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The Unified Communications Conference Presented by FierceVoIP & FierceTelecom

The Unified Communication Summit @ NXTcomm08 is your ticket to the converging world of Unified Communications. The bundling of IP services of real-time fixed and mobile technologies will be a boon to enterprises, and a new source of income to service providers who can offer comprehensive UC packages. Will you and your company be ready to meet this challenge?

Join the editors of FierceVoIP & FierceTelecom as they immerse you in all aspects of Unified Communications, and take you to the forefront of this lucrative, burgeoning market. Now is the time to position your company at the leading edge of UC.

It seems that VoIP was just the beginning. Enterprises are now poised for an evolution in Unified Communications to make them more productive, efficient, and mobile. Service providers can provide some guidance, but Unified Communications remains a relatively new concept. What platforms and technologies are needed to support this evolution? What services and solutions are enterprise customers most interested in? How should they be packaged and priced? Most importantly, how can the Unified Communications trend be turned into service provider profit? 

Join the editors of FierceVoIP & FierceTelecom at The Unified Communications Conference to discover the answers. We’ll assemble leading service providers, platform vendors and applications companies together to debate the answers to these questions communications evolution a successful one for carriers and customers alike. 

Wednesday, June 18, 2008 - Room 233

12:30 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Registration

Please check-in with the Fierce team outside room S233 of the convention center.

1:00 p.m. - 1:05 p.m.

Welcome: Chairman's Opening Remarks

Doug Mohney, Editor-in-Chief, FierceMarkets Telecom and Digital Media Group

1:00 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.

Keynote Presentation

Ibrahim Gedeon, CTO, TELUS Communications

1:45 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Panel Session: What does UC mean for carriers?

What does unified communications mean for carriers? Why do they need to be part of this trend, and what do they stand to gain? What role can they play in the UC ecosystem? What are the competitive dynamics and complexities of the business case and how can they be overcome? What can be learned from early service provider deployments internationally and domestically, and from trials? Are trials drawing out any clear indications of revenue paths? How will various carriers differentiate themselves, and what can we expect in the way of pricing?

2:30 p.m.-3:15 p.m.

Panel Session: UC, A Market in the Making

Industry experts and observers talk about the UC market’s current stage of maturing what could be done to really help demand surge. Are pilot projects transitioning to bigger paydays? Are international markets well ahead of the U.S., and what tone are they setting? How will overall economic instability affect the market? Are their regulatory considerations in UC market? What critical assumptions should service providers and their partners be concerned with, and how will the market evolve this year? What are the most attractive segments for unified communications, and how can carriers ramp up their efforts in those segments? How does the analyst community view the carrier role in UC, and what do they feel carriers must address to be successful?

3:15 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Presentation Session: Contact Center Consolidation 2.0

Learn how consolidating your contact center platform is the key to effective Unified Customer Communications — whether you maintain multiple sites, employ at-home agents, deploy agents offshore or collaborate with outsourcers.

David Zibelman, Area Vice President Channels Development, CosmoCom

3:30 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.

Panel Session: Inside the UC technology evolution

Experts from major vendors tell us about the must-have capabilities of today’s platforms and where the UC technology evolution is headed. Does UC present more of a business opportunity, or a technological challenge, given the state of network platforms today? How has convergence affected technology offerings? What does the enterprise expect from UC and how will it be delivered?

4:15 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Presentation Session: Convergence and UC — Delivering a Personalized Communications Experience

Today’s enterprise users are demanding more choices in their communications services. They want control over the user experience and they want the ability to define services that match their needs. Multiple devices with disconnected services maintain the status quo slowing the evolution of a personalized experience. Personalized communications is the next evolution of convergence, stretching beyond voice, and beyond both fixed-mobile and unified communications. This session will look at how personalized communications convergence enhances the user experience by providing them with a communications experience that is specifically tailored for their unique personas and leverages all available presence, location, and behavior characteristics to provide a consistently enhanced service across any device, access mechanism, and networks.

Peter Vicars, President and CEO, NewStep Networks

5:00 p.m.

Conclusion: Chairman's Remarks & Recap

Doug Mohney, Editor-in-Chief, FierceMarkets Telecom and Digital Media Group

Thursday, June 19, 2008

12:30 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Registration

Please check-in with the Fierce team outside room S233 of the convention center.

1:00 p.m. - 1:05 p.m.

Welcome Back: Chairman's Remarks

Doug Mohney, Editor-in-Chief, FierceMarkets Telecom and Digital Media Group

1:05 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.

Keynote Presentation: Today, Tomorrow, and the Future of UCC

This session will provide an overview of the Unified Communications and Collaboration world today, the changes that are coming in the near term and future trends. High level overview of the key and new technologies.

Scott Scharf, UCC Product Manager, Emerging Technology Office, BT Professional Services

1:45 p.m - 2:30 p.m.

Panel Session: Lessons in hyperconnectivity

What does past and current user behavior with devices and services tell us about the viability and benefits of unified communications? How is the hyperconnected business user influencing the technology roadmap? What can the telecom industry learn from CIOs and IT departments about potential adoption and cultural impact of unified communications on their organizations, and how can service providers strike up productive partnerships with enterprise customers? What can be learned from Asia-Pacific or European trends?

2:30 p.m. - 3:15 p.m.

Panel Session: UC’s killer app

Is there such a thing, or is the integration and flexibility allowed by UC the real killer app? What kinds of features or applications are on the horizon, and what do customers say they want?

3:15 p.m.- 3:30 p.m.

Networking Break

3:30 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.

Panel Session: Mobile UC—The Next Big Thing

Everyone in the office has a cell phone and, according to Yankee Group, 44 percent of all employees today are mobile workers. Businesses want to unite mobile phones with their existing communications infrastructure, making handsets appear as virtual extensions of the PBX for both inbound and outbound calling, as well as using them to indicate presence. Even the contact center people are diving into mobility with both feet, enabling everyone in the company to become a customer agent no matter where they are.

4:15 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Panel Session: UC for SMBs

The small and medium-sized business market has proven elusive for some service providers, but UC packages could be the key to capturing it. Hear from two service providers and other experts with years of SMB experience about why UC makes sense. Hear from two serice providers with years of SMB experience and other experts about why UC makes sense for the SMB and how it is being delivered now.

5:00 p.m.

Conclusion: Chairman's Remarks & Recap

Doug Mohney, Editor-in-Chief, FierceMarkets Telecom and Digital Media Group

 
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For the latest information on speakers and panelists, go to www.fiercevoip.com/UC.