Lippis and Kerravala Cisco’s Webex Purchase & VoiceCon
Mar 19, 2007 by Nick Lippis 
Zeus Kerravala, SVP of Yankee Group’s Enterprise Research and Consulting and I provide another layer of analysis to the Networked Business Platform. We discuss the changed role of networking within IT and provide solid examples of why it’s the network that’s the business platform and not an OS or piece of software. We discuss Cisco’s acquisition of WebEx, Five Across and Utah Street Networks and their significance. We voice our disappointment with VoiceCon too. The folks defining the conference are too rooted in legacy telecommunications and don’t get the new era the industry has entered. One indicator was that the buzz on the exhibit floor and conference content were disconnected. Either CMP should shake up the VoiceCon staff or the industry needs a new venue. Enjoy it’s a good one.
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2008: 16 million Iphones will ship, representing nearly 10% of total expected smartphone shipments replacing Palm OS 
March 19th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
We’ll see what happens, could be another counter offer by one of the major applications players. Webex Conferencing, has grown quite a user base, will be interesting to see what changes Cisco will want to implement, if any?
April 3rd, 2007 at 8:40 am
I made a similar comment about VoiceCon in my Unified-View column, pointing out that the interests of enterprise text messaging (email, IM, SMS, etc.)was not represented in the unified communications program.
However, even though the IP network will be the new foundation for information access and people contacts, that doesn’t mean that the applications will be controlled by the network technology providers. That didn’t happen with the PSTN and won’t happen with Internet either!
April 3rd, 2007 at 9:21 am
Zeus, your comments about VoiceCon are incredulous. If you want to talk about disconnect between exhibits and conference content, then address the message to the right audience, i.e. the exhibitors and sponsors.
The VoiceCon Spring 2007 general sessions and breakouts were more heavily attended than ever, and the general session presenters and breakout panelists, with the exception of Shell and Merrill Lynch, were from the same companies that were exhibiting on the show floor. If there was a disconnect, then either each company’s exhibitors and presenters were out of synch with each other or the suppliers are out of touch with the customers.
So, perhaps some follow-on comments with constructive commentary and advice to the suppliers and sponsors would be appropriate?
April 4th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Hi, again. My earlier post was based on the Lippis article in print above. I’ve now listened to the Podcast and find that I agree with Zeus when he says that the buzz on the show floor was about Microsoft, IBM, Communication Enabled Business and software-based applications, and less about IP PBXs. Many of the panels in the Unified Communications track included one or both of IBM and Microsoft and focused on “communications integrated to optimize business processes.” As always, feedback and dialog are helpful to the industry.