Cloud Communications

Cloud Communications Feature

June 01, 2011

Cloud Communications Company Welcomes New Team Members

By Anshu Shrivastava, TMCnet Contributor

Cloud communications leader Macheen has appointed Kent Libbey as the company’s vice president for marketing. The company also announced the creation of a new advisory board.

A veteran in the communications and software industry, Libbey brings over 20 years of marketing leadership in telecommunications, media, software and cloud-based applications.  

Libbey co-founded Sharegrove, a real-time communications service that was acquired by Facebook in 2010. Prior to being the CEO of Sharegrove, he was chief marketing officer of Laszlo (News - Alert) Systems, a pioneer of Web 2.0 applications.  

At Microsoft and Excite@Home, he was handling lead marketing and product management, and helped define and drive new ecosystems around broadband TV--aligning content, equipment and service providers globally.  

Based in Silicon Valley, he is expected to help establish Macheen’s partnerships and market presence.

“Libbey brings a unique blend of executive experience, with a record of success at aligning new communications ecosystems,” said Richard Schwartz, CEO and president at Macheen.  

Macheen enables device makers and retailers to deliver products that are pre-connected to mobile broadband networks across the world.  The company sees a period of tremendous change and opportunity in services for connected devices, driven by new business models for content, device and service providers, and influenced by the success of Amazon's Kindle and Apple's (News - Alert) App Store, Schwartz said.

“Kent has repeatedly navigated such opportunities in the past and will bring invaluable insights to Macheen as we capitalize on this change.”

The new advisory board is expected to provide Macheen with the expertise and consultation in several areas, including strategic planning and industry relations. Veterans of mobile and Internet industry, Daniel Shader and Carmel Sofer, will be joining the board as charter members.

“Both Shader and Sofer are highly successful and widely recognized industry leaders, and they will bring unique skills in driving converging wireless and industry market changes, Schwartz said.

Schwartz said that after a successful run at Netscape in the early Internet days, Shader pioneered enterprise data and messaging services as CEO of Good Technology and machine-to-machine (M2M) services as CEO of Jasper Wireless (News - Alert).  

Carmel founded Starhome, the industry pioneer for roaming wireless services and inter-carrier commercial settlements while an executive at Comverse (News - Alert) Technologies, then later became a venture capitalist at Gemini, Schwartz said.

In other cloud communications news, it may seem like businesses everywhere are flocking to cloud communications services, in part to reap the economic rewards and flexibility benefits. But, according to some experts, small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) may not be embracing the trend as much as others.

Among the top reasons SMBs may be reluctant to embrace cloud communications are the fact that SMBs may be experiencing uncertainty about which provider or technical approach to use.

Luckily for SMBs experiencing these sentiments, there are many cloud communications providers ready to quell these concerns, including Telesphere (News - Alert).

Telesphere, a company advocates consumers to adopt its “Telesphere Difference,” was set up specifically to address SMB concerns and help them enjoy the “extensive service and features” generally available only to larger corporations—all without the “cost, hassle, and limitations of traditional systems,” according to company officials.


Anshu Shrivastava is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anshu’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Carrie Schmelkin
 
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