Procuring a new enterprise communications system through a RFP process can be a harrowing experience, because IP telephony system design, capabilities, and attributes have undergone a series of dynamic changes the past few years. The RFP you issue will reflect how well your understanding of current generation solutions can satisfy your evolving communications requirements. This workshop will review and analyze how to prepare the core RFP requirements for your next IP telephony system by focusing on the following: * System design and topology, including hardware, network, and power requirements * Redundancy and resiliency attributes * Port interface and traffic handling * E911 and security issues * Standards support, including SIP and SOA * Voice terminals: analog, digital, and IP; desktop telephone instruments; mobile communications devices; soft client options * Generic software features * Systems management and administration * Pricing guidelines, including potential hidden fees The workshop will also address network consolidation considerations, i.e. single system solution replacing an existing network of multiple systems, and installed system upgrade options. Allan Sulkin, is President of TEQConsult Group, and is a leading industry analyst and consultant focusing on enterprise communications. He created and hosts the annual VoiceCon Orlando RFP tutorial session.
Instructor - Allan Sulkin, President, TEQConsult Group
Allan Sulkin, president and founder of TEQConsult Group (1986), is widely recognized as the industry's foremost enterprise communications market/product analyst. He is celebrating 30 years telecommunications market experience this month and has consulted for many of the industry's leading vendors participating at VoiceCon. Sulkin has been a long time Contributing Editor to Business Communications Review and its current online incarnation No Jitter, and has served as a Program Director and featured tutorial/seminar presenter for VoiceCon since its 1991 inception. Sulkin is the author of PBX Systems for IP Telephony (McGraw-Hill Professional Publications) and writer of the PBX chapter in the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. He can be contacted at amsulkin@aol.com
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. 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. Before joining Nemertes, Ms. Gareiss served as Senior News Editor of InformationWeek, 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 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 Collaboration Loop and the late Business Communications Review magazine. 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.
Instructor - Irwin Lazar, Principal Research Analyst and Program Director, Unified Communications and Collaboration, Nemertes Research
Irwin Lazar is a Principal Analyst & Program Director, Convergence & Collaboration at Nemertes Research, where he develops and manages research projects, 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, and collaboration. Since 1992 Mr. Lazar has been a consultant and analyst, serving a variety of global enterprises and government agencies. Mr. Lazar led efforts to develop security architectures and convergence road-maps, as well as enterprise network architectures, for numerous clients in the health care, pharmaceuticals, banking & finance, energy, government, and retail sectors. Mr. Lazar has led teams of consultants in requirements-gathering and strategy development. He also has evaluated emerging IT trends and analyzed their impact on organizations. A sought-after speaker and author, Mr. Lazar is a columnist for Business Communications Review magazine, provides topics for Network World, and 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 holds a bachelor's degree in Management Information Systems from Radford University in Radford, VA, and a Master's of Business Administration (MBA) from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. He served in the U.S. Army Reserve Ordnance Corps as an officer from 1992-2001. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).
Instructor - Robin Gareiss, Executive Vice President & Sr. Founding Partner, Nemertes Research
Robin Gareiss Executive Vice President, Senior Founding Partner 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.
Legacy PBX systems are being retired and new functionality is essentially only available with IP-based systems. Migrating to Voice over IP (VoIP) and IP Telephony (IPT) has moved from "if" to "when." But despite the growth of these new technologies, many enterprises have limited experience with IP Telephony and VoIP, and once the decision to migrate is made, there are a host of tough challenges to face - from inventorying the readiness of LANs and wiring closets, to WAN performance, IT organizational and staffing issues, security, utility costs and software support, patching and version control. This tutorial analyzes these issues with recommended actions and best practices that will lead to successful VoIP/IPT deployments. It cuts through the hype to the real advantages and presents how VoIP/IPT works and operates. This session will also guide the attendee through the rest of the Voicecon conference with suggested sessions, exhibits and other resources that will make the conference attendance experience as valuable as possible. 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, and VoIP and IP converged networks all around the world, and he advises venture capital and investment bankers in communications technologies.
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, and VoIP and IP converged networks all around the world, and he advises venture capital and investment bankers in communications technologies.
