October Writing Roundup

Despite all the travel and new client work, I managed to get my share of writing done during October, and here are the highlights.

While I have you, my November newsletter will be going out this week, and if you’re a subscriber, you’ll see some references there to my October writing highlights.

Vonage Analyst Event - Quick Take and Pix, my blog, Oct. 31

Why Collaboration Value Should be Based on Outcomes, Not Technology, Toolbox.com, Oct. 29

Is the Balance of Power Shifting from UCaaS to CCaaS?, BCStrategies, Oct. 28

Lessons for Success from Cloud Communications Providers, my blog, Oct. 28

Success with Collaboration Means Being Where the Work Gets Done, Toolbox.com, Oct. 24

What are the benefits of UC in a cloud-based office suite?, TechTarget, Oct. 22

One Day, Two Events - Talkdesk and Zoom, my blog, Oct. 17

Unified communications for business goes beyond telephony, TechTarget, Oct. 14

RingCentral Analyst Day - Quick Take and Photos, my blog, Oct. 4

The State of SMB Telephony, Part 2, Toolbox.com, Oct. 1

What a Restaurant Can Teach You About Collaboration - My Latest on No Jitter

Wow - been almost two weeks since my last blog post! Let’s just say I’ve been pretty busy writing and getting some new projects going. Also have four June events starting Monday, plus a personal trip that month, so it never ends.

With that said, my latest No Jitter post is running now, and as the title suggests, it reflects my unconventional perspective on collaboration. If you attended Slack’s recent Frontiers event, this will make perfect sense; otherwise, you’re just going to have to read it to find out for yourself. After that, sharing would be great, and your thoughts would be welcome as always.

Guest Post for Talkdesk - WFM: the Customer is Always Right

Those who follow my blog and/or newsletter will know that I get approached to write guest posts for vendor sites, When the stars line up, I’m happy to oblige, and Talkdesk is the latest example. We’ve been exploring various ways of working together, so this is hopefully the first of many posts you’ll see from me with them.

My first guest post is about their recently-announced workforce management offering, and what their cloud-native approach brings to this core building block for contact centers. The title will make sense once you read the post, and it first ran here on Talkdesk’s website. To give it broader exposure, I’m posting about it here, so if you missed it the first time around, here’s your second chance. As always, comments and sharing are welcome.

Newsletter Time Again - May Issue

By now, my subscribers will have the current newsletter in their email, and if you’ve had a chance to check it out, I’d love to hear your thoughts. For everyone else, I welcome you subscribe to get some things you just won’t get anywhere else - our latest podcast, some interesting photos, and perspectives on what I’m seeing and doing in the collaboration space. That’s all for now, and if you want to get the May issue and future issues, here’s where to sign up.

New Podcast to Share - Enterprise Connect - and New Website Feature

So, if you’re still wondering what the buzz was about at Enterprise Connect, you’ll want to check out our last podcast, which is now being publicly shared.

For those who don’t get my newsletter, let me explain, plus I have some good news.

My newsletter is coming up on its first anniversary, and a regular feature is a podcast that I do with long-time colleague, Chris Fine. We’ve been in the communications tech space almost 20 years, and always have perspectives to share on the latest trends, and we often discuss conferences we’ve just attended.

The podcasts are exclusive to subscribers for a couple of weeks, and then I share them publicly so they can reach a broader audience. So, if you got the April newsletter, you would have heard the podcast then, when it was much more in the moment.

Normally, I would have shared it publicly a week or two ago, but I’ve had back-to-back events, and just haven’t had the time - sorry about that! Since then, however, I’ve managed to finally add a new section to my website - it’s an archive for all our podcasts up til the last newsletter issue. As each month passes, that will be updated, so by going to this section, you can access the latest podcast, along with what’s come before.

My website has been a work in progress for a long time, and I have other updates coming. Next will be a newsletter archive, so, much like the podcasts, you can review older issues from my site. Many of you know that I’m a music guy, and I’m also working on adding a section where you can check out clips of our band, the SIPtones, which is a group of industry consultants - and me - that plays at some of our industry events. Need a band for your next event?

