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PRESS RELEASE: Avotus’ Enhanced Usage Reporting for Unified Communications Now Fully Integrated and Compatible with Skype for Business

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Avotus' Enhanced Usage Reporting for Unified Communications Now Fully Integrated and Compatible with Skype for Business 

Avotus executives available onsite at Microsoft Ignite (Sept 26 to 30, Atlanta) to discuss latest product enhancements and free Skype for Business white paper

OAKLAND, New Jersey – September 15, 2016 – Avotus Corporation, the leading provider of Intelligent Communications Management (ICM) solutions, announces that its award-winning Enhanced Usage Reporting (EUR) for Unified Communications (UC) is now fully integrated and compatible with Skype for Business (formerly MS Lync Server). Avotus' latest EUR for UC platform enhancements provide uncompromising visibility, reporting and UC deployment risk mitigation for any enterprise implementing Skype for Business.

"Avotus EUR for UC has proven to be the most effective solution on the market," said Garry Hudson, Managing Director of KNet Technology, an Avotus partner. "It gives customers full visibility into how their employees are using Skype for Business and provides detailed reporting on all of its configured assets. Based on our experience, and feedback from customers, Avotus' EUR for UC is the only approach that provides a comprehensive view of the UC infrastructure."

"The buzz around Skype for Business is significant and clearly growing," states Avotus CEO, James Martino. "Yet many enterprises are not aware of the security and abuse risks inherent in these deployments. While UC implementation is streamlining the way we communicate and the way business gets done, these same tools can be used to sidestep firewalls and share confidential intellectual property, create legal liabilities, allow for noncompliance situations with regulatory agencies and enable employee abuse. Avotus has the solution. Enterprise customers can now simply deploy Skype for Business, in concert with our EUR for UC, mitigating these risks and protecting their communications environment and assets."

Avotus' EUR for UC with Skype for Business integration allows for unlimited data retention, the ability to create extensive high-level reports and the means to gain unprecedented visibility into the full suite of UC features, including CDR, presence, instant messaging, voice, audio conferencing, wireless usage and video conferencing – all within a single tracking and reporting platform. Avotus' Intelligent Communications Management (ICM) offers an EUR solution that mitigates UC deployment risks, including:
 

• Legal liability – Companies must be able to respond to litigation with accurate information about UC usage.
• Regulatory noncompliance - Financial industry regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, Dodd-Frank, HIPAA and many others require all electronic business communications to be monitored and archived, including instant messages.
• The loss of intellectual property – Careless handling of corporate data by employees through file-sharing, screen share or instant messaging can lead to intellectual property being compromised.
• Misuse of corporate assets – Companies must have access to reports that uncover any abuse or noncompliance with corporate guidelines.

Free White Paper
Avotus' latest white paper, The Need for Enhanced Usage Reporting when Implementing Skype for Business, is now available for free download. Many enterprises are now deploying Skype for Business as an add-on to an existing VoIP platform. They often overlook that the reporting capabilities they enjoyed in their legacy technology is often missing from the VoIP system, particularly in the extended UC features from Skype for Business. The paper details the often unknown risks of UC deployment and how to mitigate those risks when implementing Skype for Business. 

To schedule a meeting with Avotus at the Microsoft Ignite event – September 26–30, 2016, Atlanta, GA, contact Latha.dhyani@avotus.com

To learn more about Avotus, visit www.avotus.com, and join the conversation on Twitter and connect with the company on LinkedIn. 

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About Avotus
With more than 30 years of industry experience, Avotus is the award-winning provider of Intelligent Communications Management (ICM) solutions. ICM solutions enable users to optimize, manage and protect against misuse and abuse of their critical investments in telecom and technology. Avotus' ICM lifecycle can be deployed in a manner that allows each engagement to self-fund the next, while putting cash on the client's bottom line at each step. ICM solutions include: Enhanced Usage Reporting (EUR) for Unified Communications, Expense Management with ITAM Robot (EM), Intelli-Sourcing and Wireless Management. Avotus and its partners serve more than 1,000 clients in North America and around the world, many of which are industry-leading Fortune 5000 companies. ICM is Avotus' Intelligent approach to managing wireline and wireless assets, and a safeguard for your next-generation communications solutions.
 

