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A short note for navigating this section - scroll below for the most recent posts, and then for more, click on the Blog Archive box, where you can view all of my posts, going back to the beginning in March 2005.
Plenty on the go during June, including some new writing. I’ve got three articles to share that had my byline last month - hope you check these out if not seen yet. More coming for July.
One Communications Platform - Billions of Conversations: Infobip Analyst Event Review, EM360, June 27
The Telco to Techco Reinvention Playbook: Three Moves that Matter, Aizan guest article, June 25
How UC Can Support Return to Office, TechTarget, June 9
I’ve been doing guest posts for Aizan Technologies for some time, and my latest article is running now. A theme I’m following with interest at the moment is “telco-to-techco”, where service providers are trying to evolve from the legacy telephony business model to being an AI-driven platform play built around digital applications.
It’s a major shift on many levels, and this post builds on Part 1, where I outlined the tech trends that are making this change necessary. For Part 2, the focus is on what telcos need to be doing for this to work. I hope you give both of them a read, and the link to Part 1 is in the article here.
The 2025 version of NiCE Interactions did not disappoint, and that’s saying a lot with this being new CEO Scott Russell’s first time, saying farewell to CMO Einat Weiss and her 17-year run, taking in the vibe for their new branding, and not to mention their huge strides with AI since last year.
I’ll cover that ground in an upcoming review article, and if you follow me on LinkedIn, I posted there steadily during and just after the event. Three video interviews are in the works as well - stay tuned. To complement all that, here are some photos - all are mine other than a few that I’m in (I don’t do selfies as a rule of thumb).
Loved seeing this ad right after getting off the plane at LAS airport. And yes, it was HOT!
Dan Belanger and Scott Russell getting things started.
Fantastic dance performance from Aussie-based Brent Street - really set the tone.
Perhaps the biggest news from the event - their partnership with ServiceNow, and perhaps a sign of things to come as software vendors jockey to get the inside track to provide an AI platform to manage all the data inside an organization. This is a much bigger story than CX, and this partnership puts NiCE closer to the center of things for how things are unfolding.
Customers telling their success stories with NiCE - Brendan Mulryan from H&R Block, and Rahul Magan from Charles Schwab.
From the Best Practices sessions - using AI for augmenting employee performance, and branded calling to make outbound messaging more effective.
Keeping busy in other areas - one of two segments I did for NiCE TV, a sit-down with Charlie Mitchell from CX Today, and a booth visit with Klearcom, one of NiCE’s partners.
Day 2 speakers - Barry Cooper, and Tim Harris.
More customer success stories - a clever visual here from Carnival, summarizing their key CX challenges with cruise customers; Arun Chandra from Disney.
On the fun side, we all got bussed to the Theater at Virgin Hotel to see OneRepublic - they were new to me, but very good. Later on, a speakeasy - really - behind a doughnut shop in our hotel - great little venue, loved the band, and yes, there was dancing.
Best for last - CEO Scott Russell saying thanks, with AC DC walk-on music - very apropos. Then, a fun sit-down with celeb guest speaker, Kristen Bell - and if you don’t know, she’s the NiCEst person on earth!
Am on target again for publishing my newsletter and podcast on the first Tuesday of the month.
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’s podcast was special, as it marks a change in plans for what Chris and I have been doing over 85 episodes the past eight years. The Last Waltz kinda comes to mind, and we’re taking a hiatus, as it’s time for a refresh on what I’m doing with the podcast.
Will likely hit pause for 2-3 months, and to learn about our thinking and what we’ve taken away from doing all these episodes, I hope you give give it a listen - here’s the link. In one form or another, Watch This Space will be back, so just bear with me, and if you have any suggestions for topics or sponsors, please drop me a line!
May was another month with a lot of video activity, but I managed to get some writing done as well. Aside from published articles, I’ve decided to include here some writeups I posted on LinkedIn, as they would be easy to miss if not following me regularly. Caveat - you do need to be logged into LinkedIn to read them - but if you can’t do that, please let me know, and I could share any of those posts in another format. With that said, here’s the digest.
