2013 Speaker List

Location: Osceola A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 3:45 PM-4:30 PM

Mobile, mobile….the world's gone mobile. OK, but what does that really mean relative to video for the enterprise? This session breaks down how the two revolutions -- mobile and video -- will impact enterprises, and present the issues enterprises need to address. The topics to be covered include:
* How are IT operations affected when video conferencing is deployed on mobile platforms?
* What will change at the end user level when video gets deployed on mobile platforms?
* What are the key decision criteria for selecting a mobile-video solution?
* How does BYOD impact this decision?

Location: Sun B
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

In this session, you’ll get insight into the new technologies, services and solutions that could alter how enterprises use video and collaboration applications in the future. The issues to be covered include:
* What's coming down the pike that I need to know about?
* How will some of these new technologies or applications change the way I work?
* How will these new ideas save money?
* Will these new ideas disrupt the present market and vendors?

Location: Sun A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 4:45 PM-5:30 PM

Continue the conversation that we began earlier this day in our “Living with Lync” breakout session. In this BOF, a leading Microsoft partner with deep history in the Lync product line will lead a discussion that encourages audience participation. Bring your concerns, ideas, plans, questions, and comments, and share them with your peers and with Lync experts who will help you understand how Lync may (or may not) fit in with your unique situation. From specific configuration questions to broad architectural plans, we’ll discuss whatever issues you feel are most important around the migration to UC, and whether Lync should be a part of that migration.

Location: Osceola B
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

This workshop starts with the simple question: If an enterprise wanted to eliminate all or most of its premises-based communications equipment and deploy a fully loaded unified communications solution from a hosted and managed cloud services provider, could it do so today? If so, what would such an implementation look like? Who could deliver it? And what would it cost?

The Cloud-Based Communications Services RFP describes a domestically headquartered company with two branch locations and a number of mobile workers. This session presents solutions from leading hosted unified communications providers covering each of the major unified communications applications including presence, IM, call control, audio/video/web conferencing, unified messaging, etc. It also ascertains whether an organization, using these major players, could craft a cost-effective, secure, robust cloud-based communications platform for its users today.There will be a thorough review of the solutions proposed by those responding to the RFP, and the analysis will include:

• Architecture
• Cost
• Feature/functionality/quality of service
• Migration path
• Manageability
• Business continuity and disaster recovery
• Level of risk (security, compliance, control/accountability)
• TCO as compared to premises-based offerings

Location: Sun B
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

SIP Trunking is one the hottest issues in enterprise communications, because it promises cost savings and true, end-to-end, IP voice connections. But the number of enterprises actually using SIP Trunks to their full potential is still relatively small — partly because of the way in which carriers are offering these services, and partly because technical/interoperability challenges remain.

This workshop will examine the architecture options involved with deploying SIP Trunks, review the carrier offerings and ordering procedures, analyze the role of Session Border Controllers and options for configuration and present the critical issues — and best practices — for troubleshooting and managing SIP Trunks.

Location: Osceola A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 3:15 PM-4:00 PM

If 2011 was the year that social media integration with contact center solutions was the hot topic, there can be no doubt that delivering an optimal mobile customer experience supplanted it in 2012. In this session, contact center applications companies with mobile customer care solutions discuss the offerings available and actual use cases of early adopters.

Location: Expo Floor
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 1:30 PM-1:50 PM

David meets Goliath at Customer Service Mountain. Your small contact center has unique characteristics, challenges and opportunities. However, your goal is the same as today’s largest centers: provide exceptional customer service, grow revenues, manage costs, and contribute to the company’s overall success. Learn how your small center can use its size and flexibility to stand out from the crowd and gain the customer service advantage.

Location: Osceola A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

Videoconferencing has always been hardware-intensive, but Cloud and virtualiztion could change that. This session examines this software video scenario – how real is it, and what are the implications for buyers and sellers. Among the issues to be addressed are:
* What does it mean to have a “software based videoconferencing solution” – what changes on the buyers’ side and the sellers’?
* Can videoconferencing really be a cloud-based solution?
* How does “video-as-a-software-business” change the economics – for both buyers and sellers?
* What are the risks for customers, equipment vendors, and service providers?
* What should a buyer be doing today or in preparing an RFP?

Location: Sun C
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

Five years ago video conferencing standards were clear, and the top 5 vendors worked hard at maintaining interoperability. Today, the landscape has dramatically changed -- enterprises want UC- video integration, consumer-oriented desktops, and mobility. Meanwhile, Skype carries more video conferencing minutes than any other provider, but it uses a proprietary protocol. In short, we have many more options but they don’t interoperate. This session will help you make more intelligent decisions about video conferencing, and will examine the following questions:
* What efforts are underway today to make interoperability a non-issue?
* Does UC make interoperability more likely or less likely?
* Are gateways the answer?
* Where do the service providers stand? What is the position of the major video vendors?
* If video becomes a software client, should users really care about interop?

Location: Sun B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

Converged networks aren’t new, but it’s still as much art as science when it comes to delivering high-quality application performance and real-time voice, video and data traffic over converged facilities. This workshop identifies the problems that you can expect to encounter and it will provide the solutions you need to overcome them.

The specific topics on the agenda include:
• What is required to deliver adequate quality of service (QOS) for voice and video on any local and wide-area IP networks that previously handled only data?
• What services do I need from my WAN vendor to support voice and video? What is an appropriate Service Level Agreement (SLA)?
• Can you run VOIP or video over the Internet with acceptable QOS/quality of experience (QOE)?
• How do I classify traffic in the network to ensure voice and video are treated correctly without opening my network up to overutilization by unauthorized endpoints?
• How do you extend your upgrade to serve mobile workers?
• What tools are needed for testing and monitoring a converged network with voice and video?
• How can I manage the huge bandwidth demand that desktop and mobile video will cause on my enterprise network?

Location: Osceola C
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 9:15 AM-10:00 AM

For decades, we’ve heard that “convergence” was coming. Well,it’s arrived, and it’s becoming pervasive. The old boundaries within communications and collaboration are breaking down,as business apps and processes run across wired and wireless facilities, and are composed of a mix of data, voice, video and graphics.

The blurring of old technology boundaries creates other disturbances in the field -- most notably, what you will buy and from whom: Whether the topic is communications or the data center, video or storage, servers or collaboration services, there are new options for partners and delivery systems. Services and apps can be provided via the Cloud, on-premises or a mix of the two. And WebRTC could alter the landscape and change expectations for how communications and collaboration sessions take place.

So what is the going-forward model for enterprise communications and collaboration? Will the traditional pillars of enterprise communications architecture -- voice vs. data vs. video -- be replaced with choices organized around the desktop vs. the network vs. the “Cloud”? If the “consumerization of IT” is inevitable, how will the vendors meet the enduring requirements for security, compliance scalability, manageability and cost-effectiveness? And as consolidation continues within the industry, what are the prospects
for genuine competition?

A panel of senior IT executives will discuss these and related issues. The conversation will be essential as you develop your architecture and review your options for systems, services and applications.

Location: Sun A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

As your enterprise plans its migration to SIP Trunks, you’ll need to understand the traffic effects of the voice (and potentially video) that will run on those connections. Since your planning is no longer circuit-based, you’ll have to figure out how peak-hour traffic demands translate into IP metrics. In this session, you’ll get both statistical and real-world information to help you make the calculations for sizing your SIP trunks. You’ll learn how to use traditional telephony metrics like Erlangs to calculate volumes, and then how to use this to calculate the traffic in terms of packet volumes—including allowances for packet overhead, codec differences, and the impact of video. Finally, after this discussion, you’ll learn about real-world cases that illustrate how these calculations were made, and how the enterprise’s traffic calculations meshed with the structure of the SIP Trunking carriers’ service provisions. You’ll come away with a framework for understanding how to “right-size” your SIP Trunks for your enterprise.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* How do you go from understanding your current traffic requirements for PRIs, to translating these metrics to IP/SIP Trunks?
* How do you purchase SIP Trunks while factoring in busy hour loads and sufficient quality of service?
* How do questions of SIP Trunk sizing vary depending on your network architecture—i.e., how do you size SIP Trunks at a centralized datacenter serving all your locations, versus an architecture with local SIP trunks at multiple locations?
* How do you account for video traffic—current and future—in your SIP Trunk sizing?
* Are the carriers’ SIP Trunking services sold in a way that helps or hinders these calculations?

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 3:15 PM-4:00 PM

WebRTC may enable a variety of new, innovative and disruptive customer outreach and
engagement capabilities. Allowing customers on a webpage to initiate a B2C-related
voice (or video) call from any browser, without any client download or plugin, seems like a
no-brainer. The ability to call a billion people without proprietary endpoints or software is
compelling.
But, will WebRTC really enable straightforward business cases, and will end
users and customers embrace this click-to-connect model? In this
session, customer engagement experts will discuss what early initiatives are
underway to multimedia-enable customer-facing websites and business processes. They’ll
discuss the feasibility issues, what it will take to make such
interaction ubiquitous and when it might happen. You’ll leave with a better sense of just
how quick the WebRTC-enabled contact center and other customer engagement
capabilities will become available.

KEY QUESTIONS:
●How might WebRTC-enabled browsers change the nature of customer contact and
the makeup of the contact center workforce?
●What would a video-enabled contact center agent and the environment need to look
like?
●Can WebRTC-enabled websites succeed even if all the major browsers don’t
support WebRTC?
●How might WebRTC change the balance of power and the potential market
opportunities for traditional contact center vendors (Genesys, Avaya, Cisco) vs.
innovators who come out of the CRM world (SAP, Salesforce)?
●Can companies leverage WebRTC across mobile devices to provide richer ways of
engaging with customers and partners?
●Will customers embrace WebRTC solutions or would they rather just use existing
services like Skype?

Location: Sun A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

As your enterprise plans its migration to SIP Trunks, you’ll need to understand the traffic effects of the voice (and potentially video) that will run on those connections. Since your planning is no longer circuit-based, you’ll have to figure out how peak-hour traffic demands translate into IP metrics. In this session, you’ll get both statistical and real-world information to help you make the calculations for sizing your SIP trunks. You’ll learn how to use traditional telephony metrics like Erlangs to calculate volumes, and then how to use this to calculate the traffic in terms of packet volumes—including allowances for packet overhead, codec differences, and the impact of video. Finally, after this discussion, you’ll learn about real-world cases that illustrate how these calculations were made, and how the enterprise’s traffic calculations meshed with the structure of the SIP Trunking carriers’ service provisions. You’ll come away with a framework for understanding how to “right-size” your SIP Trunks for your enterprise.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* How do you go from understanding your current traffic requirements for PRIs, to translating these metrics to IP/SIP Trunks?
* How do you purchase SIP Trunks while factoring in busy hour loads and sufficient quality of service?
* How do questions of SIP Trunk sizing vary depending on your network architecture—i.e., how do you size SIP Trunks at a centralized datacenter serving all your locations, versus an architecture with local SIP trunks at multiple locations?
* How do you account for video traffic—current and future—in your SIP Trunk sizing?
* Are the carriers’ SIP Trunking services sold in a way that helps or hinders these calculations?

Location: Osceola C
Monday, March 18, 2013, 11:15 AM-12:00 PM

UC is no longer a new technology nor is it a new offering, it’s been
commercially available for at least six years. But while UC was revving
up, other technologies weren’t standing still. Smartphones and tablets
already deliver much of the UC “experience,” WebRTC promises to
integrate real-time voice and video directly into browser technology and if
we’ll all soon be living and working from our social media networks, will
the need for UC disappear?

Well, that’s one side, but there is another: Premises-based virtualization
enables enterprises to fulfill UC requirements in a much more cost-effective,
secure and reliable manner than any social network could ever deliver and, so far,
enterprises have moved very slowly to put their communications and
collaboration operations into the Cloud.

So, if an enterprise is preparing to upgrade to next-gen communications and
collaboration capabilities in the next 12-18 months, what role should UC play
in its architecture strategy and procurement plans, and what are the realistic options for
UC service delivery?
Co-Moderators: Fred Knight, GM/Co-Chair, Enterprise Connect, and Publisher, NoJitter.com;
Eric Krapf, Co-Chair, Enterprise Connect and Editor, NoJitter.com

Location: Sun B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

Converged networks aren’t new, but it’s still as much art as science when it comes to delivering high-quality application performance and real-time voice, video and data traffic over converged facilities. This workshop identifies the problems that you can expect to encounter and it will provide the solutions you need to overcome them.

The specific topics on the agenda include:
• What is required to deliver adequate quality of service (QOS) for voice and video on any local and wide-area IP networks that previously handled only data?
• What services do I need from my WAN vendor to support voice and video? What is an appropriate Service Level Agreement (SLA)?
• Can you run VOIP or video over the Internet with acceptable QOS/quality of experience (QOE)?
• How do I classify traffic in the network to ensure voice and video are treated correctly without opening my network up to overutilization by unauthorized endpoints?
• How do you extend your upgrade to serve mobile workers?
• What tools are needed for testing and monitoring a converged network with voice and video?
• How can I manage the huge bandwidth demand that desktop and mobile video will cause on my enterprise network?

Location: Osceola 1
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 4:45 PM-5:30 PM

With an ever-growing array of advanced communications services - such as UC, mobility, FMC, BYOD, SIP trunking, HD video, and in the future WebRTC – an enterprise IT department is starting to resemble and operate like a communications service provider. This panel session, led by Zeus Kerravala, discusses the key issues that face enterprise organizations, and the risks and implications involved in deploying, managing and administering a complex web of communications services in a private cloud: 1. How to simplify the deployment of advanced UC services and enable interoperability? 2. How to manage escalating operational costs? 3. How to harness next generation UC services, to improve inter-company collaboration and employee productivity

Location: Sun C
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

Providing an exceptional customer experience has gone well beyond traditional telephone and email. Organizations today must provide exceptional service across not only traditional channels but also nurture and evolve their social, mobile, and web experience. Come hear how businesses are solving for these requirements and how to approach and measure the success of these initiatives.

Location: Sun A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 3:15 PM-4:00 PM

Unified Communications works within the enterprise, but having full multi-modal, presence-driven communications access to key business partners could be an extremely powerful tool. This capability, currently known as ‘federation’ is not ubiquitously supported among UC vendors, and federation between the systems of different vendors can only be facilitated by 3rd party intermediaries. So does Federation have a future as an “over the top (OTT)” service? In particular, might the traditional telephony service providers--who currently have no role to play in federation other than the provision of the ‘last mile’ IP network—have a play here? This session addresses the benefits of federation/multi-media communications as well as the various scenarios that could make ‘OTT’ the next-generation enterprise communications mechanism.

Key Questions
* What is the current status of federation, and how is it being used?
* What value does UC federation deliver, and how much of that value can be achieved today?
* Will communications service providers play a role in facilitating federation, or will it continue to be done directly from company to company over the Internet?
* Will UC vendors’ become OTT service providers, or will the traditional providers find a way to add value to multi-media communications?

Location: Osceola A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

Everyone acknowledges that multivendor interoperability should be a key part of any Unified Communications implementation, but the reality is that interoperability remains a moving target. The UC vendors address this challenge in different ways, and to different degrees, so this session will focus on three specific interoperability issues:

* Interoperability Requirements: The top five areas were interoperation is needed.
* Interoperability Design: Using interoperation to create optimal solutions.
* Interoperability for Installed Systems: How interoperation can save you time and money.

You’ll see how leading vendors are offering interoperation in the top five interoperation categories. Vendor panelists will be challenged to support their interoperation capabilities. This is a crucial session for every enterprise that is in the strategy, planning or implementation phases of Unified Communications.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are the key points within the UC system where interoperability is most vital—and how close are those to plug-and-play status with vendor products?
* What standards and protocols are being used to deliver interoperation?
* How do the different vendors rate in terms of their products’ interoperability?
* How do you make products work together if they aren’t interoperable out of the box?
* What are the cost tradeoffs between interoperable solutions, single vendor solutions, and deferring the solution until it is a standard feature?

Location: Sun A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

The SIP Forum has completed an interoperability specification, SIPConnect 1.1, which is intended to ensure interoperability between enterprise CPE and carrier networks. But the carriers never officially committed to SIPConnect 1.1, so it’s likely that interoperability will continue to be an issue when you investigate and procure SIP Trunking services. This session will give you the details about the status of SIP Trunking Interoperability today, and prospects for the future. You’ll understand what you need to do to make sure that interoperability challenges don’t hold up your migration to SIP Trunks.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What interoperability issues have historically plagued SIP Trunking, and how close are these to being resolved?
* What is SIPConnect 1.1, and what are its prospects for emerging as a meaningful specification that’s adhered to by all parties involved in SIP Trunking?
* What specific interoperability issues aren’t solved by SIPConnect 1.1, and what is being done about these?
* Are some carriers more committed to interoperability than others? Are some vendors’ SBCs or gateways more likely to interoperate with more carriers?

Location: Osceola A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

More and more communications platform functions are becoming available for deployment on virtualized servers. And at the same time, vendors and enterprise users are grappling with the complexities of deploying communications on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)—which promises greater flexibility in end-user devices, while potentially creating new network performance challenges. In this session, you’ll get an overview of the opportunities for virtualizing your core communications applications, the costs and benefits of doing so, and tips on how to proceed with the migration. You’ll also get practical advice on how to include VDI in your larger strategies for end devices and even BYOD.

Key Questions:
* What percentage of communications platform vendors offer their core capabilities on virtual servers? How much of their product lines have the leading companies virtualized?
* Should you begin moving immediately toward virtualized communications applications? What factors will affect your migration planning?
* What are the cost benefits of virtualized communications applications (including call control)?
* What are the organizational and management challenges of deploying communications applications on virtual machines within the enterprise datacenter?
* What is the status of VDI for enterprise communications clients? Can the vendors currently support VDI? What about your enterprise network infrastructure?

Location: Expo Floor
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:00 PM-2:20 PM

Location: Expo Floor
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-1:50 PM

Interested in driving business efficiencies with next generation collaboration for events? You’ll want to attend this panel discussion where Cisco leaders will talk openly and candidly about best practices you can use to leverage your existing assets and deploy a reusable communications platform for use inside and outside the firewall. Learn how Cisco has pioneered this new frontier using on-prem and cloud based solutions and the critical services required that pull all this together to deliver scalable online events like GSX, Cisco TV, Cisco Live! Virtual and more.

Location: Sun A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

More and more enterprises are developing some experience with SIP Trunks, mostly via limited pilot implementations, while a few pioneers have implemented SIP Trunks enterprise-wide. As the amount of real-world experience with SIP Trunks grows, what lessons can we glean from early implementers? In this session, you’ll get a chance to hear from end users who will discuss their experiences--what worked, what didn’t, what they’d do differently, and what they plan to do when their next contract for SIP Trunks comes due. You’ll get real-world knowledge that you can put to use when you implement SIP Trunks.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What’s the biggest challenge when implementing SIP Trunks?
* What are the keys to a successful SIP Trunk deployment?
* What have been the major benefits?
* What would they have done differently the first time around, and what do they plan to do differently as they move forward?

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 1:00 PM-2:00 PM

See and hear first-hand what WebRTC can deliver. We’ll ask WebRTC providers and developers to show demos of what WebRTC can do and what it takes to deploy their capabilities.

Location: Sun B
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

In this session, you’ll get insight into the new technologies, services and solutions that could alter how enterprises use video and collaboration applications in the future. The issues to be covered include:
* What's coming down the pike that I need to know about?
* How will some of these new technologies or applications change the way I work?
* How will these new ideas save money?
* Will these new ideas disrupt the present market and vendors?

Location: Osceola A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

Managed/hosted and Cloud service delivery is all the rage these days, but what’s the real story? In this sessions you’ll hear from enterprise IT executives who have made the decision – or who expect to – describe why they’re going down this road and what issues they face along the way. This session will address the following questions:
* What are the major reasons for considering video conferencing managed services?
* What are the advantages and disadvantages of managed services?
* How should an enterprise transition to video conferencing managed services?

Location: Sun C
Monday, March 18, 2013, 3:15 PM-4:00 PM

The rise of social media has reshuffled the patterns of enterprise/customer interactions. Customers now expect companies to provide fast and personalized answers to their queries; they want them in the format of their choice on their favorite device. Enterprises must turn customer interactions into personalized conversations that take the history and the context of their relationship into account.

This session will explain the opportunities created by connecting customers, contact center personnel and knowledge experts together in a continuous conversation that can seamlessly shift across media and devices. Discover and discuss how the opportunities offered by the new Alcatel-Lucent OpenTouch Customer Conversation suite will innovate your customer experience.

Location: Osceola 1
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:45 AM

In this session, the industry’s leading contact center analyst will give an overview of market shares and technology trends within the contact center vendor landscape. She will then lead a discussion with executives from the leading contact center vendors, which will further illuminate the trends and positioning described in the presentation. You will get a thorough understanding of where the market is at for ACDs, IVRs, and next-generation technology for the contact center, and will be familiar with the established and emerging players shaping this market.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* Who are the contact center market share leaders? Who’s up and who’s down from last year?
* What are the key trends in the contact center infrastructure market? Who and what are driving these trends?
* How do contact center product strategies fit in with the larger communications platform strategies that these companies or their partners are implementing?
* What emerging trends, such as social integration and cloud services, are likely to gain broad near-term acceptance, within the next 12-18 months? Which are more hype than reality?

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 1:00 PM-2:00 PM

See and hear first-hand what WebRTC can deliver. We’ll ask WebRTC providers and developers to show demos of what WebRTC can do and what it takes to deploy their capabilities.

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 3:15 PM-4:00 PM

WebRTC may enable a variety of new, innovative and disruptive customer outreach and
engagement capabilities. Allowing customers on a webpage to initiate a B2C-related
voice (or video) call from any browser, without any client download or plugin, seems like a
no-brainer. The ability to call a billion people without proprietary endpoints or software is
compelling.
But, will WebRTC really enable straightforward business cases, and will end
users and customers embrace this click-to-connect model? In this
session, customer engagement experts will discuss what early initiatives are
underway to multimedia-enable customer-facing websites and business processes. They’ll
discuss the feasibility issues, what it will take to make such
interaction ubiquitous and when it might happen. You’ll leave with a better sense of just
how quick the WebRTC-enabled contact center and other customer engagement
capabilities will become available.

KEY QUESTIONS:
●How might WebRTC-enabled browsers change the nature of customer contact and
the makeup of the contact center workforce?
●What would a video-enabled contact center agent and the environment need to look
like?
●Can WebRTC-enabled websites succeed even if all the major browsers don’t
support WebRTC?
●How might WebRTC change the balance of power and the potential market
opportunities for traditional contact center vendors (Genesys, Avaya, Cisco) vs.
innovators who come out of the CRM world (SAP, Salesforce)?
●Can companies leverage WebRTC across mobile devices to provide richer ways of
engaging with customers and partners?
●Will customers embrace WebRTC solutions or would they rather just use existing
services like Skype?

Location: Osceola B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

There is a lot happening with managed/hosted offerings, and this session examines both the emerging underlying technologies and market factors shaping these services. The session will examine how both buyers and sellers are reacting to new technologies and how business models -- and ROI assessments -- are changing.

Location: Sun D
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-5:00 PM

The IP Telephony/UC RFP describes a domestically headquartered company with two branch locations and a number of mobile workers. This session present solutions from leading UC providers covering each of the major unified communications applications (voice communications and services, presence, IM, call control, audio/video/web conferencing, unified messaging, etc.).
Key take-aways for this workshop are:
• A comprehensive RFP system performance document covering
basic and advanced hardware/software capabilities for
today’s IP telephony and Unified Communications systems.
The RFP will also cover:
• Use of SIP
• Integration of mobile devices
• Basic Contact Center
• Actual proposals from leading system suppliers with detailed performance specifications and associated summary pricing tables.
• Critiques of response submissions by one of the industry’s leading enterprise communications system analysts and end user consultants.
• Scoring of vendor responses based on TCO and ability to meet the RFP requirements

Location: Osceola A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

More and more communications platform functions are becoming available for deployment on virtualized servers. And at the same time, vendors and enterprise users are grappling with the complexities of deploying communications on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)—which promises greater flexibility in end-user devices, while potentially creating new network performance challenges. In this session, you’ll get an overview of the opportunities for virtualizing your core communications applications, the costs and benefits of doing so, and tips on how to proceed with the migration. You’ll also get practical advice on how to include VDI in your larger strategies for end devices and even BYOD.

Key Questions:
* What percentage of communications platform vendors offer their core capabilities on virtual servers? How much of their product lines have the leading companies virtualized?
* Should you begin moving immediately toward virtualized communications applications? What factors will affect your migration planning?
* What are the cost benefits of virtualized communications applications (including call control)?
* What are the organizational and management challenges of deploying communications applications on virtual machines within the enterprise datacenter?
* What is the status of VDI for enterprise communications clients? Can the vendors currently support VDI? What about your enterprise network infrastructure?

Location: Sun C
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-2:45 PM

This Session will explore & discuss ways you & your peers ensure that the technology you’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on, that you count on to take care of your customers the way they want to be taken care of is in fact offering up a Customer Service Experience that delivers on your brand promise. Technology is great, but you can’t just put your faith in the machines & assume all will be well with the customer experience.

Location: Osceola C
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 10:00 AM-10:30 AM

Location: Osceola C
Monday, March 18, 2013, 11:15 AM-12:00 PM

UC is no longer a new technology nor is it a new offering, it’s been
commercially available for at least six years. But while UC was revving
up, other technologies weren’t standing still. Smartphones and tablets
already deliver much of the UC “experience,” WebRTC promises to
integrate real-time voice and video directly into browser technology and if
we’ll all soon be living and working from our social media networks, will
the need for UC disappear?

Well, that’s one side, but there is another: Premises-based virtualization
enables enterprises to fulfill UC requirements in a much more cost-effective,
secure and reliable manner than any social network could ever deliver and, so far,
enterprises have moved very slowly to put their communications and
collaboration operations into the Cloud.

So, if an enterprise is preparing to upgrade to next-gen communications and
collaboration capabilities in the next 12-18 months, what role should UC play
in its architecture strategy and procurement plans, and what are the realistic options for
UC service delivery?
Co-Moderators: Fred Knight, GM/Co-Chair, Enterprise Connect, and Publisher, NoJitter.com;
Eric Krapf, Co-Chair, Enterprise Connect and Editor, NoJitter.com

Location: Sun C
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:15 PM

Smart devices and applications have dramatically changed the way we do business and live our day-to-day lives. With these products and technologies nearly ubiquitous, the next wave of change is coming on fast, and it’s going to be a big one: context-aware applications. UC vendors and users are ideally positioned to take advantage of these new opportunities and reap significant rewards. Please join Joe Burton, Plantronics’ SVP of technology, development and strategy, and CTO, for an overview of context-aware devices and applications that can amplify the UC experience today and ensure optimal positioning for the future.

Location: Sun B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

Converged networks aren’t new, but it’s still as much art as science when it comes to delivering high-quality application performance and real-time voice, video and data traffic over converged facilities. This workshop identifies the problems that you can expect to encounter and it will provide the solutions you need to overcome them.

The specific topics on the agenda include:
• What is required to deliver adequate quality of service (QOS) for voice and video on any local and wide-area IP networks that previously handled only data?
• What services do I need from my WAN vendor to support voice and video? What is an appropriate Service Level Agreement (SLA)?
• Can you run VOIP or video over the Internet with acceptable QOS/quality of experience (QOE)?
• How do I classify traffic in the network to ensure voice and video are treated correctly without opening my network up to overutilization by unauthorized endpoints?
• How do you extend your upgrade to serve mobile workers?
• What tools are needed for testing and monitoring a converged network with voice and video?
• How can I manage the huge bandwidth demand that desktop and mobile video will cause on my enterprise network?

Location: Osceola A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 3:15 PM-4:00 PM

If 2011 was the year that social media integration with contact center solutions was the hot topic, there can be no doubt that delivering an optimal mobile customer experience supplanted it in 2012. In this session, contact center applications companies with mobile customer care solutions discuss the offerings available and actual use cases of early adopters.

Location: Osceola B
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

The market for IP Telephony systems and services continues to face challenges from the rough economy, but there are also signs that natural depreciation cycles and pent-up demand could sustain market strength in at least some regions.

Cisco continues to grow its market share leadership, but the big story this year is: How much is Microsoft Lync cutting into the market shares of legacy vendors? By now, Lync’s telephony functionality has been available long enough for buyers to begin implementing it and market researchers to begin counting the implementations. So what’s the scoreboard look like after these early innings?

This session will include updated telephony system market forecasts and supplier share estimates; a discussion of which enterprise communications system features and applications are hot and which are not; a review of major market trends, such as Cloud Computing, mobility, and hosted solutions/virtualization; as well as a critical analysis of the leading system suppliers and their flagship offerings. It’s vital information as you perform your due diligence toward deciding who your strategic partner for communications should be for the next few years.

Key Questions:
* Which vendors are hot and which are not in the enterprise communications market?
* How much market share has Microsoft Lync grabbed, from which competitors, in which vertical and regional markets?
* Are Cloud-based solutions taking business away from hardware equipment and software vendors?
* How are the traditional system suppliers adjusting to changing market conditions and who may not be around when the smoke clears?
*Are customers actually buying and implementing Unified Communications offerings or is it still all hype?

Location: Sun A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:45 AM

SIP Trunking is the hottest technology trend in enterprise communications, but how do you procure the services and equipment to make it a success for your organization? This Deep Dive session will offer detailed presentations on the services and technologies you will need to acquire in order to roll out SIP Trunking. You’ll learn about what the incumbent carriers are doing, what their competitors are offering, and how to handle the procurement process so that you get a good deal on SIP trunks that also positions you for the enterprise-wide Unified Communications deployments of the future.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What’s the state of SIP Trunking availability, from both the Tier 1 carriers and alternative providers? And is there a difference between “availability” and “procure-ability”?
* How mature are providers’ SLAs for SIP Trunks?
* What are the risks of vendor lock-in when you sign a contract for SIP Trunking, and how do you mitigate these risks?
* Do you absolutely need a session border controller (SBC) when you implement SIP trunks, and if so, is this something the enterprise specifies, or is it a service provider decision?
* How does your enterprise’s communications architecture (centralized vs. de-centralized) affect your decision-making in SIP Trunk and SBC procurement?

Location: Sun A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

As your enterprise plans its migration to SIP Trunks, you’ll need to understand the traffic effects of the voice (and potentially video) that will run on those connections. Since your planning is no longer circuit-based, you’ll have to figure out how peak-hour traffic demands translate into IP metrics. In this session, you’ll get both statistical and real-world information to help you make the calculations for sizing your SIP trunks. You’ll learn how to use traditional telephony metrics like Erlangs to calculate volumes, and then how to use this to calculate the traffic in terms of packet volumes—including allowances for packet overhead, codec differences, and the impact of video. Finally, after this discussion, you’ll learn about real-world cases that illustrate how these calculations were made, and how the enterprise’s traffic calculations meshed with the structure of the SIP Trunking carriers’ service provisions. You’ll come away with a framework for understanding how to “right-size” your SIP Trunks for your enterprise.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* How do you go from understanding your current traffic requirements for PRIs, to translating these metrics to IP/SIP Trunks?
* How do you purchase SIP Trunks while factoring in busy hour loads and sufficient quality of service?
* How do questions of SIP Trunk sizing vary depending on your network architecture—i.e., how do you size SIP Trunks at a centralized datacenter serving all your locations, versus an architecture with local SIP trunks at multiple locations?
* How do you account for video traffic—current and future—in your SIP Trunk sizing?
* Are the carriers’ SIP Trunking services sold in a way that helps or hinders these calculations?

Location: Osceola C
Monday, March 18, 2013, 1:15 PM-1:45 PM

The mobile market is forging ahead, but the much-touted mobile UC offerings languish. At face value it would seem that mobile workers would benefit the most from presence, better integrated communications and collaboration capabilities, yet they bypass the mobile UC offerings and prefer native UC-like capabilities that come packaged with smartphones. The growth rate in the tablet market is growing by leaps and bounds, but as tablets lack a basic cellular voice capability can they serve as mobile UC devices or will they be yet another mobile opportunity the UC vendors miss out on?

Among the issues this panel will address are the following:
•What can or should UC vendors do to jump-start their aging mobility offerings?
•Will users ever want to route their mobile calls through IP-PBX or UC platforms?
•Can UC vendors deliver the type of engaging experience users have come to expect from their mobile devices given the limitations of the mobile vendors’ SDKs?
•Will we see joint offerings mobile operators and UC vendors so enterprises can have a more functional UC offering?
•If the UC vendors fail to come up with a better-integrated mobility solution, do they risk losing out to mobile-social capability that grows out of the consumer rather than the enterprise market?

