The term Unified Messaging (UM) is appearing more and more, but what exactly does it mean? This session will examine the implications of integrating voicemail and email together. We will explore the “flavors” of UM that exist in terms of whether messages are stored on the email server, the voicemail server or both, and what are the advantages of each strategy. This discussion will discuss the implications for the users, the IT department and the latest developments in the legal ramifications of these strategies.
Presented by:
Juan Vela Director of Product and Strategic Markets Occam Networks
Unified Messaging is just the beginning of the capabilities that are possible by integrating the technologies of voice mail and email. The next major technology that will be integrated into Unified Messaging solutions will be live presence information, currently just associated with IM applications.
Letting others know of your availability, giving them options to contact you, and knowing how and who to interrupt your activities is key to delivering improved levels of service. The challenge is being able to distinguish the high priority communication requests from the rest and dealing with them in a timely manner, regardless of where you are. Our discussion will focus on how employees and organizations are faced with ever increasing volumes of communication in various forms (telephone calls, voicemails, emails, IM) and their challenges on managing them.
Assuring Survivability of
Your VoIP Network
Your VoIP Network (EG-03)
Tuesday - 10/10/06, 1:00-1:45pm
We are only beginning to see the potential of VoIP. The technology is maturing, and business-class VoIP offerings are nearing the reliability of traditional circuit switched networks.
Employing VoIP on a vast scale carries with it implications for network architecture, marketing, and the regulatory climate. Networks must be prepared to take on converged services, providing voice, data, and video all at excellent quality and reasonable pricing. Competitors must market VoIP solutions so that a business can understand the benefits of VoIP, as well as install and manage the network at a cost appropriate for businesses ranging from the very small to large corporations. This session will address these concerns from today’s perspective as well as take a look ahead at the future of VoIP services.
Presented by:
Chuck Rutledge VP of Marketing Quintum Technologies
That reliable QoS is essential for successful VoIP services is well understood. Unfortunately there is widespread confusion about how this can be achieved, or even what it means exactly. Is it a matter of installing an array of VoIP test probes or of buying the right MPLS SLA? Are current standards adequate, and if not, where is something better needed? This presentation will cut through the fog to show how current solutions fit together and where the gaps are. There’s no single, simple answer, but call admission control, provisioning, bandwidth allocation, route control, advanced queuing mechanisms and MOS monitoring all have their place — understanding this allows the enterprise or service provider to choose best-of-breed solutions in each area, and avoid being bamboozled by vendor claims of omnipotence!
Presented by:
Alan Clark CEO Telchemy
Jeff Ridley Director of Product Management ShoreTel
Lou Nardo Director of Product Management Qovia
Randy Garrett Sr. Systems Engineer Kentrox
Daniel Berninger Executive Director HD Connect Project
QoS Techniques for IP Telephony and Voice Over IP LAN, WAN, and MAN (EG-05)
Wednesday - 10/11/06, 3:00-3:45pm
The adoption of converged networks for voice, video and data has made quality of service (QoS) planning and implementation an important management task for network architects and administrators. QoS management is especially critical for successful voice over IP implementations if the expectation is that IP convergence provides the same reliability and service quality of tradition circuit-switched voice services.
Fortunately, both the standards-making bodies and network equipment providers have continued to develop and refine approaches for delivering QoS across local-area, wide-area and metropolitan-area networks. This panel session will explore instrumentation of QoS at three different spots in the network — LAN, WAN and MAN (‘the cloud’) — with speakers from service quality management, traffic management, and the service provider community.
VoIP is being utilized not only as a means to save money and take advantage of increased voice and data convergence, but also as a way to improve customer service and provide additional revenue-generating solutions. Understanding and recognizing the range of capabilities that a VoIP network offers is vital to fully maximizing your company’s investment. Furthermore, once a VoIP network is in place, companies are faced with the difficult task of quickly and efficiently migrating applications from a PSTN to a VoIP infrastructure.
