NICE Analyst Summit 2024 - Photos from Zambia, Review on No Jitter

Last week was definitely a bucket-list trip, courtesy of NICE, to attend their Analyst Summit in Zambia. That’s as exotic as it gets in my world, and am still buzzing from the experience - not just the content, but being surrounded by nature that urbanites hardly ever see. Every day was a new adventure, and whatever I can share now is just a fraction of the whole thing.

I’ll keep this short, and here I’m just sharing two sets of my photos - from the event itself, and from what I would call the Zambia experience - and the rest I’ll leave to your imagination (or if we’re connected on Facebook, I’ll be sharing lots more there).

Complementing that is my review of the event, which I’ve distilled into three themes - windmills, profitability and termites. A bit strange, I know, but it all hangs together, and you can read it here on No Jitter.

As always, comments and sharing are welcome, and I’ll likely have a small coda coming in the November newsletter next week.

First, some photos from the event:

CEO Barak Eilam, and AR leader and Head of Global Corporate Comms, Chris Irwin-Dudek

Fantastic opening with a children’s choir to sing the Zambian national anthem, with that week being their 60th Independence Day - pretty special. Next - one of several very creative visuals to showcase various success metrics, weaving in images from our various Analyst Summit locales - this one showing their revenue stat of $2.78 billion paired with last year’s Machu Picchu visit.

Gotta show a few regular slides - Hyper Platform - this is their next-level vision for how AI is helping enterprises get better outcomes, and for software vendors to evolve to meet those needs. Next - visual for 4 stages of NICE’s evolution that brings them to this vision.

Elizabeth Tobey and Neeraj Verma getting into the details.

Exec Q&A with Barry Cooper, Einat Weiss and Barak Eilam; and a farewell toast moment marking the fast-approaching end to Barak’s tenure as CEO.

Next - a few photos to give you a flavor for the Zambia experience - wow, huh?

Next Stop - NICE Analyst Summit - Destination...

NICE doesn’t do anything in half-measures. If you follow me, you’ll know that they keep raising the bar each year, and clearly, they value what analysts bring to the table. Being a public company, they're pretty transparent about things, and if they choose to take us to an exotic location - not just to share their roadmap, but to nurture important relationships - so be it. With that backdrop, they’re taking us to….

Zambia. You heard right - Zambia. I’ll leave it to your imagination and Google searches to figure out what that might look like, and am sure it will be all of that and then some. As always, I’ll share updates and photos as time allows, and a whole lot more once back. Time to pack now…

Future of Work Expo Updates - Feb. 11-13, 2025

I’m overdue for an update on the 2025 edition of Future of Work Expo, so here’s the news.

If the event is new to you, this is my 7th year as Chair, and my main role is to develop the program and roster of speakers for the sessions. You also need to know that Future of Work Expo is co-located - along with other speciality events - with ITExpo, TMC’s long-running communications show in Ft. Lauderdale. So, aside from getting a deep dive on FOW topics, attendees also get the broader ITExpo experience, which draws over 8,000 people, along with a show floor with hundreds of vendors.

I’ve got two updates to share, and I hope this tweaks your interest to attend, as well as speak or even sponsor. First is the website for the event, where you can review things in detail, including the Agenda, which just went live yesterday. Next is the latest e-newsletter blurb, which TMC sends out to its email list, and gives a nice overview of the event experience.

• Future of Work Expo website

• E-newsletter for the event

Finally, my Watch This Space podcast has a strong focus on future of work topics, so it’s quite complementary to the event. To reinforce that, TMC is now a media partner, and giving the podcast broader exposure on their various websites. If you don’t follow my podcast, it’s another way to stay current with the event, along with other topics we explore on a monthly basis. Hope to see you there!

Roundtable in NYC About Sales Automation, Oct. 10 - Interested?

I’m going to be in NYC next week with Vidyard, a company I’ve been working with recently. We’re doing a roundtable session that I’m moderating on the topic of using AI and automation to make the sales process more effective. There is no shortage of challenges for a set of needs that all businesses struggle with, and in response, there are new solutions that need consideration.

The panel is largely in place, but we do have room for a couple more attendees. If you happen to be in NYC next Thursday - or really, really want to get there on your own to join us, here’s the link to register. For anyone who plans to come, we’ll see you there!

