IN THIS ISSUE
Happy autumn, eNews readers! As the leaves start to fall and change colors, I am
once again happy to bring you another edition of Metaswitch eNews. In this issue,
I invite you to get to know our new CEO, Graeme MacArthur in an interview that covers
his vision of the future of telecom, Metaswitch growth and the path he took to get
to where he is. Also covered in this edition is the latest information on our MarketVisions
"20/20" program as well as recent professional services offerings we have
produced for our customers.
Enjoy!
Cory Boller, editor Metaswitch eNews
Metaswitch Aligns Softswitch And Applications Divisions Under Single Metaswitch
Brand
Metaswitch has strengthened its ability to scale its business as service providers
embrace its softswitch, service delivery platform and applications solutions. Following
a merger with the previously separate Internet Applications Division (IAD) of parent
company Metaswitch, all the company's service provider products are now within
a single business, under the Metaswitch brand.
The Metaswitch management team will be led by Graeme MacArthur as chief executive
officer, and John Lazar as president and chief operating officer. As former chief
executive of the IAD, Graeme brings more than a decade's experience in building
relationships with tier one service providers worldwide, while John's leadership
of Metaswitch to date puts him in the best position to focus on technology development,
product evolution, operational growth, and marketing - where he will continue to
work with Metaswitch customers and the industry in shaping Metaswitch's strategy
for the future. Chris Mairs continues to provide strategic vision as chief technical
officer.
The combination is the natural progression of two divisions that have increasingly
been working together on sales, marketing and product development efforts - most
recently with the launch of the MetaSphere service delivery platform. This innovative
enhanced telephony application suite has already been deployed by more than 100
service providers to form the foundation on which carriers will base their migrations
to an IMS-enabled architecture. In total, the newly combined Metaswitch organization
has more than 320 customers worldwide.
Following a merger with the previously separate Internet Applications Division (IAD)
of parent company Metaswitch, Metaswitch's newly appointed CEO Graeme MacArthur
sat down with eNews editor, Cory Boller, to discuss his new role within the company
and his outlook on the future of telecom.
Question: Before we dive into the recent company happenings I would first
like to ask you a little about yourself. How long have you been with Metaswitch
and what was your role within the company previously?
I first joined Metaswitch as an intern in 1984, and then full-time as a software
engineer in 1985 after graduating from Glasgow University with a degree in Computer
Science. My career with the company has taken me through engineering, sales, support
- and for the past 8 years I have been CEO of the Internet Applications Division.
Question: What did you do for employment before Metaswitch?
Nothing - I was a student!
Question: What do you like to do outside of work?
I live with my wife and two boys in a village outside Edinburgh, in Scotland. I'm
rubbish but enthusiastic at home improvements, and my sporting passion is golf (being
Scots, it's in the blood).
Question: Who else do you admire who is currently a CEO?
Well, my colleague Phil McConnell, CEO of our sister group in Metaswitch, the
Network Protocols Division, of course! Actually, it was Phil who interviewed me
when I joined the company all those years ago. He has a lot to answer for….
More generally, I admire any leader, in any field of endeavor, who inspires his
or her team to challenge, excel, and enjoy themselves - and I despair of any leader
who sacrifices that for short-term commercial gain.
Graeme MacArthur Interview
By Chris Carabello, Marketing Director, Metaswitch
Vision Net, headquartered in Great Falls, Montana, is a consortium of nine Montana
and Wyoming telephone companies built to better and more effectively serve their
collective needs. Vision Net sought to claim access revenues from the incumbent
IXC on behalf of its geographically dispersed owners through an investment in an
access tandem switch with Metaswitch. As a result of rapid migration of traffic
onto Metaswitch, Vision Net was able to fuel investment in a next generation IP
Network and deliver positive ROI in a mere 22 months versus its original 31 month
projection. It is also well poised for future opportunities including IP Peering.
The Metaswitch solution at Vision Net
Partnership With Georesults Helps Service Providers With Successful Market Planning,
And Winning Marketing And Sales Databases.
By Chris Carabello, Marketing Director, Metaswitch
A Leader in Telecommunications Database Marketing
GeoResults, Inc. is a database marketing and consulting firm located in Atlanta,
Georgia and established in 2001 by experienced telecommunications market planners
and database marketing experts. GeoResults provides business, residential, and customized
database marketing and geo-mapping services. "Our databases and demand estimation
models have been used by over 100 telecommunications and cable clients," said
Ted Shields, President of GeoResults. "This program allows us to leverage our
expertise to provide detailed market opportunity assessments and sales and marketing
databases for any market in the US."
Market Analysis - Find the Best Customers at the Lowest Cost
Using databases and spatial analysis tools, GeoResults locates, identifies and ranks
high value target customers and target buildings that are within a given market
based on site-specific customer target criteria, including custom scoring of individual
business records. The data enables the assessment and ranking of new geographic
or customer segment markets for potential new business opportunities.
GeoResults' proprietary bandwidth forecasting models can also calculate voice and
data bandwidth demand estimates at the DS0, DS1, DS3, OC3, xDSL, Centrex, and PBX
levels for each business customer, aggregate the target customer bandwidth demand
by individual market as well as rank all markets by aggregate bandwidth demand.