New shipments of IP end stations outnumber new TDM end stations, and Cisco now outpaces the legacy TDM vendors in annual station shipments. At the same time, consolidation and private-equity buyouts are beginning to change the vendor landscape, while new players with strong balance sheets have recently entered the market. In this session, Allan Sulkin will present system market forecasts and assessments of IP-based applications, handicap the market competitors, and discuss potential realignments among the market-leading equipment suppliers. KEY QUESTIONS: * Which market segments in IP Telephony are hot, and which are not? * Which vendors are moving up in market share, and at whose expense? * Is anyone buying IP applications? Which applications? * How Microsoft and IBM change the dynamics of the enterprise communications market? How might consolidation among vendors further change it? * How are the traditional vendors evolving amid the transition to IP Telephony and Unified Communications?
Speaker - Allan Sulkin, President, TEQConsult Group
Allan Sulkin, president and founder of TEQConsult Group (1986), is widely recognized as the industry's foremost enterprise communications market/product analyst. He is celebrating 30 years telecommunications market experience this month and has consulted for many of the industry's leading vendors participating at VoiceCon. Sulkin has been a long time Contributing Editor to Business Communications Review and its current online incarnation No Jitter, and has served as a Program Director and featured tutorial/seminar presenter for VoiceCon since its 1991 inception. Sulkin is the author of PBX Systems for IP Telephony (McGraw-Hill Professional Publications) and writer of the PBX chapter in the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. He can be contacted at amsulkin@aol.com
Product developers continue to create new features and functions, but as the Unified Communications trend continues and as user expectations change, what specs will tomorrow's hard- and softphones have to meet? In this session, a leading consultant will present an analysis and then discuss his conclusions with a panel of vendors. You will gain an understanding of the issues and tradeoffs as you prepare for ongoing investment in desktop endpoints. KEY QUESTIONS: * How do you ensure phones' compatibility and integration with emerging Unified Communications platforms? Is SIP compliance enough? Is SIP compliance possible? * What hardware capabilities (Gigabit Ethernet cards, firmware upgradeability) do you require for future-proofing? * What is the price/performance of the latest phone sets? How does this compare to softphones? What are the life cycle expectations for hard phones? * What degree of multi-vendor interoperability can we expect in the next generation of hard phones? * What quality and security challenges need to be overcome before softphones go more mainstream?
Stephen Leaden is founder and President of Leaden Associates, Inc., an independent Telecommunications IT consulting firm providing specialized support in Telecommunications technologies and ROI strategies. Mr. Leaden has been in the Telecommunications field over 25 years, with 17 of those with his own firm. Clients include recognized enterprise clients in healthcare/education, manufacturing, financial services, publishing, and government vertical market segments. Mr. Leaden's firm focuses as an extension of IT staff to facilitate the design, procurement, project implementation, and outsourcing for converged voice and data solutions. During their engagement, Leaden Associates proactively adds value via ROI strategies integrated into the projects they serve on. Mr. Leaden's practice has focused on Voice over IP and Unified Communications and key market trends in these areas - he has spoken at national and International conferences on VoIP, has written four papers on VoIP strategies, troubleshooting and security, and has been quoted in national industry publications including BCR Magazine, Computer World, Information Week, and the Washington Post among others. Mr. Leaden is on the faculty of BCR Training and teaches two day training courses entitled "Optimizing Enterprise Networks" and "Cost Control of Wired and Wireless Networks: Best Practices". Mr. Leaden is Past President and member of the Society of Telecommunications Consultants, a national Telecommunications association that requires objectivity and professionalism as a prerequisite for membership. Mr. Leaden's degree is from Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York.
Chalan Aras is vice president of marketing for Polycom's Voice Communications Solutions division. Aras came to Polycom from Ditech Networks where he was vice president of marketing, product management and strategy. Prior to Ditech Networks, Aras also served as vice president of marketing and product management at Jetstream Communications and as the director of PLM for all video products at First Virtual Corp. Aras holds an MBA from University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, a Ph.D. in computer engineering from North Carolina State University, and is the recipient of five patents.
