Over two days—Monday, March 17, and Tuesday, March 18—VoiceCon will devote a series of sessions, speakers and discussion forums to the migration from traditional technologies to IP-based contact centers. See the schedule below, and click on the session titles for detailed descriptions. There are two ways to gain admission: Register separately for the VoiceCon Next-Gen Contact Centers program, or attend with an "Entire Event" registration package (pricing and what's included).
Whether an enterprise is early in its migration to IP Telephony or further along and now evaluating the concept of Unified Communications, it's not easy to build a credible business case. IP Telephony and, in particular, UC, are complex and involve numerous technologies, decision-makers and equipment, software and service providers. This tutorial will be divided into two segments: The first is devoted to IP Telephony businesses cases, the second will cover the UC business case. It will be based on IP Telephony cost data that has been gathered over the past five years from more than 800 companies that have implemented the technology, as well as real-world data from hundreds of IT decision makers on the newer UC products and technologies. This tutorial will cover the following questions: * How do companies build a business case around IP Telephony and Unified Communications? What are the key metrics? * What does it really cost to implement IP Telephony? What are the cost components of a UC business case? * What resources (internal and external) companies must devote to their VOIP and UC rollouts, per end-unit, per year segmented by rollout size and vendor. * What are some of the key pitfalls? Where did companies go wrong? * What are some compelling business case models for both IP Telephony and UC? Robin Gareiss is Executive Vice President and Senior Founding Partner for Nemertes Research, where she oversees research projects and direction, conducts strategic seminars, develops cost models and advises leading enterprises, vendors, and carriers. Ms. Gareiss is a widely recognized expert in voice over IP, convergence, collaboration, carrier services, IP networking, and branch-office technologies. Before joining Nemertes, Ms. Gareiss served as Senior News Editor of Information Week, and prior to that, she worked at Data Communications Magazine. Ms. Gareiss has a BS in journalism and a minor in education, with honors, from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Irwin Lazar is the Principal Analyst and Program Director for Unified Communications and Collaboration at Nemertes Research, where he develops and manages research projects, develops cost models, conducts strategic seminars and advises clients. His background is in network operations, network engineering, voice-data convergence and IP telephony. Mr. Lazar is responsible for benchmarking the adoption and use of emerging enterprise technologies including VoIP, Unified Communications, Web 2.0 initiatives, social networking and collaboration. A Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Mr. Lazar is a columnist for No Jitter and Collaboration Loop. He is regular speaker at events Interop, VoiceCon, and Enterprise 2.0. Mr. Lazar serves as the conference director for FutureNet (formerly MPLScon), the chair for Network World IT Roadmap Web 2.0 track, and is on the advisory board for the Enterprise 2.0 conference.
Instructor - Irwin Lazar, Principal Research Analyst and Program Director, Unified Communications and Collaboration, Nemertes Research
Irwin Lazar is the Vice President for Communications Research at Nemertes Research, where he develops and manages research projects, develops cost models, conducts strategic seminars and advises clients. His background is in network operations, network engineering, voice-data convergence, and IP telephony. Mr. Lazar is responsible for benchmarking the adoption and use of emerging technologies in the enterprise in areas including VOIP, unified communications, Web 2.0 initiatives, social networking, and collaboration. A Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and sought-after speaker and author, Mr. Lazar is a columnist for No Jitter and Enterprise2Blog. He is a frequent resource for the business and trade press. and is regular speaker at events such as Interop, VoiceCon, and Enterprise 2.0. Mr. Lazar serves as the conference director for FutureNet (formerly MPLScon), and is on the advisory board for the Enterprise 2.0 conference.
Instructor - Robin Gareiss, Executive Vice President & Sr. Founding Partner, Nemertes Research
Robin Gareiss is executive vice president and senior founding partner for Nemertes Research, where she oversees research analysts and direction, conducts strategic seminars, develops cost models, and advises leading enterprises, vendors and carriers. She currently serves as chief financial officer, as well. For the past 17 years, Robin Gareiss has worked closely with hundreds of senior IT executives, analyzing their use of technology and capturing best practices. Ms. Gareiss is a widely recognized expert in voice over IP, convergence, collaboration, carrier services, IP networking and branch-office technologies. She is a sought-after speaker at conferences and trade shows, including Interop, VoiceCon and Mobile Business Expo, and she is frequently quoted in publications, including Business Week, Entrepreneur magazine, ComputerWorld, and CIO magazine. She also writes the Branch Offices Best Practices column for Network World.
