We find ourselves at an exciting moment in the history of our industry. Each enterprise needs to find its own path to its IP Telephony future, and proceed along that path at its own pace. VoiceCon Orlando 2008 will present analysis, case studies and perspectives from IT executives from companies that have begun the migration to IP Telephony and converged networks. The VoiceCon Orlando Conference program is designed to answer your questions about building the IP Telephony platform that will power your enterprise in the future. It will help you decide why, when and how to invest in these technologies.
Avaya CEO Lou D'Ambrosio will discuss the extraordinary transformation of Unified Communications. He will focus on how successful enterprises are using Unified Communications and presence to drive competitive advantage. He will also discuss the compelling technology solutions of communications-enabling business processes, and how businesses are using it to innovate and create competitive advantages.
Louis J. D'Ambrosio is President and Chief Executive Officer of Avaya, responsible for the overall strategy, direction and operations of the corporation. Avaya is a leading global provider of business applications, systems and services. Previously, D'Ambrosio was SVP and President, Global Sales and Marketing at Avaya, and he also led Avaya's Global Services business unit. Before joining Avaya, D'Ambrosio spent 16 years at IBM in key leadership roles across IBM Global Services, Software, and Sales and Marketing, and where he served as a member of IBM's Worldwide Management Committee. D'Ambrosio received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and Bachelor of Science from Pennsylvania State University, summa cum laude and valedictorian.
Moderator - Fred Knight, Publisher, NoJitter.com, GM/Co-Chair, VoiceCon
Fred Knight is GM/Co-Chair of VoiceCon, and the publisher of NoJitter.com. Fred was part of the team that launched the VoiceCon Conference in 1990. He served as Program Chairman through 2003 when he also became VoiceCon General Manager. Since then, VoiceCon has grown into the leading event for enterprise IP Telephony, converged networks and unified communications. Fred led the evolution of VoiceCon from an annual conference into a 12-month per year operation, comprising two major conferences: VoiceCon Orlando and VoiceCon San Francisco: the VoiceCon Webinar series and two e-newsletters: VoiceCon eNews and VoiceCon UC eWeekly. From 1984-2007 Fred was editor and then publisher of Business Communications Review. During that period, he covered the ensuing tumultuous changes that dramatically changed the industry. Under his stewardship, BCR received numerous awards from industry and publishing groups and associations. In December 2007, BCR ceased publication and the editorial product shifted to the Web with the creation of a new website: NoJittier.com. Fred has managed the organization's migration from print to electronic publishing and serves as publisher of NoJitter.com. Fred earned his BA in journalism at the University of Minnesota and a Master's Degree in public administration from The Maxwell School, Syracuse University.
10:30 am–11:30 am
Keynotes
Keynote Presentation: Microsoft (Location: Osceola C)
Gurdeep Singh Pall is responsible for developing Microsoft?s Unified Communications and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) strategy, and his teams are responsible for Unified Communications product and service deployment. Pall joined Microsoft in January 1990 as a software design engineer and has worked on many products in his tenure. During his work on Windows, he led design and implementation of award-winning technologies such as PPP, TCP/IP, VPNs, routing and Wi-Fi. He co-authored the first VPN protocol in the industry ? Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP), and also authored several Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) documents and standards during the mid-1990s. Pall was appointed general manager of Windows Real-Time Communications efforts in January 2002, and helped develop a broad RTC strategy that led to the formation of the Real Time Collaboration division and the acquisition of PlaceWare Inc. (now called Microsoft Office Live Meeting). Pall holds several patents in networking, compression and collaboration. He holds a master?s degree in computer science from the University of Oregon and an undergraduate degree in computer engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India.
Moderator - Fred Knight, Publisher, NoJitter.com, GM/Co-Chair, VoiceCon
Fred Knight is GM/Co-Chair of VoiceCon, and the publisher of NoJitter.com. Fred was part of the team that launched the VoiceCon Conference in 1990. He served as Program Chairman through 2003 when he also became VoiceCon General Manager. Since then, VoiceCon has grown into the leading event for enterprise IP Telephony, converged networks and unified communications. Fred led the evolution of VoiceCon from an annual conference into a 12-month per year operation, comprising two major conferences: VoiceCon Orlando and VoiceCon San Francisco: the VoiceCon Webinar series and two e-newsletters: VoiceCon eNews and VoiceCon UC eWeekly. From 1984-2007 Fred was editor and then publisher of Business Communications Review. During that period, he covered the ensuing tumultuous changes that dramatically changed the industry. Under his stewardship, BCR received numerous awards from industry and publishing groups and associations. In December 2007, BCR ceased publication and the editorial product shifted to the Web with the creation of a new website: NoJittier.com. Fred has managed the organization's migration from print to electronic publishing and serves as publisher of NoJitter.com. Fred earned his BA in journalism at the University of Minnesota and a Master's Degree in public administration from The Maxwell School, Syracuse University.
