This morning I spent some time chatting again with Preston Gilmer, Vice President of Product Marketing at Sigma Systems. The podcast of our chat is now up online in the Realtime VoIP Community. Here's an intro to Preston directly from the Sigma Systems web page -

Preston Gilmer
Vice-President - Product Marketing

• As Vice President, Product Marketing, Preston, a 17-year veteran of the telecommunications industry, is responsible for the strategic direction of Sigma's products and oversees market analysis, marketing plan development, pricing, promotion, and business objectives.
• Preston's strong background in strategic product planning, product line management, product marketing, and business development for numerous software operational management systems firms, positions Sigma to extend our leadership position. Prior to joining Sigma, Preston held senior-level product management and business development positions at AT&T Bell Laboratories in digital switching systems, Tellabs Operations in optical, ATM and cable telephony element management systems, and ADC in operations support systems. Preston has an MBA in Marketing from North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, a Masters in Telecommunications from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois and Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering Technologies from DeVry University in Kansas City, Missouri

This podcast was recorded via me placing a SkypeOut call, using a program called HotRecorder to capture the audio stream. I'll be working aggressively to find a better PSTN recording mechanism. I've got six different options I've tried so far and all but one seem to overdrive the PSTN connection injecting distortion with excessive gain into the audio. The one that doesn't is a digital audio recorder that outputs a WAV file, but that too comes with some quality issues. Please blame the technology I've used and not my guests for any audio quality issues. In the meantime, until I find a good clean, workable solution that doesn't mean I as an individual have to implement an enterprise class system in my home office, I'll keep working on improving the audio quality with each iteration. Thanks for your patience and understanding...and I welcome your suggestions for tools that work smoothly in conjunction with PSTN calls.

I'll let Preston tell you a bit about Sigma Systems, but let me share some thoughts to begin with. As many of you who've read here for a while know, my career in telecommunications includes many years in the vestiges and death throes of the old Bell System. I began my telecom work with Pacific Bell, then with AT&T and years later with Lucent Technologies. In the carrier world of telecommunications, the Operational Support Systems (OSS) are vital to operations management. Sigma Systems is bringing that carrier-class OSS management view to the world of VoIP, ficed mobile convergence, and IMS. I can't do the graphic below justice, because on their web site areas within the picture hyperlink to that particular solution within their portfolio. I wanted to share the graphic because it demonstrates a comprehensive vision.



I'd like to thank Preston again for sharing his valuable time this morning. I'm confident we'll be talking again in the future.

Realtime VoIP podcasts are a pivotal part of the ongoing conversation within the VoIP community about standards, new technologies, and techniques for successful VoIP deployment. Realtime VoIP Community podcasts cover the high points in VoIP news and current events. In addition, tips and best practices for evaluating, implementing, and troubleshooting VoIP solutions will be discussed. We will conduct interviews with industry leaders, vendors and consultants. VoIP conferences, special events and seminars will be podcast from location at times.

Technorati Tags: Sigma Systems, Preston Gilmer, IMS, OSS, operations support systems, Ken Camp