Unified Communications for the Enterprise

I've never had to, or had the opportunity to, write the very first entry in a company's blog.  A little bit daunting I must admit. But now I've started it seems much easier.....

I'm a relative newcomer to Smoothstone, just a couple of months in, but its time to make some changes.  Not in what we do, or how we do it, but in the ways that we communicate and position ourselves in this fast evolving world of Unified Communications. Smoothstone really has been at the forefront of that evolution for the past 8 years.  The company was founded in 2000 as Teledvance, offering hosted VoIP services to mid-sized enterprises. We changed the name to Smoothstone IP Communications in 2005 (I'm still trying to get the real story of where the name "Smoothstone" came from) and have grown quickly, developing an integrated service platform that delivers a full suite of Unified Communications tools to mid/large sized enterprises. 

I'm thrilled to be here at Smoothstone.  I've been in the IT and Service Provider industry for almost 20 years and one thing that i've learned - its not what you do, but how you do it that matters most.  As a Service Provider, its a basic expectation that you will give your clients access to great technology, technology that they perhaps could not afford, or probably not have the skills to implement themselves.  But the technology does not differentiate you, its how you work with your clients to integrate that technology into their business that really counts.

It was, and still is, evident to me that Smoothstone really understands this and has founded its business on this principal.  Over the past few weeks a couple of things have really driven this home to me. 

First, we put the company through a rigorous third party audit to achieve a "Cisco Powered" certification as a Managed Services Channel Partner.  We passed the audit with flying colors and are now part of an elite group of providers who can claim that title http://tools.cisco.com/WWChannels/LOCATR/performBasicSearch.do Achieving that certification was as much about the skills of our people and the processes/practices we have developed to work with our customers as it was about the technology we offer. 

Secondly, we won the Telecom Association's Member's Choice Award for Hosted VoIP.  Now if you want to find an audience that is demanding and discerning, its the Telecom Association's members.  Their businesses live and die by the quality of services that they provide to their customers.  For me, winning that award was a great affirmation of my decision to join Smoothstone. http://www.telecomassociation.com/TAvote/2009_files/2009_winners_final.pdf

So it should be an exciting few months ahead, continued innovation as we extend our service offerings, focus on helping our customers get real value from Unified Communications, and a fresh approach to how position ourselves in this crowded market.....

James Whitemore

Chief Marketing Officer