It was two years ago that I learned about ICMI’s annual ACCE conference and decided to attend the event in New Orleans. It was a refreshing experience — not too crowded, less technology propaganda, more business-oriented sessions, and a decent international flare. Since then I made up my mind to make an annual trek to ACCE, but alas I had to miss it in 2011.

I was glad to be able to go this year and got to also visit Seattle for the first time.

First of all, what a beautiful city. How do you Seattle residents get any work done?! The bustling downtown, the cool bay, the lush mountains, and whenever the sun decides to break through the clouds — the city unveils another dimension of herself to the world, sometimes unknown and unseen even to a native dweller. Starbucks started in this town (the original store is in Pike Place Market), but there are plenty of other notable coffee shops everywhere. Seattle runs on coffee.

Many well known corporations also have headquarters in Seattle and its surrounding area: Amazon.com, Clearwire, Costco, Cray, Expedia, Microsoft, Nintendo of America, Nordstrom, RealNetworks, T-Mobile USA, and Zillow.com… These are just some of the diverse companies based around town.

Okay, enough city envy. What about ACCE?

‘Social’ is here, yet so far away

As with any other conference related to contact centers and customer service, the topic of social media continued to crop up. It was part of a keynote, there were multiple sessions about it, and ICMI encouraged attendees to tweet with the official hashtag #ACCE12. Too bad not many attendees were Twitter-savvy (or intentionally avoid it?), but at least a good number of exhibitors kept an eye on the tweet stream and stayed engaged throughout the event.

Most contact center managers or directors in attendance had social media on their radars. However, many stayed on the poolside still afraid to jump into the water. Either they didn’t know how to swim (how do I use social media?) or they didn’t have a floatation device (what resources do I need to prepare for it?).

Incorporating social media into the contact center is indeed a tricky proposition. In fact, sometimes it could even become a distraction or a trap. Adopting this channel into the contact center definitely requires the same considerations and planning as implementing other channels, like chat and email.

It’s probably a good thing that the majority of people are taking a cautious approach to social media, and not letting vendors any opportunity to stuff it down their throats amid the hype.

People and processes first

We all love cool contact center technologies, but it’s the agents — the people — in the centers who interface with customers. It’s also the processes they follow to serve customers’ needs.

Most often than not the customer could care less about your IVR platform, routing design, and multichannel capabilities. No technology can erase an unpleasant interaction with an agent. (Well, unless somebody invents the memory eraser gadget in Men In Black.) Eight-six percent of consumers will ditch you after just one unpleasant experience (Source: Harris Interactive, Customer Experience Impact Report).

Which is harder: running a small center or a large one?

The Small Call Center Summit was held on the last day of ACCE. It was an opportunity to hear about the pros and cons of managing and operating a small contact center. In attendance were folks who run centers varying from five agents to 50 agents. The challenges of managing a small center may not be unique, but they seem more dire in nature due to the small size and constant struggle for more resources.

Just think: in a contact center with 10 agents, if only two are absent then you’re faced with a 20% reduction in workforce. That spells certain disaster for the day’s service level…

But obviously it’s not easy running a center with 1,000 seats, either. Which do you think is harder?

This blog post is sponsored by the CIO Collaboration Network and Avaya.

Believe it or not, video communications systems have been around for a long time. And ever since the invention of the telephone, people have conjured up ideas of merging pictures with voices. Obviously there were many technological obstacles to overcome back then, but our desire to see a face along with hearing a voice has never diminished.

Here in the United States, the AT&T Picturephone debuted in the 1960s and the company installed its first commercial videophone booths in New York, Washington, D.C, and Chicago, in 1964. Some tech firms also put in Picturephones in its offices, but the cost of buying and using the service really limited its adoption.

AT&T would try again in the 1990s with the color VideoPhone 2500. Here’s somebody showing off this wonderful piece of 1990s tech:

The first thing that came to mind? It sure looks a lot like some of today’s videophones…

But I digress. Fast forward through the PC revolution and the mobile revolution. Instead of being tied to our desk phones at work, we can now work anywhere at any time, thanks to our laptops, tablets, and smartphones. And because of this, effective collaboration has become a challenge in the corporate world, hence the push for UC&C, or Unified Communications & Collaboration.

Email and voice communications are ubiquitous. I dare say that instant messaging (IM) is near ubiquity as well among enterprises. But those are no longer money makers for vendors. The next holy grail is video collaboration. What’s not to like about selling video services? Be it videoconferencing or video collaboration, it usually means more bandwidth and more equipment (minimally, a webcam is required, no?).

