There Really a UC Market with SMBs?

That's the topic for last week's UCStrategies podcast, for which I was the moderator.

The question came to mind during my analysis of a recent market study sponsored by Metaswitch Networks and Edgewater Networks. Their research focused on the broader VoIP opportunity, but there was some coverage of UC as well, which I distilled into a post for UCStrategies. That sparked a lot of interest, so we expanded our efforts and did a podcast about it.

There are many angles to explore here, and I think we covered 'em all. I'll let you be the judge of that, so here's the link, and I hope you give it a listen.

Next Stop - ADTRAN Connect

Travel has been very light this summer and am very happy about that as I moved end of May, and still have a lot of unpacking ahead of me. However, I'm also very happy to be going to ADTRAN's Connect event on Monday. It hasn't quite been an annual event, and as I search my blog - yikes - we were last there in late 2011, so there's a lot of catching up to do!

As a matter of course, I get regular briefings, but nothing beats being with their team in their house for a couple of days. Will tweet and post from Huntsville as time allows, but if I come across any killer BBQ recipes, I'll keep those to myself,  :-)

My New E-Guide: 3 Hot Buttons for Hosted UC

I've been doing some work recently with ShoreTel, a UC player I've been closely following for years. They've carved out a solid niche mainly with SMBs and the mid-market, but like everyone else, have lots of competitors, both for hosted and premise-based offerings.

In June, I did a well-attended webinar with them on the topic of "3 hot buttons for UC". The focus was on three trends currently driving this space, namely security, application integration and scalability.

This was based on some broader research of mine which I have distilled into an e-guide. It's great format to get a quick but effective update on current topics - not a full-length report, but more narrative than the slides from my webinar. If this hasn't crossed your radar yet, the guide has been published, and can be downloaded from the Resource Center of ShoreTel's website. Here's the link, and if you have any problems getting it, please let me know. Otherwise, I would love to hear your thoughts, and so too, would ShoreTel.

Three VoIP Use Cases - My TechTarget Series Continues

Last week, I posted about the start of a three-part series on VoIP for TechTarget's SearchUnifiedCommunications portal.

That post has picked up a lot of traction, and the second post is running now. It's titled "Three Use Cases That Highlight the Benefits of VoIP". I hope you enjoy it, and any comments or sharing will be greatly appreciated.

A third post is coming soon, and together, these posts will be added to some other posts for a buyer's guide, so stay tuned for the finished product. As soon as that's all done, we're moving on to do the same for UC, so watch for updates on that shortly.

July Writing Roundup

Whew, July was a busy month, and a number of things I'd been working on for a while all came together around the same time for being published or posted. More of the same coming for August - custom projects can take a long time, especially with Tier 1 clients, but I'll share things as they become public.

Here's what I'd like to share from last month that you might still want to read or share with others. My profile has been growing a lot lately, so a lot of people aren't familiar yet with what I do or the various places my writing is published.

Key Benefits of Hosted VoIP for SMBs - Toolbox.com, July 1

The State of UC - Experts Weigh In - GetVoIP.com, via my blog, July 7

Hosted VoIP Landscape - CLECs - Pros and Cons - Toolbox.com, July 7

Is UCaaS a Blip or a Trend? - UCStrategies podcast - very popular - check it out if you missed it, July 10

Cisco Canada - Pan Am Games Update - my blog, July 10

Key Buying Considerations for Hosted VoIP - IP Phones - Toolbox.com, July 17

Hosted VoIP - Are You Buying Telephony or a Communications Solution? - Toolbox.com, July 20

Should SMBs Buy From Incumbents? - Internet Telephony magazine, July 23

New Research - What SMBs Think About UC - UCStrategies, July 24

New Accolade for my Blog - 2015 Top Tech Blog Awards - my blog, July 29

Analyzing VoIP basics reveals telephony's evolution - TechTarget SearchUnifiedCommunications, July 29

UCS Podcast: What Is/Should be Kaput or End-of-Life?

We had some fun on this week's UCStrategies podcast, talking about things we think should be goners or are walking dead, but just don't know it yet.

Of course, everyone has their pet peeves, and the one that resonated for me was Kevin Kieller's comment about privacy. Yeah, that's a big one, and we're giving it up, one tweet at a time - as long as we can have fun in the moment, really, what else is more important in life? Party on....

I'm even bleaker, but you'll have to get to the 28:19 mark for my thoughts. Lots of good ideas otherwise - some very technical and some just everyday practical. Unless I missed something, I don't think anyone said that UC itself is kaput, and there are certainly times when I think that's the case.

