Case Study: D+M Group Chooses Cisco’s Cloud-Based Hosted Collaboration Solution from West IP Communications December 19, 2012 @ 12:35 PM | By James Whitemore

Cisco recently announced that D+M Group, a company dedicated to enhancing life through sound and video solutions, has chosen to adopt Cisco’s cloud-based Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) to significantly enhance communication between the organization’s more than 2,000 employees in North America, Europe and Asia.

This solution, offered to customers as VoiceMaxx CE through West IP Communications*, gives companies like D+M Group the ability to easily roll out collaboration applications and services through the cloud. Some HCS capabilities include IP telephony, telepresence, contact center and web conferencing.

Specifically, through Cisco’s hosted cloud collaboration offering, D+M Group is increasing the depth and frequency of communication between employees, including those brought in through future acquisitions. The company is also looking to optimize IT resources, reduce operational costs, seek out the best talent regardless of location, and globalize its IT, human resources and finance functions.

Cisco has put together a great case study highlighting D+M and West IP’s VoiceMaxx CE solution. You can also read about new improvements to Cisco’s collaborations portfolio.

West IP Communications and InterCall are both owned by West Corporation, and the West IP team provides UC solutions for many InterCall customers.

James Whitemore is senior vice president of sales and marketing at West IP Communications, the team that delivers InterCall’s unified communication services. InterCall and West IP Communications are both a part of West Corporation. James holds a B.A. (Hons) degree in Business from Newcastle University in the U.K. and currently resides in Boulder, CO. In his downtime, James is an avid skier with an enthusiasm for traveling and car collecting.

Jake Steinfeld, of Body by Jake Fame, Inspires InterCall Webcast Participants, Delineates Best Practices for Business, Branding Success December 18, 2012 @ 10:47 AM | By Tonya Hottmann

Last Friday, I watched InterCall’s December webcast featuring Jake Steinfeld, whom you might know better as Body By Jake.

We teamed up with Jake to help him spread the message that individuals and businesses can realize their potential by not settling for anything less than success. To that end, Jake’s key points included:

• Define your goals and passions
• Take your passions and turn them into a career
• Build your most valuable asset – your personal brand

Jake explained how he was able to galvanize his own dream of success by starting with an idea, exuding emotion and energy, and finding the right people to help him set off on his journey.

Jake also shared advice on networking, saying, “As an entrepreneur, it’s all about ‘dialing for dollars’. You have to network and use your connections.” Jake related a story of how he was able to obtain advertising in a popular publication during the ‘80’s by reaching out to a friend of his who had just been put in charge of ad space. Though it may seem like an imposition, Jake stressed that these are the sorts of steps you have to take in order to realize success. In the end, Jake was able to offer significant value to his friend at the publication through additional connections, and the situation turned out to be a win-win for both of them.

I’d like to share my favorite quote from Jake with you. This is his take on personal branding:  “You are your own product. Before you sell anything, you’ve got to sell yourself.”

What do you think about Jake’s process for success? Which steps do you need help with?

Tonya Hottmann is the director of marketing at InterCall, responsible for small business marketing. Before joining InterCall, Tonya ran a boutique marketing consulting firm for 10 years. An avid baseball fan, she enjoys reading, traveling, exercising and spending summer days at the beach.

InterCall Wins Silver for Company of the Year in Best in Biz Awards 2012 December 13, 2012 @ 11:48 AM | By Eric Vidal

The 2012 winners of the Best in Biz Awards have been announced and I’m happy to share that InterCall took the Silver in the Company of the Year category.

We’re proud of all the awards we win, regardless. But bringing home a victory like this is especially exciting. It’s not every day that InterCall as a whole brings home an achievement. Sure, each of our lines of business has their awards and honors to show for themselves over the course of each year. But being acknowledged for our collective efforts is something exceptional.

This particular submission process took an in depth look at our achievements in the past year. While many awards focus on individual product/service offerings or singular highlights submitted on behalf of each company, the Best in Biz Awards look for a comprehensive view of what sets a company apart. Hence the ‘best in biz’ name.

