MCS Forum Announces First Innovation Award to Gold Systems

Press Contact: Tom Cross 303-594-1694 cross@gocross.com

MCS Forum Announces First Innovation Award to Gold Systems

Innovation Award for Gold Systems Social Center - Social Networking Interface with Microsoft Communications Server Communicator and Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter

BOULDER – June 16 - MCS Forum (http:www.mcsforum.org) announced today the first MCS Forum Innovation Award has been presented to Gold Systems. "For almost 20 years, Gold Systems has been a proven innovator in emerging communications technologies and user interaction,” noted Tom Cross, CEO of MCS Forum. “Gold Systems Social Center takes a major leap in integrating the key business social networking tools of Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter together with Microsoft Communications Server, the leading unified communications presence tool. Users want 'one-click' communications and Social Center does that and more."

“We appreciate being honored with this award and recognized for Gold Systems’ innovation in developing applications for Microsoft Communications Server,” said Terry Gold, CEO of Gold Systems. “Gold Systems Social Center is an example of a value-added solution that developers can create quickly and easily using Microsoft unified communications technology to meet the changing needs of the market.”
Background on Social Center



Microsoft Communications Server provides a set of rich development tools and a comprehensive development environment for easily creating applications that increase productivity and add value for companies and users. Because Microsoft Communications Server interoperates with other Microsoft products, developers can respond to important customer requirements using the available application programming interfaces (APIs). The open standards and environment demonstrate the ability to deliver innovative software with useful communications features in the workplace.

Gold Systems turned to core technology in Microsoft Communications Server to build Gold Systems Social Center. The company wanted to combine the up-to-date information found on social networks with the power of real-time communications and collaboration tools. Gold Systems Social Center helps people work with the rich context provided through social networks and react with the seamless communications provided by Microsoft Communications Server.

Using the APIs from Microsoft Communications Server, Gold Systems developers created a “microblogging” application that appears as a Notes feature in Microsoft Office Communicator on each employee’s desktop. The Social Center application allows users to connect to social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn through their interaction with Microsoft Office Communicator. The Gold Systems solution makes it possible for employees to stay connected to their social network both inside and outside the workplace. The application can be modified by organizations for specific needs, such as security concerns or policies to protect information due to legal or compliance reasons.
Terry Gold demonstrated Gold Systems Social Center at the MCS Forum 2010 Expo, which was held June 15-16 in Boulder, Colorado. Gold also discussed other Gold Systems applications that bridge voice and data networks to add value to Microsoft Communications Server, demonstrating the power and flexibility of the technology to meet the needs of business communications.




About Gold Systems
Through its award-winning products and services, Gold Systems helps its customers identify where productivity can be improved with voice-driven solutions. The company’s unified communications implementation services, as well as its self-service speech recognition solutions, allow businesses to improve productivity and profitability. Gold Systems is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and a 2009 finalist in Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference Awards in Unified Communications Solutions, Voice. Since 1991, Gold Systems software has automated more than 1 billion telephone calls around the world. More information about Gold Systems can be found at www.goldsys.com or by calling 303-447-2774 and saying “Sales.”

About MCS Forum
MCS Forum is a vendor-independent laboratory environment designed for learning, technical guides, knowledge resources and online “live” services. MCS Forum provides planning, project management, consulting, training, case studies, white papers, speaking engagements, market/customer research, network planning and other services.

For more go to http://www.mcsforum.org. Contact Tom Cross at 303-594-1694 or cross@gocross.com for more information. MCS Forum provides classroom and webseminar training as well as a non-production environment for those IT departments without additional equipment, budget or time. This allows planners and users to test ideas, dial in and dial back out, IM file transfers, remote desktop sharing, video conferencing, run scenarios, break linkages and learning about new telephony features and network access. MCS Forum is also designed for both the system integrator/consultant who wants to learn about MCS without having to build their own system, as well as the enterprise customer who doesn’t have the time or resources to develop one. MCS Forum Labs are designed to be “hands-on” or “over-the-shoulder” with experts available for Q&A and classes for feature-specific review. Free tutorials on MCS are also available on TECHtionary - http://www.techtionary.com

Innovations in Revenue Performance Via Tele/Presence

Innovations in Revenue Performance
By Thomas B. Cross – CEO
TECHtionary.com & OCSForum.com