Time to get back to work, and the Enterprise Connect podcast. I’ve got two links to leave you with, and I hope you get to both of them. First is the link to the podcast archive, where you can access them all up til last month, including Enterprise Connect. Then, there’s a link to sign up for my newsletter - if you did that, you wouldn’t have to wait so long for the podcast - so what are you waiting for?

Link to the podcast archive

Click here for newsletter sign-up form

That’s it. All done here in Washington DC with Ribbon, and it’s time to head to the airport. If you like my photos, btw, I posted a bunch from our city tour on Facebook - so look for me there if interested. At some point, I’ll probably add a photo archive to my website - would that be of interest?

Ok - so, here’s one photo from the city tour. He sure was a big reader, and I just know he would have subscribed to my newsletter - just sayin’…..

Slack - Got Their Mojo Workin' - My Thoughts on BC Strategies

On Friday, I managed to post a gallery of photos from Slack Frontiers before flying home. Now I’ve had a chance to write out my thoughts, and they’re running now on BC Strategies, which is one of the hats that I wear. Having announced their IPO plans on Friday, all eyes are now on Slack, and if that’s of interest, I think you’ll like my writeup here, and hopefully my photos too.

February Writing Roundup

I did more traveling than writing last month, but still managed to get some things out. As usual, here’s a digest of my thought leadership for February, and if you want to see more, please drop me a line.

There’s More to Digital Transformation than Automation, Toolbox.com, Feb. 28

Speech Tech in the Enterprise - 3 Themes to Explore, No Jitter, Feb. 26

Meet the New Boss - Cisco Collaboration Analyst Summit, my blog, Feb. 20

What Vendors Want When Selling Cloud-Based Collaboration, Toolbox.com, Feb. 19

My Latest White Paper - Leveraging Cloud Communications for SMBs, my blog, Feb. 15

Somewhere, Over the Rainbow, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise and Connex19, BCStrategies, Feb. 11

3 Best Practices to Future-Proof Your UC Deployment, TechTarget, Feb. 7

Thinking Horizontally About Collaboration, Toolbox.com, Feb. 5

My Next Webinar - with 8x8: How SMBs Can Leverage Cloud for Collaboration

Here’s my first shout-out for this webinar, happening on Tuesday, Dec. 4. It’s based on a white paper I just completed for 8x8, focused on educating SMBs about how the cloud can take them much further than just replacing premise-based telephony.

There are many stories to be told, and I’ve addressed a few of them here following some industry-based research. The white paper will be available for download soon from 8x8, but the webinar is free for all. More details are here, along with the registration form - I hope you can join us.

Talkdesk Opentalk18 - Two Sets of Takeaways

Am just back from Talkdesk’s event in San Francisco, so it’s been a busy week. Lots to like - and learn - about what they’re doing, and I summarized that in two posts, both of which have been published now on GetVoIP.com.

If you haven’t seen them yet, the links are here and here. As always, comments and sharing are welcome.

Otherwise, here are a few of my photos from the event, and with that, we’re on to Miami, and BroadSoft Connections on Monday!

My November Newsletter is Out

Just a quick shout-out, but if you’re a subscriber, you already have it. For everyone else, if you like what I do, and want to better understand how I support my clients, you’ll want to subscribe. Here’s the link, and you’ll have it in no time.

As a teaser, the content is exclusive for subscribers, and that includes my podcast, which I do with my colleague, Chris Fine. This time around, we share our takeaways from Twilio’s recent SIGNAL conference. Subscribers get to hear that now, and otherwise, I’ll share the podcast publicly here on my blog a few weeks from now.

Next Stop - San Francisco and Talkdesk

That’s my destination tomorrow, and am looking forward to attending Talkdesk’s Opentalk18 conference. Will be a first-timer for me to meet the company, and I’ll provide updates as time allows. More details here, and for social, the hashtag is #Opentalk18.

Time to buckle up! This is the first of three industry events I’ll be travelling to in the US during November, so watch for updates here, on my Event Calendar page, and on my social channels.