Behind the basic question--How big is the Unified Communications market, and which vendors are winning/losing?—lurks a more difficult question: What "counts" as Unified Communications when we're measuring this market? In this session, a leading UC analyst will present research that looks at the market's size, players and prospects, the impact of UC on end users and future trends. KEY QUESTIONS: * Who are the principal players, and how are they positioning themselves? * How is Unified Communications defined, and who—according to this definition—is really selling in this market? Who's buying? * What are the drivers behind the growth from a customer perspective? * What are the current and likely future patterns of adoption—e.g., by job type, mobile work, business process? * How is the current economic climate affecting adoption? Will this market take off?
Speaker - Blair Pleasant, President & Principal Analyst, COMMfusion LLC
Blair Pleasant COMMfusion LLC President & Principal Analyst Blair Pleasant is President & Principal Analyst of COMMfusion LLC and Co-founder of ucstrategies.com, an industry resource on the growing UC arena. She provides consulting and market research analysis on voice/data convergence markets, applications, and technologies, aimed at helping end-user and vendor clients both strategically and tactically. Prior to COMMfusion, Ms. Pleasant was Director of Communications Analysis for The PELORUS Group, a market research and consulting firm, and President of Lower Falls Consulting. With 20 years experience, her primary areas of focus are convergence applications, including Unified Communications, Unified Messaging, the contact center, computer telephony integration (CTI), and voice processing. Blair has authored many highly acclaimed multi-client market studies and white papers, as well as custom research reports, and provides market research analysis and consulting services to both end user and vendor clients. Blair's blogs and articles can be found on www.ucstrategies.com and www.commfusion.com. She also tweets on Twitter as blairplez. Ms. Pleasant received a BA degree in Communications from Albany State University, and an MBA in marketing and an MS in Broadcast Administration from Boston University. She can be contacted at bpleasant@commfusion.com
In this session, executives from the leading vendors offer their assessment of Unified Communications' evolution to date: What's available now, and what's coming over the next 12 months. The discussion will also cover the barriers that must be overcome for UC to fulfill its potential - especially interoperability and TCO/ROI concerns, and will examine the various pricing models . KEY QUESTIONS * What are prospects for UC adoption given the weak economy and enterprise budget cuts? * What are the top UC applications in terms of actual implementation? What hard savings or ROI exist? * Microsoft and IBM have reached agreement on limited interoperability issues on presence federation, but what interoperability challenges remain? * Are vendors giving away UC apps to sell their call control platforms - or vice versa? * How have the vendors changed their approach to pricing for UC capabilities, and what impact are these changes having? What's next in the evolution of UC pricing?
Panelist - Brian Dal Bello, Director, Unified Call Manager, IP Communication Business Unit, Cisco
Brian Dal Bello is the director of product marketing for the IP Communication Business Unit (IPCBU) within Cisco's Voice Technology Group. Brian is directly responsible for Cisco's portfolio of Call Manager, IP telephones and Enterprise Mobility solutions. Brian has been with Cisco Systems for 4 years and has a combined total of 24 years of experience in enterprise / carrier voice, video, rich media, and wireless communication solutions. Brian holds a Bachelor Degree in Engineering from the University of Waterloo in Ontario Canada.
Panelist - Eric Swift, Senior Director, Communications Server Technical Product Management, Microsoft
As senior director of product management in the Unified Communications Group at Microsoft, Eric Swift is responsible for managing customer and industry requirements, product positioning, and marketing strategies for the next generation of Microsoft Unified Communications products and services, including Microsoft Office Communicator, Microsoft Office Communications Server, and Microsoft RoundTable. Swift has been with Microsoft for eight years. Previous to his current position with the Unified Communications Group, he was director of product management in Microsoft's Application Platform group. Prior to joining Microsoft, Swift held vice president positions at enterprise application integration and CRM software vendors where responsibilities included product management, CRM and Data Warehouse implementations, and technical support operations. Swift has an MBA from Columbia University in New York, NY.
