What’s Your UC Strategy?

When developing a Unified Communications (UC) strategy, there comes a point when you have to make decisions about what applications to keep on premise and what applications can and should be hosted, or ‘in the cloud.’ But what factors are involved in making those choices? And how do the various vendors, like Microsoft, Cisco, Google and others, approach UC delivery?

Thursday, June 24 at 1:00 PM Eastern / 10:00 Pacific, we’ll be joined by UC experts Damon Martin and Rodney Horton of SKT for a webinar titled, “Hosted or On-premise? Developing a UC Strategy that Fits Your Needs.” SKT and InterCall are both a part of West Corporation.

Attend and learn:

• What can and cannot be delivered via cloud
• Best practices for building a UC strategy
• How the major vendors approach the cloud
• The pitfalls and benefits of integrating hosted and on-premise applications
• Real-world case studies

Register Now!

SKT is a leading UC consulting firm and national systems integrator (NSI) with numerous UC certifications and designations. The event will feature a Q&A session, so take advantage of your chance to get free, expert advice! For more information about SKT and the services they provide, send an email to ucsales@intercall.com. Are you working on a UC strategy for your business? Please share your tips and challenges with us!

Ken Kurz, Director of Product Management for Unified Communications. Kurz is responsible all aspects of the UC product portfolio and is constantly working to add to and refine our UC solutions and services.

A Mile is a Mile, Except when It’s Green

Did you know that a 3000-mile cross-country car trip has the same carbon footprint as the equivalent flight from New York to Los Angeles? If you’re a green business, the best way to travel is “not at all.” And many members of the green business community are doing just that, relying on audio conference calls, video conferencing and web meetings to manage projects, “meet” with clients, and do business remotely.

In fact, a survey conducted by InterCall ranked “using conferencing tools to cut back on travel” as the number one step green businesses are taking to reduce their carbon footprint. Additionally, 71 percent of all respondents say their companies encourage telecommuting for at least part of the work week.

InterCall’s Own Green Efforts

In addition to providing conferencing tools that make it easy for members of the green business community to decrease their own carbon footprint, InterCall implements measures to use green business practices whenever possible, too.

For instance, the company celebrated last year’s Earth Week by inviting employees to work from home during one day that week, using web or video conferencing when collaboration was necessary. When employees didn’t work from home, they worked on carpooling or taking mass transit. (Although a mile truly is a mile when it comes to a carbon footprint, by increasing the number of people in a given vehicle, you reduce each person’s carbon footprint and also eliminate the carbon footprint of additional cars on the road).

InterCall employees also participated in clean-up efforts within their communities and took small steps to reduce their carbon footprint throughout the year, such as switching to reusable coffee mugs. Each participant in Earth Day activities also received a reusable canvas shopping bag to eliminate the use of paper or plastic bags while shopping.

What Are Your Green Business Plans?

It’s not too early to start planning this year’s Earth Week activities for your company. Will telecommuting and web or video conferencing be a part of how you celebrate? What green business activities do you have planned to raise awareness about our environment?

Jill Huselton is a Senior Marketing Manager at InterCall

Thriving in 2010 Webinar

With 2010 now in full swing, take a moment to ask yourself:

• Do you have a vision for what you want to accomplish in 2010?
• Have you identified what is really important to you?
• Are you willing to make a commitment to move from surviving to “Thriving?”

Tomorrow you can join David McNally, CPAE, international businessman, member of the prestigious Speaker Hall of Fame, and best-selling author of "THE EAGLES SECRET – Success Strategies for Thriving at Work and in Life," as he launches you on a journey to transform 2010 into a thriving and flourishing experience.

Register now for this FREE webinar to:

• Learn the attitudes and behaviors that distinguish thrivers from survivors.
• Discover how to take charge of your life and turn your dreams into reality.
• Identify the key questions you must ask yourself to ensure you are on the right path to thriving.
• Learn how to implement the key success strategies of thrivers and how to incorporate them so that you can grow and prosper.

See you there!

Miracle Everett is a marketing support coordinator at InterCall and has spent the last two years working on our webinar series. In her spare time she enjoys playing tennis, raising performance birds and painting.

Harness the Power of Leader Connections

Please welcome recent webinar speaker and guest blogger, Jerry Cahn.

Do you want the most out of your professional life? Advance your corporate career? Start a new company for which you have to raise money, find talented employees, engage reliable, trustworthy vendors and acquire the right customers? The traditional recommendation is hard work and networking. A more effective approach for the 21st century:  connecting and branding.

