On one side the traditional TDM PBX stalwarts, Avaya, Nortel, Mitel and NEC were “adapting” their platforms to support IP trunking and stations, trying to convince the world that evolution was safe and good. On the other side of the fence, Cisco, Shoretel and 3Com were doing well by articulating their “pure” IP pbx technology, throwing out the old.

It’s my belief that the day the music stopped for TDM was January 14, 2009. It was this day that Nortel entered into bankruptcy proceedings. This former market leader went from number one to a business casualty in a few short years. There is not much doubt that the rapidity of the descent was caused by the turtle-like response to the changing technologies and needs of the marketplace over the past few years. While Nortel is the poster child for the decline in the traditional pbx manufacturer, they will certainly not be alone in the dust heap of pbx manufacturer history.

Soon, most business telephone systems will be an application residing on the data network. This is truly revolutionary in nature. As much as Cisco, Shoretel and 3Com moved the technology from TDM to IP, the resultant products more or less did what their technology predecessors did – make and receive phone calls and store voice messages. These systems still rely on proprietary hardware, software and a farm of servers. In Cisco’s case, it might even be called a ranch. Not very green, quite closed and by architecture, expensive to maintain.

Now, a much more significant change in the pbx world is occurring. Using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware combined with standards-based software, the phone system can now be open and based upon best-of-breed technology. Remember when that happened to data? The personal computer was the start of the technology revolution as it was standards-based and open

Our company, Teledynamic, saw the writing on the wall and has moved quickly to gain the necessary product lines and technical skills to adapt to this new model. And along the way, our sales and support model will change in a very substantial way too. Customers will now be free to pick and choose components and applications as they do in the data world. There is no standard data network – ironically due to the fact that there are standards. Since everything works with everything else (more or less <BG>), every data network is custom-designed for a specific customer’s needs. So it will be with the PBX.

So our role becomes one of integrator and consultant, rather than product representative and equipment repair company. As part and parcel of the data network, the ability to integrate with data and mobile applications will provide heady technical challenges. This new-found freedom will certainly provide wonderful new communications tools to our customers, but will result in a much more challenging implementation and support environment.

And it is with that extraordinarily long introduction, I’m happy to announce that Teledynamic has fully embraced this new model. We recently introduced the Digium Switchvox and Interactive Intelligence products that will help us help our customers in this new world. I welcome you to visit our website at www.teledynamic.com to learn more.

Let me know your thoughts.

Randy Kremlacek

Randy is the President of Teledynamic Communications. The company specializes in premise-based and hosted SIP PBX’s, pbx monitoring and Unified Communications.

Well, I finally gave in to the steady persuasion that businesses must be doing social marketing these days.   Frankly, I’m still a sceptic when it comes to our business.

I just don’t see how a potential customer is going to find us or find our value.  If we offered a fashion good or something trendy, I see how the social angle would work well.

I just don’t know about the idea of someone writing their daily inane comment in Facebook and then searching for the “leading SIP PBX provider in the San Francisco Bay Area”.

But I’d love to be proven wrong.

Let me know your thoughts.

Randy Kremlacek

Randy is the President of Teledynamic Communications. The company specializes in premise-based and hosted SIP PBX’s, pbx monitoring and Unified Communications.

I think I may have seen the future of the PBX recently….and it looks to radically shake up the status quo.

I’ve always found it amusing that the first IP PBX manufacturers boasted about putting voice on an IP network. That seemed to be a big “feature” at the time. However, in and of itself, it really didn’t deliver much value to the buyer. In fact, it brought an unknown onto the customer’s data network and required them to replace their Ethernet switches with new switches that supported POE. The biggest feature of buying a new Cisco system was that it alleviated excess cash in the buyer’s bank account.

There were the claims of easier administration and being able to move phones just by unplugging them and plugging them in at a new location. Oh yeah, and Unified Messaging. However, the big secret that the IP manufacturers never shared was that all of this was available on the lowly TDM system.

