As contact centers migrate to IP-based platforms and as Unified Communications evolves from a concept into a set of real-world products and capabilities, the contact center market is being shaken up. This session will help you understand the dynamics of the vendors, their product offerings and market positioning. A top market analyst discusses the key factors you can use to evaluate your options. KEY QUESTIONS: * Which vendors are winning and which are losing in the contact center market battles? * Will new players like Microsoft and IBM be successful using Unified Communications as their entry point into the contact center market? * What are the vendors' relative strengths and weaknesses? How to they compare on price? What new features and functions are becoming available? * What role should SIP play in planning for next-generation contact centers? * What new developments can we expect from the vendors in the coming 12 months, and how should this affect your current procurement plans?
Sheila McGee-Smith, the founder of McGee-Smith Analytics, is a leading communications industry analyst and strategic consultant focused on the contact center and unified communications markets. She has a proven track record of accomplishment in new product development, competitive assessment, market research, and sales strategies for communications solutions and services. Ms. McGee-Smith works on a daily basis with both solution providers and enterprises. Her insight helps them develop strategies to meet the escalating demands of today's consumer and business customers. Ms. McGee-Smith has spent over twenty years in the telecommunications industry, including 12 years with analyst firm The PELORUS Group. Prior to her career as an industry analyst, Ms. McGee-Smith held sales management, market research and product management positions at AT&T, Timeplex and Dun & Bradstreet. Ms. McGee-Smith was awarded a bachelor's degree from Barnard College, Columbia University, majoring in psychology and an MBA with majors in marketing and management information systems from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Sheila is a regular blogger on CMP's information portal No Jitter at www.nojitter.com.
In this session, a leading contact center market analyst will lead a roundtable discussion among representatives of vendors concerning the trends and technologies shaping the IP contact center market. The audience will learn what IP contact centers require from the underlying network (and the staff that supports it); the risks and rewards of moving to an IP contact center, and how to plan for the future in this critical area of the enterprise. KEY QUESTIONS: * What are the main benefits to migrating to an IP contact center implementation? What are the biggest challenges? * Is it preferable to migrate your contact center to IP before the enterprise embarks on its IP-PBX migration, or wait until afterward? Or does it matter? * What role will Unified Communications tools, systems and architectures play in the contact center? * What about emerging models—in particular, hosted options—for next-gen contact centers? * How does the cost of purchasing and supporting an IP contact center compare with the cost of a traditional center?
Moderator - Sheila McGee-Smith, President/Principal Analyst, McGee-Smith Analytics
Sheila McGee-Smith, the founder of McGee-Smith Analytics, is a leading communications industry analyst and strategic consultant focused on the contact center and unified communications markets. She has a proven track record of accomplishment in new product development, competitive assessment, market research, and sales strategies for communications solutions and services. Ms. McGee-Smith works on a daily basis with both solution providers and enterprises. Her insight helps them develop strategies to meet the escalating demands of today's consumer and business customers. Ms. McGee-Smith has spent over twenty years in the telecommunications industry, including 12 years with analyst firm The PELORUS Group. Prior to her career as an industry analyst, Ms. McGee-Smith held sales management, market research and product management positions at AT&T, Timeplex and Dun & Bradstreet. Ms. McGee-Smith was awarded a bachelor's degree from Barnard College, Columbia University, majoring in psychology and an MBA with majors in marketing and management information systems from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Sheila is a regular blogger on CMP's information portal No Jitter at www.nojitter.com.
Panelist - Al Baker, Global Vice President, Siemens Enterprise Communications, Inc.
Al Baker is a global Vice President for Siemens Enterprise Communications, Inc., with international responsibilities focused on the business development and transformation of Siemens' Unified Communication (UC) based Customer Interaction (CI) solutions business. Al has over 20 years of experience in sales, product management, product marketing and channel support in the areas of enterprise telecommunications (TDM, IP, SIP), enterprise applications (software) and contact center / customer interaction solutions (CRM). Since 1995 Al has been responsible for leading the development, business planning and launch of 10+ software based applications into over 50 countries. Al holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University in Chicago/Evanston Illinois, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in Palo Alto, California.
