Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and seen online at theBusinessMakers.com. It's guest time on the show and I'm very pleased to have with me Joe Schurman, founder and CEO of Evangelized Communications. Joe, welcome to the BusinessMakers Show.
Joe: Thank you very much for having me here, Russ. I appreciate it.
Russ: You bet. Well let's start by you telling us about Evangelized Communications.
Joe: Well, EC is my first venture in creating an organization. I started off with kind of a gaggle of friends to put together something that we thought would be very innovative in the unified communications industry. So we started by designing and implementing technology that really sat on top of Microsoft's unified communications platform. By doing so we quickly became recognized by delivering very quick software to the Microsoft partner, I guess arena as well as also to I guess every industry from a unified communications perspective. So our solutions early on were utility based. Then we saw the success really grow on quickly and we decided to really invest in the company and really take this to the next level. Through some seed funding, as well as finding some really good additional resources to add to EC, we've developed some of the most innovative line of business software that's been released so far in this community.
Russ: Well tell us what unified communications means.
Joe: How long is our show? Let's look at this from the consumer's standpoint. If you've got wife and kids or family or friends, you're probably on Facebook, right. So you've got Facebook types of communication or e-mail, chat if you're online.
Russ: You bet.
Joe: Posting back and forth on a wall. You've got a home phone maybe. You probably don't 'cause everyone's switching over to mobile phones -
Russ: Right; that's true.
Joe: You might have a home phone. You definitely have a mobile phone.
Russ: Right.
Joe: Some people are even getting into sit based communications, meaning Skype or Vonage or something like that -
Russ: Right; that's for sure.
Joe: So what happens if you miss a call at home? What happens if you miss a call on your mobile? What happens if you miss a call on your Skype phone? What happens if you miss a chat in Facebook? Is there any way to unify all those into one place. That's what unified communications is. So if you think about this from an enterprise standpoint, organizations have Microsoft Exchange or Outlook or they've got an Avia's solution or Cisco solution or any type of existing communications infrastructure that's out there.
Russ: Right.
Joe: We all have mobile phones, right?
Russ: Right; absolutely.
Joe: So how do we unify all these modalities of communication? Well that's what unified communications is. It's taking your inbox and allowing your inbox to receive not only e-mail now, but also missed call notifications or missed chat notifications. If you're on the road or you're mobile, if you receive a call coming into your enterprise voice phone number, like your office line if you will, that phone will actually ring your desktop and your mobile device. If you miss the phone call on your mobile device it sends the user back to your voicemail and allows that voicemail to be sent to you back via e-mail along with a preview of that actual voicemail. So you can quickly now navigate through all these different modalities.
Russ: It clearly sounds complicated.
Joe: It is.
Russ: But that might be why there's lots of opportunity there as well.
Joe: Absolutely.
Russ: It was funny when you gave the initial example of my home. The way we handle the home phone is if somebody calls and leaves us a message, we just don't check it. We check it about once a month and it has gotten overwhelming.
Joe: You wanna know what my voicemail greeting is?
Russ: What's that?
Joe: We don't check our voicemail anymore. Please call our mobiles.
Russ: Great. So how old is the company?
Joe: We've been in business just this month of June 2010 two years.
Russ: Now do you already have unified communications products that you're installing?
Joe: Yeah; so we basically take the unified communications foundation and apply that towards line of business use. So the only organization that's out there or manufacturer that's out there today that provides that capability for developers like me and my company is Microsoft. So Microsoft has a UC platform that allows us to actually extract all those different types of modalities, phone e-mail, instant messaging, video, telepresence, and build applications that you would use in health care, higher education, general consumer based use via the web; those types of solutions. That's what we build. So we've built several solutions like that so far, one of which was actually acquired by a Fortune 500 company just this year.
Russ: So a product that your company, Evangelized Communications, built since its two year inception, it's already been bought.
Joe: Yes.
Russ: That's pretty cool.
Joe: We're very excited.
Russ: Now back to the big picture now. There have been pieces of this developed by others than Microsoft, right? I remember having a telephony product that integrated the office phone system with e-mail and the network quite successfully. I've heard about these sort of follow me programs that you have a number. Are those competitive products to unified communications or are they subsets to it?