I always thought that we’d have really arrived at IP PBX nirvana when voice became a true part of the data network. With the arrival of the SIP standards, we are rapidly getting to this point. I call it the 2^nd generation of IP PBX.

The low hanging fruit in adopting SIP is SIP trunking and telephones. So, you can save money on your phone bill and use Polycom phones on your new PBX. Both options are quite welcome and provide true value for moving to IP telephony.

However, the sea change coming is from SIP-based applications that are just starting to arrive. Once we can truly integrate voice, data and mobile devices, we’ll start seeing some huge productivity and communications gains.

Recently, I’ve gotten very familiar with the SIP-based Digium Switchvox and have been mightily impressed.

Here are a few of the things I like:

Free Upgrades -Switchvox software releases are free to any user on a current maintenance agreement. Most manufacturers charge a substantial fee for software upgrades.

Video calling – Switchvox supports video phones on the desktop. A great example is the Grandstream GXV300 that we use here at Teledynamic.

Instant messaging – Switchvox includes a private chat server that uses the open XMPP protocol.

Centralized presence – Presence and status details for call and chat activity are visible across multiple peered Switchvox PBXs.

Switchboard - Switchboard is a real-time, web-based call control panel.  It provides call recording, phone book drag n’ drop transfers, click-to-call, and screen pops among many more features.

Google Map – See the physical location of an incoming call via a pop-up Google map. Now just how cool is that!

Call Queuing – Switchbox has a built-in ACD, with monitoring, recording and reporting features.

CRM Integration – Swithvox integrates with CRM programs such as Salesforce and SugarCRM.

All-in-all, this is a very impressive product. Something the traditional IP PBX manufacturers such as Cisco and Shoretel (and yes we can call these proprietary IP system providers “traditional”) do not want to see. I’ve seen the future of the office PBX and it’s from the most unlikely of places, Huntsville, Alabama, home of the Digium Corporation.

Please share your thoughts.

Randy Kremlacek

Randy is the President of Teledynamic Communications. The company specializes in premise-based and hosted SIP PBX’s, pbx monitoring and Unified Communications.

As most of the world knows, Nortel filed by bankruptcy protection on January 13^th. In the majority of corporate bankruptcies, the company files under chapter 11 which allows them to discharge most of their liabilities and emerge as an existing entity.

Nortel does not look to be going down this path but rather looks to be liquidating its assets, putting up different parts of the company for sale. They’ve already sold their layer 4-7 data business to Radware. Now up on the auction block is their Enterprise voice business consisting of the widely-deployed Norstar, BCM and Meridian One systems. It is understood that Avaya, Siemens, and Aspect are all interested in the business.

There is discussion that Nortel will emerge in some form or another, keeping a core technology such as metropolitan Ethernet. To this writer, it is just as likely that they disappear all together. And if they do emerge, they’ll be a small bit player, paling in comparison to their previous clout and position in the marketplace.

Regardless of what happens to the Enterprise business, in the short term the more things change the more they stay the same. Business goes on as usual from a day-to-day perspective. The sales and support group are still intact, and equipment and software readily available. Even after the sale it will be at least a couple of years before the dissolution of Nortel will substantially impact end user companies. The acquiring company will most likely provide transition paths to move off the Nortel systems to their platforms. In the cases where Nortel products are superior to their own, they’ll likely re-name them and continue to develop and market them.

Nortel was once a high and mighty flyer. They could do no wrong and were dominant in many of their product lines. However, a horribly overpriced acquisition of Bay Networks marked a turning point in the late 90’s. They couldn’t decide if they were a voice company or a data company. Whether they wanted to concentrate on what they did best or be all things to all people.

When the dotcom implosion occurred, Nortel never recovered. Executive management was shuffled, books were cooked and no meaningful corporate direction was pursued. As one ex-employee said about them, “Nortel – The NO in InNOvation. While their competitors trimmed unprofitable businesses and moved decisively into new technologies such as VOIP, Nortel lumbered along, a beast of a former time. Nobody ever said that capitalism is kind.

