Atlanta Panel

Thanks to Chris Gatch’s invite, John Wang and I visited Cbeyond and participated in the ATP panel organized by Chris. I was very impressed with Cbeyond’s SIP trunking progress. I also enjoyed very much meeting with other panelists including Jennifer Blatnik of Cisco, Mark Spencer of Digium, and Frank Grillo of Cypress.

 

The panel members each talked for 15 minutes with an open Q&A session at the end. My talk covered PBX as a software application. Microsoft Response Point and Office Communications Server form a comprehensive strategy for Microsoft to serve customers from small businesses to large enterprises. I discussed the change that has already started: turning the vertical PBX industry into a horizontal one very much like what PC did to mini-computers. Software plays a critical role in the vertical to horizontal shift - to improve productivity, to enable more innovative solutions, to give more choices to customers, and to reduce TCO.

The distinctiveness of our vision is that software delivers a pervasive set of collaboration capabilities based on people-centric approach. We no longer send e-mails based on IP addresses. Why do we still call people using a phone number? RP’s magic button enables people to simply press and talk to communicate. RP’s “ease of use” is only the beginning of the journey. The key challenge for all of us is we must put simplicity in the center for our design as well as everything we do.

In the panel, Mark Spencer made the point that Microsoft and Response Point would be a major competitor for Asterisk. While we disagreed on many things, I thought his comment was the best compliment on our innovative work J