Joe: Absolutely competitive. It's been more of an evolution than anything. That's the best way to describe this. Telephony is not a new technology or new industry. So we're talking about 50 to 100 years, plus old types of organizations. Cisco's been around for a long time. So has Avia. Even Nortel that was recently acquired by Avia. All these organizations provided a company with a PBX, a private branch exchange phone system, PBX phones which you would see in a normal office space location where you down line and dial the number out and a series of connections to the local PSTN network, AT&T or Sprint. So now those companies that are traditional telephony companies have added what's called an IP layer to those environments. What I mean by that is you can now access all those types of technology via the web or via a configured based platform, a UC platform. Avia's done the same with theirs and Nortel did the same with theirs; Cisco's done the same with theirs. The difference between what Microsoft does than these types of organizations is they developed it from a software approach versus taking it from a hardware approach and then slapping a software layer on top of it.
Russ: Doesn't there seem that there might be an opportunity for a simplification, even just on the hardware side -
Joe: Absolutely.
Russ: And particularly like your iPad here or the way mobile phones are just taking over and becoming very smart and sophisticated. Isn't there a chance that everybody, regardless if you're just a home user or if you're in a commercial application in the enterprise, everybody has their own individual device and that's the way we connect instead of trying to pull all these disparate systems into one package -
Joe: You nailed it. I think really my vision of this in the future I think is that we won't have an iPad or an HP device or a certain manufacturer's based platform. We're gonna have a slate. You'll get your cut of that slate. You'll design your own device that fits your everyday needs, whether that's something that fits in your coat pocket or your side pocket or something that you can hold like an iPad. It's completely operating system, internet browser ubiquitous. Then from that slate device you'll be able to connect all these different modalities of communication. I'm sure you'll have a choice of those providers like you do today with AT&T and Sprint and others. So I think that's the future. Right now it is still complex and it's tied together by applications and gateways.
Russ: I was wondering if we were hearing a new product announcement right now.
Joe: I wish. Coming soon from EC.
Russ: Alright. We're talking with Joe Schurman, the founder and CEO of Evangelized Communications. We'll be back with more with Joe after this. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Show heard here and seen online at theBusinessMakers.com.
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Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and seen online at theBusinessMakers.com. Continuing on with Joe Schurman, founder and CEO of Evangelized Communications. Well Joe, this whole unified communications is complex and sounds very specialized. What was it that attracted you in that direction?
Joe: To answer that very simply, my mentor and actually the gentleman that wrote the foreword for my last book is Gerdeve St. Paul and he's a great speaker, great, great mentor. His vision of this and his passion behind this has been that communications is the primordial event. We started out being able to communicate with each other via voice and video right here in person like we're doing today. We've now moved to these devices where if we're hiding behind e-mail and instant messaging and now we're soon moving into video to be able to really truly through HD communicate again despite our location. The whole goal between where we are now and then when we leave this office and we're able to communicate via other modalities, there's these devices that are in between. So what takes us to that next level to where even though we're maybe in another location we can still communicate like we are today side-by-side. That's the passion that I have is to design that technology that takes us there. Instead of having to look at a webcam and just see someone on a small screen, I'm thinking about 3D. Being able to really see you right there in my living room like you would in Star Wars. The next step in being able to communicate and reach out and see the facial expressions and the value that you would bring to me on a normal conversation that we'd have face-to-face. That's my passion.
Russ: And that's been your passion since your mentor introduced you to this whole idea.
Joe: That's just been my passion period.
Russ: Wow; okay.
Joe: Yeah; he just enhanced it 100 times.
Russ: So you didn't start and go down a different direction like product development or anything. It's just you've always been pretty much focused on communications and -
Joe: I just wanna be able to help. I'm the worst person to say this, too, 'cause I'll hardly ever respond to a phone call or even get on a phone call. I'm always right there and my employees and my colleagues will attest to that, but as far as a video conference is concerned, I'll always be there. Face-to-face meetings I'll always be there, but my passion has been to create technology that allows us to communicate more effectively together.
Russ: Now you mentioned your book and I happen to know there's two books already. Tell us what kind of education do you have.
Joe: I went to school for three years at the University Center of Houston and I was going towards a University of Houston information technology or computer science degree. I hate to say this, but at the time I really wasn't learning anything that applied towards what I was doing at the moment.
Russ: So that's why there were just three years.
Joe: That's why.
Russ: You dropped out.
Joe: Actually it was two years expanded into three years, yeah. So it was really two years. But I was a visual studio programmer and I wasn't learning anything about visual basic or those types of technologies. I was learning COBAL. That's changed now with most of these universities. That's why I had to leave. So I went towards adopting Microsoft Certifications and became a Microsoft Certified Master Architect and then became certified in those specific programming technologies. Then as I went through that and learned these other technologies, like the Microsoft Live Communications Server and Office communications server, I wrote books about those technologies to help other people understand how to get in this business and how to program based on those technologies.