I’d like to know your opinion.

Randy Kremlacek

Randy is the President of Teledynamic Communications. The company specializes in premise-based and hosted SIP PBX’s, pbx monitoring and Unified Communications.

At the clang of the Midnight bell on Saturday, March 4^th, the contract between AT&T West and the District 9 chapter of the Communications Workers Of America expired.

Today the organizations are working without a contract and the union has staged a work slowdown. I don’t know much about the machinations of unions but I think I know how to interpret this excerpt from one of their latest news releases:

“We encourage all members to work safely and with the highest possible standards of quality. We want you to comply with all rules and procedures the Company has ever taught you – if they conflict, stop and notify a manager of the conflict so that it may be resolved. Ensure all tools, equipment, furniture, and materials are ergonomically proper, safe, and in proper condition before use. Additionally, ensure all plant and equipment complies with every safety, quality, and regulatory rule. Make certain that vehicles are properly maintained, inspected and safe.

Meanwhile, our bargaining committee will continue to bargain and our members will stay on the job – but it will not be business as usual!”

The negotiations continue but without much headway. What to do? Well, why not head out to the ballpark on opening day and enjoy two of America’s old pastimes, baseball and union rallies?

A good time was had by all. I wonder if the union paid to have members comp’ed to the game? And did they treat them to $10 beers and helpings of $8 garlic fries? It’s all part of a hard day’s work at the union.

Frankly, the whole spectacle disgusts me. The way AT&T runs their duopoly (Verizon being the only other player) makes the federal government look like the model of efficiency. And the CWA has been able to jack up their member’s pay and benefits to obsene levels. I was recently talking to an AT&T technician, probably around 40 years old. He was making $108,000 a year and was complaining that AT&T was attempting to take that salary down to a paltry $100K. This for technical work that could be learned in six months of training! Much of America’s competitiveness issues are reflected in this sorry story.

What do you think?

Randy Kremlacek

Randy is the President of Teledynamic Communications. The company specializes in premise-based and hosted SIP PBX’s, pbx monitoring and Unified Communications.

Here’s the latest report from the Communications Workers Of America website regarding their union negotiations with AT&T:

Today the subcommittees met in an attempt to resolve some of our differences around Article 2 and Work Rules/Appendices.

In today’s formal session the Company rejected the Union proposal for time off. Our proposal included language that a minimum of 25% of a work group could be off at any given time.

The Company passed two more retrogressive proposals. The first would increase the number of unpaid days before receiving any sickness absence pay for employees with less than 8 years of service. The second one was in reference to Sunday premium pay. The company proposed to only pay time and one tenth per hour on Sunday instead of time and one half.

With only 10 days left before contract expiration, we have had 21 formal bargaining sessions, many subcommittee meetings, made 31 proposals to improve the contract, received 31 regressive proposals from the company and have reached 0 tentative agreements!

Gee, can you say strike? AT&T has been preparing for this eventuality for months. They’ve been busy training their non-union employees to take over when the union walks out. This does much to explain why the level of service at AT&T has slipped even further from their sub-par standards.

Teledynamic has been spreading the word to our customers to brace for the worst. Especially hard hit are new orders for lines or services. As one can imagine, the first priority in a work crisis is to try to maintain some level of customer service. New orders do not receive a high priority.

So, will this CWA strike be protracted or might the negotiators miraculously reach a breakthrough in the fleeting days remaining before the deadline? It is no secret that AT&T is spending massive resources on building their wireless business. Equally transparent is their de-emphasis on wireline business and cost cutting in this area. The majority of CWA workers at AT&T work on the wireline (analog and digital circuits) side of their business. It is my prognostication that AT&T is going to play hardball to drive down costs. And the union doesn’t have the economy on their side. I’m sure that the popular sentiment of the workers is that they are just glad to have a job, even if in the future it will pay a little less and include fewer benefits.