Location: Osceola A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-3:00 PM

Smart mobile devices have now gone from being an expensive management perk to an essential productivity tool used at all levels of the organization. Along the way, smartphones and tablets have gone from being standard corporate-issued devices to user owned and maintained. Market shares for smartphones have followed a wild path that now leaves Android and Apple’s iOS in the lead and the others wondering where they should go. Microsoft has finally come out with an enterprise-capable offering in Windows Phone 8, and everyone is wondering if RIM will be able to pull out of its tailspin with BB10.
There has been as just as much turmoil in the tablet market, which grew a whopping 66% between mid-2011 and mid-2012. Apple still rules the roost, and in the $199 segment Google has entered the fray with the Nexus 7 and Amazon has launched the second generation Kindle Fire. Samsung is churning out both 7-inch and 10-inch Android tablets, but has now entered the Windows tablet market along with Acer, HP, and Dell, and they will all be going head to head with Microsoft’s Surface Pro. And all the while the UC&C vendors are trying to figure out how they can get in on the action as their mobile clients continue to underwhelm.
This session is designed to help you understand the unique requirements of the mobile devices, bring the mobile O/S picture into a clearer focus, and discuss the key factors that are driving the mobile device market.
Key Questions:
• Which mobile O/S environments will be most important to support, and do users recognize the differences in the security they provide?
• Will the mobile industry expand its focus beyond consumers to better address enterprise requirements, and will enterprise initiatives from handset manufacturers like Samsung be successful in meeting enterprise requirements.
• Will this be the breakout year for mobile device management, or will enterprise continue to hope they can go on without it?
• If RIM’s implosion continues does that create a greater opportunity for Windows Phone or will we be looking at an Apple-Android mobile duopoly?
• What will UC&C suppliers have to do to become relevant in mobility or is it too late to even try?

Location: Expo Floor
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:00 PM-1:20 PM

Location: Sun B
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

Apple essentially invented the tablet category with the release of the iPad in 2010, and still commands roughly a 70% market share despite a rash of Android tablets from Samsung, Amazon, Google, and others. While users were immediately stricken by the engaging touch screen interface and brilliant displays, many found the new devices lacked in the way of data input and other enterprise requirements. Some switched back to their laptops but others are now moving to Windows based tablets like the Samsung Series 7 or the Microsoft Surface Pro.

There has also been a lot of interest in tablets from the UC&C community. Avaya launched the Desktop Video Device, Cisco launched and then withdrew the Cius, and virtually all of the UC&C vendors have clients for iPads and in some cases Android devices as well. However, as a UC&C device tablets have one glaring deficiency in that they do not have a native cell phone capability, so the “C&C” has to be done over Wi-Fi or 3G/4G cellular service.

With two years of trial-and-error under our belts, what have we learned about the role of tablets in UC&C, what applications they are being used for, and what enterprise buyers should be looking for going forward.

Key Questions:
• Is there any reason for UC&C vendors to build their own tablets?
• With 7-inch and 10-inch tablet options available, who’s buying what, and are there different applications or use cases that drive the buyer one way or the other?
• Without the ability to make or receive cellular voice calls, can the tablet be considered a suitable UC&C terminal outside of the office?
• Will we need ruggedized tablets for industrial environments, or will protective cases do the trick?
• What percentage of enterprise users will move to Windows tablets, and how big an impact will that have on the laptop market?
• Is your next desk phone going to be a tablet?

Location: Sun B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

What communications applications are really feasible and cost-effective to move into the cloud today? There’s only one sure-fire way to know: Find enterprise decision-makers who have actually made the move and can talk about how they did it. In this session, enterprise end users who are using hosted applications will discuss how they reached their decision, the procurement process they used, the implementation they went through, and how things are going now. You’ll walk out with real-life stories from the trenches that will help guide your decision-making as you approach the issues that the industry colleagues on stage have already grappled with.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* Why did the panelists’ enterprises pursue a hosted solution for the application(s) they did?
* How did they choose their providers? Did they have a formal RFP?
* What SLAs and technology-refresh provisions do they have with their hosted provider?
* What implementation issues arose? How were these overcome?
* How much of a concern was security?
* Where do the panelists go from here? Are they looking to move more applications to the cloud?

Location: Sun A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 3:15 PM-4:00 PM

Unified Communications works within the enterprise, but having full multi-modal, presence-driven communications access to key business partners could be an extremely powerful tool. This capability, currently known as ‘federation’ is not ubiquitously supported among UC vendors, and federation between the systems of different vendors can only be facilitated by 3rd party intermediaries. So does Federation have a future as an “over the top (OTT)” service? In particular, might the traditional telephony service providers--who currently have no role to play in federation other than the provision of the ‘last mile’ IP network—have a play here? This session addresses the benefits of federation/multi-media communications as well as the various scenarios that could make ‘OTT’ the next-generation enterprise communications mechanism.

Key Questions
* What is the current status of federation, and how is it being used?
* What value does UC federation deliver, and how much of that value can be achieved today?
* Will communications service providers play a role in facilitating federation, or will it continue to be done directly from company to company over the Internet?
* Will UC vendors’ become OTT service providers, or will the traditional providers find a way to add value to multi-media communications?

Location: Sun A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:45 AM

SIP Trunking is the hottest technology trend in enterprise communications, but how do you procure the services and equipment to make it a success for your organization? This Deep Dive session will offer detailed presentations on the services and technologies you will need to acquire in order to roll out SIP Trunking. You’ll learn about what the incumbent carriers are doing, what their competitors are offering, and how to handle the procurement process so that you get a good deal on SIP trunks that also positions you for the enterprise-wide Unified Communications deployments of the future.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What’s the state of SIP Trunking availability, from both the Tier 1 carriers and alternative providers? And is there a difference between “availability” and “procure-ability”?
* How mature are providers’ SLAs for SIP Trunks?
* What are the risks of vendor lock-in when you sign a contract for SIP Trunking, and how do you mitigate these risks?
* Do you absolutely need a session border controller (SBC) when you implement SIP trunks, and if so, is this something the enterprise specifies, or is it a service provider decision?
* How does your enterprise’s communications architecture (centralized vs. de-centralized) affect your decision-making in SIP Trunk and SBC procurement?

Location: Expo Floor
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 4:00 PM-4:20 PM

Focus on customer drivers for adopting SIP for their enterprise and contact centers, what areas to focus on as they migrate from TDM to IP infrastructure.

Location: Sun B
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

In this session, you’ll get insight into the new technologies, services and solutions that could alter how enterprises use video and collaboration applications in the future. The issues to be covered include:
* What's coming down the pike that I need to know about?
* How will some of these new technologies or applications change the way I work?
* How will these new ideas save money?
* Will these new ideas disrupt the present market and vendors?

Location: Expo Floor
Monday, March 18, 2013, 5:00 PM-5:20 PM

Location: Sun A
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 10:00 AM-10:55 AM

What’s the true state of communications security in 2013? Where are the most serious threats, and what is – and isn’t-- being done to stop them?

In this session, you’ll hear from leading experts, who will offer their real-world findings drawn
from documented and observed operational attacks against U.S. enterprises and their contact centers, to give you a sense of what sorts of attacks pose the greatest risk to your communications, and which are still, at this stage, more distant prospects. You’ll come away with an understanding of the threats to fixed and mobile communications that should concern you most, and how to tackle them.

Location: Sun C
Monday, March 18, 2013, 3:15 PM-4:00 PM

The rise of social media has reshuffled the patterns of enterprise/customer interactions. Customers now expect companies to provide fast and personalized answers to their queries; they want them in the format of their choice on their favorite device. Enterprises must turn customer interactions into personalized conversations that take the history and the context of their relationship into account.

This session will explain the opportunities created by connecting customers, contact center personnel and knowledge experts together in a continuous conversation that can seamlessly shift across media and devices. Discover and discuss how the opportunities offered by the new Alcatel-Lucent OpenTouch Customer Conversation suite will innovate your customer experience.

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 1:00 PM-2:00 PM

See and hear first-hand what WebRTC can deliver. We’ll ask WebRTC providers and developers to show demos of what WebRTC can do and what it takes to deploy their capabilities.

Location: Sun D
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

Communications-Enabled Business Processes (CEBP) used to be promoted as part of a more closed ecosystem, but over the past couple of years, the model for integrating communications with the business has opened up, thanks largely to APIs (application programming interfaces). Several newer companies specialize in communications enabled by APIs, and even many established vendors are opening up their platforms to access from business applications via APIs. In this session, we’ll get a quick refresher on what APIs are and what role they play in communications; we’ll then hear from experts who will describe specific implementations and scenarios where communications APIs are enabling enhancements to business processes that would not have been possible otherwise. You’ll leave this session with a clear idea of the role that APIs play in marrying communications with business processes, and how you might be able to use them in your enterprise.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are communications APIs, where do you find them, and what exactly do you use them for?
* How do you evaluate the approach to APIs taken by different vendors?
* What is involved in the process of integrating communications systems with business process applications via APIs?
* Is this something your in-house applications and communications teams can do, or will you likely require the help of an SI or other third party?
* What organizational barriers are you likely to encounter in this process, and how do you overcome them?

Location: Sun A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:45 AM

SIP Trunking is the hottest technology trend in enterprise communications, but how do you procure the services and equipment to make it a success for your organization? This Deep Dive session will offer detailed presentations on the services and technologies you will need to acquire in order to roll out SIP Trunking. You’ll learn about what the incumbent carriers are doing, what their competitors are offering, and how to handle the procurement process so that you get a good deal on SIP trunks that also positions you for the enterprise-wide Unified Communications deployments of the future.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What’s the state of SIP Trunking availability, from both the Tier 1 carriers and alternative providers? And is there a difference between “availability” and “procure-ability”?
* How mature are providers’ SLAs for SIP Trunks?
* What are the risks of vendor lock-in when you sign a contract for SIP Trunking, and how do you mitigate these risks?
* Do you absolutely need a session border controller (SBC) when you implement SIP trunks, and if so, is this something the enterprise specifies, or is it a service provider decision?
* How does your enterprise’s communications architecture (centralized vs. de-centralized) affect your decision-making in SIP Trunk and SBC procurement?

Location: Sun A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

Microsoft’s Lync has been gaining in mind-share for IM/presence and related UC and collaboration functions, and it’s also now available with PBX telephony functionality. So, what’s the experience so far? Are enterprises finding it straightforward to layer Lync on top of their Exchange messaging, and is the result proving a benefit to end users and the enterprise generally? For enterprises that have implemented Lync telephony, are they glad they did? What lessons have they learned and what’s their plan for enterprise communications going forward? To find out we’ve asked consultants who’ve selected and installed Lync systems as well as enterprise execs who’ve been living with Lync to share their experience. This session will be an invaluable first-hand look at living with Lync.

Key Questions
* What were the driving factors for selecting Lync over other approaches and competing solutions?
* What have been the biggest surprises and “gotchas” during the process?
* How has Lync impacted the cost architecture for communications and collaboration within the affected enterprises?
* How have the end users responded? What were the training requirements?
* What elements of the overall communications and collaboration architecture have been most affected by Lync?
* What have been the specific experiences around Lync telephony, pro and con?

Location: Expo Floor
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 3:30 PM-3:50 PM

The various levels of expertise required to complete a full-service IT staff are growing, with 80% of the staffs time spent running low value, non-contributory commodity “Chore” type activities. A lesser 20% of the effort is spent executing high value, business differentiating “Core” projects that create true company value. Learn how managed service providers are reversing that ratio and helping IT organizations transform from cost centers into profit drivers.

Location: Osceola A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-3:00 PM

Smart mobile devices have now gone from being an expensive management perk to an essential productivity tool used at all levels of the organization. Along the way, smartphones and tablets have gone from being standard corporate-issued devices to user owned and maintained. Market shares for smartphones have followed a wild path that now leaves Android and Apple’s iOS in the lead and the others wondering where they should go. Microsoft has finally come out with an enterprise-capable offering in Windows Phone 8, and everyone is wondering if RIM will be able to pull out of its tailspin with BB10.
There has been as just as much turmoil in the tablet market, which grew a whopping 66% between mid-2011 and mid-2012. Apple still rules the roost, and in the $199 segment Google has entered the fray with the Nexus 7 and Amazon has launched the second generation Kindle Fire. Samsung is churning out both 7-inch and 10-inch Android tablets, but has now entered the Windows tablet market along with Acer, HP, and Dell, and they will all be going head to head with Microsoft’s Surface Pro. And all the while the UC&C vendors are trying to figure out how they can get in on the action as their mobile clients continue to underwhelm.
This session is designed to help you understand the unique requirements of the mobile devices, bring the mobile O/S picture into a clearer focus, and discuss the key factors that are driving the mobile device market.
Key Questions:
• Which mobile O/S environments will be most important to support, and do users recognize the differences in the security they provide?
• Will the mobile industry expand its focus beyond consumers to better address enterprise requirements, and will enterprise initiatives from handset manufacturers like Samsung be successful in meeting enterprise requirements.
• Will this be the breakout year for mobile device management, or will enterprise continue to hope they can go on without it?
• If RIM’s implosion continues does that create a greater opportunity for Windows Phone or will we be looking at an Apple-Android mobile duopoly?
• What will UC&C suppliers have to do to become relevant in mobility or is it too late to even try?

Location: Osceola B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

There is a lot happening with managed/hosted offerings, and this session examines both the emerging underlying technologies and market factors shaping these services. The session will examine how both buyers and sellers are reacting to new technologies and how business models -- and ROI assessments -- are changing.

Location: Sun A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 3:45 PM-4:30 PM

Enterprises may find value in sourcing some communications capabilities in the cloud, but it’s unlikely that many will move—at least in the near term—to a full cloud deployment. As a result, enterprises may find themselves moving toward a “hybrid cloud” that deploys communications functions in a mix of environments: public cloud (i.e., hosted); private cloud (i.e., the enterprise datacenter); and on-premises. The task will be to determine which communications capabilities should reside in which types of environments. This session will feature a discussion and debate among representatives of the various viewpoints and constituencies. You’ll leave the session with an idea of what’s possible now, and what direction you should take your planning for the next 12-18 months.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are the risk/reward tradeoffs of deploying different communications functions in different parts of a “hybrid” deployment?
* Are all communications capabilities available for all types of environments (public cloud, private cloud and on-prem)? Do different types of providers specialize in different capabilities, and how does this factor influence your decision-making?
* What interoperability or integration challenges are you likely to encounter when you try to implement a hybrid cloud environment?
* What cost factors are involved in the decision-making?
* Where do the risks of vendor lock-in reside in hybrid cloud implementations, and how do you avoid them?

Location: Sun B
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

In this session, you’ll get insight into the new technologies, services and solutions that could alter how enterprises use video and collaboration applications in the future. The issues to be covered include:
* What's coming down the pike that I need to know about?
* How will some of these new technologies or applications change the way I work?
* How will these new ideas save money?
* Will these new ideas disrupt the present market and vendors?

Location: Osceola B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

There is a lot happening with managed/hosted offerings, and this session examines both the emerging underlying technologies and market factors shaping these services. The session will examine how both buyers and sellers are reacting to new technologies and how business models -- and ROI assessments -- are changing.

Location: Osceola A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

Videoconferencing has always been hardware-intensive, but Cloud and virtualiztion could change that. This session examines this software video scenario – how real is it, and what are the implications for buyers and sellers. Among the issues to be addressed are:
* What does it mean to have a “software based videoconferencing solution” – what changes on the buyers’ side and the sellers’?
* Can videoconferencing really be a cloud-based solution?
* How does “video-as-a-software-business” change the economics – for both buyers and sellers?
* What are the risks for customers, equipment vendors, and service providers?
* What should a buyer be doing today or in preparing an RFP?

Location: Sun C
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

Five years ago video conferencing standards were clear, and the top 5 vendors worked hard at maintaining interoperability. Today, the landscape has dramatically changed -- enterprises want UC- video integration, consumer-oriented desktops, and mobility. Meanwhile, Skype carries more video conferencing minutes than any other provider, but it uses a proprietary protocol. In short, we have many more options but they don’t interoperate. This session will help you make more intelligent decisions about video conferencing, and will examine the following questions:
* What efforts are underway today to make interoperability a non-issue?
* Does UC make interoperability more likely or less likely?
* Are gateways the answer?
* Where do the service providers stand? What is the position of the major video vendors?
* If video becomes a software client, should users really care about interop?

Location: Sun C
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 4:45 PM-5:30 PM

Video is becoming pervasive in the workplace. More and better interactions are driven by video than never before. The explosion of mobile devices and the availability of cloud applications and services are serving as the foundation for new capabilities for video communication and collaboration to more users, at more places. Come and learn about Cisco’s vision for this space, and learn about how new technologies are enabling a better, easier, more engaging user experience.

Location: Sun B
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

Apple essentially invented the tablet category with the release of the iPad in 2010, and still commands roughly a 70% market share despite a rash of Android tablets from Samsung, Amazon, Google, and others. While users were immediately stricken by the engaging touch screen interface and brilliant displays, many found the new devices lacked in the way of data input and other enterprise requirements. Some switched back to their laptops but others are now moving to Windows based tablets like the Samsung Series 7 or the Microsoft Surface Pro.

There has also been a lot of interest in tablets from the UC&C community. Avaya launched the Desktop Video Device, Cisco launched and then withdrew the Cius, and virtually all of the UC&C vendors have clients for iPads and in some cases Android devices as well. However, as a UC&C device tablets have one glaring deficiency in that they do not have a native cell phone capability, so the “C&C” has to be done over Wi-Fi or 3G/4G cellular service.

With two years of trial-and-error under our belts, what have we learned about the role of tablets in UC&C, what applications they are being used for, and what enterprise buyers should be looking for going forward.

Key Questions:
• Is there any reason for UC&C vendors to build their own tablets?
• With 7-inch and 10-inch tablet options available, who’s buying what, and are there different applications or use cases that drive the buyer one way or the other?
• Without the ability to make or receive cellular voice calls, can the tablet be considered a suitable UC&C terminal outside of the office?
• Will we need ruggedized tablets for industrial environments, or will protective cases do the trick?
• What percentage of enterprise users will move to Windows tablets, and how big an impact will that have on the laptop market?
• Is your next desk phone going to be a tablet?

Location: Sun D
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 3:45 PM-4:30 PM

Mobile networks have been a mixed blessing with regard to the mobility revolution. On the cellular front the mobile operators have moved from 2G to 4G and are now delivering downstream data rates measured in 10’s of megabits. However, developers continue to churn out bandwidth hogging apps that drive the carriers to continue investing in their networks and still come up short. Some are going to microcell technologies while others are offloading users to Wi-Fi networks. At the same time, public Wi-Fi networks are proliferating with offerings like CableWiFiTM and Devicescape.

Find out what’s happening on the mobile network front and how it could impact your planning and budgeting.

• What will be the budgetary impact of 4G?
• How will nationwide Wi-Fi networks like CableWiFiTM compare in terms of coverage and can enterprises use them as a viable alternative?
• Will this lead to new apps or just old apps running faster?
• How are major Wi-Fi users like universities coping with the influx of smartphones and tablets?

Location: Sun C
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

Enterprise-grade social software tools continue to evolve and offer new options for integrating communications with work processes to improve productivity and capture other business benefits. Some vendors are even taking the position that the lines are blurring between the social aspects and project-centric collaboration tools; they claim that tying in UC’s presence, IM, and click to communicate capabilities with a company’s social software community makes it easier to connect with people and share information. This session will offer real-world stories from enterprise end users who have embraced the integration of communications and social software, and can describe first-hand the challenges and benefits that resulted from their implementation projects.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* How did the panelists’ enterprises determine that integrating communications with Social software would yield measurable business benefits? How did they sell those benefits to management and end users?
* How did they plan and execute their integration projects? What were the biggest technical challenges, and how were these overcome?
* What communications functions—e.g., voice, IM, video—proved to be most valuable when integrated into Social Software systems? Where did the benefits prove to be overblown or otherwise not attainable?
* How do the strategic communications vendors integrate their platforms with Social Software—either their own social products, or those of other vendors? How do you devise a migration strategy for communications/social integration based on your legacy implementations?

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 10:45 AM-12:00 PM

Where does WebRTC stand in the real world of the enterprise today—and where is it headed in the next 24-36 months? How do your strategic vendors view WebRTC, and should you incorporate this emerging technology in your
enterprise planning?

Panelists will discuss and debate the potential future of WebRTC, and
explain where they believe it will have the greatest effect. They’ll so analyze which aspects are the most
over-hyped or farthest in the future. You’ll come away from this session with a perspective
on how close WebRTC really is in affecting the enterprise.

KEY QUESTIONS
● Which browsers aren’t yet implementing WebRTC and why, and what are the prospects for their eventual support?
● What are examples of WebRTC-enabled applications that are available now?
What can they do to add value to enterprise users? How does WebRTC
relate to trends like communications-enabled business processes (CEBP)?
● What role will WebRTC play in enterprise communications product offerings, how
will that affect the vendors’ go-to-market strategies, and how will that in turn affect
enterprises’ strategic planning?
●How will vendors monetize WebRTC?
●How will the carriers incorporate WebRTC into their services and infrastructure?
●What are the implications of WebRTC on mobile UC solutions?

Location: Sun A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

The SIP Forum has completed an interoperability specification, SIPConnect 1.1, which is intended to ensure interoperability between enterprise CPE and carrier networks. But the carriers never officially committed to SIPConnect 1.1, so it’s likely that interoperability will continue to be an issue when you investigate and procure SIP Trunking services. This session will give you the details about the status of SIP Trunking Interoperability today, and prospects for the future. You’ll understand what you need to do to make sure that interoperability challenges don’t hold up your migration to SIP Trunks.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What interoperability issues have historically plagued SIP Trunking, and how close are these to being resolved?
* What is SIPConnect 1.1, and what are its prospects for emerging as a meaningful specification that’s adhered to by all parties involved in SIP Trunking?
* What specific interoperability issues aren’t solved by SIPConnect 1.1, and what is being done about these?
* Are some carriers more committed to interoperability than others? Are some vendors’ SBCs or gateways more likely to interoperate with more carriers?

Location: Expo Floor
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 4:00 PM-4:20 PM

The 2013 Enterprise Connect conference promises to be an exciting experience with presentations, discussions and demonstrations on the latest in communications technology – how to mobilize your employees, save money with SIP Trunking, work smarter through collaboration, leverage the Cloud to reduce costs and extend capabilities, and what to do to bring Lync into your Enterprise. So what happens on Monday when you return to your office? This session offers a 3-step framework to help you assess where you are and establish a practical action plan for your organization. This session will help you assess what you have learned at enterprise Connect and prioritize the steps to take to make sure your communications technology plan is built toward your desired future state.

Location: Sun A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-3:00 PM

With Lync included with virtually all Microsoft enterprise licenses today and Cisco Jabber available free to most Cisco VoIP customers, the decision whether to deploy one or the other is being considered by many organizations. In this session, a detailed strategy for analyzing both options including the cost, operational, functional, and system integration impacts on an organizations will be evaluated. Part of the analysis is a quantitative method that enables weighted functional comparisons between the products based on user types and organizational structure. The session will include a panel with Cisco and Microsoft representatives debating the options and the analysis.
• When is Lync or Jabber a better option?
• What factors should an organization consider before deployment?
• Are Lync and Jabber mutually exclusive?
• What are the deployment differences between Lync and Jabber?
• How do you reslove the conflict between the Cisco and Microsoft groups in your organization?

Location: Osceola 1
Monday, March 18, 2013, 3:15 PM-4:00 PM

Real-time traffic (voice and video) demands a network that delivers low latency, low packet loss and low jitter. And that’s not easy to accomplish. The dynamic character of modern networks, and the growing requirement for highly distributed configurations can lead to errors in design or implementation that cause quality problems for voice and video apps.

And so, a new breed of testing methodologies and tools is required to test or monitor converged networks and to isolate problems. This session will analyze and categorize these tools, and list vendors that provide the different kinds of solutions needed to manage today’s complex networks.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* Why are new tools required to support voice and video conferencing? Why can’t I use the tools that have been serving me well for years?
* What features are required in these tools for managing and monitoring real-time networks?
* Who are the vendors and what types of tools to they offer?
* What do these tools cost, and how do I cost-justify their purchase?

Location: Sun B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

Converged networks aren’t new, but it’s still as much art as science when it comes to delivering high-quality application performance and real-time voice, video and data traffic over converged facilities. This workshop identifies the problems that you can expect to encounter and it will provide the solutions you need to overcome them.

The specific topics on the agenda include:
• What is required to deliver adequate quality of service (QOS) for voice and video on any local and wide-area IP networks that previously handled only data?
• What services do I need from my WAN vendor to support voice and video? What is an appropriate Service Level Agreement (SLA)?
• Can you run VOIP or video over the Internet with acceptable QOS/quality of experience (QOE)?
• How do I classify traffic in the network to ensure voice and video are treated correctly without opening my network up to overutilization by unauthorized endpoints?
• How do you extend your upgrade to serve mobile workers?
• What tools are needed for testing and monitoring a converged network with voice and video?
• How can I manage the huge bandwidth demand that desktop and mobile video will cause on my enterprise network?

Location: Sun A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 3:15 PM-4:00 PM

Unified Communications works within the enterprise, but having full multi-modal, presence-driven communications access to key business partners could be an extremely powerful tool. This capability, currently known as ‘federation’ is not ubiquitously supported among UC vendors, and federation between the systems of different vendors can only be facilitated by 3rd party intermediaries. So does Federation have a future as an “over the top (OTT)” service? In particular, might the traditional telephony service providers--who currently have no role to play in federation other than the provision of the ‘last mile’ IP network—have a play here? This session addresses the benefits of federation/multi-media communications as well as the various scenarios that could make ‘OTT’ the next-generation enterprise communications mechanism.

Key Questions
* What is the current status of federation, and how is it being used?
* What value does UC federation deliver, and how much of that value can be achieved today?
* Will communications service providers play a role in facilitating federation, or will it continue to be done directly from company to company over the Internet?
* Will UC vendors’ become OTT service providers, or will the traditional providers find a way to add value to multi-media communications?

Location: Osceola A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

Everyone acknowledges that multivendor interoperability should be a key part of any Unified Communications implementation, but the reality is that interoperability remains a moving target. The UC vendors address this challenge in different ways, and to different degrees, so this session will focus on three specific interoperability issues:

* Interoperability Requirements: The top five areas were interoperation is needed.
* Interoperability Design: Using interoperation to create optimal solutions.
* Interoperability for Installed Systems: How interoperation can save you time and money.

You’ll see how leading vendors are offering interoperation in the top five interoperation categories. Vendor panelists will be challenged to support their interoperation capabilities. This is a crucial session for every enterprise that is in the strategy, planning or implementation phases of Unified Communications.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are the key points within the UC system where interoperability is most vital—and how close are those to plug-and-play status with vendor products?
* What standards and protocols are being used to deliver interoperation?
* How do the different vendors rate in terms of their products’ interoperability?
* How do you make products work together if they aren’t interoperable out of the box?
* What are the cost tradeoffs between interoperable solutions, single vendor solutions, and deferring the solution until it is a standard feature?

Location: Osceola B
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

This workshop starts with the simple question: If an enterprise wanted to eliminate all or most of its premises-based communications equipment and deploy a fully loaded unified communications solution from a hosted and managed cloud services provider, could it do so today? If so, what would such an implementation look like? Who could deliver it? And what would it cost?

The Cloud-Based Communications Services RFP describes a domestically headquartered company with two branch locations and a number of mobile workers. This session presents solutions from leading hosted unified communications providers covering each of the major unified communications applications including presence, IM, call control, audio/video/web conferencing, unified messaging, etc. It also ascertains whether an organization, using these major players, could craft a cost-effective, secure, robust cloud-based communications platform for its users today.There will be a thorough review of the solutions proposed by those responding to the RFP, and the analysis will include:

• Architecture
• Cost
• Feature/functionality/quality of service
• Migration path
• Manageability
• Business continuity and disaster recovery
• Level of risk (security, compliance, control/accountability)
• TCO as compared to premises-based offerings

Location: Sun C
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

Two emerging technologies are likely to transform the operations and value proposition of contact centers for the enterprise. The first, social networking, offers a new channel for communicating with your customers on the front end, as well as a new way for agent to interact with colleagues and data inside of the enterprise. A separate but somewhat related technology trend is the increasing power and capabilities of analytics—the ability to glean ever-more information and insight about your customers from your existing data stores and communications archives (i.e., your “Big Data”). If these analytics can be mined and exposed to customer contact systems and agents, the results could transform the business. This session will help you understand these two cutting-edge technology trends, and most importantly, will give you concrete information about how Social Networking and Analytics can actually be used--integrated with communications systems—to revolutionize customer care.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* By now, many enterprises are monitoring Twitter and Facebook for mentions of their company--but how many are actually turning these mentions into actionable intelligence? How are they doing this?
* Is enterprise social networking software a useful tool for contact center agents? What can they use these systems to accomplish that can’t be done with existing systems?
* What analytics capabilities exist for your enterprise to quantify and act on the information you receive through communications and social networking channels?
* Are any enterprises actually doing social media/contact center integration today, or is this more of a future prospect?

Location: Osceola B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

Unified communications works with and through a PBX, but it’s not necessary to purchase and install a new PBX in order to get UC capabilities. There are multiple UC solution choices and they can interoperate with your current communication systems.

This workshop is based on a mock RFP to the leading UC vendors requesting a UC solution to provide IM/presence, conferencing, collaboration, mobility and CEBP without replacing the current PBX systems or e-mail systems. This RFP uses exactly the same requirements as two other mock RFP sessions at Enterprise Connect -- RFP for UC with a New PBX and UC including IP PBX functions in the Cloud. The template is based on a 2,000 user enterprise with a headquarters location and several remote offices, as well as mobile workers.

The workshop will include independent consultant review and scoring of the vendors responses along with vendor commentaries in mini-panels. You will gain invaluable information that will save you time and inform your UC planning, such as:
• What are the requirements and costs to install UC with our existing PBX?
• How does UC integrate to our existing PBX? What functions, if any, will be compromised?
• Will we be better off technically and financially by installing UC with our current PBX than by making UC part of a new IP PBX procurement? (You can compare the results of the three RFP sessions.)
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the leading vendors for UC with our current PBX?

Location: Sun C
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 3:45 PM-4:30 PM

Untapped assets -- one of the most sought after items in any strategic plan. What do you have that can be converted into an engine of growth, competitive advantage, and profitability? Think 'team output'... If you could get everyone in the organization pulling in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time. New York Times bestselling author Keith Ferrazzi leads a conversation with Market Leaders, including Chris Hummel, Chief Commercial Officer at Siemens Enterprise Communications, unraveling the complexities of this exciting subject.

Location: Osceola C
Monday, March 18, 2013, 1:15 PM-1:45 PM

The mobile market is forging ahead, but the much-touted mobile UC offerings languish. At face value it would seem that mobile workers would benefit the most from presence, better integrated communications and collaboration capabilities, yet they bypass the mobile UC offerings and prefer native UC-like capabilities that come packaged with smartphones. The growth rate in the tablet market is growing by leaps and bounds, but as tablets lack a basic cellular voice capability can they serve as mobile UC devices or will they be yet another mobile opportunity the UC vendors miss out on?

Among the issues this panel will address are the following:
•What can or should UC vendors do to jump-start their aging mobility offerings?
•Will users ever want to route their mobile calls through IP-PBX or UC platforms?
•Can UC vendors deliver the type of engaging experience users have come to expect from their mobile devices given the limitations of the mobile vendors’ SDKs?
•Will we see joint offerings mobile operators and UC vendors so enterprises can have a more functional UC offering?
•If the UC vendors fail to come up with a better-integrated mobility solution, do they risk losing out to mobile-social capability that grows out of the consumer rather than the enterprise market?

Location: Osceola A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-3:00 PM

Smart mobile devices have now gone from being an expensive management perk to an essential productivity tool used at all levels of the organization. Along the way, smartphones and tablets have gone from being standard corporate-issued devices to user owned and maintained. Market shares for smartphones have followed a wild path that now leaves Android and Apple’s iOS in the lead and the others wondering where they should go. Microsoft has finally come out with an enterprise-capable offering in Windows Phone 8, and everyone is wondering if RIM will be able to pull out of its tailspin with BB10.
There has been as just as much turmoil in the tablet market, which grew a whopping 66% between mid-2011 and mid-2012. Apple still rules the roost, and in the $199 segment Google has entered the fray with the Nexus 7 and Amazon has launched the second generation Kindle Fire. Samsung is churning out both 7-inch and 10-inch Android tablets, but has now entered the Windows tablet market along with Acer, HP, and Dell, and they will all be going head to head with Microsoft’s Surface Pro. And all the while the UC&C vendors are trying to figure out how they can get in on the action as their mobile clients continue to underwhelm.
This session is designed to help you understand the unique requirements of the mobile devices, bring the mobile O/S picture into a clearer focus, and discuss the key factors that are driving the mobile device market.
Key Questions:
• Which mobile O/S environments will be most important to support, and do users recognize the differences in the security they provide?
• Will the mobile industry expand its focus beyond consumers to better address enterprise requirements, and will enterprise initiatives from handset manufacturers like Samsung be successful in meeting enterprise requirements.
• Will this be the breakout year for mobile device management, or will enterprise continue to hope they can go on without it?
• If RIM’s implosion continues does that create a greater opportunity for Windows Phone or will we be looking at an Apple-Android mobile duopoly?
• What will UC&C suppliers have to do to become relevant in mobility or is it too late to even try?

