Thursday, March 29, 2007

What is all the hype about UC?

Microsoft is investing aggressively in a major new initiative called Unified Communications (or UC). The new collection or consolidation of technologies is visible in the Microsoft portfolio of LIve Communications (now Office Communications). UC presents a uniform approach to the communication industry through Exchange 2007 email, video/voice/web conferencing, instant messaging (IM), click to dial from Office products and eventually seamless enterprise communications.

Microsoft is hoping to grab a share of the lucrative $100 billion dollar business communication market. Joining the Microsoft initiative is Nortel Networks. Nortel has forged an alliance with Microsoft to further expand and integrate UC beyond the desktop and throughout the enterprise.

UC is the next step in Voice over IP evolution. The delimiters between network and applications are fading just as IP caused walls between voice and data to collapse and become more interconnected.

Visual Rapport: Time On Call Tracking

Visual Rapport is a truly customizeable middleware solution for handling voice calls. VR can be employed to provide screen pop into any contact management application. VR provides real time interaction and can log data for ring time, hold time, transfer, time on call and call completion. A desktop console provides users with employee status, instant messaging, file transfer and email.

See Visual Rapport.

What is Mobile Advertising?

The integration of more ads - whether in the form of banner ads on mobile content portals, small rotating ads or video inserted into the content is thought to have a huge revenue potential for wireless carriers and advertisers.

AT&T Chairman and CEO Edward Whitacre said recently in the Wall Street Journal that the carrier plans to use its Cingular Wireless service and devices as a platform to launch mobile advertising.

Friday, March 9, 2007

RezStream External Posting Link for Third Party Call Accounting

RezStream Professional users who already own third party call accounting software will need to purchase our External Posting Link if they wish to link their existing call accounting software to RezStream Professional. If you do not already own call accounting software, click on this link to learn more about SHADOW CMS.

The RezStream External Posting Link module transfers third party call accounting software phone charges directly into RezStream Professional. When customers check-out, their phone call charges will be listed on their RezStream Professional invoice. The RezStream External Posting Link will work with most existing call accounting software systems.

Thursday, March 8, 2007

INNUA: Network with All Levels of Telecom Industry Professionals

Nortel professionals from around the globe will be in Tampa, Florida at Global Connect 2007, June 10-13, presented by the International Nortel Networks Users Association (INNUA).
In addition to the countless educational opportunities and informal networking that will occur throughout the conference, INNUA provides you with the following scheduled networking opportunities to connect with other Nortel professionals:

Special Interest Group (SIG) Meetings: Join fellow professionals to discuss industry or application specific-topics. Even if you aren't an INNUA member, we encourage you to attend a SIG meeting so that you can see the benefit first-hand.

First-Timer's Orientation: First time attending Global Connect? Don't worry - this orientation is offered at the beginning of the week. It will help you understand how to make the most of your conference experience. Meet INNUA's leaders, the Conference Planning Committee, and fellow first-time attendees.

Nortel Welcome Reception: To kick-off the conference, Nortel welcomes all Global Connect attendees to attend The Florida Aquarium, home to over 10,000 aquatic plants and animals from 1,340 species from Florida and all over the world. Experience exhibits that transform you to a time when oceans ruled the world! After your Aquarium visit, enjoy drinks, dinner and music while making industry connections with other Nortel users.

Exhibit Hall Opening Reception: Preview the latest products and solutions from over 125 top industry vendors over cocktails and appetizers inside the Exhibit Hall.

Global Connect Party on the Bay: This is one party you won't want to miss. Sponsors of the event will have exclusive areas dedicated to networking and entertaining! Enjoy live music, bowling, billiards, cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, and networking right on the water. Do it all while taking in the amazing views of Tampa and the scenic channel!

Closing Event: End Global Connect 2007 on a high note. Dance to live music, sip on cocktails, dine on delectable food and join new and old friends one last time before you see them again at Global Connect 2008. Every year, this event is a favorite among attendees, bringing new surprises and excitement that you won't want to miss.

