Here's something I found a bit amusing:

In last year's survey, Cisco Systems, Avaya, Microsoft, and Nortel were the top-ranked firms in the UC space--and in that order. For the 2008 survey, the rankings worked out this way: Microsoft, Cisco, Avaya, and IBM.

and here's another nugget:

41 percent of the companies surveyed this year said that they believed that the integration between communications software and hardware and back-office applications should happen through Exchange Server or Notes/Domino groupware.

I don't doubt that 41 percent of the people surveyed thought that their phone system should be shoe horned into an Exchange server, hopefully the other 59 percent had better notions.

Hopefully the people taking these surveys aren't the same one that hold the company purse strings.

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Nortel has started a new campaign called Stop paying the "Cisco Energy Tax." which claims that Nortel data networking equipment uses as much as 40% less energy than a comparable network.

So, how did they come to this groundbreaking conclusion? By their own report:

To support its argument, Nortel looked to reports from the Dell’ Oro Group to crunch through the Nortel Energy Efficiency Calculator to estimate how much it is costing businesses to stay with Cisco.

They hired a third party to use a Nortel brand calculator, and punch in numbers... and guess what the verdict was? We can save 6.1 billion dollars by switching everyone to Cisco. Come on now... seriously! The "proof" of cost savings is a Nortel created energy calculator? How about some real world testing?

If you're interested in reading the entire article, here you go:

The rising cost of energy is certainly the attention of everyone in the country as of late. Companies are searching for ways to reduce energy consumption and their spending.

Nortel is capitalizing on this trend by aiming to deliver solutions that are not only energy efficient, but also bring new levels of performance as they migrate toward unified communications in an effort to improve business operations and lower expenses.

According to Nortel, organizations throughout the world have collectively spent an estimated $6.1 billion more on energy expenses in the last five years than they needed to. This number is more than the gross domestic product of a small country. Why this trend toward overspending? Customers are unknowingly selecting a networking solution that is inherently energy inefficient.

Nortel is insisting that customers no longer need to pay the Cisco energy tax. The company is telling the market in no uncertain terms that there is a better and more cost-effective way to do business. The best way to determine this is to do the math.

To support its argument, Nortel looked to reports from the Dell’ Oro Group to crunch through the Nortel Energy Efficiency Calculator to estimate how much it is costing businesses to stay with Cisco. According to Nortel, this process determined that over a five year period, businesses have paid $6.1 billion more in energy costs to power and cool Cisco networks than they would have had if they used a comparable Nortel configuration.
"As companies move rapidly to Unified Communications they require a network that is robust and highly energy efficient,” said Joel Hackney, president, Enterprise Solutions, Nortel.
“The Nortel Energy Efficiency Calculator gives organizations a simple way to calculate how much they can save by working with Nortel. Those savings, particularly valuable in tough economic times, can be applied to driving an entity's overall competitiveness,” added Hackney.
According to IDC (News - Alert) estimations, 12-15 percent of total energy costs for enterprises are network related. A Nortel data network consumes as much as 40 percent less energy than a comparable network from the main competition and can have nearly 50 percent lower total cost of ownership.
Peter Kendall, executive director for Earth Rangers, a charitable organization focused on children and the environment, said in a Nortel statement, "Earth Rangers is dedicated to environmental education that empowers children to make sustainable choices.”
“Doing our part to save energy and maximize resources is important to us, so it is only natural that we would choose the most energy-efficient networking solution available. In addition to reducing our carbon footprint, the Nortel solution has enabled us to lower costs and to free-up those expenditures and apply them to our programs," Kendall added.

Nortel is working to make its message that much more public as it focuses on print and online campaigns. Customers are beginning to pay attention and starting to evaluate their environments.
"Energy costs continue to skyrocket and information technology accounts for up to 25 percent of operational expenses. It only makes sense to deploy the most energy efficient networking equipment as companies begin deploying real-time applications such asUnified Communications ,” said Hackney.
“Nortel helps customers save up to 40 percent on the networking energy costs while at the same time improving business processes, making enterprises more nimble and customer-focused,” explained Hackney.

