Connex19 Updates from ALE
ALE hosted its annual industry analyst event. ALE continues to outdo itself with exotic conference locations. This time the event was in Monaco. A wonderful destination, in a luxurious hotel that uses ALE phones. It was a jam packed, two…
A Look at Percipia
At Avaya Engage I ran into Hospitality Expert Speleos Dravillas – now at Percipia. Hotels have a grudge against telephones, and Speleos wants to fix it. Phones used to be a profit-center for hotels, but due to A) overcharging and B)…
New TalkingPointz 2Pager on Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise
ALE has new leadership, owners, and services that deserve a closer look. All in all, ALE is in an optimistic position. The company is finally clearing it’s backlog on innovation and making a hard pivot to cloud services. The go-to-market…
Newz Snippets Spring-2016
Sometimes being succinct, yet thorough, and presenting details without fluff and hype is refreshing. Here, we round-up recent advancements around business telephony and unified communications products and services – in a brief, quick-take type of format. Read about some of…
NokiALU
Nokia acquired Alcatel-Lucent. What is the narrative to tell? Drastic measures to take on the Chinese? Will these vendors ever learn? Both of these firms are well known in enterprise comms circles, but not for what they do today. Nokia…
What to UC in 2015
2015 is off to a bold start. Here’s a handy guide for some of the drama to watch for this year. ALUE ALU who? With regards to ALUE, most of us fell asleep while its parent worked to unload it….
Au Revoir Alcatel-Lucent
I expect 2015 will be a tremendous year for Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALUE). 2014 was a year of adjustment and caution, but expect all cylinders to fire under new ownership. ALUE and Alcatel-Lucent are no longer parent and division. ALUE became…
Split-Up or Shut-Up
In a recent interview, investor superstar Marc Andreessen told Bloomberg’s Emily Chang at the Salesforce Dreamforce Conference on Wednesday. that if a technology company is more than 20 years old, then “they’ll probably benefit from being broken up, and many of them…
Is ALU-E For Sale?
Reuters reported last week that “Alcatel was considering a sale of the corporate telephony unit – which employs 2,800 people including 1,400 in France – as part of its “Shift” plan, which includes 10,000 job cuts, 1 billion euros cost savings and…
The Origin of Email
Colin here, and I have a surprise for you. The inventor of email did not invent email. EMail was actually invented by the Bell System and was in commercial operation long before the Arpanet even existed. This is an interesting story……
Next week – ALU
Alcatel-Lucent sometimes disappears from top of mind – they are not as well known in N. American enterprises as they are around the world. But the powerhouse of intellectual property is hosting its analyst event next week to discuss its UC…
A Merry UC Christmas
Dear Santa, It’s been a while since I have written to you. I know you are busy filling the wish lists of deserving children everywhere, but this year the telecom industry needs you more than they do. You see businesses…
It’s Busy Out There! UC Summer 2012
It’s been tough! Recessions, wars, scandals, and natural disasters collaborating to keep wallets closed. A lot of the UC sector was forced into hibernation mode, but the frost appears to be melting. The summer months are normally a bit quiet,…
Cisco and Avaya Leaders Again
Cisco and Avaya were once again identified as industry leaders. This time, by a new IDC worldwide unified communications Marketscape report. The report claims to use a “rigorous scoring methodology that produces a definititive assessment of each vendro’s current market…
Top 2011 Posts from Pin Drop Soup
Most read stories this year. The blog really saw some traffic increases in 2011. Though moving to a new site – and new name (TalkingPointz) caused a disruption in traffic and messed up my annual stats. Thanks for bearing through…
Industry Update
The iPhone and iPad have broken more records than the iPod did CDs. Microsoft buying Skype was a game changer, but the new game remains a mystery. Here is the current industry round-up. Read it quickly as things are changing…
Just What UC Needs: More Private Equity
Last April, rumors broke that Alcatel-Lucent was looking to exit the enterprise space by selling off its enterprise businesses including Genesys. I speculated then, and stick to it now, that Siemens Enterprise is a good suitor (Cisco too, but unlikely)….
InterOp
May is a crazy month for conferences, and it is hard to keep up with the posts. The Interop conference is a shadow of its heyday years, but still a significant event for networking technologies. It used to attract more…
ALU’s Silent Auction
Lots of conversation this week about the possibility that Alcatel-Lucent intends to sell its enterprise business unit. I have a few thoughts on the matter. To my knowledge, no one at ALU has actually publically stated ALU Enterprise is for…