Jon Arnold's Blog

May 21, 2008

Next Stop - Toronto - Cisco Networkers Solution Forum

Last week - Nortel. This week - Cisco. Next week - Microsoft. Seems like a different vendor event/activity every week lately, but that's a good thing as it keeps me connected to what the majors are doing. I spend a lot of time around Tier 2's and startups, but it's important to stay current with the big players for a balanced perspective.

For a change, this week's travels are local, which is great. I actually have two unrelated Cisco things going on back to back. Tomorrow I'm attending the Networkers Solution Forum out at the Congress Center, and Friday, I'm down at Cisco Canada's offices getting an update on their mobility plans. Should be a good week for catching up on Cisco, and I hope to post some highights tomorrow.

Technorati tags:
Cisco, Jon Arnold, Cisco Networkers Solution Forum

Posted by jonarnold at 09:34 AM | Comments (0)

May 19, 2008

The New Nortel - Avatars, Mashups and no PBXs

I was in Ottawa on Wednesday/Thursday, attending Nortel's Futures 2008 media/analyst event. This doesn't happen every day for me, but we were told that our group was the first to see any of this stuff outside of Nortel. So, for a change, I've got a bit of a scoop here. I'm not going to tell you everything we saw, but we received enough guidance from Nortel for me to say that the contents of this post are ok with them.

You may be skeptical to hear about the "New Nortel", but that was definitely the point about us being there. Our job is to get the vision of what's coming and what's possible as Nortel tries to re-cast itself in the post-PBX era. I don't think we ever heard any mention of PBXs or softswitches, although they haven't exactly disappeared.

Not everything we saw was totally new, but there was certainly enough on display to conclude that Nortel still has a lot to offer, and their R&D remains first rate. There is plenty here to write a great case study about how to transform a company from being hardware-based to being software-centric.

With that, I'm going to share some highlights here along with some photos of the day.

- Project Chainsaw demo (w.a) - this was the first demo, and the most impressive. This was Nortel's vision of how really good quality audio can enhance a Web-based experience. They've taken voice as a core concept to improve upon, and did a great job demonstrating how much better 44 Khz stereo voice sounds than 8 Khz mono. No surprise there, but they really brought this to life with two specific applications.

The first was ecommerce, where they showed a virtual shopping experience for Dell computers. Unlike Second Life, where you can do similar things in their world, this scenario was hosted directly on Dell's site, so the customer stays in your domain rather than leaving the Dell site to do this somewhere else. By combining highly interactive avatars with clean graphics and great sound, the experience feels very life-like and very social - which they feel is key for using virtual environments to drive ecommerce. I really liked this, as it solves a real business problem, as opposed to just creating a cool social environment for people to hang out in. To me, this is how you monetize the web.

The second example was collaboration, which is another aspect of Project Chainsaw. At first we thought this was a secret codename, but they're fine with us sharing it with you. The intended message is for the world to see that the new Nortel is still cutting edge, and intends use brute force - of innovation - to sever the past and move into the future. Time will tell, but there's no doubt this will create a lot of noise and buzz once it hits the market.

The Chainsaw demo was actually very good, and a convincing way to convey the power of virtual collaboration environments. It was very much like Second Life, but in this case, just among Nortel employees - real ones. So, we got to interact real time with Nortel avatars whose virtual presence was in front of us, but were physically located somewhere else. It's a bit surreal, and while the avatars are cool, they really serve as virtual placeholders to make the interaction feel social. What makes the experience effective is the spatial audio, which mirrors how real social interactions occur. The volume changes accordingly as the avatars move about, walking up to you, or moving away, including the pitter patter of their feet.

What's really neat is that you can participate from any broadband connection. Of course it looks best on a big screen in the conference room (see my photos below), but you can run this on your PC, and yes, your mobile device. To me, this is the real power of Chainsaw, as you extend the experience much further than a videoconferencing or telepresence session. Why? Simply because it's virtual, and the focus is on the audio not the video. Avatars don't require nearly as much bandwidth than real time video, and the technical challenges around synching up voice and video aren't there.

They really see this as the future of communications and collaboration - so much so that they believe the PBX will disappear altogether once enterprises see the power of this concept. It's definitely Web 2.0 and Voice 2.0 and many other things. To me, it's a bit like how music videos have impacted how we relate to music. Before video, we LISTENED to music - on our stereos, tape recorders, the radio, clubs, etc. With the advent of video, especially on TV, I hate to say it, but nobody listens to music any more - we WATCH it.

Don't get me started on this one - that's the topic of a blog unto itself - but you get the idea. It's the same thing here - Chainsaw is primarily a visual experience, but the real communication is verbal - that's how people are really engaging and getting things done. Like MTV, it's a new kind of experience, but one that I think has a lot of potential. How this impacts their relationship with Microsoft and the whole Unified Communications landscape remains to be seen, but it's always great to see something that's a departure from the conventional approaches to communications.

They also talked about "accidental collaboration", a term which I really love. That was the idea where these environments allow people to be together in the same place and time, where in real life this hardly ever happens. So, you're having a scheduled conversation with one peer, and then you notice that someone else you've been wanting to connect with was is there too. Now you have a chance to actually engage. It may be a virtual environment, but the conversation - using Nortel's voice technologies - is very real.

I'll finish up this disussion with a few references. Colleague David Greenfield is more familiar with these virtual community technologies than me, so I'll steer you to his post about this demo and additional commentary.

Next - if you've followed my blog for a while, you may recall a post from last year about DiamondWare, another company I got a very early sneak peek at before most anyone else. There are many parallels to Chainsaw, and if you're interested in the space - especially for gaming - you'll find my post about them to be of interest. And if you don't believe me, just ask the Nortel team. We talked offline about this, and yes, they're quite familiar with DiamondWare.

Rich Tehrani also noticed the parallels, and added a few things to the mix in his post, as he also had some early exposure to DiamondWare. Ok, let's move on.

- We saw a few demos around Unified Communications and desktop applications, all of which enforce the notion that Nortel is clearly moving away from hardware to software, and is focused on the end user like never before. Highlights included ACE - Agile Communications Environment - and a presence-based mashup they created for a client in 4 weeks that integrates a Nortel plug-in with Yahoo Messenger. We heard a lot of talk around Web-based applications and a movement to create a developer sandbox. Over the course of the day, I have to say much of this was consistent with what I've been seeing from other Tier 1 vendor analyst events. They're all embracing the end user, applications and developers, which is great news for innovation. Of course, there's the possibility they'll all come to market with the same solutions, but no doubt they're monitoring each other closely to ensure this doesn't happen.

- Moving along to yet another locale within the campus, we saw a really engaging healthcare demo. All the big vendors are building vertical market solutions, and Nortel is right there with them. They ran us through a variety of scenarios where people and things can be tracked real time inside a hospital using RFID tags and mobile devices. On a basic level, it's about asset tracking to make sure that patients or hospital beds don't go missing. But it's also about workflow improvement, with the ability to monitor patient needs and ensure they get the right treatment by the right people at the right time. Very neat stuff, and it's hard imagine why any hospital wouldn't want to be working this way today.

- The Telepresence demo was next, and after Project Chainsaw, this was the highlight of the day. I've been a fan of TP since Cisco came to market with such a big splash in 2006. You might want to think they invented TP, but far from it. They've done a lot with it, but there are many other solid offerings, including Nortel's. Whenever you see TP in action, you can't help but be impressed, and this was as good as anything I've seen. Nortel provides all the network services and management for this, but the hardware is Polycom's. I don't have a problem with this - I think it's a great combination, and being standards-based, they're not just locked in with Polycom. Nortel also supports and re-sells Tandberg and Microsoft's Roundtable, so they have many ways to participate in this growing market space.

Telepresence is one of those things you have to experience first hand to appreciate, and I just want to add a few things that really stood out for me.

- Nortel was refreshingly candid about the realities around TP. The demo was led by Hugh McCullen - GM Multimedia Services - and he said that Telepresence is not plug and play. That was really great to hear since it looks so easy when you see it. Of course, Nortel needs to say that since they don't make the hardware, and they need some form of value-add. Fair enough, but Hugh walked us through a long list of what they bring to manage the service and deliver a great QoE - Quality of Experience.

