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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.
Quiet month on the public writing front, but already there are several guest posts queued up for April, so plenty more coming soon.
8x8 Analyst Day - My Thoughts and Photos, March 14, my blog
How AI-Driven Innovation will Change Speech Technology, March 6, No Jitter
Last Friday, I attended 8x8’s Analyst Day in New York, held at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square. Was a different setting than usual, but it was part of a broader branding effort, where they got to ring the closing bell - and, along with the industry analyst cohort, financial analysts were there as well. Been a hectic few days, including an unscheduled stop in Montreal, but finally home long enough now to get this post done.
As usual, I ran a running commentary during the event on LinkedIn, and if you follow me there, you can track that. Otherwise, I’ll add some key takeaways here.
Interim CEO Sam Wilson did a great job putting some stakes in the ground for 8x8 to stand out in a very crowded market. 8x8 is the longest-standing independent player in this space, but they don’t own the market, and nor are they the household name they should be by now. So, it was good to hear that they want to be known as “an innovation company, not a product company”. I’ll buy that, and to back it up, he noted that R&D spending is up 4X since 2018.
They are, however, falling into line with some other vendors who see more upside with CCaaS than UCaaS. That makes good business sense, and to clarify, Sam said they weren’t moving away from UCaaS, or their bigger XCaaS story.
He rightly noted how there are lots of customer-facing workers who aren’t in contact centers, so they want to provide one solution that brings all that together. They’ve crystallized that notion with a new value proposition: “Customer Obsessed Communications”. Thankfully they haven’t turned that into yet another acronym - it’s a bit clunky, but I like it.
We heard several presentations around their AI focus, mainly through OpenAI. Everyone has an AI story now, and their approach is to develop a healthy ecosystem of partners, and as we were told, they’ve already got 15 lined up. They’re targeting AI/ML applications across the full contact center spectrum - CAI, WEM, CRM, analytics, automation, etc. The big driver is to help contact centers reduce their biggest cost - labor - and we’re just starting to see the various ways AI can bring intelligent automation to all these areas.
Speech analytics is a big part of this story, and this being a core focus for me, I was really glad to hear that - but to be fair, all CCaaS vendors are on this wavelength. Another important theme was microservices, with a common set of building blocks to support rapid innovation for both UCaaS and CCaaS. Hunter Middleton explained how they have two frameworks for this - Cloud 8 and Infra8 - where they’ve already developed 300 microservices.
There was more on tap, but I’m going to stop now - I think you get the gist. Bottom line - despite still having an interim CEO, this sounds like a company that has every intention of staying in the game, and they showed a confident vision for how to do that. We didn’t hear about their financials or go to market/channel plans, but I think they know their standing in the overall universe, and are executing pretty well.
It was also assuring to know that Bryan Martin - both CTO and Chairman of the Board - was always a stones throw from the podium, quietly watching his team play to what could be a tough crowd - industry and financial analysts. They did a great job overall, and am sure he liked what he saw.
A few photos to share below, and if you like the sights of New York in general, I’ll be posting some urban shots, as I usually do when travelling, on Facebook.
Interim CEO Sam Wilson on the big picture, Hunter Middleton on innovation, and Dhwani Soni demo’ing their new Supervisor Workspace.
8x8’s new branding - keeping XCaaS, but going big with OpenAI. Customer Obsessed Communications is their new value prop, and Nasdaq is the place to tell the world about it.
Dave Michels and I tried recording an episode of his videocast Influence Me! in the wild - in Herald Square just in front of Macy’s. Would have been a very live-from-New-York moment, but no WiFi. Plan B ended up being a Starbucks where the coffee was great and the WiFi free., so we did it live from there.
If you follow either of us on LinkedIn or Twitter, it won’t be hard to find the interview, where Dave asks me all the hard questions about stuff we both love. Hope you can check it out, and make sure to follow him on Talking Pointz.
It’s time for my latest contribution to No Jitter - as part of the BCStrategies team - and it’s a preview for my upcoming session on enterprise speech tech at Enterprise Connect. Am looking forward to attending the 2023 edition, and this time around, I’ll be joined by speakers from LumenVox, Dialpad and Zoom.
If you don’t know, this is my fifth year speaking on this topic at the conference, and it’s become an ongoing focus in my work. I don’t know if ChatGPT is the next big thing or just a passing novelty, but am sure it will still have legs by the time we do this session on March 29, and it will be on the agenda. I hope you can join us, and my latest article, here on No Jitter, tells more of the story.
Never dull in the collaboration space, where UCaaS is really just the start for where the market is going, and where tech is evolving. I was one of several voices on the latest episode of Big UC News, where we covered these trending topics. Hope you give it a view, and look forward to being on another episode soon.