Nortel is reaching out to the community, asking for their participation in a Buzzboard campaign. The company posted three videos on Buzzboard and is asking visitors to vote on their favorite. This campaign was launched to determine the best way to get the message out to the masses with grassroots videos created by Nortel employees.
The company wants to know which video conveys the message: Stop paying the "Cisco Energy Tax." The winning video will be featured in an online advertisement in October.

According to Lauren Flaherty, chief marketing officer, Nortel, "Today's decision makers are the most-connected, best-informed buyers in history. They want tools that help them gauge cost and value. That's what they're telling us so that's why we are taking this campaign from a buzz to a roar – amplifying the reach of Nortel's energy savings message by moving from a pilot program to a full global launch."

There is no doubt that energy consumption needs to be a primary focus for companies throughout the world, but is Nortel taking too narrow an approach by attacking only Cisco in its campaign? Sure, this company is the dominant player in its market, but it is very likely that Cisco will come out with its own reply and its own energy efficient spin and Nortel may be forced to rethink its tactics.

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The iPhone has certainly been at the center of the news recently. Apple Inc. introduced the new iPhone 3G model and sold more than 1 million of the devices the first weekend that they were available. And through its online App Store, Apple for the first time began to offer third-party applications that can run on both new and earlier iPhone models (the latter requires users to upgrade to version 2.0 of the operating system). For many cost-conscious users, the most important iPhone apps will involve VoIP, which will let them avoid the high cost of calling overseas from a mobile phone. But as is the case with all mobile VoIP solutions, iPhone VoIP will come with trade-offs

Truphone's VoIP App

Truphone was the first company out of the gate with a new iPhone VoIP app. Software downloaded to the iPhone lets Truphone's app make calls over the company's VoIP backbone network from wifi hotspots. But the app doesn't allow users to connect to the VoIP network via cellular voice links, as they can with Truphone Anywhere, a service that the company introduced in May 2008. If it did, iPhone users could make their cheap overseas calls even when they weren't near hotspots, paying only for local cellular minutes plus Truphone's low international VoIP rates.
Packet8 MobileTalk for iPhone

On the other hand, 8x8 Inc.'s VoIP application, called Packet8 MobileTalk for iPhone, doesn't use wifi but does use the cellular voice network to carry calls between the handset and the VoIP network. To do so, the app eschews the downloaded client software that 8x8 uses to provide MobileTalk to users of other cell phones (which also means that it's not actually an App Store application). Instead, Packet8 MobileTalk for iPhone employs a Web portal, which is accessible through the iPhone browser, that mimics the iPhone dialer.

To establish the connection once the user has entered the number, the portal reads a cookie that the browser has stored in order to determine who is making the call. The portal then sends the browser an instruction that causes the iPhone to dial a local Packet8 access number. From there, the call travels over the Packet8 VoIP network. The portal-based approach is necessary because third-party apps cannot directly access the iPhone dialer, according to 8x8's vice president of engineering Ramprakash Narayanaswamy.
JAJAH's iPhone App: Coming Soon

JAJAH Inc.'s iPhone VoIP app — like many iPhone apps of all kinds — is still awaiting Apple's OK before users can download it through the App Store, but it should be impressive once it is released. According to JAJAH co-founder Roman Scharf, the app will allow iPhones to make calls that travel over 3G, EDGE or wifi data networks to reach the JAJAH VoIP network. A call goes over the data network if the quality of that link is sufficient or if the user specifies that it do so regardless. Otherwise, JAJAH calls the iPhone and the overseas number that the user is trying to reach and connects the two calls via a VoIP link — a classic VoIP callback approach.
iCall App in Beta

ICall Inc.'s planned iPhone application is still in beta testing. Like Truphone's app, it will use wifi links to access the VoIP network. A unique feature is the app's ability to switch from a cellular call to a wifi call without interrupting the conversation. ICall claims that such transfers will happen "seamlessly." CEO Arlo Gilbert said that the application should be available in early August 2008.

Thanks to voip-news

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