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.

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.

New Guest Post for Aizan - My Take on the EU AI Act

AI may be the most transformational technology we’ll see in our lifetimes, and I’m keenly interested in how we can strike a balance between the classic push-pull of innovation and regulation. We’ve been down this path before - notably VoIP - and the story with AI isn’t much different.

I recently wrote a guest post for Aizan Technologies on this topic, specifically for the EU AI Act, which was just put into law last month. The EU has taken the lead on developing a regulatory framework for today’s digital technologies, and the AI Act is the latest chapter.

There’s a lot to unpack here, and it should serve as a template for the US to follow, but that’s another - messy - topic for another time. That aside, I hope you give the article a read, and would love to hear your thoughts - here’s the link - and while you’re at it, feel free to check out the other articles on their site.

Next Webinar - with Enghouse Interactive - Cloud for Contact Center

I may be recovering from foot surgery, but I’ve got plenty of things on the go, including a new webinar. This one is with Enghouse Interactive, and it will be live on April 30 at 10am ET. I’ll be presenting about the current state of things with contact centers, especially those who have not yet made any moves to the cloud.

A lot of education is still needed, and once the benefits are understood, it’s a much easier decision to make. I hope you can join us, and here’s the registration page.

UC Awards 2024 - Back Again, Bigger and Better

UK-based UC Today has been running an annual awards program for seven years now, and the 2024 edition has just been launched. I’m returning as a judge, and the judging panel has now expanded to 16 members. We need a bigger panel, because there are 15 NEW categories, so this awards program is really growing.

If you’re looking to enter, there are lots of categories to choose from, that should be your starting point. The first date to note is April 29, when the application process opens - and closes on June 7. There’s lots to explore here, and more updates are coming, but UC Awards is back, and you check out the whole program here.

Latest White Paper - The Supervisor Opportunity for CX

Aside from traveling to industry and vendor events, I work with many vendors to provide various forms of thought leadership and go to market support - that’s mainly how I make my living.

NICE is one of those vendors, and my latest work with them is a white paper, which was recently published. I don’t have the exact date, but was likely around late March. AI is transforming the contact center space in many ways, and there is no shortage of angles to explore.

For this white paper, the focus is on supervisors, a role that tends to be in the shadows when considering use cases for AI. Well, it turns out this is a really important use case, and to better learn why, I hope you give this a read. As with most white papers, registration is required on the vendor’s website - it just takes a moment, and follow-on comments are welcome, as always.

New Mini-Report - US Contact Center Market Review

I’m a market researcher by trade, but as an indie analyst, I don’t publish industry reports as a matter of course. However, I’m happy to produce those on a custom basis, but that’s a different conversation. On occasion, though, I will produce mini-reports, which are on a smaller scale, and often based on publicly-available secondary sources.

That’s the format used with Aizan for this review of the US contact center market. More specifically, the research was used to support the notion that the on-hold experience is a critical link in the customer experience value chain, and is poorly understood.

This is a focus area for Aizan, and regardless of what’s on offer, the main takeaway is about the opportunity for contact centers to better address this weak link. Registration is required from their website, but if this is something you’ve been thinking about, I think you’ll find it a good read.

Preview for my Enterprise Connect Session - on No Jitter

Enterprise Connect is just two weeks away, and it’s always a crush to get everything in while there. So many people to meet, so many sessions to see, but always so little time. The main activity for me is my annual session on the state of speech tech in the enterprise, and I hope you can carve out a bit of time to see it - Thursday at 9am, Room Sun C.

To help support the session, I wrote a preview article about what we’ll be talking about, and it’s running now on No Jitter. I’ll be joined by speakers from RingCentral, Cognigy and Sprinklr; for more detail, here’s the article, and here’s an earlier blog post with some backstory, along with a discount code to save $400 on your registration.

Enterprise Connect Update - New Speaking Spot Added

I recently posted about my Enterprise Connect session on enterprise speech tech, and since then, I’ve now been added to another panel session, which happens to follow right after mine.

The new session is titled Where is Technology Taking the Employee Experience?, and I’ll be joining panelists Beth Schultz from Metrigy, and Robert Harris from Communications Advantage. No Jitter’s Lisa Schmeiser will be moderating, and I hope you can join us. Full details are here, and we’ll be going at 10am on Thursday, March 28.

Zoho Analyst Event - My Two Takeaways

This event happened earlier this month, and my review about it is running now on BCStrategies. If that hasn’t crossed your path, thought I’d blog about it here as well, as I think you’ll find it a good read.

Zoho is an interesting company, and one that shows you there isn’t just one way to run a successful business. Here’s the link to read my writeup, and for my in-the-moment insights, here’s a digest of my LinkedIn posts during the event.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jarnoldassociates_zohoday24-spaceexploration-travel-activity-7161776091446042624-BxsL?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jarnoldassociates_zohoday24-businessstrategy-culture-activity-7161436505633214464-GGT5?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jarnoldassociates_zohoday24-ucaas-ai-activity-7161399177199980544-hohU?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jarnoldassociates_zohoday24-businessforgood-sustainability-activity-7161388308252549120-uSux?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jarnoldassociates_zohoday24-activity-7161384360330354688-66us?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jarnoldassociates_zohoday24-financialperformance-leadership-activity-7161101104162738177-_hbV?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jarnoldassociates_zohoday24-zoho-bigtech-activity-7161056452487303168-PLZQ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Next Stops - San Jose and San Diego for RingCentral and 8x8

Three down, two to go. Been in constant motion all month with travel to five events over four weeks. So far, I’ve been to Zoho and Cognigy, along with running my Future of Work Expo in Florida. All were good, and I'm writing/posting about them as time allows.