8x8, Q4 earnings - my takeaways, LinkedIn, May 23
Legacy to Leadership: Telcos Rewrite Their Future as Techcos, Aizan, May 19
NICE, Q1 earnings - my takeaways, LinkedIn, May 16
RingCentral Q1 earnings - my takeaways, LinkedIn, May 14
The Difference Between a Traditional and Hybrid Meeting Room, TechTarget, May 12
I have a new white paper to share here. This one is for NICE, and while it was published recently, only now do I have the details to post publicly. Mpower is the platform that brings all their AI capabilities together, and the focus of my writeup is how their vision for AI takes CX to another level - based more on a customer’s complete history with a brand, rather than just their recent contact center experiences.
In time, most of the CX vendors will move to this more holistic view of the customer, but at the moment, I would say that NICE is leading the way. The paper is gated, so you need to register - here’s the link. If you give it a read, I’d love to hear your thoughts, and if you’re attending Interactions next month, perhaps we could connect in-person.
Finally off the road for a few weeks, but staying busy on several fronts. I haven’t blogged much lately, so am sharing a few recent updates in this post.
Will start things off with an award, why not? I recently did a podcast with PolyAI’s CEO for EM360, and it was just named winner of the Most Engaging Podcast for Q1 2025 - yay.
My takeaways on NICE’s Q1 earnings results - here on LinkedIn
Was part of the most recent BCStrategies podcast, where a group of analysts reviewed industry highlights for Q1 - you can check it out here.
Was a guest on the latest episode of the AI Show, hosted by Rob Scott and Kevin Kieller, with a catchy title - AI Just Ate the Enterprise - here’s the link, and if you can’t get in, I can get you the link to watch on their AI News YouTube channel.
Another podcast to share, this time with GoTo. I was a guest on their Practically Tomorrow podcast, speaking about the value AI can bring for SMBs - details are here on LinkedIn, including a teaser clip - and you can watch the full episode here on their Spotify page.
My takeaways on RingCentral’s Q1 earnings results - here on LinkedIn
That should keep you busy for now, and I’ll be back to more regular blogging next week, including updates on where my next travels will be taking me.
My target date for publishing is the first Tuesday of the month, and for May, things were on target. Both newsletter and podcast editions went live yesterday, and I hope you check them out.
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’s podcast was a recap of the industry events Chris and I took in last month; namely Jeff Pulver’s vCon, 8x8’s analyst event, Cloud Communications 2025, and Vector Institute’s Remarkable event. Never a dull moment, and you can check it all out here.
Was a busy month on several fronts, and event travel kept me on the move. I have three writeups to share from April, and I hope you give these a read.
What is a Hybrid Meeting?, TechTarget, April 28
Cloud Connections 2025 Takeaways, LinkedIn, April 18
8x8 Analyst Summit Takeaways - Track Some Mud on the Carpet, BCStrategies, April 10
Am back now from Cloud Connections 2025, the main event run by the Cloud Communications Alliance. I’ve known CCA for some time, but this was my first time attending - and speaking - at this particular event, held in St. Petersburg, FL.
For this post, I’m just sharing photos, and it’s really a companion to my takeaways post that is live now on LinkedIn. Also, I posted photos and commentary regularly on LinkedIn during the event.
Below - Masters of all ceremonies, Clark Peterson and Amy Bailey - great job all around. Center-of-the-universe Mike Tessler sharing his view from on high, including his Top 5 strategies for success with AI.
Michael Quinn and Brian Kornmann from Q Advisors, with their PE perspective on building value for your business, and key reasons why deals succeed or fail. Next - Clark Peterson moderating the analyst panel, with Robin Gareiss, Matthew Townend, Elka Popova and myself.
Master entrepreneur and Shark Tank alum, Kevin Harrington - this is the kind of vision MSPs need to keep growing, and he gave them plenty of food for thought - and a free book. Nice social shot, where a few us got in the mix with him before he left.
Two more solid panel sessions. First, Dino Di Palma, with Brian Beutler of Alianza, and Peter Eisengrein of XTIUM - talking about the climate now for M&A. Brian has “never been more excited” about the future for growing his company. Next - Gerry Christensen of 46 Labs, moderating a fascinating panel about branded calling and KYC. Lots to talk about here, and he’s with Alexis Buese of Bradley Law and Chakra Devalla of tekVizion.
Brandon Knight of Zoom, Doug Green doing a podcast with me, and Mr. CCA, Joe Marion kicking off the first night fun.
Event venue - the Vinoy - very Florida and very upscale. Loved the music and pool - who wouldn’t?
