The first ever Internet Telephony EXPO (Oct
6-8, 1999 - San Diego) is history now, but its memory and its impact will surely stay with
many for a long time to come. As for my own memories, they still make me chuckle. Yes, the
sun and the beach were fine too, but what really made my trip worthwhile was the first
ever ConvergeNET. After
all, how often do you get a chance to lock up one of your customers in a closet? More on
that later.
ConvergeNET was designed as an interoperability proving ground running on the show
network. Interoperability is perhaps the most important ingredient of the Internet
telephony market; one that the future success of this field badly depends on. In my August 1999 column
I wrote about the significance of interoperability and the shortcomings of H.323
implementations by the vendors. Lets be honest everyone in this field is
H.323 compliant, everyone claims interoperability, but can they really prove it? And so
ConvergeNET was born to put the vendors claims to the test right in front of show
attendees. I am proud to have been a part of the first ever ConvergeNET, debuted at
Internet Telephony EXPO in San Diego. ConvergeNET was a resounding success, allowing
several companies to interoperate for the first time ever using their Internet telephony
products. But at the same time, it opened our eyes to the work ahead to fully realize the
dream of Internet telephony interoperability. And this was evident even as I was
recruiting vendors to participate in ConvergeNET.
HOW WE SET IT UP
My original plans for ConvergeNET called for a number of zones, each with a
gatekeeper from a different company, and each containing compatible gateways and end
clients from various vendors. The show network allocated a switched 100 Mbps network per
exhibitor, so I had few worries about flooding the network and therefore, ConvergeNET was
implemented on the show network. Also, to simplify things, we decided against having a
separate area for ConvergeNET. Instead, each participating vendor would demonstrate their
interoperability capabilities right from their own booth, possibly using the same
equipment they were showing to the attendees. This decision turned out to be a good one
for two reasons:
- Running ConvergeNET on the show network gave the whole endeavor an aura of reality and
genuine functionality. Hey attendees! No need to set up a separate network for Internet
telephony. The one youve got is just fine.
- Vendors appreciated the fact they didnt have to divide their attention between
their own booths and a separate ConvergeNET network. There is enough stress on vendors
trying to attract and keep the crowds attention.
With the ConvergeNET plan in hand, I went about recruiting the exhibitors to take part
in the interoperability network. The original plan called for interzone and intrazone
interoperability, but I found a big wall of resistance when trying to push for that.
Instead, I ended up relaxing the rules for the vendors to show interoperability with at
least one other vendor to be considered worthy of the ConvergeNET Interoperability
Achievement Award.
I thought to myself that this would be a piece of cake. After all, how could we
possibly make it any easier? Every exhibitor would by default be on the ConvergeNET
network (since it was the same as the show network), and the rules to participate were
simple. So all they had to do was to sign up for the program and show off their
interoperability. Well, as it turns out, many of the vendors were suddenly overtaken by a
confidence problem. Some did not want to do it at all, some complained that it was too
difficult for them, and others griped about the lack of time. I suppose we can give them
the benefit of the doubt and hope to see their interoperability capabilities at a future
ConvergeNET. But for those 11 companies who received the ConvergeNET Interoperability
Achievement award, my hats off to you for a great effort and a job well done.
THE CLOSET KEYNOTE
Back to locking up our customer in a closet. That distinction goes to Chris Neil,
product marketing manager at Nokia, who was a good
sport and allowed us to lock him in the closet in front of a shining hot spotlight for a
good half an hour. TMC President Rich Tehrani was then able to carry on a wireless NetMeeting conference with Chris
during his keynote speech without the audience suspecting his presence in the same room
only in the closet. The humor was irresistible and by his own account, Chris is
still recovering from this traumatic experience, but it brought Nokia the first
ConvergeNET Interoperability Achievement Award for wireless telephony. My sincere
gratitude to Chris for this selfless act and of course for the amusement, which was
priceless.
I would be sorely remiss if I did not mention Kalpana Sheth, marketing communications
manager at Lucents elemedia. Her dedication
and efforts in trying to interface elemedias gatekeeper with other products on the
ConvergeNET network energized everyone to try and take part in the quest for
interoperability. You just had to be there to witness the celebration in the Inter-Tel booth when their gateway made the connection
to elemedias gatekeeper for the first time ever. In the end, elemedias
gatekeeper successfully demonstrated interoperability with products from Inter-Tel, Quicknet, and Tundo,
and had some limited success with iFace.com. iFace.com
did however achieve H.323 interoperability with Quicknet. Other success stories were VocalTecs gatekeeper and Ciscos gateway interoperability, Dialogic and NetMeeting interoperability, Motorola MCG and NetMeeting interoperability, and dynamicsofts SIP interoperability with Pingtel
(who was not at the show). Congratulations to all ConvergeNET Interoperability Achievement
Award winners for a successful event. c
Robert Vahid Hashemian provides us with a healthy dose of reality each month in his
Reality Check column. Robert currently holds the position of Webmaster for TMCnet.com
your online resource for CTI, Internet telephony, and call center solutions. He can
be reached at rhashemian@tmcnet.com.
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Setting A
Standard If there is one thing we learned from ConvergeNET, its
the fact that we have a long way to go for true and complete interoperability in the
Internet telephony field. That is why TMC has made the commitment to run ConvergeNET in
every trade show from here on out, to promote the importance of interoperability and
adherence to standards for Internet telephony. Many vendors, for one reason or another,
were not able to participate in the ConvergeNET event at the Internet Telephony EXPO in
San Diego. Never fear. ConvergeNET will also take place at the next CTI EXPO, December 7-9, 1999 in Las Vegas.
Building on its success at Internet Telephony EXPO, ConvergeNET promises to be a big hit
at the show. Dont miss out on the chance to be a part of this definitive event and
show off some of your interoperability abilities. For more information, contact Adam
Altman at aaltman@tmcnet.com or call him at
203-295-2000, x162. |