- Their TP sessions can be recorded. Not sure if all the other solutions do today, but they didn't earlier on. By recording the sessions, Hugh talked about how TP helps video become an "information asset". Sounds a bit geeky, but I can see the value of that.

- The TP studio we sat in had a stadium-style layout rather than the conventional boardroom that I've seen elsewhere. It's a bit different experience since you're not sitting as close to the screen, but it's still very effective.

- The tabletops we watched from had pop-up PC screens embedded in the tables. Very neat design. When not in use, the desktop is flat, but when you need the screen to follow a presentation while the speaker is talking, the monitors pop up, like the overhead screens in airplanes. I've got a photo of this down below.

- Nortel's TP comes in two flavors - 2 screens or 4 screens - photos of both are below. This was really neat to see, and with 4 screens, it's even more impressive. Seems simple, but this is another way to differentiate. Cisco is 3 screens, so we'll do you one better with 4. Ok. A bit like Gillette - I think we're up to 5 blades for shaving now. I sure hope TP doesn't get quite this out of hand.

- Finally - the TP room can be used for other things. How simple was that? The Cisco rooms I've seen are dedicated 100% to TP - you can't really use them for anything else. As mentioned, this room was stadium-style, but there was also a functional conference table down at the front.

One more thing. I've mentioned Cisco a few times, and for sake of comparsion, I'll refer you to my post about their demo, including a video clip.

I'm going to stop now. There were other demos too, including their recently launched Unified Communications solution for SMBs, and their 4G WiMax solution. I think you get the idea - lots of things coming down the pipe from Nortel, and I'd say they're in as good a position as any incumbent vendor to make the transition to the 2.0 world. Definitely time well spent, and I feel lucky to be included in this early look at what's coming. Hopefully with this post, you'll be getting the next best thing. I'd love to hear your thoughts, especially if this has changed your perceptions of Nortel.

Nortel campus in Ottawa

Glass cupola - great symmetry. Hard to tell if you're looking up into the spire, or down from the tip of the peak.

Great way to start the day. Mike Z wasn't there - he rarely is - and the Nortel AR team had us camp out there.

Feels a bit like a palace coup. Nortel's Sami Asiri getting our agenda updated using Mike Z's desk. Sure was comfortable there...

Andrew Lippman from MIT's Media Lab, giving us more perspective on what Nortel brings to voice in the 2.0 world, using Mr. Z's whiteboard

A few of our demos took place in the Executive Briefing Center. Even based on Ottawa, this sure looks like an American company, huh? Up here, we would spell that "Centre". That's Andy Lippman with Rich Tehrani.

Project Chainsaw

Unified communications demo

Healthcare vertical demo

Enroute to the telepresence demo - felt like the beginning of Get Smart, going through all the secret doors...

Two screen demo

Pop-up monitor

Four screen demo

WiMax demo

Technorati tags:
Nortel, Jon Arnold, Ottawa, Rich Tehrani, David Greenfield, Project Chainsaw

Posted by jonarnold at 08:41 AM | Comments (1)

May 13, 2008

Next Stop - Ottawa

I recently had a stretch of 4 events in 3 weeks, which is a lot for me, so it's been great to be around for a bit. This week, though, I have a short trip to Ottawa where I'm attending an event by Nortel for the analyst/blogger community. I'll be flying to Ottawa tomorrow and will be there all day Thursday.

Am looking forward to catching up with Nortel and to see how they're positioning themselves in a world where incumbent vendors are struggling to find terra firma - if that's even possible any more.

Should be quite interesting, as we'll be seeing presentations and demos about what what they're up to with virtual reality conferencing, mashups, Unified Communications, social media and vertical market applications. These things are quickly becoming table stakes for all major vendors, and I'll share my thoughts once I'm there and get the ok from Nortel as to what we can discuss publicly.

Technorati tags: Nortel, Jon Arnold, Ottawa

Posted by jonarnold at 09:07 AM | Comments (1)

April 30, 2008

Fonolo Wins Best New Product at eComm

Another interesting story I missed out on yesterday. Toronto-based Fonolo announced they won Best New Product at last month's eComm, an event that I blogged about quite a bit. The news was posted yesterday on eComm's website, along with a video of Shai Berger's presentation. It was one of the few presos I missed at eComm, but I'm close enough to the company as it is - Shai is on my blog roll as well.

Fonolo just re-named itself and are ramping up to become a successful startup. In a word, their application is deep dialing, and to learn more watch the video, or spend a few minutes at their website. I've liked what they're doing from the start, and they really do solve real world problems that you'll relate to as soon as you check them out.

I'll leave at it that for now - I'd rather pique your interest here than spell it all out. The main thing is to recognize their win, and say congrats. It's a good day to be a Canadian startup!

Technorati tags: Fonolo, Jon Arnold, Shai Berger,eComm

Posted by jonarnold at 05:34 PM | Comments (0)

April 04, 2008

Branham 300 - Canada's Top Tech Companies

Just saw this list, which is published annually in Backbone magazine. It's one of the better known barometers of Canada's tech sector, and I just wanted to share a few highlights with you.

The Branham 300 is actually 3 separate lists. The big one is the Top 250, ranked by revenue. No surprise to see Nortel #1 at $10.8 billion. Of course, it's debatable just how Canadian they still are, but they're clearly our biggest tech company. Following them is Celestica at $7.9 billion. Not much surprise for this IBM spinout, but they're not really in my everyday radar.

Rounding out the top 5 are the Big 3 operators - BCE at $7.7 billion, Telus at $6.0 billion and Rogers at $5.1 billion. Honorable mention - RIM is #7 at $3.0 billion. They probably have the strongest growth story of all these big players, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them move up a notch or two next year.

After this, things fall off rapidly, with a few companies in the $1 billion range, and then another drop off to around $500 million. Canada has always had very concentrated ownership, and it's no different in tech. Only 17 of the top 250 are $500 million or more, and only 11 are $1 billion or more.

So, in terms of service providers, after you get beyond the Big 3, there's Shaw at $1.4 billion, and everyone else is pretty much south of $1 billion. You don't need to look much further to understand why the regulators are so obsessed with the lack of competition up here.

With that said, I'd like to cite some of the other companies that are closer to my focus in this list - Mitel, Aastra, Ascalade, Vecima Networks, Sigma Systems, AirIQ, PIKA Technologies, Digital Fairway, Espial Group and Counterpath. Congrats to all of these for making the top 250 list.

The other two lists are much shorter and more focused - the Top 25 IT Multinationals and the Top 25 Up and Comers. The former has all the usual suspects - IBM, Cisco, Microsoft, HP, Siemens, etc. No surprises there. The other list is more my cup of tea, and two in particular are worth noting - Mobidia and Octopz. Most of the others are more focused on pure IT or softward, but there were a few I didn't know who are more into telecom and IP communications, so I've got some homework to do.

All told, it's a great snapshot about our tech market, and you're free to review it in more depth off the website.

Technorati tags: Branham 300, Jon Arnold, Backbone magazine, Canada

Posted by jonarnold at 10:58 AM | Comments (1)

March 14, 2008

Nokia Reviews on Nokia's Blogs

Just a quick note about the Nokia Blogger Relations program. Over the past couple of days, I posted my review of the Nokia N95, and Max's review of the N81.

Andy Abramson has been running this program for a while now, and I just wanted to share that our reviews have now been posted to the Nokia Blogs sites, where there's one for each model - the N95, and the N81.

I always post about the Nokia Blogs when our reviews are posted, simply to support the initiative. It's a great use of the Web as a marketing tool, and am sure you'll see a lot more of this as mainstream companies discover the value and power of online sharing and collaboration tools. And, of course, these blogs are a fantastic place to get lost and hear first hand what engaged users really think about these phones. So, please, go visit, and get lost.

