Elka Popova - Analyst Profile
Program Director
Frost & Sullivan
Information & Communication Technologies
Summary
Functional Expertise
12 years of market analysis and strategic consulting expertise with a focus on enterprise communications and next-generation technologies. Particular expertise in:
-Market and competitive intelligence
-Market forecasting
-Trend analysis and strategic insight
-Strategy development and client growth consulting
Industry Expertise
Experience base covering a broad range of industry sectors, leveraging long-standing working relationships with leading industry participants’ Senior Executives. Areas of focus include:
-Enterprise telephony and messaging
-Unified communications and collaboration
-Hosted/cloud-based communications and SaaS
-SIP trunking and VoIP access services
What I bring to the Team
- Extensive knowledge of various enterprise communications technologies and markets
- The ability to leverage a broad set of qualitative and quantitative analytical tools to develop comprehensive and in-depth market, product and competitive analyses
- Strong management and interpersonal skills based on 7 years of team leadership and over 15 years of extensive client interactions and project management
Career Highlights
Before Frost & Sullivan, market research and competitive intelligence roles at visitalk.com, Platinum Technology and the Bulgarian-American Enterprise Fund.
Education
- Master of International Management from Thunderbird, School of Global Management, Glendale, AZ, U.S.A.
- Master of English and American Literature and Linguistics from KlimentOhridsky University, Sofia, Bulgaria
- Master of Financial Management from National University of Business Administration and Economics, Sofia, Bulgaria
- Areas of expertise
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- MARKET RESEARCH
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Recent items from Elka Popova
Aastra hosted its annual Aastra Analyst Conference last week (May 8 through May 10) which provided analysts with an update on the vendor’s portfolio roadmap and strategy for the global communications market. Not surprising, its research and development (R&D) efforts are focused on mobility, video, cloud/hosted, and social media for the contact cent...14 May 2013 Blog post Social technologies have taken the consumer market by storm. Users acknowledge the value of fast, convenient, media-rich and context-aware access to remote friends, family, and business associates. As consumers become increasingly familiar with social software and aware of its various benefits, they demand access to similar tools at their workplace. This study explores the value proposition of integrating social tools with the existing unified communications and collaboration (UCC) infrastructure. Furthermore, this study provides an analysis of Cisco, IBM, and Microsoft’s social tools and strategies and the integration of these tools with the vendors’ UCC platforms and solutions.Published: May 08 2013 Market Insights It’s been a week since I came back from Enterprise Connect in Orlando and I finally found the time to sit down and share my thoughts on some of the key announcements made at the event. Better late than never, right? I may be biased because of my personal interest in cloud/hosted communications, but it seemed that there was a lot of buzz around clo...28 Mar 2013 Blog post Today, March 18th, 2013, at Enterprise Connect, Avaya introduced several new offerings as part of its Avaya Collaborative Cloud portfolio. The announcements included cloud video conferencing, a managed private contact center solution, and a cloud unified communications (UC) and customer experience solution. In this article I’d like to provide my pe...18 Mar 2013 Blog post Today, Vidtel, an innovative cloud video telephony and video conferencing provider, announced interoperability of its MeetMe and Gateway services with WebRTC video endpoints. This announcement is significant both for the entrepreneurial provider and the industry as a whole. Vidtel can now serve a new customer segment that is bound to grow exponenti...30 Jan 2013 Blog post In a previous blog post, I talked about the role of social media in creating new beliefs and behavioral patterns. Here I’d like to talk about how social media is making our world flatter and what that means for individuals and society. The “flattening of the world” refers to the gradual disappearing of geographic limitations and the leveling of th...21 Jan 2013 Blog post In a previous blog post, I talked about the role of social media in creating new beliefs and behavioral patterns. Here I’d like to talk about how social media is making our world flatter and what that means for individuals and society. The “flattening of the world” refers to the gradual disappearing of geographic limitations and the leveling of th...21 Jan 2013 Blog post As I busily shared greetings, thoughts, and photos on Facebook during the holiday season, I decided to write a post about the impact of social media and social networking on our lives today. Then I remembered an article I had posted about three years ago on a site that no longer exists. I searched for the draft on my computer and, as I read it, I f...02 Jan 2013 Blog post Have you ever wondered what a CIO’s letter to Santa might look like? In a previous post, I shared the key findings of two recent Frost & Sullivan studies that surveyed the opinions of North American C-level executives and senior IT staff on unified communications & collaboration (UCC) tools adoption and investment plans. Based on these findings an...09 Dec 2012 Blog post As the new year approaches, we are all trying to predict what it will be like for the unified communications and collaboration (UCC) market and the information and communications (ICT) industry as a whole. We wish to know what tools and technologies will best resonate with end users and what decision-makers who hold the company budget will choose t...30 Nov 2012 Blog post Maybe not the smartest, but certainly VERY smart! Headsets have come a long way since the early days when they were just dumb peripherals with no intelligence of their own. Even those simpler headsets gave the user comfort and flexibility and the benefit of noise cancellation. In fact, I am using one of those now, mostly because of its simplici...15 Nov 2012 Blog post Frost & Sullivan recently conducted a survey of 263 North American IT decision makers including C-level executives and IT management. The survey explored awareness and usage of various unified communications and collaboration (UCC) tools and applications, trends in communications devices, ICT infrastructure, and hosted and managed services, and bud...08 Nov 2012 Blog post Some of the most exciting technology topics today include social search, data mining, and, in general, big-data analytics. These technology trends can determine some very personal decisions (e.g., which restaurant to go to), but can also have a very powerful impact on broader investor decisions and financial markets. This article on Facebook and fr...24 Sep 2012 Blog post Last night I came back from our 2012 Growth, Innovation, and Leadership (GIL) Congress, which was held in San Jose, CA. GIL is different from most other industry events for several reasons. It does not focus so much on the issues and challenges of a single industry, but rather on the points of convergence of multiple different industries. It also l...13 Sep 2012 Blog post I have been tracking the North American hosted IP telephony and unified communications (UC) market for over a decade and have always found it tremendously exciting. Nimble, entrepreneurial companies have been quick to pursue this opportunity, continually innovating and valiantly overcoming the numerous hurdles thrown their way by shrewd competitors...11 Jul 2012 Blog post Emerging Architectures and Business Models to Drive a Growth SpurtIncreasing customer awareness of the benefits of cloud and hosted solutions, maturing VoIP technologies, and the emergence of new business models are driving growing demand for hosted communications. This study provides an in-depth perspective on the North American hosted IP telephony and UC services market comprising the United States and Canada. Also included is analysis of market drivers and restraints as well as market trends and forecasts. Service providers, vendors, and channel partners can use this analysis to develop sustainable growth strategies and improve their competitive positioning.Published: Jul 10 2012 Market Research It’s been more than a week since I returned from Enterprise Connect in Orlando, but I only now found the time to put together my thoughts on some of the key announcements. As expected, cloud was one of the key topics at this major industry event. Coincidentally, I am also in the process of updating Frost & Sullivan’s North American Hosted IP Teleph...06 Apr 2012 Blog post UC Adoption and Increasing Customer Awareness Drive Demand for SIP Trunking ServicesThis study provides a comprehensive perspective on the North American VoIP access and SIP trunking services markets. It discusses market drivers, restraints, and trends. It also provides vendor profiles and a competitive analysis. Forecasts are available in terms of users and revenues with breakdowns by trunking versus line-side implementations and native SIP versus VoIP access with protocol conversion. Demand analysis includes trends by SMB versus large enterprise. The study can help service providers, vendors, and channel partners identify growth opportunities and develop sustainable competitive strategies.Published: Oct 03 2011 Market Research
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