My July Newsletter is Out!

Just a quick heads-up on this. My subscribers already have the curreent edition, and if you'd like to get it, you just need to sign up here - or wander around my website to find a signup page.

Of particular interest may be the podcast, where I partner again with long-time colleague Chris Fine. This time around, we take a closer look at some findings from the recent Internet Trends 2018 report, compiled by tech guru Mary Meeker. We could do 10 podcasts to do this set of research justice, but for now, one will have to do. That said, if you like what we have to say, let us know - ditto for any other topic you'd like to hear our take on.

For now, my podcasts are exclusive for subscribers, but am thinking of making them publicly available a short time after the newsletter goes out. For my subscribers - not to worry - the rest of the content there will alway be exclusive, so the podcasts will just be that way for a short time, meaning you'll get access before everyone else.

AI - is it Really Artificial? Our Latest BCStrategies Podcast

Big topic, and lots to discuss. That's what we covered in our current BCStrategies podcast. It's on the long side - about 50 minutes - but AI is kind of like that. There's so much to learn and so many perspectives, and hopefully you'll find this a good listen.

This time around, fellow Torontonian/US-expat Kevin Kieller led the group, and the download can now be accessed here on our portal. As always, both comments and sharing are welcome.

June Writing Roundup

Sure has been a while since my last blog post. I was on the road three weeks out of four last month, so blogging has been light, and same for my writing output overall.

The time, however, has been well spent, and I now have a number of new projects starting up. No conferences til late September, and I'll be plenty busy close to home fulfilling client work. Since we're in a new month, it's time for my June roundup, but also a heads-up for my next newsletter. It should be in subscriber's hands - or inboxes more accurately - by this Friday, so if you get it, the wait won't be long.

If you don't subscribe yet, this would be a good time to sign up, and here's the form. As a sneak peak, I've got another podcast coming with my colleague, Chris Fine - and if you're a fan of Mary Meeker's annual Internet Trends report, you'll want to hear our discussion about some highlights.

Ok, back to the writing - it's a short set, but here's what I was up to in June.

How do you train an AI service for collaboration?, TechTarget, June 28

Internet Trends 2018 - How Digital Technologies are Driving Digital Behaviors, Toolbox.com, June 25

AI, Chatbots and Business Success, my blog, June 20

Is Ribbon Communications the New BroadSoft?, BC Strategies, June 19

Collaboration - Think About Outcomes, not Technology, Part 2, Toolbox.com, June 18

NEC Advantage - Quick Thoughts and Photos, my blog, June 15

Cybercrime - are you Paying Attention?, Toolbox.com, Jun 12

Is the Contact Center Going the Way of the PBX?

That's the question posed for my latest No Jitter writeup, and it stems from several takeaways from last month's Enterprise Connect 2018. You don't have to look far on my blog to see what I've already written about the conference, but for No Jitter, it just seemed that a number of learnings from Enterprise Connect pointed to that big question.

I'm not saying it's happening tomorrow, but the parallels are strong, and perhaps you'll agree after giving it a read. And if you don't, I'd still love to hear from you, as would the folks at No Jitter. Are you there?

The New Voice - My Next Webinar

Time's short for this one, but am doing another webinar with Ziff Davis. It's next Tuesday, March 20 at 2pm ET. Just finishing up my presentation now, and as the title implies, it's about the "New Voice", a broad trend that is being driven by the cloud, and emerging AI capabilities. There's a lot to talk about - no pun intended - and if you follow my work, you'll have a good idea of what to expect. I hope you can join me, and all the details to register are here.

Preview of my Speech Tech Tutorial at Enterprise Connect on No Jitter

Got a few messages to unpack in that headline, as preparations for Enterprise Connect 2018 kick into high gear.

1. This is my first time at Enterprise Connect, and I'll be one of the very first speakers, presenting a tutorial on speech technology at 8am, Monday, March 12.

2. I wrote a preview article about my tutorial - all the details are there - and it's running now on No Jitter. Would love it if you could attend my session!

3. This may be my first rodeo with EC, but I'm a regular contributor to No Jitter - here's my profile page if you want to see my other posts.

4. We're all in sales, and here's my modest pitch if you haven't made plans yet. Use this link to register by midnight, March 9, and you'll get $500 off the price.

5. I hope you like the preview article, and if you do, I'm pretty sure you'll like my tutorial. Don't be shy - be social - use #EC18 and @enterprisecon to share.