Panelist - Fernando Egea, Director, Solution Architects, Alcatel-Lucent
Fernando Egea, Senior Director for Solution Architecture, is responsible for central pre-sales support of all Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise products in North America. His primary responsibilities include designing solutions for very large, complex IP telephony projects and transferring practical knowledge to field solution architects and Business Partners. With over 12 years of industry experience, Fernando has been directly involved in some of Alcatel-Lucent's largest IP transformation projects in North America and worldwide. Prior to joining the North American team, he was the solutions architect for the Latin American region, covering over 20 countries.
Linda Dotts is Vice President, Unified Communications Markets driving the global market penetration of Avaya's Unified Communications portfolio leveraging Avaya's channel go to market strategy and key market partnerships. Linda's accountabilities span solutions packaging, market messaging and readiness for the market. Prior to this role, Linda was the General Manager, Peer to Peer Solutions, Operations and Managing Director in Avaya's Japan business, and Director of Product Management for Avaya's CRM portfolio for Avaya and Lucent Technologies. Linda was also involved in global account sales for AT&T. Linda has an MBA from the University of Hartford and a BS in Economics from Arizona State University.
Panelist - Marisa Viveros, Vice President, Converged Communications and Mobility Services, IBM
Panelist - Phil Edholm, Chief Technologist, Nortel
Phil Edholm is the Chief Technology and Strategy Officer for Nortel's Enterprise Solutions group. Leveraging his experience as a technology leader across Nortel enterprise line of data and voice networking products, Phil focuses on the Nortel Enterprise Portfolio. In this role, he is responsible for defining the vision and strategic directions in the enterprise business. He also is responsible for technology strategy, standards, and advanced research. In this role he & his team drive the technologies and architectures across the Nortel Enterprise portfolio delivering systems value & capability. At Nortel, Phil has led the development of VoIP solutions and multimedia communications as well as IP transport technology. Phil's background includes extensive LAN and data communications experience, including 9 years with Sytek/Hughes LAN Systems and 4 years with Silicon Valley start-ups. Phil was a member of the IEEE 802.3 standards committee during the definition of broadband Ethernet and 10BaseT, developed the first multi-protocol network interfaces, and was a founder of the Frame Relay Forum. He has been a featured speaker at many international conferences and is recognized as an industry visionary and leader of the convergence transformation. In 2007, he has been recognized by Frost and Sullivan with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Growth and Innovation Leadership. Phil is a widely sought speaker at global conferences and has been in the VoiceCon Great Debate three times. Phil has been recognized by the IEEE as the originator of "Edholm's Law of Bandwidth" as published in July 2004 IEEE Spectrum magazine and as one of the "Top 100 Voices of IP Communications: by Internet Telephony magazine. Phil has 9 patents with 12 patent applications pending. He holds a BSME/EE from GMI/Kettering University.
Panelist - Stephen Beamish, Vice President Business Development and Marketing, Mitel
Stephen Beamish Vice-President Business Development and Marketing Mitel Stephen Beamish is responsible for communicating and evolving Mitel's corporate positioning and brand equity in the global marketplace. This includes marketing Mitel's comprehensive portfolio of small, medium, and enterprise business communications solutions that deeply integrate into customer processes creating new efficiency and productivity benefits. Stephen is also responsible for corporate business development initiatives and expanding Mitel's key strategic alliances. Prior to joining Mitel, Stephen was Director of Global Product Marketing for the Alcatel® Broadband Access Product Line. Stephen is a sought out speaker for many industry events and has published a number of business and technology white papers. He has an International MBA from the Norwegian School of Economics and holds a patent in ROI Business Modeling.
Jim Burton is Founder and CXO of CT Link, LLC and Co-Founder of UCStrategies.com. Burton founded the consulting firm in 1989 to help clients in the converging voice, data and networking industries with strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances and distribution issues. In the early 1990s, Burton recognized the challenges vendors and the channel faced as they developed and installed integrated voice/data products. He became the leading authority in the voice/data integration industry and is credited with "coining" the term computer-telephone integration (CTI). Burton helped companies including Microsoft and Intel enter the voice market and helped AT&T (now Avaya), Mitel, NEC, Nortel, Siemens and Toshiba with their CTI strategies. In the late 1990s, venture capitalists turned to Burton for help in evaluating potential investments in IP PBX start-ups. He went on to help these and other companies with strategic planning and partnering, including NBX (acquired by 3Com, Selsius (acquired by Cisco), ShoreTel and Sphere Communications. In the early 2000s, Burton began focusing on wireless services and technologies. In 2005 Burton started helping vendors with their Unified Communications strategy and in 2006, along with several colleagues, created a web site, UCStrategies.com, to provide information for enterprise customers and vendors.