Additionally, the Best in Biz Awards require some citation to back up the claims made in the achievements submission. They won’t let you get away with saying you were the first company to beam a webcast back from Mars without having something to prove that’s the case (hasn’t happened yet, but give us time).

Lastly, the Best in Biz Awards take into consideration a company’s history as a whole. Where they are and where they’ve been play a critical role in where they are going.

It’s also worth noting that the Best in Biz Awards’ judges are a top-notch group of individuals from publications and analyst firms. Judges include representatives from ABC, BusinessWeek, Computerworld, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Inc., Network World and more.

So let me finish by just saying thanks to everyone across all our lines of business. We’ve had a successful year and we already know one of our goals for 2013… go for the Gold.

Eric Vidal is a Director of Product Marketing at InterCall and is considered a leading voice and expert in virtual business, which expands from marketing to collaboration to learning. He has more than 15 years experience in developing, implementing and optimizing strategies in these areas for numerous organizations and Global 2000 companies. As the director of product marketing for InterCall’s event services, Eric manages the strategy and initiatives for the virtual technologies that include virtual environments, streaming, event management services and operator assisted services. Previously from WebEx, Eric managed the virtual classroom product, as well as brand advertising and new media. Over the last several years, Eric has held management positions at Cisco, WebEx, IBM, BBDO Worldwide and Macromedia.

What Will You Ask Jake? December 12, 2012 @ 09:27 AM | By Tonya Hottmann

I am looking forward to participating in Friday’s webcast featuring Jake Steinfeld, founder of Body By Jake. Jake’s a serial entrepreneur who has created a multitude of successful businesses, including Major League Lacrosse and FitTV, the first 24-hour TV network devoted exclusively to fitness. Jake’s passion for lacrosse was just featured by CNNMoney, and is evident in his new book  Take A Shot.

Jake will join us this Friday at 1:00 PM Eastern for an interactive webcast, where we’ll all be able to ask him for advice on building a successful business from the ground up.

Register Now

For what it’s worth, here are three questions I’d like to ask Jake:

• In today’s economy, with all the noise in the marketplace, how do you break through and create a successful e-commerce company?
• What are the top three changes impacting start-up businesses today versus the environment you experience 10 years ago?
• If you had the chance to change one thing when you founded Major League Lacrosse, what would it be?

By the way, by registering for the webcast, you may be eligible to receive a copy of Jake’s latest book. I enjoyed reading it and think you will, too.

Tonya Hottmann is the director of marketing at InterCall, responsible for small business marketing. Before joining InterCall, Tonya ran a boutique marketing consulting firm for 10 years. An avid baseball fan, she enjoys reading, traveling, exercising and spending summer days at the beach.

"YouTube™-like" solution for learning December 7, 2012 @ 09:51 AM | By InterCall Blog

Managing all the internal videos at a business can be a near overwhelming task. Multiple departments can often take it upon themselves to create new content, which is then stored on their own server and difficult to access for everyone else. Additionally, organizing countless training videos becomes harder each year. So how do you organize and share video content throughout the enterprise?

Join InterCall’s own Ryan Osborne and Eric Vidal on Tuesday, December 11, at 1:00 PM Eastern for a FREE webcast as they examine the benefits of “YouTube™-like” solutions that are helping organizations share knowledge, conduct product training, corporate learning, pass along tribal knowledge and much more.

During this hour-long webcast, you will learn how “YouTube™-like” solutions enable decentralized teams within organizations to:

• Enhance employee productivity
• Simplify employee communication
• Increase knowledge sharing

All of this is made possible by providing employees with live webcasts capabilities, video creation and authoring tools through a single platform.

Attendees will also hear case studies involving Accenture, Bank of America and other organizations already having success.

Register Now

Find out more about Ryan Osborne and Eric Vidal.