Location: Osceola A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:45 AM

Mobility is increasing in importance and organizations are just coming to grips with this new and challenging environment. We are seeing advances in mobile networks, devices, operating systems, and applications, all at the same time that we are responding to demands for users to bring their own mobile devices into the workplace. While a BYOD initiative can help reduce mobile costs and increase user satisfaction, IT is still responsible for managing and securing corporate data, and will have to decide where to draw the line on supporting those user owned devices.

Mobile master Michael Finneran will bring you up to date on the major developments in the mobile field, the new threats in mobile security, the challenges in mobile policy development, and the best practices in supporting a BYOD environment.

• Understand mobility’s impact on UC

• Discuss the major issues and options to consider in developing a BYOD policy

• Examine the functions of MDM systems and their role in a managed mobility solution

• Identify the major security threats, their severity, and mechanisms to address them

Location: Sun B
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

Apple essentially invented the tablet category with the release of the iPad in 2010, and still commands roughly a 70% market share despite a rash of Android tablets from Samsung, Amazon, Google, and others. While users were immediately stricken by the engaging touch screen interface and brilliant displays, many found the new devices lacked in the way of data input and other enterprise requirements. Some switched back to their laptops but others are now moving to Windows based tablets like the Samsung Series 7 or the Microsoft Surface Pro.

There has also been a lot of interest in tablets from the UC&C community. Avaya launched the Desktop Video Device, Cisco launched and then withdrew the Cius, and virtually all of the UC&C vendors have clients for iPads and in some cases Android devices as well. However, as a UC&C device tablets have one glaring deficiency in that they do not have a native cell phone capability, so the “C&C” has to be done over Wi-Fi or 3G/4G cellular service.

With two years of trial-and-error under our belts, what have we learned about the role of tablets in UC&C, what applications they are being used for, and what enterprise buyers should be looking for going forward.

Key Questions:
• Is there any reason for UC&C vendors to build their own tablets?
• With 7-inch and 10-inch tablet options available, who’s buying what, and are there different applications or use cases that drive the buyer one way or the other?
• Without the ability to make or receive cellular voice calls, can the tablet be considered a suitable UC&C terminal outside of the office?
• Will we need ruggedized tablets for industrial environments, or will protective cases do the trick?
• What percentage of enterprise users will move to Windows tablets, and how big an impact will that have on the laptop market?
• Is your next desk phone going to be a tablet?

Location: Sun D
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 3:45 PM-4:30 PM

Mobile networks have been a mixed blessing with regard to the mobility revolution. On the cellular front the mobile operators have moved from 2G to 4G and are now delivering downstream data rates measured in 10’s of megabits. However, developers continue to churn out bandwidth hogging apps that drive the carriers to continue investing in their networks and still come up short. Some are going to microcell technologies while others are offloading users to Wi-Fi networks. At the same time, public Wi-Fi networks are proliferating with offerings like CableWiFiTM and Devicescape.

Find out what’s happening on the mobile network front and how it could impact your planning and budgeting.

• What will be the budgetary impact of 4G?
• How will nationwide Wi-Fi networks like CableWiFiTM compare in terms of coverage and can enterprises use them as a viable alternative?
• Will this lead to new apps or just old apps running faster?
• How are major Wi-Fi users like universities coping with the influx of smartphones and tablets?

Location: Sun A
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM

To wrap up Enterprise Connect, join leading analysts and program Co-chairs Fred Knight and Eric Krapf for a conversation, analysis and debate over the major issues covered during the Conference. The issues covered in the Locknote/Town Hall include analyzing the progress in deploying Unified
Communications and an assessment of its benefits and challenges; the viability of the Cloud as a deployment model for communications; the progress toward SIP Trunking and a New Public Network; issues around mobility; vendors’ positioning, strengths and weaknesses; and how emerging social networking functionality is being integrated into communications. Hear what the analysts have to say, and come prepared to share your questions, comments and perceptions.

Location: Osceola A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-3:00 PM

Smart mobile devices have now gone from being an expensive management perk to an essential productivity tool used at all levels of the organization. Along the way, smartphones and tablets have gone from being standard corporate-issued devices to user owned and maintained. Market shares for smartphones have followed a wild path that now leaves Android and Apple’s iOS in the lead and the others wondering where they should go. Microsoft has finally come out with an enterprise-capable offering in Windows Phone 8, and everyone is wondering if RIM will be able to pull out of its tailspin with BB10.
There has been as just as much turmoil in the tablet market, which grew a whopping 66% between mid-2011 and mid-2012. Apple still rules the roost, and in the $199 segment Google has entered the fray with the Nexus 7 and Amazon has launched the second generation Kindle Fire. Samsung is churning out both 7-inch and 10-inch Android tablets, but has now entered the Windows tablet market along with Acer, HP, and Dell, and they will all be going head to head with Microsoft’s Surface Pro. And all the while the UC&C vendors are trying to figure out how they can get in on the action as their mobile clients continue to underwhelm.
This session is designed to help you understand the unique requirements of the mobile devices, bring the mobile O/S picture into a clearer focus, and discuss the key factors that are driving the mobile device market.
Key Questions:
• Which mobile O/S environments will be most important to support, and do users recognize the differences in the security they provide?
• Will the mobile industry expand its focus beyond consumers to better address enterprise requirements, and will enterprise initiatives from handset manufacturers like Samsung be successful in meeting enterprise requirements.
• Will this be the breakout year for mobile device management, or will enterprise continue to hope they can go on without it?
• If RIM’s implosion continues does that create a greater opportunity for Windows Phone or will we be looking at an Apple-Android mobile duopoly?
• What will UC&C suppliers have to do to become relevant in mobility or is it too late to even try?

Location: Sun D
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 3:45 PM-4:30 PM

Mobile networks have been a mixed blessing with regard to the mobility revolution. On the cellular front the mobile operators have moved from 2G to 4G and are now delivering downstream data rates measured in 10’s of megabits. However, developers continue to churn out bandwidth hogging apps that drive the carriers to continue investing in their networks and still come up short. Some are going to microcell technologies while others are offloading users to Wi-Fi networks. At the same time, public Wi-Fi networks are proliferating with offerings like CableWiFiTM and Devicescape.

Find out what’s happening on the mobile network front and how it could impact your planning and budgeting.

• What will be the budgetary impact of 4G?
• How will nationwide Wi-Fi networks like CableWiFiTM compare in terms of coverage and can enterprises use them as a viable alternative?
• Will this lead to new apps or just old apps running faster?
• How are major Wi-Fi users like universities coping with the influx of smartphones and tablets?

Location: Expo Floor
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 3:00 PM-3:20 PM

Be the first to learn how the latest audio conferencing solution from Dolby & BT can drive better business collaboration within your organization. This latest technology makes conference calls sound and feel like face-to-face meetings. It improves the effectiveness of business meetings in a way that current audio conferencing solutions cannot match.

Location: Osceola A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 3:15 PM-4:00 PM

If 2011 was the year that social media integration with contact center solutions was the hot topic, there can be no doubt that delivering an optimal mobile customer experience supplanted it in 2012. In this session, contact center applications companies with mobile customer care solutions discuss the offerings available and actual use cases of early adopters.

Location: Sun B
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-5:00 PM

SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) has become the dominant protocol for IP communications. This workshop will take a unique look at SIP, how it works and the major issues impacting deployments.

With a big focus on SIP interoperability issues, the session will show how SIP works along the major components of SIP architecture, SIP addressing and registration, session establishment, SIP message routing, and connecting SIP across the PSTN.

SIP trunking deployment options and Session Border Controllers will have an extra focus with discussion on NAT, Security, QoS, codecs, Traffic Normalization and more.

Enterprises need to understand how to get service into their networks and manage their voice traffic while negotiating around Interoperability issues. Attendance of this session will help smooth the path to a SIP based network.

Location: Sun D
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 3:45 PM-4:30 PM

Mobile networks have been a mixed blessing with regard to the mobility revolution. On the cellular front the mobile operators have moved from 2G to 4G and are now delivering downstream data rates measured in 10’s of megabits. However, developers continue to churn out bandwidth hogging apps that drive the carriers to continue investing in their networks and still come up short. Some are going to microcell technologies while others are offloading users to Wi-Fi networks. At the same time, public Wi-Fi networks are proliferating with offerings like CableWiFiTM and Devicescape.

Find out what’s happening on the mobile network front and how it could impact your planning and budgeting.

• What will be the budgetary impact of 4G?
• How will nationwide Wi-Fi networks like CableWiFiTM compare in terms of coverage and can enterprises use them as a viable alternative?
• Will this lead to new apps or just old apps running faster?
• How are major Wi-Fi users like universities coping with the influx of smartphones and tablets?

Location: Osceola 1
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-3:00 PM

In the current economic climate, business cases rule. And when it comes to Unified Communications beyond basic call control, building a credible business case is not necessarily straightforward. Unified Communications is complex and involves numerous technologies, decision-makers and equipment/software/service providers. This session will share business cases for Unified Communications, based on data gathered over the past several years from real-world enterprise companies that have implemented the technology. It will draw on data supplied by hundreds of IT decision makers on the newer Unified Communications products and technologies, and you’ll leave the session with a clear picture of the elements of a successful UC business case.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are the key metrics in a business case for Unified Communications?
* What are the cost components of a Unified Communications business case?
* What resources (internal and external) companies must devote to their UC rollouts, per end-unit, per year segmented by rollout size and vendor?
* What are some of the key pitfalls? Where did companies go wrong?
* What are some compelling business case models for UC?

Location: Sun C
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:45 AM

The enterprise collaboration landscape is changing. Driven by the need to connect disparate workers, partners and even customers, enterprises are quickly adopting tools such as unified communications, video conferencing, workgroup collaboration services, and social computing. But absent a clear architecture and roadmap, we find that most deployments are disjointed and wind up in silos, leaving organizations unable to take advantage of seamless anytime, anywhere collaboration.

During this workshop, we’ll define the components of a UC&C architecture. We’ll identify key trends driving the need for an enterprise collaboration strategy, we’ll look at examples of how vendors and their partners are integrating their UC&C offerings, and finally we’ll share a roadmap for implementation based on numerous engagements with end user companies.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are the elements of UC and social platforms, and where & how do they intersect?
* How do you integrate UC and social systems to provide the greatest benefit and productivity gain to your employees?
* What is the business case for integrating UC and social?
* What are the pitfalls when attempting to integrate UC and social? How do you avoid these pitfalls?
* Who are the leading vendors in this space, and how do their offerings relate to the legacy systems you may already have in place for UC and collaboration?

Location: Sun A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 3:45 PM-4:30 PM

Enterprises may find value in sourcing some communications capabilities in the cloud, but it’s unlikely that many will move—at least in the near term—to a full cloud deployment. As a result, enterprises may find themselves moving toward a “hybrid cloud” that deploys communications functions in a mix of environments: public cloud (i.e., hosted); private cloud (i.e., the enterprise datacenter); and on-premises. The task will be to determine which communications capabilities should reside in which types of environments. This session will feature a discussion and debate among representatives of the various viewpoints and constituencies. You’ll leave the session with an idea of what’s possible now, and what direction you should take your planning for the next 12-18 months.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are the risk/reward tradeoffs of deploying different communications functions in different parts of a “hybrid” deployment?
* Are all communications capabilities available for all types of environments (public cloud, private cloud and on-prem)? Do different types of providers specialize in different capabilities, and how does this factor influence your decision-making?
* What interoperability or integration challenges are you likely to encounter when you try to implement a hybrid cloud environment?
* What cost factors are involved in the decision-making?
* Where do the risks of vendor lock-in reside in hybrid cloud implementations, and how do you avoid them?

Location: Sun C
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

Five years ago video conferencing standards were clear, and the top 5 vendors worked hard at maintaining interoperability. Today, the landscape has dramatically changed -- enterprises want UC- video integration, consumer-oriented desktops, and mobility. Meanwhile, Skype carries more video conferencing minutes than any other provider, but it uses a proprietary protocol. In short, we have many more options but they don’t interoperate. This session will help you make more intelligent decisions about video conferencing, and will examine the following questions:
* What efforts are underway today to make interoperability a non-issue?
* Does UC make interoperability more likely or less likely?
* Are gateways the answer?
* Where do the service providers stand? What is the position of the major video vendors?
* If video becomes a software client, should users really care about interop?

Location: Sun D
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

Several manufacturers of premises-based contact center infrastructure (ACD, IVR, reporting, etc.) report that their strongest growth is now coming from hosted implementations of their software, provided as a service to the enterprise. Some of these vendors are selling the hosted solutions themselves, while other vendors’ software is being made available through channel partners and VARs. In this session, you’ll hear from the industry’s leading contact center analyst, who will first outline the reasons why some enterprises are opting for hosted contact center services; she will then delve into a detailed description of the hosted contact center services market today. You’ll come away from this Deep Dive session with a clear idea of the business case and other justifications for using hosted contact center services; and you’ll also get a complete scorecard of all the players in this marketplace and how heavily each one is betting on hosted as a future revenue stream.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* Why would you move your contact center application to the cloud? What are the potential risks and rewards?
* What are the adoption trends for hosted contact center services?
* Who are the leading players in hosted contact centers? How do their approaches to the market differ?
* What are the elements of a hosted contact center service offer? How should enterprise decision-makers evaluate competing offers?
* How do costs compare, both among hosted offerings, and for hosted vs. premises deployments?

Location: Osceola A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

Managed/hosted and Cloud service delivery is all the rage these days, but what’s the real story? In this sessions you’ll hear from enterprise IT executives who have made the decision – or who expect to – describe why they’re going down this road and what issues they face along the way. This session will address the following questions:
* What are the major reasons for considering video conferencing managed services?
* What are the advantages and disadvantages of managed services?
* How should an enterprise transition to video conferencing managed services?

Location: Sun D
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

Communications-Enabled Business Processes (CEBP) used to be promoted as part of a more closed ecosystem, but over the past couple of years, the model for integrating communications with the business has opened up, thanks largely to APIs (application programming interfaces). Several newer companies specialize in communications enabled by APIs, and even many established vendors are opening up their platforms to access from business applications via APIs. In this session, we’ll get a quick refresher on what APIs are and what role they play in communications; we’ll then hear from experts who will describe specific implementations and scenarios where communications APIs are enabling enhancements to business processes that would not have been possible otherwise. You’ll leave this session with a clear idea of the role that APIs play in marrying communications with business processes, and how you might be able to use them in your enterprise.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are communications APIs, where do you find them, and what exactly do you use them for?
* How do you evaluate the approach to APIs taken by different vendors?
* What is involved in the process of integrating communications systems with business process applications via APIs?
* Is this something your in-house applications and communications teams can do, or will you likely require the help of an SI or other third party?
* What organizational barriers are you likely to encounter in this process, and how do you overcome them?

Location: Sun C
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

Two emerging technologies are likely to transform the operations and value proposition of contact centers for the enterprise. The first, social networking, offers a new channel for communicating with your customers on the front end, as well as a new way for agent to interact with colleagues and data inside of the enterprise. A separate but somewhat related technology trend is the increasing power and capabilities of analytics—the ability to glean ever-more information and insight about your customers from your existing data stores and communications archives (i.e., your “Big Data”). If these analytics can be mined and exposed to customer contact systems and agents, the results could transform the business. This session will help you understand these two cutting-edge technology trends, and most importantly, will give you concrete information about how Social Networking and Analytics can actually be used--integrated with communications systems—to revolutionize customer care.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* By now, many enterprises are monitoring Twitter and Facebook for mentions of their company--but how many are actually turning these mentions into actionable intelligence? How are they doing this?
* Is enterprise social networking software a useful tool for contact center agents? What can they use these systems to accomplish that can’t be done with existing systems?
* What analytics capabilities exist for your enterprise to quantify and act on the information you receive through communications and social networking channels?
* Are any enterprises actually doing social media/contact center integration today, or is this more of a future prospect?

Location: Sun B
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

During 2012, a number of web conferencing solution providers rolled out HD-quality video conferencing, giving enterprise users access to a high quality video conferencing alternative that does not have the hassles associated with traditional “standards-based” group / desktop video conferencing solutions. In this session Wainhouse Research staff will examine the pluses and minuses of web conferencing-based video conferencing, take look at user adoption, and ask a panel of the companies providing this service for an early report on what they are observing from their customers.
Key Questions:
• Will HD video conferencing delivered as a feature in web conferencing offerings stimulate greater use and acceptance of desktop video?
• What motivates web conferencing users to give HD video conferencing a try – and are they sticking with it?
• Is video conferencing creating new use cases for web conferencing? Are users conducting calls that only use video?
• Have the network requirements for web conferencing changed forever? Does video alter the appeal of the SaaS-based deployment model that has made web conferencing popular?
• Are users asking for web conferencing-based solutions to interface with standards-based systems? What are users doing to accommodate use in conference rooms?
• Going forward, will the web conferencing “call model” stand the test of time or will it inevitably have to be integrated with UC?

Location: Sun D
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-5:00 PM

The IP Telephony/UC RFP describes a domestically headquartered company with two branch locations and a number of mobile workers. This session present solutions from leading UC providers covering each of the major unified communications applications (voice communications and services, presence, IM, call control, audio/video/web conferencing, unified messaging, etc.).
Key take-aways for this workshop are:
• A comprehensive RFP system performance document covering
basic and advanced hardware/software capabilities for
today’s IP telephony and Unified Communications systems.
The RFP will also cover:
• Use of SIP
• Integration of mobile devices
• Basic Contact Center
• Actual proposals from leading system suppliers with detailed performance specifications and associated summary pricing tables.
• Critiques of response submissions by one of the industry’s leading enterprise communications system analysts and end user consultants.
• Scoring of vendor responses based on TCO and ability to meet the RFP requirements

Location: Expo Floor
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-2:50 PM

Communication technology has become a disparate mess as work lifestyles have permanently evolved to be flexible and mobile. Because we have so many communication options, the opportunity to connect and flourish is better than ever. Since the advent of the internet, users have been inundated with new ways to communicate. With these new trends and technologies, opportunities emerge . Harnessing these capabilities into a set of integrated and harmonized tools can dramatically improve team performance and output. The need is to overcome the physical distances between mobile and virtual team members, improve reach and enable productive conversations and dialog – while removing complexity. Our vision at Siemens Enterprise Communications is to deliver fully integrated communications solutions that synchronize technologies, harmonizes the user experience, and weaves communications directly into the way an organization operates to better empower employees and teams. The result is a more competitive enterprise – one that amplifies collective effort and dramatically improves performance.

Location: Sun A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 3:15 PM-4:00 PM

Unified Communications works within the enterprise, but having full multi-modal, presence-driven communications access to key business partners could be an extremely powerful tool. This capability, currently known as ‘federation’ is not ubiquitously supported among UC vendors, and federation between the systems of different vendors can only be facilitated by 3rd party intermediaries. So does Federation have a future as an “over the top (OTT)” service? In particular, might the traditional telephony service providers--who currently have no role to play in federation other than the provision of the ‘last mile’ IP network—have a play here? This session addresses the benefits of federation/multi-media communications as well as the various scenarios that could make ‘OTT’ the next-generation enterprise communications mechanism.

Key Questions
* What is the current status of federation, and how is it being used?
* What value does UC federation deliver, and how much of that value can be achieved today?
* Will communications service providers play a role in facilitating federation, or will it continue to be done directly from company to company over the Internet?
* Will UC vendors’ become OTT service providers, or will the traditional providers find a way to add value to multi-media communications?

Location: Sun A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

The SIP Forum has completed an interoperability specification, SIPConnect 1.1, which is intended to ensure interoperability between enterprise CPE and carrier networks. But the carriers never officially committed to SIPConnect 1.1, so it’s likely that interoperability will continue to be an issue when you investigate and procure SIP Trunking services. This session will give you the details about the status of SIP Trunking Interoperability today, and prospects for the future. You’ll understand what you need to do to make sure that interoperability challenges don’t hold up your migration to SIP Trunks.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What interoperability issues have historically plagued SIP Trunking, and how close are these to being resolved?
* What is SIPConnect 1.1, and what are its prospects for emerging as a meaningful specification that’s adhered to by all parties involved in SIP Trunking?
* What specific interoperability issues aren’t solved by SIPConnect 1.1, and what is being done about these?
* Are some carriers more committed to interoperability than others? Are some vendors’ SBCs or gateways more likely to interoperate with more carriers?

Location: Sun A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

As your enterprise plans its migration to SIP Trunks, you’ll need to understand the traffic effects of the voice (and potentially video) that will run on those connections. Since your planning is no longer circuit-based, you’ll have to figure out how peak-hour traffic demands translate into IP metrics. In this session, you’ll get both statistical and real-world information to help you make the calculations for sizing your SIP trunks. You’ll learn how to use traditional telephony metrics like Erlangs to calculate volumes, and then how to use this to calculate the traffic in terms of packet volumes—including allowances for packet overhead, codec differences, and the impact of video. Finally, after this discussion, you’ll learn about real-world cases that illustrate how these calculations were made, and how the enterprise’s traffic calculations meshed with the structure of the SIP Trunking carriers’ service provisions. You’ll come away with a framework for understanding how to “right-size” your SIP Trunks for your enterprise.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* How do you go from understanding your current traffic requirements for PRIs, to translating these metrics to IP/SIP Trunks?
* How do you purchase SIP Trunks while factoring in busy hour loads and sufficient quality of service?
* How do questions of SIP Trunk sizing vary depending on your network architecture—i.e., how do you size SIP Trunks at a centralized datacenter serving all your locations, versus an architecture with local SIP trunks at multiple locations?
* How do you account for video traffic—current and future—in your SIP Trunk sizing?
* Are the carriers’ SIP Trunking services sold in a way that helps or hinders these calculations?

Location: Sun A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 4:45 PM-5:30 PM

After three days’ worth of sessions on the nitty-gritty of SIP Trunking, what’s left to say? Probably plenty, as the implementation challenges persist and evolve for this important but often-vexing technology. Come to this BOF and bring all your questions that might not have been addressed, your new questions that were raised in sessions and informal conversations throughout the week, and your insights that you’ve gleaned here at Enterprise Connect and in your own enterprise experiences. We’ll try to tie up loose ends, help you craft an agenda or a list of questions to take back home with you, so that you leave Orlando as ready as you can be to make the most of SIP Trunking.
Leader: TBA

Location: Osceola B
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

The market for IP Telephony systems and services continues to face challenges from the rough economy, but there are also signs that natural depreciation cycles and pent-up demand could sustain market strength in at least some regions.

Cisco continues to grow its market share leadership, but the big story this year is: How much is Microsoft Lync cutting into the market shares of legacy vendors? By now, Lync’s telephony functionality has been available long enough for buyers to begin implementing it and market researchers to begin counting the implementations. So what’s the scoreboard look like after these early innings?

This session will include updated telephony system market forecasts and supplier share estimates; a discussion of which enterprise communications system features and applications are hot and which are not; a review of major market trends, such as Cloud Computing, mobility, and hosted solutions/virtualization; as well as a critical analysis of the leading system suppliers and their flagship offerings. It’s vital information as you perform your due diligence toward deciding who your strategic partner for communications should be for the next few years.

Key Questions:
* Which vendors are hot and which are not in the enterprise communications market?
* How much market share has Microsoft Lync grabbed, from which competitors, in which vertical and regional markets?
* Are Cloud-based solutions taking business away from hardware equipment and software vendors?
* How are the traditional system suppliers adjusting to changing market conditions and who may not be around when the smoke clears?
*Are customers actually buying and implementing Unified Communications offerings or is it still all hype?

Location: Sun A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

Research tells us that almost 90% of end user organizations either have or are developing a BYOD policy for either some or all of their mobile devices. All of those organizations have had to come to grips with the challenges of inventorying, managing, and securing those devices, as well as determining such issues as which mobile operating systems and devices they should support, how much of the cost they should reimburse, what level of support they should provide, and how to cancel the device if it is lost, stolen, or if the employee leaves the company.

This panel of BYOD users will discuss their solutions to these questions, what tools they have implemented for mobile device management, and
• How do BYOD policies differ from company to company?
• Who is responsible for developing and maintaining the policy?
• Are MDM systems essential or can we get along without them?
• What are the primary drivers? Cost savings? User satisfaction?
• Where do users go for support?

Location: Osceola A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 4:45 PM-5:30 PM

You’ve heard the experts and your peers’ case studies, now it’s time for you to sound off on BYOD. What are you seeing in your enterprise? What’s working, and what’s not? What do users really care about, and what are they less interested in? How do you manage the costs of BYOD? We’ll build on the week’s conversations around BYOD and mobility generally, in a conversation that will help you get answers to your specific, unique challenges. You’ll be able to share your stories and help others gain from your experiences as well. You’ll come away with ideas to help you handle BYOD in the way that makes the most sense for your enterprise.

Location: Sun A
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM

To wrap up Enterprise Connect, join leading analysts and program Co-chairs Fred Knight and Eric Krapf for a conversation, analysis and debate over the major issues covered during the Conference. The issues covered in the Locknote/Town Hall include analyzing the progress in deploying Unified
Communications and an assessment of its benefits and challenges; the viability of the Cloud as a deployment model for communications; the progress toward SIP Trunking and a New Public Network; issues around mobility; vendors’ positioning, strengths and weaknesses; and how emerging social networking functionality is being integrated into communications. Hear what the analysts have to say, and come prepared to share your questions, comments and perceptions.

Location: Osceola A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 3:45 PM-4:30 PM

Video conferencing can be implemented as a stand-alone deployment or as part of a Unified Communications strategy. This session will analyze the major UC platforms and compare their video capabilities with dedicated room solutions and personal desktops, and include discussion of the following topics:
* What are the benefits and drawbacks of using a UC platform as the foundation for visual communications?
* How does making UC as a platform for videoconferencing affect the risks and rewards?
* How does making UC as a platform for videoconferencing affect the decision making process?

Location: Sun C
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

Two emerging technologies are likely to transform the operations and value proposition of contact centers for the enterprise. The first, social networking, offers a new channel for communicating with your customers on the front end, as well as a new way for agent to interact with colleagues and data inside of the enterprise. A separate but somewhat related technology trend is the increasing power and capabilities of analytics—the ability to glean ever-more information and insight about your customers from your existing data stores and communications archives (i.e., your “Big Data”). If these analytics can be mined and exposed to customer contact systems and agents, the results could transform the business. This session will help you understand these two cutting-edge technology trends, and most importantly, will give you concrete information about how Social Networking and Analytics can actually be used--integrated with communications systems—to revolutionize customer care.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* By now, many enterprises are monitoring Twitter and Facebook for mentions of their company--but how many are actually turning these mentions into actionable intelligence? How are they doing this?
* Is enterprise social networking software a useful tool for contact center agents? What can they use these systems to accomplish that can’t be done with existing systems?
* What analytics capabilities exist for your enterprise to quantify and act on the information you receive through communications and social networking channels?
* Are any enterprises actually doing social media/contact center integration today, or is this more of a future prospect?

Location: Sun D
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-5:00 PM

The IP Telephony/UC RFP describes a domestically headquartered company with two branch locations and a number of mobile workers. This session present solutions from leading UC providers covering each of the major unified communications applications (voice communications and services, presence, IM, call control, audio/video/web conferencing, unified messaging, etc.).
Key take-aways for this workshop are:
• A comprehensive RFP system performance document covering
basic and advanced hardware/software capabilities for
today’s IP telephony and Unified Communications systems.
The RFP will also cover:
• Use of SIP
• Integration of mobile devices
• Basic Contact Center
• Actual proposals from leading system suppliers with detailed performance specifications and associated summary pricing tables.
• Critiques of response submissions by one of the industry’s leading enterprise communications system analysts and end user consultants.
• Scoring of vendor responses based on TCO and ability to meet the RFP requirements

Location: Sun D
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

Every enterprise operates with software-based business processes. These can be based on employee roles – sales, service, development, marketing, executives – and/or vertical markets – health care, transportation, manufacturing, government, education, finance, insurance, et al.

Communications-Enabled Business Processes (CEBP) involves integrating communications capabilities with these apps. The results can be significant – faster operations, lower costs, and the ability to “communicate in context” which increases productivity and ultimately, makes the enterprise more competitive.

This tutorial will begin with a review of the top CEBP applications, and how to assess opportunities for implementing these within your enterprise. Then the session will review the CEBP techniques available now in standard UC systems. A series of case study examples will be presented for which panelists will describe specifically what was required to implement the CEBP applications.

Key Questions:
* How can you determine where to best deploy CEBP applications in your enterprise?
* What technologies are needed for the CEBP applications?
* What are the key decision-factors when evaluating whether to proceed?
* What can be done to minimize the complexity and risk of CEBP applications?
* What can the vendors deliver when it comes to CEBP ?

Location: Osceola B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

Unified communications works with and through a PBX, but it’s not necessary to purchase and install a new PBX in order to get UC capabilities. There are multiple UC solution choices and they can interoperate with your current communication systems.

This workshop is based on a mock RFP to the leading UC vendors requesting a UC solution to provide IM/presence, conferencing, collaboration, mobility and CEBP without replacing the current PBX systems or e-mail systems. This RFP uses exactly the same requirements as two other mock RFP sessions at Enterprise Connect -- RFP for UC with a New PBX and UC including IP PBX functions in the Cloud. The template is based on a 2,000 user enterprise with a headquarters location and several remote offices, as well as mobile workers.

The workshop will include independent consultant review and scoring of the vendors responses along with vendor commentaries in mini-panels. You will gain invaluable information that will save you time and inform your UC planning, such as:
• What are the requirements and costs to install UC with our existing PBX?
• How does UC integrate to our existing PBX? What functions, if any, will be compromised?
• Will we be better off technically and financially by installing UC with our current PBX than by making UC part of a new IP PBX procurement? (You can compare the results of the three RFP sessions.)
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the leading vendors for UC with our current PBX?

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 3:15 PM-4:00 PM

WebRTC may enable a variety of new, innovative and disruptive customer outreach and
engagement capabilities. Allowing customers on a webpage to initiate a B2C-related
voice (or video) call from any browser, without any client download or plugin, seems like a
no-brainer. The ability to call a billion people without proprietary endpoints or software is
compelling.
But, will WebRTC really enable straightforward business cases, and will end
users and customers embrace this click-to-connect model? In this
session, customer engagement experts will discuss what early initiatives are
underway to multimedia-enable customer-facing websites and business processes. They’ll
discuss the feasibility issues, what it will take to make such
interaction ubiquitous and when it might happen. You’ll leave with a better sense of just
how quick the WebRTC-enabled contact center and other customer engagement
capabilities will become available.

KEY QUESTIONS:
●How might WebRTC-enabled browsers change the nature of customer contact and
the makeup of the contact center workforce?
●What would a video-enabled contact center agent and the environment need to look
like?
●Can WebRTC-enabled websites succeed even if all the major browsers don’t
support WebRTC?
●How might WebRTC change the balance of power and the potential market
opportunities for traditional contact center vendors (Genesys, Avaya, Cisco) vs.
innovators who come out of the CRM world (SAP, Salesforce)?
●Can companies leverage WebRTC across mobile devices to provide richer ways of
engaging with customers and partners?
●Will customers embrace WebRTC solutions or would they rather just use existing
services like Skype?

Location: Sun D
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

Every enterprise operates with software-based business processes. These can be based on employee roles – sales, service, development, marketing, executives – and/or vertical markets – health care, transportation, manufacturing, government, education, finance, insurance, et al.

Communications-Enabled Business Processes (CEBP) involves integrating communications capabilities with these apps. The results can be significant – faster operations, lower costs, and the ability to “communicate in context” which increases productivity and ultimately, makes the enterprise more competitive.

This tutorial will begin with a review of the top CEBP applications, and how to assess opportunities for implementing these within your enterprise. Then the session will review the CEBP techniques available now in standard UC systems. A series of case study examples will be presented for which panelists will describe specifically what was required to implement the CEBP applications.

Key Questions:
* How can you determine where to best deploy CEBP applications in your enterprise?
* What technologies are needed for the CEBP applications?
* What are the key decision-factors when evaluating whether to proceed?
* What can be done to minimize the complexity and risk of CEBP applications?
* What can the vendors deliver when it comes to CEBP ?

Location: Osceola A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

Videoconferencing has always been hardware-intensive, but Cloud and virtualiztion could change that. This session examines this software video scenario – how real is it, and what are the implications for buyers and sellers. Among the issues to be addressed are:
* What does it mean to have a “software based videoconferencing solution” – what changes on the buyers’ side and the sellers’?
* Can videoconferencing really be a cloud-based solution?
* How does “video-as-a-software-business” change the economics – for both buyers and sellers?
* What are the risks for customers, equipment vendors, and service providers?
* What should a buyer be doing today or in preparing an RFP?