Stay tuned, more information about networking opportunities will be available soon.
Don't delay - register today!

Register on or before May 4, 2007 and receive the Early-Bird rate - saving you up to US$180 off the full conference fee. Hotel rooms are going fast. Make your hotel and travel reservations today!

Not an INNUA member?Click here to join the premier user group for Nortel professionals and start taking advantage of the members-only discounted rate to Global Connect!

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

How Can I Get Call Accounting Statistics From My Multi-Vendor Environment?

Resource Software International Ltd. (RSI) has been developing dynamic call accounting and communications management solutions since 1990. We pride ourselves in our experience to consolidate management solutions for customers with a diverse landscape.Our customers include government, education, retail, hospitality, long distance providers and various corporations that purchase their equipment from more than one vendor.

RSI has a broad range of solutions that will generally work with most manufacturer hardware. Connectivity includes traditional remote dial up/serial, HTTP, FTP over IP, ODBC, DCOM, telnet and various other technologies to retrieve the data to a centralize location.

Our powerful translation drivers convert data from various manufactures into a standard database for individual site or multi-site consolidated processing. Therefore customers can have any combination of telephony servers/switches in the field.

Talk to us about your unique requirements.
View a list of our many manufacturer model installations.
Click here for our contact information.

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Growth of IP PBX Sales in 2007

As we compete Q1 of 2007, the data-tracking firms are coming in with a clear picture of 2006. Simply put, 2006 was a good year for the PBX and IP-PBX business.

Here are some hi-lights:

Strong Growth Continues

Lines (now being called seats) grew by 9.7%.

According to new research from industry analyst firm IntelliCom Analytics, North American shipments of Call Control software licenses -- or "seats" -- grew by 9.7% in 2006 over the previous year. This growth in license shipments for the software that enables the features and functionality of Enterprise Communication platforms was driven by broad-based adoption of IP Telephony at a time when traditional TDM systems are increasingly being phased out by vendors.

Between 2005 and 2010, the cumulative growth rate will cross 11%, according to the latest study by Access Market International.

Growth Expected in 2007
In 2007, SMB IP-PBX revenue and shipments will be more than TDM-PBX (including key systems) systems. (Source: IntelliCom Analytics)

OEMs Battle for Share
Nortel, Avaya, and Cisco, accounted for more than half of total 2006 IPT and TDM shipments in North America. (Source:IntelliCom)

Measured by ìseatsî, Nortel, Avaya and Cisco, in that order take the top three positions. NEC put in a strong fourth place showing, followed by Inter-Tel, Mitel, Siemens, Toshiba, Panasonic and Shore-Tel. Keep in mind this is one way to measure. Others include revenue, servers, etc. In 2005, the leading vendors (based on end-user revenue) in the SMB IP-PBX systems were Avaya, Cisco and Nortel. (Source: IntelliCom Analytics). In 2005, the leading vendors (based on end-user revenue) in the SMB PBX (TDM and IP) market were Avaya, Nortel and Alcatel. (Source: IntelliCom Analytics)

Pizza Pie Market
Lest anyone get the impression that one or two of the OEMís ëcompletely dominateí the market, when measured by the seats, no OEM gained a share of ìseatî shipment of more then 20%. In a pizza pie chart, the several vendors would resemble slices where no one slice is above one fifth of the pie.

Our market remains competitive and growing.

Have a great week. Come by and visit Telecom Reseller at Booth 204 at VoiceCon.

Douglas Green, Publisher, Usernews Publications
Newspapers for Enterprise Communication Networks
Email: publisher@usernews.com
Phone- 360-260-9708 Fax- 360-260-9726 Toll Free- 800-667-8965
Visit http://www.telecomreseller.com and http://www.usernews.com

Monday, March 5, 2007

Unified Messaging Using Microsoft Exchange Server 2007

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging relies on an IP/VoIP gateway that can receive incoming calls from a legacy Private Branch eXchange (PBX) or on an IP/PBX that can receive incoming calls and then correctly forward those incoming calls to a Unified Messaging server in your organization.