Twilio SIGNAL - Day 1 Pix

Been a fast-paced event so far, with a firehose of updates and announcements. For now, I’ll just steer you to some press releases, but will have more to say later after the conference. Namely: Autopilot for develping bots that can be deployed across multiple platforms, Flex contact center platform going GA, and acquiring SendGrid to integrate email into their platform.

Just too much going on, so that will have to wait for a quieter time. Otherwise, here’s a flavor of what I’m seeing so far. Co-founder/CEO Jeff - great energy and a passionate vision. Same from Al Cook annoucing GA for Flex, putting the call center space on notice. And, Rahma Javed from Deliveroo - diversity definitely spoken here! More coming about all these themes, so stay tuned.

Shout-out for My October Newsletter

My newsletter is becoming a regular thing now, and the current issue has been sent now to subscribers. Of course, I’d love for all my readers to be subscribers, but that’s your call, not mine. First, you have to be following me, of course - but since the newsletter is fairly new, you need to know about that as well, and that’s why I’m writing this post.

I will have a newsletter archive coming soon, and I do plan to start posting podcasts from the newsletter here on my site a few weeks after sending out the newsletter - I’d like to keep that content exclusive to subscribers for a while first. To pique your interest, the current podcast is with colleague Chris Fine, where we discuss the findings and implications about a recent report produced by Aruba Networks on the impact of digital transformation on the workplace - very interesting stuff, for sure.

For now, though, subscribing is the only way to check out the podcast, along with all my regular updates, including highlights from our SIPtones show at the recent SCTC conference. Signing up is easy - here’s one way - or just wander around the site - you can’t miss it!

AI, Chatbots and Business Success

I've just completed a series of writeups for Upstream Works on the growing role AI is playing in the contact center. The third and final Strategic Insight in this series can now be downloaded from their website, and I've written a blog post that serves as a preview for my analysis.

Before steering you there, in case you haven't been following this series, here's the preview post for the first writeup, and here for the second writeup. Each of these blog posts includes a URL where you can download the full analysis, and if you read these, I'd love to hear your thoughts - as would Upstream Works.

Coming back to the latest Strategic Insight, below is the opening para of the post now running on Upstream Works's blog - to read the rest, click here, after which I hope you download the full writeup.

Technology change presents both challenges and opportunities for all types of businesses, and over this three-part series, I’ve been addressing its impact on contact centers. In particular, I’ve been focusing on the emergence of Artificial Intelligence and the role chatbots can play in driving a better customer experience. The full potential will take years to realize, but there’s an urgency for contact centers to adopt new technology, and AI presents viable opportunities that can be deployed now.

Ribbon Communications, Perspectives18 - Photos and Quick Take

Am back now from the Ribbon Communications conference in Los Angeles, and definitely glad I went. For me, there were both good answers and new questions, and I'm going to explore those in a separate post that will run next week on the BCStrategies portal. For now, I'll just share a few high-level impressions, along with some photos to give you a feel for what was on tap there.

First is the changing of the guard, with Fritz Hobbs taking on the CEO role, and David Walsh taking on a more focused role as Founder of Kandy. Fritz Hobbs is unknown to pretty much everyone I spoke with, and clearly he's a finance guy, not a tech guy. He said very little on stage, so it's hard to tell how he's going run things, but it's safe to say he'll be focused on keeping shareholders and investors happy. David's entrepreneurial and visionary style seems likely to be applied to Kandy rather than the entire organization, so it's also hard to tell what his overall impact is going to be now.

Speaking of Kandy, that was clearly the focus of the conference, and we didn't hear much about the core products that drive revenues and get the attention of analyst houses that track market share and build forecasts. This was also the case at last year's conference, but with the newly-formed Ribbon being a public company, I was surprised about that. We heard even less about how Kandy is actually doing - lots of use cases, customer success stories and touting of CPaaS and UCaaS capabilities, but no metrics. David Walsh made it clear that it's too early for that so let's just move on.

I really liked the clear focus on how Kandy is a great way to leverage the cloud so service providers can be more competitive, not just against other carriers, but the disruptors like Amazon and Twilio. It's debateable how much of a threat those players really are, but they're definitely in the mix, and service providers really do need an innovation engine to bring new services to market, and that's exactly Kandy's MO. Sound like another platform provider serving the carrier market? I'll have more to say about that in my BCStrategies post. And with that, let's shift from text to images with a few photos from the event - and to follow further, check out the twitter feed, #RBBNP18.