Location: Sun A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:45 AM

SIP Trunking is the hottest technology trend in enterprise communications, but how do you procure the services and equipment to make it a success for your organization? This Deep Dive session will offer detailed presentations on the services and technologies you will need to acquire in order to roll out SIP Trunking. You’ll learn about what the incumbent carriers are doing, what their competitors are offering, and how to handle the procurement process so that you get a good deal on SIP trunks that also positions you for the enterprise-wide Unified Communications deployments of the future.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What’s the state of SIP Trunking availability, from both the Tier 1 carriers and alternative providers? And is there a difference between “availability” and “procure-ability”?
* How mature are providers’ SLAs for SIP Trunks?
* What are the risks of vendor lock-in when you sign a contract for SIP Trunking, and how do you mitigate these risks?
* Do you absolutely need a session border controller (SBC) when you implement SIP trunks, and if so, is this something the enterprise specifies, or is it a service provider decision?
* How does your enterprise’s communications architecture (centralized vs. de-centralized) affect your decision-making in SIP Trunk and SBC procurement?

Location: Osceola A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

Videoconferencing has always been hardware-intensive, but Cloud and virtualiztion could change that. This session examines this software video scenario – how real is it, and what are the implications for buyers and sellers. Among the issues to be addressed are:
* What does it mean to have a “software based videoconferencing solution” – what changes on the buyers’ side and the sellers’?
* Can videoconferencing really be a cloud-based solution?
* How does “video-as-a-software-business” change the economics – for both buyers and sellers?
* What are the risks for customers, equipment vendors, and service providers?
* What should a buyer be doing today or in preparing an RFP?

Location: Osceola B
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

This workshop starts with the simple question: If an enterprise wanted to eliminate all or most of its premises-based communications equipment and deploy a fully loaded unified communications solution from a hosted and managed cloud services provider, could it do so today? If so, what would such an implementation look like? Who could deliver it? And what would it cost?

The Cloud-Based Communications Services RFP describes a domestically headquartered company with two branch locations and a number of mobile workers. This session presents solutions from leading hosted unified communications providers covering each of the major unified communications applications including presence, IM, call control, audio/video/web conferencing, unified messaging, etc. It also ascertains whether an organization, using these major players, could craft a cost-effective, secure, robust cloud-based communications platform for its users today.There will be a thorough review of the solutions proposed by those responding to the RFP, and the analysis will include:

• Architecture
• Cost
• Feature/functionality/quality of service
• Migration path
• Manageability
• Business continuity and disaster recovery
• Level of risk (security, compliance, control/accountability)
• TCO as compared to premises-based offerings

Location: Sun A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-3:00 PM

With Lync included with virtually all Microsoft enterprise licenses today and Cisco Jabber available free to most Cisco VoIP customers, the decision whether to deploy one or the other is being considered by many organizations. In this session, a detailed strategy for analyzing both options including the cost, operational, functional, and system integration impacts on an organizations will be evaluated. Part of the analysis is a quantitative method that enables weighted functional comparisons between the products based on user types and organizational structure. The session will include a panel with Cisco and Microsoft representatives debating the options and the analysis.
• When is Lync or Jabber a better option?
• What factors should an organization consider before deployment?
• Are Lync and Jabber mutually exclusive?
• What are the deployment differences between Lync and Jabber?
• How do you reslove the conflict between the Cisco and Microsoft groups in your organization?

Location: Osceola A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 3:45 PM-4:30 PM

Video conferencing can be implemented as a stand-alone deployment or as part of a Unified Communications strategy. This session will analyze the major UC platforms and compare their video capabilities with dedicated room solutions and personal desktops, and include discussion of the following topics:
* What are the benefits and drawbacks of using a UC platform as the foundation for visual communications?
* How does making UC as a platform for videoconferencing affect the risks and rewards?
* How does making UC as a platform for videoconferencing affect the decision making process?

Location: Osceola A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

Managed/hosted and Cloud service delivery is all the rage these days, but what’s the real story? In this sessions you’ll hear from enterprise IT executives who have made the decision – or who expect to – describe why they’re going down this road and what issues they face along the way. This session will address the following questions:
* What are the major reasons for considering video conferencing managed services?
* What are the advantages and disadvantages of managed services?
* How should an enterprise transition to video conferencing managed services?

Location: Osceola 1
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 3:45 PM-4:30 PM

WellPoint, Inc., one of the largest health benefits companies in the United States, recently moved their contact center to the cloud in order to meet the needs of their customers and to reap the benefits the cloud has to offer. During this session, you’ll hear from Cid Isbell, Enterprise Architect and Video, UC and Contact Center Specialist for WellPoint, take you through their driving reasons for the move, their challenges and the results their seeing. He’ll give you the insights you need to know if you’re considering a move to the cloud.

Location: Sun D
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-5:00 PM

The IP Telephony/UC RFP describes a domestically headquartered company with two branch locations and a number of mobile workers. This session present solutions from leading UC providers covering each of the major unified communications applications (voice communications and services, presence, IM, call control, audio/video/web conferencing, unified messaging, etc.).
Key take-aways for this workshop are:
• A comprehensive RFP system performance document covering
basic and advanced hardware/software capabilities for
today’s IP telephony and Unified Communications systems.
The RFP will also cover:
• Use of SIP
• Integration of mobile devices
• Basic Contact Center
• Actual proposals from leading system suppliers with detailed performance specifications and associated summary pricing tables.
• Critiques of response submissions by one of the industry’s leading enterprise communications system analysts and end user consultants.
• Scoring of vendor responses based on TCO and ability to meet the RFP requirements

Location: Sun A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 3:45 PM-4:30 PM

Desktop phones aren’t sexy, but they still sell—almost all the vendors report that their sales of IP phones continue to grow each year. At the same time, vendors are also giving away soft-client licenses and upgrading the video components of their end-client software. So where do we really stand with regard to the user interface at the desktop? In this session, a range of industry leaders representing different constituencies will discuss the current state and future prospects for desktop devices. They’ll debate the need for hard phones today, the prospects for desk phone deployments over the next 3-5 years, and the merits of different PC-based soft client approaches. You’ll come away with an understanding of the issues that will drive (or constrain) phone deployments going forward, as well as the technical and management challenges related to PC-based soft clients.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are the short- and long-term trends in IP phone sales? What are the pricing trends? What about features/functions?
* Should you consider phasing out desktop phones? In what situations will desktop phones continue to be a good long-term investment?
* How are the various vendors’ soft clients differentiated from each other? What role does the soft client play in the overall buying decision for a communications system?
* What media should a soft client support—Voice only? Instant messaging? Video?
* How do you make sure your enterprise’s mobility strategy fits with your desktop deployment strategy?

Location: Osceola B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

Unified communications works with and through a PBX, but it’s not necessary to purchase and install a new PBX in order to get UC capabilities. There are multiple UC solution choices and they can interoperate with your current communication systems.

This workshop is based on a mock RFP to the leading UC vendors requesting a UC solution to provide IM/presence, conferencing, collaboration, mobility and CEBP without replacing the current PBX systems or e-mail systems. This RFP uses exactly the same requirements as two other mock RFP sessions at Enterprise Connect -- RFP for UC with a New PBX and UC including IP PBX functions in the Cloud. The template is based on a 2,000 user enterprise with a headquarters location and several remote offices, as well as mobile workers.

The workshop will include independent consultant review and scoring of the vendors responses along with vendor commentaries in mini-panels. You will gain invaluable information that will save you time and inform your UC planning, such as:
• What are the requirements and costs to install UC with our existing PBX?
• How does UC integrate to our existing PBX? What functions, if any, will be compromised?
• Will we be better off technically and financially by installing UC with our current PBX than by making UC part of a new IP PBX procurement? (You can compare the results of the three RFP sessions.)
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the leading vendors for UC with our current PBX?

Location: Sun B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

What communications applications are really feasible and cost-effective to move into the cloud today? There’s only one sure-fire way to know: Find enterprise decision-makers who have actually made the move and can talk about how they did it. In this session, enterprise end users who are using hosted applications will discuss how they reached their decision, the procurement process they used, the implementation they went through, and how things are going now. You’ll walk out with real-life stories from the trenches that will help guide your decision-making as you approach the issues that the industry colleagues on stage have already grappled with.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* Why did the panelists’ enterprises pursue a hosted solution for the application(s) they did?
* How did they choose their providers? Did they have a formal RFP?
* What SLAs and technology-refresh provisions do they have with their hosted provider?
* What implementation issues arose? How were these overcome?
* How much of a concern was security?
* Where do the panelists go from here? Are they looking to move more applications to the cloud?

Location: Sun A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:45 AM

SIP Trunking is the hottest technology trend in enterprise communications, but how do you procure the services and equipment to make it a success for your organization? This Deep Dive session will offer detailed presentations on the services and technologies you will need to acquire in order to roll out SIP Trunking. You’ll learn about what the incumbent carriers are doing, what their competitors are offering, and how to handle the procurement process so that you get a good deal on SIP trunks that also positions you for the enterprise-wide Unified Communications deployments of the future.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What’s the state of SIP Trunking availability, from both the Tier 1 carriers and alternative providers? And is there a difference between “availability” and “procure-ability”?
* How mature are providers’ SLAs for SIP Trunks?
* What are the risks of vendor lock-in when you sign a contract for SIP Trunking, and how do you mitigate these risks?
* Do you absolutely need a session border controller (SBC) when you implement SIP trunks, and if so, is this something the enterprise specifies, or is it a service provider decision?
* How does your enterprise’s communications architecture (centralized vs. de-centralized) affect your decision-making in SIP Trunk and SBC procurement?

Location: Sun A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

The session border controller (SBC) is increasingly being seen as a key element at the public-private network edge, as enterprises migrate from legacy TDM to true end-to-end IP communications. Not coincidentally, the number of vendors offering SBCs has exploded in response to the emergence of this new product category. So how do you determine when you need an SBC; what that SBC needs to be able to do; and what vendor to buy it from? In this session, we’ll offer a comprehensive look at the SBC market, and we’ll examine the role of the SBC in the evolving communications architecture. You’ll get practical information on product features and functions, as well as a strategic view of the future of your network with SBCs as a key element.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are the characteristics of an SBC? What functions must all SBCs perform, and what additional capabilities are being built in by some vendors?
* Who are the SBC vendors, and how do you choose among them?
* What is the SBC’s role in SIP Trunking? What is its role in tying together diverse elements of a legacy communications infrastructure? What other roles does it play?
* What do SBCs cost, and how do you cost-justify them?
* What is the SBC’s long-term evolution path? Will it be an appliance; a blade in a router or server; a software application on a virtual server?

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:30 AM

WebRTC is so new that few have any real-world experience with it. So we’ll begin with a tutorial that
will give you a grounding in the technical aspects of WebRTC: What, exactly is it? How does it work? Where can it be deployed in enterprises, carrier networks, and user
endpoints? How difficult is it to deploy and use, and what are the technical obstacles?

In this opening session, you’ll learn the basics of WebRTC technology, and will take away a
good understanding of where it will show up in your enterprise network as well as in B2B
and B2C customer engagement initiatives.
KEY QUESTIONS:
• What is WebRTC, what does it enable and deliver?
• Which standard organizations are driving WebRTC?
• What are the requirements to implement a WebRTC solution?
• What are the intersection points of WebRTC and HTML5?
• What does an end-to-end WebRTC communications solution look like?
• How does WebRTC integrate with enterprise communications systems and the PSTN?
• What security and interoperability issues does WebRTC create for enterprises ?
• Why are Google and Mozilla going in one direction, while Apple and Microsoft appear to be going in other directions?

Location: Osceola C
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM

The Web has been carrying real-time traffic—two-way voice and video—for years, but, until now, this has mostly been a sidelight. However, recent developments make it likely that the World Wide Web could become the public communications network of the future:
* Skype is now the world’s largest long-distance voice provider – and it’s huge in video calling.
* Giant social-media sites like Facebook and Google+ are rolling out voice and video services for both wireline and mobile users.
* The emerging WebRTC standard will soon voice-enable the majority of Web browsers, opening up millions of new clients to myriad potential use cases for voice/video over the Web--without users having to implement any specific, dedicated multimedia client.
* The incumbent U.S. carriers, led by AT&T, are pressuring regulators to allow them to retire the assets of the legacy PSTN, and to relieve these carriers of their obligations to provide retail service on this platform.
So the implications of the Real-time Web are potentially huge. But just how these trends will play out is far from certain. What we do know, however, is that, more than ever, users in their role as consumers now drive the changes in communications that reverberate within the enterprise—usually much sooner than enterprise managers anticipate.
With so much happening so fast in the Real-time Web, it’s imperative for enterprise managers to understand the technical, market, and regulatory details of this transition, so that they can be ready when it starts to hit their organizations. Enterprises may even be able to leverage some of these trends for their benefit, gaining cost efficiencies, productivity, and innovation advantages. The time is now to get up to speed, and so you can’t afford to miss this discussion with the thought leaders and technology creators who are at the forefront of the Real-time Web.

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 10:45 AM-12:00 PM

Where does WebRTC stand in the real world of the enterprise today—and where is it headed in the next 24-36 months? How do your strategic vendors view WebRTC, and should you incorporate this emerging technology in your
enterprise planning?

Panelists will discuss and debate the potential future of WebRTC, and
explain where they believe it will have the greatest effect. They’ll so analyze which aspects are the most
over-hyped or farthest in the future. You’ll come away from this session with a perspective
on how close WebRTC really is in affecting the enterprise.

KEY QUESTIONS
● Which browsers aren’t yet implementing WebRTC and why, and what are the prospects for their eventual support?
● What are examples of WebRTC-enabled applications that are available now?
What can they do to add value to enterprise users? How does WebRTC
relate to trends like communications-enabled business processes (CEBP)?
● What role will WebRTC play in enterprise communications product offerings, how
will that affect the vendors’ go-to-market strategies, and how will that in turn affect
enterprises’ strategic planning?
●How will vendors monetize WebRTC?
●How will the carriers incorporate WebRTC into their services and infrastructure?
●What are the implications of WebRTC on mobile UC solutions?

Location: Osceola C
Monday, March 18, 2013, 1:15 PM-1:45 PM

The mobile market is forging ahead, but the much-touted mobile UC offerings languish. At face value it would seem that mobile workers would benefit the most from presence, better integrated communications and collaboration capabilities, yet they bypass the mobile UC offerings and prefer native UC-like capabilities that come packaged with smartphones. The growth rate in the tablet market is growing by leaps and bounds, but as tablets lack a basic cellular voice capability can they serve as mobile UC devices or will they be yet another mobile opportunity the UC vendors miss out on?

Among the issues this panel will address are the following:
•What can or should UC vendors do to jump-start their aging mobility offerings?
•Will users ever want to route their mobile calls through IP-PBX or UC platforms?
•Can UC vendors deliver the type of engaging experience users have come to expect from their mobile devices given the limitations of the mobile vendors’ SDKs?
•Will we see joint offerings mobile operators and UC vendors so enterprises can have a more functional UC offering?
•If the UC vendors fail to come up with a better-integrated mobility solution, do they risk losing out to mobile-social capability that grows out of the consumer rather than the enterprise market?

Location: Sun A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

More and more enterprises are developing some experience with SIP Trunks, mostly via limited pilot implementations, while a few pioneers have implemented SIP Trunks enterprise-wide. As the amount of real-world experience with SIP Trunks grows, what lessons can we glean from early implementers? In this session, you’ll get a chance to hear from end users who will discuss their experiences--what worked, what didn’t, what they’d do differently, and what they plan to do when their next contract for SIP Trunks comes due. You’ll get real-world knowledge that you can put to use when you implement SIP Trunks.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What’s the biggest challenge when implementing SIP Trunks?
* What are the keys to a successful SIP Trunk deployment?
* What have been the major benefits?
* What would they have done differently the first time around, and what do they plan to do differently as they move forward?

Location: Sun B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

What communications applications are really feasible and cost-effective to move into the cloud today? There’s only one sure-fire way to know: Find enterprise decision-makers who have actually made the move and can talk about how they did it. In this session, enterprise end users who are using hosted applications will discuss how they reached their decision, the procurement process they used, the implementation they went through, and how things are going now. You’ll walk out with real-life stories from the trenches that will help guide your decision-making as you approach the issues that the industry colleagues on stage have already grappled with.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* Why did the panelists’ enterprises pursue a hosted solution for the application(s) they did?
* How did they choose their providers? Did they have a formal RFP?
* What SLAs and technology-refresh provisions do they have with their hosted provider?
* What implementation issues arose? How were these overcome?
* How much of a concern was security?
* Where do the panelists go from here? Are they looking to move more applications to the cloud?

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 10:45 AM-12:00 PM

Where does WebRTC stand in the real world of the enterprise today—and where is it headed in the next 24-36 months? How do your strategic vendors view WebRTC, and should you incorporate this emerging technology in your
enterprise planning?

Panelists will discuss and debate the potential future of WebRTC, and
explain where they believe it will have the greatest effect. They’ll so analyze which aspects are the most
over-hyped or farthest in the future. You’ll come away from this session with a perspective
on how close WebRTC really is in affecting the enterprise.

KEY QUESTIONS
● Which browsers aren’t yet implementing WebRTC and why, and what are the prospects for their eventual support?
● What are examples of WebRTC-enabled applications that are available now?
What can they do to add value to enterprise users? How does WebRTC
relate to trends like communications-enabled business processes (CEBP)?
● What role will WebRTC play in enterprise communications product offerings, how
will that affect the vendors’ go-to-market strategies, and how will that in turn affect
enterprises’ strategic planning?
●How will vendors monetize WebRTC?
●How will the carriers incorporate WebRTC into their services and infrastructure?
●What are the implications of WebRTC on mobile UC solutions?

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 1:00 PM-2:00 PM

See and hear first-hand what WebRTC can deliver. We’ll ask WebRTC providers and developers to show demos of what WebRTC can do and what it takes to deploy their capabilities.

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-3:00 PM

Will WebRTC finally enable the age of pervasive video conferencing on desktop and
mobile without requiring all participants to have the same client? Will it usher in true
interoperability? How will it support a wide variety of codecs, high definition and high-quality video over any network?
In this session, experts on video technology and leading video technology providers will discuss the prospects for WebRTC-enabled video, in the
near- and longer-term.

KEY QUESTIONS:
●What are the particular challenges of WebRTC when it comes to video enablement?
●What challenges does the issue of codecs present for WebRTC-enabled video?
● Can browser-based video provide enterprise-quality video?
●Can WebRTC support multipoint as well as point-to-point video calls? What challenges
make this task more difficult or push it farther into the future?
●How will vendors address interoperability? Do vendors want truly interoperable solutions?
●What is the role of the cloud in delivering WebRTC video solutions?
●What are the licensing implications of WebRTC-based video?

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 3:15 PM-4:00 PM

WebRTC may enable a variety of new, innovative and disruptive customer outreach and
engagement capabilities. Allowing customers on a webpage to initiate a B2C-related
voice (or video) call from any browser, without any client download or plugin, seems like a
no-brainer. The ability to call a billion people without proprietary endpoints or software is
compelling.
But, will WebRTC really enable straightforward business cases, and will end
users and customers embrace this click-to-connect model? In this
session, customer engagement experts will discuss what early initiatives are
underway to multimedia-enable customer-facing websites and business processes. They’ll
discuss the feasibility issues, what it will take to make such
interaction ubiquitous and when it might happen. You’ll leave with a better sense of just
how quick the WebRTC-enabled contact center and other customer engagement
capabilities will become available.

KEY QUESTIONS:
●How might WebRTC-enabled browsers change the nature of customer contact and
the makeup of the contact center workforce?
●What would a video-enabled contact center agent and the environment need to look
like?
●Can WebRTC-enabled websites succeed even if all the major browsers don’t
support WebRTC?
●How might WebRTC change the balance of power and the potential market
opportunities for traditional contact center vendors (Genesys, Avaya, Cisco) vs.
innovators who come out of the CRM world (SAP, Salesforce)?
●Can companies leverage WebRTC across mobile devices to provide richer ways of
engaging with customers and partners?
●Will customers embrace WebRTC solutions or would they rather just use existing
services like Skype?

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:30 AM

WebRTC is so new that few have any real-world experience with it. So we’ll begin with a tutorial that
will give you a grounding in the technical aspects of WebRTC: What, exactly is it? How does it work? Where can it be deployed in enterprises, carrier networks, and user
endpoints? How difficult is it to deploy and use, and what are the technical obstacles?

In this opening session, you’ll learn the basics of WebRTC technology, and will take away a
good understanding of where it will show up in your enterprise network as well as in B2B
and B2C customer engagement initiatives.
KEY QUESTIONS:
• What is WebRTC, what does it enable and deliver?
• Which standard organizations are driving WebRTC?
• What are the requirements to implement a WebRTC solution?
• What are the intersection points of WebRTC and HTML5?
• What does an end-to-end WebRTC communications solution look like?
• How does WebRTC integrate with enterprise communications systems and the PSTN?
• What security and interoperability issues does WebRTC create for enterprises ?
• Why are Google and Mozilla going in one direction, while Apple and Microsoft appear to be going in other directions?

Location: Osceola B
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

This workshop starts with the simple question: If an enterprise wanted to eliminate all or most of its premises-based communications equipment and deploy a fully loaded unified communications solution from a hosted and managed cloud services provider, could it do so today? If so, what would such an implementation look like? Who could deliver it? And what would it cost?

The Cloud-Based Communications Services RFP describes a domestically headquartered company with two branch locations and a number of mobile workers. This session presents solutions from leading hosted unified communications providers covering each of the major unified communications applications including presence, IM, call control, audio/video/web conferencing, unified messaging, etc. It also ascertains whether an organization, using these major players, could craft a cost-effective, secure, robust cloud-based communications platform for its users today.There will be a thorough review of the solutions proposed by those responding to the RFP, and the analysis will include:

• Architecture
• Cost
• Feature/functionality/quality of service
• Migration path
• Manageability
• Business continuity and disaster recovery
• Level of risk (security, compliance, control/accountability)
• TCO as compared to premises-based offerings

Location: Osceola C
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM

The Web has been carrying real-time traffic—two-way voice and video—for years, but, until now, this has mostly been a sidelight. However, recent developments make it likely that the World Wide Web could become the public communications network of the future:
* Skype is now the world’s largest long-distance voice provider – and it’s huge in video calling.
* Giant social-media sites like Facebook and Google+ are rolling out voice and video services for both wireline and mobile users.
* The emerging WebRTC standard will soon voice-enable the majority of Web browsers, opening up millions of new clients to myriad potential use cases for voice/video over the Web--without users having to implement any specific, dedicated multimedia client.
* The incumbent U.S. carriers, led by AT&T, are pressuring regulators to allow them to retire the assets of the legacy PSTN, and to relieve these carriers of their obligations to provide retail service on this platform.
So the implications of the Real-time Web are potentially huge. But just how these trends will play out is far from certain. What we do know, however, is that, more than ever, users in their role as consumers now drive the changes in communications that reverberate within the enterprise—usually much sooner than enterprise managers anticipate.
With so much happening so fast in the Real-time Web, it’s imperative for enterprise managers to understand the technical, market, and regulatory details of this transition, so that they can be ready when it starts to hit their organizations. Enterprises may even be able to leverage some of these trends for their benefit, gaining cost efficiencies, productivity, and innovation advantages. The time is now to get up to speed, and so you can’t afford to miss this discussion with the thought leaders and technology creators who are at the forefront of the Real-time Web.

Location: Osceola C
Monday, March 18, 2013, 1:15 PM-1:45 PM

The mobile market is forging ahead, but the much-touted mobile UC offerings languish. At face value it would seem that mobile workers would benefit the most from presence, better integrated communications and collaboration capabilities, yet they bypass the mobile UC offerings and prefer native UC-like capabilities that come packaged with smartphones. The growth rate in the tablet market is growing by leaps and bounds, but as tablets lack a basic cellular voice capability can they serve as mobile UC devices or will they be yet another mobile opportunity the UC vendors miss out on?

Among the issues this panel will address are the following:
•What can or should UC vendors do to jump-start their aging mobility offerings?
•Will users ever want to route their mobile calls through IP-PBX or UC platforms?
•Can UC vendors deliver the type of engaging experience users have come to expect from their mobile devices given the limitations of the mobile vendors’ SDKs?
•Will we see joint offerings mobile operators and UC vendors so enterprises can have a more functional UC offering?
•If the UC vendors fail to come up with a better-integrated mobility solution, do they risk losing out to mobile-social capability that grows out of the consumer rather than the enterprise market?

Location: Osceola C
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 9:15 AM-10:00 AM

The chorus for moving your communications and collaboration to a Cloud/hosted model grows ever louder. Both familiar carriers and a new generation of service providers are singing the same song: Let us handle your call control, communications apps and ongoing management, we can do it better, faster and cheaper.

There’s no question that the APIs becoming available enable a new level of integration between the service providers’ and enterprises’ networks and services. And with virtualization, the service providers can ride economies of scale to deliver a wider set of services to many more customers than ever before.

The Cloud has gained acceptance in small- and mid-markets, turf that has historically relied heavily on phone companies and other service providers. The enterprise has been a different story, because of the presence of trained staff, the benefits associated with ownership and equipment depreciation, as well as a perceived and ability to control information resources and assets.

But has the rough economic period we’ve been enduring changed the game? Have communications and collaboration services become utilities or are they an essential ingredient in the enterprise’s core competence? How do you find the right balance point for your enterprise on what to outsource and what to retain?

KEY QUESTIONS:
• As relates to enterprise buyers, what do Cloud providers need to deliver in order to grow?
• Does the combination of technology like WebRTC and Skype-like business models help or hurt the movement toward the Cloud?
• If a company planning to migrate to the Cloud, what role should SIP Trunking play in the enterprise’s architecture?
• Can Cloud providers ever meet the enterprise’s requirements for governance, security and compliance?
• Can service providers provide Cloud SLAs that meet enterprise requirements?

Location: Osceola C
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 11:00 AM-11:30 AM

Location: Osceola C
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 11:30 AM-12:00 PM

Communications-as-a-service, the Cloud, the “webification” of voice and many of the other the trends that are reshaping enterprise communications rely on a new generation of software platforms. The promise of these platforms is both alluring and familiar – enterprise communications services and apps can be delivered better, faster and cheaper.

The new platforms are different from the now decade-old open source movement, which sought to break the proprietary chains that bound computing and communications. By contrast, proponents of current and next-gen software platforms argue that they will finally make communications accessible to the creative and entrepreneurial talents of the millions of folks who make up the Web developer community.

So, if that happens, in what ways will enterprise communications be improved? And what are the trade-offs? Those questions establish the foundation for this session, one that the IT professionals who are charged with planning, designing and managing enterprise communications systems and networks can’t afford to miss.

Location: Osceola 1
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 4:45 PM-5:30 PM

With an ever-growing array of advanced communications services - such as UC, mobility, FMC, BYOD, SIP trunking, HD video, and in the future WebRTC – an enterprise IT department is starting to resemble and operate like a communications service provider. This panel session, led by Zeus Kerravala, discusses the key issues that face enterprise organizations, and the risks and implications involved in deploying, managing and administering a complex web of communications services in a private cloud: 1. How to simplify the deployment of advanced UC services and enable interoperability? 2. How to manage escalating operational costs? 3. How to harness next generation UC services, to improve inter-company collaboration and employee productivity

Location: Sun A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 3:45 PM-4:30 PM

Enterprises may find value in sourcing some communications capabilities in the cloud, but it’s unlikely that many will move—at least in the near term—to a full cloud deployment. As a result, enterprises may find themselves moving toward a “hybrid cloud” that deploys communications functions in a mix of environments: public cloud (i.e., hosted); private cloud (i.e., the enterprise datacenter); and on-premises. The task will be to determine which communications capabilities should reside in which types of environments. This session will feature a discussion and debate among representatives of the various viewpoints and constituencies. You’ll leave the session with an idea of what’s possible now, and what direction you should take your planning for the next 12-18 months.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are the risk/reward tradeoffs of deploying different communications functions in different parts of a “hybrid” deployment?
* Are all communications capabilities available for all types of environments (public cloud, private cloud and on-prem)? Do different types of providers specialize in different capabilities, and how does this factor influence your decision-making?
* What interoperability or integration challenges are you likely to encounter when you try to implement a hybrid cloud environment?
* What cost factors are involved in the decision-making?
* Where do the risks of vendor lock-in reside in hybrid cloud implementations, and how do you avoid them?

Location: Sun A
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM

To wrap up Enterprise Connect, join leading analysts and program Co-chairs Fred Knight and Eric Krapf for a conversation, analysis and debate over the major issues covered during the Conference. The issues covered in the Locknote/Town Hall include analyzing the progress in deploying Unified
Communications and an assessment of its benefits and challenges; the viability of the Cloud as a deployment model for communications; the progress toward SIP Trunking and a New Public Network; issues around mobility; vendors’ positioning, strengths and weaknesses; and how emerging social networking functionality is being integrated into communications. Hear what the analysts have to say, and come prepared to share your questions, comments and perceptions.

Location: Sun D
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

The biggest trend in IP network infrastructure is Software-Defined Networks. SDNs promise more efficient, application-aware network infrastructure, but they’re likely to have a significant impact on how you deploy and run communications over this infrastructure. In this session, a top technologist and technology analyst will help you understand the specific issues that you’ll face, and how you can deal with them. You’ll come away with a strong understanding of how SDNs will improve your communications deployments—and how to avoid the pitfalls they present.

Key Questions:
* How will SDN infrastructures change (and potentially improve) the way you do QOS (quality of service) for real-time applications?
* How can SDNs improve the efficiency of the resources you devote to running communications?
* How might service providers use SDNs to offer more efficient, cost-effective managed/hosted communications services?
* What impact will SDNs have on the overall network management for enterprise communications?
* How will SDNs assure network resiliency?

Location: Sun A
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 9:00 AM-9:45 AM

The “U” in UC stands for “unified,” and one of its most appealing attributes is that it can break down the
silos between voice, data and video, and between wireless and wireline. In theory, that sounds great, but the reality in today’s market doesn’t quite match UC’s promise.

Management and monitoring capabilities typically lag specific network and system innovations, and UC is no exception. This panel will examine prospects for a new framework for management and monitoring, one that is built from the ground up for comprehensive, unified communications and collaboration. This will be a critically important session for anyone whose job responsibilities include keeping your enterprise’s network and apps humming.

Location: Sun A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

Microsoft’s Lync has been gaining in mind-share for IM/presence and related UC and collaboration functions, and it’s also now available with PBX telephony functionality. So, what’s the experience so far? Are enterprises finding it straightforward to layer Lync on top of their Exchange messaging, and is the result proving a benefit to end users and the enterprise generally? For enterprises that have implemented Lync telephony, are they glad they did? What lessons have they learned and what’s their plan for enterprise communications going forward? To find out we’ve asked consultants who’ve selected and installed Lync systems as well as enterprise execs who’ve been living with Lync to share their experience. This session will be an invaluable first-hand look at living with Lync.

Key Questions
* What were the driving factors for selecting Lync over other approaches and competing solutions?
* What have been the biggest surprises and “gotchas” during the process?
* How has Lync impacted the cost architecture for communications and collaboration within the affected enterprises?
* How have the end users responded? What were the training requirements?
* What elements of the overall communications and collaboration architecture have been most affected by Lync?
* What have been the specific experiences around Lync telephony, pro and con?

Location: Sun A
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM

To wrap up Enterprise Connect, join leading analysts and program Co-chairs Fred Knight and Eric Krapf for a conversation, analysis and debate over the major issues covered during the Conference. The issues covered in the Locknote/Town Hall include analyzing the progress in deploying Unified
Communications and an assessment of its benefits and challenges; the viability of the Cloud as a deployment model for communications; the progress toward SIP Trunking and a New Public Network; issues around mobility; vendors’ positioning, strengths and weaknesses; and how emerging social networking functionality is being integrated into communications. Hear what the analysts have to say, and come prepared to share your questions, comments and perceptions.

Location: Osceola C
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 9:15 AM-10:00 AM

For decades, we’ve heard that “convergence” was coming. Well,it’s arrived, and it’s becoming pervasive. The old boundaries within communications and collaboration are breaking down,as business apps and processes run across wired and wireless facilities, and are composed of a mix of data, voice, video and graphics.

The blurring of old technology boundaries creates other disturbances in the field -- most notably, what you will buy and from whom: Whether the topic is communications or the data center, video or storage, servers or collaboration services, there are new options for partners and delivery systems. Services and apps can be provided via the Cloud, on-premises or a mix of the two. And WebRTC could alter the landscape and change expectations for how communications and collaboration sessions take place.

So what is the going-forward model for enterprise communications and collaboration? Will the traditional pillars of enterprise communications architecture -- voice vs. data vs. video -- be replaced with choices organized around the desktop vs. the network vs. the “Cloud”? If the “consumerization of IT” is inevitable, how will the vendors meet the enduring requirements for security, compliance scalability, manageability and cost-effectiveness? And as consolidation continues within the industry, what are the prospects
for genuine competition?

