Cloud-based Communications Services and Systems Track
| Monday, March 26 | |
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Choreographing the Cloud: Finding the Right Mix of Cloud vs. On-Premises Functions (Location: Osceola A)
A consensus is emerging that most enterprises will implement some form of “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, who will offer their perspectives on why you should choose a particular mix of cloud and CPE deployments. 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. Moderator - Zeus Kerravala, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Research, Yankee Group 
Zeus Kerravala is a member of Yankee Group's Affiliate Program focused on unified communications and collaboration, cloud computing and network infrastructure. Panelist - Gary Audin, President, Delphi Inc.  Gary Audin has more than 40 years of computer, communications and security experience. He has planned, designed, specified, implemented and operated data, LAN and telephone networks. These have included local area, national and international networks as well as VoIP and IP convergent networks in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and Asia. He has advised domestic and international venture capital and investment bankers in communications, VoIP, and microprocessor technologies.
For more than 30 years, Gary has been an independent communications and security consultant. Beginning his career in the USAF as an R&D officer in military intelligence and data communications, Gary was decorated for his accomplishments in these areas. He has analyzed the US Navy’s future for IP transmission via satellite and prepared a VoIP feasibility study for a multinational firm. He has participated in VoIP procurement, RFP preparation and review for converged systems and networks for enterprises and state governments.
Mr. Audin has been published extensively in the Business Communications Review, ACUTA Journal, Computer Weekly, Telecom Reseller, Data Communications Magazine, Infosystems, Computerworld, Computer Business News and other magazines. He has been Keynote speaker at user conferences and delivered webcasts on VoIP and IP communications technologies. He is a founder of the ANSI X.9 committee, a senior member of the IEEE, and is on the steering committee for the VoiceCon conference. Most of his articles can be found on www.webtorials.com and www.acuta.org. He writes a weekly blog on communications subjects that can be found atwww.nojitter.com and publishes technical tips at www.searchinifiedcommunications.com.
He holds a BSEE from New Jersey Institute of Technology, with graduate work in Computer Science at Syracuse University. He has been an Adjunct Professor at Pace University and an instructor at Boston University. VN 703 908 0965 . Panelist - Chris Kemmerer, Director of Global Unified Communications and Collaboration Solutions, Verizon
Chris Kemmerer is responsible for leading a team which focuses on Verizon’s strategy, marketing, and product management of Unified Communications and Mobility Solutions for Verizon’s enterprise, small/medium business, and government customers. | |
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What communications applications are really feasible for an enterprise 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. Moderator - Stephen Leaden, President, Leaden Associates  Stephen Leaden is founder and President of Leaden Associates, Inc., an independent Telecommunications consulting firm providing specialized support in leading technologies. Mr. Leaden has been in the Telecommunications field over 25 years, with 20 of those with his own firm. Mr. Leaden focuses as an extension of IT staff to facilitate the design, procurement, and project implementation, and ongoing support for converged voice and data solutions. During their engagement, Mr. Leaden proactively adds value via ROI strategies integrated into the projects he serves serve on. Mr. Leaden has lectured on significant industry topics, including VoIP and UC – Basics to Best Practices; Hardphones, Softphones, and NextGen Systems; How Many Phones Do I Really Need?; Leveraging Cost Saving Strategies Migrating to VOIP; Optimizing Your Wireless Spend, State and Local Government Networks: A Question of Priorities for national AT&T user group; Bringing Up Your Lines with VoIP (or Getting Your Company Ready for VoIP); IT Trends in Higher Education; the Real ROI of VoIP; CTI Standards; Internet/Intranet Applications In Healthcare; An Idiot’s Guide To ATM among others. Mr. Leaden has also been quoted in Information Week and Computer World, and interviewed by CFO magazine.
