VoiceCon celebrates VoIP and IP telephony

Earlier this month, we had the chance to attend VoiceCon Spring 2006 in Orlando. Not a bad wintertime assignment if we do say so! This year’s spring event was the largest in VoiceCon’s 16-year history with 120 exhibitors and over 5,000 attendees. While the weather was merely warm, the business climate inside was hot. Featured speakers included Avaya Chairman and CEO Don Peterson and Cisco President and CEO John Chambers. And although it’s always good to hear what the leading IP telephony suppliers are saying, real-live customers also presented their successes with VoIP and IP telephony.

Earlier this month, Larry had the chance to attend VoiceCon Spring 2006 in Orlando. Not a bad wintertime assignment! This year’s spring event was the largest in VoiceCon’s 16-year history with 120 exhibitors and over 5,000 attendees. While the weather was merely warm, the business climate inside was hot. Featured speakers included Avaya Chairman and CEO Don Peterson and Cisco President and CEO John Chambers. And although it’s always good to hear what the leading IP telephony suppliers are saying, real-live customers also presented their successes with VoIP and IP telephony.

Today, we offer some observations about the show, which we also think reflect a microcosm of what is happening in the real world.

* Over 85 % of paid attendees had already bought or were in a position to buy or influence IP telephony systems, according to show organizers. Name badges reflected attendance from large enterprises and well-recognized government organizations. For a North American show, the mix of attendees reflected international attention.

* VoIP is past being a “done deal.” It’s not a question of if but when and has moved beyond the early adopter to early majority stage.

* Unified messaging, unified communications, and presence are clearly part of the IP telephony “tool kit” and used by the enterprise when calculating return on investment for IP telephony systems.

* Businesses are starting to look at how they can change their business process to take advantage of IP telephony – and they aren’t afraid to change how they do business if the IP telephony tool kit can offer better productivity or customer service.

* Integration with Microsoft’s Live Communications Server (LCS) and Office Communicator are now becoming standard in IP telephony systems.

* The next major wave of business productivity improvements can come as businesses learn to use built-in IP contact center capabilities across the enterprise (and not just in the contact center). These are being added or enhanced in nearly every IP-PBX we saw demonstrated. The show’s sessions on IP contact centers overflowed into the hallways and looked like a religious revival.

* The next big technology trend will come from user-friendly tools that provide IP telephony specific management and security – judging from the number of new exhibitors that were lined the sidelines in the exhibit hall.

Next time, we’ll highlight a few of the suppliers’ announcements coming out of the event-including who won the “best of show” awards.

* For Network World’s complete VoiceCon coverage, including keynotes by Chambers and Peterson, go here.