Technorati tags: Nokia Blog, Jon Arnold, Max Arnold, Andy Abramson

Posted by jonarnold at 02:14 PM | Comments (0)

March 12, 2008

Nokia N95 Review

Having been fortunate enough to be part of Nokia’s Blogger Relations Program for some time, I’ve had my share of N-Series phones to use and review. Most of the world – especially North America – doesn’t live this way, and it’s always fun to use phones that are not in the mainstream or even available here yet. They sure get people’s attention, and I’m not shy to talk about what’s great and not-so-great about these high-end phones. Anyone who has used these devices knows that calling them ‘phones’ is a bit misleading. In fact, as you’ll see from my review, the phone seems like an afterthought in some ways.

So, I’ve had the Nokia N95 for ages, it seems, and takes over from my last Nokia phone, the N93, which I reviewed here. The N95 is a very different device, and true to form, Nokia continues to innovate and explore various designs, features and form factors. This review will be pretty straight-up; I’ll start with the strengths, and move on to the shortcomings.

What’s great about the N95

First off, the form factor is really nice. It’s slimmer than the N93, and unlike earlier N Series phones, it has more rounded edges and is less boxy. In other words, this is a phone that I can see appealing equally to both women and men. Definitely couldn’t say that about the N90.

Aside from being slimmer, it just fits in the hand very easily. You really don’t need two hands to use it, and it fits nicely in your jacket pocket. That’s much different from the N93 flip phone design, and the Rubik’s Cube features of earlier N Series models. I’m not really huge on the slider design, but it definitely has some advantages. It certainly makes for a larger screen display, and as video becomes more the norm, this is a good thing to have. The only drawback here is that with such a large exposed screen surface, it becomes easily smudged and open to scratches.

The phone actually slides in two directions, which is really neat. Slide up, and you get the keypad for dialing and texting. Slide down, and the phone converts to a media player where you can view your photos and videos in full screen mode and navigate all the various media options. The dial pad, by the way, is another plus. You really need to push down on the buttons to make them work, which means no accidental pocket calls. It only works when you are clear about what you want to do. This may seem like a small thing, but with the iPhone being so popular, I’ll take the manual keyboard any day over the touch screen keypad.

Let’s move on. The next really great feature is the camera – a 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens. Doesn’t get much better than that for a camera phone. The N93 was pretty good at 3.2, but 5 is just fantastic. Never had such good quality photos on a phone. And the kicker for me is the lens cover. Finally – Nokia has added this feature. Seems like such a logical thing, with the lens cover being exposed all the time. Well, the 95 has a great little switch that discretely slides a cover over the lens. Very James Bond-like – like something out of Dr. No. Love it. And of course, the photo quality is really great – same for video. As with earlier N Series phones, there’s a nice variety of photo settings – I especially like the night time settings, as I often have to take photos in low light conditions.

It seems old hat at this point, but I should also add that the Bluetooth and WiFi features are great, and really showcase the full range of what the N95 can do. It’s easy to get used to these features when phones like these are the norm, but of course, most phones aren’t wired this way. But they’re getting there. To be fair, I really haven’t taken advantage of the N95’s higher end features like WiFi, mobile blogging, or Web browsing, so my review doesn’t do justice to the full package. My uber-geek son, Max, is much more at home here, and I’ll steer you to his N95 review for that perspective.

One other positive to share with you. The phone is easy to navigate – it’s not just intuitive and responsive, but it’s easy to do with one hand. This seems simplistic, but for all the multi-taskers out there, this is an important consideration. Often, we only have one free hand when using the phone, and the toggle button in the middle of the phone is easy to locate – even in the dark – and works very well with just a thumb doing all the work.

What’s not great about the N95

Ok, so before you get too comfortable and run out to buy one, let me give you a more complete picture of what it’s like to live with the N95 every day.

For all its cool gadgetry and stylish design, this is NOT a very good phone. Isn’t that Nokia’s business? I don’t get it. How can they get all these things so right, but the phone itself is so lacking? Maybe it’s the triumph of the iPhone and the whole smartphone thing. We don’t really use these devices as phones – that’s really secondary to multimedia and using this as a proxy for a mobile PC, personal entertainment center and email client. Fair enough. That said, I’m pretty old school, and always thought these things were phones first, and everything else was a bonus. Wrong.

I can’t complain loudly enough about what I consider a FATAL DESIGN FLAW. Anybody listening? I really doubt it, as I haven’t heard anyone else raise this issue. Ready? Ok, so, this is slider phone, right? When the phone rings, you have the option to slide the top panel up to answer the call. Pretty standard for any slider phone. I don’t know about you, but when I use a phone like this, I’m usually holding it in one hand. And being a pretty regular guy – black hair, brown eyes – guess what – I’m right-handed – like most of you.

Well, when I answer a call – in my right hand – my thumb instinctively latches on to the phone to push the slider face forward. I can’t help it, but my thumb naturally rests on the right corner of the phone to do this, and as I slide it forward, guess what happens? It’s resting directly on top of the button with the red icon. You know, the one that means HANG UP. Duh!!!! How dumb is this???

To this day, the vast majority of incoming calls never get answered because I inadvertently hang up on the caller. How embarrassing. I don’t receive enough calls to have conditioned myself to change my natural response, so this keeps happening over and over. But that’s really beside the point. I shouldn’t have to change my habits – good design takes this into account.

Of course, if I was left-handed, I wouldn’t have this problem. In that case, guess where my left thumb would naturally land when sliding up the cover to answer a call? On the green button – not the red button. You know, the ANSWER button. Isn’t that the way it should be? Is it just me, or are the only people out there smiling the lefties? Sorry, but I don’t care how great all the other features are, this one is a killer for me. I have no regrets about moving on from this phone to my next Nokia, which is the N81.

I should also say, that I don’t think it’s just me. I’ve tested this with dozens of people. I try it out on everyone I show this phone to, and in most cases, they have the same result. To be fair, there are loads of people who don’t have this problem, and don’t push the slider to answer the phone. However, it is often just as likely that I’ll hang up an incoming call simply by the act of reaching for my phone to pick it up. Often, my phone is in my coat pocket or out of sight when it rings, so I usually just reach for it blindly. For whatever reason, invariably, my fingers somehow end up touching the red button, and just like that, the call dies. It’s just too easy for this to happen for my liking. So, either all the Nokia engineers are left-handed, or they assume too much. Maybe they should hire me to be a product tester....

While we’re talking about the phone, I should also add that it’s not the easiest phone to actually use. You have to be really precise about lining up the phone to your ear. If it’s off-center just a little bit, you can’t hear a thing. I’m not big on walking and talking, but when I do, I really have to concentrate on keeping the phone in a tight zone, otherwise you can’t hear a thing.

I also find it’s not that simple to make a phone call. You can’t just open the phone and dial away. It goes into lock mode almost instantly, and you have to unlock the phone to start dialing. It doesn’t take much, but it’s another little step you’d rather not have to take to make a simple phone call. And then, of course, you can’t just dial a call. You have to click through a few options to place the call. Is it a voice call or a video call? Jeez – just make the call – too much choice is a bad thing. I know the phone has tons of advanced features, but making a call should be pretty easy and intuitive.

Enough on the phone. It’s ok at best, but this is Nokia after all. These issues – both big and small – just shouldn’t be in the equation. I’d love to hear your take on this. I don’t know about you, but if I was buying this phone – the better part of $700 – I would not be a happy customer.

What else? Well, the other stuff is minor in comparison, but still worth mentioning. As good as the camera is, it’s really only good for staged photos. No question about the quality of results – what’s not to like about 5 mega pixels? However, this is not an SLR, so there has to be some give and take here. The N95 isn’t very good for quick-response point and click situations. It takes time for the shutter to kick in, so if your subject is moving, chances are you’re going to miss the moment. I often have to take many shots just to get one I can use, but that was also my experience with other N Series phones. Nothing new here, but still an issue. For me, the N95 is a camera as much as it is a phone. I really love being able to just shoot in the moment, but if there’s a lot of motion involved, the results can be very mixed.

Similar story for the camera features. The zoom is pretty good, but it takes a while to do. By the time I’ve set up the shot, it’s too late. Oh well. More troubling is the positioning of the toggle switches on the top of the camera. Ready for this one? On the far right is the clicker to take the photo – or activate the video. There are two other switches on the top – a zoom toggle on the left and a photo/video mode toggle on the right - just next to the shutter clicker. Again, being a rightie – as most of us are – wouldn’t you think that the zoom would be on the right? No --- it’s on the left. So, just when you’ve decided a close-up would improve the photo, guess what? You’ve switched from photo to video mode. Arghhh!!! And – it takes a while to switch from one mode to another, and of course, by then, it’s way too late – the moment has long passed.