ITExpo Preview #2 - How AI is Changing the Customer Experience

This is the second of three sessions I'll be moderating at next week's ITExpo in Fort Lauderdale. Yesterday, I posted about the first one, also on the same day, and general details about the expo and my overall schedule can be found on the Event Calendar of my website.

The AI session will be next Wednesday at 1pm, and we'll be in Room 209. We've got a full slate, and joining me will be Muthusamy Selvaraj from Carenection, Eric Bauer from AudioCodes, Brett Lancaster from Ricoh USA, and Bachir Halimi from Speech Mobility. This link will get you to the full details for our session, and while you're there, you can see what else is going on at the show.

Otherwise, I have plenty of meetings booked, but if you want to connect, I won't be hard to find.

Impact of Net Neutrality on the Enterprise - Our UCStrategies Podcast

Pretty timely topic here given the recent FCC rollback of Net Neutrality. It's a true cornerstone of the Internet as we know it, but that's about to change, and as consumers, we all have cause for concern. The same applies for the workplace, and these changes are going to have implications for the nature of Internet services used by enterprises as well as the providers we get them from.

It's pretty early to tell how this will unfold, but our view at UCStrategies is that it's a key trend to watch for 2018, and that's what we talked about on our final podcast of 2017. Whether you're on the IT/networking side or just a user of collaboration applications, I think you'll find our insights worthwhile. Here's the link to give it a listen, and it's a topic we will no doubt revisit again in 2018.

JAA Subscriber Newsletter Launch

I've lost count tracking the time for getting this done, but it's finally launched. Many of you have signed up to get my JAA update newsletter, and the first one was sent moments ago via Mailchimp. Thank you all for subscribing, and many of you have been signed up for a long, long time.

Now that I've got this in place, you can look forward to regular updates, hopefully monthly, and things will definitely evolve as we go. I'll soon be adding a short podcast where I'll review current trends in tandem with a guest, and if you have ideas for topics, please let me know.

If you aren't a subscriber, I hope you sign up, and it's not hard to find a reg form here on my site to do so. Many of you follow my blog via RSS - nothing wrong with that, but I don't know who you are, and by subscribing, you'll get exclusive content that I won't be sharing on the blog. Your call!

For my subscribers, I hope you find the content interesting, and would love to hear your feedback, as well as any business challenges I could help you address.

Will AI Become Like Organic Food?

That's the title of my latest post wearing my UC Expert hat for UCStrategies. I think it's a valid question as AI becomes the trend-du-jour in our space, and everyone wants to be on the train as it pulls out of the station. Where that train is going, nobody knows, but so long as you believe AI can be a force for good, you need to be there.

As a marketing guy, I have concerns that "AI" is already getting over-used, and that could undermine its true value - presuming we start seeing some true innovation. Lots to think about, and I hope this post piques your interest.

As a sidebar, I didn't realize it's been so long since my last blog post. Apologies for the gap - just been full-out busy finishing up white papers, getting regular client work done, and getting a bunch of new projects mapped out. Inquiries keep coming in, so it never gets dull.

Am also trying to squeeze in time to get some exclusive content out to my blog subscribers! You know who you are, and apologies for this taking so long. Won't be much longer - promise. Until then, I hope you enjoy this UCStrategies post of mine.

RichCall Blog - Summary of Key Contact Center Technologies and Experts

This crossed my path recently, and wanted to share it as a good resource/overview of technologies currently leading the contact center space.

RichCall is a contact center vendor I didn't know previously, and they recently compiled a pretty extensive summary, based on industry research and insights from analysts/consultants/experts in this space. This is a handy reference post if you want a 5 minute snapshot of what's driving contact center technology and what's coming next.

There's a solid list of industry experts - myself included, thanks - and if you're not sure who to follow to stay on top of things, this cohort covers the ground pretty thoroughly. Otherwise, there's some useful stats from Dimension Data's 2017 benchmark report, and if you like what you see, am sure RichCall will be happy for any sharing - and likewise for keeping our names out there.

Podcast - BC Summit Recap

The month has zoomed by, and the BC Summit was one of four events I attended and/or spoke at in October. Am glad to be done travelling for a while, but the BC Summit kicked the month off on a strong note.

As always, the mix of content was strong, and there was something for everyone.  Highlights have been posted already in written form, but we did a podcast as well, and it's finally been prepared for posting. You can access it now on our portal, and if you'd like to ask more questions, just drop me a line.