Let me know your thoughts.

Randy Kremlacek

Randy is the President of Teledynamic Communications. The company specializes in premise-based and hosted SIP PBX’s, pbx monitoring and Unified Communications.

FMC or Fixed Mobile Convergence is a concept ready to bloom. The ultimate goal of FMC is to optimize transmission of all data, voice and video communications to end users and their applications using a single device that operates on both wired and wireless networks. The challenge is to make sure connections are not dropped between access points and that services can be uniformly delivered and billed for any access technology. FMC needs to support the integration of Bluetooth, 3G and Wifi connectivity in a single mobile handset, letting users make hands-free voice calls at less cost over Wifi networks, browse the internet and use other data applications over mobile infrastructure.

Today, we’ve got separate networks for our mobile phones and the corporate PBX. Thus, we have two phones, two contact lists, two interfaces, etc. All of these devices and none of them talk to one another. It’s enough to make a robot cry.

But help is on the way. Trying to break away from the stranglehold of mobile providers Sprint, AT&T and Verizon, handset makers Nokia and Research In Motion are introducing handsets that are “dual mode”. These phones not only work on the mobile network but through SIP technology, they can also be a wireless device that works on the corporate PBX.

As an example, when you are out and about you’ll be on the traditional mobile network. However, step foot into your office and the phone switches to become your pbx phone. Very cool for users. And HR loves it as they now have more control over corporate phone calls, important in these days of regulatory compliance, including HIPAA and Sarbanes Oxley. The bean counters are fans too as traffic gets routed over low cost pbx circuits instead of chewing up valuable cell minutes.

So, what are you waiting for? Well, a few things, actually. First, you need a robust wireless network in your office with the ability to provide voice QOS to ensure quality voice transmissions. Of course, you need a SIP dual mode phone. Lastly it requires that your PBX supports the SIP standard protocol. In a few short years, all pbx’es will be written to the SIP standard. However, today the choices are more limited.

Research In Motion has taken an early lead in this new space with their BlackBerry Mobile Voice System (BlackBerry MVS) converging office desk phones and BlackBerry smartphones.

Here’s a blurb from a recent marketing piece they did:

BlackBerry smartphone users can access enterprise desk phone options directly from the menu interface of the BlackBerry phone application, while at the same time securely authenticating to the organization’s enterprise telephony system (PBX). BlackBerry MVS also gives IT administrators the control to set voice policies on the BlackBerry smartphone, so that inbound and outbound calls use the enterprise line. This allows for all mobile calls to be logged or recorded for compliance with regulatory or corporate standards.

Single Phone Number Convenience

BlackBerry MVS offers convenience and ease-of-use so BlackBerry smartphone users can:

• Give out a single phone number that simultaneously rings their desk phone and smartphone
• Place, receive and manage enterprise calls, as well as use desk phone features such as transfer, park and extension dialing on their smartphone
• Make calls from their BlackBerry smartphone that will be identified as originating from their desk phone
• Access voicemail in one consolidated location
• Access advanced desk phone functionality easily with the intuitive, menu-driven interface

They have a compelling demo at http://www.blackberry.com/select/demos/mvs/

Two of Teledynamic’s product lines support SIP – the Interactive Intelligence Enterprise Telephony System and the 3Com VCX PBX. As you might guess, we’d be happy to show all the advantages of owning a new SIP-based phone system. Support of wireless phones is just one such appealing benefit.

Let me know your thoughts.

Randy Kremlacek

Teledynamic Communications provides free educational materials about telecommunications on an ongoing basis to our subscribers and customers. The company provides a complete range of VOIP, telecom and data solutions for business.

Last week I received a notice from Counterpath announcing their new Bria For Microsoft Outlook product. I was intrigued by this line from their press release, “Bria For Microsoft Outlook is a plug-in that adds an enterprise-grade softphone to a user’s Outlook application, enabling them to make and receive phone calls and use phone features directly from their contact list, emails and Outlook desktop.”

