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Mobile & Wireless
NXTcomm 2008: GENBAND sets future course
CEO Charlie Vogt sees unlimited opportunities for next-gen media gateways
by Sean Buckley
Having spent his youth through college playing competitive sports,
Charlie Vogt, the current CEO of GENBAND, says that ‘the coach’s job is
to put the best team on the field.’ Vogt, who previously had stints as
CEO of Taqua and in executive leadership roles at the former Santera,
has maintained the coach style of management at GENBAND.
Joining the company in 2004 — a time when the telecom industry was still very much
in the throes of the so-called nuclear winter — Vogt decided to not only
change the name of the company to GENBAND but also refocus the
mission on being a next-gen gateway company with a global reach. In
the following interview, Telecommunications Editor in Chief
Sean Buckley talked to Vogt about how GENBAND is readying itself to
respond to the future needs of the wireless and wireline service provider
community.
Telecommunications: GENBAND, or what used to be known as General
Bandwidth and the overall gateway space, has gone through various
transitions since being named as a Telecommunications hot company in
2001. Since you took the helm as president and CEO in 2004, how has
the company and the overall space evolved?
Vogt: When I joined General Bandwidth in 2004, telecom was still a bit
fragile having just begun to come out of the industry’s worst period in
history — a period many of my colleagues referred to as “nuclear winter.”
General Bandwidth’s original vision produced a state-of-the-art voice
over broadband gateway that was ultimately brought to market before
the market was ready. Over the past few years, the industry has
evolved from a fixed, passive, proprietary network to a fully distributed
mobile converged network. We have spent the past few years working
closely with the industry’s most forward-looking network service
providers to redefine our gateway portfolio to not only address today’s
requirements, but the requirements associated with network
convergence. Today, our gateways are arguably the most advanced
second-generation gateways in the industry, uniquely supporting both
fixed wireline and wireless.
In 2006, we made several bold moves that prompted a branding
opportunity, hence General Bandwidth became GENBAND:
• First, we established ourselves as a best-of-breed gateway
company, i.e., not a softswitch or call control company.
• Second, we established what I refer to as a direct
touch/channel fulfillment (DTCF) go-to-market model. While this may
sound simple, most companies don’t understand channels and what it
takes to be a business partner. While we are always listening and
learning, we are a company focused on the details, operational
excellence and conducting ourselves with the highest level of customer
satisfaction and ethics.
• Third, we began executing our vision of globalizing our
business through strategic partnerships, acquisitions and our “direct
touch” sales organization.
Today, GENBAND’s gateways are deployed in over half of the top 100
network service providers spanning 62 countries with over 30 million
ports deployed. Our revenues have increased from single digit millions in
2005 to US$94 million in 2007 with calendar Q1 2008 representing our
strongest bookings and revenue quarter to date.
GENBAND is recognized by Inc. 500 as one of the nation’s fastest
growing privately-held companies, and both Infonetics and Synergy
Research label GENBAND with market-share leadership in both fixed and
wireless gateway categories.
Telecommunications: In early 2008, GENBAND appointed a number of new
members of management. How will those appointments help you meet
your goals in 2008 and beyond?
Vogt: With the exception of me and Jimmy Odom — who manages our
global quality and post M&A integration, my management team has been
hand-picked over the past four years to deliver exceptional results in
their respective roles. The human factor is the end game; if you can
attract, motivate, mentor and retain experienced, motivated, ethical
people you can actually get a round of golf in once a quarter...Having
spent my youth through college playing competitive sports, I know that
the coach’s job is to put the best team on the field. GENBAND is no
exception to that philosophy.
During the past four years, we have been fortunate to have assembled a
management team that frankly “is as good as it gets” and they’re having
fun! Culture drives performance and at GENBAND, we have invested in a
culture that is contagious. Employees want to be on a winning team,
though it’s more than just winning, it’s how you win along the way. We
treat our employees with the respect they deserve. There is zero
tolerance for politics, arrogance, selfishness and gossip. We have
fostered a “safe environment” whereby employees can respectfully speak
freely about ideas, concepts and changes that need to be made in order
to enhance our business even when they’re not popular.
Telecommunications: Synergy Research recently named the company as
one of the top market share leaders in the multimedia gateway segment.
What are the biggest areas of growth for GENBAND in this segment?
Vogt: We are experiencing hyper growth today as network service
providers are transitioning their TDM and ATM networks to IP. Media
Gateways are the mediation required to speak multiple “languages”
(TDM, ATM and IP) in order for the network transformation to occur.
Wireless is clearly a growth engine for GENBAND. While we are doing well
in the United States, we are experiencing exceptional growth in emerging
markets - India and China. Looking out 2+ years, we see Fixed Mobile
Convergence (FMC) and mobile data being high growth markets GENBAND
where will play a significant role.
Telecommunications: In addition to wireline operators, it’s clear that
wireless is making a transition as well as evidenced by your recent win
with Cricket and the G9 Converged Media Gateway. Are more wireless
operators coming to you to help in their IP transition?
Vogt: Our Converged Gateways are being deployed via our partners with
global wireless carriers such as China Mobile, China Unicom, T-Mobile,
BSNL and Leap (Cricket) to name a few. We are active in 12 Femtocell
trials with some of the world’s largest wireless service providers. In 2007,
50 percent of our revenue was represented by wireless service providers and
we expect that trend to increase in 2008.
Telecommunications: How has the concept of the media gateway evolved since it started to emerge in the late 1990s?
Vogt: Not sure how educated the market is relative to the sophistication
of media gateways. How many people do you know that speak multiple
languages? How about 195 different languages? That is the expectation
if your company wants to deploy media gateway technology in all 195
countries around the world. Many of our circuit boards are 16 layers
spanning just 1 inch in thickness and with 3,500 components.
Nearly 10 years after the inception of General Bandwidth and Santera
Systems, we are deploying second generation gateway technology
leveraging the most advanced processors, memory, capacitors, FPGA,
framers, Ethernet switches, power supplies and disc drives. We will
leverage our global gateway footprint (representing 62 countries today)
as the industry evolves to IP sessions, security and mobile data over the
next 10 years. Gateways have been playing a vital role in evolution of
the network for the past 25 years and we expect that gateways will play
a significant role for the next 25 years.
Telecommunications: Outside of telecom, GENBAND is also making a
splash in the defense industry by finishing Joint Interoperability Test
Command (JITC) and interoperability testing with DISA. Do you see more
work coming in the defense and public sector industries?
Vogt: Not sure I would say we are making a splash in the defense
industry but we are definitely making progress and our progress is a
direct result of several initiatives including leveraging the relationships
that our partners Nortel, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens has with the
defense industry.
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