Speaker - Dennis Schmidt, Senior Vice President, VoIP Program Executive, Bank of America
Dennis Schmidt joined Bank of America in 2002, and during his tenure he has led Strategic Sourcing for Bank of Americas Voice and Data Networks and also led the team responsible for procuring Bank of America?s Fiber based Optical MAN Network and DWDM WAN core. He then assumed end-to-end Voice Services Product Management for Bank of America?s Domestic Corporate Enterprise and Consumer Branch Voice Network, and more recently, led the combined VoIP Converged Technical Services team through the Bank of America?s VoIP Demonstration, Proof of Concept, Pilot and Production Year one phases. Mr. Schmidt is now Senior Vice President and Program Executive responsible for the Voice Over IP Program Management Office (VPMO), which is responsible for the implementation of, and transformation to, VOIP and IPT for all Consumer, Enterprise, Call Center, and Trader telephony within Bank of America?s domestic footprint. This rollout has transformed over 2900 bank locations and will have deployed over 100,000 active VoIP ports by end of year 2007. Mr. Schmidt was awarded in February of 2007 the Bank of America?s most prestigious award, ?The Award of Excellence,? for the Network Services organization.
Moderator - Fred Knight, Publisher, NoJitter.com, GM/Co-Chair, VoiceCon
Fred Knight is GM/Co-Chair of VoiceCon, and the publisher of NoJitter.com. Fred was part of the team that launched the VoiceCon Conference in 1990. He served as Program Chairman through 2003 when he also became VoiceCon General Manager. Since then, VoiceCon has grown into the leading event for enterprise IP Telephony, converged networks and unified communications. Fred led the evolution of VoiceCon from an annual conference into a 12-month per year operation, comprising two major conferences: VoiceCon Orlando and VoiceCon San Francisco: the VoiceCon Webinar series and two e-newsletters: VoiceCon eNews and VoiceCon UC eWeekly. From 1984-2007 Fred was editor and then publisher of Business Communications Review. During that period, he covered the ensuing tumultuous changes that dramatically changed the industry. Under his stewardship, BCR received numerous awards from industry and publishing groups and associations. In December 2007, BCR ceased publication and the editorial product shifted to the Web with the creation of a new website: NoJittier.com. Fred has managed the organization's migration from print to electronic publishing and serves as publisher of NoJitter.com. Fred earned his BA in journalism at the University of Minnesota and a Master's Degree in public administration from The Maxwell School, Syracuse University.
Communicate and Collaborate at the Speed of Business Responsive. Innovative. On-the-go. Global. The "speed of business? is accelerating, which creates a pressing need for organizations to shield users from complexity, while optimizing and extending the value of IT and telephony investments. An open, holistic strategy for unified communications and collaboration enables enterprises to leverage and enhance business applications, processes and their underlying systems, while delivering a user experience that sets people free to easily find, reach and collaborate. Mike Rhodin, General Manager, IBM Lotus Software will share the latest on IBM's unified communications and collaboration (UCē) strategy and preview new technologies from IBM development labs. Mike will illustrate how enterprises are building upon their existing technology investments and tapping solutions from a rich ecosystem of business partners to add value to their organizations.
Speaker - Mike Rhodin, General Manager, Workplace, Portal and Collaboration Software , IBM
Mike Rhodin was named General Manager, Workplace, Portal and Collaboration (WPLC) Software, in August 2005. He leads a team responsible for developing IBM's collaborative technology and solutions, which integrate people, data and business process to create the "human side" of IBM's On Demand Strategy. Previously he served as Vice President of Development and Technical Support for WPLC, working to transform the front-end of computing. Before joining Lotus in 2003, Mike led IBM's development efforts for Pervasive Computing from November 1999. This included development of the WebSphere Everyplace family of offerings, WebSphere Portal and WebSphere Voice offerings. Mike also served as Director, IBM Server Solutions within Software Group. He joined IBM in 1984 upon his graduation from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science.
Speaker - Konrad Lagard, Development Manager, Lotus Sametime, IBM
Speaker - Ron Sebastian, Executive IT Architect , IBM
It's no secret that world of enterprise communications is undergoing a transformation; IP Telephony and Unified Communications are changing the nature of the game. Now new forms of interaction, which began in the consumer/personal communications market -- blogs, wikis and online services like Facebook ? are migrating into the enterprise. Where do these social networking systems ? and mindset ? fit into the enterprise communications landscape? Join us for a discussion about what's real today and what's likely to happen in the future.
