Video conferencing

IP Sizzles 2009

While it may sound a little corny, the name IP Sizzles does have some….sizzle. Coming up in August the IP Sizzle 2009 Conference will be held August 11 & 12 in Dallas, and August 13 & 14 in Miami.

If you’re like me, you may not have heard of the IP Sizzle conferences, but this is the 6th time the event is being held. According to the press release the IP Sizzle conference is for:

technology resellers and integrators in the space of phone, data networking and CCTV. In addition to technical presentations, IP Sizzles 2009 also focuses on key business aspects and sales skills to succeed in today’s challenging economy. The overarching themes this year will be Unified Communications and Video for SMB. Last but not least, the show covers many areas where IP Technology can reduce client’s service bills which allow many systems to quickly pay for themselves.

If you happen to be in Dallas or Miami in August, it may be worth checking out and seeing what is new and coming on the horizon for IP communications.

Want Stimulus? Get Unified Communications

Pssst. Over here. Keep this just between us, ok? The global economy is trashed. Shhhh.

If you haven’t heard, the United States and the rest of the world are in a recession bordering on depression. In the United States unemployment is the highest its been in decades. The stock market is the lowest it has been in years. The federal and state governments are scrambling to find solutions and turn things around.

President Barack Obama and the United States federal government have put forth a stimulus / recovery package to help get things back on track. Businesses that are looking for ways to cut costs and increase the bottom line can create their own stimulus package by investing in unified communications.

Making the move from traditional voice to VoIP has a number of cost advantages that could represent significant savings for many companies. For some companies though, one of the biggest expenses is travel. Flying people for onsite meetings involves airfare, rental cars, hotel lodging, per diem dining at restaurants, and more.

Companies can minimize, or even eliminate, those expenses by embracing unified communications and leveraging the conferencing functionality. Unified communications makes it simple to schedule and host a voice conference call. If documents or images need to be shared, a Live Meeting or similar collaboration session can be used to enable participants to see each other’s computer desktops. For situations where face to face meetings are desired video conferencing can accomplish virtually the same goal at a fraction of the cost.

Do your part to turn the economy around by investing in unified communications and creating your own stimulus package.

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Video Conference Via SmartPhone

Throw away your excuses. You won’t be missing any more meetings. As long as you have your mobile phone, you will only be a click away. CallWave is rolling out the Beta version of FUZE which, according to a Network World article, “delivers high-definition synchronized video, document collaboration and audioconferencing from any Web browser-, 3G- or Wi-Fi-enabled device.”

That sounds pretty impressive. What is more impressive is that CallWave has also integrated this application with Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007, enabling expanded unified communications functionality including the ability to invite / add users to a meeting with a simple click of the mouse. FUZE also works with the Cisco Unified Communication Manager (CUCM) IP PBX. In addition, CallWave has announced imminent support for the Apple iPhone, as well as support coming soon for Avaya, Mitel, Nortel, and other IP PBX platforms.

Wire One Communications Releases One Call

Wire One, an established vendor in the video-conferencing arena, just announced the release of One Call. One Call takes Unified Communications and leverages it for support to create a Unified Help Desk. One Call is a unique set of video, audio, and web conferencing services which provide customers with a single point of contact and a highly-skilled technical staff for managing all conferencing issues, support needs, and vendor relationships. And, on a related note, it was announced this week that Wire One is being acquired by global IT services and consulting provider BT.