Enterprise Communications

So Much to Say, So Little Time

by Dave Michels

There is so much going on I can’t stand it. There’s really only two things that keep me from writing: travel and illness – and I’ve had both.

It’s been back-to-back travel since MS Ignite in September. The past three events were BC Summit, Mitel, and then BroadSoft Connections. Both Mitel and BroadSoft were in Texas, so I hung out there for the weekend in between.

In addition to those wonderful events, there’s been major announcements from Cisco and Microsoft, and then V-Tech acquired Snom.

I can’t keep up, but there’s a few snippets (read them slowly and pretend they are posts).

  • I did a presentation on Workstream Messaging at BC Summit – you know things are changing quickly when you have to update the slide hourly – Workspaces by Facebook, Microsoft Teams, Watson Workspaces, BroadSoft Teams, and ALE Rainbow. Will probably have to update the list again after ShoreTel conference in December. Hear more about the Summit here.
  • I haven’t been able to get my hands on BroadSoft Teams or Mitel MiTeam yet, but so far Circuit seems the most complete for messaging + UC.
  • Me thinks V-Tech will take on Yealink in SfB phones with its new IP from Snom.
  • Cisco made a bunch of Spark announcements: Cheers for Spark Hybrid Meetings – this makes a lot of sense to me. Jeers for BE4K – Cisco doesn’t need another mid market premises-based phone system to discontinue. They are still overdue to discontinue the last one from Meraki.
  • Mitel event was very nice – impressed by their Rigel killer. Main message is Mitel still intends to be the consolidator of the UC industry. Good to remind us since their last successful UC consolidation play was in January 2014 (Aastra).
  • BroadSoft’s Team One demo exceeded my expectations. Main message to providers of cloud services is to use cloud services.
  • Evidently IoT broke the Internet – this is really bad. Will soon be launching an IoT themed Innovation Showcase for Enterprise Connect.
  • Did you notice TalkingPointz got a new look?

I am trying to get well so I can be sick from eating too much. Happy Thanksgiving!