Panelist - Dan York, Dir of Emerging Comm Tech, Voxeo
Dan York, CISSP, is Director of Emerging Communication Technology reporting to the CTO of Voxeo Corporation focused on analyzing/evaluating emerging technology, participating in industry standards bodies and addressing VoIP security issues. He is also leading Voxeo's move into "social media" with the deployment of blogs and podcasts. Dan also serves as Best Practices Chair for the VoIP Security Alliance (VOIPSA) where he will be leading the project to develop and document a concise set of industry-wide best practices for security VoIP systems. Additionally, Dan writes for VOIPSA's group weblog is the producer of "Blue Box: The VoIP Security Podcast" where since October 2005 each week he and co-host Jonathan Zar discuss VOIP security news and interview people involved in the field. Prior to joining Voxeo, Dan was Director of IP Technology in Mitel's Office of the CTO focused on emerging technology and VoIP security. As chair of Mitel's Product Security Team, he coordinated the efforts of a cross-functional group to communicate both externally and internally on VoIP security issues, respond to customer inquiries related to security, investigate security vulnerability reports and monitor security standards and trends. Previously, Dan served in Mitel Product Management bringing multiple products to market including Mitel's secure VoIP Teleworker Solution in 2003. A dynamic speaker with over 20 years in information technology, Dan routinely presents at conferences, has authored multiple books and has written numerous articles in print and online. His writing can be found online both at the "Voice of VOIPSA" weblog and also his own weblog, "Disruptive Telephony." http://www.disruptivetelephony.com/
Panelist - Irwin Lazar, Principal Analyst & Program Director, Collaboration & Convergence, Nemertes Research
Irwin Lazar is the principal analyst and program director for convergence 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 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 Business Communications Review magazine and Collaboration Loop. He is a frequent resource for the business and trade press. He is regular speaker at events such as 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.
Al Gore will join John Chambers for a discussion on the critical role innovation can play in mitigating climate change. The virtual discussion will simultaneously address live audiences in London, UK and Orlando, and will be hosted in Orlando during the Cisco keynote session by Cisco Chief Marketing Officer, Sue Bostrom. The key topics include: Latest observations of the effects of global warming and the impact of IT; how businesses can reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the use of new innovations; and how the technology industry can help create the most sustainable model for addressing global climate change. Using Cisco TelePresence, Mr. Gore will participate from Nashville, TN, and Mr. Chambers from Cisco headquarters in San Jose, CA.
Speaker - Al Gore, Nobel Laureate and former Vice President
John Chambers is Chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems. Since January 1995, when he assumed the role of CEO, Chambers has grown the company from US$1.2 billion in annual revenues to its current run-rate of approximately US$35 billion. In November 2006, he was named Chairman of the Board, in addition to his CEO role. Chambers has received numerous civic and business awards including the first-ever Clinton Global Citizen Award in 2007, three-time winner of the "Best Investor Relations by a CEO" award by IR Magazine, six-time winner of the Best CEO in America in the ?Telecommunications, Data Networking? category by Institutional Investor magazine, and the 2005 International Partner award from the California Israel Chamber of Commerce. He was named "The Most Influential CEO" in telecommunications by Institutional Investor magazine and "The Most Influential Person in Communications" by Telecom Magazine. San Jose Magazine voted Chambers ?Man of the Year? in 2005. In addition to his business leadership, Chambers is active in philanthropic activities worldwide. He also has served two American presidents; most recently as Vice Chairman of the President George W. Bush National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC), where he provided industry experience and leadership to help protect the United States? critical infrastructure. He also served on President George W. Bush's Transition Team and Education Committee, and previously served on President Bill Clinton's Trade Policy Committee. Chambers joined Cisco in 1991, and assumed the role of President and CEO in 1995. Prior to joining Cisco, he was at Wang Laboratories and IBM. He holds a law degree and a Bachelor of Science / Bachelor of Arts degree in business from West Virginia University, and a Masters of Business Administration degree from Indiana University. He is married and has two adult children.
As Chief Marketing Officer, Sue Bostrom is responsible for developing and communicating Cisco?s vision and strategy through positioning, branding, advertising and associated growth initiatives. Bostrom also has responsibility for the Worldwide Government Affairs organization which develops and executes upon Cisco?s public policy agenda. Prior to her role as Chief Marketing Officer, Bostrom had responsibility for the Internet Business Solutions Group, an organization she created and built. In addition to her primary responsibilities, Bostrom served as the executive sponsor of the Women's Initiative at Cisco from 2001 through 2004. Bostrom joined Cisco in 1997 as Vice President of Applications and Services Marketing and was appointed Vice President of IBSG in 1998. She was promoted to Senior Vice President in February 2000 and Executive Vice President in August 2007. Previously, Bostrom served as Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and Strategic Planning at FTP Software, and she has also worked with National Semiconductor and spent seven years at McKinsey & Company. She holds an MBA degree from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business and a B.S. degree in marketing from the University of Illinois.