Russ: And that's the two books that you've written.
Joe: Yes; so far.
Russ: That have been published and that are out there. What are the names of them?
Joe: The first one was Professional Live Communication Server 2005. That's a long reader there, but the next one is Microsoft Voice and Unified Communications, which is a much lighter read for people that wanna understand what Microsoft unified communications is all about. Then the one I have coming out is called Are You in IT. That's really to help individuals that wanna get into the IT industry really understand what it's all about. Also how to become a Microsoft MVP. There's a specific chapter there as well.
Russ: Well I definitely wanna talk about that, but let me connect the dots from dropping out of school to founding Evangelized Communications. What was between those two points?
Joe: Outside of just being nuts?
Russ: Right.
Joe: No; I became really good at this one specific programming technology at Compaq. I was able to really allow Compaq to be able to generate orders very quickly to some of their high end customers. That helped me really drive through Compaq, which then became HP. Then from HP I got a nice offer from IBM and became a developer for IBM. I've moved into management based on an offer from IBM to Accenture and then worked for Accenture and got a lot of experience being a manager of a consulting organization there and that's where I started meeting my Microsoft colleagues 'cause I was managing the Microsoft solutions organization there. After my stint at Accenture I became an independent consultant for Microsoft and did that for almost seven years and spent my last two years consulting for Microsoft research, which was probably the best experience I ever had in my career.
Russ: Did you do that in Redmond or just home based?
Joe: Well both. So I would work from home, but also travel back and forth to Redmond.
Russ: Well I know that Microsoft is probably key to your career of the past and the future, but before I leave Evangelized Communications, are there specific products that you're developing right this minute with Evangelized Communications?
Joe: Oh yeah. There's some really cool stuff.
Russ: Can you give us a preview of a couple of them?
Joe: So I talked about my passion for being able to help organizations communicate more effectively, right. But my focus right now is helping specific industries do that. Namely, higher education and health care. So we have a product coming out that's called UC University that allows individuals like you and I to take a class from any university anywhere in the world and being able to do so via live HD video. So you could actually see the professor, be able to participate with other colleagues or students inside that classroom environment and take the class from the comfort of your home.
Russ: What's the status of that product?
Joe: We're gonna launch it at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner conference in July.
Russ: Do you have any hot prospects yet or is it too early for that?
Joe: Absolutely. Yeah; we're actually working with several universities.
Russ: Okay; and the health care product.
Joe: That's the most passionate product that I've been focused on right now. It's called Smart Care. It's in development. We don't have a production release date yet for it. We're hoping to get it out this year. There's a lot of politics involved obviously in the health care industry. So just down side of getting the product ready we have to get it out there. Basically the need for this product came from witnessing my grandfather who's a quadriplegic not receive the type of care that he should be receiving based on the ability to communicate between physicians today. He's a quadriplegic so he receives these colonized diseases that are just due to the blood flow pressure that he has. So he literally had to fly from Canada to Dallas to see a doctor. I just did not understand that at all. So we're developing solutions that run on an HP slate device or an iPad that allow a home care or critical care type patient or immobile patient to be able to interface via HD conferencing with their medical record with the physician and allow that physician to interact with other physicians.
Russ: That's cool.
Joe: On that same record.
Russ: That's real cool.
Joe: That's changing life changing technology.
Russ: Absolutely.
Joe: So I'm hoping any hospital that's out there can understand this and understand the passion behind getting it out there.
Russ: That's cool. Sounds like you're changing an industry there, too.
Joe: Hopefully.
Russ: Alright; cool. Talking with Joe Schurman, the founder and CEO of Evangelized Communications and we'll be back with more with Joe after this. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Show heard here and seen online at theBusinessMakers.com.
Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and seen online at thebusienssmakers.com. Continuing on with Joe Schurman, founder and CEO of Evangelized Communications. Well Joe, you've already mentioned how important your Microsoft background and certification has been in your career so far, but it's also pretty cool to note that you are a six time Microsoft Most Valuable Professional winner. Tell us about the MVP program first at Microsoft.
Joe: Well I found out about the program when I was responding to blog posts. Individuals that were using professional life communication server at the time were trying to receive support. So not only Microsoft could respond, but people that knew about the product could help other individuals with their problems and technical issues. So I started really heavily responding on those blog posts and threads on support forms. Because of that I was recognized as an MVP or expert in that technology.
Russ: Meaning Microsoft saw the exchanges and said wow, this guy Joe knows what he's talking about.
