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February 21, 2007

Jon Arnold / Joe Warnement - Digital Fairway and Managing Enterprise Convergence

On this week's podcast, Jon spoke with Joe Warnement, CEO of Toronto-based Digital Fairway Corporation. The company is market leader in advanced OSS solutions with a strong focus on managing multimedia communications in a converged network environment. This is an area of growing importance, and Joe spoke to the pain points that enterprises are experiencing as they go down the path of network convergence.

Joe further discussed how enterprises underestimate the backend requirements for network convergence, and the specific issues around managing the corporate communications infrastructure. Digital Fairway was part of the Dow Chemical VoIP deployment in 2004, and working with Cisco, they gained valuable experience in what was then the largest VoIP enterprise roll out. They have built upon that considerably, and Joe commented the market opportunity he sees ahead.

Joe Warnement, Chairman and CEO, Digital Fairway
Joe brings 20 years' experience leading teams in both communications outsourcing and management consulting businesses, centered on corporate development and new enterprise launches.

Prior to joining the Company, Joe was President of the Communications Service Line at EDS where he formulated the business and operating strategy that resulted in the formation of a highly successful, internationally recognized enterprise communications outsourcing business within EDS. Joe also served as Global Managing Director and Vice President in the Telecommunications and Utilities industry practice at A.T. Kearney.

Prior to joining A.T. Kearney and EDS, Joe was the Global Director of the Telecommunications and Utilities Practices at Arthur D. Little Management Consulting, a Managing Director at Theodore Barry & Associates and an Associate in Mergers & Acquisitions with Goldman Sachs.

Posted at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)

February 09, 2007

Test For IMS Success: Webinar brought to you by Empirix

Wednesday, Feb. 21, 11 AM, EST
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE ARCHIVED WEBINAR

If you are in the process of developing an IMS network or product, you have a lot to worry about. IMS is a complex technology with its many protocols and functions. Legacy interworking and multi-vendor interoperability add additional levels of complexity. With so many dynamics, how can you be sure your network will work? This session highlights common IMS implementation pitfalls and reviews test methodologies that can be used to avoid them.

We combine the industry’s deepest knowledge of telecommunications and self-service applications with award-winning testing and monitoring solutions to ensure our customers realize the promise their technology investments. Empirix is the only company with expertise that spans the evolution of these advanced technologies across multiple markets -- from testing in R&D labs through monitoring the end-user experience.

Our customers benefit from our real-world knowledge to confidently roll out new solutions. For over a decade, thousands of quality-conscious network equipment manufacturers, service providers and enterprises worldwide have trusted Empirix to reduce the time and cost of integrating new technologies into existing environments.

Contact Chad Hart: chart-at-empirix-dot-com

Posted at 09:03 PM | Comments (0)

Carl's Corner 2/7/07

After an illness-induced week off, we're back this week with a vengeance here at Carl's Corner. Sit back and enjoy...and if you feel the need to skip around, below you'll find a guide (of sorts).

0:00 - Carl and Mikey on global warming, the fascinating Mexican marketplace (VON Mexico), a brief look at some stocks (Rich Erb will return soon to save us from ourselves here), SIP Trunking, possibilities for next phase of integration with Skype, and some mildly incoherent philosophizing about photographs.

15:02 - Carl's conference call about the recent IMS Forum Plugfest with Michael Khalilian and Manuel Vexler from the IMS Forum, and Lincoln Lavoie from the UNH Interoperability Lab.

Posted at 03:39 PM | Comments (0)

February 08, 2007

Don Smith, Mitel, with Bob Emmerson

Don Smith, CEO of Mitel Networks, starts by discussing the notion of communicating “In the Moment”. This is based on the underlying way that we interact and work and collaborate. For example, when viewing a document it’s the ability to use ‘smart tags’, i.e. right click and communicate directly with the tagged name without deviating from the task at hand. Another example is first-call resolution in contact centers, which is basically the same thing.

Moving on to Unified Communications (UC), Don suggests that this is a good way to think about the optimum way of deploying these multi-faceted applications in future. UC should be something users don’t have to think about for both inter- and intra-business communications.

Don then outlines Mitel’s close and early cooperation with Microsoft and the resulting seamless integration of MS OCS with Mitel’s IP PBXs. This is realized via Mitel’s Live Business Gateway (LBG), which started shipping about a year ago. LBG has many uses; one being that it allows operators to see the presence status of TDM phones. In turn this indicates the need to bring all employees into the UC loop: this is not a concept that should be limited to knowledge workers. UC is a value-chain concept: individuals contribute to workgroups; workgroups and individuals contribute to the operational efficiency of the whole organization.