Moderator - Fred Knight, Publisher, NoJitter.com, GM/Co-Chair, VoiceCon
Fred Knight is GM/Co-Chair of VoiceCon, and the publisher of NoJitter.com. Fred was part of the team that launched the VoiceCon Conference in 1990. He served as Program Chairman through 2003 when he also became VoiceCon General Manager. Since then, VoiceCon has grown into the leading event for enterprise IP Telephony, converged networks and unified communications. Fred led the evolution of VoiceCon from an annual conference into a 12-month per year operation, comprising two major conferences: VoiceCon Orlando and VoiceCon San Francisco: the VoiceCon Webinar series and two e-newsletters: VoiceCon eNews and VoiceCon UC eWeekly. From 1984-2007 Fred was editor and then publisher of Business Communications Review. During that period, he covered the ensuing tumultuous changes that dramatically changed the industry. Under his stewardship, BCR received numerous awards from industry and publishing groups and associations. In December 2007, BCR ceased publication and the editorial product shifted to the Web with the creation of a new website: NoJittier.com. Fred has managed the organization's migration from print to electronic publishing and serves as publisher of NoJitter.com. Fred earned his BA in journalism at the University of Minnesota and a Master's Degree in public administration from The Maxwell School, Syracuse University.
Enterprise communications used to mean telephony, then voicemail and email were added to the mix. But IP Telephony creates a whole new communications platform, one that makes real the promise of converged networks, and opens up new areas of possibilities via Unified Communications and the integration of communications capabilities with mainstream business applications and processes. VoiceCon Orlando will examine this changing landscape of enterprise communications through the lens of CIOs who are leading their IT organizations and their companies through this migration. The CIOs will give their perspective on the new potential for enterprise communications, and describe the financial and organizational realities that must be considered to make that potential a reality.
Richard Ledbetter is the Chief Information Officer at PSCU Financial Services, a $500+ million organization that serves over 11 million Credit Union members. Since February, 2002, Richard has led all Information Technology activities at the organization?s multiple locations. With more than 30 years of professional experience, Richard has a diverse background in technology management. Before joining PSCU Financial Services, he worked for Time Customer Service, Inc. a subsidiary of AOL Time Warner, Citigroup, Third National Bank, and Tenneco Oil. He and his wife of 27 years, along with their two children, reside in Lithia Florida. Richard is active in the community, and serves as an advocate for parents of children with Asperger?s Syndrome.
Panelist - Lawrence DiGioia, IS Director, City of Altamonte Springs
Panelist - Jeremy Turner, Vice President and CTO, The Shaw Group
As Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer of The Shaw Group Inc., Jeremy Turner holds worldwide responsibility for the organization?s infrastructure, applications development, and information security departments. In addition, he operates several client facing technology consulting organizations as well as serves as Business Unit Vice-President for the Shaw Environment and Infrastructure Group assisting its Presidents in IT strategic planning and alignment. Mr. Turner joined the Shaw Group in 1995 as IT Manager ? Network Systems before becoming Vice President & Director of Global Infrastructure Services in 2001 and ultimately, Vice President & Chief Technology Officer in May 2007. Mr. Turner has more than 14 years of IT leadership experience and serves on several technology & security leadership committees throughout Louisiana.
Rob Preston, VP/editor in chief of InformationWeek, oversees the editorial direction of the world's leading business technology media brand. Rob works with an award-winning team of more than 40 writers and editors to deliver a unique point of view on information technology news and trends, helping 2 million Web site visitors, magazine readers, and conference attendees frame and define their business technology objectives. Rob's two decades in technology journalism span senior editorial management positions at CMP Media's Network Computing, InternetWeek, CommunicationsWeek International, and CommunicationsWeek. Rob has a bachelor's degree in journalism from St. Bonaventure University and a master's degree in economics from the State University of New York at Binghamton.
Moderator - Eric Krapf, Editor/Lead Blogger, No Jitter, Co-chair, VoiceCon
Eric Krapf is co-chair of the VoiceCon events, helping to set program content and direction for the leading conference events in the enterprise IP-telephony/convergence/Unified Communications marketplace. In addition, Krapf serves as editor & lead blogger for the website No Jitter, CMP Media?s online community for news and analysis of the enterprise convergence/Unified Communications industry. He is also responsible for electronic content including webcasts and e-newsletters. From 1996 to 2004, Krapf was managing editor of Business Communications Review magazine, and from 2004 to 2007, he was the magazine?s editor. BCR was a highly respected journal of the business technology and communications industry. Before coming to BCR, he was managing editor and senior editor of America?s Network magazine, covering the public telecommunications industry. Prior to working in high-tech journalism, he was a reporter and editor at newspapers in Connecticut and Texas.
Even as most enterprises are deploying their first IP Telephony systems, the industry is moving toward a new framework for communications: Software-based architectures and unified communications. This new framework has tremendous implications for the entire enterprise communications community: It could disrupt long-standing relationships between vendors and customers and revamp enterprise communications cost architectures and budgets?much more for integration services, software and security. It also has potentially far-reaching implications for enterprise communications system reliability, availability, security and compliance. This VoiceCon Summit examines the assumptions underlying software-based architectures and unified communications, address the readiness of both buyers and sellers to adapt to this new regime and identify the obstacles facing enterprises as they try to mesh the new framework with their existing network design and procurement procedures, network operations and organizations.
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 nearly seven 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 he managed product management, directed CRM and Data Warehouse implementations, and oversaw technical support operations. Swift has an MBA from Columbia University in New York, NY.