Communications-Enabled Business Processes (CEBP) refers to the use of UC-based functions to integrate communications with business applications. While the idea is noble -- to make workers and business processes more efficient, and enable enterprises to handle exceptions more quickly and cheaply - it's not easy to accomplish. In this session, enterprise executives who have begun to deploy CEBP will describe their experiences: Where they saved money, where they encountered problems and where they're headed. KEY QUESTIONS * What business processes and types of applications are best suited to integration with voice systems? Where can the "quick wins" be had? * What are the major systems integration and voice quality/performance challenges in CEBP implementations? * Who typically takes the lead in a CEBP project -- specifying, buying/building, integrating and deploying? Is this function best handled within the enterprise or by an outside systems integrator? * What's the role of the business units, CIO and CFO in crafting a CEBP plan, and how should the IT staff interact with them? *How are results measured - hard vs. soft savings, benefits or ROI?
Marty Parker is a Principal of UniComm Consulting, LLC, specializing in Unified Communications consulting support for enterprises. UniComm Consulting provides informed and efficient support for the strategy, planning, procurement and implementation steps needed for successful, high return UC projects and investments. Marty is also a co-founder of UCStrategies.com, a forum for UC information and dialog for enterprises, suppliers and VARs. Other industry activities include VoiceCon and InterOp tutorials and sessions, and UC Training courses offered through Telecom+UC Training. Marty has extensive background in both IT and Telecom, and in both entrepreneurial and large corporation leadership roles. mparker@unicommconsulting.com.
Panelist - Arthur Brant, Dir of Network Services, Abilene Christian University
For the last 11 years, Arthur has been managing voice, video, and data networks for Abilene Christian University. In 2008, ACU began implementing strategies for a "connected" 21st-century campus, including the launch of a mobile learning initiative that provided converged mobile devices to the entering freshmen class. Arthur's primary engagement with this initiative is the design, implementation, and maintenance of usable and reliable infrastructure. As the university explores the integration of mobile devices in the classroom, options such as voice enablement and location awareness offer some unique opportunities. To this end, Arthur works closely with corporate partners to address these innovations and advance ACU's vision to be the premier university for the education of Christ-centered global leaders.
Panelist - Steve Margolis, MD, Chief Medical Informatics Officer, Orlando Health
Panelist - Wayne Porter, GVP ETI-Network Services, SunTrust Banks, Inc.
Group Vice President, Enterprise Technology - Network Services, SunTrust Bank. Wayne has responsibility for various aspects of voice and data communications technology and infrastructure at SunTrust. He has been with SunTrust over 5 years and is instrumental in providing leadership with the technology direction for communications at SunTrust. Prior to joining SunTrust, Wayne was with several Dun & Bradstreet companies including: D&B Software, SalesTechnologies, IMS Health, and Synavant. Over the past 25 years at these companies, he has held various IT Management positions with responsibilities ranging from mainframe data centers, to global corporate networks.
OK, you have an IP Telephony infrastructure in progress or in place and now you're hearing all about Unified Communications. You need to figure out what enhancements are needed to your telephony, desktops, applications, and to your mobility solutions. This session will outline the alternatives and a panel of equipment suppliers will discuss the steps for delivering Unified Communications by integrating telephony, business processes and applications. They'll also discuss the best ways to leverage in-place infrastructure to take advantage of UC. KEY QUESTIONS: * What are the alternative architectures to deliver UC benefits to the enterprise? How do you select which makes sense for your environment? * What is the most economical path to UC with your current IP Telephony investment? What will you need now and what can be added on later? * What's the future of the PBX/IP-PBX in a UC migration? * What new infrastructure elements might have to be added to the existing telephony/desktop implementation to support UC? What existing servers, applications or other elements must be integrated? * How should your plans for Unified Communications affect your plans for rolling out IP Telephony or other infrastructure components? In the face of lower budgets, which should have priority?