For further information:
Avotus Contact:
Latha Dhyani
latha.dhyani@avotus.com
1-877-AVOTUS-1

GenBand Synergies 2014 Conference

I'm here attending GenBand's annual user and partner conference in Orlando. Unified Communications, OTT (Over The Top) and Sustainability are some of the key themes. Folks like GenBand are focused on revolutionizing the way we innovate on the web. They take a network agnostic approach. Get to the Internet and then we'll open up a world of possibilities. Working on an effort with GenBand to integrate the Avotus Usage Management platform into the GenBand SBC (session border controller) world. GenBand's CEO says that he is razor focused on delivery high quality sessions and increasing session volume. A session can be a phone call over SIP, web conference, text, messaging, web conference etc. More session = more money for GenBand. Similar to the Apple App Store approach…..GenBand is encouraging partners to develop applications, services and innovations which run over the Genband platform and ultimately increase season volume. Where do I want to take Avotus now as their CEO? We will provide all types of reporting and monitoring of employee activity on the UC platform. Not just voice calls, we'll extend our reporting to all sessions. Visibility, data management and cost savings. That's what Avotus provides to carrier and enterprise clients.

Telecom Professional Available in No NJ

To the extent that the recent weather events in NY Metro have impacted your network or business, we are happy to assist in any way. We have access to telecom professionals, equipment, electronics and data center recovery professionals Contact us for assistance.

Disaster Recovery Plan Works

TelecomMarketplace headquarters in Bergen County, NJ were impacted by the recent ice storm event. However, we are happy to report that our disaster recovery plan worked as planned and we maintained power to critical systems, Internet Access, phone, email and video. On the home-front I learned: a) generators are worth every penny b) you can never have enough extension cords, c) gas fireplace beats wood d) Gas hot water heaters continue to work e) gas furnaces do not f) gas chain saws are also worth every penny over electric. g) your FIOS internet and TV (fiber) will come back on if you attach to generator while it seems your Cable service will not. h) lastly a generator greatly increases one's popularity.

New TelcoSource Event Builder Module

The TelcoSource team has been busy gathering feedback from clients and focus groups. Our programmers have now been able to upgrade the event builder module to be even easier to use. Answer basic questions and choose from easy to understand pull downs and you can create your "carrier grade" scope of work in less than 5 minutes. Then launch your event to up to 75 major suppliers of Telecom Services and Equipment. You can also invite your current suppliers to ensure that everyone has a chance to bid on your business. Check out the new module and let us know your thoughts.

Now Free Professional Services Support from TelcoSource

TelcoSource
TelcoSource is now offering unlimited professional services support for buyer on your first event. That means, we will help you develop your Scope of Work, build your event in TelcoSource and help manage the event. Still free for buyers, including this great support. That is how certain we are that TelcoSource will save you both time and money.

IT Expo Show in Austin

Just started walking the floor at the IT Expo show in Austin. No surprise, everyone is talking about the cloud. Nitel is one of the newest suppliers available through TelcoSource.net. I was impressed by www.doubledutch.me. Their Hyve enterprise produtivity tool looks like it could be a good fit as a Business Solution on the www.TelecomMarketplace.net carousel.

StartUp camp is at 4pm and MagicJack events tonight. More to come from the show.....

New TelecomMarketplace Web Platform is More Powerful than Ever

The latest version of www.TelecomMarketplace.net was launched yesterday. More solutions, improved business case profiles and easier navigation. Check it out and let me know your thoughts. If you have a carrier grade solution, let's discuss adding your company profile.

