September Writing Roundup

Getting back to a more normal writing output this month. A lot of my work goes in waves - first doing the writing, then sometimes a gap until things get published. Here’s what I was writing about last month, and with event travel kicking off next week, there will be plenty to write about during October.

NICE’s Brand Promise - Making Experiences Flow - A Bigger CX Vision, NICE blog, Sept. 21

Vonage AI Studio: Have They Cracked the Code with AI?, No Jitter, Sept. 21

3 UC User Scenarios Influence Hybrid Work Budgets, TechTarget, Sept 20

Making Experiences Flow - NICE’s Branding and the CXi Vision, NICE blog, Sept. 7

Closing the Customer Service Gap, Contact Center Pipeline, Sept 2022 Issue

UC Expo 2022, London - Speaking Shout-Out

My busy season for in-person industry events starts next Thursday, and after that, I’ll be on the road most of the time right through mid-November - yeow.

Well, we’ve all been cooped up at home for so long, this is just part of the “revenge travel” surge where we want to be anywhere but at home - plus, I guess the vendors really miss seeing us! Still, this is a lot of travel in a short period of time.

I’ll be posting updates for these various events soon, and here’s the first one. This is for UC Expo in London, which I’ve been doing virtually for a few years now. Finally, the coast has cleared for going in-person, and am very much looking forward to it.

Aside from moderating two panels - details coming on those soon - I’ll be on the Ask The Analyst session towards the end of the event, on Thursday at 2:10pm. I’ll be in good company, with colleagues Dave Michels, Zeus Kerravala and Oru Mohiuddin. If you’re attending, am sure this will be a fun session, and sure hope you can join us - scroll down here for details. Otherwise, more details are here on their site, and the main hashtag is #UCX2022.

Next Guest Post for NICE - A Bigger CX Vision for a Digital-First World

Busy week - I’ve been doing a lot of writing recently, and much of it is coming to market around now. Here’s the next one - another guest post for the NICE blog. The company is doing good things with CXi and their new branding, but the bigger message is how providing customer service now goes beyond the contact center. Lots more to explore here, so watch for more from me with NICE, as well as other places.

NICE Things Come in Small Packages - Analyst Summit Preview

Analysts get all kinds of swag - much of it is the same, and some is better than others. Here’s one, though, that I won’t be getting traders of. We graciously accept all of this at face value, but it’s always great to see creativity and fun, and NICE really stands out for me in that department.

October is going to be a full month of travel, so there’s a lot to prepare for. One of these stops will be for NICE’s 2022 Analyst Summit, held in Marrakesh, Morocco of all places. This is one of those times where we get spoiled a bit, but in return, they’ll have our full attention while we’re there.

Most travel can become a grind going to familiar cities and airports, but this one falls more in the adventure category, at least for me. So, to help build that anticipation of going to an exotic locale, I got a small package at the post the other day.

Can’t say I already have a magic lamp, but yup, I’ve got one now. More aptly, it should be called Barak’s lamp, after NICE’s CEO, Barak Eilam. I know he’s in there - I can hear him “wishing” me a good trip to Morocco, but I don’t have the secret password yet to release the genie. If that magically happens and my three wishes are granted, I might update you - or not. :-)

New Guest Post for NICE - Their New Branding and CXi Vision

Got another guest post to share - this one is with NICE, where I’ve written about how their new “make experiences flow” branding reflects the thinking behind their CXi approach to today’s contact center challenges. It’s a two-part series on their blog site, and you can read the first one here now; and I’ll post again when the second writeup runs.

Contact Center Pipeline - New Article: Closing the Customer Service Gap

Two new things to share as we slide into what’s going to be a very busy Fall.

First, I have a new article out, running in the September issue of Contact Center Pipeline magazine.. You can read it here, and after that, feel free to peruse the rest of the issue.

Related to that, I’ll be an occasional contributor to Contact Center Pipeline, so expect to see more articles from me, and possibly other forms of involvement.

August Writing Roundup

August was on the light side for writing - but it’s August after all - and many other things are in the works, for writing and other forms of thought leadership. They will turn up in due time, and the best way to keep current is to subscribe to my newsletter.

How Continuous Testing Enables IT to Manage Continuous Change with UCaaS, tekVizion blog, Aug. 31

Is Hybrid Work Working? It Depends on Who You Talk To, Workspace Connect, Aug.8 (also published on No Jitter)

Deflection Sounds Bad, But it’s Not! Here are 5 Ways Deflection Can Improve Agent Experience, NICE blog, Aug. 2

My Latest Podcast - with Patrick Sullivan, 2600Hz

I’ve been writing and podcasting for UK-based Enterprise Management 360 for several years - more updates about that soon! - and my latest piece has been published now.

This time around, I’m interviewing Patrick Sullivan, who is the co-Founder and co-CEO of 2600Hz, an innovative cloud provider I’ve been following for a few years. Over the course of our conversation, we try to demystify the cloud for SMBs, as well as make the case for using a platform that natively integrates all the core cloud applications, namely UCaaS, CCaaS and CPaaS. I hope you give it a listen, and while there, you should check out all the other content running on their portal.

New Guest Post for NICE - Call Deflection and Agent Experience

My latest guest post for NICE has now been published, and it’s running here on their blog page. The focus is on call deflection, and how it’s more than just service automation. There are richer benefits to be had, not just for making customer experience better, but agent experience as well. Hope you find it a good read, and more posts will be coming soon.

Next Webinar - with Servion and Cisco; Driving Digital Transformation in the Contact Center

This is the first in a series of webinars I’m doing with Servion, with this one featuring Cisco, highlighting Webex Contact Center. I’ll be talking about trends driving the need for digital CX, and the audience is largely invite-only. However, I’m able to get the word out to my followers, and details to register are here.

