Nortel/Avaya BCM 50 and BCM 450 lives on…it is not dead yet!!

The irony is ‘ it isn’t over till it’s over”. In our opinion and some of our customers this is very good news. Avaya has decided to extend the March 1 deadline of the end-of-sale of the BCM product line (bcm50 and BCM450) lives on. Avaya announced yesterday Jan 10, 2012 that it intends to extend the sale of the BCM 50 and BCM450 until October 1, 2012.

At this point in time, the product is still slated for support until March 1, 2018 at which time Avaya will not continue the life of the BCM product line and all its support. The current BCM system is BCM 50 and BCM 450 version 6.0 and customers should consider upgrading their older versions to release 6.0 or look at upgrading to the Avaya IP Office 8.0.

But we are not surprised there are many companies are considering their options and many company that are very happy with their BCM system and are willing to keep them running till they can. This announcement will allow customer the ability breathe easier for now. Greated that some of the Avaya dealers that are strictly focused on IPO are not going to be happy with this diction but this is good for the all customers should win avaya some points out there. Personally from our customers view point there is nothing wrong with this News and that is way we fell this is good new.

Contrary to all the press and industry gossip Avaya still has demand for this product. The BCM platform is a good and instable solution that delivered a variety of digital and IP features and functionality in a cost-effective manner.

TRC is committed to support our customers as well as the AVAYA/Nortel BCM 50 and The BCM 400 and BCM 450 and the Avaya IP Office.

Criminal fraud trial of three ex-Nortel executives begins

By Michael Lewis, Business Reporter, http://www.thestar.com

One of the most spectacular flameouts in corporate history will be on the docket this week when pre-trial motions begin into criminal charges against former executives at Nortel Networks Corp.

Justice Frank Marrocco is scheduled to preside Thursday over motions, including those by the defence, in an open-court hearing at the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario. A trial before the justice is to begin in Toronto on Jan.16.

The RCMP charges allege that the defendants, including ex-Nortel chief executive Frank Dunn, engineered an elaborate accounting fraud to mask falling Nortel sales after the technology stock bubble popped in the spring of 2000.

Prosecutors say the scheme cost the Toronto company’s shareholders billions and contributed to the demise of the once-high flying Bell Canada equipment arm, with Nortel now being wound up under creditor protection.

“It’s the biggest (financial scandal) in Canada, one of the biggest in the world,” Rotman School of Management financial analysis professor Ramy Elitzur told the Star in 2008.

The criminal matter is to commence nearly four years after the RCMP charged Dunn, former chief financial officer Douglas Beatty and former controller Michael Gollogly with seven counts each.

Charges include two counts of fraud affecting a public market, two counts of falsifying books and documents and three counts of issuing a materially wrong prospectus.

If convicted, the maximum sentences are 14 years for fraud affecting markets, five years for falsifying accounts and 10 years for filing a false prospectus. Nortel fired the three executives “for cause” in 2004.

“We are confident that the evidence will demonstrate that Mr. Dunn acted honestly and diligently in the interests of Nortel’s shareholders and employees at all times, and that he will be acquitted of these charges,” Dunn’s lawyer, David Porter, of Toronto law firm McCarthy Tétrault, said in a statement after the charges were announced. He declined comment Friday.

The long interval between the filing of charges and the trial reflects the volume of evidence assembled by Nortel, which says it was not targeted by investigators and is co-operating with authorities.

In 2009, the Crown said it had already delivered more than four million documents to the defendants, while the RCMP says it took more than 50 people sorting through electronic data to assemble the case.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2007 filed civil charges against former Nortel executives including Dunn, Beatty, Gollogly and a former vice-president of corporate reporting, MaryAnne Pahapill.

The SEC alleges the former Nortel executives concocted a scheme to improperly book sales and manipulate cash reserves in an effort to bump up Nortel financial results to meet Wall Street expectations and trigger bonus payouts.

“The fraudulent conduct at issue here was egregious and long-running,” said Linda Thomsen, director of the commission’s Division of Enforcement.

“The action sends a strong message that officers of U.S.-filing foreign corporations will be held to the same standards of accountability that are required of all participants in the U.S. financial markets.”