This session will outline the challenges and benefits of migrating to VoIP and provide expertise on how to take full advantage of the flexibility and capabilities this infrastructure offers. The presenters will look at the advantages and disadvantages of hosted IP PBX services compared to deploying on-premises solutions as well as overcoming the routing and monitoring challenges presented by international deployments and the underlying network infrastructure issues that can impact network-based VoIP performance.
Presented by:
Sanjeev Sawai Vice President of Research and Development Envox Worldwide
Bill Mutschler Product Development Manager PAETEC
Ram Ayyakad Co-Founder & CEO Ranch Networks
Bob Kent Chief Technology Officer Spenser Communication
Barry Marks Partner (Moderator) IntelliCom Analytics
Joe Adams Vice President and Chief Technology Evangelist Interactive Intelligence
VoIP/SOA Integration: Impact on IT Apps, Processes, & Overall Business Transformation (EG-07)
Thursday - 10/12/06, 1:00-1:45pm
Enterprises are turning more and more toward Service Oriented Architectures (SOA), and along with the traditional services (databases, legacy applications, Web platforms) that are integrated into the SOA, interactive communications in the form of VoIP are being integrated as well. In this presentation, we will discuss the transformative aspects of VoIP communications and enterprise IT-SOA integration – from the perspectives of how IP communications, enabled with open interfaces (SIP, Web Services et al), can have a measurable impact a variety of business processes, ensure ease of operations, provisioning & management, and lower the total cost of ownership — achieved through “reuse” of communications capabilities — now available as “IT services” throughout the enterprise.
Presented by:
Vijay Bhagavath Senior Strategist in the Office of the CTO Siemens
Alan Rosenberg Director of Product Management Blue Note Networks
Does WAN acceleration do enough to solve the convergence problem or is it just a stop-gap solution that provides benefits to only a subset of enterprise applications? As more business applications converge onto the network and as these applications become more performance sensitive it is becoming necessary to proactively deliver application performance control. The bottom line is that application acceleration alone will not solve the pain enterprises experience when migrating to a converged network. It is one of many techniques required to mitigate performance issues and resolve the gap between the promise and reality of convergence.
Participants will learn:
• How to solve the network pain created with convergence by using multiple application performance techniques;
• A step by step plan to improving application performance on your WAN;
• How to add a layer of intelligence to the network that will accurately align the need for resources across many applications simultaneously.
Deloitte SMB Survey: How is data demand changing today’s SMB Landscape? (EG-09)
Thursday - 10/12/06, 3:00-3:45pm
In this session, the speaker will reveal the findings of Deloitte & Touche USA LLP’s survey of more than 100 SMBs about their criteria and plans for voice and data procurement. The presenter will share the survey’s findings regarding market demand and opportunity, including the characteristics of SMBs most likely to move to IP.
Attendees will hear commentary on:
How cable companies can best position themselves to take advantage of SMBs’ telecom buying behaviors.
How data purchases effect provider preference for voice and data.
What influence industry and number of business locations have on voice and data spend.
The speaker will address specifically where potential IP spend is anticipated and how various types of providers, from VARs to MSOs to RBOCs, are poised to succeed. Do you sell to the SMB marketplace? If so, this insider view will give you valuable insights into the SMB decision-making process.
Presented by:
Jan Woodcock Principal, Media & Entertainment Practice Deloitte & Touche USA LLP – Technology, Media & Telecommunications Group
Extending the Value of Your VoIP Investment to Business Applications (EG-10)
Thursday - 10/12/06, 4:00-4:45pm
Until recently, the drive to VoIP has been led by the promise of greater efficiencies and reduced costs. While many companies have in fact realized those benefits, the reality is that VoIP provides a strategic platform for many new business applications. Managing the access point to those new business applications (provisioning, de-provisioning, authorization and audit-ability, security, etc.) becomes an even greater IT / Telephony issue.
Presented by:
Andrew Hunkins Chief Executive Officer Unimax Systems
