Vice President, Corporate Marketing, Calix

linkedin.com/in/scottneuman/

Calix is excited to welcome award-winning comedian Gerry Dee, and Shark Tank star and cybersecurity expert Robert Herjavec, to the ConneXions 2021 stage. Extremely accomplished in their own right, these high-profile personalities are set to educate and entertain attendees in Las Vegas with their unique perspectives and stories. Here’s a sneak peek of what attendees can look forward to:  

Gerry Dee, creator and star of the hit sitcom Mr. D (streaming on Amazon Prime), finalist on Last Comic Standing, and host of Family Feud Canada will supercharge marketing teams with his unique perspective on how broadband impacts the lives of subscribers. Calix will also unveil Dee’s participation in the Calix EDGE Enablement program, which helps BSP brands accelerate their go-to-market programs.  

Robert Herjavec, technology trailblazer, cybersecurity expert, and best-selling author, will share inspirational insights into leadership and the importance of security for broadband service provider (BSP) growth. His closing keynote will provide practical, inspirational advice to help BSPs grow and secure the value of their businesses and services to their communities. 

This is in addition to our regular lineup of ConneXions keynotes, panel discussions, technical leadership sessions, roundtable discussions, and invaluable in-person networking opportunities with peers and experts. As always, attendees can experience firsthand the latest and greatest technologies, platforms, solutions, and services from Calix and its growing partner ecosystem at the Innovation Showcase and Expo. 

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to catch these award-winning personalities live in Las Vegas! Register now for ConneXions 2021. 

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Executive Vice President, Customer Engagement and Services, Calix

linkedin.com/in/marthagalley/ 

Throughout my career in leadership roles at premier technology companies such as DEC, Microsoft, and Salesforce, I have been committed to making a difference in the professional lives of my teams, including attracting, developing, and retaining great women. That work has included designing and running mentoring programs, serving as executive sponsor for women’s resource groups, hosting leadership summits, and participating in Techwomen—the Department of State-sponsored program that brings women from around the world to the Bay Area for professional mentoring and cultural exchanges.

How Can Women in Broadband Advance in Their Careers?

Shortly after joining Calix, I became a co-founder and the executive sponsor of the Women @ Calix Community, an employee resource group. Among the resources and programs we offer is a once-a-month we host a virtual event with guest speakers to help us grow a vibrant women’s community inside the company. These programs are open to all employees, women, and their advocates. I’m pleased to say the Calix commitment to supporting women has expanded to our premier annual customer event. We’ve invited Sally Helgesen, the international bestselling author of How Women Rise, to keynote the first-ever Women in Telecom Summit at Calix ConneXions 2021.

Helgesen will explore practical strategies women can use to advance in their careers and confidently rise to positions of greater authority in the broadband business. Here’s a preview of what she will discuss:

• Specific workplace actions that can impede career advancement
• How to collaborate effectively with colleagues, direct reports, and managers
• Why it’s important to adopt a philosophy of accountability
• How to be an effective mentor for a new generation of women leaders

After the keynote, I’ll host a customer executive panel discussion, "Building a Bench for Future Leadership Positions,” that will explore how coaching, sponsorship, and mentorship can help promote women in their careers and cultivate success for the next generation. A networking reception will follow the conclusion of the panel discussion.

This is an incredible time to be in the fast-growing broadband industry. At Calix, we’re excited about the possibilities for growth and evolution for our customers and their teams—and all the women working hard each day to build impactful and rewarding careers. I look forward to seeing you all there.

Register now for ConneXions 2021 and learn more about this premier industry event. 

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Area Vice President Product Marketing, Revenue EDGE, Marketing Cloud and Revenue Solutions, Calix

linkedin.com/in/naylorgray/

This summer, the Canadian Valley Electric Cooperative CVEC Fiber took a massive step forward for their subscribers in Shawnee, Oklahoma. The cooperative launched a 2.4 gigabit service in three markets, passing 1,200 of the 24,000 homes in its service area. This groundbreaking new service is anchored by the end-to-end Calix Revenue EDGE solution—including GigaSpire® BLAST u6.2 systems, the CommandIQ® mobile app, and EDGE Suites premium services. Armed with the first multi-gig residential service in their area and the Revenue EDGE, CVEC is realizing a 750 percent spike in its subscriber growth rate. 

The subscriber response has been phenomenal. In just months, CVEC Fiber has achieved a 92 percent take rate for the CommandIQ mobile app, which is generating revenue for CVEC. How so? The team is using CommandIQ to deliver two cloud applications (ProtectIQ™ and ExperienceIQ™) in EDGE Suites to subscribers. With a 97 percent take rate for the ProtectIQ app, and a 95 percent take rate for ExperienceIQ, subscribers are clearly excited. 