Nortel emerged in the late 1990s as a world leader in the optical networking technology used by countless telephony and dot-com ventures.

It went on an unprecedented buying spree, using its stock, which peaked at $124.50, to acquire a series of in-process research companies that culminated in record-breaking goodwill charges against Nortel.

When the dot-coms, fuelled by abundant venture capital, failed to deliver sales and profits, the speculative stock bubble burst, sending the tech-weighted Nasdaq index into a tailspin that wiped more than $300 billion from investors’ portfolios.

Nortel’s Internet and telephone networking companies slashed orders and Nortel’s share price and profits plunged.

The company responded with sweeping leadership changes, shed more than 60,000 employees and retreated to its core business.

Nortel appeared to return to profitability under Dunn until March 2004, when the company said it would delay filing audited financial statements for the preceding year.

That warning turned out to be a prelude to a series of financial restatements that led to an Ontario Securities Commission settlement with the company that saw Nortel pay $1 million and prompted a criminal investigation by the RCMP.

UC Has to Plan For the World That Is

By Michael F. Finneran http://www.ucstrategies.com

The political season is upon us, and I’m always struck by the contrast between the world our politicians are talking about and the one we live in. The candidates seem to cling to this persistent delusion that we are still living in the 1950s. In those halcyon days, the US was the only developed economy not decimated by the Second World War, the GIs were back home and starting families, and the population held the deep-seated belief that we could lick the world – hey, we just had! The US embarked a growth phase that spurred a rise in the standard of living the likes of which we’ll likely never see again.

Our politicians are now taking the stage to call for a return to the days when our economy produced those “good middle class jobs” that came with security, pensions, and health care benefits. While we’d all like to see that future for our kids, I’m afraid that type of existence is going to be the exception rather than the rule. Sure if you’re coming out of Wharton or Stamford at the top of your class in a field with strong growth prospects, you can still pretty much write your own ticket. However, that is not the prospect most young people are going to face.

When I work with clients, the last thing they want to hear is we want to add full-time employees (“FTEs” for short) because that means commitment and benefits costs. Large companies now routinely maintain “extended” workforces using temporary workers who they pay on 1099s (i.e. no withholding) and for whom they provide no benefits. Not that I can blame them however, I run my own business and I know how expensive health insurance and other traditional benefits really are.

Hence the dilemma our recent college grads are encountering. When I got out of college there were plenty of entry-level office jobs with benefits (even for English majors!), and most of us made our way painlessly into the workforce. Of course, those of us who wound up in IT (or “MIS” as we called it back then) spent the rest of our careers “automating” those jobs out of existence or coming up with tricks like low-cost VoIP services so we could send them overseas. I do feel partially responsible for the difficulties my son’s generation is now facing.

I for one do not hold that the American economy is on its last legs or that Americans are pampered or lazy. If anything, we’re the exact opposite, and that is seen even more strongly in our recent immigrants. Rather, we are witnessing is a major transition to a new type of economy where more workers will have to take greater responsibility for themselves rather than depending on a big company to do it for them.

A “career” for many will increasingly involve working part time for a number of different companies and developing an expanding set of skills as you go. That also means learning to save for those months when all of your opportunities tank simultaneously, remembering to budget for things like health insurance, retirement savings, vacation time, and for continuous retraining to ensure you to have skills that are relevant to the needs of the market.

I don’t hear any of our politicians talking about that type of workforce, but that’s exactly what I’m encountering. Even though I started in the “big company” motif (ITT and AT&T), I’ve managed to run a fairly successful consulting practice for over 30-years, and have managed to keep pushing my expertise in areas that I saw as growing. Well, I did take a bet on ISDN some years back, but fortunately it was one of a few things I was pursing at the time and most of the others paid off.

The big question is, “What will this mean to UC?” This new workforce and this new type of work will absolutely require the types of flexible communication and collaboration tools that UC puts on the table. Probably the most obvious requirement will be federation. In an environment where “many of the people who work here don’t work here,” they will all need access to the same set of tools and capabilities to get the job done. The question is will those tools be the big company variety pushed by the Cisco’s and Microsoft’s, or more consumer-oriented versions from Skype, Facebook, and Google?