Finally, two small points that seem to be common to N Series phones. First, the battery life can be short, and more annoying is how it can go from 3 bars of power to zero in no time. Just when you figured you have another hour or so, it dies with no warning. Second is the limited memory that comes with the phone. This one came with a 256 MB micro chip, but that just doesn’t take you very far with a device this sophisticated. As with N93, I had to buy a chip with more memory, and once I did that, it’s worked just fine. A small thing, but still a reality any user will have to live with.

All told, definitely a mixed bag. I’m not a power user, so I don’t really get the full benefit of the N95, and you’ll have to read other reviews for a more comprehensive assessment. However, for my everyday needs, it’s got some great strengths, but some significant shortcomings. I realize many people think this is the best Nokia yet, and it probably is. I’m certainly glad I’ve had a chance to experience it, but it’s not a game-changer for me. Time to move on the N81 – I’ll let you know if the story will be different there.

Technorati tags: Nokia N95, Jon Arnold, Max Arnold

Posted by jonarnold at 08:51 PM | Comments (4)

Max's Nokia N81 Review

eComm is just getting going here, and I'll blog about that as time allows. WiFi is slow, so I just have time now to get this post done.

My son, Max, is with me at eComm, so he's getting a great education about IP communications and innovation - lucky guy. Anyhow, we're working together - he's just written his Nokia N81 review, and I'm just about done with my N95 review.

So, I wanted to quickly share this with you now. Max posted his N81 review to his blog yesterday. In time, it will be posted by Andy to the Nokia N81 Blogger Relations blog page - will share that with you when it's up.

Technorati tags: Nokia N81, Jon Arnold, Max Arnold

Posted by jonarnold at 12:30 PM | Comments (1)

February 19, 2008

Bell and Cisco Partnering on Managed Services

Today started off with an early briefing at 8:30 with Cisco and Bell Canada. That's what this post is about, and I had every intention of getting this written and posted by 9am, but boy has the day zoomed by. I'm off to New York for the next two days on consulting work, and there has been a non-stop stream of things to tie up, so here we are.

So, when Bell and Cisco asks you to be on a briefing at 8:30 the morning back after a long weekend, you gotta figure this is big news. In some ways it is, but I wouldn't say it's earth shattering, so I don't feel you've missed too much hearing about from me at this point in the day. Haven't seen anything about this from the bloggers, although to be fair, many of them are blogged out after last week's mega conference in Spain, MWC - Mobile World Congress.

Closer to home, today's news is somewhat interesting at face value, but I think it's more interesting for it may represent. At face value, Bell and Cisco have partnered to provide managed services to Bell's customers - high level details are in the press release. This is a win-win - more or less - in that Bell comes to market with a complete solution to leverage their nationwide network and deepen their customer relationships. Cisco wins by getting the upper hand into Bell's enterprise customer portfolio with managed services, deepening their existing relationships on the networking side. Two Tier 1 players working together makes for a very strong proposition. Fair enough - that's just the way the markets go these days - the big get bigger, and hopefully that's good for the customers. Time will tell.

The other interesting part of the story is the 'knowledge gap' they referred to a few times. IP is advancing quickly, and it's no surprise there is a shortage of well trained, qualified technical people to deploy, manage and maintain these wonderful technologies. To address this, Cisco and Bell are opening two 'Knowledge
Centres' - Montreal and Toronto. Makes sense. Not only will enterprises gain more Cisco-certified staffers, but these centres will become test labs where new features, applications, etc. can be trialed before being launched in their networks. Good idea, and a great way for Cisco to further embed itself in these networks.

All good, right? It is for these companies, but am not sure what this means for others. I can't imagine this is good news for Nortel, and maybe even Microsoft - two companies that have an alliance of their own. These companies are all vying for the Unified Communications vision, whereby they have a chance to control most if not all of the customer relationship. The stakes are high here, and I think Cisco has made a savvy move here to get the inside track with Bell, who has the lion's share of Canada's enterprise business. Let's not forget that the privatization track for Bell is a bit shaky these days, and they need all the good news stories they can get. I'm sure Cisco recognized they could help Bell's cause with such a move, as they need to do whatever it takes to hold on to their customers. It will be interesting to see what MTS Allstream and Telus do in response.

Technorati tags:
Cisco, Jon Arnold, Bell Canada

Posted by jonarnold at 03:34 PM | Comments (1)

February 18, 2008

Uber-Users - Cisco has something for you on March 4

I got this very interesting and intriguing link about some big news coming from Cisco on March 4. It's a very slickly produced commercial that shows how web-savvy Cisco is becoming, and it's quite fun to watch.

Since followers of this blog are uber-users - aren't you? - I thought I'd pass this on and do some free advertising for Cisco. They've done a great job putting this together, and it's hard not to spend a few minutes exploring all the messages and visuals, as they build up your interest in what's coming on March 4.

I don't actually know what's coming, and I haven't seen anything about this in the blogs - so either everyone is ignoring it, or you just might be reading about it for the first time here.

Either way, if you're a Cisco watcher and want to see where Network 2.0 is going, you'll want to register for this "event". From the looks of things, Cisco has spent lavishly to build up anticipation, so I'm sure it will be worth tuning in for.

No doubt, Cisco is doing things like this to show how consumer friendly their brand is becoming, and how much of a digital media company they are striving to become. I had a few glimpses of this at their recent analyst conference and there's a lot of Web 2.0 and video driving their business now. They know how to make Telepresence look exciting, and I'm sure this will be along the same lines, but likely on a broader scale.

Anyhow, that's enough speculating for now. Just go the link and see for yourself - and I'll look for you on the call.

Technorati tags:
Cisco, Jon Arnold

Posted by jonarnold at 09:19 AM | Comments (4)

February 14, 2008

Mitel Analyst Update

This is Part 2 of what I was up to yesterday here in town. Mitel is in the midst of an analyst roadshow to update the community on the Inter-Tel integration.

I was part of the Toronto contingent, and for a full morning, Don Smith and Simon Gwatkin had our undivided attention. This was complemented by a full presentation led by Tim Kostyniuk, who was dialing in from Ottawa via a conference phone.

The session was a good mix of candid conversation from Don and Simon, and a detailed update on the new product portfolio from Tim. At a high level, all I can really say is that Mitel seems to have a good handle on bringing Inter-Tel into the fold, and a clear vision as to what markets they want to grow into, as well as how they're going to do that.

They definitely have been moving forward on many fronts, and one of the main benefits I think we'll see from the deal is a strong go-to-market capability for both SMBs and enterprises. Inter-Tel had a direct sales presence for the latter, and when combined with Mitel's product line, they now have a strong story for enterprises. On the SMB front, they found limited channel conflict with Inter-Tel, and indicated they are now becoming more attractive partners for resellers, often at the expense of their competitors.

They provided quite a bit of insight as to the rationale for Inter-Tel, along with broader capabilities it brings them today. I definitely have a clearer picture of this now, and can see why it made sense.

There was a fair bit of discussion around integrating the product lines, and while this is still a work in progress, it's clear to see how much focus there is on IP and SIP. They updated us on several other fronts, including their partnerhsip with Sun, collaboration and presence-based applications, vertical market solutions, IP phones, and mobility/FMC.

Maybe it's Mitel's culture, or their UK/Canada makeup, but they do a great job of being accessible and open with their updates. Of course, this also means I'm going to be careful and not broadcast the fine points. It's a two-way street. Not all vendors are as easy to engage with, and I hope they keep it this way. Makes our job a lot easier!

Technorati tags:
Mitel, Jon Arnold, Inter-Tel

Posted by jonarnold at 09:22 AM | Comments (0)

February 08, 2008

Helping Canadian Companies Sell Globally - Upcoming Teleforum

One of the biggest challenges facing Canadian companies is our small domestic market, especially for telecom. To succeed, you need to sell into other markets, which is something Canadians aren't by nature very good at.

