November 2001
 

To the editor:

Thanks for the well-done article on softswitches that recently came out in Communications Solutions magazine. I would be interested if you could tell me why you left out the Centile offering, which Song Networks just rolled out. That offering won a TMC Labs Innovation Award last year, when it was offered by Netergy Networks under the title of Advanced Telephony System.

I am guessing you just overlooked it because of name changes at the parent company, 8x8, Inc. It became Netergy Networks for about a year and then went back to being 8x8 when founder Joe Parkinson came back as C.E.O. Then Centile was made a separate division. So the Netergy ATS of last year is now the Centile hosted iPBX.

Here are some links backing that up:

TMC Award (look under Netergy):
http://www.tmcnet.com/articles/comsol/1000/1000labsawards.htm#14

Song Networks (SONW) announcement of hosted PBX: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010924/240002_1.html

Identification that Song's offering is from Centile: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010924/sfm099_1.html and
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011008/sfm081_1.html

Centile and Netergy now divisions of 8x8, Inc.: http://www.8x8.com/

Please let me know if there was any other reason you didn't include Centile.

Thank you,
Bob Collinge

Kevin Mayer responds:

Dear Mr. Collinge,

Thanks for your interest in our recent overview of softswitches. Although we try to be comprehensive in our overviews, we sometimes omit mention of interesting companies and products, not deliberately, but simply because many market segments are both crowded and volatile, and it's dismayingly easy to overlook individual companies, especially when they don't take the initiative and contact us, even though we pre-announce overview topics in our editorial calendar.

In many segments, the old "build a better mousetrap" idea is much in effect. Many believe that though they may reside in a dark wood, all they need do is build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to their door. This belief is often derided by marketing professionals, but these days, marketing people are just the people who are experiencing the brunt of layoffs in the struggling technology sector. As this trend continues, the mousetrap-oriented engineering view is reinforced.

I feel the trend is especially pronounced among softswitch vendors, which have, to date, won more "ink" with less effort than many other next-gen voice/data specialists. I almost detect an air of complacency with many softswitch vendors, as though editorial and reader attention were their due. Human nature, I suppose. When you grant many interviews, any one interview assumes less importance. You may even forget that it may be in your interest to actively seek interviews. Or you may imagine that if you've seized an editor's attention but once, you're made an impression that will last for months or years.

Will companies suffer if they indulge in such complacency? Perhaps, especially since magazines are growing slimmer, and editorial space is becoming more precious. Part of the overall shakeout, and it would seem a shakeout among softswitches is imminent, since there are so many softswitch vendors. Time will tell. In the meantime, I'll try to be as fair and as open as I can be, within the practical constraints imposed by tight deadlines and the wearing of many hats that is typical in publishing.

The following letter refers to Tom Keating's Cc: column in our September issue:

Tom:

I can't tell you how cathartic it was reading your "Nightmare on CRM Street" story in the September Communications Solutions magazine after having just gone through customer service hell in getting my new DSL service up and running. There is an untold story somewhere in the lost productivity associated with poor customer service. Everybody experiences it and seemingly more frequently. We need to read these types of stories every now and then to offset the hype promulgated by the vendors of "miracle-promising" CRM software and services. So much technology, so little efficacy.
 

Best Regards,
Brian D. Boyer

People interested in contributing to Communications Solutions are welcome to view our editorial calendar online and contact the editor who handles the appropriate section (Enabling Technologies, Corporate Solutions, Interactive Commerce, Next-Gen Networks/Services). Our editorial guidelines can be found here. Please contact managing editor Carol Bancroft with any questions.

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