Clearly we have already seen the move toward comsumerization in the mobility space, and now the big company types are bringing these tools into the large enterprise. It also means that part of the skill set this new workforce will require is the expertise in using WebEx (or Lync, or SharePoint, or whatever) effectively.

Management skills will have to adapt as well. A command-and-control mentality will simply mean that the best available people find their way to other opportunities that allow them to grow and prosper without having some ogre breathing down their necks. “Management”, at least management of skilled resources, will be a matter of agreeing on objectives, deliverables and timeframes, and then getting out of the way unless further assistance is sought. These UC tools, particularly those that foster communications and collaboration will be key, as will mobility elements that allow talented people to do the best job in the most flexible manner.

For “people of a certain age” this type of reordering of work is a scary prospect. However, to prosper in this new environment people are going to have to change their expectations and learn to thrive in it. Getting nostalgic about the past is not going to bring it back, and frankly there was a lot about the 1950s that wasn’t that much fun. So as you listen to the politicians wax eloquent about “good jobs for hard working Americans,” try to keep reality in focus. I love “It’s a Wonderful World” as much as the next guy, and it remains a wonderful though changing world – it’s just not starring Jimmy Stewart!

Happy New Year

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of 2011

It's that time of the year for both a look back at 2011 and a look ahead at 2012. Here's my personal list of the Telecommunications Industry's Good, Bad and Ugly:

The Good

Unified Communications has finally hit critical mass this year. As evidence, 2011 marked the one year anniversary for Microsoft Lync, scoring some significant customer wins. Avaya, Cisco, Shoretel, IBM and other vendors are seeing the conversation change from "if" to "when" Unified Communications is adopted in businesses. UC and it's transformational change in communications has made a significant impact here at AudioCodes and created some great business opportunities across the equipment maker and software supplier ecosystem. While at Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, we saw a fantastic commitment to Lync from Microsoft and strong interest from the partner community.

SIP Trunking has also started to gain real traction in the market this last year. Through most of 2009 and 2010, we did a lot of talking and education on SIP Trunking, but the market penetration was pretty slim. In 2011 we finally started to see real progress in SIP Trunking implementations and successful customer case studies.

The Bad

Rebuilding Silos - Avaya's decision to implement licensing fees for Session Manager "sessions" that connect to non-Avaya devices has put a serious damper on the concept of "open SIP" solutions and effectively killed future growth of their DevConnect program. The licensing fee puts third party devices at a serious pricing disadvantage vs. Avaya sold devices - essentially creating a closed platform based on SIP (an open protocol). We kiddingly call the change "The Avaya DevDisconnect" program. It worries me that other vendors will take the same path - choosing to create significant hurdles that would prevent integration of other third-party devices on their communications applications. Such a move seems like a 180 degree turn around, heading back to the vertical silos of the last decade.

In a possibly related change, Avaya also pulled the plug on the SIPcenter, squelching a regular and informative venue for information about SIP products and technologies - I hope someone steps forward and fills the gap.

The Ugly

I was once again reminded what life would be like without market competition in a personal billingdispute with DirecTV this summer. I'm sure you don't want to hear the details, but let's just leave it at "I'll never do business with DirecTV again". With limited options for television service in rural locations, I can only imagine what would happen if there was no market pressure from competitive satellite provider DishNetwork. Similarly, I was glad to see that the Justice Department put the brakes on the merger of AT&T and Tmobile - choice and competition is good and the only leverage consumers have over near-monopolies.

A Look Ahead at 2012:

Unified Communications and Peering/Federation - now that UC has hit critical mass, there is significant productivity and cost savings motivation to implement peering or federation between businesses. The rewards of HD calls, IM, presence and desktop sharing far outweigh the complexity of implementation. UC Federation has a social "viral" effect that will push businesses to make the jump to UC or be left out. The productivity change is dramatic, very similar to the broad adoption of inter-company email back in the early 1990's (which was often scorned as too risky and expensive). Can you imagine doing business without email? I lived it - it was not fun.