GeoResults also assists customers in the area of Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) by determining customer profiles, highest revenue producing and profitable
customers, location of customers, and market share by industry sector. This information
is extremely valuable for new market entry and new business procurement.
Turning Data into Revenue
By using GeoResults' spatial analysis tools to identify the closest buildings to
its Coax cable plant, a leading MSO was able to identify over 600,000 SMBs it was
able to serve. GeoResults then developed a Target Business Attractiveness Proximity
Report that combined Proximity and Building Density, allowing its Marketing and
Sales teams to target those business prospects that were in the best buildings and
closest to existing Coax facilities.
"Many of our service provider customers are beginning to offer new products
and enter new territories. Having access to GeoResults to better understand the
target market opportunity is an invaluable step to a successful market entry,"
said Andy Randall, Vice President of Marketing at Metaswitch.
For more information about GeoResults and Metaswitch MarketVisions' 20/20
Vision Program, visit the MarketVisions section on the Customer Portal or contact
your account team.
By Paul Drew, Vp Professional Services, Metaswitch
The Metaswitch Professional Services group provides a number of different services
to our customers including network analysis, design and reviews, translations updates,
subscriber migrations, branding of user interfaces, project management and custom
development. The group has now completed over 100 engagements for customers with
another 50 underway. Some examples of recent actions include the following:
EATEL
http://www.eatel.com
EATEL provides local phone service, long distance, television and Internet solutions
to more than 30,000 customers in Louisiana and provides a bundle of high-speed Internet
access, high-definition television with TV on Demand, and phone services. EATEL
has deployed the Metaswitch switching solutions and unified communications platforms
to roll out a portfolio of advanced, converged services to business and residential
customers, including TV Caller ID.
Metaswitch Professional Services group has provided a number of different services
to EATEL to support their deployment, including the integration of their OSS system
with the Metaswitch management server, custom enhancements to the Metaswitch management
API, development of a custom script to bulk update charge numbers, IP network design
and migration services to enable EATEL to expand their network from an integrated
to a distributed softswitch.
i3 networks
i3 networks is a wholesale network provider and aggregator that offers a variety
of solutions from unbundled network elements such as origination, termination, E911
and NOC services to complete solutions for VoIP or line-powered voice using the
Metaswitch distributed softswitch.
i3 networks offers wholesale services in a very large service area and regularly
requires translation updates to add new LATAs or rate centers. Metaswitch Professional
Services is providing i3 networks with translation services to support the updates
to the translations, add new service areas and keep the existing translations up
to date with the Telcordia Local Exchange Routing Guide (LERG®) on a monthly basis.
More about Professional Services at Metaswitch
Metaswitch recently announced that it achieved several significant telecommunications
marketplace milestones:
- More than 500 of the company's award-winning softswitch / media gateway systems
have been deployed by more than 250 service provider customers
- Metaswitch solutions are serving subscribers in 50 U.S. states, Canada, Latin America,
Europe and Asia
- Metaswitch now counts as committed customers nine of the top 50 U.S. ILECs, including
such leading providers as Windstream and CenturyTel
Metaswitch has amassed an enviable track record. In the last three years, the company
averaged a quarter-to-quarter increase in systems shipped of 23 percent. Over the
last year alone, customer deployments accounted for an average of 400,000 new media
gateway ports added each quarter.
Three New Marketing Classes Arm Service Providers With The Intelligence And Resources
To Successfully Develop And Sell New Products In 2008 And Beyond.
Introduction to Metaswitch Features and Applications is a 2 day course that
aims to empower product managers and customer facing staff with a comprehensive
understanding of the residential and business features and capabilities of Metaswitch
from a less technical perspective, but with a hands-on approach. Armed with this
information, product managers, sales, marketing, and customer support staff can
be better prepared to develop, market, sell, and support more robust product bundles
that leverages the complete capabilities of Metaswitch and MetaSphere.
Marketing VoIP to Consumers is a one day course designed to provide effective,
market-tested strategies and specific, actionable tactics and tools in order to
support a service provider's ability to succeed in the highly competitive residential
market. The key Marketing functions of Product Development, Pricing, Market Segmentation
and Communications are all explored, leveraging research and competitive analysis
for products such as IPTV, Fixed-Mobile Convergence, Unified Messaging, and VoIP
in both defensive and offensive business models. Pivot Media, a leading consumer-oriented
Telecom market research and consulting organization is supporting delivery of the
class.
Marketing VoIP to SMBs is a one day course utilizing the combined experience
of Metaswitch and Savatar, a well known strategy and technology consulting firm,
to provide critical data from the most current quantitative, qualitative, and competitive
market research that will drive successful development and deployment of products
for the SMB, including Business IP Trunking and Hosted IP PBX. Product pricing and
packaging, End-user Marketing, Sales Training, and Channel Development modules come
to life through a series of invaluable tools that leverages insights from the research.
The three classes will be offered Monday through Thursday, January 14th - 17th in
Alameda. Customers can attend individual classes or the entire Marketing Boot Camp
for greater savings.
Contact your Account Team or visit the
training pages on the customer portal for more information.
Wireless Internet Access In The Friendly Skies
American Airlines has recently announced that they will soon be offering passengers
wireless connectivity on their flights beginning in 2008.