In Memoriam: Art Rosenberg

17 Apr 2016

It is with great sadness that I report that my good friend and long-time UCStrategies contributor Art Rosenberg has passed away after an extended illness. Art is survived by his wife Sharon, and daughters Alexandra Morschauser and Julie Rosenberg.

Art began his long career in the 1970s with early on-line, interactive computer technologies at the RAND Corporation. He did pioneering work with online applications in ARPA-sponsored mainframe time-sharing systems at System Development Corp. (SDC) and with Scientific Data Systems, where he was responsible for the introduction of one of the first time-sharing computer services into the marketplace.

Art
Art Rosenberg

His foray into telecommunications came when he joined Delphi Communications, Corp., one the developers of voice messaging and call center technologies. There he was responsible for the operational requirements and agent/subscriber interfaces for their VoiceBank automated telephone answering services.

Art became an industry consultant in the early 1980s and developed one of the first BCR Seminars on enterprise voice mail systems with Don Van Doren in 1983. Coincidentally, I joined the BCR Seminars team at roughly the same time, though Art and I did not meet until I joined UCStrategies.

As an independent consultant, Art became a well-known writer, speaker, industry analyst, and consultant in business communications, contributing to leading technology publications including Datamation, Business Communications Review, Datapro, Telephony, Voice Processing, and others.

He became a syndicated web columnist under the byline The Unified-View in 2000.

What few seem to know is that it was Art who is credited with coining the term "Unified Communications" which he recognized as a logical extension of "Unified Messaging." It is not surprising then that Art was one of the first UC Experts, joining UCStrategies soon after it was formed in 2006.

The great thing about Art was not his technical credentials but his passion, his generosity and his humanity. You would never hear Art say anything like, "Oh, things are changing too fast," or "Too bad it's not like the 'old days.'" For his whole life he embraced change and reveled in its impact. Art was forever young at heart and was irrepressible in expressing his well-formed opinions. He continued to write and comment extensively, and to the end he was energetic, focused and unfailingly good humored.

Even through his illness, Art was always upbeat and positive. We all had the chance to see him for the last time at the UC Summit last November where he was perched in the front row with his daughter, who had never heard him present, by his side. Art was on stage for the Contact Center Update and the session on CEBP: Why Organizations, Resellers and Vendors are Failing (and How to Succeed).

Art's wit, energy and warmth will be sorely missed, and our deepest sympathies go out to Sharon, Alex, and Julie and the rest of his family.

More about Art Rosenberg from the UCStrategies Experts: