Five Best Practices for Hosted Services - M5 Shows the Way

My latest Focus Brief is running now on Focus.com. Last week, I attended M5's launch event around their Geckotech acquisition from last November. A number of things struck me there as best practices that help explain why M5 has been successful with hosted VoIP for SMBs. This business is harder to do than it looks, and my Brief shares some thoughts on what it takes for success. Comments are welcome!

Virtual Queuing - Adding Value to Contact Centers

I meant to post this earlier today. My latest Focus Brief is about virtual queuing, a concept that's gaining credence in the contact center community. There are some Canadian angles to the story, and maybe that's what got me going on this topic!

How about you go read it for yourself on Focus.com and let me know!

How to Select an IP Telephony Vendor - Focus Brief

Anyone following me regularly knows that my writing sometimes comes in spurts, and today is a great example of that. I'm posting here about my latest Brief on Focus.com, with the topic being titled "Five Things You Should Look for With an IP Telephony Vendor".

In short, making buying decisions today around telephony is more complex than before, especially once you start thinking beyond voice and getting into the broader universe of IP communications. My Focus Brief isolates five factors you need to consider, and if you're in a buying mode for telephony, you might want to give this a read!

BroadSoft Connections - Redefining Business Communications

The schedule didn't work for me to attend this year's BroadSoft Connections, but I was able to follow parts of the conference via streaming video. What I managed to see was very good, and this is one company that doesn't stand still. Of course, now that they're public, they definitely can't do that - way too many people are watching!

Anyhow, the innovation keeps coming, and with the launch of BroadCloud, they're keeping pace with this next evolution in communications - the shift to the cloud and hosted "infrastructure". They've come a long way from being an app server vendor, and made a great choice in having Toronto-based Don Tapscott do a keynote about the value of collaboration and how digital technologies are transforming virtually every type of industry and institution. He was his usual thought-provoking self, and gave the audience a lot to think about - and by association, how BroadSoft can help them stay on the right side of the innovation and value-creation curve.

I've distilled my thoughts into my latest Focus Brief, and it's running now on Focus.com. SMBs in particular can do well by BroadSoft, and your comments on the same are welcome - I'd especially like to hear from anyone attending Connections in person!

Skype Connect - Making Strides for the Business Market

It's been a very busy couple of days in the world of Web-based communications. Between the news about Skype Connect and Google Voice, you'd think the world has moved away from landlines, especially in the home. Yesterday, I wrote about Google Voice on my Service Provider Views column, and that has all kinds of implications for both landline carriers as well as any form of Web-based VoIP offering.

Yesterday also saw a lot of activity around Skype Connect, which I think really moves them up the value chain in their quest to penetrate the business market. These developments are each of note in their own right, but it's interesting to see them coming at the same time. Google and Skype compete in some areas, but each also has its own distinct footprints elsewhere. In my latest Focus.com Brief, I explore Skype's news a bit further. There's certainly more to discuss, but this will have to do for now. You can read it here, and I welcome your comments to keep the dialog going.

Focus Brief - More Thoughts on ShoreTel

Blogging has been streaky for me lately. Was in the U.S. on project work the past few days, so am just catching up here on some things.

My latest Brief on Focus.com provided some additional thoughts on ShoreTel. I posted about them here during their analyst/partner event a couple of weeks ago, but wanted to add a bit more wearing my Focus.com hat. The Brief is running on their site, and you can read it here. As always, comments are welcome.

Hold On - My Fridge is Calling!

If the title of this post got your attention, and if you know that I keep busy in the worlds of both telephony and smart grid, then you'll want to read my latest Focus Brief. I'm really writing about the USNAP Alliance - who will be participating at our upcoming Smart Grid Summit - and I thought their latest news marked a good time to talk about their work and how the smart home environment will in time become relevant for businesses.

When you think about how many people work from home, and how intertwined our work and personal communications have become, the title of this post will start to make more sense. See for yourself by reading the brief, and by all means, add your thoughts and keep the dialog going.

Focus.com - My First Brief Published

Blogging has been sporadic the past week or so, but for good reason. I've noted recently that I'm working on some new things, and these are starting to take root now. Some of you are seeing me pop up now and then on Twitter, and it's great that so many of you are welcoming me - or asking what took so long? I'm still trying to normalize myself to this, and I can see already how it's cutting into blogging time, and that's going to take a while to balance out.

Focus.com is another new front that I'm enjoying quite a lot. They have a pretty extensive and engaged community, and it hasn't taken long for me to find topics to comment on. It's a great portal - among other things - and if you follow me, you should hang out more on Focus.com. I'm now a Focus Expert, which means I'll be regularly writing Focus Briefs. These are short analyses of various IT/IP comms topics, and I just published my first brief, which talks about things to consider when looking at hosted services. As with everything on their portal, comments are welcome, and I hope to see you there soon.