Lawrence Byrd is Director of Communications Enabled Business Processes and helps drive the definition and communication of Avaya?s intelligent communications strategy. Lawrence has over fifteen years of telephony, CRM and contact center experience and over twenty-five years of advanced software and Internet experience. Lawrence was co-founder of Quintus Corporation in 1984, a provider of multimedia contact center software, which 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.
Mark Spencer founded Linux Support Services in 1999 while still a Computer Engineering student at Auburn University. When faced with the high cost of buying a PBX, Mark simply used his Linux PC and knowledge of C code to write his own! This was the beginning of the world-wide phenomenon known as Asterisk, the open source PBX, and caused Mark to shift his business focus from Linux support to supporting Asterisk and opening up the telecom market! Linux Support Services is now known as Digium, and is bringing open source to the telecom market while gaining a foothold in the telecom industry. Mark strongly believes that every technology he creates should be given back to the community. This is why Asterisk is fully open source. Today that model has allowed Asterisk to remain available free of charge, while it has become as robust as the leading and most-expensive PBXs. The Asterisk community has ambassadors and contributors from every corner of the globe. Mark Spencer holds a degree in Computer Engineering from Auburn University, and is now president and CTO of Digium, Inc. He has also led the creation of several Linux-based open source applications, most notably Asterisk, the Open Source PBX, and Gaim Instant Messenger.
Christian Szpilfogel Vice-President of Strategic Business Mitel Appointed to the Office of the CTO in 2005, Christian Szpilfogel brings a breadth of experience in product management, research and development, and a strong business sense to his role as VP of Strategic Business. In this role, Christian is responsible for identifying new business opportunities for Mitel, managing key customer account relationships and developing the company?s overall strategic technology plan. Since joining Mitel in 2000, Christian has held positions in the product line management and R&D organizations. Previous to his current role, Christian was responsible for the product management of platforms, phones and system applications where he was instrumental in designing and bringing to market Mitel?s flagship product, the 3300 IP Communications Platform. Christian is a seasoned industry speaker, having presented at many international events. He has a Combined Honors Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics and Computer Science from Dalhousie University.
Pat Galvin joined IBM in 1998 as part of the original Sametime team. He is now the lead architect for Sametime, and has contributed to every release along the way. He is also a leading evangelist for the use of SIP within IBM, and he lead the team that extended the WebSphere Application Server to support the development of SIP-based applications. Most recently he is heading up the team that's building Sametime Unified Telephony, an add-on that will seamlessly integrate Sametime with the enterprise telephone system.
Shantanu Sarkar is involved with Technology Strategy and Business Development for Cisco?s Voice Technology Group. A 12-year Cisco veteran, Shantanu has been involved in Enterprise Voice over IP (VoIP) from its earliest days, including the first VoIP call from space. Shantanu?s contributions in voice include signalling, collaboration, endpoints and applications. Previously, Shantanu has led engineering teams at Hughes Network Systems, Motorola and Digital Equipment Corporation. Shantanu holds a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and a Masters degree in Computer and Information Science from Ohio State University. He is also the author of 21 patents in VoIP and associated areas.
Panelist - Graham Howard, Director of Global Product Marketing, Siemens
Graham Howard is Director of Global Product Marketing, Large Systems, in Siemens Communications? Enterprise Division. Large Systems includes the award-winning HiPath 8000 and HiPath 4000 systems. In previous roles he has led Strategic Planning for Siemens ICN in the USA and been intimately involved in the Siemens voice-data convergence strategy, and associated products, including VoIP, VoCable, and other leading-edge technologies, and in forecasting the market, customer and technology drivers for convergence. Graham also headed the Advanced Internet Applications function for Siemens Internet Solutions, and helped establish this worldwide business for Siemens, in the mid 90s. Other projects with Siemens in the US have included Strategic Planning, New Product Development, GSM Product Management, SONET, Digital Loop Carrier, Fiber-in-the-Loop, and Knowledge-Based Systems. Previously, Graham Howard held the position of Product Planning Executive for GPT and GEC in the UK, and was a member of the steering group for the nationwide launch of System X. He also led development teams there for voice and data switching systems, real-time telecommunications processor systems, flexible access systems, and many others. As an active member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) in the UK, Graham served as both Secretary and Chairman of a large UK Midland Region and ran many successful conferences for the IEE. Graham was educated in the United Kingdom, is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the IEE, and holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of London, UK.
Moderator - Fred Knight, Publisher, NoJitter.com, GM/Co-Chair, VoiceCon
Fred Knight is GM/Co-Chair of VoiceCon, and the publisher of NoJitter.com. Fred was part of the team that launched the VoiceCon Conference in 1990. He served as Program Chairman through 2003 when he also became VoiceCon General Manager. Since then, VoiceCon has grown into the leading event for enterprise IP Telephony, converged networks and unified communications. Fred led the evolution of VoiceCon from an annual conference into a 12-month per year operation, comprising two major conferences: VoiceCon Orlando and VoiceCon San Francisco: the VoiceCon Webinar series and two e-newsletters: VoiceCon eNews and VoiceCon UC eWeekly. From 1984-2007 Fred was editor and then publisher of Business Communications Review. During that period, he covered the ensuing tumultuous changes that dramatically changed the industry. Under his stewardship, BCR received numerous awards from industry and publishing groups and associations. In December 2007, BCR ceased publication and the editorial product shifted to the Web with the creation of a new website: NoJittier.com. Fred has managed the organization's migration from print to electronic publishing and serves as publisher of NoJitter.com. Fred earned his BA in journalism at the University of Minnesota and a Master's Degree in public administration from The Maxwell School, Syracuse University.