Finally Someone Else Who Gets It: Only Small Business Can Deliver Jobs

Brian Miller of Entrepreneurs Group finally gets quoted saying everything I have been for months. You want jobs, you need to bolster Small Business start ups and SMB growth. The SMB sector is the only proven job creator. Here is the link:

Kiva City, Bill Clinton and Visa Team Up For Entrepreneurs in America

Some of you are already familiar with my thoughts on how to spur the US Economy. See June 13, 2011 blog post. It was encouraging to see Bill Clinton and Visa take note of Kiva.Org's success in micro-lending and bringing the concept to the US in a big way. This may be another good spoke in the wheel and could help to direct the equity portion of the small business lending program I describe on June 13th. I have supported Kiva's mission abroad and am glad to support it in the US where we need it now more than ever. See full story.

ICloud: What is Steve Jobs up to?

Apple introduced its free iCloud Service recently with more oohs and ahhs going to its new OS Lion. However, the real story is iCloud. First, Apple is about to make The Cloud mainstream. With its ability to sync all your Apple devices, Apple users of any two or more devIces will soon discover that multi device syncing with the cloud is a Must Have for their digital lives. Credit Apple with once again showing how technology can be delivered seemlessly and intuitively. But is iCloud really free?

Here is why the candy man is so generous.
First, iCloud will breed loyalty, stickiness and make new Apple purchases extremely tempting. Once, we enjoy the reality of finding our data, email, music and software on any device, we are not likely to want to buy android and microsoft based products which will not work with iCloud. So we can increase Apple's upsell purchase forecast across the board. And that is all gravy as its selling more of the same products to existing users. Also, go ahead and increase the new user forecast for ARPU (avg revenue per user), the holy grail of higher multiples.

It gets better. You see, more corporate users are making personal decisions to purchase Apple products. However, they keep exasperating corporate CIOs by taking the darn things to work, and connecting them to the corporate data farm and syncing their mail, attachments and contacts. Well remember, Steve is now offering to sync that same data to his Cloud. Isn't that convenient. So, how long will it take for confidential information and personal digital preferences from most of America, including its corporate data to end up in Steve's cloud? Once its all there, how will it be protected? Or Used? Who will use it and how? Will we soon be discussing Steve's cloud like we have been Google's surfing data farm?

Of course we will hear all the promises of best security etc, but who are we protecting it from? Hackers or Steve's product marketing team. All that data is so tempting. Even stripped of its personal names, just think how well Apple could focus market to you with that data.

It is likely that by the time any regulators wake up to the possibility it'll be too late. Btw: I bet there are alot of government agencies as well who wouldn't mind gaining access to it. Subpoena or not. Some might not even mind Steve putting it conveniently all in one place.

So, in summary, something to think about. Overall, I think its a brilliant plan. Great corporate drama. I can't wait for the movie. It'll make Social Network look like a walk in the park.

Multi screen Trumps Commercial Services at NCTA

The emphasis this year is all about multi screen viewing. Content providers are clashing with cable co's regarding how and who interfaces with the end user. Comcast and HBO Go both are trying to get on your iPad from different angles. Some MSO's are tethering your mobility to your residence network (TWC) while others are letting you access on any network (Comcast). Meanwhile HBO and Showtime are trying to demonstrate that Coax is not their only path to the end user. Fun times with the lawyers starting to get busy.

Meanwhile, Commercial Services had a low profile, to my disappointment, which is contrary to what we at TelecomMarketplace are hearing from our MSO clients. Also, the number of 3D demos was way down versus last year.

The other notation is that the iPad is ruling the show. Attendees, exhibitors and speakers are all talking about the transformative tablet. Other tablets will continue to lag as all product development and interfaces are iPad focused first.

IPad is also proving disruptive to corporate security with employees bring in personal devices which then start carrying corporate data on sync up.

We spoke to NCTA about helping them start a Commercial Services track for next year and may be engaged by them to help launch it. More to come.

Steve co host of Fox and Friends and me

Paris Hilton drawing a crowd at Oxygen Booth

Live fromNCTA

Live from NCTA

Theme this year seems to be TV Anywhere, multi screen viewing and Apple response.

