|
The closed session notes are attached along with the presentations from the day. Once the feedback is captured this will be added as points are raised.
If you want any further details on any of the presentation material contact us through the web portal and we will arrange. BTS have supplied notes to accompany their power point slides. If you wish to have a copy let us know.
The Aastra session consisted of a short update on changes and announcements and a presentation on the evolution vision and strategy for the portfolio and outline roadmap for 2011/2012. Announcements are described in the Aastra marketing section below.
Comment
The presentation seemed to be aimed at providing vision and strategy collateral to position Aastra as a significant current and future player in communication solution supply; a subject that was subsequently re-visited and discussed in the limited time we had in the closed session. Ideally this is a presentation to the CIO / business management team to build confidence in Aastra technology and its ability to meet your future business needs. Did it achieve that?
Whilst Aastra were not highlighing any current portfolio activities it is reassuring to see a great deal of upgrades being actively executed and planned for this quarter and beyond (Damovo listed some of the projects that have and are in the process of upgrading to Version 4).
Listening to the presentations it was sometimes easy to forget we were talking about voice communications especially given that a large amount of content referred to server/network configuration. It emphasized the point that these elements are critical to any upgrade project success and that the right teams need to be involved and talking to each other to ensure that success is achieved.
Partner given the opportunity to provide the members with a short update:
- Damovo (Platinum Partner) started the update, it was nice to hear that apprentices are continuing to be invested in and that the return is well worth it. Damovo touched on the changing demands on a service partner and the need to have the right skills at the right time to deliver service and support in both today's and tomorrow's changing comms landscape. There have been structural changes introduced to provide better utilisation of customer facing resources in order to meet the challenge of change. Damovo also highlighted they had significant projects completed and in the pipeline for version 4.1 upgrades.
- DV02 highlighted a successful growth year. A small player growing, emphasising a personal approach to service and with some interesting service approaches and small projects touched upon using hosted MX-One platform.
- Weston Group are again a relatively small player but consider themselves more niche and indicate they are continuing to expand outside their predominately north east footprint. No presentation slides available.
- NCS indicate more of their focus is on providing a whole office solution. A small player with a range of historic accounts inherited from Acad/Soneric takeovers.
- telent (Gold Partner) focused on their capabilities as a large scale service provider with a wide range of capabilities within the organisation. They are also are the preferred partner of BT and undertake works on their behalf.
Our first guest presenter was from BTS (John Spanton) highlighting the usage of billing platforms today and the issues/problems they can help businesses with, including fraud. Call logging / billing is a subject that is difficult to raise a lot of enthusiasm for, or so it seemed from the response. The subject of fraud however is a wider subject and seemingly growing with FMC and the emergence of more smart devices link to article ; is this just FUD to encourage more spending on security or a real genuine threat?
We are not sure that from a user perspective the fixed call logging solutions implemented today address the more mobile element, is this is an area that will potentially require some further attention as FMC flourishes?
Extreme networks presented a view of the needs of infrastructure in a converging world. Emphasis is on manageability and ensuring the network infrastructure can cope with the end point demands that will be made. Interestingly he highlights the mobile enterprise (along with all other vendors and suppliers) as a key driver, an IP endpoint barely gets a mention as everyone talks about smart phones, tablets and netbooks. Infrastructure is of course dominated by 'virtualization' and this is also re-emphasized by the analysts. Extreme have a strong portfolio that compares very favourably against its competition. Damovo are one of Extreme's top performing partners and we have some MX-One deployments using Extreme as an overlay network to guarantee server security (details can be provided). That leads on nicely to Damovo's 4.1 experience presentation.
The final presentation from Damovo focused on the experience of 4.1 and also provided recommendations as a result. It was extremely positive to see a strong list of clients upgrading to version 4.1. Clearly Damovo have played a key role to play in the trialing and release in the UK and the scope of the reference system they have deployed does provide an excellent evaluation environment. It was noticeable how much emphasis was placed on the infrastructure being correctly configured. This was almost an extension of the Extreme presentation at times as it described network configuration in some detail. Damovo's experience and expertise with 4.1 does mean the recommendations they put forward are definitely ones to be taken on board.
There was also some interesting alternatives methodologies indicated when it came to upgrading of the servers and also with the switch from DNA to CMG. The BAA Gatwick example was just one example of a pre-planned upgrade with pre-installed servers reducing any downtime to a minimum.
The other element to upgrade which comes into play with version 4.1 is the migration from DNA to CMG and again there are some alternatives in deployment worth exploring with the partner. The case referred to by Damovo was a client on TSW (BC13) had CMG implemented prior to the 4.1 upgrade.
There was a very strong message promoted around workshop/training. Upgrades needed to be planned correctly and the right people engaged to ensure configuration and management of the platform is fully understood. Training should not be seen as an optional extra it needs to be considered an important part of any upgrade activity.
| 
These are the September notes