Embracing the Full Revenue EDGE Enables You To Excite Subscribers and Grow Revenue

The approach CVEC Fiber has taken proves the value a broadband provider can get when they embrace the full Revenue EDGE. In other words, CVEC Fiber is first delivering faster speeds to subscribers using an amazing multi-gig Wi-Fi 6 system—the GigaSpire BLAST u6.2. But they're not stopping there. They’re also pairing that speed and performance with EDGE Suites so they can deliver the popular services subscribers are clamoring for. That combination is why they’ve seen a 750 percent spike in their subscriber base. 

We’ll map the success path of CVEC Fiber in more detail at ConneXions in October. Here’s a preview of the three best practices they used to achieve these amazing results.

1. Easily create branded marketing content to build awareness. CVEC Fiber got the word out via email, social media, and advertising. They’ve also taken advantage of Calix EDGE Enablement resources, including the Market Activation Video Editor (MAVE) and Electronic Content Builder (ECB), to cost-effectively create world-class marketing materials and speed time—to market.
2. Use field techs to train subscribers on CommandIQ. At install, field techs give each subscriber a welcome package. Each package contains fun CVEC Fiber merchandise and a CommandIQ Quick Start Guide. Field techs also help subscribers download the CommandIQ mobile app and explain the features and benefits. (As a bonus, CommandIQ helps BSPs like CVEC reduce support-related calls and truck rolls. That’s because the mobile app gives subscribers the ability to monitor and manage their network performance, control network access and performance, and define user profiles.) 
3. Keep adding new services in your internet package. CVEC Fiber has bundled ProtectIQ and ExperienceIQ with every internet package. In addition, CVEC is positioned to drive new revenue streams through other EDGE Suites, such as the new Arlo Secure home security solution.

“A year ago, this was still a concept, and today we’re live, with one of the fastest residential broadband networks in the country, right here in rural Oklahoma,” said Sheila Allgood, general manager of CVEC Fiber. “Broadband is no longer a ‘nice to have,' but an essential service for our members. With full alignment across our entire organization, we’ve been able to ramp up quickly, and we look forward to enhancing our subscribers’ experience even further over the coming months and years.”

Join us at ConneXions to learn how you can excite subscribers and generate revenue. You can also watch this webinar, “Delight Subscribers With the Exclusive New Arlo Secure Connected Camera Solution From Revenue EDGE.” 

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Director, Product & Solution Marketing, Calix

linkedin.com/in/kevinkuo/

Why is network automation so important? That’s a key question we’ll explore at Calix ConneXions 2021. Simply put, automation helps you launch new services faster. This helps you speed time—to revenue and cut costly and recurring operational costs.

Are you ready to become a broadband service provider (BSP) that seamlessly provisions, activates, and deploys new services on the fly? If you’re on the fence, consider these three exciting benefits of introducing automation into your network.

1. Faster service creation. Automated Network Service Provisioning helps you create services faster by eliminating provisioning errors. This new feature enables you to automatically pre-provision subscriber services without the OLT. This simplifies your ONT activation process and speeds  installation and turn-up of new services. Also, you don't need to know which OLT the subscriber’s fiber is connected to—and this enables rapid service creation and easy fiber maintenance.
2. Faster time-to-revenue. Automated Transport Provisioning automatically updates the transport profile for all the OLTs on a ring. It also automatically configures the OLTs, and then provisions the appropriate VLANs. The Intelligent Access EDGE Services Management Connector (SMx) learns all the points in the network and connects them. All you need to do is provide the on-ramp and off-ramp for the ring. This capability eliminates the need to touch every OLT when creating or modifying a ring—significantly reducing provisioning errors and speeding your time-to-revenue for new services.
3. Faster time-to-market. By leveraging the swagger interface in SMx, you can automate and simplify network operations. This enables simpler workflows and eliminates frequent and repetitive tasks. Also, that same swagger interface can generate the APIs you need for OSS/BSS integration—cutting back-office integration time by as much as 80 percent.

Use Automation To Take Your Network to the Next Level 

The Intelligent Access EDGE, powered by the Calix Network Innovation Platform (AXOS), delivers all the automation benefits you need. By design, Intelligent Access EDGE helps you dramatically simplify your network operations. Plus, you accelerate your service provisioning capabilities.

Mahaska Communications Group is a great success story. This BSP has used AXOS to rapidly upgrade their network to XGS-PON, as well as turn up new systems and services quickly and cost effectively—with zero network downtime. They are now exciting subscribers with fast speeds and a new generation of cloud-based services. You can do the same.