Dieter Rencken Senior Product Manager, IP Telephones ShoreTel, Inc. Mr. Rencken brings with him over twenty years of Product Management and Engineering experience in the Communications Industry. He is responsible for product management of IP telephones at ShoreTel. Previously, he held senior positions at Polycom, Siemens Information and Communication Networks, Inc. as well as other communications and technology companies.
Panelist - Gary Mading, Senior Product Manager, Aastra
Gary Mading is Senior Product Manager at Aastra, an open-standards VoIP equipment manufacturer for enterprises. In this role, he manages the product strategy for Clearspan, Aastra's open-standards, all-SIP IP-PBX for large enterprise customers. Gary has over 20 years of experience developing and marketing communication products including large telecom switches, transmission systems, broadband access products and enterprise communication systems. He has held senior positions for large communication companies such as Alcatel and Motorola.
As you implement voice and/or video on your legacy data network, and as you scale that implementation, the challenge of delivering acceptable quality and sufficient security becomes more complex. And these challenges intensify as you attempt to serve all your users in all your locations and in all of the users locations. This session will give you a detailed understanding of the technical problems you can encounter, the steps to take to overcome them, and the specific technologies and practices that are required to make voice and video run over a data network. KEY QUESTIONS: * What is required to deliver adequate quality of service (QOS) for voice and video on an IP network that previously handled only data? Can you run VOIP or video over the Internet with acceptable QOS/quality of experience (QOE)? * How do you implement security on this upgraded data network? * How do you extend your upgrade across the WAN? * How do you extend your upgrade to serve mobile workers?
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, telepresence, 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 deployments. John has 30 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. John is a graduate of Dartmouth College, and Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering.
Panelist - Gregory Heath, Director of Convergence Solutions, Extreme Networks
Gregory Heath is the Director of Convergence Solutions for Extreme Networks, Inc. the leader in open converged networks. In his position, Heath is responsible for developing customer-oriented network infrastructure solutions that embrace today's need for a converged voice, video and data network. During his 18+ year career in communications, he has held various roles in marketing and engineering management and has gained tremendous expertise in multimedia applications that are transported over Ethernet networks. Extreme Networks designs, builds, and installs Ethernet infrastructure solutions that help solve the toughest business communications challenges. The company's commitment to open networking sets it apart from the alternatives by delivering meaningful insight and unprecedented control to applications and services. Extreme Networks believes that openness is the best foundation for growth, freedom, flexibility and choice. The company focuses on enterprises and service providers who demand high performance, converged networks that support voice, video and data over a wired and wireless infrastructure. For more information, visit: http://www.extremenetworks.com
Panelist - Manfred Arndt, Convergence Solutions Architect, HP ProCurve
Manfred Arndt is the Convergence Solutions Architect and HP Distinguished Technologist for ProCurve Networking. He is responsible for architecting IP telephony and multimedia capabilities in HP ProCurve's network products. He also participates in several TIA and IEEE subcommittees, helping defining networking and telecommunications standards and is a co-author of the ANSI/TIA-1057 (LLDP-MED) standard. Arndt has 20 years of experience as System Architect, Technologist, Software Engineer and R&D Software Development Manager in several networking startups and the high-tech industry. Prior to joining HP ProCurve, he led the development of a pre-standard WiMAX broadband wireless access system, which included advanced QoS and scheduling algorithms to support business grade VoIP and video conferencing. At Fluke Networks, he architected and developed various network diagnostic products, including a 10/100/Gigabit integrated network analyzer that combined advanced network discovery, SNMP analysis, RMON2 monitoring and a high-performance protocol analyzer. Arndt is a regular participant in the Interop speaking program and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He also holds three networking patents.
Panelist - Paul Liesenberg, Enterprise Architecture Technology Manager, Cisco
Paul Liesenberg is an Enterprise Architecture and Technology Manager for Cisco, where he develops methodologies that optimally align next-generation infrastructures and overarching business processes. Prior to Cisco, Paul was VP of Strategic Marketing for ZettaCom and Bivio Networks. Previously, Paul was with Cisco through the acquisition of StrataCom, and earlier worked in Nortel's Data Networks Division and Siemens' Public Networks' R&D division. He holds two patents in the area of VoIP and holds an M.Sc. from TUM (Technische Universitaet Muenchen).