A panel of senior IT executives will discuss these and related issues. The conversation will be essential as you develop your architecture and review your options for systems, services and applications.

Location: Osceola A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

Videoconferencing has always been hardware-intensive, but Cloud and virtualiztion could change that. This session examines this software video scenario – how real is it, and what are the implications for buyers and sellers. Among the issues to be addressed are:
* What does it mean to have a “software based videoconferencing solution” – what changes on the buyers’ side and the sellers’?
* Can videoconferencing really be a cloud-based solution?
* How does “video-as-a-software-business” change the economics – for both buyers and sellers?
* What are the risks for customers, equipment vendors, and service providers?
* What should a buyer be doing today or in preparing an RFP?

Location: Sun A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:45 AM

SIP Trunking is the hottest technology trend in enterprise communications, but how do you procure the services and equipment to make it a success for your organization? This Deep Dive session will offer detailed presentations on the services and technologies you will need to acquire in order to roll out SIP Trunking. You’ll learn about what the incumbent carriers are doing, what their competitors are offering, and how to handle the procurement process so that you get a good deal on SIP trunks that also positions you for the enterprise-wide Unified Communications deployments of the future.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What’s the state of SIP Trunking availability, from both the Tier 1 carriers and alternative providers? And is there a difference between “availability” and “procure-ability”?
* How mature are providers’ SLAs for SIP Trunks?
* What are the risks of vendor lock-in when you sign a contract for SIP Trunking, and how do you mitigate these risks?
* Do you absolutely need a session border controller (SBC) when you implement SIP trunks, and if so, is this something the enterprise specifies, or is it a service provider decision?
* How does your enterprise’s communications architecture (centralized vs. de-centralized) affect your decision-making in SIP Trunk and SBC procurement?

Location: Osceola C
Monday, March 18, 2013, 11:15 AM-12:00 PM

UC is no longer a new technology nor is it a new offering, it’s been
commercially available for at least six years. But while UC was revving
up, other technologies weren’t standing still. Smartphones and tablets
already deliver much of the UC “experience,” WebRTC promises to
integrate real-time voice and video directly into browser technology and if
we’ll all soon be living and working from our social media networks, will
the need for UC disappear?

Well, that’s one side, but there is another: Premises-based virtualization
enables enterprises to fulfill UC requirements in a much more cost-effective,
secure and reliable manner than any social network could ever deliver and, so far,
enterprises have moved very slowly to put their communications and
collaboration operations into the Cloud.

So, if an enterprise is preparing to upgrade to next-gen communications and
collaboration capabilities in the next 12-18 months, what role should UC play
in its architecture strategy and procurement plans, and what are the realistic options for
UC service delivery?
Co-Moderators: Fred Knight, GM/Co-Chair, Enterprise Connect, and Publisher, NoJitter.com;
Eric Krapf, Co-Chair, Enterprise Connect and Editor, NoJitter.com

Location: Osceola C
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 11:30 AM-12:00 PM

Communications-as-a-service, the Cloud, the “webification” of voice and many of the other the trends that are reshaping enterprise communications rely on a new generation of software platforms. The promise of these platforms is both alluring and familiar – enterprise communications services and apps can be delivered better, faster and cheaper.

The new platforms are different from the now decade-old open source movement, which sought to break the proprietary chains that bound computing and communications. By contrast, proponents of current and next-gen software platforms argue that they will finally make communications accessible to the creative and entrepreneurial talents of the millions of folks who make up the Web developer community.

So, if that happens, in what ways will enterprise communications be improved? And what are the trade-offs? Those questions establish the foundation for this session, one that the IT professionals who are charged with planning, designing and managing enterprise communications systems and networks can’t afford to miss.

Location: Osceola C
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 9:15 AM-10:00 AM

For decades, we’ve heard that “convergence” was coming. Well,it’s arrived, and it’s becoming pervasive. The old boundaries within communications and collaboration are breaking down,as business apps and processes run across wired and wireless facilities, and are composed of a mix of data, voice, video and graphics.

The blurring of old technology boundaries creates other disturbances in the field -- most notably, what you will buy and from whom: Whether the topic is communications or the data center, video or storage, servers or collaboration services, there are new options for partners and delivery systems. Services and apps can be provided via the Cloud, on-premises or a mix of the two. And WebRTC could alter the landscape and change expectations for how communications and collaboration sessions take place.

So what is the going-forward model for enterprise communications and collaboration? Will the traditional pillars of enterprise communications architecture -- voice vs. data vs. video -- be replaced with choices organized around the desktop vs. the network vs. the “Cloud”? If the “consumerization of IT” is inevitable, how will the vendors meet the enduring requirements for security, compliance scalability, manageability and cost-effectiveness? And as consolidation continues within the industry, what are the prospects
for genuine competition?

A panel of senior IT executives will discuss these and related issues. The conversation will be essential as you develop your architecture and review your options for systems, services and applications.

Location: Sun A
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 10:00 AM-10:55 AM

What’s the true state of communications security in 2013? Where are the most serious threats, and what is – and isn’t-- being done to stop them?

In this session, you’ll hear from leading experts, who will offer their real-world findings drawn
from documented and observed operational attacks against U.S. enterprises and their contact centers, to give you a sense of what sorts of attacks pose the greatest risk to your communications, and which are still, at this stage, more distant prospects. You’ll come away with an understanding of the threats to fixed and mobile communications that should concern you most, and how to tackle them.

Location: Sun A
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM

To wrap up Enterprise Connect, join leading analysts and program Co-chairs Fred Knight and Eric Krapf for a conversation, analysis and debate over the major issues covered during the Conference. The issues covered in the Locknote/Town Hall include analyzing the progress in deploying Unified
Communications and an assessment of its benefits and challenges; the viability of the Cloud as a deployment model for communications; the progress toward SIP Trunking and a New Public Network; issues around mobility; vendors’ positioning, strengths and weaknesses; and how emerging social networking functionality is being integrated into communications. Hear what the analysts have to say, and come prepared to share your questions, comments and perceptions.

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 10:45 AM-12:00 PM

Where does WebRTC stand in the real world of the enterprise today—and where is it headed in the next 24-36 months? How do your strategic vendors view WebRTC, and should you incorporate this emerging technology in your
enterprise planning?

Panelists will discuss and debate the potential future of WebRTC, and
explain where they believe it will have the greatest effect. They’ll so analyze which aspects are the most
over-hyped or farthest in the future. You’ll come away from this session with a perspective
on how close WebRTC really is in affecting the enterprise.

KEY QUESTIONS
● Which browsers aren’t yet implementing WebRTC and why, and what are the prospects for their eventual support?
● What are examples of WebRTC-enabled applications that are available now?
What can they do to add value to enterprise users? How does WebRTC
relate to trends like communications-enabled business processes (CEBP)?
● What role will WebRTC play in enterprise communications product offerings, how
will that affect the vendors’ go-to-market strategies, and how will that in turn affect
enterprises’ strategic planning?
●How will vendors monetize WebRTC?
●How will the carriers incorporate WebRTC into their services and infrastructure?
●What are the implications of WebRTC on mobile UC solutions?

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 3:15 PM-4:00 PM

WebRTC may enable a variety of new, innovative and disruptive customer outreach and
engagement capabilities. Allowing customers on a webpage to initiate a B2C-related
voice (or video) call from any browser, without any client download or plugin, seems like a
no-brainer. The ability to call a billion people without proprietary endpoints or software is
compelling.
But, will WebRTC really enable straightforward business cases, and will end
users and customers embrace this click-to-connect model? In this
session, customer engagement experts will discuss what early initiatives are
underway to multimedia-enable customer-facing websites and business processes. They’ll
discuss the feasibility issues, what it will take to make such
interaction ubiquitous and when it might happen. You’ll leave with a better sense of just
how quick the WebRTC-enabled contact center and other customer engagement
capabilities will become available.

KEY QUESTIONS:
●How might WebRTC-enabled browsers change the nature of customer contact and
the makeup of the contact center workforce?
●What would a video-enabled contact center agent and the environment need to look
like?
●Can WebRTC-enabled websites succeed even if all the major browsers don’t
support WebRTC?
●How might WebRTC change the balance of power and the potential market
opportunities for traditional contact center vendors (Genesys, Avaya, Cisco) vs.
innovators who come out of the CRM world (SAP, Salesforce)?
●Can companies leverage WebRTC across mobile devices to provide richer ways of
engaging with customers and partners?
●Will customers embrace WebRTC solutions or would they rather just use existing
services like Skype?

Location: Sun D
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

Every enterprise operates with software-based business processes. These can be based on employee roles – sales, service, development, marketing, executives – and/or vertical markets – health care, transportation, manufacturing, government, education, finance, insurance, et al.

Communications-Enabled Business Processes (CEBP) involves integrating communications capabilities with these apps. The results can be significant – faster operations, lower costs, and the ability to “communicate in context” which increases productivity and ultimately, makes the enterprise more competitive.

This tutorial will begin with a review of the top CEBP applications, and how to assess opportunities for implementing these within your enterprise. Then the session will review the CEBP techniques available now in standard UC systems. A series of case study examples will be presented for which panelists will describe specifically what was required to implement the CEBP applications.

Key Questions:
* How can you determine where to best deploy CEBP applications in your enterprise?
* What technologies are needed for the CEBP applications?
* What are the key decision-factors when evaluating whether to proceed?
* What can be done to minimize the complexity and risk of CEBP applications?
* What can the vendors deliver when it comes to CEBP ?

Location: Osceola 1
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:45 AM

In this session, the industry’s leading contact center analyst will give an overview of market shares and technology trends within the contact center vendor landscape. She will then lead a discussion with executives from the leading contact center vendors, which will further illuminate the trends and positioning described in the presentation. You will get a thorough understanding of where the market is at for ACDs, IVRs, and next-generation technology for the contact center, and will be familiar with the established and emerging players shaping this market.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* Who are the contact center market share leaders? Who’s up and who’s down from last year?
* What are the key trends in the contact center infrastructure market? Who and what are driving these trends?
* How do contact center product strategies fit in with the larger communications platform strategies that these companies or their partners are implementing?
* What emerging trends, such as social integration and cloud services, are likely to gain broad near-term acceptance, within the next 12-18 months? Which are more hype than reality?

Location: Osceola C
Monday, March 18, 2013, 1:15 PM-1:45 PM

The mobile market is forging ahead, but the much-touted mobile UC offerings languish. At face value it would seem that mobile workers would benefit the most from presence, better integrated communications and collaboration capabilities, yet they bypass the mobile UC offerings and prefer native UC-like capabilities that come packaged with smartphones. The growth rate in the tablet market is growing by leaps and bounds, but as tablets lack a basic cellular voice capability can they serve as mobile UC devices or will they be yet another mobile opportunity the UC vendors miss out on?

Among the issues this panel will address are the following:
•What can or should UC vendors do to jump-start their aging mobility offerings?
•Will users ever want to route their mobile calls through IP-PBX or UC platforms?
•Can UC vendors deliver the type of engaging experience users have come to expect from their mobile devices given the limitations of the mobile vendors’ SDKs?
•Will we see joint offerings mobile operators and UC vendors so enterprises can have a more functional UC offering?
•If the UC vendors fail to come up with a better-integrated mobility solution, do they risk losing out to mobile-social capability that grows out of the consumer rather than the enterprise market?

Location: Osceola C
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM

The Web has been carrying real-time traffic—two-way voice and video—for years, but, until now, this has mostly been a sidelight. However, recent developments make it likely that the World Wide Web could become the public communications network of the future:
* Skype is now the world’s largest long-distance voice provider – and it’s huge in video calling.
* Giant social-media sites like Facebook and Google+ are rolling out voice and video services for both wireline and mobile users.
* The emerging WebRTC standard will soon voice-enable the majority of Web browsers, opening up millions of new clients to myriad potential use cases for voice/video over the Web--without users having to implement any specific, dedicated multimedia client.
* The incumbent U.S. carriers, led by AT&T, are pressuring regulators to allow them to retire the assets of the legacy PSTN, and to relieve these carriers of their obligations to provide retail service on this platform.
So the implications of the Real-time Web are potentially huge. But just how these trends will play out is far from certain. What we do know, however, is that, more than ever, users in their role as consumers now drive the changes in communications that reverberate within the enterprise—usually much sooner than enterprise managers anticipate.
With so much happening so fast in the Real-time Web, it’s imperative for enterprise managers to understand the technical, market, and regulatory details of this transition, so that they can be ready when it starts to hit their organizations. Enterprises may even be able to leverage some of these trends for their benefit, gaining cost efficiencies, productivity, and innovation advantages. The time is now to get up to speed, and so you can’t afford to miss this discussion with the thought leaders and technology creators who are at the forefront of the Real-time Web.

Location: Osceola C
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 9:15 AM-10:00 AM

The chorus for moving your communications and collaboration to a Cloud/hosted model grows ever louder. Both familiar carriers and a new generation of service providers are singing the same song: Let us handle your call control, communications apps and ongoing management, we can do it better, faster and cheaper.

There’s no question that the APIs becoming available enable a new level of integration between the service providers’ and enterprises’ networks and services. And with virtualization, the service providers can ride economies of scale to deliver a wider set of services to many more customers than ever before.

The Cloud has gained acceptance in small- and mid-markets, turf that has historically relied heavily on phone companies and other service providers. The enterprise has been a different story, because of the presence of trained staff, the benefits associated with ownership and equipment depreciation, as well as a perceived and ability to control information resources and assets.

But has the rough economic period we’ve been enduring changed the game? Have communications and collaboration services become utilities or are they an essential ingredient in the enterprise’s core competence? How do you find the right balance point for your enterprise on what to outsource and what to retain?

KEY QUESTIONS:
• As relates to enterprise buyers, what do Cloud providers need to deliver in order to grow?
• Does the combination of technology like WebRTC and Skype-like business models help or hurt the movement toward the Cloud?
• If a company planning to migrate to the Cloud, what role should SIP Trunking play in the enterprise’s architecture?
• Can Cloud providers ever meet the enterprise’s requirements for governance, security and compliance?
• Can service providers provide Cloud SLAs that meet enterprise requirements?

Location: Sun A
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM

To wrap up Enterprise Connect, join leading analysts and program Co-chairs Fred Knight and Eric Krapf for a conversation, analysis and debate over the major issues covered during the Conference. The issues covered in the Locknote/Town Hall include analyzing the progress in deploying Unified
Communications and an assessment of its benefits and challenges; the viability of the Cloud as a deployment model for communications; the progress toward SIP Trunking and a New Public Network; issues around mobility; vendors’ positioning, strengths and weaknesses; and how emerging social networking functionality is being integrated into communications. Hear what the analysts have to say, and come prepared to share your questions, comments and perceptions.

Location: Sun A
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 9:00 AM-9:45 AM

The “U” in UC stands for “unified,” and one of its most appealing attributes is that it can break down the
silos between voice, data and video, and between wireless and wireline. In theory, that sounds great, but the reality in today’s market doesn’t quite match UC’s promise.

Management and monitoring capabilities typically lag specific network and system innovations, and UC is no exception. This panel will examine prospects for a new framework for management and monitoring, one that is built from the ground up for comprehensive, unified communications and collaboration. This will be a critically important session for anyone whose job responsibilities include keeping your enterprise’s network and apps humming.

Location: Osceola 1
Monday, March 18, 2013, 3:15 PM-4:00 PM

Real-time traffic (voice and video) demands a network that delivers low latency, low packet loss and low jitter. And that’s not easy to accomplish. The dynamic character of modern networks, and the growing requirement for highly distributed configurations can lead to errors in design or implementation that cause quality problems for voice and video apps.

And so, a new breed of testing methodologies and tools is required to test or monitor converged networks and to isolate problems. This session will analyze and categorize these tools, and list vendors that provide the different kinds of solutions needed to manage today’s complex networks.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* Why are new tools required to support voice and video conferencing? Why can’t I use the tools that have been serving me well for years?
* What features are required in these tools for managing and monitoring real-time networks?
* Who are the vendors and what types of tools to they offer?
* What do these tools cost, and how do I cost-justify their purchase?

Location: Sun A
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 9:00 AM-9:45 AM

The “U” in UC stands for “unified,” and one of its most appealing attributes is that it can break down the
silos between voice, data and video, and between wireless and wireline. In theory, that sounds great, but the reality in today’s market doesn’t quite match UC’s promise.

Management and monitoring capabilities typically lag specific network and system innovations, and UC is no exception. This panel will examine prospects for a new framework for management and monitoring, one that is built from the ground up for comprehensive, unified communications and collaboration. This will be a critically important session for anyone whose job responsibilities include keeping your enterprise’s network and apps humming.

Location: Osceola B
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

This workshop starts with the simple question: If an enterprise wanted to eliminate all or most of its premises-based communications equipment and deploy a fully loaded unified communications solution from a hosted and managed cloud services provider, could it do so today? If so, what would such an implementation look like? Who could deliver it? And what would it cost?

The Cloud-Based Communications Services RFP describes a domestically headquartered company with two branch locations and a number of mobile workers. This session presents solutions from leading hosted unified communications providers covering each of the major unified communications applications including presence, IM, call control, audio/video/web conferencing, unified messaging, etc. It also ascertains whether an organization, using these major players, could craft a cost-effective, secure, robust cloud-based communications platform for its users today.There will be a thorough review of the solutions proposed by those responding to the RFP, and the analysis will include:

• Architecture
• Cost
• Feature/functionality/quality of service
• Migration path
• Manageability
• Business continuity and disaster recovery
• Level of risk (security, compliance, control/accountability)
• TCO as compared to premises-based offerings

Location: Osceola C
Monday, March 18, 2013, 11:15 AM-12:00 PM

UC is no longer a new technology nor is it a new offering, it’s been
commercially available for at least six years. But while UC was revving
up, other technologies weren’t standing still. Smartphones and tablets
already deliver much of the UC “experience,” WebRTC promises to
integrate real-time voice and video directly into browser technology and if
we’ll all soon be living and working from our social media networks, will
the need for UC disappear?

Well, that’s one side, but there is another: Premises-based virtualization
enables enterprises to fulfill UC requirements in a much more cost-effective,
secure and reliable manner than any social network could ever deliver and, so far,
enterprises have moved very slowly to put their communications and
collaboration operations into the Cloud.

So, if an enterprise is preparing to upgrade to next-gen communications and
collaboration capabilities in the next 12-18 months, what role should UC play
in its architecture strategy and procurement plans, and what are the realistic options for
UC service delivery?
Co-Moderators: Fred Knight, GM/Co-Chair, Enterprise Connect, and Publisher, NoJitter.com;
Eric Krapf, Co-Chair, Enterprise Connect and Editor, NoJitter.com

Location: Osceola A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

Everyone acknowledges that multivendor interoperability should be a key part of any Unified Communications implementation, but the reality is that interoperability remains a moving target. The UC vendors address this challenge in different ways, and to different degrees, so this session will focus on three specific interoperability issues:

* Interoperability Requirements: The top five areas were interoperation is needed.
* Interoperability Design: Using interoperation to create optimal solutions.
* Interoperability for Installed Systems: How interoperation can save you time and money.

You’ll see how leading vendors are offering interoperation in the top five interoperation categories. Vendor panelists will be challenged to support their interoperation capabilities. This is a crucial session for every enterprise that is in the strategy, planning or implementation phases of Unified Communications.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are the key points within the UC system where interoperability is most vital—and how close are those to plug-and-play status with vendor products?
* What standards and protocols are being used to deliver interoperation?
* How do the different vendors rate in terms of their products’ interoperability?
* How do you make products work together if they aren’t interoperable out of the box?
* What are the cost tradeoffs between interoperable solutions, single vendor solutions, and deferring the solution until it is a standard feature?

Location: Sun C
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

With the growing number of nomadic employees these days working is no longer defined by being in the office. These workers are not a certain type of employee in a specific role either. The nomadic work style is infiltrating throughout enterprises bringing with it new expectations and challenges for IT managers. However, UC&C technology supports this anywhere, anytime work style, helping to overcome IT challenges and meet these employees’ expectations. In this session we will explore the different aspects related to this nomadic workforce and how UC&C enables them to be more productive and competitive in a global economy.

Location: Sun A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 3:45 PM-4:30 PM

Enterprises may find value in sourcing some communications capabilities in the cloud, but it’s unlikely that many will move—at least in the near term—to a full cloud deployment. As a result, enterprises may find themselves moving toward a “hybrid cloud” that deploys communications functions in a mix of environments: public cloud (i.e., hosted); private cloud (i.e., the enterprise datacenter); and on-premises. The task will be to determine which communications capabilities should reside in which types of environments. This session will feature a discussion and debate among representatives of the various viewpoints and constituencies. You’ll leave the session with an idea of what’s possible now, and what direction you should take your planning for the next 12-18 months.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are the risk/reward tradeoffs of deploying different communications functions in different parts of a “hybrid” deployment?
* Are all communications capabilities available for all types of environments (public cloud, private cloud and on-prem)? Do different types of providers specialize in different capabilities, and how does this factor influence your decision-making?
* What interoperability or integration challenges are you likely to encounter when you try to implement a hybrid cloud environment?
* What cost factors are involved in the decision-making?
* Where do the risks of vendor lock-in reside in hybrid cloud implementations, and how do you avoid them?

Location: Sun C
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

Two emerging technologies are likely to transform the operations and value proposition of contact centers for the enterprise. The first, social networking, offers a new channel for communicating with your customers on the front end, as well as a new way for agent to interact with colleagues and data inside of the enterprise. A separate but somewhat related technology trend is the increasing power and capabilities of analytics—the ability to glean ever-more information and insight about your customers from your existing data stores and communications archives (i.e., your “Big Data”). If these analytics can be mined and exposed to customer contact systems and agents, the results could transform the business. This session will help you understand these two cutting-edge technology trends, and most importantly, will give you concrete information about how Social Networking and Analytics can actually be used--integrated with communications systems—to revolutionize customer care.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* By now, many enterprises are monitoring Twitter and Facebook for mentions of their company--but how many are actually turning these mentions into actionable intelligence? How are they doing this?
* Is enterprise social networking software a useful tool for contact center agents? What can they use these systems to accomplish that can’t be done with existing systems?
* What analytics capabilities exist for your enterprise to quantify and act on the information you receive through communications and social networking channels?
* Are any enterprises actually doing social media/contact center integration today, or is this more of a future prospect?

Location: Sun B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

What communications applications are really feasible and cost-effective to move into the cloud today? There’s only one sure-fire way to know: Find enterprise decision-makers who have actually made the move and can talk about how they did it. In this session, enterprise end users who are using hosted applications will discuss how they reached their decision, the procurement process they used, the implementation they went through, and how things are going now. You’ll walk out with real-life stories from the trenches that will help guide your decision-making as you approach the issues that the industry colleagues on stage have already grappled with.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* Why did the panelists’ enterprises pursue a hosted solution for the application(s) they did?
* How did they choose their providers? Did they have a formal RFP?
* What SLAs and technology-refresh provisions do they have with their hosted provider?
* What implementation issues arose? How were these overcome?
* How much of a concern was security?
* Where do the panelists go from here? Are they looking to move more applications to the cloud?

Location: Sun A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-3:00 PM

With Lync included with virtually all Microsoft enterprise licenses today and Cisco Jabber available free to most Cisco VoIP customers, the decision whether to deploy one or the other is being considered by many organizations. In this session, a detailed strategy for analyzing both options including the cost, operational, functional, and system integration impacts on an organizations will be evaluated. Part of the analysis is a quantitative method that enables weighted functional comparisons between the products based on user types and organizational structure. The session will include a panel with Cisco and Microsoft representatives debating the options and the analysis.
• When is Lync or Jabber a better option?
• What factors should an organization consider before deployment?
• Are Lync and Jabber mutually exclusive?
• What are the deployment differences between Lync and Jabber?
• How do you reslove the conflict between the Cisco and Microsoft groups in your organization?

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 1:00 PM-2:00 PM

See and hear first-hand what WebRTC can deliver. We’ll ask WebRTC providers and developers to show demos of what WebRTC can do and what it takes to deploy their capabilities.

Location: Osceola C
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 11:30 AM-12:00 PM

Communications-as-a-service, the Cloud, the “webification” of voice and many of the other the trends that are reshaping enterprise communications rely on a new generation of software platforms. The promise of these platforms is both alluring and familiar – enterprise communications services and apps can be delivered better, faster and cheaper.

The new platforms are different from the now decade-old open source movement, which sought to break the proprietary chains that bound computing and communications. By contrast, proponents of current and next-gen software platforms argue that they will finally make communications accessible to the creative and entrepreneurial talents of the millions of folks who make up the Web developer community.

So, if that happens, in what ways will enterprise communications be improved? And what are the trade-offs? Those questions establish the foundation for this session, one that the IT professionals who are charged with planning, designing and managing enterprise communications systems and networks can’t afford to miss.

Location: Osceola C
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 9:15 AM-10:00 AM

The chorus for moving your communications and collaboration to a Cloud/hosted model grows ever louder. Both familiar carriers and a new generation of service providers are singing the same song: Let us handle your call control, communications apps and ongoing management, we can do it better, faster and cheaper.

There’s no question that the APIs becoming available enable a new level of integration between the service providers’ and enterprises’ networks and services. And with virtualization, the service providers can ride economies of scale to deliver a wider set of services to many more customers than ever before.

The Cloud has gained acceptance in small- and mid-markets, turf that has historically relied heavily on phone companies and other service providers. The enterprise has been a different story, because of the presence of trained staff, the benefits associated with ownership and equipment depreciation, as well as a perceived and ability to control information resources and assets.

But has the rough economic period we’ve been enduring changed the game? Have communications and collaboration services become utilities or are they an essential ingredient in the enterprise’s core competence? How do you find the right balance point for your enterprise on what to outsource and what to retain?

KEY QUESTIONS:
• As relates to enterprise buyers, what do Cloud providers need to deliver in order to grow?
• Does the combination of technology like WebRTC and Skype-like business models help or hurt the movement toward the Cloud?
• If a company planning to migrate to the Cloud, what role should SIP Trunking play in the enterprise’s architecture?
• Can Cloud providers ever meet the enterprise’s requirements for governance, security and compliance?
• Can service providers provide Cloud SLAs that meet enterprise requirements?

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 10:45 AM-12:00 PM

Where does WebRTC stand in the real world of the enterprise today—and where is it headed in the next 24-36 months? How do your strategic vendors view WebRTC, and should you incorporate this emerging technology in your
enterprise planning?

Panelists will discuss and debate the potential future of WebRTC, and
explain where they believe it will have the greatest effect. They’ll so analyze which aspects are the most
over-hyped or farthest in the future. You’ll come away from this session with a perspective
on how close WebRTC really is in affecting the enterprise.

KEY QUESTIONS
● Which browsers aren’t yet implementing WebRTC and why, and what are the prospects for their eventual support?
● What are examples of WebRTC-enabled applications that are available now?
What can they do to add value to enterprise users? How does WebRTC
relate to trends like communications-enabled business processes (CEBP)?
● What role will WebRTC play in enterprise communications product offerings, how
will that affect the vendors’ go-to-market strategies, and how will that in turn affect
enterprises’ strategic planning?
●How will vendors monetize WebRTC?
●How will the carriers incorporate WebRTC into their services and infrastructure?
●What are the implications of WebRTC on mobile UC solutions?

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 1:00 PM-2:00 PM

See and hear first-hand what WebRTC can deliver. We’ll ask WebRTC providers and developers to show demos of what WebRTC can do and what it takes to deploy their capabilities.

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-3:00 PM

Will WebRTC finally enable the age of pervasive video conferencing on desktop and
mobile without requiring all participants to have the same client? Will it usher in true
interoperability? How will it support a wide variety of codecs, high definition and high-quality video over any network?
In this session, experts on video technology and leading video technology providers will discuss the prospects for WebRTC-enabled video, in the
near- and longer-term.

KEY QUESTIONS:
●What are the particular challenges of WebRTC when it comes to video enablement?
●What challenges does the issue of codecs present for WebRTC-enabled video?
● Can browser-based video provide enterprise-quality video?
●Can WebRTC support multipoint as well as point-to-point video calls? What challenges
make this task more difficult or push it farther into the future?
●How will vendors address interoperability? Do vendors want truly interoperable solutions?
●What is the role of the cloud in delivering WebRTC video solutions?
●What are the licensing implications of WebRTC-based video?

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 3:15 PM-4:00 PM

WebRTC may enable a variety of new, innovative and disruptive customer outreach and
engagement capabilities. Allowing customers on a webpage to initiate a B2C-related
voice (or video) call from any browser, without any client download or plugin, seems like a
no-brainer. The ability to call a billion people without proprietary endpoints or software is
compelling.
But, will WebRTC really enable straightforward business cases, and will end
users and customers embrace this click-to-connect model? In this
session, customer engagement experts will discuss what early initiatives are
underway to multimedia-enable customer-facing websites and business processes. They’ll
discuss the feasibility issues, what it will take to make such
interaction ubiquitous and when it might happen. You’ll leave with a better sense of just
how quick the WebRTC-enabled contact center and other customer engagement
capabilities will become available.

KEY QUESTIONS:
●How might WebRTC-enabled browsers change the nature of customer contact and
the makeup of the contact center workforce?
●What would a video-enabled contact center agent and the environment need to look
like?
●Can WebRTC-enabled websites succeed even if all the major browsers don’t
support WebRTC?
●How might WebRTC change the balance of power and the potential market
opportunities for traditional contact center vendors (Genesys, Avaya, Cisco) vs.
innovators who come out of the CRM world (SAP, Salesforce)?
●Can companies leverage WebRTC across mobile devices to provide richer ways of
engaging with customers and partners?
●Will customers embrace WebRTC solutions or would they rather just use existing
services like Skype?

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:30 AM

WebRTC is so new that few have any real-world experience with it. So we’ll begin with a tutorial that
will give you a grounding in the technical aspects of WebRTC: What, exactly is it? How does it work? Where can it be deployed in enterprises, carrier networks, and user
endpoints? How difficult is it to deploy and use, and what are the technical obstacles?

In this opening session, you’ll learn the basics of WebRTC technology, and will take away a
good understanding of where it will show up in your enterprise network as well as in B2B
and B2C customer engagement initiatives.
KEY QUESTIONS:
• What is WebRTC, what does it enable and deliver?
• Which standard organizations are driving WebRTC?
• What are the requirements to implement a WebRTC solution?
• What are the intersection points of WebRTC and HTML5?
• What does an end-to-end WebRTC communications solution look like?
• How does WebRTC integrate with enterprise communications systems and the PSTN?
• What security and interoperability issues does WebRTC create for enterprises ?
• Why are Google and Mozilla going in one direction, while Apple and Microsoft appear to be going in other directions?

Location: Osceola A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

More and more communications platform functions are becoming available for deployment on virtualized servers. And at the same time, vendors and enterprise users are grappling with the complexities of deploying communications on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)—which promises greater flexibility in end-user devices, while potentially creating new network performance challenges. In this session, you’ll get an overview of the opportunities for virtualizing your core communications applications, the costs and benefits of doing so, and tips on how to proceed with the migration. You’ll also get practical advice on how to include VDI in your larger strategies for end devices and even BYOD.

Key Questions:
* What percentage of communications platform vendors offer their core capabilities on virtual servers? How much of their product lines have the leading companies virtualized?
* Should you begin moving immediately toward virtualized communications applications? What factors will affect your migration planning?
* What are the cost benefits of virtualized communications applications (including call control)?
* What are the organizational and management challenges of deploying communications applications on virtual machines within the enterprise datacenter?
* What is the status of VDI for enterprise communications clients? Can the vendors currently support VDI? What about your enterprise network infrastructure?

Location: Osceola C
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM

The Web has been carrying real-time traffic—two-way voice and video—for years, but, until now, this has mostly been a sidelight. However, recent developments make it likely that the World Wide Web could become the public communications network of the future:
* Skype is now the world’s largest long-distance voice provider – and it’s huge in video calling.
* Giant social-media sites like Facebook and Google+ are rolling out voice and video services for both wireline and mobile users.
* The emerging WebRTC standard will soon voice-enable the majority of Web browsers, opening up millions of new clients to myriad potential use cases for voice/video over the Web--without users having to implement any specific, dedicated multimedia client.
* The incumbent U.S. carriers, led by AT&T, are pressuring regulators to allow them to retire the assets of the legacy PSTN, and to relieve these carriers of their obligations to provide retail service on this platform.
So the implications of the Real-time Web are potentially huge. But just how these trends will play out is far from certain. What we do know, however, is that, more than ever, users in their role as consumers now drive the changes in communications that reverberate within the enterprise—usually much sooner than enterprise managers anticipate.
With so much happening so fast in the Real-time Web, it’s imperative for enterprise managers to understand the technical, market, and regulatory details of this transition, so that they can be ready when it starts to hit their organizations. Enterprises may even be able to leverage some of these trends for their benefit, gaining cost efficiencies, productivity, and innovation advantages. The time is now to get up to speed, and so you can’t afford to miss this discussion with the thought leaders and technology creators who are at the forefront of the Real-time Web.