(So don’t be surprised to see flashing dollar signs from the eyes of your AT&T, Avaya, Cisco, Google, LifeSize, Polycom, Sprint, Verizon, or Vidyo salesperson.)

However, think back to your last video interaction experience… Was it at work in a videoconference session, or was it at home in a videochat with a friend or relative far away? Does your company issued PC/laptop even come with a webcam, or if it does, is it enabled? (Surprisingly, my company laptop is actually cam-less.)

Look at your tween or teenage children, too. What the first thing they do after logging into the computer? It’s probably not email. It’s probably Skype, iChat, ooVoo, Tinychat, Google Hangout, or something similar. They may just be chatting away, but they could be discussing classwork as well. But they’re comfortable using it — it’s like second nature.

It’s a cultural thing. Have you seen the video collaboration demos given by baby boomer CXOs on stage at some industry conferences? Kind of awkward at times, eh? Here’s a use case, let’s see the workflow, bask in the glow of higher productivity, thumbs up. Audience members lose interest and start checking their emails and IMs.

It’s a cultural thing. The audience absolutely knows the benefits of video collaboration, but they don’t prefer it during work. They’re dressed in t-shirts and shorts because they telework; but their office worker counterparts are in suits. The corporate VPN cannot handle video. IT calls whenever there’s a video-capable application installed on the company computer. Nobody else uses it.

It’s a cultural thing. The sales pitch should be that in the near future, the Millenials, the generation of young digital wizards who are the de facto family IT helpdesk, will enter the workforce. They would love video collaboration during work. In fact, they may ask you, the interviewer, what the corporate standard videochat app is. And if the answer is, Sorry, your laptop won’t come with a webcam, then it’s time get used to rejection. By somebody that’s your kid’s age.

UPDATE: Recent research shows that as much as 40% of teens videochat with their friends regularly.

This blog post is sponsored by the CIO Collaboration Network and Avaya.

CRN reports more executive departures at Avaya:

• Dr. Alan Baratz, SVP of corporate development
• Mohamad Ali, SVP and president, Avaya Global Services
• David Downing, VP of worldwide technical operations
• (Unconfirmed) Daniel Berg, VP of research and development

They continue an exodus that started two years ago:

Executive turnover has been relentless at Avaya over the past two years. Major exits from the last 12 months included Jeremy Butt, former vice president, worldwide channels and now heading Westcon EMEA, Carol Giles Neslund, former vice president, U.S. channels, and now at Enphase Energy, Andrew Shepperd, managing director of Avaya’s U.K. and Ireland businesses, Isabelle Guis, former Avaya general manager, Enterprise Communications Business and now at Big Switch Networks, and Martin Ingram, vice president of global critical accounts and services engineering, and now senior vice president and CIO at Arise Virtual Solutions.

A number of former Avaya sales, channel and marketing executives, including Nancy Maluso, former vice president of unified communications product marketing at Avaya, and Peter Polizzi, former senior director of worldwide channel technical sales, have also joined former Avaya global sales boss Todd Abbott at Sonus Networks.

Now that’s a lot of directors, VPs, and SVPs that have left the company. At a time when Avaya’s waiting to IPO and announced a major acquisition (well, since Nortel)…

Cause for concern? You be the judge…

Genesys’ annual G-Force conference is akin to the SuperBowl of CTI in terms of planning, coordination, and publicity. Also, the company holds three G-Forces each year: in the Americas, APAC, and EMEA. For 2012 the venues are in Seattle, Sydney, and Barcelona, respectively.

G-Force Seattle 2012 marks the first G-Force since Genesys’ separation from Alcatel-Lucent. In terms of sponsorship, Echopass stood out as the sole premium sponsor — this is like paying millions for a commercial during SuperBowl. I anticipate Echopass making more waves throughout the year in the Genesys ecosystem. Also notable are the two special sponsors: BearPaw (a past sponsor) and ethosIQ. Both are relatively small integrators, and being able to get on the G-Force sponsorship page is always a plus.