Cloud Communications - watch for one of the big on-line retailers to launch their cloud-based communications suites - targeted at the SMB/SME markets. A huge boon for the small business owner - a few clicks on a web site will get full UC-enabled communications without the data center infrastructure needed by large businesses and enterprises.

Decline of the Desk Phone - you've heard me flip-flop on this issue a couple times, but until I personally pulled the plug myself this year, I didn't believe people could live without a dedicated desktop device. After our Lync upgrade and a new DECT wireless headset, I gave my desk phone a good six months to prove that it deserved the square foot of desk space. At the end of the six months I could count the number of times I used it on one hand. Back in the box it went.

Economic Recovery - this time for real. The housing collapse has taken it's toll, the Euro markets will get untangled, and with one less war to fight, we can start to focus on our domestic economic health. Watch for a tempered, but moderate improvement in the markets, jobs and opinion polls. This will surely make the 2012 presidential race a close one - a race too close to call this early.

With that, I'd like to also share my appreciation for those of you that take the time to read and respond to "The SIP INVITE". I look forward to another year and hope you have a safe and happy New Year.

Source: http://blog.tmcnet.com/sip-invite/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-of-2011.html

Collaboration in High Performance Organizations

By Bob Preston http://collaborationbenefits.blogspot.com

It is fair to say that voice, video conference, content sharing, and telepresence collaboration solutions can be utilized throughout any organization for a variety of purposes, even as recently show on the Simpsons! (note Polycom SoundStation conference phone on the table). Furthermore, the way in which such tools are used (the application in a business process) can be quite different depending on the functional department or line of business (LOB) in which collaboration solutions are being implemented. In working with customers and partners through my position at Polycom I see several key areas in which collaboration is utilized to improve productivity and efficiencies within high performance organizations.

Corporate Communications

Whether it is a CEO giving a State of the Company address, a sales manager announcing quarterly incentive results or an HR director sharing the latest benefit enrollment package, collaboration solutions help break down the distance barrier by allowing the free flow of information. Important company announcements and information can be distributed more frequently and on demand to anywhere in the world. HD voice solutions make audio communications crisp and clear. Video communications and telepresence can enhance voice-only calls by providing a visual connection with the audience. Planning time and costs are reduced, comprehension is increased and information dissemination is easily coordinated. Live streaming and recording options can ensure an even more widespread communications reach.

Distance Learning and Training

The innovative use of collaboration solutions as training vehicles allow information dissemination to dispersed audiences regardless of location, thereby enabling employees, channel partners, franchises and suppliers to benefit from a quality learning environment without geographical boundaries. A virtual training classroom allows organizations large and small to quickly and easily share the latest corporate strategies, product information or market intelligence. Sessions can be archived and replayed by video streaming for on demand learning so students or new hires can attend courses at their convenience. Costs are decreased, relationships are strengthened, and geographical boundaries become insignificant.

Project Management

Any type of project – marketing launches, IT implementation, product roll outs or sales seminars – require steps that involve a high degree of collaboration between teammates. From material preparation to schedule coordination to implementation, collaboration solutions provide a more streamlined process for project management. In a new product launch, for example, steps might include product definition, design and testing, product release and life cycle management. Through the use of voice, video, content sharing and telepresence collaboration solutions, marketing teams and engineers worldwide can collaborate on product ideas... engineers can hold calls daily to expedite product design as effectively as in-person meetings... launch plan coordination is simplified and product information updates can be disseminated to the field instantly with increased comprehension on the receiving end.

Interviewing and RecruitingMy favorite application for collaboration tools and solutions is in the process of hiring and building a team. I have personally recruited, interviewed, and hired a number of my staff members by video conference without ever leaving the convenience of my office or putting the new recruits on a plane to HQ. Hiring the right candidate for the job is key in any organization but geographical boundaries, time-constraints and travel-cost limitations can impact the ability to find the most qualified candidates and get them hired quickly. The hiring process in most organizations takes on average three months as finding the right candidate for the job is a complex matter. Just think about the steps: job requisition development, posting, resume search and referrals, initial qualification interviews, face-to-face interviews, follow-up interviews with individuals in different locations, reference checks and then the delicate negotiation and acceptance phase. Collaboration tools shorten the interview process, reduce travel costs, eliminate geographic barriers and simplify scheduling, while maintaining critical face time.