Joe: And they award people like that for all their help with the community.
Russ: Wow; cool.
Joe: So it's not just an award, but they give you access to specific software for free. They give you a Microsoft - it's an MSDN or developer license subscription to all Microsoft Office and applications for free, which is awesome. That's like a - I don't now -- $30,000.00 investment in the MVP and they invite you up to Redmond once a year for a huge MVP event.
Russ: Wow.
Joe: It's a week long and you get to see all the Microsoft products that come out before they're released six months in advance.
Russ: And the only people that are invited are other MVPs?
Joe: Just MVPs worldwide.
Russ: How many are there each year?
Joe: I haven't checked what the latest number is. I know that it's in the hundreds of thousands and usually there's millions of applicants every year. So it's a very select program, but it's a good group of people though. We're all about helping each other out. That's what the MVP program's about.
Russ: That's cool. And you actually see unannounced Microsoft products?
Joe: Actually at the event yes, but also if you're an MVP in a specific product - like my product is specific to communication server 2010. So this product I have ongoing regular contact with the product team to help them design the future of that technology.
Russ: Gees.
Joe: It's not like they'll take my ideas and just incorporate all of them, but they'll take it under consideration in the forum, which is nice.
Russ: So I imagine you see some pretty cool stuff there.
Joe: Oh, absolutely. Between Microsoft research and being an MVP, there's all kinds of very cool things coming from Microsoft.
Russ: Tell us what the coolest one is that has not been announced yet.
Joe: I can't do that. I can just say watch out for Windows Mobile.
Russ: Alright. But it seems kind of interesting though the state of Microsoft right now because all that anybody talks about is Apple and iPad and mobile and iPhone and Google. It almost seems like Microsoft's in third or fourth place right now.
Joe: There's two problems. One is Microsoft watches. They heavily invest in R&D, heavily. I used to work for the organization for two years so I've seen it. The other thing is they watch the market. They see how consumers respond. They develop something behind the scenes and then all of a sudden they test the waters and they come out with a groundbreaking product. The problem though is that between Microsoft's marketing and the rest of these organizations' provider marketing it, it seems substandard. Steve Jobs does a great job of coming out with new products. Everyone's waiting on every word that he says when the iPhone or the iPad comes out. I've already ordered both. I've got an iPad and iPhone 4 on the way. So for IT people like you and I or anyone that's technically involved there who's a device freak, they're always waiting for that, right. Microsoft hasn't been like that, but I can tell you just to wait. They've hired the right people.
Russ: Cool.
Joe: They've got new marketing teams in place. I read an article where they hired the guy that did the Nissan commercials where the guy's driving down the road and all the animals are freaking out and they're trying to help out, but they've got those good, key people now and you'll start seeing a combination of technology and marketing together.
Russ: Cool. I'm curious. When you won these six MVP awards, how do they notify you?
Joe: Well I've been renewed every year based on involvement. So the first time I received the award was an e-mail and a letter and they give me a certificate. I've got six of those certificates now on the wall, but the renewal, it's not easy. You really have to apply assistance back to the community. That's why I wrote the books. I didn't write that to make money. Money's nice, but I'm helping the community understand these products. That's the focus. Outside of the books that are for sale I write White Papers, I do blog posts, I've got a network world blog that's out there that I update and I try to start topics. Like my latest one is 3D for unified communications. I wanted to see feedback based on that.
Russ: Are you getting feedback already on it?
Joe: Already. Yeah; I just posted it. So that's the kind of stuff that you have to do to be involved in the community and help the community understand this technology and make it better.
Russ: Joe, before I let you go let's imagine that we have some young, aspiring innovator listening to you right now and just think wow, what a cool path, what a cool life. What advice would you give him or her?
Joe: I'm an IT guy so when I stepped into this and said that I'd be the CEO and right now I consider myself a temporary CEO. The bit of advice I can give to answer your question is get ready to learn something about everything because I've had to learn everything about taxes and accounting to legal work and reseller contracts. You name it. It's just a whirlwind of different items to manage a holistic business. Then the people management side of it along with that is something that I wasn't used to. A usual technology savvy type individual is not very good at communicating with other human beings. So that's one thing I've had to learn is to be able to just be calm and to understand everyone's needs and values and what they're bringing to the table and try and collectively bring everyone together to build passion.
Russ: Great. Well I really appreciate you sharing your story with us.
Joe: Well thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. It's been an honor.
Russ: You bet. That's Joe Schurman, the founder and CEO of Evangelized Communications. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Show heard here and seen online at theBusinessMakers.com.