Panelist - Jim Hickey, Director of Product Management, Contact Center Solutions, Avaya
Panelist - Larry Ciccarelli, Multimedia Applications Business Development Leader, Nortel
Panelist - Nicolas De Kouchkovsky, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Business Development, Genesys
Panelist - Ross Daniels, Director of Solutions Marketing for Unified Communications, Cisco
Ross Daniels is a Director of Solutions Marketing for Unified Communications. In this capacity, Mr. Daniels is responsible for product positioning, solution messaging, and go-to-market activities for various aspects of Cisco's Unified Communications portfolio, with primary emphasis on Cisco Unified Contact Center, Messaging, Web and Audio Conferencing, and Presence solutions. Mr. Daniels joined Cisco as part of its November 1999 acquisition of WebLine Communications. While at WebLine, he held a variety of technical sales and marketing roles. Previous positions at Cisco include CTI Product Manager, Product Marketing Manager, and Manager of Product Management for Cisco's enterprise and hosted contact center solutions. Prior to joining Cisco, Mr. Daniels spent several years in the business-to-business advertising industry. A regular speaker at industry events, Cisco events, and customer briefings, Mr. Daniels has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Harvard University and a Masters in Business Administration from Babson College.
Integrating contact center software with communications hardware and software is never easy, and with new tools for "customer intelligence" becoming available, the job is more difficult than ever. So, bring your questions to this session. A panel of experts will be ready to discuss the best tools, technologies and techniques to tie together the various technologies to create advanced communications and customer intelligence metrics in the contact center. KEY QUESTIONS: * What elements comprise the growing field of "customer intelligence"? * Where are the key leverage points for deployment of customer intelligence systems? * What does it take to integrate the subsystems with the rest of contact center communications infrastructure and services? * What are the organizational and training implications of the new integrated systems?
Moderator - Don Van Doren, Principal, UniComm Consulting, LLC
Don Van Doren has worked for most of his professional career as a systems developer and consultant applying innovative technologies, systems, and processes to meet business goals. He is now Principal of UniComm Consulting, President of Vanguard Communications, and a co-founder of UCStrategies.com. UniComm Consulting and Vanguard Communications are each independent consulting firms focused, respectively, on unified communications (UC) and contact centers. UCStrategies.com is the industry web portal site for information on UC issues and developments. Vanguard's two decades of consulting work in contact centers help people, processes, and data processing and communications systems technology come together to solve an important business objective - providing an efficient and effective means to interact with a company's customers. For the last several years, Don's research, client work, and writing has been increasingly focused on the emerging field of unified communications. Several years ago, he and Marty Parker, a colleague from early voice messaging days, began working together on these issues. In 2007 they created UniComm Consulting, an independent consulting firm to concentrate on helping enterprises to understand the potential for UC in their business, develop strategies appropriate to their goals and opportunities, identify specific applications and associated ROI, help identify supplier partners, and assist with implementation, including project management, change leadership, and metrics. In addition to his client projects through Vanguard and UniComm Consulting, Don writes articles and columns and speaks frequently at industry conferences on these subjects. Don has an undergraduate degree from Yale University and an MBA from the University of Michigan. Contact Don at dvandoren@unicommconsulting.com.
As a Senior Manager-Solutions Marketing, Brad is responsible for the product direction and marketing strategy of the contact center products at Interactive Intelligence. His experience includes more than 20 years in the contact center industry, including the past 12 years with Interactive Intelligence focused on both the traditional and IP telephony markets.
Panelist - Brian Davidow, Manager, Sales Support, CosmoCom
Panelist - Daniel Burgin, Director Product Management Reporting and Analytics, Avaya
A member of InfoWorld's Advisory Council and Top 100 CTO Network, Daniel Burgin, Director of Product Management leads the Contact Center Reporting and Analytics Business for Avaya. Prior to joining Avaya, Mr. Burgin was co-founder and CTO for Finali Corporation - a Contact Center Analytics and Automation software and services provider. Finali was acquired by Convergys Corporation in 2004, where Mr. Burgin worked after the acquisition of Finali. Prior to Finali/Convergys Mr. Burgin led the development of many web-based products and businesses including leading product development for Infonautics Corporation (now Tucows), where he designed implementation plans for international expansion, and led the conception, design, and development of several of Infonautics' Internet products. Prior to Infonautics, Mr. Burgin was Director of Technology at KnowledgeFlow. There, Burgin led interactive-media project development for such Fortune 1000 companies as Apple Computer, American Express and CoreStates Bank.
Panelist - Mike Regan, Vice President of Unified IP™ Development, Aspect Software
Michael Regan is Vice President Engineering for Unified IP products at Aspect Software. In his role, he is responsible for development of Aspect's award winning Unified IP product line. Regan joined Aspect Software through its acquisition of BlueNote Networks, a company he co-founded. Most recently, Regan has held senior management positions at communications companies such as Ciena, Wavesmith Networks, Octave Communications, Unisphere Networks and Castle Networks. In these positions, he has led teams that have delivered voice and data communications products for both large enterprises and public service providers. Regan received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.
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