As with any G-Force coverage, most folks are interested in the exciting new products and customer stories. What…? No? You want to learn more about the parties first? Well then, here are some tweeted photos (BTW, official event hashtag is #GForceAmer)…

Is this motley crew the heroes that will save the world from bad #custserv @Genesyslab #GForceAmer twitter.com/Genesyslab/sta…

— Genesys (@Genesyslab) April 19, 2012

Grooving and celebrating #custserv at #GForceAmer Party w/customers & partners. @Genesyslab twitter.com/Genesyslab/sta…

— Genesys (@Genesyslab) April 19, 2012

Yes. This is the @genesyslab CMO at #gforceamer customer party. #IamSoFired twitter.com/Genesyslab/sta…

— Genesys (@Genesyslab) April 19, 2012

Genesys G-Force party just getting started party people in the house #gforceamer twitter.com/customerkings/…

— Rene Reyes (@customerkings) April 19, 2012

Dancing on the bar is not unusual for LATAM @Genesyslab #GForceamer twitter.com/LRAbbott/statu…

— Lisa Abbott (@LRAbbott) April 20, 2012

Thor is saving the world from bad #CustServ#GForceamer at the LATAm party @Genesyslabtwitter.com/LRAbbott/statu…

— Lisa Abbott (@LRAbbott) April 20, 2012

The two biggest takeaways from G-Force Seattle are: mobile and SIP (again).

Genesys is staying on top of its game with the introduction of Genesys Mobile Engagement, a set of development tools and APIs that enable mobile apps to integrate with Genesys software. This is the fruit of the company’s Mobile Customer Engagement strategy unveiled during last year’s G-Force Melbourne (Australia). The featured customer in mobile engagement was American Airlines, and a company representative took to the stage to tout AA’s mobile app and customer service efforts.

However, if you look at the user reviews and rating of American Airline’s iOS app, it seems to paint a very different picture. A glimpse of recent user reviews of its updated app includes titles like “It just doesn’t work” and “Had to delete it” and “No customer service.”

The “mobile” is there, let’s hope the “engagement” follows…

The other significant announcement was that Genesys SIP Server now outsells TServers. Getting on the SIP bandwagon was probably one of the best initiatives from Genesys.

So Genesys continues to keep up with the trends in SIP and mobile technologies without losing sight of enhancing customer service for its customers. As always, it’ll be interesting to see how its customers implement the tools Genesys provides…

This blog post is sponsored by the CIO Collaboration Network and Avaya.

When in the course of business events, it becomes necessary for workers to enhance the collaborative experience which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the enterprise, the separate and equal station to which the Corporate IT Policies and of policies’ executive entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of employees requires that they should declare the cause which impel them to BYOD.

Like it or not, advancement of consumer mobile technology has outpaced IT organizational processes, especially for large enterprises or even medium enterprises. The traditional IT organization has always enjoyed being the gatekeeper or key holder, where it recommends and approves anything from laptops to operating systems to productivity software that employees must use in their daily work. Anyone caught circumventing IT’s authority faces possible harassment, usually in the form of constant pop-up warning messages or incessant automatically generated emails. Or an unpleasant phone call from the IT director.

Today employees are bringing their own Androids and iPhones and tablets to the workplace. It’s an unstoppable phenomenon for two reasons:

• We’re deeply tied to these personal mobile devices because they enable us to better communicate, stay entertained, and easily capture notable life moments
• Thanks to technology the line between work and personal life has blurred considerably

Such employees do not mean to become a corporate headache to IT. On the contrary they’re probably more productive with these personal devices by their side.

There’s a reason why Androids and iPhones have gained on BlackBerrys among corporations. More apps, more features, more friendly UI for the digitally savvy worker of today. Mobile collaboration has evolved from the era of BlackBerry anytime, anywhere emails to Android/iOS apps that offer unified communication in IM, VoIP, and even videoconferencing.

IT’s role ought to be enabling more seamless mobile collaboration among the various devices. Don’t mind the devices as much but rather put together the infrastructure and adequate policies that’ll make employees even more productive wherever they are with whatever they are using.

Workers want their independence when it comes to collaboration. Instead of battling them on this front IT should ride the wave and be an integral part of empowering employees and boosting overall productivity.

This blog post is sponsored by the CIO Collaboration Network and Avaya.

In recent months rumors were flying around about Avaya beefing up its video business with an acquisition — Israeli-based RADVISION being the target. The acquisition chatter reached a peak on Wednesday, March 14, when Globes published an article about an imminent offer from Avaya.

Industry analyst Dave Michels at TalkingPointz blogged about a theorized marriage between the two companies back in December 2011:

So, I think this all makes sense. The industry is embracing/accepting/requiring video, Avaya needs a video partner, and Radvision has some good tech and (was at) a low price. So no one should be surprised. Nice theory.