Location: Osceola A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

The “U” in UC stands for “unified,” and one of its most appealing attributes is that it can break down the silos between voice, data and video, and between wireless and wireline. In theory, that sounds great, but the reality in today’s market doesn’t quite match UC’s promise.

Management and monitoring capabilities typically lag specific network and system innovations, and UC is no exception. This session will examine prospects for a new framework for management and monitoring, one that is built from the ground up for comprehensive, unified communications and collaboration. This will be a critically important session for anyone whose job responsibilities include keeping your enterprise’s network and apps humming.

Location: Sun D
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

As cloud communications gains appeal and more providers get into the market, what are the do’s and don’ts from a procurement perspective? In this session, experts and those who have been through the process of contracting for Hosted PBX and other cloud communications services will offer their advice about what to include, what to exclude, and what to beware of when you’re negotiating a deal and writing a contract for a Hosted Communications service. You’ll get practical advice that will help you get the best deal on the right type of service for your enterprise.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are the key elements of a contract for a Hosted Service? What are the most important deliverables, terms and conditions to include (or to watch for) in a Hosted Services contract?
* How do you benchmark different carriers’ offers, and how do you make apples-to-apples comparisons?
* What are the elements of a good SLA (service level agreement) for Hosted/Cloud Services?
* What is the typical length of a Hosted Services contract, and how do you protect yourself against vendor lock-in?
* How is contracting for a Hosted Service similar to contracting for carrier wide-area network services, and how is it different?

Location: Sun A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 3:45 PM-4:30 PM

Desktop phones aren’t sexy, but they still sell—almost all the vendors report that their sales of IP phones continue to grow each year. At the same time, vendors are also giving away soft-client licenses and upgrading the video components of their end-client software. So where do we really stand with regard to the user interface at the desktop? In this session, a range of industry leaders representing different constituencies will discuss the current state and future prospects for desktop devices. They’ll debate the need for hard phones today, the prospects for desk phone deployments over the next 3-5 years, and the merits of different PC-based soft client approaches. You’ll come away with an understanding of the issues that will drive (or constrain) phone deployments going forward, as well as the technical and management challenges related to PC-based soft clients.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are the short- and long-term trends in IP phone sales? What are the pricing trends? What about features/functions?
* Should you consider phasing out desktop phones? In what situations will desktop phones continue to be a good long-term investment?
* How are the various vendors’ soft clients differentiated from each other? What role does the soft client play in the overall buying decision for a communications system?
* What media should a soft client support—Voice only? Instant messaging? Video?
* How do you make sure your enterprise’s mobility strategy fits with your desktop deployment strategy?

Location: Osceola A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 4:45 PM-5:30 PM

The major hurricane/storm that hit the East Coast near the end of 2012 had a particularly devastating impact on enterprise communications systems because so many corporate headquarters and datacenters are located in the Northeast, where the storm was most damaging. But the storm took out all kinds of systems for all kinds of users—from home-based workers who were unable to connect and were overwhelmed by dealing with the damage and impact on their personal situation; to public networks whose availability varied; to the impact that widespread and long-lasting power outages had on keeping the communications networks up and functioning. Nobody knows when the next storm of Sandy’s magnitude will hit, but everyone wants to be as prepared as possible, as soon as possible. Come to this session and share your stories of how you were affected, and how you overcame the challenges, to help your peers prepare for the future, and hear their stories to get ideas of your own for preparation.
Leader: Steve Leaden, President, Leaden Associates

Location: Sun A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

The session border controller (SBC) is increasingly being seen as a key element at the public-private network edge, as enterprises migrate from legacy TDM to true end-to-end IP communications. Not coincidentally, the number of vendors offering SBCs has exploded in response to the emergence of this new product category. So how do you determine when you need an SBC; what that SBC needs to be able to do; and what vendor to buy it from? In this session, we’ll offer a comprehensive look at the SBC market, and we’ll examine the role of the SBC in the evolving communications architecture. You’ll get practical information on product features and functions, as well as a strategic view of the future of your network with SBCs as a key element.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are the characteristics of an SBC? What functions must all SBCs perform, and what additional capabilities are being built in by some vendors?
* Who are the SBC vendors, and how do you choose among them?
* What is the SBC’s role in SIP Trunking? What is its role in tying together diverse elements of a legacy communications infrastructure? What other roles does it play?
* What do SBCs cost, and how do you cost-justify them?
* What is the SBC’s long-term evolution path? Will it be an appliance; a blade in a router or server; a software application on a virtual server?

Location: Osceola C
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM

The Web has been carrying real-time traffic—two-way voice and video—for years, but, until now, this has mostly been a sidelight. However, recent developments make it likely that the World Wide Web could become the public communications network of the future:
* Skype is now the world’s largest long-distance voice provider – and it’s huge in video calling.
* Giant social-media sites like Facebook and Google+ are rolling out voice and video services for both wireline and mobile users.
* The emerging WebRTC standard will soon voice-enable the majority of Web browsers, opening up millions of new clients to myriad potential use cases for voice/video over the Web--without users having to implement any specific, dedicated multimedia client.
* The incumbent U.S. carriers, led by AT&T, are pressuring regulators to allow them to retire the assets of the legacy PSTN, and to relieve these carriers of their obligations to provide retail service on this platform.
So the implications of the Real-time Web are potentially huge. But just how these trends will play out is far from certain. What we do know, however, is that, more than ever, users in their role as consumers now drive the changes in communications that reverberate within the enterprise—usually much sooner than enterprise managers anticipate.
With so much happening so fast in the Real-time Web, it’s imperative for enterprise managers to understand the technical, market, and regulatory details of this transition, so that they can be ready when it starts to hit their organizations. Enterprises may even be able to leverage some of these trends for their benefit, gaining cost efficiencies, productivity, and innovation advantages. The time is now to get up to speed, and so you can’t afford to miss this discussion with the thought leaders and technology creators who are at the forefront of the Real-time Web.

Location: Osceola C
Monday, March 18, 2013, 11:15 AM-12:00 PM

UC is no longer a new technology nor is it a new offering, it’s been
commercially available for at least six years. But while UC was revving
up, other technologies weren’t standing still. Smartphones and tablets
already deliver much of the UC “experience,” WebRTC promises to
integrate real-time voice and video directly into browser technology and if
we’ll all soon be living and working from our social media networks, will
the need for UC disappear?

Well, that’s one side, but there is another: Premises-based virtualization
enables enterprises to fulfill UC requirements in a much more cost-effective,
secure and reliable manner than any social network could ever deliver and, so far,
enterprises have moved very slowly to put their communications and
collaboration operations into the Cloud.

So, if an enterprise is preparing to upgrade to next-gen communications and
collaboration capabilities in the next 12-18 months, what role should UC play
in its architecture strategy and procurement plans, and what are the realistic options for
UC service delivery?
Co-Moderators: Fred Knight, GM/Co-Chair, Enterprise Connect, and Publisher, NoJitter.com;
Eric Krapf, Co-Chair, Enterprise Connect and Editor, NoJitter.com

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:30 AM

WebRTC is so new that few have any real-world experience with it. So we’ll begin with a tutorial that
will give you a grounding in the technical aspects of WebRTC: What, exactly is it? How does it work? Where can it be deployed in enterprises, carrier networks, and user
endpoints? How difficult is it to deploy and use, and what are the technical obstacles?

In this opening session, you’ll learn the basics of WebRTC technology, and will take away a
good understanding of where it will show up in your enterprise network as well as in B2B
and B2C customer engagement initiatives.
KEY QUESTIONS:
• What is WebRTC, what does it enable and deliver?
• Which standard organizations are driving WebRTC?
• What are the requirements to implement a WebRTC solution?
• What are the intersection points of WebRTC and HTML5?
• What does an end-to-end WebRTC communications solution look like?
• How does WebRTC integrate with enterprise communications systems and the PSTN?
• What security and interoperability issues does WebRTC create for enterprises ?
• Why are Google and Mozilla going in one direction, while Apple and Microsoft appear to be going in other directions?

Location: Osceola C
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM

The Web has been carrying real-time traffic—two-way voice and video—for years, but, until now, this has mostly been a sidelight. However, recent developments make it likely that the World Wide Web could become the public communications network of the future:
* Skype is now the world’s largest long-distance voice provider – and it’s huge in video calling.
* Giant social-media sites like Facebook and Google+ are rolling out voice and video services for both wireline and mobile users.
* The emerging WebRTC standard will soon voice-enable the majority of Web browsers, opening up millions of new clients to myriad potential use cases for voice/video over the Web--without users having to implement any specific, dedicated multimedia client.
* The incumbent U.S. carriers, led by AT&T, are pressuring regulators to allow them to retire the assets of the legacy PSTN, and to relieve these carriers of their obligations to provide retail service on this platform.
So the implications of the Real-time Web are potentially huge. But just how these trends will play out is far from certain. What we do know, however, is that, more than ever, users in their role as consumers now drive the changes in communications that reverberate within the enterprise—usually much sooner than enterprise managers anticipate.
With so much happening so fast in the Real-time Web, it’s imperative for enterprise managers to understand the technical, market, and regulatory details of this transition, so that they can be ready when it starts to hit their organizations. Enterprises may even be able to leverage some of these trends for their benefit, gaining cost efficiencies, productivity, and innovation advantages. The time is now to get up to speed, and so you can’t afford to miss this discussion with the thought leaders and technology creators who are at the forefront of the Real-time Web.

Location: Sun D
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

As cloud communications gains appeal and more providers get into the market, what are the do’s and don’ts from a procurement perspective? In this session, experts and those who have been through the process of contracting for Hosted PBX and other cloud communications services will offer their advice about what to include, what to exclude, and what to beware of when you’re negotiating a deal and writing a contract for a Hosted Communications service. You’ll get practical advice that will help you get the best deal on the right type of service for your enterprise.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are the key elements of a contract for a Hosted Service? What are the most important deliverables, terms and conditions to include (or to watch for) in a Hosted Services contract?
* How do you benchmark different carriers’ offers, and how do you make apples-to-apples comparisons?
* What are the elements of a good SLA (service level agreement) for Hosted/Cloud Services?
* What is the typical length of a Hosted Services contract, and how do you protect yourself against vendor lock-in?
* How is contracting for a Hosted Service similar to contracting for carrier wide-area network services, and how is it different?

Location: Osceola C
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 9:15 AM-10:00 AM

The chorus for moving your communications and collaboration to a Cloud/hosted model grows ever louder. Both familiar carriers and a new generation of service providers are singing the same song: Let us handle your call control, communications apps and ongoing management, we can do it better, faster and cheaper.

There’s no question that the APIs becoming available enable a new level of integration between the service providers’ and enterprises’ networks and services. And with virtualization, the service providers can ride economies of scale to deliver a wider set of services to many more customers than ever before.

The Cloud has gained acceptance in small- and mid-markets, turf that has historically relied heavily on phone companies and other service providers. The enterprise has been a different story, because of the presence of trained staff, the benefits associated with ownership and equipment depreciation, as well as a perceived and ability to control information resources and assets.

But has the rough economic period we’ve been enduring changed the game? Have communications and collaboration services become utilities or are they an essential ingredient in the enterprise’s core competence? How do you find the right balance point for your enterprise on what to outsource and what to retain?

KEY QUESTIONS:
• As relates to enterprise buyers, what do Cloud providers need to deliver in order to grow?
• Does the combination of technology like WebRTC and Skype-like business models help or hurt the movement toward the Cloud?
• If a company planning to migrate to the Cloud, what role should SIP Trunking play in the enterprise’s architecture?
• Can Cloud providers ever meet the enterprise’s requirements for governance, security and compliance?
• Can service providers provide Cloud SLAs that meet enterprise requirements?

Location: Osceola B
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

This workshop starts with the simple question: If an enterprise wanted to eliminate all or most of its premises-based communications equipment and deploy a fully loaded unified communications solution from a hosted and managed cloud services provider, could it do so today? If so, what would such an implementation look like? Who could deliver it? And what would it cost?

The Cloud-Based Communications Services RFP describes a domestically headquartered company with two branch locations and a number of mobile workers. This session presents solutions from leading hosted unified communications providers covering each of the major unified communications applications including presence, IM, call control, audio/video/web conferencing, unified messaging, etc. It also ascertains whether an organization, using these major players, could craft a cost-effective, secure, robust cloud-based communications platform for its users today.There will be a thorough review of the solutions proposed by those responding to the RFP, and the analysis will include:

• Architecture
• Cost
• Feature/functionality/quality of service
• Migration path
• Manageability
• Business continuity and disaster recovery
• Level of risk (security, compliance, control/accountability)
• TCO as compared to premises-based offerings

Location: Osceola C
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 10:00 AM-10:30 AM

Location: Sun A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

Research tells us that almost 90% of end user organizations either have or are developing a BYOD policy for either some or all of their mobile devices. All of those organizations have had to come to grips with the challenges of inventorying, managing, and securing those devices, as well as determining such issues as which mobile operating systems and devices they should support, how much of the cost they should reimburse, what level of support they should provide, and how to cancel the device if it is lost, stolen, or if the employee leaves the company.

This panel of BYOD users will discuss their solutions to these questions, what tools they have implemented for mobile device management, and
• How do BYOD policies differ from company to company?
• Who is responsible for developing and maintaining the policy?
• Are MDM systems essential or can we get along without them?
• What are the primary drivers? Cost savings? User satisfaction?
• Where do users go for support?

Location: Osceola C
Monday, March 18, 2013, 1:15 PM-1:45 PM

The mobile market is forging ahead, but the much-touted mobile UC offerings languish. At face value it would seem that mobile workers would benefit the most from presence, better integrated communications and collaboration capabilities, yet they bypass the mobile UC offerings and prefer native UC-like capabilities that come packaged with smartphones. The growth rate in the tablet market is growing by leaps and bounds, but as tablets lack a basic cellular voice capability can they serve as mobile UC devices or will they be yet another mobile opportunity the UC vendors miss out on?

Among the issues this panel will address are the following:
•What can or should UC vendors do to jump-start their aging mobility offerings?
•Will users ever want to route their mobile calls through IP-PBX or UC platforms?
•Can UC vendors deliver the type of engaging experience users have come to expect from their mobile devices given the limitations of the mobile vendors’ SDKs?
•Will we see joint offerings mobile operators and UC vendors so enterprises can have a more functional UC offering?
•If the UC vendors fail to come up with a better-integrated mobility solution, do they risk losing out to mobile-social capability that grows out of the consumer rather than the enterprise market?

Location: Osceola A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-3:00 PM

Smart mobile devices have now gone from being an expensive management perk to an essential productivity tool used at all levels of the organization. Along the way, smartphones and tablets have gone from being standard corporate-issued devices to user owned and maintained. Market shares for smartphones have followed a wild path that now leaves Android and Apple’s iOS in the lead and the others wondering where they should go. Microsoft has finally come out with an enterprise-capable offering in Windows Phone 8, and everyone is wondering if RIM will be able to pull out of its tailspin with BB10.
There has been as just as much turmoil in the tablet market, which grew a whopping 66% between mid-2011 and mid-2012. Apple still rules the roost, and in the $199 segment Google has entered the fray with the Nexus 7 and Amazon has launched the second generation Kindle Fire. Samsung is churning out both 7-inch and 10-inch Android tablets, but has now entered the Windows tablet market along with Acer, HP, and Dell, and they will all be going head to head with Microsoft’s Surface Pro. And all the while the UC&C vendors are trying to figure out how they can get in on the action as their mobile clients continue to underwhelm.
This session is designed to help you understand the unique requirements of the mobile devices, bring the mobile O/S picture into a clearer focus, and discuss the key factors that are driving the mobile device market.
Key Questions:
• Which mobile O/S environments will be most important to support, and do users recognize the differences in the security they provide?
• Will the mobile industry expand its focus beyond consumers to better address enterprise requirements, and will enterprise initiatives from handset manufacturers like Samsung be successful in meeting enterprise requirements.
• Will this be the breakout year for mobile device management, or will enterprise continue to hope they can go on without it?
• If RIM’s implosion continues does that create a greater opportunity for Windows Phone or will we be looking at an Apple-Android mobile duopoly?
• What will UC&C suppliers have to do to become relevant in mobility or is it too late to even try?

Location: Sun B
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

Apple essentially invented the tablet category with the release of the iPad in 2010, and still commands roughly a 70% market share despite a rash of Android tablets from Samsung, Amazon, Google, and others. While users were immediately stricken by the engaging touch screen interface and brilliant displays, many found the new devices lacked in the way of data input and other enterprise requirements. Some switched back to their laptops but others are now moving to Windows based tablets like the Samsung Series 7 or the Microsoft Surface Pro.

There has also been a lot of interest in tablets from the UC&C community. Avaya launched the Desktop Video Device, Cisco launched and then withdrew the Cius, and virtually all of the UC&C vendors have clients for iPads and in some cases Android devices as well. However, as a UC&C device tablets have one glaring deficiency in that they do not have a native cell phone capability, so the “C&C” has to be done over Wi-Fi or 3G/4G cellular service.

With two years of trial-and-error under our belts, what have we learned about the role of tablets in UC&C, what applications they are being used for, and what enterprise buyers should be looking for going forward.

Key Questions:
• Is there any reason for UC&C vendors to build their own tablets?
• With 7-inch and 10-inch tablet options available, who’s buying what, and are there different applications or use cases that drive the buyer one way or the other?
• Without the ability to make or receive cellular voice calls, can the tablet be considered a suitable UC&C terminal outside of the office?
• Will we need ruggedized tablets for industrial environments, or will protective cases do the trick?
• What percentage of enterprise users will move to Windows tablets, and how big an impact will that have on the laptop market?
• Is your next desk phone going to be a tablet?

Location: Sun A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 3:45 PM-4:30 PM

Desktop phones aren’t sexy, but they still sell—almost all the vendors report that their sales of IP phones continue to grow each year. At the same time, vendors are also giving away soft-client licenses and upgrading the video components of their end-client software. So where do we really stand with regard to the user interface at the desktop? In this session, a range of industry leaders representing different constituencies will discuss the current state and future prospects for desktop devices. They’ll debate the need for hard phones today, the prospects for desk phone deployments over the next 3-5 years, and the merits of different PC-based soft client approaches. You’ll come away with an understanding of the issues that will drive (or constrain) phone deployments going forward, as well as the technical and management challenges related to PC-based soft clients.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are the short- and long-term trends in IP phone sales? What are the pricing trends? What about features/functions?
* Should you consider phasing out desktop phones? In what situations will desktop phones continue to be a good long-term investment?
* How are the various vendors’ soft clients differentiated from each other? What role does the soft client play in the overall buying decision for a communications system?
* What media should a soft client support—Voice only? Instant messaging? Video?
* How do you make sure your enterprise’s mobility strategy fits with your desktop deployment strategy?

Location: Osceola A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

Everyone acknowledges that multivendor interoperability should be a key part of any Unified Communications implementation, but the reality is that interoperability remains a moving target. The UC vendors address this challenge in different ways, and to different degrees, so this session will focus on three specific interoperability issues:

* Interoperability Requirements: The top five areas were interoperation is needed.
* Interoperability Design: Using interoperation to create optimal solutions.
* Interoperability for Installed Systems: How interoperation can save you time and money.

You’ll see how leading vendors are offering interoperation in the top five interoperation categories. Vendor panelists will be challenged to support their interoperation capabilities. This is a crucial session for every enterprise that is in the strategy, planning or implementation phases of Unified Communications.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are the key points within the UC system where interoperability is most vital—and how close are those to plug-and-play status with vendor products?
* What standards and protocols are being used to deliver interoperation?
* How do the different vendors rate in terms of their products’ interoperability?
* How do you make products work together if they aren’t interoperable out of the box?
* What are the cost tradeoffs between interoperable solutions, single vendor solutions, and deferring the solution until it is a standard feature?

Location: Osceola C
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 9:15 AM-10:00 AM

The chorus for moving your communications and collaboration to a Cloud/hosted model grows ever louder. Both familiar carriers and a new generation of service providers are singing the same song: Let us handle your call control, communications apps and ongoing management, we can do it better, faster and cheaper.

There’s no question that the APIs becoming available enable a new level of integration between the service providers’ and enterprises’ networks and services. And with virtualization, the service providers can ride economies of scale to deliver a wider set of services to many more customers than ever before.

The Cloud has gained acceptance in small- and mid-markets, turf that has historically relied heavily on phone companies and other service providers. The enterprise has been a different story, because of the presence of trained staff, the benefits associated with ownership and equipment depreciation, as well as a perceived and ability to control information resources and assets.

But has the rough economic period we’ve been enduring changed the game? Have communications and collaboration services become utilities or are they an essential ingredient in the enterprise’s core competence? How do you find the right balance point for your enterprise on what to outsource and what to retain?

KEY QUESTIONS:
• As relates to enterprise buyers, what do Cloud providers need to deliver in order to grow?
• Does the combination of technology like WebRTC and Skype-like business models help or hurt the movement toward the Cloud?
• If a company planning to migrate to the Cloud, what role should SIP Trunking play in the enterprise’s architecture?
• Can Cloud providers ever meet the enterprise’s requirements for governance, security and compliance?
• Can service providers provide Cloud SLAs that meet enterprise requirements?

Location: Osceola C
Monday, March 18, 2013, 1:15 PM-1:45 PM

The mobile market is forging ahead, but the much-touted mobile UC offerings languish. At face value it would seem that mobile workers would benefit the most from presence, better integrated communications and collaboration capabilities, yet they bypass the mobile UC offerings and prefer native UC-like capabilities that come packaged with smartphones. The growth rate in the tablet market is growing by leaps and bounds, but as tablets lack a basic cellular voice capability can they serve as mobile UC devices or will they be yet another mobile opportunity the UC vendors miss out on?

Among the issues this panel will address are the following:
•What can or should UC vendors do to jump-start their aging mobility offerings?
•Will users ever want to route their mobile calls through IP-PBX or UC platforms?
•Can UC vendors deliver the type of engaging experience users have come to expect from their mobile devices given the limitations of the mobile vendors’ SDKs?
•Will we see joint offerings mobile operators and UC vendors so enterprises can have a more functional UC offering?
•If the UC vendors fail to come up with a better-integrated mobility solution, do they risk losing out to mobile-social capability that grows out of the consumer rather than the enterprise market?

Location: Expo Floor
Monday, March 18, 2013, 4:30 PM-4:50 PM

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 10:45 AM-12:00 PM

Where does WebRTC stand in the real world of the enterprise today—and where is it headed in the next 24-36 months? How do your strategic vendors view WebRTC, and should you incorporate this emerging technology in your
enterprise planning?

Panelists will discuss and debate the potential future of WebRTC, and
explain where they believe it will have the greatest effect. They’ll so analyze which aspects are the most
over-hyped or farthest in the future. You’ll come away from this session with a perspective
on how close WebRTC really is in affecting the enterprise.

KEY QUESTIONS
● Which browsers aren’t yet implementing WebRTC and why, and what are the prospects for their eventual support?
● What are examples of WebRTC-enabled applications that are available now?
What can they do to add value to enterprise users? How does WebRTC
relate to trends like communications-enabled business processes (CEBP)?
● What role will WebRTC play in enterprise communications product offerings, how
will that affect the vendors’ go-to-market strategies, and how will that in turn affect
enterprises’ strategic planning?
●How will vendors monetize WebRTC?
●How will the carriers incorporate WebRTC into their services and infrastructure?
●What are the implications of WebRTC on mobile UC solutions?

Location: Osceola 1
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 4:45 PM-5:30 PM

With an ever-growing array of advanced communications services - such as UC, mobility, FMC, BYOD, SIP trunking, HD video, and in the future WebRTC – an enterprise IT department is starting to resemble and operate like a communications service provider. This panel session, led by Zeus Kerravala, discusses the key issues that face enterprise organizations, and the risks and implications involved in deploying, managing and administering a complex web of communications services in a private cloud: 1. How to simplify the deployment of advanced UC services and enable interoperability? 2. How to manage escalating operational costs? 3. How to harness next generation UC services, to improve inter-company collaboration and employee productivity

Location: Sun A
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 9:00 AM-9:45 AM

The “U” in UC stands for “unified,” and one of its most appealing attributes is that it can break down the
silos between voice, data and video, and between wireless and wireline. In theory, that sounds great, but the reality in today’s market doesn’t quite match UC’s promise.

Management and monitoring capabilities typically lag specific network and system innovations, and UC is no exception. This panel will examine prospects for a new framework for management and monitoring, one that is built from the ground up for comprehensive, unified communications and collaboration. This will be a critically important session for anyone whose job responsibilities include keeping your enterprise’s network and apps humming.

Location: Sun A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:45 AM

SIP Trunking is the hottest technology trend in enterprise communications, but how do you procure the services and equipment to make it a success for your organization? This Deep Dive session will offer detailed presentations on the services and technologies you will need to acquire in order to roll out SIP Trunking. You’ll learn about what the incumbent carriers are doing, what their competitors are offering, and how to handle the procurement process so that you get a good deal on SIP trunks that also positions you for the enterprise-wide Unified Communications deployments of the future.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What’s the state of SIP Trunking availability, from both the Tier 1 carriers and alternative providers? And is there a difference between “availability” and “procure-ability”?
* How mature are providers’ SLAs for SIP Trunks?
* What are the risks of vendor lock-in when you sign a contract for SIP Trunking, and how do you mitigate these risks?
* Do you absolutely need a session border controller (SBC) when you implement SIP trunks, and if so, is this something the enterprise specifies, or is it a service provider decision?
* How does your enterprise’s communications architecture (centralized vs. de-centralized) affect your decision-making in SIP Trunk and SBC procurement?

Location: Osceola A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 3:15 PM-4:00 PM

If 2011 was the year that social media integration with contact center solutions was the hot topic, there can be no doubt that delivering an optimal mobile customer experience supplanted it in 2012. In this session, contact center applications companies with mobile customer care solutions discuss the offerings available and actual use cases of early adopters.

Location: Osceola 1
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:45 AM

In this session, the industry’s leading contact center analyst will give an overview of market shares and technology trends within the contact center vendor landscape. She will then lead a discussion with executives from the leading contact center vendors, which will further illuminate the trends and positioning described in the presentation. You will get a thorough understanding of where the market is at for ACDs, IVRs, and next-generation technology for the contact center, and will be familiar with the established and emerging players shaping this market.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* Who are the contact center market share leaders? Who’s up and who’s down from last year?
* What are the key trends in the contact center infrastructure market? Who and what are driving these trends?
* How do contact center product strategies fit in with the larger communications platform strategies that these companies or their partners are implementing?
* What emerging trends, such as social integration and cloud services, are likely to gain broad near-term acceptance, within the next 12-18 months? Which are more hype than reality?

Location: Sun D
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

Several manufacturers of premises-based contact center infrastructure (ACD, IVR, reporting, etc.) report that their strongest growth is now coming from hosted implementations of their software, provided as a service to the enterprise. Some of these vendors are selling the hosted solutions themselves, while other vendors’ software is being made available through channel partners and VARs. In this session, you’ll hear from the industry’s leading contact center analyst, who will first outline the reasons why some enterprises are opting for hosted contact center services; she will then delve into a detailed description of the hosted contact center services market today. You’ll come away from this Deep Dive session with a clear idea of the business case and other justifications for using hosted contact center services; and you’ll also get a complete scorecard of all the players in this marketplace and how heavily each one is betting on hosted as a future revenue stream.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* Why would you move your contact center application to the cloud? What are the potential risks and rewards?
* What are the adoption trends for hosted contact center services?
* Who are the leading players in hosted contact centers? How do their approaches to the market differ?
* What are the elements of a hosted contact center service offer? How should enterprise decision-makers evaluate competing offers?
* How do costs compare, both among hosted offerings, and for hosted vs. premises deployments?

Location: Sun C
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

Two emerging technologies are likely to transform the operations and value proposition of contact centers for the enterprise. The first, social networking, offers a new channel for communicating with your customers on the front end, as well as a new way for agent to interact with colleagues and data inside of the enterprise. A separate but somewhat related technology trend is the increasing power and capabilities of analytics—the ability to glean ever-more information and insight about your customers from your existing data stores and communications archives (i.e., your “Big Data”). If these analytics can be mined and exposed to customer contact systems and agents, the results could transform the business. This session will help you understand these two cutting-edge technology trends, and most importantly, will give you concrete information about how Social Networking and Analytics can actually be used--integrated with communications systems—to revolutionize customer care.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* By now, many enterprises are monitoring Twitter and Facebook for mentions of their company--but how many are actually turning these mentions into actionable intelligence? How are they doing this?
* Is enterprise social networking software a useful tool for contact center agents? What can they use these systems to accomplish that can’t be done with existing systems?
* What analytics capabilities exist for your enterprise to quantify and act on the information you receive through communications and social networking channels?
* Are any enterprises actually doing social media/contact center integration today, or is this more of a future prospect?

Location: Sun D
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-5:00 PM

The IP Telephony/UC RFP describes a domestically headquartered company with two branch locations and a number of mobile workers. This session present solutions from leading UC providers covering each of the major unified communications applications (voice communications and services, presence, IM, call control, audio/video/web conferencing, unified messaging, etc.).
Key take-aways for this workshop are:
• A comprehensive RFP system performance document covering
basic and advanced hardware/software capabilities for
today’s IP telephony and Unified Communications systems.
The RFP will also cover:
• Use of SIP
• Integration of mobile devices
• Basic Contact Center
• Actual proposals from leading system suppliers with detailed performance specifications and associated summary pricing tables.
• Critiques of response submissions by one of the industry’s leading enterprise communications system analysts and end user consultants.
• Scoring of vendor responses based on TCO and ability to meet the RFP requirements

Location: Osceola B
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

This workshop starts with the simple question: If an enterprise wanted to eliminate all or most of its premises-based communications equipment and deploy a fully loaded unified communications solution from a hosted and managed cloud services provider, could it do so today? If so, what would such an implementation look like? Who could deliver it? And what would it cost?

The Cloud-Based Communications Services RFP describes a domestically headquartered company with two branch locations and a number of mobile workers. This session presents solutions from leading hosted unified communications providers covering each of the major unified communications applications including presence, IM, call control, audio/video/web conferencing, unified messaging, etc. It also ascertains whether an organization, using these major players, could craft a cost-effective, secure, robust cloud-based communications platform for its users today.There will be a thorough review of the solutions proposed by those responding to the RFP, and the analysis will include:

• Architecture
• Cost
• Feature/functionality/quality of service
• Migration path
• Manageability
• Business continuity and disaster recovery
• Level of risk (security, compliance, control/accountability)
• TCO as compared to premises-based offerings

Location: Osceola A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 3:15 PM-4:00 PM

If 2011 was the year that social media integration with contact center solutions was the hot topic, there can be no doubt that delivering an optimal mobile customer experience supplanted it in 2012. In this session, contact center applications companies with mobile customer care solutions discuss the offerings available and actual use cases of early adopters.

Location: Osceola 1
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 4:45 PM-5:30 PM

With an ever-growing array of advanced communications services - such as UC, mobility, FMC, BYOD, SIP trunking, HD video, and in the future WebRTC – an enterprise IT department is starting to resemble and operate like a communications service provider. This panel session, led by Zeus Kerravala, discusses the key issues that face enterprise organizations, and the risks and implications involved in deploying, managing and administering a complex web of communications services in a private cloud: 1. How to simplify the deployment of advanced UC services and enable interoperability? 2. How to manage escalating operational costs? 3. How to harness next generation UC services, to improve inter-company collaboration and employee productivity

Location: Sun B
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

Apple essentially invented the tablet category with the release of the iPad in 2010, and still commands roughly a 70% market share despite a rash of Android tablets from Samsung, Amazon, Google, and others. While users were immediately stricken by the engaging touch screen interface and brilliant displays, many found the new devices lacked in the way of data input and other enterprise requirements. Some switched back to their laptops but others are now moving to Windows based tablets like the Samsung Series 7 or the Microsoft Surface Pro.

There has also been a lot of interest in tablets from the UC&C community. Avaya launched the Desktop Video Device, Cisco launched and then withdrew the Cius, and virtually all of the UC&C vendors have clients for iPads and in some cases Android devices as well. However, as a UC&C device tablets have one glaring deficiency in that they do not have a native cell phone capability, so the “C&C” has to be done over Wi-Fi or 3G/4G cellular service.

With two years of trial-and-error under our belts, what have we learned about the role of tablets in UC&C, what applications they are being used for, and what enterprise buyers should be looking for going forward.

Key Questions:
• Is there any reason for UC&C vendors to build their own tablets?
• With 7-inch and 10-inch tablet options available, who’s buying what, and are there different applications or use cases that drive the buyer one way or the other?
• Without the ability to make or receive cellular voice calls, can the tablet be considered a suitable UC&C terminal outside of the office?
• Will we need ruggedized tablets for industrial environments, or will protective cases do the trick?
• What percentage of enterprise users will move to Windows tablets, and how big an impact will that have on the laptop market?
• Is your next desk phone going to be a tablet?