Panelist - Rick Johnson, Vice President Information Technology, Hendrickson
Rick Johnson serves as Vice President of Information Technology for Hendrickson headquartered in Itasca, IL. He is responsible for Computer Applications and Operations, Networks and IT Infrastructure. | |
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Leveraging Voice and Video in the Cloud: Integrating Microsoft, Google and Other Platforms with Enterprise UC (Location: Sun C)
Your enterprise probably has users, customers and partners on Skype, and many may use GoogleVoice as well. If your enterprise IP communications platform could talk to these public services, you could greatly expand your reach, using voice, video or other collaboration modes, without ever touching the legacy PSTN. Skype and Google both have the global scale and branding to position themselves at the center of a new public network—but the matter is complicated by Skype’s acquisition by Microsoft, and Google’s potential to compete with the vendors in this space. This session will help you understand the mechanisms available today to use cloud-based providers like Skype and Google to reach your stakeholders with all-IP communications; it will also show you the obstacles to this goal. You’ll come away with a grasp of the state of the art today, and what you can expect tomorrow. Moderator - Dave Michels, President, Verge1 Consulting 
Dave is an independent industry analyst and consultant focusing on IP PBX UC strategies and solutions; particularly around emerging trends such as cloud telephony, endpoints, mobility, and channel strategies. Dave has a background in enterprise IT and networks, and a passion for IP Telephony. He is an active blogger on telecom and related topics at www.pindropsoup.com. Panelist - Jan Linden, Senior Product Manager, Google Jan Linden is a Senior Product Manager in the Google Chrome team. His focus is on bringing exceptional HTML5 audio and video experiences to the web platform. Before its acquisition by Google, Jan was the Vice President of Engineering of Global IP Solutions. He has been conducting research and development in signal processing and communications for more than twenty years. Prior to joining Global IP Solutions he was with the University of California, Santa Barbara and SignalCom, Inc. | |
| Tuesday, March 27 | |
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Contact centers have long used outsourcers to handle seasonal increases in demand, but these have typically been turnkey operations that provided agents, management and technology. More recently, vendors that specialize in contact center software have begun promoting the idea of cloud-sourcing just the technology portion, either in addition to or instead of the turnkey approach. Is the cloud the right place for your next ACD/contact center platform to reside? In this session, you’ll hear from industry experts who will help you understand the pros and cons of cloud-based contact centers, and you’ll come away knowing who the thought leaders and market movers are in this space.
KEY QUESTIONS:
* Why would you move your contact center application to the cloud?
* Are enterprises typically using cloud-based contact center software to supplement, or to replace, their existing on-prem implementations?
* Does moving the contact center to the cloud help an enterprise implement home-based agents, and how does this affect the larger staffing issues?
* How does cloud-sourcing the contact center affect handling of multimedia channels?
* How does cloud-sourcing affect the contact center’s use of social media? Moderator - Sheila McGee-Smith, President & Principal Analyst, McGee-Smith Analytics, LLC 
Sheila McGee-Smith, the founder and principal analyst at McGee-Smith Analytics, is a leading communications industry analyst and strategic consultant with a proven track record in new product development, competitive assessment, market research, and sales strategies for communications solutions and services. Her insight helps enterprises and solution providers develop strategies to meet the escalating demands of today's consumer and business customers. Ms. McGee-Smith is a regular contributor to No Jitter and she can be followed on Twitter at mcgeesmith. Panelist - Joe Staples, Sr. VP Worldwide Marketing, Interactive Intelligence Panelist - Frank Maylett, Executive Vice President, Sales and Global Alliances, inContact 
Frank Maylett is an integral part of both the company and culture at inContact. In his role as EVP of Sales and Global Alliances, he has built a thriving sales team that continues to set records and drive standards for the SaaS industry. Panelist - Paul Adams, Director, Product Management, Applications & Solutions, BroadSoft  Paul Adams is a Director, Product Management at BroadSoft, where he is focused on driving their Contact Center applications. With over 20 years in the industry, Paul has held multiple roles including product management, business development, field marketing, and sales. Prior to joining BroadSoft, Paul held positions at MetaSwitch, Cisco Systems, and Hughes Network Systems. He holds a BS degree from the University of Vermont where he studied Engineering and Geology. Panelist - Vincent Deschamps, CEO, EchoPass 
Vincent Deschamps (Vin) is the CEO/Chairman of Echopass Corporation. Since 2000, Echopass has provided cloud-based contact center solutions for large enterprises in the financial, travel, technology, insurance, and on-line retailing industries. Echopass also serves Federal and State Government agencies. | |
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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 solutions 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? And most importantly, how would these costs compare with an equivalent premises-based offering or an overlay UC option?