Moderator - Jim Burton, Co-Founder, CT Link/UCStrategies.com
Jim Burton is Founder and CEO of CT Link, LLC. 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.
As IP Telephony installations continue to grow, a broad base of experience is emerging on best practices for deployment, implementation and ongoing management, as well as migrating to Unified Communications and converged networks. During the VoiceCon User Forum, you'll hear from enterprise network executives who've taken the plunge. The VoiceCon User Forum will present case studies about decision-making for migrating to new communications infrastructures, architectures and services -- what went right and what didn't. The speakers will discuss benefits and problems, and offer perspective and advice that reflect their real-world experience. In addition to discussing the technical issues, the speakers will address the impact the new technologies and architectures are having on end users and the IT/telecom organization.
Panelist - Mike Connelly, Vice President of IT / CIO, FranklinCovey
Mr. Connelly has worked at FranklinCovey for over 9 years with extensive experience in managing ecommerce, call center and other business units from both a technical and business perspective, and is currently VP ? Information Technology and CIO. FranklinCovey is the global leader in effectiveness training, productivity tools, and assessment services for organizations, teams, and individuals. Prior to joining FranklinCovey he spent 16 years in the electronic components industry in various roles, most recently as General Manager of the Portland Oregon branch of Kent Electronics. Mr. Connelly has Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from WGU.
Panelist - Peter Shah, IP Contact Center Supervisor, Ford Motor Company
I have been in the data and voice networking field for the past 20 plus years. I have worked in several companies holding position ranging from operations to strategic planning. Currenly I am responsible for deploying IP based contact center technology from Cisco across the globe at Ford Motor Company. My job is to understand business requirement, create ROIs models and then convince business to migrate to the new technology. I am constantly looking for value adds to the contact center by leveraging various technologies like multi-channel, display boards, courtesy callback, voice recognition etc.. This helps improve service level at the contact centers and utimately help improve customer satisfaction.
Panelist - Mark Willis, CIO, Virginia Commonwealth University
Panelist - Joshua Kimball, Strategic Technology, FVP, Bank of New York, Mellon
Josh Kimball has worked in financial services for 7 years at The Bank of New York Mellon. During his tenure, he has operated in a variety of capacities?strategic business operations, strategic marketing, and technology. During these stints, Josh completed a score of business re-engineering projects across a myriad of businesses, including: Asset Servicing, Hedge Fund Administration, Asset Management, Treasury Services, and Transfer Agency. During this time, he also obtained his Six Sigma Black Belt certification. Prior to these experiences, Josh lived in technology as a software engineer where he developed functionality for many of the Bank?s distributed application platforms. In June 2007, Josh assumed responsibility of the Strategic Technology Group. This group is charged with tracking emerging technologies, rapidly prototyping technologies for business applications, conducting diligence for corporate transactions, and delivering technological research to the Bank of New York Mellon?s employees and customers. In some sense, the group not only evangelizes the adoption of new technologies, but it also helps businesses understand their relevance and digest their impact, eg risks and value. More recently, the group has undertaken a number of initiatives involving collaboration technologies with a specific emphasis on Web 2.0 and advanced data intelligence to promote business innovation. Josh?s technical expertise includes object-oriented software engineering, advanced decision support systems, and non-linear statistical analysis. Prior to working at the Bank, Josh completed an undergraduate degree at Carnegie Mellon University. When he is not enjoying the delights of a rigorous business travel schedule, he enjoys all things cultural.
Panelist - Roganne West, Manager, Technology Operations, Adena Health System
Roganne West is the Manager, Technical Operations for Adena Health System. In this position, she oversees all voice communications, networking, security, desktop, server and storage hardware for the company. Roganne has 20 years in the Telecommunications industry, 15 which have been with Adena. Prior to that, she worked for Accel International for 6 years as a System and Operator and Telecommunications Analyst in the IS department .
Moderator - Eric Krapf, Editor/Lead Blogger, No Jitter, Co-chair, VoiceCon
Eric Krapf is co-chair of the VoiceCon events, helping to set program content and direction for the leading conference events in the enterprise IP-telephony/convergence/Unified Communications marketplace. In addition, Krapf serves as editor & lead blogger for the website No Jitter, CMP Media?s online community for news and analysis of the enterprise convergence/Unified Communications industry. He is also responsible for electronic content including webcasts and e-newsletters. From 1996 to 2004, Krapf was managing editor of Business Communications Review magazine, and from 2004 to 2007, he was the magazine?s editor. BCR was a highly respected journal of the business technology and communications industry. Before coming to BCR, he was managing editor and senior editor of America?s Network magazine, covering the public telecommunications industry. Prior to working in high-tech journalism, he was a reporter and editor at newspapers in Connecticut and Texas.
