An analysis that shows global emerging markets growing at a steady clip, and mature markets creeping out of recession despite Greece's debt, misses one modest exception: the Bank of Canada now projects that the Canadian economy will grow a faster-than-expected 3.7% this year. In January the Bank had forecast that the economy would grow 2.9% in 2010.
Major vendors are selling a bewildering array of video communications systems targeting every conceivable type of user. From cheapo video desktop applications to vast IMAX-style telepresence theatres, enterprises have a lot of gear – with plenty of bells and whistles – to choose from.
Whatever you say about business technology today, you’ve got to admit one thing: It’s pretty impressive stuff. Whether you’re sending an instant message to your boss from an airport gate or collaboratively updating a presentation in real-time with your globally scattered team, today’s tools allow us to do things we couldn’t even imagine a few short years ago.
Proposed new legislation covering electronic commerce practices will compel marketers to modify how they market online. However, marketers can take some steps now to ensure that their e-mail campaigns are compliant and effective.
Smaller ISPs who purchase capacity from Bell Canada and then resell it to retail customers will have fewer service differentiation options after a CRTC decision gave the country’s largest phone the green light to bill wholesale customers on a usage basis.
Peer-to-peer file sharing has been portrayed by some as the great evil that will bring down the public Internet, or at least grind it to a halt, if internet providers aren’t allowed to minimize the bandwidth that music, video and other file sharing use. But business users should also be concerned because, according to the country’s largest ISP, P2P can negatively affect the managed network service you are paying for.
Mobile video has a very high cool quotient, but does it serve any useful business purpose? Or could it? Canada’s carriers don’t have many unique products – some don’t even appear to have a strategy – and the business market seems to be waiting on consumers to find the value.
Type this article’s headline into just about any Internet search engine, and you’ll find plenty of video conferencing advice. Most of it applies to end-users – “decide who’s supposed to start the call beforehand,” “refrain from wearing loud clothing,” “don’t tap the microphone,” et cetera. But what about the IT and telecom departments implementing the technology?