Location: Osceola B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

Unified communications works with and through a PBX, but it’s not necessary to purchase and install a new PBX in order to get UC capabilities. There are multiple UC solution choices and they can interoperate with your current communication systems.

This workshop is based on a mock RFP to the leading UC vendors requesting a UC solution to provide IM/presence, conferencing, collaboration, mobility and CEBP without replacing the current PBX systems or e-mail systems. This RFP uses exactly the same requirements as two other mock RFP sessions at Enterprise Connect -- RFP for UC with a New PBX and UC including IP PBX functions in the Cloud. The template is based on a 2,000 user enterprise with a headquarters location and several remote offices, as well as mobile workers.

The workshop will include independent consultant review and scoring of the vendors responses along with vendor commentaries in mini-panels. You will gain invaluable information that will save you time and inform your UC planning, such as:
• What are the requirements and costs to install UC with our existing PBX?
• How does UC integrate to our existing PBX? What functions, if any, will be compromised?
• Will we be better off technically and financially by installing UC with our current PBX than by making UC part of a new IP PBX procurement? (You can compare the results of the three RFP sessions.)
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the leading vendors for UC with our current PBX?

Wednesday, March 20, 2013, Array-Array

Video is a big topic that means different things to different people. Telepresence, room, mobile, and desktop video conferencing have historically been independent, and now the enterprise wants to bring them together. The best of both worlds means video being a natural extension of the multi modal unified communications experience, while also granting users access to the richest video conferencing capabilities. IT needs to address interoperability and is deeply concerned about network bandwidth. Attend this session to understand how these different video worlds can be brought together today, making it easy on the user, and providing piece of mind for the IT department.

Location: Sun D
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

Communications-Enabled Business Processes (CEBP) used to be promoted as part of a more closed ecosystem, but over the past couple of years, the model for integrating communications with the business has opened up, thanks largely to APIs (application programming interfaces). Several newer companies specialize in communications enabled by APIs, and even many established vendors are opening up their platforms to access from business applications via APIs. In this session, we’ll get a quick refresher on what APIs are and what role they play in communications; we’ll then hear from experts who will describe specific implementations and scenarios where communications APIs are enabling enhancements to business processes that would not have been possible otherwise. You’ll leave this session with a clear idea of the role that APIs play in marrying communications with business processes, and how you might be able to use them in your enterprise.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are communications APIs, where do you find them, and what exactly do you use them for?
* How do you evaluate the approach to APIs taken by different vendors?
* What is involved in the process of integrating communications systems with business process applications via APIs?
* Is this something your in-house applications and communications teams can do, or will you likely require the help of an SI or other third party?
* What organizational barriers are you likely to encounter in this process, and how do you overcome them?

Location: Expo Floor
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-1:50 PM

Interested in driving business efficiencies with next generation collaboration for events? You’ll want to attend this panel discussion where Cisco leaders will talk openly and candidly about best practices you can use to leverage your existing assets and deploy a reusable communications platform for use inside and outside the firewall. Learn how Cisco has pioneered this new frontier using on-prem and cloud based solutions and the critical services required that pull all this together to deliver scalable online events like GSX, Cisco TV, Cisco Live! Virtual and more.

Location: Osceola C
Monday, March 18, 2013, 11:15 AM-12:00 PM

UC is no longer a new technology nor is it a new offering, it’s been
commercially available for at least six years. But while UC was revving
up, other technologies weren’t standing still. Smartphones and tablets
already deliver much of the UC “experience,” WebRTC promises to
integrate real-time voice and video directly into browser technology and if
we’ll all soon be living and working from our social media networks, will
the need for UC disappear?

Well, that’s one side, but there is another: Premises-based virtualization
enables enterprises to fulfill UC requirements in a much more cost-effective,
secure and reliable manner than any social network could ever deliver and, so far,
enterprises have moved very slowly to put their communications and
collaboration operations into the Cloud.

So, if an enterprise is preparing to upgrade to next-gen communications and
collaboration capabilities in the next 12-18 months, what role should UC play
in its architecture strategy and procurement plans, and what are the realistic options for
UC service delivery?
Co-Moderators: Fred Knight, GM/Co-Chair, Enterprise Connect, and Publisher, NoJitter.com;
Eric Krapf, Co-Chair, Enterprise Connect and Editor, NoJitter.com

Location: Osceola C
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 9:15 AM-10:00 AM

The chorus for moving your communications and collaboration to a Cloud/hosted model grows ever louder. Both familiar carriers and a new generation of service providers are singing the same song: Let us handle your call control, communications apps and ongoing management, we can do it better, faster and cheaper.

There’s no question that the APIs becoming available enable a new level of integration between the service providers’ and enterprises’ networks and services. And with virtualization, the service providers can ride economies of scale to deliver a wider set of services to many more customers than ever before.

The Cloud has gained acceptance in small- and mid-markets, turf that has historically relied heavily on phone companies and other service providers. The enterprise has been a different story, because of the presence of trained staff, the benefits associated with ownership and equipment depreciation, as well as a perceived and ability to control information resources and assets.

But has the rough economic period we’ve been enduring changed the game? Have communications and collaboration services become utilities or are they an essential ingredient in the enterprise’s core competence? How do you find the right balance point for your enterprise on what to outsource and what to retain?

KEY QUESTIONS:
• As relates to enterprise buyers, what do Cloud providers need to deliver in order to grow?
• Does the combination of technology like WebRTC and Skype-like business models help or hurt the movement toward the Cloud?
• If a company planning to migrate to the Cloud, what role should SIP Trunking play in the enterprise’s architecture?
• Can Cloud providers ever meet the enterprise’s requirements for governance, security and compliance?
• Can service providers provide Cloud SLAs that meet enterprise requirements?

Location: Osceola C
Monday, March 18, 2013, 11:00 AM-11:15 AM

Location: Osceola C
Monday, March 18, 2013, 1:00 PM-1:15 PM

Location: Sun D
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

Communications-Enabled Business Processes (CEBP) used to be promoted as part of a more closed ecosystem, but over the past couple of years, the model for integrating communications with the business has opened up, thanks largely to APIs (application programming interfaces). Several newer companies specialize in communications enabled by APIs, and even many established vendors are opening up their platforms to access from business applications via APIs. In this session, we’ll get a quick refresher on what APIs are and what role they play in communications; we’ll then hear from experts who will describe specific implementations and scenarios where communications APIs are enabling enhancements to business processes that would not have been possible otherwise. You’ll leave this session with a clear idea of the role that APIs play in marrying communications with business processes, and how you might be able to use them in your enterprise.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are communications APIs, where do you find them, and what exactly do you use them for?
* How do you evaluate the approach to APIs taken by different vendors?
* What is involved in the process of integrating communications systems with business process applications via APIs?
* Is this something your in-house applications and communications teams can do, or will you likely require the help of an SI or other third party?
* What organizational barriers are you likely to encounter in this process, and how do you overcome them?

Location: Sun A
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM

To wrap up Enterprise Connect, join leading analysts and program Co-chairs Fred Knight and Eric Krapf for a conversation, analysis and debate over the major issues covered during the Conference. The issues covered in the Locknote/Town Hall include analyzing the progress in deploying Unified
Communications and an assessment of its benefits and challenges; the viability of the Cloud as a deployment model for communications; the progress toward SIP Trunking and a New Public Network; issues around mobility; vendors’ positioning, strengths and weaknesses; and how emerging social networking functionality is being integrated into communications. Hear what the analysts have to say, and come prepared to share your questions, comments and perceptions.

Location: Sun C
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:15 PM

Discover the myths we’ll bust and realities we’ll explore.
• Is the Cloud an All-or-Nothing Decision? Hear about the top cloud predictions for 2013 and learn whether the public cloud, private cloud or hybrid is your best bet.
• The Mobile Explosion, Now What? Enterprise mobility is driven by the need to increase users’ availability and productivity; regardless of where they are and what devices they have available. Hear how to support this major IT trend, with business security at top of mind!
• Where Do You Most Need UC Interoperability? Learn how to protect your current and future IT investments and prevent single vendor lock-in.

Location: Sun A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

More and more enterprises are developing some experience with SIP Trunks, mostly via limited pilot implementations, while a few pioneers have implemented SIP Trunks enterprise-wide. As the amount of real-world experience with SIP Trunks grows, what lessons can we glean from early implementers? In this session, you’ll get a chance to hear from end users who will discuss their experiences--what worked, what didn’t, what they’d do differently, and what they plan to do when their next contract for SIP Trunks comes due. You’ll get real-world knowledge that you can put to use when you implement SIP Trunks.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What’s the biggest challenge when implementing SIP Trunks?
* What are the keys to a successful SIP Trunk deployment?
* What have been the major benefits?
* What would they have done differently the first time around, and what do they plan to do differently as they move forward?

Location: Sun A
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 9:00 AM-9:45 AM

The “U” in UC stands for “unified,” and one of its most appealing attributes is that it can break down the
silos between voice, data and video, and between wireless and wireline. In theory, that sounds great, but the reality in today’s market doesn’t quite match UC’s promise.

Management and monitoring capabilities typically lag specific network and system innovations, and UC is no exception. This panel will examine prospects for a new framework for management and monitoring, one that is built from the ground up for comprehensive, unified communications and collaboration. This will be a critically important session for anyone whose job responsibilities include keeping your enterprise’s network and apps humming.

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-3:00 PM

Will WebRTC finally enable the age of pervasive video conferencing on desktop and
mobile without requiring all participants to have the same client? Will it usher in true
interoperability? How will it support a wide variety of codecs, high definition and high-quality video over any network?
In this session, experts on video technology and leading video technology providers will discuss the prospects for WebRTC-enabled video, in the
near- and longer-term.

KEY QUESTIONS:
●What are the particular challenges of WebRTC when it comes to video enablement?
●What challenges does the issue of codecs present for WebRTC-enabled video?
● Can browser-based video provide enterprise-quality video?
●Can WebRTC support multipoint as well as point-to-point video calls? What challenges
make this task more difficult or push it farther into the future?
●How will vendors address interoperability? Do vendors want truly interoperable solutions?
●What is the role of the cloud in delivering WebRTC video solutions?
●What are the licensing implications of WebRTC-based video?

Location: Sun D
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

Communications-Enabled Business Processes (CEBP) used to be promoted as part of a more closed ecosystem, but over the past couple of years, the model for integrating communications with the business has opened up, thanks largely to APIs (application programming interfaces). Several newer companies specialize in communications enabled by APIs, and even many established vendors are opening up their platforms to access from business applications via APIs. In this session, we’ll get a quick refresher on what APIs are and what role they play in communications; we’ll then hear from experts who will describe specific implementations and scenarios where communications APIs are enabling enhancements to business processes that would not have been possible otherwise. You’ll leave this session with a clear idea of the role that APIs play in marrying communications with business processes, and how you might be able to use them in your enterprise.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are communications APIs, where do you find them, and what exactly do you use them for?
* How do you evaluate the approach to APIs taken by different vendors?
* What is involved in the process of integrating communications systems with business process applications via APIs?
* Is this something your in-house applications and communications teams can do, or will you likely require the help of an SI or other third party?
* What organizational barriers are you likely to encounter in this process, and how do you overcome them?

Location: Osceola A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

More and more communications platform functions are becoming available for deployment on virtualized servers. And at the same time, vendors and enterprise users are grappling with the complexities of deploying communications on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)—which promises greater flexibility in end-user devices, while potentially creating new network performance challenges. In this session, you’ll get an overview of the opportunities for virtualizing your core communications applications, the costs and benefits of doing so, and tips on how to proceed with the migration. You’ll also get practical advice on how to include VDI in your larger strategies for end devices and even BYOD.

Key Questions:
* What percentage of communications platform vendors offer their core capabilities on virtual servers? How much of their product lines have the leading companies virtualized?
* Should you begin moving immediately toward virtualized communications applications? What factors will affect your migration planning?
* What are the cost benefits of virtualized communications applications (including call control)?
* What are the organizational and management challenges of deploying communications applications on virtual machines within the enterprise datacenter?
* What is the status of VDI for enterprise communications clients? Can the vendors currently support VDI? What about your enterprise network infrastructure?

Location: Sun C
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

Two emerging technologies are likely to transform the operations and value proposition of contact centers for the enterprise. The first, social networking, offers a new channel for communicating with your customers on the front end, as well as a new way for agent to interact with colleagues and data inside of the enterprise. A separate but somewhat related technology trend is the increasing power and capabilities of analytics—the ability to glean ever-more information and insight about your customers from your existing data stores and communications archives (i.e., your “Big Data”). If these analytics can be mined and exposed to customer contact systems and agents, the results could transform the business. This session will help you understand these two cutting-edge technology trends, and most importantly, will give you concrete information about how Social Networking and Analytics can actually be used--integrated with communications systems—to revolutionize customer care.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* By now, many enterprises are monitoring Twitter and Facebook for mentions of their company--but how many are actually turning these mentions into actionable intelligence? How are they doing this?
* Is enterprise social networking software a useful tool for contact center agents? What can they use these systems to accomplish that can’t be done with existing systems?
* What analytics capabilities exist for your enterprise to quantify and act on the information you receive through communications and social networking channels?
* Are any enterprises actually doing social media/contact center integration today, or is this more of a future prospect?

Location: Expo Floor
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 3:30 PM-3:50 PM

Location: Sun B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

Converged networks aren’t new, but it’s still as much art as science when it comes to delivering high-quality application performance and real-time voice, video and data traffic over converged facilities. This workshop identifies the problems that you can expect to encounter and it will provide the solutions you need to overcome them.

The specific topics on the agenda include:
• What is required to deliver adequate quality of service (QOS) for voice and video on any local and wide-area IP networks that previously handled only data?
• What services do I need from my WAN vendor to support voice and video? What is an appropriate Service Level Agreement (SLA)?
• Can you run VOIP or video over the Internet with acceptable QOS/quality of experience (QOE)?
• How do I classify traffic in the network to ensure voice and video are treated correctly without opening my network up to overutilization by unauthorized endpoints?
• How do you extend your upgrade to serve mobile workers?
• What tools are needed for testing and monitoring a converged network with voice and video?
• How can I manage the huge bandwidth demand that desktop and mobile video will cause on my enterprise network?

Location: Osceola 1
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

Audio conferencing has become a standard tool for conducting virtual business meetings but it is rapidly becoming a commodity. This session explores the trends and technologies which will shape its development. Most audio conference call solutions today use the traditional telephony network, which limits call fidelity and quality. New technologies promise to make conference calls sound like in-person meetings. Wainhouse Research has identified three factors poised to transform the market: 1) External Dynamics 2) Changes in User Behavior and 3) Advances in Audio Conferencing Technology.

Location: Sun B
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

During 2012, a number of web conferencing solution providers rolled out HD-quality video conferencing, giving enterprise users access to a high quality video conferencing alternative that does not have the hassles associated with traditional “standards-based” group / desktop video conferencing solutions. In this session Wainhouse Research staff will examine the pluses and minuses of web conferencing-based video conferencing, take look at user adoption, and ask a panel of the companies providing this service for an early report on what they are observing from their customers.
Key Questions:
• Will HD video conferencing delivered as a feature in web conferencing offerings stimulate greater use and acceptance of desktop video?
• What motivates web conferencing users to give HD video conferencing a try – and are they sticking with it?
• Is video conferencing creating new use cases for web conferencing? Are users conducting calls that only use video?
• Have the network requirements for web conferencing changed forever? Does video alter the appeal of the SaaS-based deployment model that has made web conferencing popular?
• Are users asking for web conferencing-based solutions to interface with standards-based systems? What are users doing to accommodate use in conference rooms?
• Going forward, will the web conferencing “call model” stand the test of time or will it inevitably have to be integrated with UC?

Location: Expo Floor
Monday, March 18, 2013, 5:30 PM-5:50 PM

As an IT professional, you’ve got enough on your plate. Virtualization, BYOD & Mobility, Legacy Modernization, Cloud & SaaS, Collaboration and Security, just to name a few of your top initiatives for 2013. In this session, learn how your video communications strategy can align and integrate with your initiatives around these top priorities instead of creating yet another silo of technology to manage.

Location: Osceola A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

Managed/hosted and Cloud service delivery is all the rage these days, but what’s the real story? In this sessions you’ll hear from enterprise IT executives who have made the decision – or who expect to – describe why they’re going down this road and what issues they face along the way. This session will address the following questions:
* What are the major reasons for considering video conferencing managed services?
* What are the advantages and disadvantages of managed services?
* How should an enterprise transition to video conferencing managed services?

Location: Sun D
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

Several manufacturers of premises-based contact center infrastructure (ACD, IVR, reporting, etc.) report that their strongest growth is now coming from hosted implementations of their software, provided as a service to the enterprise. Some of these vendors are selling the hosted solutions themselves, while other vendors’ software is being made available through channel partners and VARs. In this session, you’ll hear from the industry’s leading contact center analyst, who will first outline the reasons why some enterprises are opting for hosted contact center services; she will then delve into a detailed description of the hosted contact center services market today. You’ll come away from this Deep Dive session with a clear idea of the business case and other justifications for using hosted contact center services; and you’ll also get a complete scorecard of all the players in this marketplace and how heavily each one is betting on hosted as a future revenue stream.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* Why would you move your contact center application to the cloud? What are the potential risks and rewards?
* What are the adoption trends for hosted contact center services?
* Who are the leading players in hosted contact centers? How do their approaches to the market differ?
* What are the elements of a hosted contact center service offer? How should enterprise decision-makers evaluate competing offers?
* How do costs compare, both among hosted offerings, and for hosted vs. premises deployments?

Location: Sun A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

Microsoft’s Lync has been gaining in mind-share for IM/presence and related UC and collaboration functions, and it’s also now available with PBX telephony functionality. So, what’s the experience so far? Are enterprises finding it straightforward to layer Lync on top of their Exchange messaging, and is the result proving a benefit to end users and the enterprise generally? For enterprises that have implemented Lync telephony, are they glad they did? What lessons have they learned and what’s their plan for enterprise communications going forward? To find out we’ve asked consultants who’ve selected and installed Lync systems as well as enterprise execs who’ve been living with Lync to share their experience. This session will be an invaluable first-hand look at living with Lync.

Key Questions
* What were the driving factors for selecting Lync over other approaches and competing solutions?
* What have been the biggest surprises and “gotchas” during the process?
* How has Lync impacted the cost architecture for communications and collaboration within the affected enterprises?
* How have the end users responded? What were the training requirements?
* What elements of the overall communications and collaboration architecture have been most affected by Lync?
* What have been the specific experiences around Lync telephony, pro and con?

Location: Sun B
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:45 AM

Unified Communications continues to gain market momentum because it focuses a wide range of communications and collaboration capabilities on solving business problems – from cutting costs and improving the productivity of individuals and workgroups, to revising and revitalizing business processes.

But the sheer scope of UC also poses problems: Where to begin? How to organize the technology choices? How to choose between multiple incumbent vendors? How to best match UC capabilities with the needs and culture of the enterprise?

This session will help you organize your thinking and planning for UC. It is organized around three fundamental implementation options that encompass UC offerings that are already in the market as well as those that are on the way. The session provides detailed information, with schematics based on currently deliverable products from market leaders for each option. The implementation options are:

* Expand Voice Systems: You want to add applications to your voice communications system, such as presence, mobility support, in-house conferencing (audio, web and/or video conferencing), and
desktop communications (possibly including instant messaging or other tools). Optionally, you may
choose to integrate the selected elements with your installed desktop applications.

* Expand Desktop Systems: You want to add communications such as presence, click-to-communicate, conferencing (audio, web and/or video), and mobility to your desktop application systems
(including e-mail, calendar, instant messaging, social networking or collaborative workspaces). Optionally, you may choose to integrate the selected elements with your installed PBX systems.

* Communications-Enabled Business Processes (CEBP): You want to integrate communications with core business applications in your enterprise, such as with applications for sales, service, logistics, human resources, or specialized vertical market apps such as in health care, financial services, manufacturing, transportation, education, or government. This focus is on presenting communication tools in context of the applications and within the business application user interfaces (on PCs, laptops, mobile devices, appliances, or telephones).

Location: Osceola A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

Everyone acknowledges that multivendor interoperability should be a key part of any Unified Communications implementation, but the reality is that interoperability remains a moving target. The UC vendors address this challenge in different ways, and to different degrees, so this session will focus on three specific interoperability issues:

* Interoperability Requirements: The top five areas were interoperation is needed.
* Interoperability Design: Using interoperation to create optimal solutions.
* Interoperability for Installed Systems: How interoperation can save you time and money.

You’ll see how leading vendors are offering interoperation in the top five interoperation categories. Vendor panelists will be challenged to support their interoperation capabilities. This is a crucial session for every enterprise that is in the strategy, planning or implementation phases of Unified Communications.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are the key points within the UC system where interoperability is most vital—and how close are those to plug-and-play status with vendor products?
* What standards and protocols are being used to deliver interoperation?
* How do the different vendors rate in terms of their products’ interoperability?
* How do you make products work together if they aren’t interoperable out of the box?
* What are the cost tradeoffs between interoperable solutions, single vendor solutions, and deferring the solution until it is a standard feature?

Location: Sun D
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

Every enterprise operates with software-based business processes. These can be based on employee roles – sales, service, development, marketing, executives – and/or vertical markets – health care, transportation, manufacturing, government, education, finance, insurance, et al.

Communications-Enabled Business Processes (CEBP) involves integrating communications capabilities with these apps. The results can be significant – faster operations, lower costs, and the ability to “communicate in context” which increases productivity and ultimately, makes the enterprise more competitive.

This tutorial will begin with a review of the top CEBP applications, and how to assess opportunities for implementing these within your enterprise. Then the session will review the CEBP techniques available now in standard UC systems. A series of case study examples will be presented for which panelists will describe specifically what was required to implement the CEBP applications.

Key Questions:
* How can you determine where to best deploy CEBP applications in your enterprise?
* What technologies are needed for the CEBP applications?
* What are the key decision-factors when evaluating whether to proceed?
* What can be done to minimize the complexity and risk of CEBP applications?
* What can the vendors deliver when it comes to CEBP ?

Location: Osceola B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

Unified communications works with and through a PBX, but it’s not necessary to purchase and install a new PBX in order to get UC capabilities. There are multiple UC solution choices and they can interoperate with your current communication systems.

This workshop is based on a mock RFP to the leading UC vendors requesting a UC solution to provide IM/presence, conferencing, collaboration, mobility and CEBP without replacing the current PBX systems or e-mail systems. This RFP uses exactly the same requirements as two other mock RFP sessions at Enterprise Connect -- RFP for UC with a New PBX and UC including IP PBX functions in the Cloud. The template is based on a 2,000 user enterprise with a headquarters location and several remote offices, as well as mobile workers.

The workshop will include independent consultant review and scoring of the vendors responses along with vendor commentaries in mini-panels. You will gain invaluable information that will save you time and inform your UC planning, such as:
• What are the requirements and costs to install UC with our existing PBX?
• How does UC integrate to our existing PBX? What functions, if any, will be compromised?
• Will we be better off technically and financially by installing UC with our current PBX than by making UC part of a new IP PBX procurement? (You can compare the results of the three RFP sessions.)
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the leading vendors for UC with our current PBX?

Location: Sun A
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM

To wrap up Enterprise Connect, join leading analysts and program Co-chairs Fred Knight and Eric Krapf for a conversation, analysis and debate over the major issues covered during the Conference. The issues covered in the Locknote/Town Hall include analyzing the progress in deploying Unified
Communications and an assessment of its benefits and challenges; the viability of the Cloud as a deployment model for communications; the progress toward SIP Trunking and a New Public Network; issues around mobility; vendors’ positioning, strengths and weaknesses; and how emerging social networking functionality is being integrated into communications. Hear what the analysts have to say, and come prepared to share your questions, comments and perceptions.

Location: Sun A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:45 AM

SIP Trunking is the hottest technology trend in enterprise communications, but how do you procure the services and equipment to make it a success for your organization? This Deep Dive session will offer detailed presentations on the services and technologies you will need to acquire in order to roll out SIP Trunking. You’ll learn about what the incumbent carriers are doing, what their competitors are offering, and how to handle the procurement process so that you get a good deal on SIP trunks that also positions you for the enterprise-wide Unified Communications deployments of the future.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What’s the state of SIP Trunking availability, from both the Tier 1 carriers and alternative providers? And is there a difference between “availability” and “procure-ability”?
* How mature are providers’ SLAs for SIP Trunks?
* What are the risks of vendor lock-in when you sign a contract for SIP Trunking, and how do you mitigate these risks?
* Do you absolutely need a session border controller (SBC) when you implement SIP trunks, and if so, is this something the enterprise specifies, or is it a service provider decision?
* How does your enterprise’s communications architecture (centralized vs. de-centralized) affect your decision-making in SIP Trunk and SBC procurement?

Location: Osceola 1
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:45 AM

In this session, the industry’s leading contact center analyst will give an overview of market shares and technology trends within the contact center vendor landscape. She will then lead a discussion with executives from the leading contact center vendors, which will further illuminate the trends and positioning described in the presentation. You will get a thorough understanding of where the market is at for ACDs, IVRs, and next-generation technology for the contact center, and will be familiar with the established and emerging players shaping this market.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* Who are the contact center market share leaders? Who’s up and who’s down from last year?
* What are the key trends in the contact center infrastructure market? Who and what are driving these trends?
* How do contact center product strategies fit in with the larger communications platform strategies that these companies or their partners are implementing?
* What emerging trends, such as social integration and cloud services, are likely to gain broad near-term acceptance, within the next 12-18 months? Which are more hype than reality?

Location: Sun A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:45 AM

SIP Trunking is the hottest technology trend in enterprise communications, but how do you procure the services and equipment to make it a success for your organization? This Deep Dive session will offer detailed presentations on the services and technologies you will need to acquire in order to roll out SIP Trunking. You’ll learn about what the incumbent carriers are doing, what their competitors are offering, and how to handle the procurement process so that you get a good deal on SIP trunks that also positions you for the enterprise-wide Unified Communications deployments of the future.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What’s the state of SIP Trunking availability, from both the Tier 1 carriers and alternative providers? And is there a difference between “availability” and “procure-ability”?
* How mature are providers’ SLAs for SIP Trunks?
* What are the risks of vendor lock-in when you sign a contract for SIP Trunking, and how do you mitigate these risks?
* Do you absolutely need a session border controller (SBC) when you implement SIP trunks, and if so, is this something the enterprise specifies, or is it a service provider decision?
* How does your enterprise’s communications architecture (centralized vs. de-centralized) affect your decision-making in SIP Trunk and SBC procurement?

Location: Sun A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

The SIP Forum has completed an interoperability specification, SIPConnect 1.1, which is intended to ensure interoperability between enterprise CPE and carrier networks. But the carriers never officially committed to SIPConnect 1.1, so it’s likely that interoperability will continue to be an issue when you investigate and procure SIP Trunking services. This session will give you the details about the status of SIP Trunking Interoperability today, and prospects for the future. You’ll understand what you need to do to make sure that interoperability challenges don’t hold up your migration to SIP Trunks.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What interoperability issues have historically plagued SIP Trunking, and how close are these to being resolved?
* What is SIPConnect 1.1, and what are its prospects for emerging as a meaningful specification that’s adhered to by all parties involved in SIP Trunking?
* What specific interoperability issues aren’t solved by SIPConnect 1.1, and what is being done about these?
* Are some carriers more committed to interoperability than others? Are some vendors’ SBCs or gateways more likely to interoperate with more carriers?

Location: Osceola B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

Unified communications works with and through a PBX, but it’s not necessary to purchase and install a new PBX in order to get UC capabilities. There are multiple UC solution choices and they can interoperate with your current communication systems.

This workshop is based on a mock RFP to the leading UC vendors requesting a UC solution to provide IM/presence, conferencing, collaboration, mobility and CEBP without replacing the current PBX systems or e-mail systems. This RFP uses exactly the same requirements as two other mock RFP sessions at Enterprise Connect -- RFP for UC with a New PBX and UC including IP PBX functions in the Cloud. The template is based on a 2,000 user enterprise with a headquarters location and several remote offices, as well as mobile workers.

The workshop will include independent consultant review and scoring of the vendors responses along with vendor commentaries in mini-panels. You will gain invaluable information that will save you time and inform your UC planning, such as:
• What are the requirements and costs to install UC with our existing PBX?
• How does UC integrate to our existing PBX? What functions, if any, will be compromised?
• Will we be better off technically and financially by installing UC with our current PBX than by making UC part of a new IP PBX procurement? (You can compare the results of the three RFP sessions.)
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the leading vendors for UC with our current PBX?

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-3:00 PM

Will WebRTC finally enable the age of pervasive video conferencing on desktop and
mobile without requiring all participants to have the same client? Will it usher in true
interoperability? How will it support a wide variety of codecs, high definition and high-quality video over any network?
In this session, experts on video technology and leading video technology providers will discuss the prospects for WebRTC-enabled video, in the
near- and longer-term.

KEY QUESTIONS:
●What are the particular challenges of WebRTC when it comes to video enablement?
●What challenges does the issue of codecs present for WebRTC-enabled video?
● Can browser-based video provide enterprise-quality video?
●Can WebRTC support multipoint as well as point-to-point video calls? What challenges
make this task more difficult or push it farther into the future?
●How will vendors address interoperability? Do vendors want truly interoperable solutions?
●What is the role of the cloud in delivering WebRTC video solutions?
●What are the licensing implications of WebRTC-based video?

Location: Sun C
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

Enterprise-grade social software tools continue to evolve and offer new options for integrating communications with work processes to improve productivity and capture other business benefits. Some vendors are even taking the position that the lines are blurring between the social aspects and project-centric collaboration tools; they claim that tying in UC’s presence, IM, and click to communicate capabilities with a company’s social software community makes it easier to connect with people and share information. This session will offer real-world stories from enterprise end users who have embraced the integration of communications and social software, and can describe first-hand the challenges and benefits that resulted from their implementation projects.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* How did the panelists’ enterprises determine that integrating communications with Social software would yield measurable business benefits? How did they sell those benefits to management and end users?
* How did they plan and execute their integration projects? What were the biggest technical challenges, and how were these overcome?
* What communications functions—e.g., voice, IM, video—proved to be most valuable when integrated into Social Software systems? Where did the benefits prove to be overblown or otherwise not attainable?
* How do the strategic communications vendors integrate their platforms with Social Software—either their own social products, or those of other vendors? How do you devise a migration strategy for communications/social integration based on your legacy implementations?

Location: Osceola B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

How big is the Unified Communications market, and which vendors are winning/losing? And what can we expect going forward? In this session, a leading UC analyst will present research that looks at the market's size, players and prospects, the impact of UC on end users and future trends.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* Who are the principal players, and how are they positioning themselves?
* How is Unified Communications defined, and who—according to this definition—is really selling in this market? Who’s buying?
* What are the drivers behind the growth from a customer perspective?
* What are the current and likely future patterns of adoption— e.g., by job type, mobile work, business process?
* How is the current economic climate affecting adoption? When will this market take off?

Location: Osceola 1
Monday, March 18, 2013, 3:15 PM-4:00 PM

Real-time traffic (voice and video) demands a network that delivers low latency, low packet loss and low jitter. And that’s not easy to accomplish. The dynamic character of modern networks, and the growing requirement for highly distributed configurations can lead to errors in design or implementation that cause quality problems for voice and video apps.

And so, a new breed of testing methodologies and tools is required to test or monitor converged networks and to isolate problems. This session will analyze and categorize these tools, and list vendors that provide the different kinds of solutions needed to manage today’s complex networks.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* Why are new tools required to support voice and video conferencing? Why can’t I use the tools that have been serving me well for years?
* What features are required in these tools for managing and monitoring real-time networks?
* Who are the vendors and what types of tools to they offer?
* What do these tools cost, and how do I cost-justify their purchase?

Location: Sun A
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 9:00 AM-9:45 AM

The “U” in UC stands for “unified,” and one of its most appealing attributes is that it can break down the
silos between voice, data and video, and between wireless and wireline. In theory, that sounds great, but the reality in today’s market doesn’t quite match UC’s promise.

Management and monitoring capabilities typically lag specific network and system innovations, and UC is no exception. This panel will examine prospects for a new framework for management and monitoring, one that is built from the ground up for comprehensive, unified communications and collaboration. This will be a critically important session for anyone whose job responsibilities include keeping your enterprise’s network and apps humming.