New CEO, Fritz Hobbs

David Walsh, no longer CEO, but now Founder, Kandy, and I love those cons - my kind of sneaker.

Patrick Joggerst and Bita Milanian

Innovation Panel

Service Provider Panel

10-piece band AMFM, who played throughout the show - great energy and very fun!

The LA sunset - a hotel specialty - did I pick the right cocktail for this conference  or what?

May Writing Roundup

Was a fairly quiet May on the writing  front, but plenty busy otherwise. The ongoing work I've been doing with Upstream Works is now finding its way here and on their website, and things have been active on the conference front, both for attending last month and prepping for what's coming in June.

In terms of visibility, I also did a webinar and a Google Hangout in May, and highlights from the latter will be available soon. Also, I continue to fine-tune my website, and last month's newsletter - you can subscribe here - marked my first podcast for what will be a regular feature going forward.

Managing CX from the Inside-Out, No Jitter, May 23

How Ambient Interfaces will Replace Phone Systems, Toolbox.com, May 14

How will speech technologies intergrate with UC apps?, TechTarget, May 14

My May Newsletter is Out, Including a New Podcast - Subscribe Here, my blog, May 10

How Telephony Evolution is Impacting the Contact Center, Toolbox.com, May 8

Preview for New Series - AI, Chatbots and New Value in Contact Centers, my blog, May 3

AI, Chatbots and Improving Customer Satisfaction

I've been working on a series of writeups for Upstream Works on the growing role AI is playing in the contact center. The second Strategic Insight in this series can now be downloaded from their website, and I've written a blog post that serves as a preview for my analysis.

Here's the opening para of that post, and you can read the rest here on the Upstream Works blog.

Contact centers are not alone in trying to keep up with fast-changing technology, but they face two distinct challenges that are highly related. First would be various constraints that limit their ability to provide agents with the tools needed to effectively support today’s tech-savvy customers. This challenge was addressed in my previous blog post, which in turn supports a deeper analysis that you can access here.

Join Us - Fonolo's Next Google Hangout - Top Call Center Metrics

I've been following Toronto-based Fonolo for years, and they continue to stay on the leading edge of contact center technology. CEO Shai Berger hosts occasional Google Hangout panel discussions, and I'll be on the next one, taking place on May 31 at 3pm EST.

We'll be joined by Daniel Hong from Forrester, and Kevin Brown of Banner Health. This is a live broadcast, and to register, all the details are here.

Next Stop - Nashville and Genesys CX18

Haven't blogged in a while, mainly due to being so busy. Last week was MoNage and Cisco's customer care event, and this week has been month-end writing, getting plans in place for next week's Genesys event, and practicing music for the SIPtones gig we have next Wednesday night during CX18. Also been very active developing new projects based on inquiries from recent industry events, so things are never dull here.

Just doing a quick shout-out now about next week's event, and I'll be there from Tuesday through Thursday. Details about the event and our SIPtones gig can be found in the Event Calendar section of my website. While there, I'll be tweeting as time allows - @arnoldjon - and you can follow the event feed at #CX18.

Next Speaking Spot - MoNage - Emerging Communications and the Digital Workplace

Regular blog followers and/or subscribers to my newsletter will know that I've been speaking at and supporting Jeff Pulver's MoNage conference from the beginning. My history with Jeff goes back much further, and with MoNage still fairly new, it's small - but highly focused and definitely gaining momentum.

Feel free to search my blog about my earlier talks at MoNage, but it's time to talk up the Spring 2018 event. Details can be found in the Event Calendar section of my website - quickly, it's being held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, and our talk will be at 10:30 next Wednesday. I'll be co-presenting on this topic with my long-time partner, Chris Fine.

If you're still considering attending, please contact me for a discount offer on the registration fee. Otherwise, you can review the program agenda here, and if you're joining us, I'd love to connect - I sure won't be hard to find, esp if using the social handles - @arnoldjon, @MoNageConf, #Monage