At The Cable Show this week in Chicago

Chicago, ill

Attending the annual NCTA Cable Show this week. All the key content, broadband and solution providers are in attendance. With a jam packed agenda, we will be representing our clients to the Cable Industry. Big meetings with Time Warner Cable, RCN, Pat Media and Brighthouse are just a sample. In each case we will be introducing their executives to our clients products and partnership solutions as an executive Business overlay to their internal teams.

How are you forging partnerships?

Surprise Surprise: No Entrepreneurs and no Jobs

The front page of USA today reported that entrepreneurial activity in America has reached a 20 year low. Yet politicians continue to be baffled with the economy's failure to create jobs. Meanwhile large business profits and productivity are soaring. While big business continues to improve margins by a) sending jobs overseas (employers > 500 employees had a loss of 1M jobs between 2001 and 07, while SMB's added 7M jobs over the same timeframe. All while the economy was decent) and b) favoring investments in capital over labor.

Meanwhile, the bailouts, government takeovers and Stimulus 1 and 2 continue their focus on supporting large businesses, who have a long history of not creating jobs for America. Here's an idea, focus some government stimulus on small and medium businesses. How about enticing entrepreneurs to invest and create jobs. No, refunding a few payroll tax dollars after 12 months is not working and never would work. For pennies the feds could use the SBA programs to entice both the employed and unemployed to exercise their entrepreneurial spirit. For example, the SBA program could be used to help entrepreneurs lower their risk profile in this unusually risky environment. If people are unwilling to buy real estate at 50 cents on the dollar, why would we anticipate they would invest in risky start ups at 100 cents on the dollar. I believe unemployment could be cut within 18 months to under 7% by instituting the following program: for every dollar that an entrepreneur invests in a start up, the sba provides .50 in non lienable loans and .50 in equity investment up to $500k in total investment. Current SBA loans require the entrepreneur to accept a lien on their house (not happening and little equity in real estate anyhow to recover). The equity portion would be payable to the government on liquidation with a liquidity preference but no appreciation. Sounds a lot like what the car makers and banks received.
In this program an entrepreneur would be heavily enticed to invest, since they could double their chances of success. The government would still recover their money from all the successful start ups while not further punishing those who lose their investment further by taking their home. Meanwhile, we would be assured that the stimulus would be heavily spent on job creation because local, small and medium businesses are labor intensive and proven job creators.

Why do I need to break from running my company to figure this out for these baffled politicians? The reality is that SMB's don't get the carrot because they don't pay the piper. They don't typically make big political contributions, hire lobbyists or have the time to woo their local politicians. They are too busy running their companies. Wake up media, politicians and pundits... No start ups No Jobs.

TelcoSource Partner Program Launched

This past Thursday we unveiled the long anticipated Partner Program for the TelcoSource platform. This program is off to a fast start and has the ability to help our partners solidify their strategic importance to their customers while bringing in some very healthy new revenues.

This Week at TelcoSource

Here are some samples of current live procurement events which TelcoSource buyers have put out to bid and are running on www.TelcoSource.net this week.

Scope Customer Type Bid Type Auction Ends

> PRI for Manufacturing Firm
> 4 Site MPLS Network for a Medium Enterprise
> Cisco Routers for a Large Cable Operator
> Cisco Switches for a Large Carrier

If you are not yet registered as a supplier, then our buyers can not invite you to these events. If you are a buyer and are not yet using TelcoSource, then you are probably losing time and money. Remember, registration is free. Suppliers only pay a small fee (via their agency program) when TelcoSource delivers revenue at a low cost of sales. There is no reason not to be registered.

Remember, we are also running a contest for an iPad2. All new buyer registrations are automatically entered. Buyers and Partners also increase their chances of winning with each successfully launched event. Contact us with any questions or to request an invitation to one of the above events, after you have registered.

Sincerely,

TelcoSource Platform Team
Marketing@TelcoSource.net
(646) 494-2001