I don’t know about you but I’ve been waiting for years for an Outlook integration with business phone systems. Today, almost every IP PBX manufacturer has a desktop client that allows the user to dial from their desktop, maintain a phone directory and get a visual indication of voice mail messages. While some of them are pretty slick, they all are a separate application that the user must learn and use. That’s not what I wanted.

I work in Outlook 80% of my working day so it’s the logical place to interface to my phone system. With this product, my wish has been fulfilled. Installation took about an hour, including tweaks and I was in business. Now I have direct calling out of Outlook, both within mail and the contact list, a call history, and the ability to add a new contact by clicking a button when a new call from an unrecognized caller comes in. Plus it has a presence feature that allows me to monitor other user’s presence and status. Oh yeah, and IM too!

The level and quality of integration into Outlook is nothing less than extraordinary. Counterpath did a better job than Microsoft would have done, had they felt compelled to create such an application.

The product utilizes SIP (session initiation protocol) to communicate with the PBX. SIP is the rapidly-emerging IP PBX standard to which some day soon all PBX’es will comply. For now, SIP PBXes include the Nortel SCS 500, 3Com VCX, and the Digium Asterisk, plus most hosted SIP PBX providers.

I am now happily using the business phone of the future today!

Randy Kremlacek

Teledynamic Communications provides free educational materials about telecommunications on an ongoing basis to our subscribers and customers. The company provides a complete range of VOIP, telecom and data solutions for business.

Yesterday a business associate and I were lamenting the state of customer service in our industry.  The discussion got around to AT&T and their perpetual poor service, now compounded by their recent layoffs.    We agreed that many of our customers don’t mind getting poor service from “the phone company”.   However, they have a much higher expectation when it comes to Teledynamic and other telecom providers.

Instead of whining about the unfairness of it all, maybe we should use this double standard to motivate us to improve our own service.   So Mr. Customer, you’ll punish me for service levels that would be fine if it was AT&T?  Fine, I accept the challenge and we’ll strive to provide an even-higher level of service.

Customer service in the time of recession is doubly challenging.    Revenues and profits are dropping but the cost of providing good service stays the same.   Some organizations will cut service levels to save money, hoping that customers will understand and remain loyal. Other companies such as ours just bite the financial bullet, keep service levels high and hope that the investment pays off in the long term.   Frankly, I don’t know which strategy is more financially sound.   And certainly both cause management to lose sleep.  

After our economy turns around, check back with me and I’ll let you know whether I made a sound investment!

Randy Kremlacek

Teledynamic Communications provides free educational materials about telecommunications on an ongoing basis to our subscribers and customers. We are a provider of a complete range of VOIP, telecom and data solutions for business.

As we are wrapping  up the year here at Teledynamic, handling the few customers that didn’t take the entire week off, it’s time to think New Year’s Eve.  And for me, that means spiced rum.

I’ve never been a big fan of Captain Morgan.   It’s cloyingly sweet and watered down at 70 proof.   However, I do like the concept of flavoring rum with winter spices.  So what to do but retreat to the laboratory and create my own.    Mistakes were made and I punished myself by drinking them all.   However, progress was steady and and today I think I’ve got a tasty alternative to “store bought”.

SPICED RUM

1 bottle of good gold rum (Bacardi or Goslings)

3” vanilla bean

½ tsp vanilla

1” cinnamon stick

1 point star anise

1 allspice berry

1 small grating nutmeg

Very small piece orange zest

Add the ingredients to the bottle and infuse for one week.   Taste and make any adjustments as necessary.   The finished rum makes for great hot rum drinks and can be served as an after-dinner drink paired with a chocolate dessert.

I’d love to hear about your favorite spiced rum recipe.

Happy Holidays,

Randy Kremlacek

Teledynamic Communications provides free educational materials about telecommunications on an ongoing basis to our subscribers and customers. We are a provider of a complete range of VOIP, telecom and data solutions for business.