Mitel, Unify, and Amazon
What a week. It was a week of travel. I spent the week in Japan attending the NEC iExpo. More on that coming soon. The flight from Denver to Tokyo is over 12 hours – quite possibly the longest I’ve…
Marketing and UC
It is easy to complain about marketing in this industry, but to be fair it’s a tough task. Both the audience and the subject matter make marketing very difficult. The audience is hard to target – every organization needs a…
ShoreTel Game Followup – Pictures
I recently posted about ShoreTel, verticals, and a baseball game between the Giants and Dodgers. There are few things oranger than a ShoreTel event at a Giants game in San Francisco. The Giants won! It was a nice game ending…
ShoreTel and the Game of Verticals
The Los Angeles Dodger’s just signed … ShoreTel. Before I get to my main point here about verticals, I want to emphasize that is dramatic news, because: ShoreTel is based in Northern California – close to AT&T Park. They really…
The Next Chapter for ShoreTel
The word I use with ShoreTel is Tenacious. Tenacious: Adj. Not easily dispelled or discouraged; persisting in existence or in a course of action. ShoreTel is tenacious because it’s a relatively small vendor, with few unique features and capabilities, that’s only…
Trip to Ottawa
WebRTC is real, it resulted with me traveling to Ottawa. It had been a while since I’ve been to Canada, so I thought I would share a few observations. In a respectful way, it was like going back in time….
The Good News: ShoreTel is Hiring
It’s been a rough year at ShoreTel. Before the end of the June the firm lost eight executives in 2013. Mark Arman, VP of International Sales and Worldwide Distribution, left in February. Timothy Gaines, Vice President of North America Sales,…
Giants Competing
For the past several months, the UC conversation shifted toward a Microsoft v. Cisco debate. Cisco enjoys a market share lead over Microsoft in UC, but Lync is experiencing rapid growth. Microsoft has its sights on dethroning Cisco. Personally, I…
ShoreTel CEO to Retire
That was fast. ShoreTel today announced that its new CEO, Peter Blackmore, intends to retire, but will remain on board until a replacement is found. “It has been a privilege to work with the ShoreTel team,” said Mr. Blackmore. “I…
Two Different Pictures
A few months ago, highly respected and legendary prognosticator Elliott Gold predicted that Vidyo would pass Polycom. At the time it didn’t seem particularly reasonable. But as Elliot says “the trend is clear.” My reservations with his prediction were that…
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…
UCaaS MQ – Does Platform Matter?
Gartner recently published its UCaaS Magic Quadrant Report for North America. The Gartner MQ reports are about the closest thing this industry (and many other industries) have to the Academy Awards. Gartner does a great job in putting this stuff together. Like…
Mitel: Did Not Ship Booked Orders
Last June, Mitel announced a pretty strong Q412 quarter. The company was firing on all cylinders. Here are some of those highlights: Revenue from operations for the fourth quarter up 4% Gross margins from operations were 55.6%, up from 52.2%…
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,…
HP: We Don’t Need No Stinking 3Com
The news sparking this post is the HP has put 3Com’s VCX out to pasture. It had already done so with the NBX, so once again – 3Com is dead. 3Com was a highly innovative company that could never turn…
Mitel Does 180 with New 360
I posted a more detailed explanation of the Mitel 360 Collaboration Point on NoJitter, but a few additional thoughts. Mitel has not made stand alone IP saucers before. Instead, the company had positioned its saucers as an add-on to its…
Which One is the Customer Again?
It has been a blur of conferences and ideas, and I haven’t been able to do a proper post. But don’t interpret lack of posts as lack of deep profound thoughts. But I did want to take a moment to…
UC Alliance Anyone?
The Tech Sector had a rough month in May. Kevin Kelleher of CNN Money asks (but doesn’t answer) the question Why Are Blue Chip Tech Stocks So Blue? Exhibit A, of course, is the Facebook (FB) IPO, which in its first…
Lonely at the Top
We live in disruptive times. Technology is changing faster than ever before, the economy has been tough – plagued with war, scams (Enron, Madoff, etc.), and global recessions. World disasters have quite literally made conditions hostile (earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes). Nonetheless,…
Mitel Releases MAS 4.0
Mitel has announced its Mitel Application Suite (MAS) 4.0. The new solution solidifies and simplifies Mitel’s product line and offers a number of key enhancements: collaboration, mobility, scalability, and virtualization. The MAS upgrade expands functionality to replace the Mitel Audio and…