Agentic AI is arguably the hottest trend in AI, especially for the contact center, and if you need to get up to speed - especially for CX leaders - you’ll want to join us on April 24. The webinar is being hosted by TMCnet’s CUSTOMER Magazine, with Erik Linask moderating.
I’ll be in conversation with Cognigy’s Alan Ranger, and we’ll be covering the latest developments, along with how agentic AI is being used to great effect today. We’ll also share learnings from Cognigy’s recent Nexus 2025 conference, where several success stories were shared for both agentic and conversational AI.
We hope you’ll join us - it’s at 2pm ET on April 24 - and details to register are here.
Been going full-out since back from last week’s 8x8 analyst event in Southampton, UK. I’ve written an extensive review on the BCStrategies website, which has just been updated, so that’s another reason to go visit.
My review just went live - read it here - and before doing that, I’ll share some of my photos from the event, along with some social time while there. I hope you enjoy these, along with my review of the event.
Below - CMO Bruno Bertini and CEO Sam Wilson
Hunter Middleton and Fabio Ramos
At the harborside hotel, and an obligatory Guinness at the soccer match
Customer panel, onsite at the stadium; some images from their new branding
Partner panel, executive Q&A panel near the end of the event
More social - at the soccer stadium, pub stop with Blair Pleasant, followed by dinner with Simon Harrison
Inside the stadium before the game, and the marching band outside - loved it
The annual Cloud Communications Alliance conference - Cloud Connections 2025 - is running soon - April 14-16, in St. Petersburg, FL. I’ve been to their finance event, but not the main one, so am looking forward to attending - and speaking.
It’s a very familiar group, and many of the topics will be comparable to what I see at most of the vendor events I attend as a matter of course. If you’re still thinking about attending, details are here on their site.
Both panels that I’m on are on Tuesday, and analysts will be the speakers, so there will lots of opportunity to hear from our perspective, and get the bigger picture on industry trends, and what they mean for carriers.
Last month, publishing was a week late, but for April, we’re right on time. Both newsletter and podcast editions are live now, and I hope you check them out.
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’s podcast was a recap of three March events - Leesman Focus Forward, Enterprise Connect, and Cognigy’s Nexus 2025. Lots to talk about, and you can hear all about it here.
Was a busy month with event travel, plus planning for an even busier April. As summarized in my April newsletter, I did a lot of video segments, and public-facing writing was limited - here’s the summary.
Enterprise Connect 2025 - Photo Review and Media Summary, JAA blog, March 28
Cognigy Nexus 2025 - Quick Take and Pix, JAA blog, March 26
The Death of the Desk Phone?, Aizan blog, March 10
What is a Hybrid Meeting?, TechTarget, will publish in early April
Coming out of back-to-back events, I’m behind on, well, just about everything.
Two weeks ago, I attended Cognigy’s Nexus 2025 event in Dusseldorf, where the company’s HQ is. This is their customer event to showcase their technology, and more importantly, the kind of successes their customers are having with AI-driven CX. Pretty impressive, and I don’t think anyone is doing it better at the moment.
Too much time has passed for an in-depth writeup, but if you follow my LinkedIn posts from the event, you’ll have a pretty good sense of that. I’m also doing a webinar next month with Alan Ranger about all this - details coming soon.
In lieu of that - and for the record - here are some of my photos from the event, both for the sessions, and the social side of being there. Loved the experience, and can’t wait to go back!
Below - opening welcome from Alan Ranger; CEO and co-founder, Philipp Heltewig; Kane Simms doing the final keynote talk on the impact of AI on automation
Customer demos and success stories from DHL, Bosch and Santander. Each would make for a great case study - all were quite different, but tangible results, both for ROI and improving CX.
Another customer session - Skoda; presentation from Metrigy sharing some new CX research; and a technical breakout from Deepgram, a company I’ve followed for some time.
As seen when arriving at Dusseldorf airport - can’t-miss-advertising, right off the plane - love it. Upstairs view of the venue for the conference - was twice the size from last year - another indication for how well the company is doing.
Customer panel, and a vendor panel, led by Jarrod Davis on the theme of AI or Die
When in Germany - outing to Fuchschen - one of seven bars that brew their own Altbier - a special type of beer that Dusseldorf is known for - why would you drink anything else?
