Rivermine Software along with BearingPoint, hosted the 2nd Annual Summit on Enterprise Telecommunications Management on May 20, 2005 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Close to 100 attendees from Fortune 1000 enterprises, government agencies, analyst firms, and telecom carriers, gathered to discuss telecom expense management and to share best practices.

David Neil, Research Director and VP of Gartner, started the day with a presentation on the current state of telecommunications and the future direction as more and more consolidation takes place in the market. Tony Tocco, VP of IS&T Operations for Sodexho, discussed Sodexho's unique business model and how they leverage their telecom environment as part of the overall IT strategy. Co-host BearingPoint's Practice Manager, Georgios Markakis, discussed the frequent integration challenges associated with telecom expense management solutions.

The afternoon sessions included a presentation by Bill Trussell, Sr. Manager of Network Operations for Agere Systems, on their successful deployment and usage of software to reduce telecom expenses and improve business processes. The summit concluded with a panel discussion on improving communications with the telcos. Panelists included Michael Tusa, Director of eServices for MCI, Jonathan Farley, Telecommunications Manager for CKE Restaurants, and Kevin Dunetz, CTO of Rivermine Software.

Click Here to view Sodexho's presentation

Click Here to view Agere System's presentation

Click Here to view CKE Restaurant's Presentation

Click Here to view BearingPoint's presentation

Click Here to learn more about MCI's E-Bonding Services for customers

Rivermine is hosting individual Executive Breakfast Briefings where highlights from the Summit will be presented including, industry trends, case studies, and how mega-million dollar ROI can be achieved through software. For more information or to request a personal briefing, please contact us.

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Due to the increased demand of Voice over IP services, a new magazine titled, VoIP Magazine, was launched in February of 2005. We found a few articles our newsletter readers may find beneficial.

Tips on Negotiating VoIP Service Agreements

In an article written by Paul Madison, partner in the law firm Kelley, Drye & Warren LLP, he provides some tips to organizations on how to negotiate VoIP Service Agreements such as:

- Do not overcommit to volume: only agree to a minimum that you can easily meet, otherwise, you may end up paying for services you didn't use. He also recommends that any monthly overages count towards the overall commitment, and the provider should report your commitment satisfaction status every month. Agreement termination should also be set once the commitment is met, even if it's before the end of the contract term.

- Beware of hidden fees: Currently, VoIP services are not subject to many of the fees associated with traditional services, but this could change soon as more regulations are being considered. Madison recommends that organizations protect their interests by building in fix term pricing. In the initial price quotes, also ask the provider for a close approximation of what other future regulatory fees/charges may be charged and place a cap on it. The provider will insist that pass through and regulatory provisions are only when their costs increase as a result, but it is incumbent on the provider to manage it's VoIP business. The provider cannot expect the customer to pay for every change, particularly if the customer is investing in infrastructure. Lastly, do not agree to any "administrative charges" related to government program management.

Read the negotiation article from VoIP Magazine

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What's your VoIP Migration Strategy?

As demand for VoIP continues to grow, most organizations are still favoring solutions that maintain a TDM safety net for their most critical communications channels. VoIP Magazine profiled a few case studies of hospitals and government entities, whose communications could often mean life-or-death, grappling with convergence issues.

The article also provides some statistics on the variation of migration choices broken out by small, medium, and large companies.

Read the migration strategy article from VoIP Magazine

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VoIP Troubleshooting 101

You've launched your new VoIP service on the network, but are you ready to handle the service requests? Writer Jason Collins from Spirent Communications provides some handy tips for organizations to address service questions related to dropped calls, distortion and echo problems, transfers, and conference calls.

Read the troubleshooting article from VoIP Magazine

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Rivermine featured in the Washington Post - more

Rivermine Software Chosen as Finalist for two NVTC 2005 "Hot Ticket" Awards - more

Rivermine Software Announces Receipt of $10 Million in Expansion Capital - more

Call for Papers!

We are always on the lookout for papers, articles, and commentary on the subject of Enterprise Telecom Management and Telecom Expense Management. We welcome our readers to submit ideas and topics to continue making this newsletter an informative and interesting resource. If your submission is published, you'll receive a special gift from Rivermine Software.

Submit a paper

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About this eNewsletter

The Rivermine Software ETM Newsletter provides monthly updates on new developments about Enterprise Telecommunications Management and the issues affecting large organizations with complex, mission-critical networks. You will receive information on best practices, telecommunications management trends, technologies, analyst reports, and other related topics. We hope you enjoy this issue.

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