I was discouraged by the rumors back then. Now the rumor proved to be true, I’m still uneasy about the deal…

We all know why Avaya shelled out the money for RADVISION. Video is taking off, Avaya’s video portfolio is weak, Cisco had bought TANDBERG, blah blah blah. But is this deal a vision or a delusion? Is the acquisition rad or bad?

I think it’s all about the timing… Avaya had filed IPO papers to go public in April, a time that’s fast approaching. The buzz about its finances and IPO has taken a dive recently with reports of its poor financial health and its IPO being “remarkably dangerous” as analyzed by The Motley Fool:

1. Avaya is still unprofitable. Though net losses narrowed to $26 million from $180 million in last year’s fourth quarter, history doesn’t give much reason for optimism. Earnings have run consistently negative since 2007. Revenue is up 5.5% over that period.

2. The business is structurally weak. Avaya has one of the worst balance sheets you’ll see for a tech company. Liabilities are now 128% of assets, meaning Avaya owes more than it has in assets for funding growth. But the ratio is actually worse than that if you exclude the 74% of assets related to intangibles and goodwill.

3. Cash isn’t flowing. After several years of shrinking cash flows, Avaya burned through $300 million in fiscal 2011 to keep the lights on. That number fell to a better-but-still-awful $223 million through the 12 months ended in December.

We don’t yet know what valuation Avaya would seek, but it couldn’t possibly be cheap given reported aims to raise $1 billion in fresh capital. Peer Cisco is valued at roughly $108 billion, and Avaya is second only to Cisco in selling telecom gear. I can’t imagine this company coming public at a reasonable price.

If there’s one thing private equity hates to read about before an IPO it’s news that instills FUD into the hearts of potential investors. So PE puts up cash — not too much, just enough to counter the negative publicity, and in this case, about $230 million. A buyout that definitely makes sense, but more importantly, a move that aims to wipe out the forlorn gaze of the IPO investors.

Also, notice that the deal closed in cold, hard cash. Hmmm, trying to prove something?

Why wait till now to pull the trigger? If the goal of the IPO is to raise $1 billion, why not spend the $230 million on RADVISION after getting the $1 billion in cash? Is the Avaya board telling us that RADVISION at $11.85 per share was such a steal that it was too good to pass up immediately?

I can already sense some bumps on this road… The RADVISION press release sees the deal as a “merger” yet Avaya clearly views this as an “acquisition“:

RADVISION: It's a merger!

Avaya: No, an acquisition!

Find a comfortable seat and grab some popcorn, the Avaya story is about to become even more intriguing…

A few days ago (yes, I know I’m behind on blogging) Aspect announced a partnership with Dell Services to push further Microsoft’s unified communications offering in the enterprise and in the contact center. This, of course, means that anytime you buy Aspect contact center software or Dell servers, you may be presented with a sweet deal on Microsoft Lync, too.

Honestly, I don’t know why this partnership took so long to materialize considering Microsoft’s money backs Aspect and Dell has always been close to Microsoft. Lync has been getting lots of positive reviews, especially now there are official Lync clients for various mobile platforms, rounding out its features as a true “anywhere, anytime” UC solution.

Microsoft’s goal is to put its software on everything in your enterprise. Servers? Check. Desktops? Check. Databases? Check. PBXs and ACDs? Hmmm, those are eyesores to the Redmond giant, and it cannot wait to get rid of them. With software, of course! Lync to be the core of enterprise communications, and Aspect software to ensure the contact center doesn’t miss a beat sitting on top of Lync.

The alliance between these three companies will make Lync even more formidable in the competitive UC landscape. Many other major UC vendors dipped their hands in unified communications out of necessity, to offer something more because CIOs were balking at the cost of their hardware (which are, more often than not, the size of a refrigerator). Their gears are often hidden in mysterious closets and in humming switch rooms. One advantage that Microsoft has is that its products are highly visible already, and workers cannot function during the day without them.

And that’s the vision Microsoft has for Lync.

Press release from Aspect:

CHEMLSFORD, Mass., 23 February 2012 —Aspect, a leading provider of customer contact and Microsoft platform solutions, today announced a go-to-market relationship with Dell Services to deliver Microsoft-based Unified Communications solutions for the contact center and across the enterprise.

Many large organizations view contact centers as a primary customer engagement point and increasingly as a revenue generation engine. However outdated telephony infrastructures or poorly connected contact centers can result in missed or dropped calls and negatively impact customer service. This can result in missed sales opportunities and potential damage to a company’s brand.