Moderator - Zeus Kerravala, SVP Enterprise Research, The Yankee Group
Zeus Kerravala manages Yankee Group's infrastructure research and consulting. His areas of expertise involve working with customers to solve their business issues through the deployment of infrastructure technology solutions. Before joining Yankee Group, Kerravala was a senior engineer and technical project manager for Greenwich Technology Partners, a leading network infrastructure and engineering consulting firm. Prior to that, he was a vice president of IT for Ferris, Baker Watts, a mid-Atlantic based brokerage firm, acting as both a lead engineer and project manager deploying corporate-wide technical solutions to support the firm?s business units. Kerravala's first task at FBW was to roll out a new frame relay infrastructure with connections to branch offices, service providers, vendors and the stock exchange. Kerravala was also an engineer and technical project manager for Alex. Brown & Sons, responsible for the technology related to the equity trading desks.
At the conclusion of each VoiceCon conference, we ask leading analysts to join the VoiceCon Co-Chairs to summarize what they learned during the conference. The Locknote will analyze progress in enterprise IP Telephony, converged networks and unified communications, and assess vendor positioning and market strategies. The panelists draw on their experience and what they've seen and heard during the week to sum up their views on the state of the industry.
MICHAEL F. FINNERAN, President of dBrn Associates, Inc. is a consultant and industry analyst with over 30-years experience in the specification, design, and installation of communication networks. His specialty is wireless networking and he has held management positions in Sales, Marketing, Product Planning, and Systems Engineering with ITT WorldCom, AT&T Long Lines, and MDS Systems. As an independent consultant, Mr. Finneran has provided assistance to a number of major firms including: IBM, AT&T, Prudential Insurance, McGraw-Hill, and Merrill Lynch. He has appeared on the National Public Radio?s ?All Things Considered?, and been quoted in Business Week and The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Finneran has published over 200 articles and columns for such industry publications as Business Communications Review, Computerworld, The Ticker, and The ACUTA Journal. His column titled Networking Intelligence ran for almost 25-years in Business Communications Review. He recently published his first book titled Voice over WLANs- The Complete Guide for Elsevier. In the training area, Mr. Finneran has conducted over 2000 seminars for vendors and users in the U.S., Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. He served as an Adjunct Faculty member in the Graduate School of Computer Science at Pace University, and taught at the Center for the Study of Data Processing at Washington University in St. Louis. He is a frequent speaker at industry trade shows including InterOp, VoiceCon, Mobile Business Expo, IPComm, and ComNet. Mr. Finneran has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Manhattan College, a Masters Degree from the J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and is a long-standing member of the IEEE.
Panelist - John Bartlett, Vice President, NetForecast
John Bartlett John Bartlett is a leading authority on real-time traffic, application performance and Quality of Service (QoS) techniques. He specializes in helping enterprises manage voice, video and data application performance. John has engaged with over 50 enterprises and over 20 network vendors to analyze network performance problems, design network solutions, and support network solutions. John has 29 years of experience in the semiconductor, computer and communications fields in marketing, sales, engineering, manufacturing and consulting roles. He has contributed to microprocessor, computer and network equipment design for over 40 products. He has been consulting since 1996. Prior to working as a consultant, John was a founder and VP of Engineering and Manufacturing at Agile Networks, now part of Lucent Technologies. Under his leadership, the company designed and built a high performance Ethernet switch implementing VLANs, and one of the first commercial ATM switches. Both products were successfully introduced to the market and the firm became profitable before it was acquired. Mr. Bartlett also served on the IEEE 802.1 committee during this period, and contributed to the development of the IEEE 802.1P and IEEE 802.1Q standards (priority and VLANs.) He previously worked for 9 years at Encore Computer, Corp. in engineering and engineering management positions designing networking equipment and large scale multiprocessor systems. At the end of this time Mr. Bartlett was managing 70 engineers across 2 geographic sites. John also spent six years with Intel Corporation during the early years of microprocessor design and acceptance into the market. John is a graduate of Dartmouth College, and Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering, where he received the Dartmouth Society of Engineers Annual Prize for the quality of his thesis presentation. John is co-owner of a patent in shared memory multiprocessor design.
Panelist - Blair Pleasant, Principal Analyst, COMMfusion
Blair Pleasant is President & Principal Analyst of COMMfusion LLC and a 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. 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.