Now, we’re on to California, where I have back-to-back analyst events, starting with RingCentral on Monday in San Jose, and then to San Diego for 8x8’s event through Friday. That’s plenty of excitement for February, but very much looking forward to both of these events. Will have some home-based time for a bit once back, and then before you know it, Enterprise Connect will be on deck for last week in March. The road continues…

Enterprise Connect Time - State of Enterprise Speech Tech

Time flies, but we’re now about a month away from Enterprise Connect 2024, at the usual spot in Orlando. I’m back again doing my annual session on the state of enterprise speech tech, and I’ll be joined by Alan Ranger from Cognigy, Abhishek Priyam from Sprinklr, and Ram Rajagopalan from RingCentral.

Speech tech and AI go hand-in-hand these days, and while the use cases are well-known in the contact center - and of course the consumer world - lots is happening in the enterprise, and not just for collaboration. I’ve been exploring this space for six years now at the show, and while much of the innovation is incremental improvements on existing AI apps, there are certainly new frontiers being opened up.

If that piques your interest, you’ll have to stick around to the last day, Thursday - our session is at 9am, and you can get more detail here. I hope you can join us, and if you haven’t registered yet, feel free to use the discount below to save $400.

New Month - Time for Next Newsletter and Podcast

It’s the first full week of the month, and my new editions are out now. Both the newsletter and podcast published yesterday, so just a friendly FYI here.

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 click to listen to the current episode here. With my Future of Work Expo running next week, this was a good time to provide a preview of what to expect. We also stepped back to provide our analog perspective on what “work” is going to mean in the world of digital, AI and immersive technologies. I hope you give it a listen, and perhaps explore earlier episodes.

Next Stop Update #2 - Future of Work Expo, Ft. Lauderdale

Am doing back-to-back events starting tomorrow, and just posted about the first stop - Zoho’s analyst event. Will be staying down south after that, heading to Ft. Lauderdale, home of TMC’s ITExpo. I run one of the sub-events there - Future of Work Expo - and this is my 6th year as Chair. The program is solid, and I hope you can join us.

If you’re still on the fence about going, here’s the latest update from TMC, and to learn more, just drop me a line. Also, my next podcast goes live tomorrow, and the main topic is a preview for what we’ll be doing at the event.

Next Stop Update 1 of 2 - Zoho Analyst Day, McAllen, TX

Tomorrow starts a travel run of 5 industry events in 4 weeks, so there’s a lot of packing and planning to do, not to mention delivery stops for the newspaper. I’m SO analog, I know.

First stop is McAllen, Texas - definitely a new locale for me, and it’s home to Zoho’s analyst event, which will also be a first for me. The borders for the contact center space are becoming ever-more fluid, and that applies both ways. Not just for vendors outside this space adding CCaaS, but for contact center vendors reaching into the enterprise. I’ll have more to say about that after taking in the sessions, so stay tuned.

New Interview - Cognigy CX Disruptors

Been heads-down working on new projects, but have also had a good run lately for doing video interviews. The latest is with Cognigy, where they have a series called CX Disruptors, doing 1:1 interviews with thought leaders, hosted by Jarrod Davis.

The series is well-done, and the latest episode is my turn, just published today. I hope you check it out, along with other episodes featuring many of my peers.

New Month, New Year, New Newsletter and Podcast

Hitting the ground running for 2024, and the January editions of my newsletter and podcast are both out now. For the podcast, btw, this marks the start of Season 7, so Chris and I have been at this for a while now.

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 click to listen to the current episode here. Whereas my newsletter included a 2023 year in review for my activity, the January episode is a look ahead to how IT leaders need to be thinking about adopting AI in 2024. There’s a lot to like, but a lot to be cautious about. I hope you give it a listen, and perhaps explore earlier episodes.

December Writing Roundup

My public-facing writing was on the light side for the last month of 2023, but I was also busier than normal with videos and podcasts. Writing will always to be core to what I do, but it’s also just one mode for sharing perspectives, and going into 2024, there will be no shortage of things to both write and speak about. Here’s the digest for December:

Brace for an AI Backlash and Embrace Virtual Spaces for 2024, No Jitter, Dec. 26

2024 Customer Experience Trends, Insight Report for Upstream, Dec. 18

ICYMI - this one ran at the very end of November: Everyone Thinks AI Will Change Communications Tech - and Understanding How is Key, No Jitter, Nov. 30

Future of Comms - 2024 Predictions with EM360

Been doing a variety of 2024 year-ahead pieces - writeups, videos and podcasts. Here’s the latest one - a podcast I recorded with Matt Harris at UK-based EM360. Much to discuss for what I think is coming for 2024, and I hope you give it a listen - it just went live today.

Latest Insight Report - 2024 CX Trends for Upstream Works

Been doing my share of writing and speaking for what lies ahead for 2024, and here’s my latest example. This is an Insight Report I prepared for Upstream Works to help educate contact center leaders about key CX trends to be watching for in the new year. Lots to talk about in this space, and here’s the registration link to access the writeup. If you get it, I hope you like it, and welcome comments any time.