That's a topic unto itself, and if you want to understand this challenge better and hear first hand how some local companies are doing it, you'll want to participate in an upcoming teleforum.

This teleforum is the first in a series being launched by colleague Mike Fox. He's a Toronto-based tech recruiter, and I've featured him on previous posts. His firm is called Brightlights, and you can register here as well as explore what his company does.

The first teleforum will be on Wednesday, February 20, and runs from 1 to 2 pm. Mike's guests will be the CEOs of MyThum Interactive and Opalis Software, and they'll be talking about topics such as what it takes to sell into markets outside of Canada and what types of talent they need to support that. I've posted about MyThum before and they're a great example of what Mike will be covering during the call. You can learn more about the session from a backgrounder Mike has prepared.

Unfortunately, I'll be out of town that day, so I'll miss the call. This shouldn't stop you, though, and if this topic is of interest, it will be time well spent.

Technorati tags:
Mike Fox, Jon Arnold, Brightlights Inc

Posted by jonarnold at 09:59 AM | Comments (0)

January 17, 2008

Meet Some of Ontario's Best IT/IP Companies - in Miami

This is the first of a few posts I'm trying to get done today around the ITExpo that runs next week in Miami.

For this post, I'm focusing on a pavilion being run by the Government of Ontario and the Consulate General of Canada. It's a showcase for leading IT/IP companies based in Ontario, and on Thursday, they're hosting a reception that's open to all exhibitors.

I've been asked to be the host, and will be making some opening remarks to welcome everyone to the reception. If you can make it, I'm sure you'll come away with a good feeling about the quality of companies coming out of Ontario in our space.

To learn more about the reception and the companies being showcased, have a look at their announcement, which I've posted here.

Technorati tags:
Government of Ontario, Jon Arnold, ITExpo

Posted by jonarnold at 03:05 PM | Comments (0)

January 14, 2008

New Coverage on Acme Packet and Veraz Networks

Just a quick post to draw your attention to some great coverage on two companies I've been a fan of for a long time - Acme Packet and Veraz Networks.

Colleague Catharine Trebnick has followed our industry for many years, primarily as a financial analyst. She knows it quite well and is currently a Principal at Boston-based investment bank America's Growth Capital.

They recently initiated coverage on these companies, and Catharine's reports have just been published. I've had a chance to review them, and aside from her strong company-based coverage, her reports provide a solid overview of the markets these two pure-play companies compete in. Basically, she's saying that Acme is still a good growth story, and Veraz is on it's way, but is definitely in a tougher environment.

Catharine has been nice enough to share her reports with those who are interested, and I'm nice enough to extend this to my readers. So, if you'd like to follow up, please contact Catharine directly by email, and she can take things from there. And if you do, I'd love to hear your thoughts on her coverage.

P.S. Look for another post in the next few days about something else I'll be doing with her firm...

Technorati tags: Catharine Trebnick, Jon Arnold, America's Growth Capital, Acme Packet, Veraz

Posted by jonarnold at 08:35 PM | Comments (0)

January 10, 2008

Max's Palm Treo Review

It's been a while since I've posted something from son #1, Max. Priorities change when school starts up, but he's keeping pretty busy in his spare time, most recently designing websites.

We were recently given the Palm Treo 755 smartphone to review, but we only could keep it for a few weeks. Time flies, and we've given the phone back and have reverted to our Nokia phones - reviews on those are coming....

Anyhow, Max has posted his review to his blog, so for those of you who want to hear how a sharp teenager makes use of an adult product like this, you'll find his post a good read, as usual. He's pretty direct and quite savvy - lots of candid comments and keen observations - I hope Palm is listening....

I'm due for my review of this phone, and hopefully that will be by early next week. I only got to use it a fraction of the time Max did, so it won't be as detailed.

Technorati tags: Max Arnold, Jon Arnold, Palm Treo

Posted by jonarnold at 07:13 PM | Comments (0)

January 07, 2008

SIP Forum Management Announcements

I don't normally post much about industry news like this, but colleague Marc Robins was recently taken on by the SIP Forum to be their Managing Director. It's not often that indies like us get these opportunities, and Marc has been keeping me posted offline about this for some time. Well, the news was finally made public today, and here's the press release.

It's a great move for both parties, and I just want to amplify the idea that indie consultants have a unique perspective in the market, and being non-aligned, we bring not just our industry expertise to the table, but also add credibility and objectivity to the groups we're working with. In my own way, I'm playing a similar role as the portal Editor of IP Convergence TV, and so far I'd say it's working out quite well.

In my mind, industry groups like the SIP Forum need people in these roles who are vendor neutral, and I'd say they made the right choice with Marc. Congrats on both sides - especially to Marc - and if I have occasion to work with SIP Forum, I'll let you know how it's going.

Technorati tags: SIP Forum, Jon Arnold, Marc Robins

Posted by jonarnold at 06:52 PM | Comments (0)

December 17, 2007

Iotum- Let it snow, but let's talk about it....

Quick post - a twofer for Canadian cohort Alec Saunders and the team at Iotum.

First,Ottawa got buried with its worst snowstorm since anyone can remember - about 2 feet yesterday. A lot of Eastern Canada got hit - we got it pretty good here in Toronto, but Ottawa got way more. The US Northeast got socked last week, but that was a different storm. Well, there's no doubt now it's going to be a white XMas.

Anyhow, if you want a geek's take on the weather, Alec has a great post today. Oh, as I'm writing this post, Alec has just updated his blog with some photos - nice work.

I was in San Jose last week for Cisco's analyst event, and even though it was quite chilly there - and even an outdoor skating rink next to the hotel - I'll gladly head back there now compared to what we've got here. I don't ski, but it's not hard to see how the Alpine set is over the moon about all this snow - no thanks....

Second item - since I have your attention - today Iotum announced something really interesting and fun with their Facebook conferencing app. For those of you who plan to be online on New Year's Eve - and I'll bet that's a lot of you, Iotum has a great way to reach out and touch 1,000 of your closest friends. They've been building some nice traction with their voice conferencing application on Facebook, and are using this opportunity to add some festiveness to social networking. Alec's post tells you all about it, so if you want to have some social networking fun on New Year's, and do a virtual midnight countdown with a cast of thousands, you just gotta be there.

It's a great idea, and to help promote it, Iotum has even produced a demo video, which you can view off of Alec's post. Aside from all the fun people can have doing this, the promotion is a great test to demonstrate the scalability of Iotum's platform, and I think that's the real story. This is the kind of proof point that up and coming vendors like Iotum need to convince large operators that their application will work for them and that they can make money today using it. In the world of social networking, New Year's is about as social as it gets, so hats off to Iotum for connecting the dots and creating a great opportunity for themselves. Can't wait to hear how it turns out.

Technorati tags: Iotum, Jon Arnold, Alec Saunders, Facebook

Posted by jonarnold at 08:05 PM | Comments (0)

December 14, 2007

Cisco C-Scape 2007 – Parting Thoughts

I mentioned in passing in my earlier post that compared to last year, Cisco has certainly come a long way in its focus on video and network-centric solutions. Lots of talk last year about unified communications and SMB – not so much now. Telepresence is front and center, which is not a bad thing. And why not? I don’t know how much traction Halo or Tandberg or Polycom are getting, but Cisco wasn’t shy telling you how many deployments they have in less than a year’s time. If the numbers are to be believed, it’s pretty hard not to conclude that Cisco has bet right with Telepresence.

There really are 2 major story lines related to TP. The first is telepresence itself and the second is how this fits into the broader constellation of video-based solutions that Cisco seems to be betting its future on. Many presentations and sessions ended with the reassuring messaging that Cisco is ‘uniquely positioned’ to deliver video and bring customers into the Web 2.0 world. Well, if you say so, then it must be true. There was a lot of Kool Aid served at C-Scape, but on this count they just may be right. To the extent you believe that - it’s too early for me to tell - Cisco is poised to become a force in the video a lot faster than you might think.

