My good friend Peter Csathy, Sightspeed CEO wrote a very detailed post about Sightspeeds recent announcement of their partnership with Dell the other day. I'd posted the announcement, but Peter's post raises some really pertinent points for the industry to consider.

Speculation About SightSpeed's Partnership Success -- "How Do They Do It?" Ever since the news broke a couple weeks back about SightSpeed's new partnership with Dell, there has been much speculation about how we did it. Jim Courtney and Phil Wolff of Skype Journal -- both of whom are closely watched and respected voices in our space -- each recently shared their thoughts on the subject, which was very much appreciated. Jim also blogged about the partnership when it was first announced.

Although the Dell announcement most definitely represents a significant milestone for our company and the overall video communications marketplace in general for the reasons discussed in my earlier post, Dell certainly isn't our first and only "blue chip" partner. It may surprise many folks that we also have long established partnerships with Microsoft, Intel, AMD, Ask.com, Creative, VTEL, Ezonics and others, as well as long-standing relationships with major media companies like Viacom (MTV and Nickelodeon) and Disney (ABC News). The MTV relationship alone -- which began nearly 2 years ago -- marked the first time that Internet video communications (powered by SightSpeed) and webcams were used to enable home viewers to participate live on the air on nationwide hit shows like "Total Request Live" (TRL).

[Read Peter's full post]

Certainly, as Peter notes, this announcement is significant for
Sightspeed as a company. While they've had many significant wins in the
past couple of years, and done some amazing things to further the
combination of video and VoIP communications, this is the biggest
victory I recall for Sightspeed.

Peter made some points that I think are really noteworthy and worth revisting.

He noted that you must be best in class, period. While Peter cites some awards Sightspeed has received, for me it's far more than industry accolades. Best in class means thought leadership and a continual uphill fight for excellence across the board. I've been watching the broad unified communications space for a good many years. There's been an abundance of lethargic and apathetic push of mediocrity that's permeated much of the sector. What my friend Andy Abramson calls me too solutions have proliferated.

I can't even count the number of mediocre, or worse - pure crap, solutions I've seen come to market with no more than a half-implemented, half-baked idea. There have been far too many companies pushing garbage into the market without sustainable business plans or business models.

Telecommunications is a global industry, yet too many players today have no objective to delivering services or solutions. They come to the table with simply a half-done concept that they hope will generate buzz and bring in acquisition dollars from someone like Google or Microsoft. That this tactic works, is nothing but further proof of the sad state of affairs in the industry as a whole. How many companies have these behemoths acquired for too much money, then done nothing with.? Too many.

Peter also pointed out that you must be built to parter, partnership "friendly" and partnership proven.Again, this is a common faling of the mediocre. When you build a half-baked solution with only a plan to sell-out-and-run, you aren't a viable partner. There are other companies that come to mind as solid leaders whose ongoing, sustained commitment to partnering come to mind. I'll be writing about one (Jaduka) in more detail in the next few days. Partnerships, not noisy handshake agreements that are all bluster and talk, but real partnerships that deliver real solutions, and carry real traffic, hold water. Noisy bluster about nonsense partnerships and acquisitions set of my "BS detector" pretty easily. They should do the same for you.

Lastly, Peter points out that you must have the right team and passion. Not the right team or passion - both together. There are a number of very passionate companies who simply don't have the right team in place. Some have leadership but not the technological depth. Some have fantastic technologists, but no business leadership. And some have snake oil that they're very passionate about - they drank their own KoolAid. And some innovators have a team of technical wizards and a business leadership team that has everything except passion. They want to bore us into adoption through numbers. We'll call them the losers, because they simply lack the basic survival skills of competitive business.

I've been watching closely and find myself questioning these more and more in my mind. And I'm going to start calling them out and questioning more directly. Yes that means I'll make all sorts of new friends stepping on some toes.

Peter and SightSpeed represent the best and brightest combination of everything it takes to thrive in the industry. Not survive - thrive. I don't always understand some of their directions, but the business acumen, thought leadership, passion and technical excellence they exude always leaves me cheering them on. And thanks Peter, for taking the time to blog and share your thoughts. That's the kind of thought leadership from a company leader that's sorely lacking in much of the unified communications space.