Speaker - Gary Gordon, Product Manager, NEC Unified Solutions
Gary Gordon is Product Line Manager for NEC's Unified Communications. He started with NEC in September of 2004. Gary attended the University of Central Oklahoma where he majored in Business Administration with a minor in Computer Science. Gary previously managed communication and e-commerce business process integration for Fleming Co., a $20 billion wholesale/retail distribution company. He has over 17 years experience working with emerging technologies, including unified communications, SOA, and presence enabled applications. He has 7 years experience in managing PC's and web based applications on a large IP network. Gary brings strong knowledge and management skills in real-time-communication based applications, communication enabled business process (CEBP), and has additional expertise in sales and marketing.
Speaker - Kevin Gavin, Vice President of Marketing, ShoreTel
Kevin Gavin joined ShoreTel in October of 2007 and is responsible for marketing and product line management for all ShoreTel products. For over 25 years, Gavin has helped high-growth telecommunications companies achieve market-leading status in new market categories by delivering breakthrough products and services directly to businesses and consumers. Gavin's executive experience includes Chief Marketing Officer at GoBeam Communications, a VoIP-based hosted PBX service provider that was purchased by Covad Communications in 2004. Gavin was also Chief Marketing Officer at InternetConnect, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Softnet Systems, Regional VP at Teligent, Corporate VP of Marketing and Product Development at Nextel Communications, and Regional VP of Marketing at McCaw Cellular. Gavin is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He also attended the Executive Education Program at Stanford University.
Speaker - Lawrence Byrd, Director, Unified Communications Architecture, Avaya
Lawrence Byrd is Director of Unified Communications Architecture and helps drive the definition and communication of Avaya's intelligent communications strategy. Lawrence has eighteen years of communications, CRM and contact center experience and thirty years of advanced software and Internet experience. Lawrence was co-founder of Quintus Corporation in 1984 where he held executive positions in software development, marketing and strategy. Quintus was a leading provider of multimedia contact center software that was acquired by Avaya in 2001. Lawrence has a BA in Philosophy from Durham, England, was a research associate in the Department of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and now lives with his family in California.
Speaker - Warren Barkley, Principal Group PM, Microsoft
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 and customer interactions. 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.
Does Microsoft Office Communications Server Release 2 represent a major step forward for Microsoft in terms of supporting voice functionality that approaches the level we expect from legacy PBXs? Does OCS R2 perform up to enterprise levels of expectations? And how do other vendors' UC capabilities stack up to OCS's? In this session, a representative of a leading test lab will let you in on their latest findings. KEY QUESTIONS: * Does OCS Release 2 support a critical mass of traditional telephony features, and does it do so as well as legacy platforms? * Can OCS support mission-critical telephony needs at scale? * How do competing vendors' UC interfaces and applications compare with those of desktop vendors like Microsoft? * What areas of performance and feature/functionality should buyers pay the most attention to when evaluating whether vendor UC products work as advertised?
Rob is Chairman and CEO of Miercom, the nation's leading network product testing organization with 20 years service to the industry. Headquartered in central New Jersey, Miercom has field offices in San Mateo, CA and Research Triangle Park, NC. With two decades of experience, Rob is masterful in the testing and competitive positioning of network products. Rob is a frequent speaker at industry events, including VoiceCon, Networld + Interop and other trade shows. His organization is the test lab for Network World Magazine (VoIP, Storage and Disaster Recovery). Miercom also is the premier test lab for Business Communications review, featuring test reviews in BCR's NoJitter online publication. As CEO, Rob directs the course of Miercom's new business development and oversees the company's involvement in key areas of emerging industries including voice-over-IP, security and business continuance. Rob has an electrical engineering degree from Lehigh University and he serves as a reserve officer for U.S. Army Civil Affairs, Military Police and Engineer Corp. Rob spent three years deployed in Iraq and other places around the world helping fight the global war on terrorism. He also spent two years conducting vulnerability assessments of military installations throughout the nation and conducted anti-terrorism training for a number of those facilities. Leveraging his practical expertise in assessing products and conducting risk assessments, Rob takes a bottom-line approach to helping clients find best-in-class solutions to problems and protecting their infrastructures. He offers strategic consulting for companies wishing to build fault tolerant, state-of-the art networks.
