[October 7, 2004]

Durance to Developers: Be the Killer Enablers

BY JOHANNE TORRES

Michael Durance, VP & general manager of the digital solutions division at Toshiba kicked off Thursday�s keynote which took place at the Crystal room of the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles addressing attendees during the last day of Internet Telephony Conference and EXPO. Durance described the immediate need for our industry vendors to start delivering the real promise of Voice over IP.

He expressed his view on IP eventually exceeding all of our expectations as far as value in the business environment. �We are yet to experience a huge market growth, end-user because demand is increasing, and competition is definitely escalating,� he added.  

He went on to explain what value meant for him and his company. He said that value will eventually be offered by increasing efficiency through shared infrastructure, delivering ubiquitous access within a virtual enterprise, and providing multimedia and technology-rich applications to the end-users.

I personally liked the way Durance explained his vision of the future of VoIP from now through every year until 2006. He foresees the rest of 2004 as offering expansion and increased security focus in VoIP�tremendous opportunities in this section of the market, specifically, an increased vertical market emphasis. During 2005, he foresees telecomm channels evolving, IP sales surpassing TDM, IP standards changing the hardware business, telecom services earning their highest profits. Durance continued with his predictions for 2006 when more players will be entering the market, there will be more price pressure, and proprietary hardware alive in specialized applications only, software will also be offering differentiation.

He believes that eventually, the switch to IP will not only involve the IT department anymore, but it will encompass the involvement of whole project groups within an enterprise. His advice to VoIP developers�to be the killer enabler that delivers the killer apps every time.