London, Part 1 - British Telecom, Focus 2024

This was the first of two events I attended on this week’s London trip - Focus 2024, British Telecom’s analyst event, which was a first for me in-person. The second stop was UC Expo, and I’ll get to that in my Part 2 blog post after this.

Am just sharing some of my photos here with brief commentary. I was only able to attend Day 1 of BT’s event, so my takeaways are limited. In short, BT seems to be well-along the AI path, talking a lot about automation, and building flexible networks to support today’s distributed organizations. Also heard quite a bit about network security, which is a must with the growing volumes of data these networks have to handle.

Below, CEO Bas Burger, Matt Swinden and Chet Patel

Below - Charlie - special guest speaker, and totally NDA, so no photos. In short, he shared fascinating insider insights about the global state of fraud, threats, disinformation, etc., and the geopolitics of what’s happening at a state/nation level. Of course, it’s bad, and likely worse than you can imagine. On a more positive note, the food and bar service were very good! Next - during the reception, and building lobby. They do a great job with branding - maybe a bit OTT, but that’s what big telcos do.

October - New Leaf, New Podcast and Newsletter

It’s a new month - the latest editions of both my newsletter and podcast are out now - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review, and my Watch This Space podcast, now in its 7th season.

If you’re not a subscriber, signing up to my newsletter is easy - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - the signup page is here.

For my Watch This Space podcast, you can subscribe on all the major platforms, or listen to any episode directly here on my website, or here on the dedicated WTS website.

October starts the busy season for industry events, so Chris and I covered where our travels have been - and will be - taking us. Lots to discuss, but we also covered the usual gamut of interesting things like why 8-Track was a superior technology in its day, why mandating return-to-office is risky business, and reviewing our latest updates for the podcast. Hope you check it out, and subscribe to my newsletter.

Glenn Goldberg's Parallel Universe Podcast - My Guest Spot

You know it’s going to be a fun podcast when I get to quote one of my favorite lines from Seinfeld - “It’s not a lie… if you believe it.” As Homer would say, it’s funny because it’s true. If that’s your vibe, then I think you’ll really enjoy this podcast - my first guest spot on Glenn Goldberg’s Parallel Universe podcast.

We could go on all day long about tech, sports, music and all kinds of other things. Maybe we’ll go further on those threads next time, but right now, you should just check it out. Here’s the link for viewing it on Telecom Reseller, inclulding the transcript, or you can watch it here on YouTube.

September Writing Roundup

Lots in play during September, and almost all of it was doing podcast and video spots. For the bigger picture, all of this is covered in my newsletter, but in short, there was just one public writeup for September, and it was on my blog. More to come this month, though!

Verint Engage 2024 - Quick Pix and Top Takeaways, my blog, Sept. 27

Verint Engage 2024 - Quick Pix and Top Takeaways

Earlier this week, I attended my first Verint customer/partner event in Orlando. I’ve been to the last two analyst-only events, but Engage is where you get to meet and hear from customers and partners. Much bigger-picture, and nothing beats hearing success stories directly from customers.

Am not able to get a full writeup done while in between travel to various events, but the main takeaway to share is that when done right, chatbots can be effective, and Verint is front of the line for showcasing real benefits and financial impact. Every vendor in the contact center space has its own way of spelling success, and Verint’s approach is pretty simple - get tasks done faster with chatbots, and your agents can deal with more customers and do so more effectively. Time is money, and the ROI can be impressive, especially at scale.

What I’ve come to learn and like about Verint is their focused approach on using chatbots to help contact centers address real, long-standing problems. Yes, the bots are AI-driven, but this isn’t about selling an AI solution. It’s about identifying problems and outcomes, and attacking each one in a manageable way - with CX Automation being their go-to-market branding.

Rather than pushing a bunch of chatbots out there to streamline operations and make CX more seamless in a general way, Verint takes a bottom-up approach. They have dozens of chatbots ready to go, supported by their Da Vinci AI Data Hub. The key here is being an open platform, meaning that it can integrate with all CCaaS platforms. Verint is not competing to displace Genesys, Avaya, Five9, etc. Instead, they bring best-in-class chatbots that enhance these platforms.

The other key thing about being bottom-up, is that each chatbot is purpose-built to address a specific task. This allows customers to take a very targeted approach, and optimize the mix of chatbots for where they can bring the most value. Prime chatbot examples include Wrap Up, Coaching, Knowledge Automation, Smart Transfer, Copilot, and TimeFlex (WFM).