Networking generally allows you to increase the number of people who can provide peer-level introductions. However, these are NOT the decision makers who can open doors to leaders who can create the opportunities you need to capitalize on in order to achieve your goals. 

Know what you want and who can create the opportunities. If you don’t know the leaders personally, then figure out who does and get introduced. If that’s not easy, discover where you can meet the leaders (e.g., conferences), and use the proper approach to introduce yourself. Don’t be intimidated; be confident and trust yourself by clarifying your brand value and learning how to present it effectively. Leaders want to meet other leaders because they know that the best way to share, inspire and give-back (the hallmark of leaders) is to collaborate with others.

There is a science and art to Leader Connections. It’s worth mastering the mind-set and skill-sets because that’s the way to get ahead.  To see it in action, review a few our case studies. If you need help implementing it yourself, we offer our Connect-to-the-Top workshops and coaching programs. Know your brand and communicate it succinctly. Develop the right strategy to approach and follow-through with targeted leaders. As you connect with those leaders, the opportunities you seek will appear.

Jerry Cahn, Ph.D., J.D., is a presentation master, organizational strategist and executive coach. He helps clients design and implement effective business strategies, sharpen sales and marketing performance, develop leadership skills and performance cultures, and produce winning sales, marketing and investor presentations.

"The Power of Leader Connections" Webinar with Jerry Cahn

Back by popular demand, Jerry Cahn, CEO of Presentation Excellence and managing partner of Leadership Connections, is joining us tomorrow for a free webinar titled “The Power of Leader Connections.” He’ll be discussing the value of not only making connections, but making the right connections.

Attend the event and learn to:

• Connect with the right person
• Deliver the right message
• Utilize the right communications media

Register now! 

If you’re looking for a better job, trying to get your business off the ground or struggling to get big companies to sponsor your events, this webinar is for you. See you there!

Miracle Everett is a marketing support coordinator at InterCall and has spent the last two years working on our webinar series. In her spare time she enjoys playing tennis, raising performance birds and painting.

Huddle Up!

You’ve heard us talk about Huddle before, here and here, but in this blog post I’m going to share with you how the marketing team here at InterCall uses it. That’s right—not only do we offer Huddle, we also use it ourselves on a daily basis.

So what is it? Huddle combines the benefits of social networking with the efficiency of project management and document sharing, all provided as a service (or ‘in the cloud’). Integrated with InterCall conferencing solutions, it helps deliver a better overall meeting experience.

You can schedule phone and web meetings from within the Huddle interface, as well as share dial-in details, documents and meeting minutes. But that’s not all. Huddle also gives you a wide range of collaboration tools including online discussions, whiteboards, task calendars and document version management.

Here are some of the ways that we use Huddle:

• Collaborate with our marketing team members more efficiently thanks to version control
• Share information with vendors and partners outside our organization in a secure format
• Post completed and approved materials for marketing teams in other regions to access
• Work with product management on pricing and packaging documentation
• Submit items for approval to our legal team

The best part about Huddle is that it comes free with every Reservationless-Plus® account—no download or install required. What are you waiting for? If you are an InterCall customer, sign up for your Huddle account today!

If you want to learn more about Huddle, be sure to register for “The Future of Collaboration,” a virtual event occurring December 17 at 12 PM Eastern. The first 50 registrants get a $5 Starbucks gift card. See you there!

Cambria Vaccaro is the Senior Director, Marketing Communications and our “Industry News” blogger.  Cambria has been in the conferencing industry for nearly fifteen years, and has seen it evolve from a traditional video bridging service to include cool web features and remote communication services.  She is an avid runner, cook, wife and mother of two gorgeous girls.

Can Your Career Thrive in a Web 2.0 World?

Join InterCall and speakers Orville Pierson and Robert Bertrand, from Lee Hecht Harrison, on November 18 as we discuss in-depth methods for managing your online personal brand.

Managing your personal brand online is becoming increasingly important to advancing your career. Drawing on information from Lee Hecht Harrison’s latest white paper, "Building Your Personal Online Brand," this webinar explores how to use a wide range of social media tools to manage your online identity, search for jobs and advance your career. It also offers specific and valuable advice to help you convey a consistent online message.

Attend this free one-hour webinar and you’ll learn the do’s and don’ts of social media as well as gain insight into the future of how social networking might impact your job search and brand identity.

Register today!

And to access the latest LHH whitepaper, please visit www.LHH.com. See you Wednesday!

Miracle Everett is a marketing support coordinator at InterCall and has spent the last two years working on our webinar series. In her spare time she enjoys playing tennis, raising performance birds and painting.