By integrating voice, video, content, and telepresence collaboration solutions into business processes and work flows, all types of organizations can reduce costs, enhance organizational efficiency, improve employee quality of life and satisfaction, and improve company productivity. Efficient work flows + improved communications = competitive advantage.

Enable the Avaya Collaborative Cloud for your Enterprise

By Jon Alperin | 2 Jan 2012

Most enterprises are looking at ways to reduce cost and improve time-to-service. Most are also looking for ways to improve the operational efficiency of the data center. Wouldn't it be nice if you could deploy a new application across multiple data centers in an instant? Wouldn't it be nice if we could allow IT the ability to simply say "yes' when there is a new application or service needing to be deployed on the network?

The 2012 Avaya Technology Forum (February 6-9, 2012, Orlando, FL) will answer these questions, show you how to simplify your network, and showcase the brightest and the best technologies Avaya has to offer. The 3-day event features subject matter experts from Avaya providing insight on solutions that will move enterprises into the next generation of collaboration by building the Cloud-grade network infrastructure. Come join us for Avaya presentations, demonstrations from key DevConnect technology partners, and insight from industry analyst perspectives.

Avaya Virtual Enterprise Network Architecture (VENA) is our exciting new virtualization strategy for the next generation enterprise data networks. It is the infrastructure that will allow enterprises to build the private cloud and an architecture that is easily extensible from the data center to the campus and beyond. We believe that enterprise customers will see an immediate benefit by creating a virtualized data center backbone, making operations more efficient and allowing a better and tighter integration between application and network virtualization.

The Avaya Virtual Enterprise Network Architecture is empowered by its ability to integrate multiple different types of networks running across the virtual services fabric. These virtual service networks could be anything from business applications to unified communications, next generation collaboration, storage computing or some disruptive technology that doesn't yet exist but will have to be dealt with in the future.

These virtual networks can be created in seconds with single touch provisioning. We are able to build, create and configure the network core one time, and never have to touch it again. This reduces the human error factor, and makes it very easy and very quick from a time-to-service standpoint.

The next generation of network virtualization will make networks much more dynamic than they are today; you will create the infrastructure once and simply enable networks at the edge without the need to continually make modifications to core. These virtual service networks can be transparently extended within a data center or between data centers.

A critical factor in Avaya's VENA is the manner in which the network will migrate from where it is today into this truly dynamic infrastructure of the future. The Virtual Services Fabric can be enabled in parallel with all other protocols presently in use on the network. No need to change physical connections, no need to change existing configurations. You can migrate existing services into the fabric at your pace in the most non-disruptive manner possible.

With the Virtual Enterprise Network Architecture, Avaya is improving network uptime by delivering the infrastructure that creates the private cloud and nearly eliminate user-error network outages. We are reducing the time to service with simple one touch provisioning and we are improving the data center efficiency with a tighter integration between applications and network virtualization. We are reliably connecting users and content, with the lowest Total Cost of Ownership in the industry.

Bottom line... With an Avaya data network, every dollar you spend helps you get more IT work done.

Videoconferencing In 2012: Gaining Speed

Unified communications will become essential to business, thanks to gains in business continuity and productivity it brings.

By Robert Mullins Informationweek

Videoconferencing is great for getting people in different time zones to communicate in real time, often on short notice to save the time and expense involved in travel. However, as unified communications, including videoconferencing, grows, businesses will find other value in the technology, too.

"The value of unified communications will move from ROI to business continuity and productivity. It's no longer about the ROI of videoconferencing versus travel. The business still has to run," said Andy Miller, CEO of Polycom, speaking to reporters and industry analysts in San Francisco recently.

To be sure, the return on investment is proven by the fact that people don't have to buy an airplane ticket and spend a day traveling just to meet someone in person. Travel avoidance also reduces the corporate carbon footprint. But, Miller said, videoconferencing on systems such as Polycom's means business is not interrupted by SARS outbreaks, post-9/11 airport security, or volcanic ash clouds.