Each does one thing very well, and when deploying a suite of these, the incremental gains from automation and time savings add up quickly, translating into a fast ROI. It’s a great approach for contact centers who are taking a cautious approach with AI, along with being skeptical of chatbots - fair enough, but that reflects experiences with earlier generation chatbots, not what they can do today.

One more takeaway that may not be that evident - based on what vendors are selling, it’s easy to think that all contact centers are cloud-based, or well on their way. The reality, of course, is much different, with premises-based deployment still being the norm - in whole or in part. A key message to share is that contact centers do not need to be cloud-based to benefit from what Verint is offering. Their chatbots can work just fine with legacy deployments - what Verint does is based in their cloud, so any contact center can deploy this.

That’s the wrap for now, but more is coming in other forums, so stay tuned.

I’ll leave you with some of my photos, along with links to some LinkedIn posts during the events. If you follow me on LinkedIn, you probably didn’t see these, as I had a login glitch, and these were not posted to my main LinkedIn account. Subsequent posts are there, though, so I won’t bother with those links here. Feel free to give these a look, as there is some additional in-the-moment commentary not included here.

LinkedIn posts from Day 1 - here, here and here.

Almost forgot - bonus link - I was interviewed by Verint as part of their Blue Lounge series during the event. It’s just four minutes, where I’m talking about the role of AI in the contact center and how it’s being used to improve CX. I hope you check it out - here’s the link.

Below, CEO Dan Bodner - first in analyst-only session, then main stage.

Jaime Merrit during analyst session, Dave Singer on main stage talking about TimeFlex bots.

Kelly Koelliker leading a customer session, Heather Richards talking about Knowledge Automation bots, Kelly again with celebrity speaker Kal Penn.

Blair Pleasant leading breakout session with Daniel Ziv and Heather Richards, and fun time at Universal Studios at the karaoke bar!

Screenshots from my Blue Lounge interview about AI and CX.

Next Stop - London, for BT Analyst Event and UC Expo

I don’t travel overseas much, but on Monday I’m flying to London for two events. First is Focus 2024, British Telecom’s analyst event, then back again for UC Expo at the Excel Center. Will definitely be a full week, and I’ll share updates on LinkedIn as time allows.

For UC Expo, I’ll be speaking on three sessions - one is invite-only, and links are here for the other two:

Thursday at 1pm - a fireside chat on tech-driven inclusivity in the workplace

Thursday at 1:35 - Ask the Analyst panel session

If you’re attending, and want to meet up, please drop me a line. Also, the event hashtag is #UCX24.

New White Paper - Digital Self-Service for NICE

Got another white paper to share - this one is for NICE, and the topic is about self-service. More specifically, with legacy forms of this being so limited, the focus is about digital self-service, and how these new capabilities can play a bigger role in making CX - customer experience - better.

As the title says - “it has to be better” - and to find out why, I hope you check it out for yourself. Here’s the link, and it just takes a moment to register first.

Latest Interview - State of AI with Nutun

I don’t post a whole lot on LinkedIn - and I dropped off from Twitter/X last year - but I’m busier than things might appear based on my social media activity.

Over the spring/summer, I had two surgeries, which slowed things down quite a bit, but am past that now, and for the writing and speaking I’ve been doing, some is coming to market now.

Here’s one of them, which was recorded during the summer, and just published last week. This was a video interview, where I was the guest Episode 2 of The Global Experience. It’s probably more accurate to call it a podcast, and is available in two formats - video and audio-only. More on that in a moment.

The podcast is produced by Nutun, a BPO provider based in South Africa, and I’ve been getting to know them since first meeting at Enterprise Connect earlier this year. I was interviewed by Bryce Cressey and Natalie Billson from Nutun, and let’s just say we’ve become fast friends.

Being Episode 2, the series is brand new, and I was happy to be an early guest. The broad topic was AI, and we talked about its evolution, how it’s being used with both UCaaS and CCaaS, and where it’s going. We could have gone on much longer, and maybe we’ll get to do it again soon.

As mentioned, the replay is offered in two flavors, and here are the links to check it out. First, for audio-only, it’s hosted here on Buzzsprout. Then for the full video experience, you can watch it here on their YouTube channel. Either way, I hope you like it, and any feedback or sharing would be much appreciated.