Some old-town flavor, by day and by night
With Nicolas Ehrlacher, RingCentral and Jessica Gopalakrishnan, Cognigy; Amy Stapleton from Opus Research; my beer!
Out with folks from 8x8, and colleague/he’s-everywhere, Dave Michels
VR demo with Lufthansa, checking out what flying first class kinda looks like (pretty good idea for upselling, actually!); Victor Belfor from 8x8 and that Dave again; riverfront walk by the Rhine - that’s a first for me.
Got a few posts to catch up on for sharing after travel to back-to-back events the past two weeks. This one is for the latest Tech Transformed podcast with EM360. For this episode, I interviewed Nikola Mrksic, CEO of PolyAI, talking about AI’s impact on customer experience and the contact center.
It’s a broad topic for sure, and yes, we touched on the trend-du-jour, agentic AI, among other things. If you missed it earlier, here’s the link, and I hope you give it a listen.
Things are a week off-schedule this month, but the March editions are now out.
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’s podcast was a recap of the Future of Work Expo, which was the main focus for me last month. There were lots of interesting takeaways, and to hear all about it, you can listen to the episode here.
Am posting this on the late side, mainly due to February being a short month, along with my recent travel schedule. Along those lines, I’m including a writeup that ran in early March, which were in fact, written last month. Here’s the digest of my public, bylined writeups for last month.
The Future of the Workplace Requires a Total Rethink, No Jitter, Mar. 4
RingCentral Analyst Summit - Quick Take and Photos, my blog, Feb. 28
ZohoDay25 - The AD Era, Build vs. Buy, and Playing the Long Game, No Jitter, Feb. 13
New Research From Aizan - Reimagining the On-Hold Experience, Aizan blog, Feb. 10
Am back now from RingCentral’s 2025 Analyst Summit, and it was time well-spent. Hosted at the upscale Bardessono hotel in Yountville - the heart of Napa - the setting was more than comfortable, making the almost two-hour drive from SFO a small inconvenience. More importantly was the intimate setting with a small group of analysts and pretty much all the key people we need to know and hear from at RingCentral.
Momentum is strong on many fronts, and it adds up to continued growth through 2025. There were many updates to keep track of, most notably:
Strong Q4 results, with 2024 revenues hitting $2.4 billion
Launch of AI Receptionist - AIR - which brings CAI and agentic AI capabilities that any business can use to automate the handling of incoming calls
Appointment of Kira Makagon as President and COO - further solidifying an already-strong leadership team
Updates on RingCX - powered by RingSense AI, their CCaaS offering is clearly gaining traction, both with and without the AI feature set
There were other updates of note as well, but I’m not doing a full-on review here. I posted commentary and photos regularly during the sessions on my LinkedIn feed, and with longer analysis coming on two video segments.
One is with UC Today on their Big UC News roundup, and another is a similar roundup with our group at BCStrategies. Both should run publicly next week or soon after, and I’ll share the links in case you don’t catch them.
To complement those takeaways, here are some of my photos, some of which you may have seen in isolation from my LinkedIn posts.
Below - nice overview visuals here. It’s easy to forget that RingCentral has been going for 25 years, and the first photo is a great timeline for their innovations and milestones. Second visual emphasizes a key message from the event - they have a complete, “multi-product portfolio”, and have a come a long way from from being a VoIP provider.
Some of the bright stars on their team, ball-hockey guy/MC/Mr. Canada - Amir Hameed, Kira Makagon, and Kristen Koenig (from their Hopin acquisition - another good growth story)
Zane Long leading the partner panel; RingCentral brain trust for the Exec Q&A, including Vlad Shmunis
More smart people, especially on the AI front - Jim Dvorkin, Dr. Antonio Nucci, John Finch
AI Receptionist demo (hard to see, but the 8 avatars on the screen represent the different personas that AIR can take on); the Two Mikes - Mike Stowe and Michael Brandenburg talking about what makes their platform distinct.
Thought you’d never ask - the hotel was right out of Central Casting for what you’d expect in Napa; world-famous, we-are-not-worthy French Laundry restaurant; and of course, an organic lemon tree in the garden area of the property.
This is how you do Zen at Bardessono; the personalized welcome screen in my room - nice touch, and it’s fair to say this hotel gets it with CX.
J Arnold & Associates is an Independent Technology Research and Analyst, helping businesses understand the strategic value of communications technology as they adapt to the digital transformation of work
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