So, first to TP – Telepresence. The big message there is that if you just think of this as high end videoconferencing, then you have very 1.0 view of things. Absolutely, that’s what it does, but from day 1 Cisco has not called this videoconferencing, and has staked out higher ground trying to get the world to see this as an entirely new category. The Cisco view is that this a tool for business transformation, that changes the way people communicate, and more importantly, the way we do business. They provided pretty good examples of this, particularly in health care, and we’re not just talking about cutting down on travel. It’s about enabling new processes and accelerating workflow. I’m just an indie, so I can’t really envisage this in my world, but can definitely see where this really can happen.

If you want to see the wow factor of where they’re coming from, check out this much-watched video off of YouTube. It runs about 4 minutes, and was mentioned often at the event, and gives the term virtual reality new meaning. In this session, John Chambers is speaking live in Bangalore, and Marthin De Beer appears hologram-like on the same stage as if he was right there with him. This isn’t from a Hollywood special effects magician – it can happen at your next board meeting. An interesting example they provided was how an Arab Emirates country wants to use this as a way to virtually bring Western celebrities into their local events. Well, that makes sense – a lot of rich and famous people will not – or cannot – travel to this part of the world, so TP is the next best thing. I get that.

Also, if you want to see a more extensive video from which this demo was done, there's an official version running on Cisco's website. It runs about 11 minutes, and has John Chambers telling the TP story in more detail.

I should also add that as good as the TP story is, there was no mention made of some interesting news from late last week. Cisco announced they’ll be opening up TP to interoperate with other standards-based videoconferencing systems. I’m all for that, and it positions Telepresence as more of a 2.0 solution, making it even more interesting. Not sure why they didn’t play this angle up at C-Scape.

Lots more to talk about here, but you get the idea. Anyhow, the second idea is the bigger picture of video. This is Dan Scheinman’s world, and Cisco demonstrated on a few levels how committed they are to video. They see it as the killer app of the Internet, and they just might be right. And of course, to do video right, you must have the right network, and who knows networks better than Cisco, right? Networks are not my forte, so I really can’t challenge on this front. What I do know is that 2008 will see the launch of EOS – their Entertainment Operating System – which puts all the pieces to together, including search capabilities that are a big part of their secret sauce.

I agree with Dan’s premise that there’s simply too much content out there, and people generally don’t know what they’re looking for most of the time, and when they do, they really don’t know how to find it. So, a big part of what will make video a big deal is having search tools that don’t just help you find things, but that help you discover things. It’s a subtle difference, but a big one in my books, and again, I get that. If EOS lives up to its promise, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo will have some catching up to do.

Missed opportunities? One comes to mind for me. One of the quiet stories that I think is cool is their focus on digital signage. I see lots of interesting applications, and once Cisco Field is built you can bet it will be a living test lab and showcase for this. Anyhow, given the size of the main hall for the big presentations, there were large video screens flanking the stage so everyone could see what was going on. At the back and the edges of center stage, however, were several smaller display screens draped in semi-random fashion to give the feeling of a more intimate, home-theater type setting. I’d guess they were each approximately the size of a flat screen TV you might have in your home.

Ok – I get it – video is the big message, so sure, the more video displays the better. Unfortunately, for the most part, these display screens only had static images - usually the conference logo. Ugh - not very exciting and, to me, a missed opportunity. Not only could those screens have been used to enhance the overall video message with streaming media, but even more so, they could have been a great vehicle to demonstrate their digital signage technology. It’s pretty neat stuff, and like TP, you really need to see it to get the idea.

Of course, you could argue that having too many screens showing streaming video/media – using both big and small screens - would be too distracting from what’s going on center stage. That may be true, but hey, we’re all smart, media savvy analysts. I’d say a little Hollywood razzle dazzle – even at just a few choice break points throughout the day – would have made a great impression to show off not just the power of both video and digital signage, but also to make a statement about how much of media company Cisco is becoming.

I can’t help but mention at this point that doing something like that – and it couldn’t have been that hard to do – would have been far more effective than the morally ambiguous Telepresence commercial they ran to close out the morning session. If you saw this, you’d know what I mean, and after a morning full of interesting and engaging presentations, it’s hard to see what they were thinking here. On a brain-dead level, the commercial was very sentimental and touchy-feely about an everyday American family keeping in touch with their son who is in some far-away place. That’s an easy message to send about the power of Telepresence. But it sure was hard to tell whether their son – who was holed up in some form of a tented base camp in the middle of nowhere – was doing noble Peace Corps type of work – or was in the military doing other types of work.

Maybe it’s just me, but I found this commercial confusing and a bit suspicious rather than uplifting and singing the praises of TP. I didn’t hear anyone else reading it this way, so I guess it’s just me. So either it was just way too subtle for everyone, or I spend too much time reading meaning into things where there’s nothing really there. The latter is probably closer to the truth, although I spent a lot of time thinking and writing about this stuff as a Psychology undergrad enroute to my Marketing MBA. Or maybe I should switch fields and go into advertising....

Much more to talk about, but that’s about all that will make it to my blog. To sum up, instead of hearing talk about VoIP, IP telephony, unified communications, SMB, the language this time around was about collaboration, Web 2.0, blogging, social networks, innovation, content, community, personalization and the experience. If it was just words like these, you’d be right to be sceptical. But they sure seem to be walking the talk, and even though their Web 2.0 Kool Aid was pretty strong - if you were there you’d know what I’m referring to – I do share their vision and can see how the pieces fit.

John Chambers loves to talk about never losing a battle where they’ve had a head start and how they’ve had a good track record capitalizing on market transitions. It’s also pretty clear that innovation is a major mantra at Cisco, and they’re living it as an organization, signs of which became increasingly apparent the more time I spent talking with them during the event.

Well, video sure is one of these ‘market transitions’, and they seem to be right on target for what’s coming in 2008. In short, his vision is to transform Cisco from a plumbing play to a platform play, and if they do, their branding message ‘welcome to the human network’ will ring true, and give them the one thing they don’t have – cachet in the consumer market. Apple has it, Microsoft has it, and Cisco’s dying to have it. If I’m a betting man, I say they’ll get it in 2008.

Technorati tags: Cisco, Jon Arnold, Telepresence, C-Scape

Posted by jonarnold at 02:42 PM | Comments (3)

December 12, 2007

Cisco C-Scape 2007 - Reprise

The C-Scape event finished up this afternoon, and overall, it was a really well run event. Today was mostly break-out sessions and 1 on 1 interviews, all of which were very good. Time well spent for sure.

It's been a full day and with an early flight home tomorrow, I'm not up for much analysis right now. The next best thing is to share with you coverage of the event on Cisco's corporate blog, which also includes a number of video clips of a few presentations.

I'll add my parting thoughts in a separate post once I'm back. Stay tuned....

Technorati tags: Cisco, Jon Arnold

Posted by jonarnold at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)

December 11, 2007

Cisco C-Scape 2007 - Day 1

Just wanted to post some quick photo highlights from Cisco's C-Scape analyst conference, which kicked off today in San Jose. I attended last year, and it sure is interesting to see how far along the video/media road Cisco has come in a year's time. Not a lot of talk about routers and switches, hardly any talk about IP telephony, and ZERO mention of VoIP. If I'm tracking video, media, social networking, Web 2.0, it's pretty hard not to bump up against Cisco now. Pretty impressive the way they've put a lot of the pieces together, and I have no doubt that in 2008 they will be one of the big stories in this space.

Got lots more to say, but not now - hopefully tomorrow....

John Chambers opened things with a roundtable Telepresence session, with live feeds from 4 different cities - 3 on stage as you see here, plus a Cisco contingent based in New York. This was neat to watch, as John Chambers led a round robin discussion with 3 speakers about Telepresence, especially in terms of how these technologies can improve and accelerate productivity. I couldn't help but note, though that the interaction was a bit static, as John went from one speaker to another in serial fashion. So, there wasn't much to look at while the other speakers just sat there silently. Would have been more effective if there was some real time interactive discussion among everyone - maybe next time. Was also interesting with this being a session-within-a-session, as we got to watch John Chambers conduct his session, mostly with his back to the audience. Pretty tricky stuff to stage, as he needs to engage all of us out there watching him face these screens to engage the speakers, since they were talking him, not us.

