I didn't spend much time in J-school (journalism) before I transferred to B-school (business), but I recall that it is not proper to return from a hiatus in writing without explaining why you have been away for so long. More...

In my last post, This Old Infrastructure, I referenced a theoretical model, the “Three Pillars of Technology Investment,” that I created several years ago to talk to audiences about where investments get their “structural integrity.” I wrapped up that post by referencing disaster planning and how important it is to any deployment of new technology. Because disaster planning is so important, I thought you would appreciate more detail around these concepts. More...

If you’ll be at Interop in Las Vegas next week, save a bit of time on the final morning of the show for a most informative panel on SIP Trunking.

The Thursday, May 12, panel is part of the Unified Communications conference track at the show. It starts at 10:15 a.m., and among the celebrity panelists is our own Mike McRoberts, director of data and voice wireline services. More...

I recall Norm Abrams, of the PBS series “This Old House” and “New Yankee Workshop” once saying that when remodeling an old house, you “could only do what the house would let you do.”  That’s true of investing in convergence technology too, but the smaller the house (or business), the fewer limitations you  have.  With a small house, you can often build a huge addition without much concern for  the original house. But with a large house, you often choose to knock down walls instead of just adding-on to the existing space; and if a wall is discovered to be load-bearing, you’ll either have to abandon some aspect of your original plans or pay exorbitant costs to reinforce the structure. More...

I recently caught up with Dan Lipson, Global Converged Solutions Manager for Sprint, based in Chicago, about the ROI of SIP trunking. Dan mentioned how common it is for companies to forgo the long-term savings of SIP trunking because they did not have the capital allocated in the short term to fund a project. I have seen this many times over the years. To take advantage of operational savings, you have to go through the capital budgeting process often a year in advance, which can be a confusing maze for IT professionals.More...

It’s that time of year when many IT leaders make their annual “pilgrimage” (at least virtually) up the corporate hill preparing next year’s capital and expense budgets. With that in mind I thought I would share some thoughts about Return on Investment (ROI) as it relates to Unified Communications. More...

Gary Kim recently asked the question "Is SIP Trunking Mostly About Cost Savings?," which is probably the most-asked question about SIP. It reminded me of my talks on the ROI of technology investments. I usually start those talks by reminding folks that all money spent in a business is supposed to return its investment elsewhere in the business (not some of the money spent, but all of the money spent). This kind of indirect return is the sine qua non of a "primary investment" (i.e., a business.). Only through "secondary investments" (i.e., investing spare funds in interest-bearing accounts, stock and bond funds, etc.) does money ever return its investment directly. More...