I try to keep to a schedule for publishing on the first week of each month, so it’s time for the March editions of JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review, along with my Watch This Space podcast.
If you’re not a subscriber, signing up to my newsletter is easy - the signup page is here. For my podcast, you can subscribe on all the major platforms, or click to listen to the current episode here.
On my website, there are now archives for both the newsletter and the podcast, so it’s easy to find earlier editions of each there. We’re into Season 6 of the podcast, so there’s a lot on offer in the archive if you want to check out earlier episodes.
Got back to a more normal level of writing last month, and here’s a digest of my public writing:
Why Service Providers Need Continuous Testing to Support Microsoft Teams, TekVizion blog, Jan. 31 (link wasn’t provided until a few days after)
Managing Communications to Address Operating Challenges in 2023, No Jitter, Feb. 7
2023 Outlook for the Business Market - Taking Care of Business, Ooma Office Blog, Feb. 9
Future of Work Expo Review - 5 Key Themes, EM360, Feb. 22 (registration may be required, but just takes a minute)
How do you Build a CPaaS Business Case?, TechTarget, Feb. 28
I’ve started doing some work with Ooma, a company that I have been close too since its earliest days. By earliest, I mean back when they were strictly a residential landline offering, just like Vonage. Way before cloud, way before social media, even before smartphones. That’s a long time ago, folks, but guess what? They’re still here, and have a made a nice transition to the business market, and not just SMBs.
Just did my first guest post for them, and stay tuned for more on other topics. This one is a bit tricky to find on their site, but here’s the link, and I hope you like it.
Sorry for the short notice, but I’ll be presenting on webinar tomorrow about the value of white label UCaaS to help channels grow their business. I’ll be joined by speakers from sponsor SkySwitch, and the webinar is being presented by Channel Futures. Here’s the registration page, and hope you can join us.
Just a quick coda to my earlier post about last week’s Future of Work Expo, with my photos and a link to a review article I wrote about it.
Time to flip the script, and share what others had to say about the event. One of TMC’s many publications is Future of Work News, and they covered several of our sessions - here are the articles they’ve posted to date:
ChatGPT session - The Reach of ChatGPT: A Discussion at Future of Work Expo
Quiet Quitting session - Engaged Employees Ward Off Quiet Quitting
Agent Experience for FOW session - Contact Center Agents Need Strong Support
AI and Workforce Management session - AI-Enabled Systems Complete Repetitive Tasks in HR
Managing Hybrid Workforces session - Navigating FOW: Successfully Managing Hybrid Workforces
Last week was my fifth go-round as Chair of the Future of Work Expo in Ft. Lauderdale, and given my travel schedule, this is the first chance I’ve had to get this recap done. As good as the 2022 edition was, this was even better, and am expecting nothing less for 2024. Speakers are already asking about coming back, and am keen to start mapping out the program.
Sorry to say that the sessions were not recorded, so you kinda had to be there to take it all in. A few speakers, though, did shoot smartphone video, and have shared snippets on social, but I don’t have direct access to their clips.. Otherwise, the next best thing will be this post, where I’ll share some of my photos (and shots from others), along with a review article that I wrote, and was just posted today on EM360 (log-in required there, but it just takes a moment).
Finally, kudos and thanks to my long-term partners at TMC, for all their support to make FOW Expo happen. If you don’t know - their flagship event, ITExpo, ran its 40th edition last week as well, so clearly, they must be doing something right. If any of this stokes your interest in speaking or sponsoring for 2024, just drop me a line any time!
Managing the endpoints session, with Poly, Sangoma and CDW (photo: Ashley Battle); Making hybrid work session - moderated by David Jodoin, with Cisco, Jeff Pulver and Vizetto; full room during the ChatGPT session.
Barbara Steel from EY - new study on AI and workforce management; AI in the contact center session, with IntelePeer, Quantanite and Twilio (photo: Nadia Ciaravino); Chris Fine moderating quiet quitting session, with Mission Cloud, Premier Virtual, Focus Global Talent, Instawork.
Glenn Goldberg moderating the managing hybrid workforce session, with Vizetto, United Office and me - as a panelist for a change (photo: Barbel Wetenkamp); Agent experience session, with Upstream Works, Genesys, Five9; David Jodoin moderating the employee engagement session, with CDW, Avaya and Prodoscore.
Agenda for Day 1; group photo with some attendees and speakers (photo: unknown, but thanks Jennifer Hotai!); David Jodoin
Last week, I posted my first Enterprise Connect shout-out - am one of the judges for the Innovation Showcase, so if you’re a rising star in this space, you should check out my post.