Visit InterCall at VoiceCon and Learn More About Our UC Solutions

Enterprises are showing strong interest in deploying Unified Communications (UC) solutions because of their next generation collaboration features, enhanced voice capabilities, promise of reduced cost and improved workflow. In short, UC integrates real-time and non-real-time communications, like IM, telephony, conferencing and more, across multiple communication devices in a single unified interface.

To help companies better understand, implement and embrace UC solutions, InterCall currently offers:

• Audio federation with Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 and OCS R2
• Assessment and design
• Pilot program management
• Deployment assistance
• Adoption and training
• Hosted Live Meeting
• Microsoft Online Services, also known as Business Productivity Online Suite or “BPOS”

Check out the Unified Communication and Collaboration section of InterCall.com to learn more about these solutions and find out how we can help you. In addition, you can stop by our booth (#409) at VoiceCon 2009 on November 3-4 at the Moscone North Convention Center in San Francisco. Billed as "the leading enterprise communications event," the show will also feature booths and speakers from some of our partner companies like Cisco, IBM, Microsoft and Polycom.

While at the show, you may want to consider attending some of these UC-related sessions:

Monday
2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Choices in UC: Comparing Microsoft Office Communications Server to IBM Lotus Sametime
3:15 pm – 4:15 pm
Managed/Hosted Services for UC

Tuesday
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
UC Leadership Roundtable: How Far Have We Come? What's Next?
2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Comparing UC Options and Vendors: Who's Offering What?

For more information about the show, be sure to check out the VoiceCon San Francisco 2009 website or the No Jitter blog, which is brought to you by the same people who produce VoiceCon. And remember to stop by Booth #409. We'll see you there!
 

Cambria Vaccaro is the Senior Director, Marketing Communications and our “Industry News” blogger.  Cambria has been in the conferencing industry for nearly fifteen years, and has seen it evolve from a traditional video bridging service to include cool web features and remote communication services.  She is an avid runner, cook, wife and mother of two gorgeous girls.

Upcoming Webinar with Jeff Thull

InterCall is pleased to welcome back bestselling author Jeff Thull on October 22, 2009 as he discusses best practices for selling at the executive level.

Every sales professional at some point has probably struggled with getting a foot in the executive suite. You're trying to set yourself apart with exceptional credibility and align the value of your solution with an executive’s agenda, all while trying to build a valid financial case for your solution. 

In this free, one-hour webinar you'll see why Jeff’s sessions have brought in record audiences. His expertise has helped countless sales professionals, and even InterCall's own representatives, increase their numbers and outperform the competition.

Jeff has been sharing his knowledge in the field of sales for the last 20 years, giving more than 2500 speeches and seminars. He is a leading-edge sales and marketing strategist and valued advisor for executive teams of major companies worldwide. 

As president and CEO of Prime Resource Group, he has designed and implemented business transformation and professional development programs for companies like Shell, Siemens, Microsoft, HP, 3M and Georgia-Pacific.  He is also the bestselling author of Mastering the Complex Sale, Exceptional Selling and The Prime Solution.

Register today!

Miracle Everett is a marketing support coordinator at InterCall and has spent the last two years working on our webinar series. In her spare time she enjoys playing tennis, raising performance birds and painting.

InterCall is Hitting the Road

We want to understand topics that are top of mind for investor relations professionals and  continue to offer products and services designed to meet your needs. So, InterCall is attending both the National Investors Relations Institute (NIRI) and Canadian Investor Relations Institute (CIRI) events in the month of June. 

NIRI is being held at the Westin Diplomat in Hollywood, FL, June 7-10.  If you are attending, please stop by and visit InterCall in booth #107.  Don’t miss your chance to win an IPod Touch! We will have fun little gifts and useful information about how our experience in hosting over 12,000 event conferences each quarter will help you execute your investor relations calls flawlessly.  There are going to be many great sessions for you to attend and we suggest you check out the “Trends in Media and Technology” session that will be happening Monday, June 8 at 4:15 PM.

In Canada? You will also able to get all of the same great information and giveaways at the CIRI event in Canada.  InterCall will be exhibiting at the Fairmont Hotel in Victoria, BC, June 14-16 at booth #13.  Make sure you go to the sessions, especially “The Evolution of Media” held on Monday, June 15 at 3:30 PM.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Cambria Vaccaro is the Senior Director, Marketing Communications and our “Industry News” blogger.  Cambria has been in the conferencing industry for nearly fifteen years, and has seen it evolve from a traditional video bridging service to include cool web features and remote communication services.  She is an avid runner, cook, wife and mother of two gorgeous girls.