Why Did Cisco Buy BroadSoft? I Think Taher Behbehani Knows Why

It's been quite a week, starting with BroadSoft Connections in Phoenix, then MoNage in Boston. Been a big blur, but am back now, and along the way, I managed to write up my thoughts about the big news that dropped just ahead of the BroadSoft event about being acquired by Cisco. 

I hope the title of my post piques your interest, and if you read my latest analysis for UCStrategies (now branded as BC Strategies), the answer will emerge, along with many other thoughts that I think help explain what's behind the move. The post is running now on the portal, and while there, I welcome you to read my other posts, along with those of my fellow BC Expert peers, many of whom were also at BroadSoft's event.

My Next Webinar - Digital Assistants for Collaboration and Customer Care

I've been doing webinars with Ziff Davis on a steady basis lately, and the next one is about digital assistants. This is another way of saying chatbots, and what I'm really talking about is the emergence of conversational interfaces as a way to leverage AI to make both collaboration and customer care more effective.

There's a lot to explore here, and I'll be providing an overview of current trends and opportunities based on my current research in this space. The webinar is next Tuesday, August 22 at 2pm ET, and I hope you can make it. As always, Ziff Davis webinars are free, and you can register here.

Next Stop - Boston - Speaking at MoNage Networking Event

Well, Waltham actually - just west of Boston.

Been socializing this for a while, and am finally getting a chance to post here. Next Tuesday, I'll be joining Jeff Pulver and Chris Fine, as we reprise the networking event we held here in Toronto last month. Aside from that link, all the details for our Waltham event, including the Eventbrite registration form, can be found in the Event Calendar section of my website.

The event is free, and if you're in the area and can join us, we'd love to see you there!

May Writing Roundup

If you follow me, you'll know the whole month has been non-stop, but aside from all the travel to conferences and speaking spots, I managed to keep a pretty full slate of writing going - mostly for clients, but also for my own blogging. Here's a digest of my activity, and that will give you a sense of the trends I'm seeing in the collaboration and customer care spaces right now.

Tech Leader Talk - Digital and Customer Experience: Are We There Yet? - Facebook link to live-streamed video, May 30, Schulich School of Business, Global Alumni Network 

NEC and Frank Viola - "Raising a Family" - My Q&A on Frank's Retirement, May 30, my blog

How Can Near Real-Time Communication Modes Offer Context?, May 25, TechTarget

CX17 - Genesys and ININ - Quick Take, May 25, my blog

Thinking Clearly About the Cloud for Collaboration, May 23, Toolbox.com

Our Drivers of the Digital Economy Event - Thanks for Coming all!, May 17, my blog

Messaging, Slack and Facebook - It's Complicated, May 15, Internet Telephony Magazine (am also cited in three other articles in their Q2 edition - links are here)

Vertical Market Collaboration Scenarios - Healthcare, May 12, Toolbox.com

NEC Advantage 2017 - Quick Update, May 12, my blog

Takeaways from Cisco's Customer Care Analyst Event, May 10, UCStrategies

Assessing the Total Impact of Digital Transformation, May 8, Toolbox.com

How the Customer Journey Drives CX, May 2, Toolbox.com

Messaging, Chatbots, AI - Finding the Enterprise Opportunity, May 2, No Jitter

CX17 - Genesys and ININ - Quick Take

This my third U.S. conference this month, and I'm speaking at two others back home in Toronto, so am now at that saturation point where everything is a big blur. However, I got to the airport early, found a quiet spot, and wanted to get a quick post out while I'm still in the moment.

I just want to share some high level thoughts here, and will have a more considered analysis next week, and hopefully you'll stay with me for that. First off, having been to several Interactions events in Indy, not having Don Brown  here to share his vision was a big sign of how much has changed in a year. Those are big shoes to fill, and  given how much integration has been done by Genesys in a short period of time, kudos are due to CEO Paul Segre and his team.

The contact center space is going through unprecedented - but expected - disruption, so much so, I don't think that term will be in use much longer. End users and vendors alike are going through an existential crisis with all this new technology, and from what I saw, Genesys gets that in spades. I didn't attend the technical breakout sessions, but I hardly heard any references to IVR, ACD, call recording, etc. - the stock in trade of most contact centers.

Today, it's all about omnichannel, CX and customer journey, and the new vernacular is about AI, machine learning, automation, chatbots, conversational interfaces, journey visualization, biometrics, and of course, AR/VR. Digital transformation is definitely happening here, and Genesys has a pretty good handle not just on what is happening, but how their customers need to adapt.