This is a brief presentation on: - Challenges faced by sales manager of turnover of sales staff - the "hire-fire" cycle and the often negative impact on customers. - Communications challenges faced by sales executives in closing an enterprise or any sales with more than one decision-maker. In reality, this is any sale. - Solutions proven to:
1) reduce the sales cycle,
2) reduce customer support costs,
3) increase customer satisfaction and
4) increase user service/product usability-acceptance.
The animated presentation can be found at http://www.techtionary.com/sales

Key Problems

First, the never-ending challenge faced by sales manager of turnover of sales staff - the "hire-fire" cycle. One key point is that just adding more sales people does not by itself increase revenues and in fact, excessive churn in staff has proven to have a negative impact on customers. For anyone in sales management, the ultimate challenge is to predict, manage to and grow revenues. That’s easy to say. The sales “ramp slope” (think of a ski slope in reverse) is both enigmatic and frustrating. The “perfect day” of ramp slope is when revenues ramp to 100% of forecast and beyond rapidly. The “perfect worse case storm” of sales ramp is 0% and continues forever. Somewhere in between these “perfect” situations is where sales execs, managers and C-level’s live. The perpetual “hire-fire” cycle continues unabated unless solutions are found.

Second, you will never know all the people involved in the sales decision process but you need to sell all of them. Here are some of the communications challenges faced by sales executives in closing an enterprise or any sales with more than one decision-maker. In reality, this is any sale. That is, there is a lot of communications between all the players and you don't know who they are. It often begins with an initial sales call with decision-maker. Next, the decision-maker & CIO talk or meet with others including finance, operations, etc. Even the smallest companies may involve consultants and procurement (or outside accountant) to review. This may include meetings with staff, consultants and legal. Then a final meeting or review by decision-maker, CIO and consultants. Finally, a closing call or meeting with decision-maker for a decision. The remainder of this will focus on potential solutions to this problem.

Potential Solutions

Key point is that tele/presence doesn't always mean real-time "live" meetings, it means to "move minds, not matter" in providing the information from the "live" tele/presence meeting at any time after the meeting. One viable solution is with video and online animated/video presentations which can be shared easily, quickly with greater quality, consistently and more accurately. The documented benefits of animated/video presentations are, among others, 1) getting everyone on the "same page" is proven to reduce the sales cycle by "two weeks” and 2) these tutorials can also significantly increase your sales close rate.

In evaluating animated/video tutorials, numerous C-level sales consultants, have noted its three immediate benefits.
First, when technology sales animations are presented, complex concepts such as telecommunications, internet, integrated access, outlook integration, VoIP/SIP, and many other complex systems are reduced to an easy-to-understand format. In a number of tests, a number of consultants noted that a “pictionary” presentation reduces the days customers require to evaluate the process.

Second, support centers often receive large bursts of support calls, forcing many callers to give up their efforts to obtain explanations for their queries. One customer commented that "installation animations on Microsoft OCS, Polycom and others saved substantial amounts of time because support calls don’t come in one-at-a-time." Calls don't come in just from people with computers, they come in from many places where laptops are not ideal but tutorials already have been built for portable devices. Next, customer support costs can "break-the-bank." It isn’t the first or second phone call that causes support costs to skyrocket. These are the result of customer staff turnover and new-hires, one consultant added. These videos and animations provide a pictorial approach that greatly reduces the number and length of such phone calls, thus saving thousands of dollars while at the same time providing cost-efficiency and insuring increased customer satisfaction.

Third, when it comes to client satisfaction, customers seek a relationship with a vendor who will respond during the after-sale period. They want to be sure that new features can be added or changed as new services emerge. These videos and animations easily meet these and other business challenges.” A user who is convinced by such new video and animation tools for use in training is Cindy Johnson, Director of Technology, Lee County Schools, Sanford, North Carolina. “These tutorials virtually eliminate users’ training problems. They reduce the hours of classroom time and problems with scheduling. They simplify how and when to provide classes for those who missed a training session.”

