Small Operator - Are you being left behind?

Wednesday, November 19, 2008 2:00pm ET / 11:00am PT

Small and mid-tier operators of cable systems, rural telcos, internet service providers, and regional wireless providers are constantly challenged with ways to improve customer retention and increase revenue.

VoIP and other bundled offerings are widely recognized as a means to achieve these goals. Market analyst AMI Partners Inc. agrees, noting in a forecast that SMB hosted VoIP spending will surpass $1.56 billion by 2010. However, the cost, technical complexity and financial risks involved with building a VoIP solution from scratch have been outside the means of many operators and as a result, kept them on the sidelines.

This situation has allowed the unbundled VoIP operators to draw away customers and revenue while draining resources from the operator’s network.

Please join IBM, Broadsoft and AudioCodes for an informative webinar where they will discuss a combined effort to reverse this trend, and allow small and mid-tier operators to get off the sidelines and offer competitive VoIP services to their customers, growing revenue and customer loyalty; while reducing expenditures associated with time, power, space, capital and operational costs.

Be sure to bring your questions!  

After the presentation, the webcast will be open for a live Q&A.

Alan Percy
Director of Market Development, AudioCodes

Mr. Percy is Director of Market Development at AudioCodes, a leading provider of Voice over IP Telephony enabling technology. In this role, Mr. Percy is responsible for identifying market trends and building relationships to foster new business opportunities. Mr. Percy joined AudioCodes in 2001 and brings over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications, networking and wireless equipment industries.

Mr. Percy holds a BA in Computer Science from University of Buffalo, has heard a number of papers published in various telecommunications technical journals. Mr. Percy is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and was recently named to the 100 Top Voices of IP Communications by Internet Telephony magazine.

Mike Wilkinson
Director, European Marketing, BroadSoft

Mike Wilkinson is the Director of European Marketing at BroadSoft. Mike has over 15 years experience in the telecommunications industry and has spent the majority of that time working in the carrier IP segment. Prior to joining BroadSoft, Mike was Vice President of Marketing at session border controller vendor Newport Networks where he dramatically improved the awareness of the company.

Mike also led a corporate marketing team at Alcatel that was responsible for global programs and the positioning of Alcatel in the telecoms and enterprise markets. Before being in corporate marketing, Mike held a number of senior divisional marketing roles in the carrier solutions and broadband businesses. Mike holds an Honours degree in Electronic Engineering from the University College of Swansea and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Scott R. Firth
Director, Telecommunication Solutions, IBM Systems and Technology Group

Scott Firth is currently Director of the Telecommunications Solutions team within IBM’s Systems and Technology Group, and he leads the strategy and solutions marketing for the company’s systems business in the global telecommunications industry. In addition, he manages teams driving ISV partner relationships and technical support of telecommunications system solutions.

Mr. Firth joined IBM in New York in 1977 and spent over a decade leading teams responsible for systems architecture and chip design of IBM mainframe systems. In the early 1990’s, he moved to Austin, Texas to lead the global OEM sales team for IBM’s new RISC systems business. From 1996-1999, he lived in the United Kingdom leading sales teams for IBM’s European OEM market. When he returned from the UK, Mr. Firth joined the newly formed telecommunications solutions team within IBM Server Group to manage the marketing and business development for IBM’s telecommunications servers and storage.

Mr. Firth earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering degree from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. He holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering degree from Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas, Austin, Texas.

Erik K. Linask - Moderator
Group Managing Editor, Technology Marketing Corporation

Erik oversees the daily operation of TMCnet, which delivers news, information, videos, white papers, podcasts, and more to three million visitors each month. He is also a contributor to TMCnet as well as TMC’s IP Communications publications. Prior to joining the TMC team, several years ago, he was Managing Editor at Global Custodian, a global securities services publication, where he also managed the magazine’s survey research. Erik began his professional career at management consulting firm Leadership Research Institute.