For more information visit www.microsoft.com

Sunday, March 4, 2007

VoIP for Dummies

This Avaya limited edition of VoIP For Dummies shows how converging your traditional voice and data networks can save money and increase efficiency and productivity throughout your organization ---- just what it takes to remain competitive in today's marketplace.

more...

Saturday, March 3, 2007

Centralized Hosted Communication Management For Your Enterprise

RSI offers complete outsourcing services for remote polling, authorization code billing, charge-back, network planning, traffic analysis, carrier/service comparisons and ad hoc reporting. Many organizations have high overhead costs, staff turnovers and little time for in-house software. These businesses often require accurate telemanagement information to allocate costs and track activity. With our .NET option you select the variety of billing, traffic, exception and diagnostic management reports your organization needs. RSI takes full control of data collection, processing and regular delivery of reports. Our Telecom Specialists can assist you with the planning and management of your telecommunications network.

Rebilling services are available for small entrepreneurs that would like to provide invoices to their customers.

Our unique IP buffers allow us to collect data from anywhere on the globe seamlessly and inexpensively

Contact us for a quote

Friday, March 2, 2007

North American Numbering Plan (NANP)

The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) governs the managment of telephone numbers for the Public Switched Telephone Networks in North America (Canada, USA, Carribean, and territories) within the international country code prefix '+1'.

North American phone numbers are in the format (where N is any digit from 2-9, and X from 0-9):

NPA-NXX-XXXX

Specifically:

NPA identifies the 3-digit Numbering Plan Area (Area Code)
NXX identifies the Central Office (aka. Exchange) within the NPA
XXXX identifies the Station within the NXX

In NPAs that do not require overlay facilities numbers of the form NXX-XXXX are colloquially refered to as local and numbers of the form 1-NPA-NXX-XXXX are known as long distance. In certain NPAs, particularly large urban areas, the maximum number of available NXX and Station code combinations has been reached, requiring additional non-toll NPA's to be assigned - these are known as overlay facilites and their presence is generally reflected by 'local' numbers taking on the form NPA-NXX-XXXX and 'long distance' the form 1-NPA-NXX-XXXX. The NANPA maintains historical assignments statistics on Station and Exchange code use within each NPA and periodically issues exhaustion projections (eg. http://www.nanpa.com/pdf/NRUF/2006-2NPA_Exhaust_Projections.pdf) which are used to advertise and plan network structure changes.

Unlike many countries calls between the majority of local stations in the United States and Canada are toll-free, with only long distance calls incuring a toll charge. The requirement for prefixing a leading 1 to place a toll call is known as requiring toll alerting. The need for toll alerting varies from NPA to NPA however it is universally active in Canada and implemented for most other jurisdictions in the NANP.

The official managment website for the NANP is http://www.nanpa.com

RSI Shadow CMS makes full use of the NANP coordinate system to accurately pinpoint mileage and location names.

Thursday, March 1, 2007

Use Call Accounting to Calculate Dropped Calls using Erlang B

Erlang-B is a formula derived from the Erlang distribution to describe the propability of call loss on a group of circuits or trunks. The formula is used in planning telephone networks. The formula was derived by Agner Krarup Erlang.

The formula applies under the condition that an unsuccesful call, because the line is busy, is not queued or retried, but instead really lost forever. It is assumed that call attempts arrive following a poisson distribution. Further it is assumed that call arrivals are independent, and message length (holding times) are exponentially distributed (Markovian system) although the formula turns out to apply under general holding time distributions.

The formula provides the GoS (grade of service) which is the propability that a new call arriving at the circuit group is rejected because all circuits are busy.

From wikipedia


Erlang B calculation is available as part of Shadow CMS. Contact RSI for details.