Summary of Findings During this brief presentation we discussed 1) hire-fire cycle, 2) communications challenges faced in all sales efforts and 3) potential solutions provided by video and animated tutorials. To summarize, animated-video tutorials are able to: 1) Reduce the impact of sales churn resulting from hire-fire cycle. 2) Reduce the sales cycle by improving "visualization" of product/service being sold. 3) Improve accuracy of presentation for all players in sales cycle such as manufacturer, channel partner(s), agents, customer and internal decision-makers. 4) Reduce customer confusion regarding customer support and provide training tutorials for use anywhere. 5) Increase user retention on product/service training. Bottom-line results - faster revenues, lower support costs and increase in immediate customer benefits as well as long-term customer satisfaction.
Is the challenge so problematic that there is no solution? We recommend two options.

Recommendations
First, aside from quality HR screening in the hiring function, we think that effective, focused and timely sales training can have the most significant positive impact on revenues. With regard to technology sales and management skills, technical skills tests such as CompTIA IT For Sales Certification, CTM-Communications Technology Manager, VoIP Business Executive and SIP Technology Executive courses are designed to “weed out the meek.” Translated, this means that IF the sales exec or channel partner does not complete these courses successfully, they are not authorized to sell - end of story.

In other words, if you don’t pass the drivers license exam, you don’t get to drive. If you don’t pass the pilots exam, you don’t get to fly. So why let people sell who don’t have the right answers and are not even aware of what they don’t know? They are wasting thousands of dollars of time and risking possible good client relationships when they don’t know what the need to know and fall into that category so aptly referred to as “loose cannons”. Doug Green, Editor and Publisher of Telecom Reseller News, the leading channel partner as well as enterprise publication said it best, “you can’t sell what you don’t know.” So don’t waste any money or worse, irreplaceable time, on people who don’t know or what they clearly should know.

Second, create and build video and animated tools to educate and inform customers instead of waiting for internal execs and channel partners to help educate the client for you. In other words, build tools that customers can “sell themselves” on your products. The days of traditional selling are over and there is a critical need to build compelling exciting tools that don’t rely on the “hand waving” and “charm school” of the sales person. We know this works. We have built animated selling tutorials for channel partners that according to Mark Sharp, CEO of Vimenture “reduce the sales cycle by two weeks.” These same tools can also increase your sales close rate percentage by a significant amount. You have just illustrated one of the more obvious problems no one ever wants to attack” noted Peter Meyer Executive Sales Advisor. He added, “There is an eternal gap between the hiring, training and firing. This repeats again and again forever. The key is determined and continuous training of the existing sales staff to continue on the upward revenue trend with, with new tools as those like TECHtionary has produced.” This means you can sell more and sell it faster. The bottom-line for this program is – wasting money is one thing but to waste time is another. So, get going today. We can help. Email us, we can send tutorials that are proven to work.

Why Tele/Presence - Tele/Conferencing Has Failed For More Than Thirty Years

This piece is in response to another article where the authors naively discussed telepresence technology and fundamentally not understanding the issue.

As the author of the first book on Teleconferencing in 1985 when earlier AT&T PicturePhone Meeting Service was promoted on national television and hundreds of millions were spent by corporations on video teleconferencing. It failed then and is still failing. Back then, Arco spent $17 million on "immersion video" rooms and network to name one example. Immersion is not new, it's been tried by all kinds of companies. I have seen these rooms, AT&T's, the Intercontinental Hotels spent $2M on two rooms in London and New York - it was like the bridge on "Star Trek" and these are just a few examples. The issue is that you can't take your "room" with you. You can't take the room to the problem - look at the BP spill, Katrina, Afghanistan, etc. And, "you" may not look like Brad Pitt or Demi Moore either.

To drive this point home, Hal Josephson said 30 years ago and will again speak at our Tele/Presence Forum Expo (http://presenceforum.com) said, "if you are boring face-to-face, you will still be boring via video conference." The point if you don't get it is that most presenters have little training on presentations and just because you are the boss, doesn't mean you know how to engage an audience or keep their attention. As Hal says, it requires "tele-skills."
Why teleconferencing has also failed is because it's not just full-motion video, its low-high resolution still-frame, audio-graphic and a myriad of other forms. Even the ill-fated "electronic blackboard" had its practical uses.

My two sayings are "focus on the problem, not the person." This reflects the fact that most video conferences are with people who have meet each other face-to-face and you don't need to show faces for an effective meeting, hence why audio conferences are so popular. This also means that the reason for most meetings is to discuss a problem which may not always but in the room such as parts manufacturing, hospital operating rooms, etc.

