Every successful tech project I’ve ever worked on starts with an assessment to get the lay of the land in order to develop an effective plan of attack.  In this insight-filled interview with Joe Arena, the Senior Vice President of Advanced Services at video managed service provider Yorktel, we dig into what a video communications assessment project looks like, the components businesses should take into consideration when performing an assessment and how to take remote workers and external stakeholders into consideration when planning your approach.

We also discuss the components, such as networking, user experience, conference room upgrade path and software consolidation that are a part of most video execution projects.

Don't forget to subscribe to our podcasts at iTunes (they're great for the drive to work!) and stick with The UC Buyer for on-going insights into the way the communications and collaboration landscape is evolving. 

Listen to this fascinating discussion with Chip Pickering, CEO of INCOMPAS (formerly COMPTEL), the industry association representing communications and technology companies large and small, advocating for laws and policies that promote competition, innovation and economic development.  We discuss how the association has evolved to stay relevant in this hyper-evolving communications landscape, the way new technologies and business models are impacting the financial landscape for traditional networks and carriers, and how content providers like Twitter, Facebook and Amazon are participating and playing a role in growing the marketplace and promoting competition.

We also dig into the legislative and regulatory activities the association is focused on and what is happening within the FCC and Congress that is impacting the communications and internet industries.  If you are interested in where the marketplace is headed and what the playing field looks like, this podcast is a must listen.  If you want to learn more and get involved with INCOMPAS, register for their upcoming event in Washington, D.C. from April 10 - 13.

My thanks to Chip for his time and insights.

Deskphones have proved to be remarkably resilient in the face of a rapidly changing communication and collaboration revolution.  We dig into the reasons why in this informative podcast featuring Tom Ostrander, the president of sales for the Americas at Snom.  

Topics we cover include the trends that are putting the most pressure on deskphones, how deskphones are adapting and adding functionality to add value in a unified communications landscape, and the role that deskphones play for the rapidly growing remote / at-home workforce.

Multiple studies claim that remote workers may make up close to 50% of the workforce within a five years, and few areas have been impacted by the rise of remote workers more than the contact center. In this podcast interview with Mayur Anadkat, the VP of Product Marketing at Five9, we dig into how quickly this trend is accelerating, the challenges that workers and managers need to overcome, and the technology required to ensure remote agents are successful, among other topics. 

Multi-national businesses need to know the lay of the land and plan effectively to navigate the regulatory and technological hurdles associated with deploying SIP trunking globally.  Those are some of the takeaways from my discussion with Brian Harrington, Associate Vice President and Product Manager for Tata Communications Global SIP Connect product line.  If you are considering taking SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) on the road internationally, this is a must-listen interview.  Check it out!

Communications technology has been an enabler of two significant trends. The rise of the remote, mobile and home worker and the reduction in the amount of office space that businesses require.  These smaller offices are quickly being redesigned to take advantage of open floor plans to increase collaboration and in-office communications. These open offices have many benefits, but the resultant reduced privacy can negatively impact employees' ability to do heads-down work and stay on task.  In this podcast interview with Mitch Friend, president of Plenom, the maker of the BusyLight and other 'presence management' related technology, we discuss these trends, where they're headed and how businesses are helping employees adapt to these new realities.

Only 20% of U.S. businesses were using SIP Trunking (session initiation protocol) for their communications in 2014, but 75% of businesses interviewed claimed they were planning on implementing it by the end of 2016.  Whoa.  Check out this handy infographic for more SIP market details.

In this informative conversation with Steven Johnson, North American president of InGate Systems, we discuss the basics of SIP Trunking and what businesses need to know to implement SIP effectively.  If you are considering migrating to SIP, this is a must listen.

In this informative podcast with Daryl Hutchings, the CEO of Collaboration Squared and maker of Ubeity, we discuss the state of video in corporate collaboration and how making all devices and video platforms play nice together finally means we are seeing businesses adopt a 'video first' corporate culture.  What does interoperability mean, how can it change how companies communicate and what how can it help outfit small conference and huddle rooms?  Listen to the podcast now to find out.

Communications was always as separate from business applications as the phone on your desk was from your computer.  Now, developers are embedding communication functionality like voice, video and text, directly into applications to take customer interactions - and satisfaction - to a whole new level. 

Listen to this podcast with Manav Khurana from Twilio as we discuss the benefits of embedding communications into business apps.  We review their approach, their platform and the back end infrastructure that has convinced 750,000 developers to join their community.  

In this informative podcast with Shawn Coyle, VP of Sales at ANPI, learn about how small and medium businesses are looking at Unified Communications, VoIP and Hosted PBX.  What is driving them to invest, what concerns do they need to address and how can they leverage best practices to increase adoption so they realize the business benefits of this technology.

Listen to this informative podcast featuring Urban Gillis, the VP of Sales for headset maker Jabra, as we discuss how evolving communications technology, mobility and the move towards open office spaces is changing corporate culture.  What does it mean to be part of a team when most of the people you work with aren't in the same building?

In this episode we're talking wireless and mobility and what that means to the Wifi backbone we all take for granted as we wander all over our offices or workplace campuses on whatever devices we have handy.   I’m pleased to be joined by Christian Gilby, the Director of Product Marketing at Aruba Networks. Aruba has been a market leader on the cutting edge of wireless networking for years and this May they were acquired by HP. Take a listen to learn how companies need to adapt their wireless backbone to support enhance communications and collaboration going over Wifi.

In this podcast, we dig into how medium and larger businesses are leveraging UC and the role the cloud plays in their plans. I’m joined by Henry Dewing a Strategic Marketing Executive and Senior Evangelist at Avaya to get his take on how the marketplace is evolving and how Avaya is helping customers migrate from legacy systems to more integrated UC-driven solutions to increase productivity and engagement.

An interview with Jupiter Systems about how video streams, sensor data and other operational are making their way into collaborative environments so teams can act and react more effectively.  

An interview with Kevin Gulley, editor of The UC Buyer and Jeff Platon, CMO of Interactive Intelligence about the trends driving WebRTC to the forefront of Unified Communications discussions.