"There is this increasing awareness that companies need to have emergency backup plans in terms of how they can contact their employees and maintain their operations in the event of weather or other disasters," said Bob O'Donnell, a VP at research firm IDC.

[ In this age of IT consumerization, dedicated, centrally managed enterprise voice infrastructure is inconsequential. Learn more about UC In The Smartphone Era. ]

O'Donnell also cited the volcanic eruption in Iceland last year, in which ash drifted over Western Europe, grounding flights, as an example of a sudden turn of events that interrupts business. He also cited the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the tornado that devastated Joplin, Mo., this year as other examples.

"Something like video communications allows people to maintain a very close tie with colleagues and other coworkers, so that's recognized as having a real value to people," he said.

IDC forecasts revenue from unified communications and collaboration technology to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 18.3% to $44 billion by 2015, up from $19 billion in 2010.

Biotechnology firm Genentech is a big user of videoconferencing, especially following its acquisition by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche in 2008, where it went from being a company of 12,000 employees to a company of 86,000 employees.

"People don't want to get on a plane anymore," said David Smith, an infrastructure engineer for Genentech in North America.

Today, Roche, with Genentech, has 600 videoconference rooms, 80% of which are high-definition-ready, and the company issued 17,000 Apple iPad 2s to employees to enable videoconferencing when workers are mobile, Smith said. Rooms are typically busiest between 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, so that workers in California can videoconference with colleagues who are at the end of their workday in Switzerland.

While videoconferencing and other use of UC tools will continue to grow, O'Donnell says there are still issues of interoperability that will have to be addressed so that systems from Polycom, Cisco Systems, LifeSize, ShoreTel--or infrastructure vendors such as Vidyo--can communicate with each other. There is some use of common standards, and Polycom often touts its lead role in the Open Visual Communications Consortium, a standards body. But interconnecting systems often requires the services of someone from the IT department to make it work, and the idea behind improving the user experience with unified communications is that it's so simple that anyone can set up a videoconference without bothering the IT staff.

Avaya IP Office Release 8.0 Overvew

Avaya IP Office 8.0 has full backwards compatibility with Nortel BCM and includes a robust set of tools for administration (Manager), call tracking (SMDR), system monitoring and diagnostics (System Status Application). It has an ability for users to manage their own calls is supplied through a simple GUI (Phone Manager). Phone Manager functionality can be enhanced through simple licensing and to support IP softphones. Avaya IP Office Version 8.0 will also help extend the deskphone/desktop UC feature set out to the mobile environment while you are on the go. IP Office Release 8.0 has advanced IP-based features such as built-in ACD, built-in conference bridges, and the systems are very modular and scalable. It also has web-based UC features - presence, IM, conferencing, federated contact lists, voicemail and more that can be integrated into Outlook Express.

Learn more about Avaya IP Office 8

Videoconferencing goes down market

21 December 2011Videoconferencing is expanding into cloud-based services and inexpensive endpoints such as PCs. Tim Kridel explores whether that trend is a problem or an opportunity for AV integrators.

Every revolution has its martyrs. Avoiding that fate often requires giving up longheld beliefs and changing with the times. The videoconferencing market is a case in point. With the arrival of apps – such as Polycom’s Telepresence m500 – that turn smartphones and tablets into endpoints, the declining cost of large displays and the proliferation of desktop solutions, videoconferencing no longer is something that’s the exclusive domain of executives in boardrooms.


“The cost of videoconferencing at the endpoint has just fallen off the scale,” says Dominic Dodd, a Frost & Sullivan principal analyst who tracks the unified communications (UC) and collaboration markets.


“It used to be around $200 for a software package like Polycom PBX or a Cisco/Tandberg Movi software client. [It’s gone] down to virtually nothing once the video software client is bundled in with the UC client on the desktop.”