The other "green" saying is, "move minds, not matter." That is, traveling for most internal meetings really makes no sense at all and you "don't have to take off your shoes," get stuck inline, have to lug around anything, go to the meeting in your pajamas and so on.

You can call it anything you like, however, until there are fundamental shifts in really training users in teleskills, focusing on problems-not people, making it portable and a myriad of others, teleconferencing will still be a failing, not a succeeding concept.

I only move matter, when it suits my mind - tele/presensence extends you anywhere-anytime . . .

need I say anything more - free newsletter

Tele/Presence Brings Focus to the Problem like the BP Oil Spill, Not Just People

Tele/Presence is a tool that brings focus to the problem when people can't go there and to bring advisors who can help solve problems. This is situation where "immersion" of the technology or problem can bring communications to people.

8 Specific Tele/Presence Room Design Configurations

Top Story - Tele/Presence Room Design Considerations
By Thomas B. Cross
go to http://www.presenceforum.com for Newsletter & Expo

In this issue, the focus is on "room design." However, room design is just part of an overall plan. The planning, engineering and implementation of a teleconferencing system can be a complex process requiring expertise and experience in some or all of the following areas:
- Audio engineering/acoustical analysis
- Telecommunications and satellite networks
- Devices such as computers, audio graphic, archival and video retrieval, cameras, headsets, speakerphones, monitors, hardware and more
- Video compression techniques and television production
- Designing high-performance or high QoS networks
- Human factors, user training, executive interviewing
- ROI and cost-justification
- Equipment specification and selection process
- Room design and buildout
- Scheduling systems and operational issues - "one touch"
- Support "room attendant" and technical support

We have discussed audio engineering in previous issues and in future issues; we will present ideas on these other topics. Without bias, here are some various rooms and suggestions for your consideration. To begin with or rather, in the beginning a long time ago, I visited (and still do) a large number of video rooms in the U.S. and Europe, interviewed users and room managers, spoke with industry experts and put together one "model" room - below.

The room I designed has a number of features not found in other planning documents, then or now. You should, in any case, look at your own needs, physical limitations and budget to determine what works. One of the key issues to be discussed at greater length in the future is onsite "room attendant(s)" and technical support. While the room below is not drawn to scale, there is a room at the back. It could also be at the front of the room for a room attendant as well as equipment storage, replacement parts of all kinds, cables, network management tools, supplies (paper pads, pencils, etc.) and even a coffee bar. The point is that a tele/presence meeting should be everything and more than any executive meeting and should be treated as such. That is, focus on all aspects of the meeting not just the audio/video network. The next recommendation is to record all meetings. This allows for later retrieval by participants unable to attend and presenters to review how they can improve their "tele-skills."

Next, none of the systems mention an overhead camera. This is ideal for showing documents, broken parts, body parts and others. Again, "focus on the problem, not the person" should be the mantra for all meetings. However, if the person is the focus, then train them for video and have rehearsals. I did a lot of video for a major telecommunications company and when the executives tried to "wing it," they failed. When they wrote a script before the video and rehearsed it then night and morning before, they often did it perfectly with "one take."

I will present more in future newsletters, however, this came out this week from the Chief Scientist from Accenture (click for full article), "Do you have executive telepresence?" Among the many great issues put forth by Mr. Kishore S. Swaminathan is "Videoconferences have a different conversational rhythm." He mentions the need for presenters to "manage the rhythm" which refers to having an understanding of the communications protocols and nuances in telepresence. One last comment is to always have a monitor showing you and your room to yourself. In a F2F-face-to-face meeting, you can always look around and see what you look like, so why not have the same experience in a tele/presence meeting.

Here are just few examples of tele/presence rooms I selected. Remember your needs and YMMV-your-mileage-may-vary, so these are just ideas for consideration.


The first one is from Polycom. I like this room as is shows not just a "sit down" meeting but a person "standing up" and presenting. You may want to have different rooms for these two specific activities since they are the most common but also very different in their design. The next part of this example was the use of "fill lighting" to add in more lighting on the presenter. This is also an example of portable, as needed, AV-audio-visual equipment which can be used and moved inside or out "on location." From my experience, you can install great lighting but like with any television studio, the lighting may need to be increased, decreased or just moved. In fact, this is a good time to recommend you get a tour of your local television studio to see all the equipment they used even for the news and weather as well as field broadcasts.