Panelist - Dave Stein, Principal, PlanNet Consulting
Mr. Stein is a principal with PlanNet Consulting and Director of Operations. He has more than 25 years of consulting, information systems and telecommunications experience, with a primary emphasis on voice, data and video communications and technology infrastructure projects. PlanNet Consulting assists enterprises with the entire technology lifecycle. His experience includes traditional voice (PBX, TDM), data and video communications as well as all aspects of their convergence (IP Telephony, Video over IP). He has been a featured speaker at numerous conferences including American Library Association, Interop, ACUTA, CoreNet, BICSI, CISOA and VoiceCon. He has also authored several articles on IP Telephony that have been published in Business Communications Review and HIMSS. Mr. Stein graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a degree in Computer Science.
Panelist - Eric Krapf, Editor/Lead Blogger, No Jitter, Co-chair, VoiceCon
Eric Krapf is co-chair of the VoiceCon events, helping to set program content and direction for the leading conference events in the enterprise IP-telephony/convergence/Unified Communications marketplace. In addition, Krapf serves as editor & lead blogger for the website No Jitter, CMP Media?s online community for news and analysis of the enterprise convergence/Unified Communications industry. He is also responsible for electronic content including webcasts and e-newsletters. From 1996 to 2004, Krapf was managing editor of Business Communications Review magazine, and from 2004 to 2007, he was the magazine?s editor. BCR was a highly respected journal of the business technology and communications industry. Before coming to BCR, he was managing editor and senior editor of America?s Network magazine, covering the public telecommunications industry. Prior to working in high-tech journalism, he was a reporter and editor at newspapers in Connecticut and Texas.
Marty Parker provides Unified Communications consulting support to both private and public sector enterprises. As a Principal of UniComm Consulting (mparker@UniCommConsulting.com) and as co-founder of UCStrategies.com, Marty is part of a network of talent and ideas to assure clients of the best and latest information about Unified Communications (UC). Marty's focus is on the applications for UC and how those applications optimize business processes to deliver hard-dollar ROI. This focus is the basis for his BCR Training course, "Planning and Implementing VoIP Unified Communications"; for his articles in BCR Magazine and on NoJitter.com (see ?Top UC Applications Now Apparent?, June 2007); and for his UC RFP Templates available at UCStrategies.com. Marty is a regular moderator and presenter at VoiceCon and in other UC industry venues. His applications and industry-oriented perspectives on UC are based on sales, marketing, product management and executive experience with IBM and ATT/Lucent/Avaya as well as with a major Telecom VAR and as founder and CEO of venture-funded startups in the early phases of the voice messaging industry.
Gary Audin has more than 40 years of computer, communications and security experience. He has planned, designed, specified, implemented and operated data, LAN and telephone networks. These have included local area, national and international networks as well as VoIP and IP convergent networks in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and Asia. He has advised domestic and international venture capital and investment bankers in communications, VoIP, and microprocessor technologies. For 30+ years, Gary has been an independent communications and security consultant. Beginning his career in the USAF as an R&D officer in military intelligence and data communications, Gary was decorated for his accomplishments in these areas. He has analyzed the US Navy?s future for IP transmission via satellite and prepared a VoIP feasibility for a major multinational firm. He has participated in VoIP procurement, RFP preparation and review for converged systems and networks for enterprises and state governments. Mr. Audin has been published extensively in the Business Communications Review, ACUTA Journal, Computer Weekly, Telecom Reseller, Data Communications Magazine, Infosystems, Computerworld, Computer Business News, Auerbach Publications and other magazines. He has been Keynote speaker at many user conferences and delivered many webcasts on VoIP and IP communications technologies in 2004 through 2007. He is a founder of the ANSI X.9 committee, a senior member of the IEEE, and is on the steering committee for the VoiceCon conference. Most of his articles can be found on www.webtorials.com, www.bcr.com and www.acuta.org. He writes a weekly blog on communications subjects that can be found at www.voiploop.com and www.nojitter.com and publishes technical tips at www.Searchvoip.com.
Moderator - Fred Knight, Publisher, NoJitter.com, GM/Co-Chair, VoiceCon
Fred Knight is GM/Co-Chair of VoiceCon, and the publisher of NoJitter.com. Fred was part of the team that launched the VoiceCon Conference in 1990. He served as Program Chairman through 2003 when he also became VoiceCon General Manager. Since then, VoiceCon has grown into the leading event for enterprise IP Telephony, converged networks and unified communications. Fred led the evolution of VoiceCon from an annual conference into a 12-month per year operation, comprising two major conferences: VoiceCon Orlando and VoiceCon San Francisco: the VoiceCon Webinar series and two e-newsletters: VoiceCon eNews and VoiceCon UC eWeekly. From 1984-2007 Fred was editor and then publisher of Business Communications Review. During that period, he covered the ensuing tumultuous changes that dramatically changed the industry. Under his stewardship, BCR received numerous awards from industry and publishing groups and associations. In December 2007, BCR ceased publication and the editorial product shifted to the Web with the creation of a new website: NoJittier.com. Fred has managed the organization's migration from print to electronic publishing and serves as publisher of NoJitter.com. Fred earned his BA in journalism at the University of Minnesota and a Master's Degree in public administration from The Maxwell School, Syracuse University.
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