Panelist - Ravi Kumar, Portfolio Leader, Mobility Solutions, Nortel
Ravi Kumar Portfolio Leader Mobility Solutions business Experience -More than 20 years work experience at Hewlett Packard, Alteon Web systems and Nortel . - Areas of focus are Wireless, Application switching and Security. - Recognized speaker at many industry events - Interop, HP users form, Oracle users forum, Nortel users group, Voicecon, etc. - Author of several patents in the security and networking area. EDUCATION - Masters in Business Administration, Santa Clara University. - Masters in Computer Science, Texas Tech University.
OK, you've got an IP Telephony infrastructure in place and now you're hearing all about Unified Communications. You've got to figure out what enhancements are needed to enable your VOIP infrastructure to support Unified Communications, integrate UC with other applications. In this session, a panel of equipment suppliers will outline the steps for evolving PBXs and IP-PBXs to deliver Unified Communications integrated with business processes and applications. KEY QUESTIONS: * What elements of an IP Telephony infrastructure will also be used in a UC deployment? What "traditional" telephony elements might become obsolete in a UC future? * What's the future of the PBX/IP-PBX in a UC migration? * What new sorts of infrastructure elements might have to be added to an IP Telephony implementation to support UC? What servers, applications or other elements that already exist in the enterprise must be integrated with the IP Telephony elements? * How should your plans for Unified Communications affect your plans for rolling out IP Telephony?
Craig Cotton is Director, Product Marketing, in the Voice Technology Group responsible for the marketing and strategic development of advanced Unified Communications solutions for Enterprise, Commercial and public sector customers. Specifically, Craig leads the product management team responsible for the Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Cisco Emergency Responder and the Cisco Media Convergence Servers. Craig has been at Cisco since 1998. Craig has more than 18 years experience in the voice and data unified communications market Previous experience includes 8 years in various voice application sales and marketing positions at Lucent Technologies/AT&T, marketing PBXs, messaging systems, CTI applications and IVR products. Craig holds a BS in Media Studies from the University of Illinois and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Panelist - Jeff Ridley, Director Product Management, ShoreTel
Jeff Ridley, ShoreTel's Director of Product Management ShoreTel, leads the company's IP Telephony, Unified Communications and Contact Center product strategies. Jeff has more than 15 years of experience in the communications and mobile computing marketplaces and has been with Shoretel for 8 years. Prior to joining ShoreTel, Jeff was an associate with ViaSphere Ventures where he helped identify new technologies and worked with early-stage hand-held computing companies on defining and developing their products and services. Before that, Jeff spent 10 years providing strategic and technical leadership for enterprise and wireless communications initiatives at NorTel Networks and Intel. Jeff attended Vanderbilt University where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering.
Panelist - Lawrence Byrd, Director - UC Architecture, Avaya
Marisa Viveros is a Vice President at IBM Corporation, leading IBM Converged Communications Services. She is responsible for creating service products to address the near and long-term growth opportunities in the unified communications market. Her objective is the delivery of superior offerings to clients through the Global Technology Services Group, by leveraging IBM software and hardware assets, along with an extensive network of partners. Ms. Viveros also defines strategic directions, oversees marketing and sales for this market segment.
Panelist - Sean Olson, Group Program Manager, Office Communications Group, Microsoft
Sean Olson is the Group Program Manager for the Office Communications Server product at Microsoft. His team is responsible for all engineering aspects of conferencing, instant messaging, presence, and voice within the server product. He has over 10 years experience in the area of real time communications and voice over IP and is an industry expert in the SIP and SIMPLE standards. Since joining Microsoft in 2002, he has delivered five releases of the Office Communications Server product line working on everything from protocols, to security, to performance.
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.
Voice messaging systems became part of the communications landscape because phones need to be answered whether the called party was available or not. But with presence, IM and related UC applications and capabilities emerging, there are new ways to calculate the value voice messaging does?or doesn't?deliver. This session will analyze the new options becoming available for call answering, and the different ways to calculate ROI for new investment. KEY QUESTIONS: * What is the best way to get voice messaging, call answering, and auto-attendant services? * Is it better to have voice mail built into the PBX software, or on separate servers? * What is the impact of speech auto-attendants on voice mail? * Is speech a separate solution with multiple applications, or is it a feature of voice messaging, or both? * Is there any reason not to just store voice mail in the email servers?
