« Jon Arnold / Mark Whaley - City of Waterloo and Global Tech Leadership | Main | VON Spring 2007: Birds of a Feather - Gordon Cook »
February 07, 2007
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 February 7, 2007 10:47 AM
