Today marks the beginning of my fourth year at GENBAND, a company I am proud to be a part of, and with our world-class customers and partners, a community I always wake up happy to be included in. 

The real-time communications industry is undergoing unprecedented changes - changes in technology, applications, business models and economics. The only winners are the companies who never stand still, and don't just "deal" with the changes, but become the change-makers, which is why GENBAND, and our most exciting initiative, Kandy, have been so successful.

GENBAND started out as a disruptor, as a start-up creating soft-switching technology that connected traditional networks (TDM) with IP networks, powering VoIP services as voice continued to travel over the Internet, displacing billions of dollars in revenue previously generated.

Rolling up other innovators into a broad portfolio of patented technologies (GENBAND now has over 400 patents), the company grew and branched out, building service applications including messaging apps, through acquisitions and through in-house R&D.

When I arrived, having been recruited by Chairman and CEO David Walsh and other inspiring leaders on the executive team, GENBAND was pushing the envelope, acquiring companies like fring, which repositioned what has always been a solid software company, into very creative software and applications provider.

Everything as a Service 

Our customers and our company is in the "service" business, but at no time in the history of "telecom" has it been more important than now. With real-time communications (voice, video, messaging) moving to the cloud even faster than computing moved to the cloud in the last decade, our customers and the customers they serve are buying everything differently, everything "as-a-Service." One of the most thrilling accomplishments our team at GENBAND has achieved is the successful launch and stellar growth of Kandy, which takes our core, patented technology, now available in Network Virtualized environments, and makes it available "as a Service" which can be consumed on an as-needed basis.

From our developers to our leadership team, from our sales professionals and engineers to our customer support team - everybody in our company is focused around the idea - and ideal - of service. This extends to service to the communities we serve, including not only our annual Global Day of Service, but including volunteer activities and contributions to non-profits and community organizations, often bringing our communications services to them, which we most recently did in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

GENBAND's culture is open, diverse, supportive of women and men of all nationalities and beliefs, and is seamlessly glued together quite literally with our own software solutions, as we stay connected around the world with our colleagues, customers and partners utilizing our own collaboration platform and services. GENBAND's culture is on the move, able to continually support our customers and each other, accessible via mobile, able to quickly respond to requests, and able to serve - in real-time - the markets we are succeeding in each and every day. 

While it is impossible in this brief post to share all the accomplishments I have witnessed and been a part of over the last three years, here are some of the highlights:

• Launched Kandy Communications Platform as a Service, which has since won several awards for performance and innovation, recognized by several Tier 1 analysts as holding a leadership position
• Established and announced strategic global partnerships with leading global software and systems integration companies like IBM and SAP
• Contributed to major rolls outs of services from large companies including Bharti Airtel, Deutsche Telekom (Immmr), Telecom Italia (Sparkle) and PLDT as they continue to fight back against new competitors
• We were among the first to highlight the human connection to RTC and IoT and today are continuing to build AI powered bots that are disrupting the contact center world as people and machines continue to evolve their "relationships" 
• We are a vibrant participant in the NFV ecosystem partners like HPE, Intel and Wind River going to market alongside us
• We introduced The Exchange of Everything vision, which supports the hyper-connected world of people, things, and systems, applications, clouds and networks generating massive data and analytics, in turn creating massive commercial value 
• We continue to be the global leader in Network Transformation of massive Tier One and other IP networks 
• We focused on increased support for Women in Technology, creating opportunities for tomorrow’s leaders (internships) and mentoring young adults
• We made significant advancements in our sustainability and environmental programs reducing impact on the environment within our own business and contributing to improvements for our customers as well with solutions requiring less energy, cooling and more 
• We grew our commitment to all the communities we are so fortunate to serve with our year round volunteer and Global Day of Service activities

Everything is Transforming 

We are in the service business - and yes - everything as a service! We are in the Exchange of Everything business - connecting people, places and things. And we are in the transformation business - across everything we do, GENBAND loves a great challenge, and not only do we never back down from change, we are committed to "being the change in the industry we wish to see." That extends far beyond the technology and services we offer to being an exemplary company, always doing the right thing for our customers and partners and employees, always reaching beyond to ensure that we are building for the future so that our customers, partners and employees can succeed in the future. Each year, I especially enjoy our annual global gathering, this year in my hometown of Los Angeles. At every Perspectives conference, I learn so much, I meet so many amazing people, and I feel as deeply fortunate as I feel on this "third anniversary" to be part of a company I love, and industry that never stops evolving.

We work hard, we play hard, and we define what it means to really win on many dimensions, including what could be the greatest opportunity we have of all, which is contributing to "connectivity" around the world in our increasingly digital societies - making life better, returning the planet to a sustainable state, and creating an environment for the next generation of innovators to succeed.