The declining cost of endpoint hardware and software – including videoconferencing solutions that let enterprises re-use their existing PCs – is affecting the infrastructure side of the market, too. Not every organisation can afford to spend five or six figures on infrastructure such as bridges, especially not small and medium-size businesses (SMBs), which have been largely under-served in the videoconferencing space. Those up-front costs help create an opportunity for cloud-based videoconferencing services, where a third party hosts the infrastructure in exchange for a monthly fee. In the process, cloud services are opening the videoconferencing market – not just to more users, but also to more non-AV companies, such as IT integrators.


“We see companies very interested in adding AV communication solutions to their current IP networks,” says Victoria Myers, director of operations and cofounder of Myers Network Solutions, which provides IT services in the San Francisco Bay area.


“Previously the sticking point was the big-gulp up-front cost of the infrastructure. With cloud-based, product-agnostic solutions, a number of our clients – financial advisors, higher education, consulting services and companies with regional offices – are jumping to add AV communication solutions.”


Is anybody really using them?


Despite the growing number of vendors offering cloud-based and desktop-centric videoconferencing solutions, there’s ample scepticism about exactly how widely they’re being deployed.


“I accept that vendors are launching products into this space, but we are not seeing customers buying them,” says Ian Vickerage, managing director of Imago Group, a European distributor.


“That’s without mentioning the many failed attempts with videophones. So far – and I hope this changes – these are products looking for an application, in my opinion.”


“The vendors are pushing them, and there are some folks that are probably making the wholesale change,” counters Scott Christianson, owner of Kaleidoscope Videoconferencing, a U.S.-based integrator.


Limited deployments


However, what Christianson is seeing more of is a mixture of solutions. “They might integrate their videoconferencing (room and desktop) and VoIP systems via SIP for conferencing, but use OCS for chat,” he says.


“I think that a lot of the market is really in play. I think that if Google wanted to make a play for this business, you could have a viable cloud-based solution. If you use Google Plus or iGoogle, you already have integrated presence information, chat, voice communications, video communications, email, document sharing and probably other features.”


Some vendors and service providers acknowledge that adoption isn’t as widespread as the current product selection might suggest. “There’s not a lot of awareness yet because cloud services for videoconferencing are new, so it is a pretty significant barrier,” says Mariette Johnson Wharton, vice president of marketing at Vidtel, a U.S.-based provider of cloud-based videoconferencing services.


Raising awareness


"We see the need for solutions like this high, although the demand is a step behind as many SMBs don’t realise that there are cost-effective, high-quality solutions available to them," says Frank Picarello, COO at CMIT Solutions, a U.S.-based provider of managed IT services.


“Companies like CMIT [are] educating the SMBs on not only the advantageous price points and related technology, but also the business benefits in creating a visual collaboration environment."


Some vendors say another barrier to adoption is that enterprises often don't see a clear return on investment for desktop video calling and videoconferencing, regardless of whether it’s facilitated by the cloud or with premises-based infrastructure.


“It's only now starting to get interesting," says Bob Romano, Radvision vice president of enterprise marketing, who says he's been pushing desktop video for years.


"I think that’s because of the UC platforms [adding video], by the way, not because of the videoconferencing industry.”


The rise of cloud-based services


Slow as it might be, videoconferencing’s march down market already has implications for AV integrators. At first blush, declining endpoint costs might appear to be a major negative, especially in terms of margins. But cheaper endpoints also could expand the market for videoconferencing hardware and services. For example, relatively inexpensive endpoints could encourage large enterprises to expand their videoconferencing systems beyond conference rooms and executive offices.


That in turn could encourage them to spend more money on bridges and other infrastructure, or on cloud-based videoconferencing services. Many AV integrators have spent the past several years adding IT skills as more AV devices and services move onto IP networks. So those integrators also could make money by selling IT services such as network surveys and upgrades to enterprises that are expanding their videoconferencing systems.


At the very least, the ability to design and support videoconferencing over LANs, MANs and WANs is a must-have for AV integrators that don't want to lose business to IT integrators or even enterprise IT departments.