The next two examples are small tele/presence rooms. The first from Polycom is like the first one above but designed for small groups ideal for branch offices, factory floors, or even temporary and can be used as your "template model" for many installations. Note, see the "dry erase" board on the wall. You will need a video camera aimed and lighted appropriately at it.

Both of the Cisco rooms show a "side monitor" used for additional video sources or as I suggested to show the video image of the room. Both have a "greyed" image to show the "coverage area" of the camera. A good idea is to plan the coverage area desired in order to accommodate all the occupants. Too often the presenter has to move in order to be seen or, more typically, one person arrives late and there is no chair and may have to sit in a corner and may not be seen by distant participants. Images courtesy Cisco TelePresence Fundamentals - click here for book.

The next two are from Polycom. They are good examples of Large Conference and Classroom configurations. I especially like the classroom with the document camera. I would have added a monitor at the back of the room so that the teacher could see themselves and while it is not shown, additional fill-lighting on the teacher.

The last example in this series is from Cisco. I added it because it was the only reference to HVAC-heating, ventilating, air-conditioning. I am always amazed at how much money tele/presence is spent on video systems, network, etc. but forget the "tornado" noise generated by HVAC systems which can disrupt any meeting, video, audio or even a traditional meeting. Also, HVAC personnel rarely have any training on "quiet" air-handling systems, so they are often a hindrance to tele/presence rooms. In addition, there is generally a lot of heat (explained later) by the video and all the computers/people in the meeting. Simply, this means that most tele/presence rooms should have their own temperature, humidity and HVAC systems inside the room and are designed for extreme quiet conditions.

In summary, in 1,000 words I wanted to present an introduction to tele/presence room configurations and ideas on how to design them to suit all kinds of needs.


Polycom uses a portion of the book Basics of Audio and Visual Systems Design: Revised Edition, Chapter 12, "Videoconferencing" written by Scott Sharer, CTS, and Jim Smith, CVE, CTS, copyright 2003, with permission of InfoComm International®. For more go to www.infocomm.org. Here is just one example of excellent design considerations presented in the paper, "In architectural terms it is not uncommon to find a rule-of-thumb applied that allows for up to 15 square feet of floor space per participant in a traditional presentation or meeting room. If there is a front-of-room presenter position at a podium, and if there is some use of in-room technology (projection devices, whiteboards, etc.), then this figure may increase to as much as 20 square feet of floor space per participant, but rarely any more than that."

Tele/Presence Newsletter - Top Story - Video Tele/Presence

Top Story - Video Tele/Presence Configuration Options
The graphics with this story can be found in the Tele/Presence Newsletter here.

Here are just a few of the various types of tele/presence systems for your review and consideraton. This presentation focuses more on office and portable video tele/presence that other types of collaboration systems such as slow-scan, whiteboards, computer (wiki, blog) and others.

What I am trying to show is that most tele/presence video systems focus on people, rather than the problems the people are discussing. In my humble opinion, the focus should be on the problem, not people. There are many reasons but one of them is that most people don't feel comfortable being on video and really don't like the way they look (partially or largely due to the Aspect Ratio*). For example, I was looking for systems that show a problem such as quality control situation on a manufacturing assembly line, transportation disaster, environmental hazard, poor health conditions in food processing, or something like the situation on an oil rig and cleanup, to name but a few of the problems that businesses face. Here is a medical example, a medical diagnosis of a sick infant where bringing the "person (doctor) to the problem" is critical.

Below is a more recent example of tele-medicine, from Cisco. Please excuse the size of the image.

Tele-consultation is more than than using the video image of the to show medical problems, yet, provide "doctors without borders" to patients anywhere. However, both Polycom and Cisco interface medical systems such as from AMD Telemedicine and others. For example, in the Polycom system allows the Polycom Practitioner Cart HDX "to easily connect to medical peripheral devices with integrated switch box and connection panel (digital in-band stethoscopes and video scopes)."

Overview of Video Tele/Presence Options
The first example (below) is an overhead video system where documents, parts, objects and almost anything else can be placed and the problem discussed without ever showing a person.