Speaker - Blair Pleasant, Principal Analyst, COMMfusion LLC
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.
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.
Diane Shariff is global director of Unified Communications Solutions, Avaya. Shariff has held leadership positions in product management and marketing at Avaya, driving solutions in self service speech, contact center and communication-enabled business applications supported by next generation SIP/SOA architectures. Shariff has over 20 years experience in enterprise software and telephony with repeated success building product lines in emerging markets supporting next-generation technologies, including product strategy and leadership positions at Quintus and Clarify, and marketing, engineering and operations positions at DSC Communications (Alcatel-Lucent) and Ameritech (SBC, AT&T). Shariff has a B.S. in engineering from the University of Illinois Champaign - Urbana and an M.B.A from Depaul University.
Panelist - Kevin Johnson, Director, Marketing, Mitel
Kevin Johnson is Director of Analyst & Consultant Relations at Mitel and is responsible for Mitel's global analyst and consultant relations programs. Kevin has 20+ years experience in the business communications industry. He has held previous positions in Product Marketing, Channel Marketing, Product Management, and Research & Development with expertise in business communications products and IP Telephony technologies. Kevin is a seasoned speaker and is recognized in the voice and communications industry in North America for his contributions at industry conferences.
Panelist - Tom Minifie, VP of Product Management, AVST
Tom Minifie has been the Vice President of Product Management with AVST since its inception in 2003. In this role, Mr. Minifie is responsible for the strategic direction of the company's CallXpress product line. Previously, Mr. Minifie served in a variety of executive level positions in the sales, business development and marketing organizations of Applied Voice Technology (AVT) and Captaris. Mr. Minifie is a recognized authority in the field of Unified Communications and a frequent speaker on the topics of voice messaging, unified messaging, interactive voice response, personal assistant and speech recognition applications. Mr. Minifie has also spent considerable time cultivating strategic technical relationships with several industry leaders, including Aastra / Ericsson, Alcatel - Lucent, Cisco Systems, Mitel and NEC Business Network Systems. Prior to joining the communications industry, Tom held various sales and marketing positions within the high tech industry. Tom earned a BA in Economics from the University of Washington.
Panelist - Tony Everson, Director, Americas Unified Communications Practice, Dialogic
Tony Everson is the Director of Dialogic's Unified Communications practice in the Americas. Tony is focused on helping the broader Microsoft Unified Communications ecosystem develop cohesive go-to-market strategies and market readiness that incorporate Dialogic Media Gateways. Prior to his current position, Tony held several sales and management positions for Dialogic Inc, Intel Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp.
In this session, we'll focus on two different but equally important challenges that confront network managers and planners when facing emergency preparation: Disaster recovery/business continuity and E911. This session will help you understand the latest approaches to providing E911 coverage for an IP Telephony-enabled enterprise, and it will describe approaches to designing resilient networks and building disaster recovery procedures into your network and operations plans. KEY QUESTIONS: * How have enterprises tackled the challenges of providing location-specific E911? * What product features are available to provide resilient connections in case of disaster? * What levels of redundancy are appropriate for disaster planning, and how do you handle the inevitable cost tradeoffs? * What are the elements of a comprehensive business continuity plan, and who within the enterprise needs to be involved in its creation, maintenance and execution?
Speaker - Dale Tonogai, Vice President of Engineering, ShoreTel
Nicholas(Nick)Maier is a Senior Vice President of RedSky Technologies, the leading provider of enterprise E911 and emergency notification systems. In his current role, Mr. Maier is responsible for the product roadmap for RedSky's enterprise software products and its strategic channel relationships with OEM VoIP platform providers. For the past 6 years, Mr. Maier has been involved in the design and implementation of enterprise-wide E911 and notification systems for large enterprises. Mr. Maier has served as the co-chairman of the Avaya DevConnect Advisory Council that represents over 175 ISVs and is active in the Developer programs of Nortel and Cisco. From 1995 to 2000, Mr. Maier was Vice President of OEM Sales for Plantronics, the leading provider of hands-free communications devices.
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