Now it’s time to get my Enterprise Connect session on your radar. If you don’t know, this is the 5th year doing my update talk on the state of speech technology applications for enterprises. This time around, we’ve varied the format, now going to a roundtable.
Previously, I’ve done a standalone 45-minute talk, but now it will be a short update talk, followed by a roundtable discussion with three speakers. Joining me will be Dan O’Connell from Dialpad, Mahesh Ram from Zoom, and Edward Miller from LumenVox. By design, it’s a varied mix of voices, and I hope you’ll join us - Wednesday, March 29 at 4pm. I’ll update this post when I find out which room we’re in, but all the other details are here.
Also, below, feel free to use my special code to get $400 off your registration fee!
I’ve got a new podcast to share, this time with NICE. Am back for another episode of CX Pulse, hosted by Amelia Earhart, and this time we’re talking about the bigger picture for how AI is - and can be - deployed in the contact center.
There’s no direct link to specific episodes, so you have to scroll through their web page, but since mine is recent, it’s near the top - “AI in the Contact Center”. Also, there is a direct link for Apple Podcast subscribers, or here on Spotify, so those are other ways to access it.
Calling all innovators! This is the first of two updates for Enterprise Connect 2023, and it’s shaping up to be pretty big. Another post is coming about my panel session, but this one is for the Innovation Showcase, which has been hosted by colleague Dave Michels for a few years.
I’ve been invited to be a judge for the submissions, so I have a small role to play here, albeit behind the scenes. The theme for 2023 is “Collaboration Reimagined”, so if that’s you, your application needs to be in by March 1. To learn more, here’s the link, and if you apply, I’ll be quietly assessing your entry along with the other judges. :-)
Otherwise, as the banner below shows, I’ll be speaking - and moderating - and details are coming on that in my next post. And… if you haven’t registered yet, feel free to use the code showing there to save $400.
Got a new white paper to share - this one is for NICE, and is a bit of a sequel to an earlier white paper I did for them. I touched on it briefly during a webinar last week, and to get the full story, here’s the registration link for downloading.
I’ve had a lot of new work hitting at the same time, and that’s put me behind on blogging, so this is an ICYMI post. I was recently invited back to be a guest on Big CX News, hosted by Charlie Mitchell, and the current episode was posted last week.
You may have caught it via social media already, but if not, I’m in the mix for some lively discussion about, well, big CX news - is AWS really a CCaaS player, where does Avaya go from here, and will ChatGPT put us analysts out of work??? Check it out here, and I hope to be back on a future episode soon!
January ended up being more about video and podcasting than writing, so I only have one public article to share. I did, however, write four other articles last month, two of which are ghost-written, and two will run sometime this month.
Weighing the Pros and Cons of Asynchronous Collaboration, TechTarget, Jan. 4
Another update for my upcoming Future of Work Expo, taking place in Ft. Lauderdale in just a few short weeks. FOW Expo is one of the sub-events with TMCnet’s long-running ITExpo. This is my fifth go-round as Chair, and the speaking roster is just about done.
Still a handful of open panel spots, so if that’s of interest, you can review the full agenda here, and get back to me if you see a particular topic - thanks.
Since my last update, we’ve done some tweaking to the program, and there are two new topics we’ll be exploring:
ChatGPT - FOW implications - is there anything hotter right now?
Contact Center Evolution - is this a model for FOW?
If you haven’t attended before, here are some highlights from the 2022 event, and here’s the latest e-blast from TMCnet to help promote the show.
Got another webinar to share here. This one is with NICE, and it draws on a recent white paper I did for them. As the title in the visual below shows, we’ll be exploring the bigger picture for AI in the contact center, and why it’s much more than chatbots.
I’ll be joined by Lauren Maschio from their Product Marketing Team, and the early response has been really great, so it should be well-attended. It’s happening next Thursday, January 26 at 11 ET, and here’s the link to register.
Another shout-out for my upcoming Future of Work Expo, one of the sub-events with TMCnet’s long-running ITExpo. This is my fifth go-round as Chair, and the speaking roster is rounding out nicely. Still room on some sessions, though, so if that’s of interest, you can review the full agenda here, and get back to me if you see a particular topic - thanks.
I’ll have more updates soon, including previews for some of the panel sessions, and hope you can join us. If you haven’t attended before, here are some highlights from the 2022 event, and here’s a recent e-blast from TMCnet to help promote the show.
That’s the next webinar on my schedule - running next Thursday, Jan. 12 at 11am ET. I’m one of three analysts talking about the big trends we see happening this year around collaboration, along with IR’s CEO, John Ruthven. That would be fellow BCStrategies colleagues, Blair Pleasant and Kevin Kieller.
I hope you can join us, and the registration details are here.
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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