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Don Smith brings more than 30 years of international business experience in identifying new technology markets and coupling vision with execution to his position as Chief Executive Officer of Mitel®. Since assuming this role in 2001, Don has led Mitel’s highly successful venture of bringing next-generation IP Communications solutions to the global marketplace.

As CEO, Don is responsible for upholding and advancing Mitel’s leadership in the IP Communications market, devising and executing forward-thinking business strategies and corporate policies, and overseeing Mitel’s global operations. His in-depth insight and understanding of the evolution of IP Communications within enterprise and carrier networks has guided Mitel’s successful transition from a traditional PBX provider into an international, market-leading IP Communications solutions vendor.

Don spent the first eight years of his career at BT Research Labs. This led to a move from the United Kingdom to Canada in the late 1970s. In Canada, he began the marketing and general management phase of his career with Mitel Corporation where he was promoted to the position of Executive Vice President in 1981 with global responsibility for Sales and Marketing. Following his career at Mitel Corporation, he became President of AIT Corporation in 1986 and accomplished a dominant position holding a 90 percent share of the automated border control world market. He then successfully took AIT public in 1993.

In 1996, he founded and was President and CEO of Cambrian Systems Corporation, a Newbridge affiliate company that was the first to identify the Metro Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) market. Nortel Networks acquired Cambrian in December 1998 and Don became Nortel’s Vice President and General Manager of OPTera Solutions. He was promoted to President of Optical Internet Solutions in January 2000 with global marketing responsibility for Nortel’s high bandwidth optical solutions.

Don is a BSc. Engineering Graduate of Imperial College, London, UK.

Posted at 03:58 PM | Comments (0)

February 07, 2007

VON Spring 2007: Birds of a Feather - Gordon Cook

Gordon Cook, Editor publisher, COOK Report
Birds of a Feather: Wednesday, March 21, 2:45 PM

Gordon Cook is a leading writer and strategic thinker on Internet issues. He has tracked the development of the Internet since its early years. In 1992, after a period as Senior Analyst with the US Congress Office of Technology Assessment (“OTA”), he started “The Cook Report on Internet Protocol”.

In the Cook Report, Gordon has documented the evolution of the Internet with an independent and refreshing perspective on economic, social, political and strategic issues. Gordon has a unique perspective and a view of the future based on deep knowledge of “how we got here”.

In addition to work at OTA, Gordon was Science Editor for the John von Neumann National Supercomputer Center with a background as a tech writer and policy analyst. He has a BA from Columbia University, Msc (Econ) from the London School of Economics, PhD from Duke University and a Masters of Library Science from Rutgers University. His other interests include Russian history and Nepal and Tibet - trekking in the Himalayas including time at Everest Base Camp. Gordon is based in Ewing, NJ, USA.

Posted at 11:45 AM | Comments (0)

Jon Arnold / Don Smith - Mitel and IP Telephony Trends

On this week's podcast, Jon spoke with Don Smith, the CEO of Mitel. Based in Kanata, Ontario, Mitel is one of the leading providers of IP telephony solutions, and has been at the forefront of innovation for some time. On the domestic front, Jon and Don talked about the recent announcement they made with Rogers to offer hosted IP telephony to Canada's SMBs. This is a first in North America among the majors cablecos, and Don explained how it is especially different since Rogers offers both fixed and wireless services, making this a great opportunity to provide FMC services.

On a broader scale, Don spoke about some of the bigger trends driving the adoption of IP telephony, including teleworkers, as well as the productivity gains to be had from Presence and Unified Messaging. To illustrate, he provided examples of some vertical market scenarios, such as contact centers and health care. He also talked about how Mitel stays competitive against the big legacy vendors, and has been successful regardless of geographic boundaries.

Don Smith brings more than 30 years of international business experience in identifying new technology markets and coupling vision with execution to his position as Chief Executive Officer of Mitel®. Since assuming this role in 2001, Don has led Mitel’s highly successful venture of bringing next-generation IP Communications solutions to the global marketplace.

As CEO, Don is responsible for upholding and advancing Mitel’s leadership in the IP Communications market, devising and executing forward-thinking business strategies and corporate policies, and overseeing Mitel’s global operations. His in-depth insight and understanding of the evolution of IP Communications within enterprise and carrier networks has guided Mitel’s successful transition from a traditional PBX provider into an international, market-leading IP Communications solutions vendor.

Posted at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)