Meanwhile, cloud-based services offer AV integrators another revenue opportunity. For example, Vidtel is looking to use AV integrators – currently in North America but soon Europe, too – as sales channels for its MeetMe Video Conferencing Service. Another example is Cisco’s TelePresence Callway, which Cisco will host but rely on integrators and other partners to sell. For both integrators and their clients, part of cloud’s appeal is that it can streamline design and installation.


“A cloud-based solution like LifeSize Connections allows a small vendor like me to implement very large projects very quickly for new customers,” says Kaleidoscope’s Christianson.


“Say that I have a customer that wants 30 endpoints deployed around the U.S. and 120 desktop systems for his mobile workforce and wants them all to be able to conference via a schedule or ad hoc as they like. In a traditional installation, this would take a lot of planning, a lot of work to get the infrastructure up and running, a lot of bandwidth or need to co-locate some central equipment and a lot of time and training.


“With LifeSize Connections, I can have the mobile systems up and running immediately, using the firewall traversal, the MCU, presence server and IM client that are build into the service. The endpoints can be added as soon as I can get a tech on-site. And in this case, the entire deployment would be done by techs that just need to know how to hook up a codec and make a call.”


A scant few cloud-based services also are attractive for their ability to make a hodge-podge of platforms, services and endpoints work together. For example, Vidtel’s MeetMe Video Conferencing Service works not only with room-based systems and executive-suite desktop platforms from Cisco, LifeSize and Polycom, but also with Google Talk and Skype, including on tablets and smartphones.


MeetMe’s flexibility is designed to cater to the underserved SMB market, where it’s not uncommon to find those companies using Skype for video calling because that’s all they have the money, IT skills or both to implement. Cloud-based services could help integrators crack that market by attacking the pain points of complexity and affordability.


“What we hear from a lot of the AV integrators is that there’s only a certain number of companies that have an addressable market where they’re willing to spend a quarter of a million dollars or more,” says Scott Wharton, CEO of Vidtel.


“You hear a lot of people saying, ‘I wish I could have something better than Skype, but I can’t afford it.’ And even if they could afford it as equipment prices come down, it’s still too complicated.” Cloud services could be equally attractive at the other end of the market, among enterprises that already own pro-grade videoconferencing endpoints and infrastructure.


For example, Vidtel says MeetMe addresses interoperability problems between different vendor platforms, making them more practical for videoconferencing sessions where some participants are outside of the company and using another system. The service also makes it easier for those enterprises to conduct videoconferences with employees in the field who are using tablets, smartphones or laptops.


All of that newfound flexibility and interoperability could be a plus for AV integrators if it helps clients make a business case for spending more than they otherwise would have. Reselling or building cloud-based services might be the only way for integrators to make money if desktop solutions grow from the exception to the rule. Even if PC- and tablet-based solutions didn't exist, the upper half of the hardware and software field still would be declining in price and margins.


"Overall, I think that margins on hardware are drying up, and you have to be offering some service," says Kaleidoscope’s Christianson. "I have been spending a lot of time in the past two months starting an infrastructure-as-a-service company called VTCStream.com, in which we rent space on devices that will stream and record videoconferencing.


"It might cost $40,000 to get one of these devices up and running, and a small law firm with four videoconference units and a desire to record three events a month can't justify it. But they can justify $350 a month for my service. It is selling well so far, and we are doing a lot of work with other resellers to allow them to resell our services."


Despite all of their potential benefits for integrators and enterprises alike, cloud and other down-market solutions don’t spell the end for expensive, roombased systems or big, immersive executive-desktop products. A law firm, for example, might still shell out for those kinds of solutions. “But they’ll probably say, ‘I don’t want to have to put in the MCU, gateways, firewall traversal servers and everything else,’" says Radvision's Romano. “They’ll buy that from the cloud.


"I think that a lot of the savvy AV integrators that have been reselling videoconferencing are looking at this and saying, ‘Maybe I can stand up a service here,’ because a lot of the AV guys are providing managed services now. So it’s not that hard for them to say, ‘I could probably put up a hosted service and be able to provide some of these conferencing services to the customer.’ I think they still play in the game."

Avaya Night in Canada - IP Office 8.0 Update

By: JON ARNOLD

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...



Originally posted on Jon Arnold's Analyst 2.0 Blog