Lawrence Catchpole and Vernon Irvin


Convergence of Communications
23 minutes, 11mb, recorded 2006-01-23
Lawrence Catchpole, Vernon Irvin

Lawrence Catchpole, Chief Strategy Officer of M1 Global Solutions comments on the large gap he perceives in the convergence of voice and data communications. He argues that enterprise customers have not been able to achieve the true strategic value of voice as data, at least in the sense that voice becomes part of data. Enterprises have always recognized that there is more value in data than voice and have targeted their budgets accordingly. The result is the transformation of the data provider winning out over voice, in contrast to the true enterprise goal of a complete blending in which voice becomes a truly accessible part of the data application.

Vernon Irvin, Executive Vice President and General Manager of VeriSign Communications Services focuses on the application opportunities resulting from the convergence of voice and data communications. Mr. Irvin points out how the different industries Verisign is currently dealing with are all converging on the same service ideas. Carriers are looking at media operations, media companies are interested in the portal space, and portals are pushing value-added services that have them often competing and cooperating with carriers. Those companies that can innovate the fastest and deliver valuable user experiences at the lowest cost in the industry will be the winners.


Lawrence Catchpole, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of M1 Global Solutions is responsible for setting strategic business direction and technology vision. Catchpole brings to M1 over thirty years of technology industry experience, including researching and deploying advanced technologies. He has held senior positions at WebTone Technologies, S1 Corporation, and Dun & Bradstreet Software (formerly MSA). As Founder, CTO and Chief Scientist with WebTone, Catchpole grew WebTone into a recognized leader in multi-channel financial services sales and service market. As an early employee with S1, he started the first services group and served as Vice President of Services. Catchpole was named a Software Fellow with Dun & Bradstreet. He graduated from Georgia Institute of technology with a B.S. in Applied Biology and a minor in electrical engineering.

Vernon Irvin is Executive Vice President and General Manager of VeriSign Communications Services (VCS) where he has transformed the communications practice into the industry leader in Intelligent Communications, Commerce, and Content services. Before VeriSign, Vernon was executive vice president at American Management Systems (AMS), a business and IT consulting firm. He has also held executive positions at BT Ignite, e.spire Communications, Ameritech, and MCI. Mr. Irvin serves on the Board of Directors of CTIA and USTelecom. He is the International Chair of USC's Center for Telecom Management Board and a board member of the William and Mary School of Business and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Silicon Valley. Vernon received his B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Cincinnati in Ohio.

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