Swine flu: yet another justification for telepresence investment

John E. Burke, principal analyst over at Nemertes Research has an interesting take on the swine flu hysteria. It's just another reason why companies should invest in telepresence technologies from Cisco, Tandberg, Polycom, HP et al. Burke noted in an email from Nemertes that the flu outbreak...
Cloud computing vs. SaaS: What’s the diff?

We’ve all heard the terms “cloud computing” and “SaaS,” and not unlike the term “unified communications,” there is considerable disparity as to what the terms actually mean respectively – especially when paired side by side. The answer, it seems, depends on who you ask. Don Van...
Tandberg telepresence now interoperates with Polycom telepresence

Tandberg announced this morning that its telepresence technology is now interoperable with the telepresence technology of its rival Polycom. The interoperability is delivered as a software upgrade to the Tandberg...
Mitel trying to protect home turf from Cisco

Cisco Systems and Bell Canada thought they had won the bidding for a municipal IP telephony contract with Ottawa worth between $4 million and $7 million. But as I mentioned in a story today about a
Psytechnics Experience Manager demo at VoiceCon

Psytechnics, a company that was spun out of British Telecom, has a cool product called Experience Manager. The product is one of the few I know of that can measure both QoS (quality of service) and QoE (quality of experience) for voice and video applications on the IP network. Many network...
The Polycom VVX 1500 business media phone at VoiceCon

I shot this video at VoiceCon Orlando last week. Tim Yankey, director of product marketing for Polycom, is doing a demo of the VWX 1500, which the vendor describes as a "business media phone." At a list price of $1099, this phone is meant to sit on the desks of high level executives. It has high...
Nortel employees respond to VoiceCon coverage

Last week I wrote a story about a special VoiceCon session for Nortel customers, entitled "I'm a Nortel Customer. What do I do now?" It was one of the more widely read articles I've...
VoiceCon 2009: Building success through innovation

The impact of today’s global economic crisis has wrenched companies into shaping new business models merely to survive, much less thrive. But top-tier UC vendors at the recent spring VoiceCon 2009 show in Orlando are interpreting the recession (or...
VoiceCon Microsoft keynote: Gurdeep Singh Pall throws desk phone in the trash

Microsoft corporate vice president for unified communications Gurdeep Singh Pall essentially threw the contemporary desk phone in the proverbial trashcan today during his VoiceCon keynote, arguing that software-based communications is the way of the future. Pall compared the desk phone to the...
VoiceCon keynote: Kraft Foods UC vision includes Avaya and the iPhone

Kraft Foods sounds like a fun place to work. During his keynote, Tom Behnke, manager of network services, global architecture and strategy for Kraft, gave VoiceCon attendees a glimpse of the future for information workers at his company. He offered details of a unified communications pilot program...