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Internet Telecom Expo 2000 - held September 21-23 at New York's Javits Convention Center - was a mind-blower: the first industry event we've seen where infrastructure products, core tech, higher order apps, and ASP services cooperated to present a meaningful picture of Converging Communications.
Internet Telecom Expo 2000 was a study in contrasts. Part of the show was definitely keyed to uber-geeks: developer tools, FR pizza boxes, media processing boards, gateways, `component ASP services.' But these core-technology folks happily rubbed elbows with CRM providers, voice-driven auto attendant makers, voice portal and unified messaging ASPs, UnPBX makers, and WAPifyyour-Outlook-PIM-platform makers. And nobody seemed to mind!
Why not? Because in converging communications, convergence actually works - services conjoin with platforms conjoin with CPE in a single continuum of value. At Internet Telecom, it made sense to stop at CRM provider Telephony@Work's booth, to see the industry's hottest emailrouting UI, and then proceed to Tundo's booth, to chat about how T @ W's ASP solution deploys against Tundo's Boundless PBX infrastructure. It made sense to stop at Artisoft's booth, and hear all about TeleVantage - the industry's leading UnPBX - then mosey over to MusicTele.com's booth, to learn how their UAPI and port/media processing hardware lets you build TeleVantage turnkey systems that hit "plain old key system" price points, and help dealers earn decent margins.
That's the secret: it's all connected! In convergence-space, no manufacturer or service provider stands alone. All exist in a continuum of explicit or implicit partnerships with other providers, whose products, services, and expertise are required to present buyers with complete solutions. That much is obvious - what's seldom been qualified, however, is that even individual manufacturers aren't monolithic entities. The developer, the engineer, the product manager, the marketing person, the channel-marketing expert, the visionary CEO - all relate to the world outside on different frequencies, and have differing (though related) needs for information, relationship-building opportunities, etc.
At the same time, no (sane) buyer puts one person in charge as new-tech Czar. All buying decisions are vetted up and down the corporate ladder: from CEO to CIO to IT specialist to telecom specialist to customer contact specialist to call center supervisor; all of whom come to the buying process with different kinds of expertise,...