The webinar is running Thursday, August 11, but the cutoff to register is Aug. 3. Since this isn’t a totally open event, Servion will review registrations as they come, and then determine who is a good fit beyond the participants they are bringing themselves.

July Writing Roundup

With the month being abbreviated work-wise, public writing was pretty light. Just three pieces for the roundup, and next month, I should be back to higher levels.

My Q&A with Rob McDougall - AI and Setting Expectations in the Contact Center, Upstream Works Blog, July 22

Contact Centers Evaluate CPaaS vs CCaaS Benefits, TechTarget, July 21

The Difference Between a Traditional and Hybrid Meeting Room, TechTarget, July 19

AI and the Contact Center - My Q&A with CEO of Upstream Works

Personal events have put work on the back burner the past couple of weeks, but am slowly getting back to things. I’ve had a few new things in the works that I’ll start sharing over the next few days, with the first one being an exec Q&A I recently did with Rob McDougall, CEO of Upstream Works.

I’ve been doing work with them for a few years now, and Rob was certainly early with AI. A lot of that is finding its way into Upstream’s offerings now, but more importantly, Rob has a pretty good perspective on how contact center leaders need to be thinking about AI. We’re certainly of like mind about these things, and I hope you enjoy our conversation.

July - Newsletter and Podcast Time

New month - same message, but new editions of my newsletter and podcast.

The July issue of JAA Communications and Collaboration Review went out to subscribers yesterday, along with the latest Watch This Space podcast. Future of Work Expo was the big thing for me last month, and that’s the focus of the July podcast - I hope you give it a listen.

If you’re interested in tracking what I’m up to in the worlds of collaboration, customer experience and future of work, subscribing to my newsletter is easy - signup page is here. For my podcast, you can subscribe on all the major platforms, or just pick up the current episode here. If you’re not familiar with my website, there are archives for the newsletter and the podcast, but please note that both of these will be getting a refresh soon.

June Writing Roundup

Not a ton of writing for June, and that’s just how it goes sometimes. So, if you have the time, you can read ‘em all! More to come for July - there always is.

It’s truth time! Legacy technology and processes impact employee retention, NICE blog, June 29

How do you evaluate UC applications for frontline workers?, TechTarget, June 23

3 use cases highlight AI and speech recognition evolution, TechTarget, June 16

3 Building Blocks for a Greater Customer Experience, No Jitter, June 7

New Guest Blog Post for NICE - Impact of Legacy Tech on Agent Retention

Some things happen quickly, and others take more time. The latter applies for some work I’ve been doing with NICE recently. I’ve been writing a number of guest posts for their blog, and the first one was published yesterday, titled “It’s truth time! Legacy technology and processes impact employee retention”.

Other posts will run there in due course, and if you give this a read, it would be great to get your feedback. Depending when you check this out, my byline isn’t quite right, but the fix is coming soon.

3 Building Blocks for Greater CX - My Latest on No Jitter

For my latest No Jitter writeup, I shared some takeaways from the recent NICE Interactions event, especially the main messaging from CEO Barak Eilam’s keynote. The creativity around his talk warrants a post of its own, but for now I’m just focusing on his vision for how contact centers need to evolve. It’s running now on No Jitter - hope you like it!

Newsletter Time - June Issue, and Podcast Too

New month - new newsletter and new podcast. The June issue of JAA Communications and Collaboration Review went out to subscribers yesterday, along with the latest Watch This Space podcast. May sure was a busy month, and I’ve recapped much of what I saw, spoke and wrote about in the newsletter. The June podcast is titled The Metaverse, Innovation and Invention - Thinking Bigger About Future of Work, so that’s a pretty good clue as to what Chris Fine and I have on tap.

If you’re interested in tracking what I’m up to in the worlds of collaboration, customer experience and future of work, subscribing to my newsletter is easy - signup page is here. For my podcast, you can subscribe on all the major platforms, or just pick up the current episode here. If you’re not familiar with my website, there are archives for the newsletter and the podcast, but please note that both of these will be getting a refresh soon.

BCStrategies Podcast - UCaaS and CCaaS: Better Together

Our latest BCStrategies podcast is a hot topic - is it a good idea to deploy UCaaS and CCaaS together? Lots of momentum for the “yes” side, and most vendors are definitely on board - but there are certainly plenty of holdbacks and scenarios where this isn’t likely to work.

Lots to talk about, and if you’d like to hear our collective take, here’s the replay link. While you’re there, take some time to check out our other content - BCStrategies is the best one-stop resource for thought leadership around collaboration, cloud and contact center!

Next Webinar - June 9 with Servion

I’ve been on a webinar roll lately, and this time it’s with Servion. They’re a key partner for Cisco, and we’ll be talking about the rise of digital CX, along with what contact centers need to do to support that. Attendance, however, is limited - if interested, please register here, and Servion will get back to you if you meet the profile they’re looking for.

New Video Interview - Future of Work for Contact Centers

I was recently a guest on First Contact, a video podcast series produced by NobelBiz. They’ve been doing this for a while, and after being contacted about being interviewed, we set up a date, and soon I was in conversation with their EVP of Client Operations, Christian Montes.

The total interview runs about an hour - and you’re welcome to check out the whole thing - but to make it easier to digest, they’ve also broken it up into several smaller segments, which you can just watch in isolation. They did a great job putting all this together, including highlighting some content from my website, so viewers can better understand what I do as an indie analyst.

Here I am during the session with Christian, and to check out the finished project, here’s the link.