Eric Vidal is a Director of Product Marketing at InterCall and is considered a leading voice and expert in virtual business, which expands from marketing to collaboration to learning. He has more than 15 years experience in developing, implementing and optimizing strategies in these areas for numerous organizations and Global 2000 companies. As the director of product marketing for InterCall’s event services, Eric manages the strategy and initiatives for the virtual technologies that include virtual environments, streaming, event management services and operator assisted services. Previously from WebEx, Eric managed the virtual classroom product, as well as brand advertising and new media. Over the last several years, Eric has held management positions at Cisco, WebEx, IBM, BBDO Worldwide and Macromedia.

InterCall Wins Gold for Best Marketing Impact in 2012 Brandon Hall Excellence Awards December 6, 2012 @ 03:15 PM | By Eric Vidal

One of the most exciting things for any company is to receive recognition from the thought leaders and pillars of research in its industry. InterCall has been pleased to receive accolades in the past from Brandon Hall Group and we’re pleased again to share some exciting news.

InterCall has won the Gold for Best Marketing Impact in the 2012 Brandon Hall Excellence Awards for a client’s use of InterCall Virtual Environments for networking with customers and prospects to bolster their marketing efforts and drive lead generation.

Specifically, Brandon Hall Group presents this award to the company that has demonstrated excellence in establishing marketing initiatives and goals, effectively connecting with the target audience and realizing measurable results based on performance.

InterCall’s Virtual Environment Platform allows clients to create and manage branded, interactive, web-based events and learning centers to engage and connect with any number of clients and prospects – anytime and from anywhere around the globe. 

One of our clients took this concept to new heights by opening a Virtual Event Center in 2010 which offers new ways of networking and learning for clients and prospects. The client’s corporate marketing team planned this environment to handle a variety of event types including product launches, solution briefings, and client and channel education.  A number of permanent event spaces - such as virtual briefing centers - provide a robust location to host webcasts and allow easy access to subject matter experts.

The Virtual Event Center proved successful for our client’s marketing group during the launch in 2010 and utilization has grown constantly over the past three years. Through the Virtual Event Center, our client has touched over 100,000 customers and prospects through more than 300 virtual events run from 44 countries. Visitors downloaded more than 170,000 assets, spending an average of two hours on the virtual platform.

All of us here at InterCall appreciate this award and are happy for the success it has brought our clients.

Eric Vidal is a Director of Product Marketing at InterCall and is considered a leading voice and expert in virtual business, which expands from marketing to collaboration to learning. He has more than 15 years experience in developing, implementing and optimizing strategies in these areas for numerous organizations and Global 2000 companies. As the director of product marketing for InterCall’s event services, Eric manages the strategy and initiatives for the virtual technologies that include virtual environments, streaming, event management services and operator assisted services. Previously from WebEx, Eric managed the virtual classroom product, as well as brand advertising and new media. Over the last several years, Eric has held management positions at Cisco, WebEx, IBM, BBDO Worldwide and Macromedia.

Don’t Settle for Less Than Success December 5, 2012 @ 10:35 AM | By InterCall Guest Blogger

Every day, millions of individuals give up on projects and ideas because they don’t know how to live up to their full potential. Great ideas, inventions, products and business ventures all fall to the wayside as a result of people settling for less than success. So how do you stay on the road to success and make your career an exciting part of your life?

Join us as we welcome World-renowned fitness expert, Jake Steinfeld, for an hour-long, live webcast event where he will detail the strategies behind his success and take questions directly from webcast attendees.

During the FREE webcast, you will learn how to:

•       Define your passions and goals
•       Take your passion and turn it into your career
•       Build your most valuable asset – your personal brand

Register Now

Event Details:

Friday, December 14, 1:00 – 2:00 PM Eastern.

As the Founder and CEO of Body by Jake Global®, Jake revolutionized the entire fitness industry by creating a personal brand that resonated with millions. Jake then took his passion for lacrosse and created Major League Lacrosse in cities throughout the country. Jake is also a best-selling author and family man – balancing life with his wife and children.