Location: Osceola A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

Enterprises are becoming more aware of the option to purchase hosted/cloud-based communications services instead of customer premises equipment, but what are the real adoption trends? In this session, a market research analyst will provide data that will show you where the hosted communications market is really at today, and where it’s headed in the future. You’ll learn how many enterprises have adopted hosted services; what services they’re using; and how the market is projected to grow over the next decade. The information presented will help you gain an understanding for how mature the hosted communications market is today, and how quickly (or slowly) it will continue to grow.
KEY QUESTIONS:
* What is the current level of adoption and rate of growth for hosted PBX services?
* Who are the main adopters, in terms of company size, vertical industry, and global regions?
* Who are the largest providers of hosted communications services today, and what are their business models? How do the traditional carriers stack up against VARs/SIs, SaaS/CaaS providers, and communications equipment/software providers
* What rates of growth are projected for hosted communications, and in what sectors? What will drive growth, and what threatens to inhibit growth?

Location: Sun A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

The session border controller (SBC) is increasingly being seen as a key element at the public-private network edge, as enterprises migrate from legacy TDM to true end-to-end IP communications. Not coincidentally, the number of vendors offering SBCs has exploded in response to the emergence of this new product category. So how do you determine when you need an SBC; what that SBC needs to be able to do; and what vendor to buy it from? In this session, we’ll offer a comprehensive look at the SBC market, and we’ll examine the role of the SBC in the evolving communications architecture. You’ll get practical information on product features and functions, as well as a strategic view of the future of your network with SBCs as a key element.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are the characteristics of an SBC? What functions must all SBCs perform, and what additional capabilities are being built in by some vendors?
* Who are the SBC vendors, and how do you choose among them?
* What is the SBC’s role in SIP Trunking? What is its role in tying together diverse elements of a legacy communications infrastructure? What other roles does it play?
* What do SBCs cost, and how do you cost-justify them?
* What is the SBC’s long-term evolution path? Will it be an appliance; a blade in a router or server; a software application on a virtual server?

Location: Osceola C
Monday, March 18, 2013, 11:15 AM-12:00 PM

UC is no longer a new technology nor is it a new offering, it’s been
commercially available for at least six years. But while UC was revving
up, other technologies weren’t standing still. Smartphones and tablets
already deliver much of the UC “experience,” WebRTC promises to
integrate real-time voice and video directly into browser technology and if
we’ll all soon be living and working from our social media networks, will
the need for UC disappear?

Well, that’s one side, but there is another: Premises-based virtualization
enables enterprises to fulfill UC requirements in a much more cost-effective,
secure and reliable manner than any social network could ever deliver and, so far,
enterprises have moved very slowly to put their communications and
collaboration operations into the Cloud.

So, if an enterprise is preparing to upgrade to next-gen communications and
collaboration capabilities in the next 12-18 months, what role should UC play
in its architecture strategy and procurement plans, and what are the realistic options for
UC service delivery?
Co-Moderators: Fred Knight, GM/Co-Chair, Enterprise Connect, and Publisher, NoJitter.com;
Eric Krapf, Co-Chair, Enterprise Connect and Editor, NoJitter.com

Location: Sun D
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

Every enterprise operates with software-based business processes. These can be based on employee roles – sales, service, development, marketing, executives – and/or vertical markets – health care, transportation, manufacturing, government, education, finance, insurance, et al.

Communications-Enabled Business Processes (CEBP) involves integrating communications capabilities with these apps. The results can be significant – faster operations, lower costs, and the ability to “communicate in context” which increases productivity and ultimately, makes the enterprise more competitive.

This tutorial will begin with a review of the top CEBP applications, and how to assess opportunities for implementing these within your enterprise. Then the session will review the CEBP techniques available now in standard UC systems. A series of case study examples will be presented for which panelists will describe specifically what was required to implement the CEBP applications.

Key Questions:
* How can you determine where to best deploy CEBP applications in your enterprise?
* What technologies are needed for the CEBP applications?
* What are the key decision-factors when evaluating whether to proceed?
* What can be done to minimize the complexity and risk of CEBP applications?
* What can the vendors deliver when it comes to CEBP ?

Location: Expo Floor
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:30 PM-1:50 PM

Interested in driving business efficiencies with next generation collaboration for events? You’ll want to attend this panel discussion where Cisco leaders will talk openly and candidly about best practices you can use to leverage your existing assets and deploy a reusable communications platform for use inside and outside the firewall. Learn how Cisco has pioneered this new frontier using on-prem and cloud based solutions and the critical services required that pull all this together to deliver scalable online events like GSX, Cisco TV, Cisco Live! Virtual and more.

Location: Osceola A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

Videoconferencing has always been hardware-intensive, but Cloud and virtualiztion could change that. This session examines this software video scenario – how real is it, and what are the implications for buyers and sellers. Among the issues to be addressed are:
* What does it mean to have a “software based videoconferencing solution” – what changes on the buyers’ side and the sellers’?
* Can videoconferencing really be a cloud-based solution?
* How does “video-as-a-software-business” change the economics – for both buyers and sellers?
* What are the risks for customers, equipment vendors, and service providers?
* What should a buyer be doing today or in preparing an RFP?

Location: Osceola B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

Unified communications works with and through a PBX, but it’s not necessary to purchase and install a new PBX in order to get UC capabilities. There are multiple UC solution choices and they can interoperate with your current communication systems.

This workshop is based on a mock RFP to the leading UC vendors requesting a UC solution to provide IM/presence, conferencing, collaboration, mobility and CEBP without replacing the current PBX systems or e-mail systems. This RFP uses exactly the same requirements as two other mock RFP sessions at Enterprise Connect -- RFP for UC with a New PBX and UC including IP PBX functions in the Cloud. The template is based on a 2,000 user enterprise with a headquarters location and several remote offices, as well as mobile workers.

The workshop will include independent consultant review and scoring of the vendors responses along with vendor commentaries in mini-panels. You will gain invaluable information that will save you time and inform your UC planning, such as:
• What are the requirements and costs to install UC with our existing PBX?
• How does UC integrate to our existing PBX? What functions, if any, will be compromised?
• Will we be better off technically and financially by installing UC with our current PBX than by making UC part of a new IP PBX procurement? (You can compare the results of the three RFP sessions.)
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the leading vendors for UC with our current PBX?

Location: Osceola B
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

This workshop starts with the simple question: If an enterprise wanted to eliminate all or most of its premises-based communications equipment and deploy a fully loaded unified communications solution from a hosted and managed cloud services provider, could it do so today? If so, what would such an implementation look like? Who could deliver it? And what would it cost?

The Cloud-Based Communications Services RFP describes a domestically headquartered company with two branch locations and a number of mobile workers. This session presents solutions from leading hosted unified communications providers covering each of the major unified communications applications including presence, IM, call control, audio/video/web conferencing, unified messaging, etc. It also ascertains whether an organization, using these major players, could craft a cost-effective, secure, robust cloud-based communications platform for its users today.There will be a thorough review of the solutions proposed by those responding to the RFP, and the analysis will include:

• Architecture
• Cost
• Feature/functionality/quality of service
• Migration path
• Manageability
• Business continuity and disaster recovery
• Level of risk (security, compliance, control/accountability)
• TCO as compared to premises-based offerings

Location: Sun A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 3:45 PM-4:30 PM

Enterprises may find value in sourcing some communications capabilities in the cloud, but it’s unlikely that many will move—at least in the near term—to a full cloud deployment. As a result, enterprises may find themselves moving toward a “hybrid cloud” that deploys communications functions in a mix of environments: public cloud (i.e., hosted); private cloud (i.e., the enterprise datacenter); and on-premises. The task will be to determine which communications capabilities should reside in which types of environments. This session will feature a discussion and debate among representatives of the various viewpoints and constituencies. You’ll leave the session with an idea of what’s possible now, and what direction you should take your planning for the next 12-18 months.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are the risk/reward tradeoffs of deploying different communications functions in different parts of a “hybrid” deployment?
* Are all communications capabilities available for all types of environments (public cloud, private cloud and on-prem)? Do different types of providers specialize in different capabilities, and how does this factor influence your decision-making?
* What interoperability or integration challenges are you likely to encounter when you try to implement a hybrid cloud environment?
* What cost factors are involved in the decision-making?
* Where do the risks of vendor lock-in reside in hybrid cloud implementations, and how do you avoid them?

Location: Sun A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

Research tells us that almost 90% of end user organizations either have or are developing a BYOD policy for either some or all of their mobile devices. All of those organizations have had to come to grips with the challenges of inventorying, managing, and securing those devices, as well as determining such issues as which mobile operating systems and devices they should support, how much of the cost they should reimburse, what level of support they should provide, and how to cancel the device if it is lost, stolen, or if the employee leaves the company.

This panel of BYOD users will discuss their solutions to these questions, what tools they have implemented for mobile device management, and
• How do BYOD policies differ from company to company?
• Who is responsible for developing and maintaining the policy?
• Are MDM systems essential or can we get along without them?
• What are the primary drivers? Cost savings? User satisfaction?
• Where do users go for support?

Location: Sun D
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

Several manufacturers of premises-based contact center infrastructure (ACD, IVR, reporting, etc.) report that their strongest growth is now coming from hosted implementations of their software, provided as a service to the enterprise. Some of these vendors are selling the hosted solutions themselves, while other vendors’ software is being made available through channel partners and VARs. In this session, you’ll hear from the industry’s leading contact center analyst, who will first outline the reasons why some enterprises are opting for hosted contact center services; she will then delve into a detailed description of the hosted contact center services market today. You’ll come away from this Deep Dive session with a clear idea of the business case and other justifications for using hosted contact center services; and you’ll also get a complete scorecard of all the players in this marketplace and how heavily each one is betting on hosted as a future revenue stream.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* Why would you move your contact center application to the cloud? What are the potential risks and rewards?
* What are the adoption trends for hosted contact center services?
* Who are the leading players in hosted contact centers? How do their approaches to the market differ?
* What are the elements of a hosted contact center service offer? How should enterprise decision-makers evaluate competing offers?
* How do costs compare, both among hosted offerings, and for hosted vs. premises deployments?

Location: Osceola C
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 9:15 AM-10:00 AM

For decades, we’ve heard that “convergence” was coming. Well,it’s arrived, and it’s becoming pervasive. The old boundaries within communications and collaboration are breaking down,as business apps and processes run across wired and wireless facilities, and are composed of a mix of data, voice, video and graphics.

The blurring of old technology boundaries creates other disturbances in the field -- most notably, what you will buy and from whom: Whether the topic is communications or the data center, video or storage, servers or collaboration services, there are new options for partners and delivery systems. Services and apps can be provided via the Cloud, on-premises or a mix of the two. And WebRTC could alter the landscape and change expectations for how communications and collaboration sessions take place.

So what is the going-forward model for enterprise communications and collaboration? Will the traditional pillars of enterprise communications architecture -- voice vs. data vs. video -- be replaced with choices organized around the desktop vs. the network vs. the “Cloud”? If the “consumerization of IT” is inevitable, how will the vendors meet the enduring requirements for security, compliance scalability, manageability and cost-effectiveness? And as consolidation continues within the industry, what are the prospects
for genuine competition?

A panel of senior IT executives will discuss these and related issues. The conversation will be essential as you develop your architecture and review your options for systems, services and applications.

Location: Sun A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:45 AM

SIP Trunking is the hottest technology trend in enterprise communications, but how do you procure the services and equipment to make it a success for your organization? This Deep Dive session will offer detailed presentations on the services and technologies you will need to acquire in order to roll out SIP Trunking. You’ll learn about what the incumbent carriers are doing, what their competitors are offering, and how to handle the procurement process so that you get a good deal on SIP trunks that also positions you for the enterprise-wide Unified Communications deployments of the future.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What’s the state of SIP Trunking availability, from both the Tier 1 carriers and alternative providers? And is there a difference between “availability” and “procure-ability”?
* How mature are providers’ SLAs for SIP Trunks?
* What are the risks of vendor lock-in when you sign a contract for SIP Trunking, and how do you mitigate these risks?
* Do you absolutely need a session border controller (SBC) when you implement SIP trunks, and if so, is this something the enterprise specifies, or is it a service provider decision?
* How does your enterprise’s communications architecture (centralized vs. de-centralized) affect your decision-making in SIP Trunk and SBC procurement?

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-3:00 PM

Will WebRTC finally enable the age of pervasive video conferencing on desktop and
mobile without requiring all participants to have the same client? Will it usher in true
interoperability? How will it support a wide variety of codecs, high definition and high-quality video over any network?
In this session, experts on video technology and leading video technology providers will discuss the prospects for WebRTC-enabled video, in the
near- and longer-term.

KEY QUESTIONS:
●What are the particular challenges of WebRTC when it comes to video enablement?
●What challenges does the issue of codecs present for WebRTC-enabled video?
● Can browser-based video provide enterprise-quality video?
●Can WebRTC support multipoint as well as point-to-point video calls? What challenges
make this task more difficult or push it farther into the future?
●How will vendors address interoperability? Do vendors want truly interoperable solutions?
●What is the role of the cloud in delivering WebRTC video solutions?
●What are the licensing implications of WebRTC-based video?

Location: Osceola A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 3:45 PM-4:30 PM

Video conferencing can be implemented as a stand-alone deployment or as part of a Unified Communications strategy. This session will analyze the major UC platforms and compare their video capabilities with dedicated room solutions and personal desktops, and include discussion of the following topics:
* What are the benefits and drawbacks of using a UC platform as the foundation for visual communications?
* How does making UC as a platform for videoconferencing affect the risks and rewards?
* How does making UC as a platform for videoconferencing affect the decision making process?

Location: Osceola A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 3:45 PM-4:30 PM

Mobile, mobile….the world's gone mobile. OK, but what does that really mean relative to video for the enterprise? This session breaks down how the two revolutions -- mobile and video -- will impact enterprises, and present the issues enterprises need to address. The topics to be covered include:
* How are IT operations affected when video conferencing is deployed on mobile platforms?
* What will change at the end user level when video gets deployed on mobile platforms?
* What are the key decision criteria for selecting a mobile-video solution?
* How does BYOD impact this decision?

Location: Sun A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 3:45 PM-4:30 PM

Enterprises may find value in sourcing some communications capabilities in the cloud, but it’s unlikely that many will move—at least in the near term—to a full cloud deployment. As a result, enterprises may find themselves moving toward a “hybrid cloud” that deploys communications functions in a mix of environments: public cloud (i.e., hosted); private cloud (i.e., the enterprise datacenter); and on-premises. The task will be to determine which communications capabilities should reside in which types of environments. This session will feature a discussion and debate among representatives of the various viewpoints and constituencies. You’ll leave the session with an idea of what’s possible now, and what direction you should take your planning for the next 12-18 months.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are the risk/reward tradeoffs of deploying different communications functions in different parts of a “hybrid” deployment?
* Are all communications capabilities available for all types of environments (public cloud, private cloud and on-prem)? Do different types of providers specialize in different capabilities, and how does this factor influence your decision-making?
* What interoperability or integration challenges are you likely to encounter when you try to implement a hybrid cloud environment?
* What cost factors are involved in the decision-making?
* Where do the risks of vendor lock-in reside in hybrid cloud implementations, and how do you avoid them?

Location: Sun D
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-5:00 PM

The IP Telephony/UC RFP describes a domestically headquartered company with two branch locations and a number of mobile workers. This session present solutions from leading UC providers covering each of the major unified communications applications (voice communications and services, presence, IM, call control, audio/video/web conferencing, unified messaging, etc.).
Key take-aways for this workshop are:
• A comprehensive RFP system performance document covering
basic and advanced hardware/software capabilities for
today’s IP telephony and Unified Communications systems.
The RFP will also cover:
• Use of SIP
• Integration of mobile devices
• Basic Contact Center
• Actual proposals from leading system suppliers with detailed performance specifications and associated summary pricing tables.
• Critiques of response submissions by one of the industry’s leading enterprise communications system analysts and end user consultants.
• Scoring of vendor responses based on TCO and ability to meet the RFP requirements

Location: Osceola B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

Unified communications works with and through a PBX, but it’s not necessary to purchase and install a new PBX in order to get UC capabilities. There are multiple UC solution choices and they can interoperate with your current communication systems.

This workshop is based on a mock RFP to the leading UC vendors requesting a UC solution to provide IM/presence, conferencing, collaboration, mobility and CEBP without replacing the current PBX systems or e-mail systems. This RFP uses exactly the same requirements as two other mock RFP sessions at Enterprise Connect -- RFP for UC with a New PBX and UC including IP PBX functions in the Cloud. The template is based on a 2,000 user enterprise with a headquarters location and several remote offices, as well as mobile workers.

The workshop will include independent consultant review and scoring of the vendors responses along with vendor commentaries in mini-panels. You will gain invaluable information that will save you time and inform your UC planning, such as:
• What are the requirements and costs to install UC with our existing PBX?
• How does UC integrate to our existing PBX? What functions, if any, will be compromised?
• Will we be better off technically and financially by installing UC with our current PBX than by making UC part of a new IP PBX procurement? (You can compare the results of the three RFP sessions.)
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the leading vendors for UC with our current PBX?

Location: Sun B
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

During 2012, a number of web conferencing solution providers rolled out HD-quality video conferencing, giving enterprise users access to a high quality video conferencing alternative that does not have the hassles associated with traditional “standards-based” group / desktop video conferencing solutions. In this session Wainhouse Research staff will examine the pluses and minuses of web conferencing-based video conferencing, take look at user adoption, and ask a panel of the companies providing this service for an early report on what they are observing from their customers.
Key Questions:
• Will HD video conferencing delivered as a feature in web conferencing offerings stimulate greater use and acceptance of desktop video?
• What motivates web conferencing users to give HD video conferencing a try – and are they sticking with it?
• Is video conferencing creating new use cases for web conferencing? Are users conducting calls that only use video?
• Have the network requirements for web conferencing changed forever? Does video alter the appeal of the SaaS-based deployment model that has made web conferencing popular?
• Are users asking for web conferencing-based solutions to interface with standards-based systems? What are users doing to accommodate use in conference rooms?
• Going forward, will the web conferencing “call model” stand the test of time or will it inevitably have to be integrated with UC?

Location: Osceola 1
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:45 AM

In this session, the industry’s leading contact center analyst will give an overview of market shares and technology trends within the contact center vendor landscape. She will then lead a discussion with executives from the leading contact center vendors, which will further illuminate the trends and positioning described in the presentation. You will get a thorough understanding of where the market is at for ACDs, IVRs, and next-generation technology for the contact center, and will be familiar with the established and emerging players shaping this market.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* Who are the contact center market share leaders? Who’s up and who’s down from last year?
* What are the key trends in the contact center infrastructure market? Who and what are driving these trends?
* How do contact center product strategies fit in with the larger communications platform strategies that these companies or their partners are implementing?
* What emerging trends, such as social integration and cloud services, are likely to gain broad near-term acceptance, within the next 12-18 months? Which are more hype than reality?

Location: Sun A
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:45 AM

SIP Trunking is the hottest technology trend in enterprise communications, but how do you procure the services and equipment to make it a success for your organization? This Deep Dive session will offer detailed presentations on the services and technologies you will need to acquire in order to roll out SIP Trunking. You’ll learn about what the incumbent carriers are doing, what their competitors are offering, and how to handle the procurement process so that you get a good deal on SIP trunks that also positions you for the enterprise-wide Unified Communications deployments of the future.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What’s the state of SIP Trunking availability, from both the Tier 1 carriers and alternative providers? And is there a difference between “availability” and “procure-ability”?
* How mature are providers’ SLAs for SIP Trunks?
* What are the risks of vendor lock-in when you sign a contract for SIP Trunking, and how do you mitigate these risks?
* Do you absolutely need a session border controller (SBC) when you implement SIP trunks, and if so, is this something the enterprise specifies, or is it a service provider decision?
* How does your enterprise’s communications architecture (centralized vs. de-centralized) affect your decision-making in SIP Trunk and SBC procurement?

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 1:00 PM-2:00 PM

See and hear first-hand what WebRTC can deliver. We’ll ask WebRTC providers and developers to show demos of what WebRTC can do and what it takes to deploy their capabilities.

Location: Osceola 5
Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:00 PM-3:00 PM

Will WebRTC finally enable the age of pervasive video conferencing on desktop and
mobile without requiring all participants to have the same client? Will it usher in true
interoperability? How will it support a wide variety of codecs, high definition and high-quality video over any network?
In this session, experts on video technology and leading video technology providers will discuss the prospects for WebRTC-enabled video, in the
near- and longer-term.

KEY QUESTIONS:
●What are the particular challenges of WebRTC when it comes to video enablement?
●What challenges does the issue of codecs present for WebRTC-enabled video?
● Can browser-based video provide enterprise-quality video?
●Can WebRTC support multipoint as well as point-to-point video calls? What challenges
make this task more difficult or push it farther into the future?
●How will vendors address interoperability? Do vendors want truly interoperable solutions?
●What is the role of the cloud in delivering WebRTC video solutions?
●What are the licensing implications of WebRTC-based video?

Location: Osceola C
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 11:30 AM-12:00 PM

Communications-as-a-service, the Cloud, the “webification” of voice and many of the other the trends that are reshaping enterprise communications rely on a new generation of software platforms. The promise of these platforms is both alluring and familiar – enterprise communications services and apps can be delivered better, faster and cheaper.

The new platforms are different from the now decade-old open source movement, which sought to break the proprietary chains that bound computing and communications. By contrast, proponents of current and next-gen software platforms argue that they will finally make communications accessible to the creative and entrepreneurial talents of the millions of folks who make up the Web developer community.

So, if that happens, in what ways will enterprise communications be improved? And what are the trade-offs? Those questions establish the foundation for this session, one that the IT professionals who are charged with planning, designing and managing enterprise communications systems and networks can’t afford to miss.

Location: Sun C
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

Five years ago video conferencing standards were clear, and the top 5 vendors worked hard at maintaining interoperability. Today, the landscape has dramatically changed -- enterprises want UC- video integration, consumer-oriented desktops, and mobility. Meanwhile, Skype carries more video conferencing minutes than any other provider, but it uses a proprietary protocol. In short, we have many more options but they don’t interoperate. This session will help you make more intelligent decisions about video conferencing, and will examine the following questions:
* What efforts are underway today to make interoperability a non-issue?
* Does UC make interoperability more likely or less likely?
* Are gateways the answer?
* Where do the service providers stand? What is the position of the major video vendors?
* If video becomes a software client, should users really care about interop?

Location: Osceola B
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

This workshop starts with the simple question: If an enterprise wanted to eliminate all or most of its premises-based communications equipment and deploy a fully loaded unified communications solution from a hosted and managed cloud services provider, could it do so today? If so, what would such an implementation look like? Who could deliver it? And what would it cost?

The Cloud-Based Communications Services RFP describes a domestically headquartered company with two branch locations and a number of mobile workers. This session presents solutions from leading hosted unified communications providers covering each of the major unified communications applications including presence, IM, call control, audio/video/web conferencing, unified messaging, etc. It also ascertains whether an organization, using these major players, could craft a cost-effective, secure, robust cloud-based communications platform for its users today.There will be a thorough review of the solutions proposed by those responding to the RFP, and the analysis will include:

• Architecture
• Cost
• Feature/functionality/quality of service
• Migration path
• Manageability
• Business continuity and disaster recovery
• Level of risk (security, compliance, control/accountability)
• TCO as compared to premises-based offerings

Location: Sun B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

As IP communications moved into the enterprise, many people predicted that the cost of systems would be cut dramatically, as they moved from hardware to software. This transition to software is occurring rapidly, but have prices to the end customer followed suit? And how has the transition of pricing models from hardware to software changed the way that enterprise decision-makers buy communications products? In this session, an experienced consultant will discuss the continuing evolution of pricing and licensing models in Unified Communications. You’ll get a detailed look at the leading vendors’ pricing structures and licensing models, from which you will gain an understanding of how to purchase communications for your end users in a way that provides the capabilities they need, without spending money on licenses that no one will use. You’ll also learn about the vendors’ strategies of giving away certain client endpoint software, and whether that really represents a good deal for the enterprise.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What do the licensing structures look like for the key elements of the UC systems provided by Avaya, Cisco, and Microsoft? How flexible are these licensing structures within the context of a large system procurement?
* How has the evolution in communications products toward a greater emphasis on software affected pricing and licensing?
* What are the pricing trends? Are prices coming down with the transition to software?
* How much is competition among the vendors affecting pricing? How far down can you drive pricing when you’re in procurement mode and choosing among vendors for a strategic deployment?
* Where are licenses being “bundled” with other products from a vendor—e.g., Microsoft CAL structures? In these deals, what licenses might you already own, and what’s an add-on?

Location: Sun A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

More and more enterprises are developing some experience with SIP Trunks, mostly via limited pilot implementations, while a few pioneers have implemented SIP Trunks enterprise-wide. As the amount of real-world experience with SIP Trunks grows, what lessons can we glean from early implementers? In this session, you’ll get a chance to hear from end users who will discuss their experiences--what worked, what didn’t, what they’d do differently, and what they plan to do when their next contract for SIP Trunks comes due. You’ll get real-world knowledge that you can put to use when you implement SIP Trunks.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What’s the biggest challenge when implementing SIP Trunks?
* What are the keys to a successful SIP Trunk deployment?
* What have been the major benefits?
* What would they have done differently the first time around, and what do they plan to do differently as they move forward?

Location: Sun A
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 1:30 PM-2:15 PM

The session border controller (SBC) is increasingly being seen as a key element at the public-private network edge, as enterprises migrate from legacy TDM to true end-to-end IP communications. Not coincidentally, the number of vendors offering SBCs has exploded in response to the emergence of this new product category. So how do you determine when you need an SBC; what that SBC needs to be able to do; and what vendor to buy it from? In this session, we’ll offer a comprehensive look at the SBC market, and we’ll examine the role of the SBC in the evolving communications architecture. You’ll get practical information on product features and functions, as well as a strategic view of the future of your network with SBCs as a key element.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are the characteristics of an SBC? What functions must all SBCs perform, and what additional capabilities are being built in by some vendors?
* Who are the SBC vendors, and how do you choose among them?
* What is the SBC’s role in SIP Trunking? What is its role in tying together diverse elements of a legacy communications infrastructure? What other roles does it play?
* What do SBCs cost, and how do you cost-justify them?
* What is the SBC’s long-term evolution path? Will it be an appliance; a blade in a router or server; a software application on a virtual server?

Location: Osceola 1
Monday, March 18, 2013, 3:15 PM-4:00 PM

Real-time traffic (voice and video) demands a network that delivers low latency, low packet loss and low jitter. And that’s not easy to accomplish. The dynamic character of modern networks, and the growing requirement for highly distributed configurations can lead to errors in design or implementation that cause quality problems for voice and video apps.

And so, a new breed of testing methodologies and tools is required to test or monitor converged networks and to isolate problems. This session will analyze and categorize these tools, and list vendors that provide the different kinds of solutions needed to manage today’s complex networks.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* Why are new tools required to support voice and video conferencing? Why can’t I use the tools that have been serving me well for years?
* What features are required in these tools for managing and monitoring real-time networks?
* Who are the vendors and what types of tools to they offer?
* What do these tools cost, and how do I cost-justify their purchase?

Location: Sun D
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:45 AM

Everyone expects video traffic to continue to grow within the enterprise, but for those running the communications network, this trend is potentially dangerous: Especially in the case of ad hoc video usage like Skype and YouTube, end user video usage is not being centrally rolled out, managed, and controlled. But even when video is a part of a controlled rollout—say, of a Unified Communications portal like Microsoft Lync—you may not have a clear sense of how much video will actually be used. So do you overprovision the network, possibly devoting more resources than are needed? Or do you risk a situation where video traffic swamps the network and hinders the performance of mission-critical applications? In this session, we’ll offer suggestions to help you walk the fine line of provisioning for video in a world where video’s future is still in flux.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* What are all the potential sources of video traffic in your network, and how do you get visibility on what traffic generators are a real factor in your enterprise?
* Who should you be in regular contact with across the enterprise, so that you won’t be surprised by sudden spikes in video usage?
* How might mobile video affect traffic load on your network—both from devices using your WLAN, and from traffic originating in the cellular network but traversing onto your corporate LAN/WAN?
* What are the best practices and benchmark metrics for provisioning bandwidth in the face of unpredictable video usage?
* If you do find your network hit by unpredictable spikes of video traffic, what do you do to remediate?

Location: Sun B
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 2:30 PM-5:30 PM

Converged networks aren’t new, but it’s still as much art as science when it comes to delivering high-quality application performance and real-time voice, video and data traffic over converged facilities. This workshop identifies the problems that you can expect to encounter and it will provide the solutions you need to overcome them.

The specific topics on the agenda include:
• What is required to deliver adequate quality of service (QOS) for voice and video on any local and wide-area IP networks that previously handled only data?
• What services do I need from my WAN vendor to support voice and video? What is an appropriate Service Level Agreement (SLA)?
• Can you run VOIP or video over the Internet with acceptable QOS/quality of experience (QOE)?
• How do I classify traffic in the network to ensure voice and video are treated correctly without opening my network up to overutilization by unauthorized endpoints?
• How do you extend your upgrade to serve mobile workers?
• What tools are needed for testing and monitoring a converged network with voice and video?
• How can I manage the huge bandwidth demand that desktop and mobile video will cause on my enterprise network?

Location: Sun D
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

The biggest trend in IP network infrastructure is Software-Defined Networks. SDNs promise more efficient, application-aware network infrastructure, but they’re likely to have a significant impact on how you deploy and run communications over this infrastructure. In this session, a top technologist and technology analyst will help you understand the specific issues that you’ll face, and how you can deal with them. You’ll come away with a strong understanding of how SDNs will improve your communications deployments—and how to avoid the pitfalls they present.

Key Questions:
* How will SDN infrastructures change (and potentially improve) the way you do QOS (quality of service) for real-time applications?
* How can SDNs improve the efficiency of the resources you devote to running communications?
* How might service providers use SDNs to offer more efficient, cost-effective managed/hosted communications services?
* What impact will SDNs have on the overall network management for enterprise communications?
* How will SDNs assure network resiliency?

Location: Sun C
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 3:45 PM-4:30 PM

BIG DATA, does it matter to enterprise communications? How can you gain competitive advantages, optimize operations, increase revenue, and add value for all stakeholders? Join Integrated Research to explore how you can deliver value to your enterprise in 2013 with Big Data insight from your UC, Contact Center, and Collaboration systems.

Location: Sun C
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 8:00 AM-8:45 AM

Enterprise-grade social software tools continue to evolve and offer new options for integrating communications with work processes to improve productivity and capture other business benefits. Some vendors are even taking the position that the lines are blurring between the social aspects and project-centric collaboration tools; they claim that tying in UC’s presence, IM, and click to communicate capabilities with a company’s social software community makes it easier to connect with people and share information. This session will offer real-world stories from enterprise end users who have embraced the integration of communications and social software, and can describe first-hand the challenges and benefits that resulted from their implementation projects.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* How did the panelists’ enterprises determine that integrating communications with Social software would yield measurable business benefits? How did they sell those benefits to management and end users?
* How did they plan and execute their integration projects? What were the biggest technical challenges, and how were these overcome?
* What communications functions—e.g., voice, IM, video—proved to be most valuable when integrated into Social Software systems? Where did the benefits prove to be overblown or otherwise not attainable?
* How do the strategic communications vendors integrate their platforms with Social Software—either their own social products, or those of other vendors? How do you devise a migration strategy for communications/social integration based on your legacy implementations?

Location: Sun A
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

Microsoft’s Lync has been gaining in mind-share for IM/presence and related UC and collaboration functions, and it’s also now available with PBX telephony functionality. So, what’s the experience so far? Are enterprises finding it straightforward to layer Lync on top of their Exchange messaging, and is the result proving a benefit to end users and the enterprise generally? For enterprises that have implemented Lync telephony, are they glad they did? What lessons have they learned and what’s their plan for enterprise communications going forward? To find out we’ve asked consultants who’ve selected and installed Lync systems as well as enterprise execs who’ve been living with Lync to share their experience. This session will be an invaluable first-hand look at living with Lync.

Key Questions
* What were the driving factors for selecting Lync over other approaches and competing solutions?
* What have been the biggest surprises and “gotchas” during the process?
* How has Lync impacted the cost architecture for communications and collaboration within the affected enterprises?
* How have the end users responded? What were the training requirements?
* What elements of the overall communications and collaboration architecture have been most affected by Lync?
* What have been the specific experiences around Lync telephony, pro and con?

Location: Osceola 1
Monday, March 18, 2013, 9:00 AM-10:45 AM

In this session, the industry’s leading contact center analyst will give an overview of market shares and technology trends within the contact center vendor landscape. She will then lead a discussion with executives from the leading contact center vendors, which will further illuminate the trends and positioning described in the presentation. You will get a thorough understanding of where the market is at for ACDs, IVRs, and next-generation technology for the contact center, and will be familiar with the established and emerging players shaping this market.

KEY QUESTIONS:
* Who are the contact center market share leaders? Who’s up and who’s down from last year?
* What are the key trends in the contact center infrastructure market? Who and what are driving these trends?
* How do contact center product strategies fit in with the larger communications platform strategies that these companies or their partners are implementing?
* What emerging trends, such as social integration and cloud services, are likely to gain broad near-term acceptance, within the next 12-18 months? Which are more hype than reality?