The Aspect-Dell relationship provides customers the technology, services and contact center expertise to deliver dynamic and effective customer interaction solutions from a single source. The relationship also gives customers the flexibility and scalability to tailor their private branch exchange (PBX) and contact center solution to best fit their needs.

Golfbreaks.com, Europe’s leading golf tour operator, is implementing a Microsoft-based unified communications solution including a full multimedia contact center infrastructure to replace its aging PBX platform. When their telephony platform could no longer keep up with the service demands of its customers, the company sought out a contact center solution built upon an open, capable and affordable software platform delivered by Dell and Aspect.

“With more customers than ever booking with us, we required a way to meet the challenge without increasing headcount, and to do more with less,” comments Steve Hemsworth, Managing Director at Golfbreaks.com. “Our customer service is why people keep coming back to us, but as demand increased, the lack of channel integration was putting a strain on our agents and systems, increasing administration time. Customer preferences for the way they contact us are changing, as are the times at which they choose to contact us. We have already extended our opening hours by more than 30%, hopefully the new support for SMS and email – as well as integration with our CRM system – will make booking with us easier and quicker than ever.”

“With more than eight million available seats across the globe, unified communications in the contact center is a growing and untapped market opportunity,” said Mike Sheridan, executive vice president of worldwide sales, Aspect. “Aspect’s relationship with Dell will provide our customers with a truly comprehensive Microsoft Lync-based Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C) solution.”

“Our relationship with Aspect will allow customers worldwide to acquire end-to-end next-generation unified communications solutions incorporating hardware, software, services and support from a single vendor,” said Kevin Jones, vice president and managing director, Infrastructure and Cloud Computing for Dell Services. “We believe customers that share our joint vision of a software-powered communications ecosystem will find great value in this.”

Aspect solutions are available immediately as part of Dell’s Unified Communications portfolio world-wide. For more information, visit www.aspect.com and www.dell.com/unified.

About Aspect

Aspect builds customer company relationships through a combination of customer contact software and Microsoft platform solutions. For more information, visitwww.aspect.com.

Follow Aspect on Twitter at @AspectUC. Read our blogs at http://blogs.aspect.com.

#  #  #

Aspect, Unified IP and Aspect Software are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Aspect Software, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.For more information, please contact:
Tim Dreyer
Aspect
Tel: 630 227 8312
Email: tim.dreyer@aspect.com

Today Genesys — now part of the Permira portfolio — announced five new board members. Out of the five, only one (CEO Paul Segre) is the “non-banker,” the rest are partners of private equity outfits.

According to the press release, Genesys will be “into its next phase of growth” post Alcatel-Lucent.

Let’s see… A new board fortified with experienced PE execs and listing “growth” as a goal? Hmmm, what’s Genesys up to…?

It’s not uncommon for the PE mothership to start consolidating its existing portfolio or go on a shopping spree to accessorize a star acquisition. Many of you in the industry have seen or lived through it before, just as I have. PE firms make moves to get an ROI, to make a star even more attractive. Obviously Permira thinks Genesys has what it takes to be a celebrity.

Speaking of celebrities… That must be how some industry analysts feel as they attend the 2012 Genesys Industry Analysts Conference in San Francisco (#giacsf12 in tweetspeak). The conference began on Wednesday, Feb. 22, and I’ve always enjoyed reading the tweets from attendees about the presentations, demos, hotels, pictures of the wines and foods, while I slave away in front of my computer staring at multiple URS and TServer logs… (Okay, slight exaggeration — I am actually staring at multiple Excel spreadsheets. Equally painful to the eyes.)

But really, once in a while during these invitation-only conferences a gem of a tweet will fly by when somebody tweets something s/he’s not supposed to. Sadly, that’s not happened yet this year…

Looks like Genesys also launched a redesigned website. It’s now much easier to access and understand its products and services. I’m glad this guy’s still here to help (I dub him the “Genesys Popup Dude”):

New owner, new website, new board members, but I’m glad that some things haven’t changed.

Remember Dave Carroll? The musician responsible for shaming United Air Lines with a simple but popular (approx. 11.5 million views to date) song “United Breaks Guitars” after getting no customer service from the airline after it destroyed his band’s instruments.

Since the success of that YouTube video Carroll has been invited to speak and headline many conferences about customer service, many of them by contact center technology vendors. For example, he was invited to the RightNow Customer Summit 2009:

He also showed up at Genesys GForce Melbourne:

Carroll is now a co-founder of Gripevine, a “customer service platform” startup hoping to better connect the customer with the company by automatically alerting the company about your online complaint.

