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.