Let's stay upbeat and get you over to our portal. The podcast was moderated by the always-you're-wrong-unless-I-tell-you-otherwise Dave Michels, and it's now posted there for downloading.

Sneak peek - I'll be moderating next weeks's podcast - that will be a first for me as a UC Expert. I recently posted about some new research that had some noteworthy findings about how SMBs view UC. It's not a topic we hear enough about, so we'll all get to explore things further then. Watch for it here and on the UCStrategies site towards the end of next week.

Analyzing VoIP Basics - New Post, New Series

I've been contributing to TechTarget in various forms for many years, and am currrently working with them on a VoIP series, which will be followed by a UC series.

Ultimately, these series are being produced to help IT make better buying decisions around communications technologies, and my posts provide independent analysis that will be complemented by other forms of content from other contributors.

My first post for the VoIP series was published yesterday on their SearchUnifiedCommunications portal. It's titled "Analyzing VoIP basics reveals telephony's evolution", and it's getting good traction already. I hope you give it a read, and even better if care to share it - and, as always, comments are welcome.

New Accolade for my Blog - 2015 Top Tech Blog Awards

From time to time, we all get recognition, and in the morass of anonymity known as the Internet, it's always good to have validation that someone is actually paying attention. Most of us don't blog to make money - I write, therefore I blog. Well, not as much as I used to, and now it's just one of many platforms I use to share my views on the markets I follow.

Vendors and operators aren't the first things that come to mind as award-givers, but like everyone else, they have to rely on independent sources for what's happening out there. Broadview Networks falls into that category, and they've been doing this for a few years now. Being in the hosted communications space, I'm glad to be on their radar.

This week, they announced their 2015 "Top Tech Blog" awards, and am happy to say I'm on the list. I don't know all the blogs in this group, but I'll definitely need to check them out to broaden my own horizons - and would encourage you to do the same. I made their 2013 list as well, so it's good to be back.

How is Microsoft Doing in UC These Days?

In the UC space - UC&C as well for that matter - the world largely revolves around two vendors - Microsoft and Cisco. They're hardly the only games in town, but nobody can match their footprint and market power. Despite Microsoft's size, the jury is constantly out for being leaders or laggards, and I don't think we'll ever have a clear answer.

Whether you think Skype for Business is the right name, they're sticking with it, and the latest development is their plan to add PSTN connectivity to Office 365. You might say it's too little too late for that, but you might also say that it doesn't matter as much now with so many other options for voice.

These are the state-of-flux scenarios that keep us busy at UCStrategies, and that was the focus of our latest podcast. Lots of commentary from all over the spectrum, and this is a great way to get up to speed on where Microsoft is sitting in the eyes of analysts and consultants. The podcast was hosted by Marty Parker, and my comments turn up at the 34:31 mark - here's the link.

Also, a warm welcome to Simon Dudley as part of our UC Expert ranks. We worked well together when he was at Lifesize, and we look forward to his UCStrategies contributions, which actually begin with this podcast.

What SMBs Think About UC - New Research

Hopefully you know that as a UC Expert with UCStrategies, I contribute a monthly post to their best-in-the-biz portal. I'm working on a project with Metaswitch Networks, where I'm producing a report that pulls together the findings from their current 2015 SMB Market Report - and you'll be hearing about that soon. This study is quite extensive, and my job is to distill a ton of slides and a mountain of backup data into concise guidance for decision makers about VoIP and UC. I've been a market research practitioner for 30+ years, so I'm definitely up to the task.

For UCStrategies (with blessings from Metaswitch), I've zeroed in on the handful of questions asked specifically about UC, and the findings are definitely worth sharing. Even these few data points tell a good story, so if you want to quickly digest how SMBs are seeing UC, you'll want to give my analysis a read. It was just posted to the portal, so here you go. Would love to hear your thoughts, especially if you're an SMB.

Should SMBs Buy From Incumbents?

Time flies when you're busy and I didn't realize how long it's been since my last blog post. Life happens, summer's here and my kids are away. Am also working on a re-fresh of my website, and you'll be hearing more about that over the next few months. Back to work now.

My current Rethinking Communications column is now running in Internet Telephony magazine and as the title suggests, there's a David vs. Goliath reality when it comes to making decisions about VoIP and UC. SMBs have not been the highest priority for incumbents, and with so much competition now chasing this market, they have to up their game to keep what was once a captive customer base.

By nature, incumbents cannot easily change their stripes, but by necessity, they're learning to be more SMB-friendly, and that's what my post explores. I hope you give it a read, and would love to hear your thoughts.