Next Stop - Verint Engage Event, Orlando

Am off to Orlando on Sunday for Verint’s Engage event in Orlando, FL. This is their customer/partner event, so it’s quite a bit larger than the analyst-only event they host for us at a different time of the year.

This will be my first time for their Engage event - not to be confused with other vendors and their Engage events - but the agenda is pretty full, and I’ll be sharing updates on LinkedIn, and will post takeaway thoughts soon after.

Talkdesk CX Innovators Awards - Back Again as a Judge

It’s time for the 2024 edition of the Talkdesk Innovators Award. I’m back as a judge, and our group will be evaluating entries after the cutoff date of September 30, with winners announced on October 30. There are 11 categories, so lots to choose from if you’re thinking about entering. Details are here, and good luck if you submit an entry!

New Podcast - AI in Contact Centers, with EM360

I have another EM360-related update to share. They produce a few different podcast series, each focused on a particular technology theme. I was just a guest for their Tech Transformed podcast, and as the name implies, it’s about technologies having a transformational impact on enterprises.

On that note, there’s nothing bigger than AI, and for this espisode, the focus was on the contact center, which arguably is the most attractive use case for AI inside a business. I was interviewed by Paula Rios Maya, and thought the conversation went well. Hope you’ll agree, but you’ll have to hear it for yourself - here’s the link - would love to get your thoughts.

Expanded Reach for Watch This Space Podcast - now on EM360

I’ve been a long-time contributor to UK-based EM360, and you can see more about that here on my profile page. While you’re there, I encourage you to explore their website, which has just gone through a big refresh.

My followers will know about my Watch This Space podcast, which can be picked up here on my website, along with a dedicated WTS website. While my reach is mainly North America, I now have more exposure for the EU market via EM360. Last week marked the start of them now carrying WTS on their site, and I have two links to share for that:

• First - here’s a direct link to the September episode.

• Second - link to the home page for Watch This Space on the EM360 website - once there, you’ll see an archive as well for the 10 most recent episodes.

Finally, to help promote this update to EM360 followers, Watch This Space was featured in the current issue of their LinkedIn-based newsletter, Contributors Corner. That would be Edition 15 from September 6, and here’s the link. If you check this out, you’ll see that two forms of my work have been featured here; the other being a re-posting of a guest post I recently wrote for a client’s blog.

Next Stop - Sprinklr Source 24, NYC

I’ve largely been off the road for industry events since June, and this is the first for the busy season for me. I’m really enjoying getting to know Sprinklr, and glad to be attending their analyst event, Source 24 in NYC starting next Monday. I’ll share updates on LinkedIn as time allows, and will add a follow-on writeup on my takeaways.

September - Time for New Podcast and Newsletter

The latest editions of both my newsletter and podcast are out now - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review, and my Watch This Space podcast, now in its 7th season.

If you’re not a subscriber, signing up to my newsletter is easy - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - the signup page is here.

For my Watch This Space podcast, you can subscribe on all the major platforms, or listen to any episode directly here on my website, or here on the dedicated WTS website.

This month, Chris and I reviewed how streaming has really come into its own with the Olympics, and similarly how event platforms are finding broader use cases, both in the public and private sectors. I also provided a recap of the NCEC Technologies Conference that I spoke at last month, around how conversational AI is helping utilities improve customer service.

August Writing Roundup

Was a light month for writing, and just about everything else, but will hit the ground running after Labor Day - things are set to ramp up again then, and will be as busy as ever. Just two posts to share, and I hope you give them both a read!

RingCX AI: Blending Intelligent Automation with Personalized Support, Aug. 29, RingCentral blog

How AI Helps Address Core Challenges for Utilities, Aug. 21, No Jitter

RingCX AI Updates - My Latest Guest Article

I’ve been closely following RingCentral’s move into CCaaS - along with all the other players of course - and they’ve now taken the next step with their AI story. Not surprisingly, RingCentral has developed their own platform to stake claim in this growing market. It’s getting crowded, but with this platform they feel ready to hold their own, and so far they’re getting good traction to validate that.

There’s lots to like with what they’re doing here, and my latest guest article about it is running now on the their blog. Would love to hear your thoughts, and happy to chat further any time.