In this example, the user sets up a portable video system easily and can again "bring the system to the problem."

NOTE: The following are examples of various kinds of systems. There is no bias as to which one is more useful or advanced than the others. Simply let the "function drive the features." However, I do like portable systems. Here is one from Polycom showing the user presenting in an outdoor setting.

Next, again from Polycom, we see an office desktop video situation. I liked this as it uses a large screen intended to give the "immersive-effect" of life-like images on by both parties.

This next one is a new approach. Originally, created and developed by Microsoft called Roundtable, now sold by Polycom is integrated with Microsoft Office Communicator part of Microsoft Communications Server and provides group video with 360° panoramic view of the conference room. In additon voice, and instant messaging are brought together into one seamless experience connected easily via a USB port and record the meeting using Microsoft Live Meeting.

The next one is from TelePresenceTech intended to provide for person-to-person conferencing with "eye contact." While it is often perceived that "look em in the eye" is a critical component in video conferencing, our research has indicated it is less important because one-to-one video conferences are nearly always done with people already known, even well-known to one another. That is, the vast majority of personal and small group teleconferences are done with people they have already met face-to-face. More on this issue in future newsletters.

This one is from Cisco. I selected this one as the unit moves away from the desktop opening up the system for more than one person on either end.

Here are three other options from Cisco: Wall-mounted, Free-standing single-screen and Free-standing multi-screen. I selected these as offering options as "flexible inplace" installations of video conferencing systems. That is, when the system is needed is can be installed without the cost of expensive room design and preparation. This also suggests that the "message is more important than the media."

Below from Asstra, is another variation of a free-standing unit. This unit can combined "live" broadcast video feeds from various television sources, prerecorded video feeds, including DVD and VCR, live and/or prerecorded security and surveillance video and PC-generated presentations, documents, and spreadsheets onto the presentation screen.

Next, are two of my favorite ideas, not necessarily these ones. That is, "rollabout" systems can be moved to the hospital operating room, to the assembly line, flown out to sea on a ship or oil rig and shipped almost anywhere. The first one is from TelePresenceTech.

This one is from Polycom brings the "expertise to the problem." That is, a group of subject matter experts can gather and send in the system to the problem or person for discussion, exploration and problem-solving.

Below in a portable slow-scan video system from long ago. The ease-of-use, portability and single-button use made this system for nearly all video teleconferencing situations because in most instances "nothing is moving." That is, nearly all PowerPoint presentations, business settings, crisis conditions, there is no motion, so there is no need for full-motion video.

This next set of examples moves into small group then large group. Here is an example from Cisco of a small group lecture where the presenter is live with one group and other students are remote but both groups can lecture-slides.

From TelePresenceTech, is a 3D lecturer designed with "aligned eye contact" in order for the viewers to get the "immersive-effect." While I like "immersive" video, there is little evidence, in my thirty years in this business, to suggest that it is required or even desired by the audience. We all watch TV and don't feel the need to be "immersed" with the newscaster or television program. Certainly 3D brings us closer in movies but may also have negative impacts in business meetings.

Speaking of "immersive-video," here is an example Cisco. Having used their single- and three-screen systems, it is very effective for small group meetings.

From Polycom, is another approach to "immersive-video." Both companies offer a wide range of solutions for small group (under 30, typically less than 15 people).

Here is one more example of group video teleconferencing systems (source: stock photo).

The last example is the Polycom's "cinematic video wall" with 16 feet of seemless; every participant is shown in high definition, true-to-life dimensions.

This has been a brief introduction to various video tele/presence systems (video conferencing, or teleconferencing, if you prefer). While the focus has been primarily on "room" systems including those that offer movable room-to-room systems, from my long-time experience, should give you an idea of what "car make and model" you could make a good choice to select for effective person-to-person or group meetings.

*Television suffers or rather television adds 33% more "weight" to you because of the Aspect Ratio. That is, television puts on the "pounds." The two standard Aspect Ratios are 4:3 or 1.33:1 referred to as Standard is used in home video which means the width is 33% wider than its height. The other standard Aspect Ratio is Widescreen used in HDTV-high definition television is 16:9 or 1.78:1. In other words, Widescreen nearly doubles your "weight." If you don't have a lot of experience with being on television or television production, you can understand why people don't like the way they look on it.