Charlie Giancarlo, hosting the Cisco Development Council, with John Chambers looking on in front of me. Tough audience to please, but they did a great job.

Dan Scheinman, Media Solutions Group - definitely the media guru at Cisco, and I really enjoyed his vision for where all this is going. Key takeaway - Me plus We = Community. Totally.

Cisco is big on Second Life - here's the Cisco Sandbox...

Sneak preview - I'm going to be on video during tomorrow's 8am session. I was the first analyst to do submit a question on videotape for tomorrow's CIO Fireside Chat session. Let's see how they answer it tomorrow - I'll let you know next post.

Technorati tags: Cisco, Jon Arnold

Posted by jonarnold at 05:59 PM | Comments (2)

December 07, 2007

Avaya Canada's Analyst Day

Been one of my busiest weeks of the year, and I just haven't been around much to do any blogging. On Wednesday, I attended Avaya Canada's analyst day here in Toronto. Well, technically Markham, but still, not far from home for a change.

Pretty informative day, with lots of roadmap updates and what to expect in 2008. I wasn't able to attend Avaya's global analyst conference last month, but I did go last year.

All I can say is that last year, Avaya laid out a pretty strong vision about "intelligent communications", and how powerful IP communications can be when you put it all together. Avaya Canada's event this week was on a more modest scale, but looking at things a year later, what really struck me was how right they've gotten the messaging and positioning for what these technologies can do at a human level. I think they're doing a great job of translating the technical aspects of their solutions into the mantra of better living through technology, both at home and at work. This builds great brand equity for Avaya, creating the "Intel inside" association any technology vendor would love to have.

Not being a technical analyst, I operate under the assumption that these things work and that the technology is more or less ready to do what it's supposed to do. I know that's not 100% true, but it's far enough along that vendors like Avaya can deliver pretty high functioning solutions that go well beyond bringing voice and data together under one tent.

The other comment I'll make is that during the afternoon session, we were under "heavy NDA" for some bigger picture presentations that set the stage for where Avaya is going in 2008 and beyond. Can't say more than that other than I think this gave us a better understanding as to why Avaya went private. Glad I was there!

Avaya Canada's CEO, Mario Belanger and a room full of smart people!

Roberta Fox demo'ing the One-X Quick Edition, one of Avaya's SMB solutions

You know you're special when you get a blue phone. Just like iPods and iPhones have cool skins, why not your desk phone?

Technorati tags: Avaya Canada, Jon Arnold

Posted by jonarnold at 09:35 AM | Comments (0)

November 30, 2007

Telus Consultants Program Highlights

Yesterday I attended a day-long session held by Telus, which they do on occasion for the consultant community. It's one way they do outreach, and in this case, the focus was an update on some of their key partner relationships. The day was split up with presentations from Intel, Nortel and Microsoft, with a lot of focus how well they're partnering with Telus to bring innovation and value to the Canadian market.

The audience is largely technical and IT consultants, so most of the messaging was about speeds and feeds, as opposed to business and strategy issues, which is more my cup of tea. I was really the only industry analyst there, so I didn't have any expectations otherwise. That's fine - was still pretty interesting, and it's clear that Telus is thinking more like a Telco 2.0 carrier than 1.0 carrier, although this may take time to percolate down to the masses.

Even though Microsoft and Nortel have a strategic alliance going, they each did their own thing yesterday, so there wasn't any indication of joint solutions coming with Telus. However, Nortel did have some nice SMB solutions on display, and I got a good demo at their table. To be fair, I couldn't stay til the very end, but I didn't see any evidence of cross-vendor synergies finding their way into Telus' portfolio. Not to say this couldn't happen, but these were for the most part serial presentations, and if I had to do it over, I'd look for Telus to talk more about the collective benefits these partnerships are bringing, as well as how they are helping create some distinct integrated solutions that customers can't get anywhere else.

As an aside, much of the banter between the presentations was about the major news that hit the media that morning about new regulations to open up the wireless market here. It's a big story, and in some ways it overshadowed what was going on in the sessions. None of the speakers made any reference to it, and given that Telus is one of Canada's 3 major wireless players, I think this could have led to some interesting discussions.

Here are some photos, courtesy of my Nokia N95....

Comments from Bill Edwards, who leads the Telus Consultants Liaison Program

An Intel blade server - or is it? Sure looks like one, but it's actually a cardboard life-size version they passed around so we could get a sense of its footprint. Pretty fun prop...

FMC demo from Nortel

Microsoft - nothing to really show, but here's a cool image off their monitor

Technorati tags: Telus, Jon Arnold, Intel, Nortel, Microsoft

Posted by jonarnold at 09:13 AM | Comments (0)

November 08, 2007

My Afternoon with Nokia Siemens

Yesterday I the benefit of a private briefing with Nokia Siemens and Personeta to showcase all the cool things they're doing around IMS and FMC applications. It turned out I was the only person present during my alloted time, so I had the team all to myself.

This was quite the experience in quite the setting. However, it was a great way to demonstrate a variety of applications, utilizing combinations of broadband, mobility and video. So, for example, you may be using mobile-to-mobile video calling today with the likes of AT&T or Rogers, but they were also able to show some things you're not likely getting today from your carrier. Let's go see.

Welcome to the Nokia Siemens mobile experience (photos courtesy of my Nokia N95 - which they were very happy to see)....

Has the inside of a tractor trailer ever looked so good? Looks like something out of a James Bond movie.

Video calling, mobile-to-mobile - nothing new there...

Mobile-to-PC video calling - that's getting more interesting...

Let's move on to IPTV. This is on a Sony HD screen, and notice how the home page fills out the whole TV screen, as well as the high quality resolution. This particular site is called dotdaily, and it's a customized home page, where the viewer selects the content and news feeds of interest.

Now we move from the big screen to a small screen. Here is live, streaming TV - CNN in fact - running on a Nokia N95 - of course.

And now something even more interesting. How about accessing content stored on your PVR/DVR on your mobile phone? Or control the settings to remotely set up a recording session? Literally, a mobile, remote control. That's pretty neat. The service isn't launched yet, but it's coming. Hence the deliberately murky picture to protect the innocent.

Finally, a quick word about the magic bus itself. This is the first time I've ever had a briefing in a parking lot! While it may sound suspicious, this is one well-equipped rig.

Note the satellite dish mounted on top of the cab in the first picture. The front end of the inside of the trailer was hidden behind a curtain, but I got to see it briefly. Basically, there's enough equipment there to simulate a Central Office environment, which provides a realistic, real time setting to demonstrate all these services.

Note how both sides of the trailer slide out from the middle like wings to create all the space you see inside. Not quite Transformers, but pretty impressive.

Technorati tags: Nokia Siemens, Jon Arnold, Personeta, IMS

Posted by jonarnold at 09:12 AM | Comments (1)

October 26, 2007

Octasic's Vocallo Launch

I don't do a lot of vendor shout-outs, but Octasic is one of many vendors who will be making noise next week at Fall VON.

In support of their Vocallo launch, they engaged me to write a white paper, which has just been published. Vocallo is a big leap forward for DSP solutions, and Octasic feels they have some game-changing advancements here. The market will ultimately decide, but as you'll see in the paper, I think it's pretty compelling too.

So, if you want to get the full story, as well as the white paper, I'll steer you the section on their website dedicated to Vocallo. You can access the white paper there, but you have to register first.

Technorati tags: Octasic, Jon Arnold, Vocallo, J Arnold & Associates

Posted by jonarnold at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)

October 05, 2007

Dialogic Acquires Cantata

I got a press release this morning announcing that Dialogic has acquired EAS Group, which in turn owns Cantata. That was news to me, and I haven't seen any commentary out there about this yet. Either people are busy with other things, or it's a non-event. Not sure.

Anyhow, you can read the release for yourself on Dialogic's website, or if you go to Cantata's site, there's a message directing you over to Dialogic's site, or a click-through to the same press release that's running on Dialogic's site. So, I guess it's official.

To be fair, I haven't followed Cantata as closely as I used to, but it's no secret they've had difficulty making their mashup of VoIP infrastructure companies work. Cantata is made up of three Massachusetts-based vendors - SnowShore, Excel Switching and Brooktrout. They've all had up and down rides, and at this point, it's clear that a better plan is needed. Consolidation has been a major trend this year in IP, and Dialogic's move is another step in that direction.