The panel will feature representatives from Thinking Phone Networks, Verizon, M5 Networks, Cypress Communications, BT, InterCall/West, Interactive Intelligence, Siemens, and Avaya. Speaker - Brent Kelly, Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research  Dr. Brent Kelly is a Vice President and Principal Analyst for Constellation Research, Inc., focusing on the intersecting technologies comprising unified communications, social business, cloud services, mobility, and video. Dr. Kelly provides strategy and counsel to key Constellation client types: Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, investment analysts, VCs, technology policy executives, sell side firms and technology buyers. Prior to joining Constellation, Dr. Kelly served for ten years as a partner at Wainhouse Research where he was the primary author of most of the firm’s unified communications reports and forecasts. Dr. Kelly has experience as the Vice President of Marketing for Sorenson Vision, an early innovator in the IP communications space, and he has served as the chief executive in a privately held manufacturing company. Prior to this, Dr. Kelly was part of the team at Schlumberger that built the devices Intel used to test their Pentium microprocessors. He also led teams developing real-time data acquisition and control systems, and adaptive intelligent design systems in several Schlumberger Oil Field services companies including 4 1/2 years working in France. He has worked as a research engineer for Conoco, implementing more efficient mathematical convergence methods for oil reservoir simulators, and as a process engineer for Monsanto. Dr. Kelly is a regular presenter at Enterprise Connect (formerly VoiceCon), the communications industry trade show where his well respected half-day tutorials have covered topics such as hosted and managed unified communications services, Microsoft Office Communications Server technical deep dives, and IBM Lotus Sametime architectural reviews. Dr. Kelly has authored articles for Business Communications Review Magazine, NoJitter.com, and he has also taught seminars in North America, Europe, Australia, and South America. Dr. Kelly has a Ph.D. in engineering from Texas A&M University specializing in thermodynamics and a B.S. in engineering from Brigham Young University. He is an elected official serving on the city council in his community. Panelist - Holger Stotz, Sr. Dir, Global Portfolio Management, Siemens Enterprise Communication Group  Holger Stotz is responsible for the SEN voice platform portfolio in the Global Portfolio Management Team. In this role, he defines the long-term strategy and vision for industry-leading features and highly innovative generations of the OpenScape Voice and HiPath platforms as well as the core solution elements like gateways, media servers and branch solutions. Holger brings almost 20 years of experience within the communications industry to this position. Holger has a vast background of consulting both small and large enterprises on unified communications strategies and deployments across Europe and the United States. Holger holds a Master's degree in Information Technologies from University of Armed Forces, Germany. | |
| Wednesday, March 28 | |
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Virtualization is coming to enterprise communications, in two areas: The server and the desktop. At the server/datacenter, most enterprise communications platform vendors claim to have at least some ability to virtualize their call control and/or related applications. And in a more recent development, vendors have been tackling the more challenging task of making client softphones work with virtualized desktop infrastructures (VDIs). This session will help you understand two issues: Are the vendors’ claims valid—in other words, are their virtualized systems really ready for prime time? And if so, how should your enterprise respond? You’ll come away with a road map for virtualizing your enterprise communications. Speaker - Irwin Lazar, Analyst, Nemertes Research  Irwin Lazar is the Vice President for Communications and Collaboration Research at Nemertes Research, where he develops and manages research projects, develops cost models, conducts strategic seminars and advises clients. Mr. Lazar is responsible for benchmarking the adoption and use of emerging technologies in the enterprise in areas including VOIP, unified communications, video conferencing, social computing, collaboration and advanced network services. A Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and sought-after speaker and author, Mr. Lazar is a columnist for No Jitter and Enterprise2Blog. He is a frequent resource for the business and trade press. and is regular speaker at events such as VoiceCon, and Enterprise 2.0. Mr. Lazar serves as the conference director for FutureNet (formerly MPLScon), and is on the advisory board for the Enterprise 2.0 conference. Panelist - Paul McMillan, Director Cloud & Virtualization Portfolio Strategy, Siemens Enterprise Communications  Paul McMillan has over 20 years of experience in the design, implementation, and management of large scale voice, video, and IP networks. He brings extensive experience across Military, Government, and Commercial markets. He joined Siemens Communications in 1996 to assist in establishing the IP networking business in the North American. market. He has held subsequent positions in Network engineering, Engineering management, and new technology introduction. In his current role, Paul is tasked with developing the long term UC technical vision and strategy for Siemens Global customer base. | |
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Suppose you want to get out of the business of running your core PBX/UC platform—or you at least want to supplement this CPE function with cloud-based services for some locations. Who should you turn to? Are the big carriers who used to be your Centrex providers the right choice for hosted UC? How much does size matter when it comes to hosted UC? How important is the technology platform that the provider uses? This session will give you a clear idea of who the players are, what their competencies are, and where they play, both geographically and in terms of the functionality they can provide you. Speaker - Elka Popova, North American Program Director, Unified Communications & Collaboration, Frost & Sullivan 
Elka Popova is an Industry Manager with the Frost & Sullivan North American Information & Communication Technologies Practice. She focuses on monitoring and analyzing emerging trends, technologies and market behavior in the enterprise solution and carrier infrastructure markets in North America and globally. Panelist - Bill Long, Senior Director, Product Management, Level3 Communications 
Bill oversees Level 3's enterprise voice product portfolio, which includes TDM and SIP based voice products ranging from local PRIs and SIP trunking to dedicated long distance, toll free and contact center solutions. While at the company, he has held numerous enterprise and wholesale voice related product management, product development and strategy roles. Bill also was involved in several entrepreneurial and consulting projects related to voice and wireless solutions before joining Level 3 and is a named inventor on four issued and pending voice patents. Panelist - Jay Krauser, Director - Marketing, NEC
Jay Krauser is Director, Core Solutions and Engineering for NEC Corporation of America. In this role, Jay works with other NEC divisions, subsidiaries and NEC partners to help build repeatable, commercially successful premise- and cloud-based solutions for our direct sales force and our dealers. Through Jay’s team, NEC broadens the solutions it can provide to the industry, assists channels with the distribution of these products, and supports NEC partners with the tools and services they need to be successful. Panelist - Debbie Jo Severin, CMO, 8x8 | |