Genesys, too, needs to adapt, and I really liked the overall tone of their messaging, mainly around their G-NINE framework, along with how they've branded their three core offerings - PureCloud, PureConnect and PureEngage - into a complete product family - the Genesys Customer Experience Platform.

All of this needs unpacking, and I'll get to that in an upcoming post. Until then, here are two key takeaways that stuck with me, along with a few photos for posterity. I really hope we get back to Indy at some point, but this may well have been the last one now that ININ is fully in the Genesys fold.

1.  Meet Kate - that's their new chatbot, but there's much more to the story. Gender politics aside - yes, that's a thing - what stuck with me was how they call this "blended AI".  The language for our brave new digital world is still evolving, and since nobody really owns it, we can call these new things whatever we want. For now, that term seems to work, with the idea being that Kate strives to leverage micro-services/applications efficiently when interfacing with machines (for lack of a better word - that's definitely a holdover from pre-digital times that will surely fade away), but also with empathy and a personal touch when dealing with people - both customers and employees.

2. Branding update. So, the "big reveal" at the end of the general sessions was ably handled by CMO Merijn te Booijj. This initiative was done thoughtfully and with purpose, and he did a great job explaining it. Given all the integration with ININ, and their future-forward vision for CX, there's a lot of ground to cover when coming up with new branding that's going to hit the mark. Being a marketing guy, I really admire good branding, and I'd say they've succeeded. The new logo is a bit amorphous - almost like mutating cells - but hey, isn't that what's really been happening with Genesys, evolving into a higher life form, so to speak? Maybe. More on that later, and if you haven't seen the new logo/tagline yet, it's in the gallery below.

Not quite the Indy 500 starting line, but my timing was good here.

Genesys CEO Paul Segre

Not quite the iconic monolith slab from Kubrick's 2001 Space Odyssey, but at least here, the message is easier to understand - "moments connected" - I hope!  :-)

I got to play again with the SIPtones here on Tuesday night, and it was a lot of fun. If you were there, I'd love to hear from you or see your pix!

Our Drivers of the Digital Economy Event - Thanks for Coming All!

Just a quick note of thanks and appreciation for all those who came out to our event in downtown Toronto last night. The room was full, the energy was great, and I think the audience came away with a better idea of Jeff's vision, the opportunity he's trying to address with his MoNage event, and the community he's trying to build to use technology for good in our world.

Props to Steven Pulver and Caravel Law for hosting and providing the pizza and drinks in true startup style. Special thanks to the many VON alum who turned out, especially Alan Percy and Garrett Smith who made the drive from Buffalo, getting there JIT.

Chris Fine and I really enjoyed reprising the presentation we gave at MoNage in San Jose, and for those who hadn't seen Jeff before, I know they came away inspired on a few levels. He has that effect on people, and we need more of that!

Also - we're happy to share our slides, and if you didn't get a chance to pass on your card to me last night, drop me a line and I'll get them to you.

Jeff mentioned that some of the event was live-streamed on Facebook, but I haven't come across that yet - fyi.

Got a few pix to share here. The lighting wasn't great, but here's a few. If you were there and had good shots, you're welcome to share, and I'm happy to amplify.

Talk about true startup style - from humble beginnings with a simple sign, directing people downstairs to the space.

Photo - Ron Gruia

Photo - Jessica Fowler

Photo - Sara Belmont

My Next Speaking Event: The Digital Experience - Are We There Yet?

If you follow me, you'll know May is an unusually busy month - 3 out of town industry events, 2 local speaking events, and 1 music gig with the SIPtones in Indianapolis next Tuesday.

Tonight, I'm speaking at Jeff Pulver's networking event here in Toronto about chatbots, AI and enterprise messaging, and we're expecting a big crowd. It's not too late to join us, however, if you're free.

Next up on the local front, I'm leading a panel session on May 30. Also downtown, it's with my MBA alma mater - Schulich - at their Tech Alumni Group. They do quarterly events, and I'm hosting the panel for the next one, focused on the impact of digital transformation on both the employee experience and the customer experience. 

We have a great lineup, and joining me will be speakers from Cisco Canada, Sears Canada, the Compass Group, and Couch & Associates. I'll be socializing this more as the date nears, but we're ready to promote it now, and if you register before May 26,  the registration fee is only $20. If you're local, hope you can join us!

Takeaways from Cisco's Customer Care Analyst Event

Last week, I was in Montreal for this event, and wearing my UC Expert hat, I wrote up my thoughts for UCStrategies. The post is running now on the portal, and I hope you find it a good read. As always, sharing and comments are welcome.