Hear why your peers are deploying 10G PON and XGS-PON. Watch the replay of our recent webinar, “Meet Future Bandwidth Demand: A Simple Path to 10G XGS-PON and 100G Deployments.” At ConneXions in Las Vegas, join the Tech Summit track on October 17 for our session, “Automate for Success.”  

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Senior Director, Services Marketing, Calix

linkedin.com/in/thomasschroer/ 

Want to stay ahead of the competition? At ConneXions we’ll explore all kinds of ways Calix Success Services can help your team win big—in a variety of areas. 

One great success story we’ll share at the event comes from South Central Communications, in Utah. They launched new broadband services through GigaSpire® BLAST systems quickly—without raising headcount! The company recently worked with Calix Success Services to train its existing workforce and successfully launch its “Ultimate Wi-Fi” broadband service, delivered via Calix GigaSpire BLAST systems. The rollout increased combined installations of GigaSpire BLAST u6 and u4 by 332 percent. The company is now exciting subscribers with new and popular cloud-based applications in EDGE Suites. It is also keeping well ahead of the competition.

Building Confidence for a Successful Launch of New Wi-Fi Services, in Record Time

Calix Solutions Academy gave the South Central Communications team the critical skills and confidence it needed to make the launch a success. Sixty-four field technicians, marketing, engineering, and customer support team members completed 140 courses with high levels of proficiency. Specifically, the Calix Customer Success and Education Services teams:

• Established a curriculum and targeted requirements to build confidence in key areas
• Conducted rapid training and met aggressive deadlines
• Tracked and gauged the progress of team members to empower them with the right skills
• Accelerated the launch of their game-changing Wi-Fi service without adding headcount

332+ Percent Jump in GigaSpire BLAST Installs

Thanks to Calix training, South Central Communications is rapidly turning up services for hundreds of homes and businesses per week. South Central Communications is also exciting subscribers with GigaSpire BLAST u6 and u4 systems that run the subscriber-facing CommandIQ® mobile app so they can deliver ProtectIQ™ security, and the ExperienceIQ™ parental controls app. These cloud-based applications provide South Central Communications with a real competitive edge and help the BSP generate more revenue.

To learn more about how Calix helped South Central Communications simplify and accelerate its recent launch, read “South Central Communications and Calix Services Partnership on New Service Launch Raises Team Confidence and Subscriber Satisfaction.”

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Director, Solutions Marketing, Calix

linkedin.com/in/gregbathrick/ 

What’s one of the biggest topics we’ll discuss at ConneXions 2021? Broadband funding! As we all know, fast internet is now a necessity for rural communities, not a luxury. Federal and state governments understand this and are allocating billions of dollars to build new broadband networks. Many broadband service providers (BSPs) believe applying for “free” money is a no-brainer.

At ConneXions, we invite you to attend our broadband funding session, “The Broadband Funding Tidal Wave Has Hit—How to Get the Most Out of It,” on Sunday, October 17. During this session, we’ll give you all the funding insight you need. For example, we can help you figure out if you’re a strong candidate for broadband funding by walking you through answers to questions like these:

1. Are you planning to deploy fiber? Government broadband funding programs strongly favor fiber deployments. Why? Fiber delivers superior speeds with the promise to keep up with the demands of future subscribers. If you are planning other access technologies such as fixed wireless and cable, then you should consider focusing on target areas where fiber is not feasible—or where you have a decided advantage.
2. Is your target area eligible for funding? No precise nationwide broadband map exists. Until it does, it’s nearly impossible to accurately assess service-area eligibility. In fact, the granting authority often gets to say whether the location is “unserved” or “underserved.” How does the U.S. Department of the Treasury define these terms? They’re locations that lack a wireline connection reliably delivering at least 25 Mbps download speed and 3 Mbps of upload speed.
   Funding experts encourage applicants to assess their area using the following: federal and/or state-collected broadband data, user speed test results, interviews with consumers, and other relevant data. Active involvement with local communities will also give you a leg up on securing approval. This is because local governments are now helping to determine a BSP’s potential ability to build a cost-effective, high-quality broadband service.
3. How expensive is the project? Are the eligible locations in your target area simply the result of blatant neglect by the incumbent carrier? Or are they ultra-low-density locations with little to no existing infrastructure? Buildouts for the former are often less expensive because fiber can be pulled on the same path as the existing service. However, buildouts in many rural areas can be extremely costly—especially over long distances with difficult terrain. Plan early so you can avoid such deployment challenges.

Planning to apply for government funding for your broadband project? We are excited for you to join our session, “The Broadband Funding Tidal Wave Has Hit—How to Get the Most Out of It,” on Sunday, October 17 at Calix ConneXions. Register for the event today. 

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