I can't really add much else right and will have to look into this a bit further. At first look, there are some parallels to what Radisys did by acquiring Convedia last year. Media servers are a common aspect to both moves, and this is an important nextgen building block, not just for everyday VoIP, but IMS as well.

Clearly Dialogic thinks there's a fit here, and maybe they're trying to become a consolidator now. That said, no financial details of the deal were provided, and it's not explained how Dialogic is funding the deal. The fact that not much is being said about this raises some questions, so it's hard to draw firm conclusions right now.

Of course, if you didn't know, Dialogic is based in Montreal, so it's worth noting that a Canadian company has come into the milieu and acquired an American company. Hate to say it, but it's probably a good time to be doing this given that the Canadian dollar is trading above the greenback. So, for a change, the economics are attractive for Canadian companies to do this.

Actually, with the US dollar being weak relative to other currencies, I wouldn't be surprised to see vendors from other parts of the world follow Dialogic to take advantage of their stronger currency. Time will tell. Meanwhile, it's Canadian Thanksgiving on Monday, so I'm sure the Dialogic execs will be enjoying their turkey. Gobble gobble.

Technorati tags: Dialogic, Jon Arnold, Cantata

Posted by jonarnold at 12:44 PM | Comments (0)

October 03, 2007

Next Stop - BroadSoft Connections

It's in-between time for me in terms of the two major IP communications shows I usually attend this time of the year - TMC's ITExpo and Pulvermedia's Fall VON. I've got plenty of client work keeping me busy and I'm not trying to travel too much.

For now, I've got one travel event of note lined up during this time period, and it's a good time for me to put it on the blog. About 10 days from now, I'll be attending the BroadSoft Connections 2007 event in Phoenix. I've been once before, and they really do a great job. Am looking forward to catching up with their team and getting a close look at their roadmap.

BroadSoft is one of those companies that has stuck to their plan, and it's working quite well for them. If I had to pick an IPO-in-waiting in our space for 2008, they'd have to be at the top of the list, so this should be an especially good time to go.

I love going to industry events, but I enjoy attending vendor events almost as much. I've been lucky to get invites to several of these, for both Tier 1s and Tier 2s, and I always come away feeling the time was well spent. I'm sure Connections will be no different, and what's not to like about Phoenix? Hey, they may even still be playing baseball then.

Technorati tags: BroadSoft Connections, Jon Arnold

Posted by jonarnold at 08:17 PM | Comments (0)

September 28, 2007

Podcast with Jim Burton - Zeacom and Unified Communications

The TMC ITExpo took place earlier this month, and while the show is no longer newsworthy, I did a podcast there that has just been published.

Colleague Jim Burton runs the UC Strategies portal, to which I regularly contribute and often cite. During the ITExpo, Jim and I sat down to do a podcast, and we ended up talking about the overall state of unified communications, with a particular focus on an exhibitor that caught our eye - Zeacom. They've been making some noise about having had a UC solution for years, and based on the demos we saw, they do have a pretty interesting offering.

The podcast was posted to the UC Strategies portal earlier this week, and if these topics appeal to you, I think you'll find our chat worth a listen. Having been in Ottawa most of the week, this has been my first chance to post it, but I don't think you're missing anything picking it up now.

Technorati tags: Jim Burton, Jon Arnold, UC Strategies, Zeacom

Posted by jonarnold at 08:48 PM | Comments (0)

September 18, 2007

IP Convergence TV Portal - Launching Tomorrow

Tomorrow - September 19 - is the beta launch of IP Convergence TV. Chances are this will be news to you, but hopefully not for long.

IP Convergence TV is an industry-based web portal focused on the broad spectrum of IP Convergence, which includes IPTV, Triple Play, FMC and some IMS. The portal has been developed to become a focal point of thought leadership and high quality content to help service providers better understand how they can effectively adopt convergence technologies.

I'm involved in this initiative and serve as the Portal Editor and Community Advocate. It's a pretty engaging role, and my job is keep the content on target, and I'll be making regular contributions of my own. I should point out that this is a non-commercial site. The core content is contributed by a charter group of sponsors, led by Comverse. That said, we are also drawing from a wider pool of thought leaders, so the perspectives will be pretty broad.

I'll leave it at that for now, and would simply encourage you to visit and learn about what the portal is all about and what it has to offer. There's lots to explore, and you can sign up free for regular updates. The portal is definitely going to evolve, but as a beta site, it's quite good, and if you're following IP convergence, I'm sure you find the content and the concept of interest. Hope to see you there.

Technorati tags: IP Convergence TV, Jon Arnold, Comverse

Posted by jonarnold at 09:46 PM | Comments (0)

September 17, 2007

Microsoft Surface - This is Cool!

On Saturday, Max and I had a private briefing of Microsoft Surface. First off, I just have to say this is a bit like Telepresence - you have to see it and experience it to believe and understand what it's all about. You can get a good sense of this from the Surface website, but sitting down and seeing it first hand is something else.

Most people haven't seen Surface before, so if that's you, I think you'll really enjoy this post.

Toronto was the second stop on their North America media tour - following New York, and I suspect Max is the first teenager in Canada to have had a private briefing, so he's a pretty happy guy. Surface has been public for several months, but commercial deployments are another story. This particular demo was held at the downtown Sheraton Hotel, which is part of the Starwood hotel/resort operation. Am not sure just how far along they are in offering Surface to their guests, but we got a pretty good taste of what it might look like if they did.

I'll let the pictures and video clip below tell the rest of the story. I have no doubt Surface will find a home for some pretty cool commercial settings like hotels, but we also got a glimpse about how this will become the uber-cool coffee table of the future in your smart home. The mind boggles.....

Surface is a tabletop console, and it's touch-based. Just think of it as a giant iPhone - but much more powerful. This example is a restaurant, where all the menu items can be viewed, and you can place your order directly from the console. That's just the beginning...

Now it's time to divvy up the bill. Kyle and Max are going Dutch, and they're now going to drag each item that's theirs into their own spaces so they can figure out how much each of them owes to pay the bill.

Max's portion is $14.63. He just puts his credit card face up on the console. The back of his credit card is tagged to interface with Surface, and presto, the bill is paid on the spot. Of course, this cuts down on interacting with the waiter, but for the 2.0 crowd, how can you not like this?

Let's switch to the fun stuff - home entertainment. Check this out - the video puzzle. This is a car racing video, and the image is broken up over a grid of plastic tiles. They're all tagged, and each one shows a portion of the video clip. The challenge is to assemble all the tiles in the right order - just like a puzzle - to get the complete image as fast as you can (there's a timer on the console to show how long it takes). Lots of ways to play this game - 1 on 1, or kids vs. parents, etc. So, just like doing your daily crossword puzzle, imagine subscribing to a service where you get a daily video puzzle to solve. It's not hard to see how Surface opens up a whole new world of entertainment possibilities. You'll see even more in the video clip down below.

And of course, the Paint program. Just pick your colors and doodle away. The possibilities are endless, and it won't take long for people to figure out creative ways to use this.

Here's a short video of the demo, led by Microsoft's Kyle Warnick. He does a great job illustrating some of the cool things you can do with Surface. Check out what he does with a digital camera, and then with a couple of Zunes. Where can I get one of these???

Technorati tags: Microsoft Surface, Jon Arnold, Toronto

Posted by jonarnold at 09:31 AM | Comments (0)

September 14, 2007

TMC ITExpo - Show Highlights

It's been a long time between posts, but the week just sort of worked out that way. I flew out on Sunday to LA for the Fall edition of TMC's ITExpo, and was there the first 2 days. I moderated a couple of sessions, took in a bunch of briefings, saw a few sessions, did a podcast with Jim Burton (coming soon!), and made my way around the show floor a few times.

All told, it was a pretty strong show - good size, but not huge, so there was time to see everything, which was great. Seemed to be a lot of energy, and most of the exhibitors I spoke with said the quality of the traffic was very good. No huge announcements and nothing radically new at the show, so the world I came home