Others will be able to comment on the gripe as well, and you can rate the customer service experience after a complaint’s been resolved.

Sounds like a pretty cool idea. However, the success of Gripevine seems to be in the hands of companies. Yes, although Gripevine gives the customer another channel to engage a company, it remains to be seen how likely a company will respond. Currently there doesn’t appear to be much activity on the site even when it’s received several high-profile media coverages (e.g. Mashable, Chicago Tribune) — the most commented gripe to date is one about H&R Block with just four comments. A search of the usual “complaint-prone” businesses such as major airlines, mobile carriers, and cable providers resulted in zero finds. I understand that the site is currently billed as a “beta” service, but still…

Of course, the success also depends on users — lots and lots of them. More users can definitely give Gripevine a greater voice which will garner the attention of companies. But it’s kind of a chicken and egg problem: why would companies spend the time and effort to respond to Gripevine complaints when hardly anyone uses it? Especially now when companies are already busy enough worrying about the existing social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc.) and review sites (Yelp, TripAdvisor, etc.)… Who can really blame them for feeling a bit overwhelmed and reluctant to jump on yet another channel of engagement? Plus, Gripevine For Business may cost the company money — yes, it makes perfect sense to dish out additional cash (on top of operating a contact center, paying for a social media monitor tool, and all the contact center infrastructure) to read more customer gripes, doesn’t it?

Here’s the problem with Gripevine… People will almost always prefer to contact a company directly, even if it’s going through an IVR, a web form, or on social networks if available. If no response is received, people will try again. Yes, as funny as that sounds, it is the behavior norm. But this time people will attempt to ask for a supervisor, manager, or for the bold, dig out the contact info for a VP or higher executive. Because when it comes to getting service, people will be proactive about it.

Besides, how do users know that Gripevine actually alerted “decision makers” in the company? From its “About” page:

…We’ll ensure that it gets to the right people – the decision makers at the company who have the power to set things right. Our automated response technology will notify the company and invite them to the site to review your gripe, giving you both a second opportunity to work towards a positive resolution.

If the company doesn’t respond right away, you can invite your social network friends and followers to provide support, which they can do by clicking the simple “support member” link on your public gripe. The more times your gripe is viewed and the more people you share it with, the more the company will be motivated to work with you to resolve your issue.

There’s no details on how a gripe may reach these “decision makers.” The FAQ offers no insight, either. So it’s an “automated response technology” but exactly what happens? Does the gripe get automatically printed on paper and a clerk mails it to the company address? Does the gripe generate an automatic email delivered to info@company.com? Does the gripe end up as a private message sent to the company’s Twitter account? Does the gripe generate an automated phone call to the CEO’s office? Does the gripe end up as a text message to the executive’s BlackBerry?

In other words, how can the user trust Gripevine to do its bidding as advertised? Do we really need another platform or engagement channel, if all it does is add another layer of potential runarounds with vague technology?

I’d rather see more focus and maturity in leveraging existing technologies and integrating existing channels. And I’m encouraged to see several companies already making or improving their products in this regard or making adjustments in their workforce to focus on the customer experience. I wish Carroll and Gripevine all the success in the world, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the site doesn’t reach the mass adoption it targets to be effective.

The news reports that caught my eye this week:

ShoreTel acquires M5 Networks

ShoreTel’s 2Q2012 revenue came in at +22% year-over-year (quarterly net loss of $2.5 million) — not bad for a company that hasn’t dug deep into the cloud. But that’s all about to change as it scoops up cloud communications provider M5 Networks for $146.3 million in cash and stock.

No doubt that ShoreTel was able to nip at the traditional premise voice market by being aggressive and signing on major partners (Ingram Micro, Windstream, and HP). Really, being up 22% Y0Y is impressive especially in this economy where most money is being spent on cloud solutions. The M5 Networks pickup will definitely strengthen its offerings and expand the customer base.

West Interactive releases Holly 6.0 (?!)

The acquisition of Holly Connects was announced in May 2010. For an year and a half we don’t hear a blip about it…

Then this pops up in my news feed that got me all excited. But no corresponding link to an official press release or even a blog post.

Nothing on West Interactive’s website, either. In fact, the last news listed there was dated August 11, 2011.

Hmmm, anything from @WestInteractive? Plenty of tweets but nothing about the major release of Holly 6.

I can’t wait to hear more about the TuVox acquisition, if any news ever makes it out officially…