New Podcast - Impact of Latest FCC Rulings on Telecom Fraud

Telecom fraud is a secondary focus for me, but every time I go there, the rabbit holes get deeper and issues get even uglier. The engineers at Bell Labs could never have envisioned the PSTN being essentially reduced to a toxic minefield of spam and scams, first from the Internet, and more recently, AI.

This topic has no end of angles to explore, and I do that on occasion in different forums. One of them is a podcast series hosted by Caller ID Reputation (CIDR), and our latest episode is out now.

For this episode, the focus is on two recent FCC rulings to combat telecom fraud, one of which is specific to AI, where it poses a nightmarish threat to consumers if not nipped in the bud. I’m in conversation with Gerry Christensen, CIDR’s Head of Partnerships and Regulatory Compliance, and if you’re not current on this topic, I think you’ll find the podcast time well-spent - here’s the link to give it a listen.

October Writing Roundup

ASIDE from the insane global travel across all of October, it was a good month on the writing front, with five public writeups - with my byline (others don’t have that, but I can’t share those here obviously) - and all with very different storylines. I hope you read ‘em all!

Avaya Rejuvenation - Can They Do It?, EM360, Oct. 30

Tianjin Port - the Leading Edge of 5G, AI and IoT, Silverlinings, Oct. 25

Setting Realistic Expectations with Contact Center AI, Genesys blog, Oct. 25

Spotlight on Operator Connect, TeamMate blog, Oct. 18

Latest Ipsos Research Validates the Value of UCaaS and AI for Improving Productivity, No Jitter, Oct. 9

Avaya Rejuvenation - Can They Do It?

This post is a companion to my analysis and takeaways about Avaya, following my recent trip to Dubai for the massive GITEX show. My writeup has been posted here on EM360, which I feel is a good home given given their focus on regions outside the Americas. I hope you give it a read, and likewise enjoy a few of my photos below from the event. As always sharing and comments are welcome!

Below - CEO Alan Masarek in our analyst-only briefing, a nice group shot (photographer unknown, sorry), and Avaya’s ever-present desk phones - in my hotel room.

Some demos at the Avaya stand - Sestek, showing speech-to-text in Arabic, an agent wellness demo where AI tracks sentiment, not just with video but analytics for customer dialog, and keeping customer data secure with Journey.ai.

Not sure if the flashy cars draw the big crowds, but big players spend big dollars here for sure.

Various manifestations of AI on display - too cute robots, Spot - the prancing robot dog from Boston Dynamics, and ever-present drones. Anything is possible in this part of the world, and there’s no way to tell how these “devices” will be deployed, but they’re definitely here now.

Metaverse demo from DEWA - Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, Abu Dhabi government stand - one of seven emirates that make up the UAE, Extreme Networks stand - yes, there were plenty of familiar Western vendors on hand.

On the other hand, this is the Middle East - crossroads of commerce - and you don’t to have walk far to see players you’ll almost never see in the West - MCI - Iran’s largest mobile provider, China Mobile, and Huawei - with a model display showcasing their data center of the future.

Not surprisingly, Dubai is super-modern and built to impress - high noon shot of Jumeirah Emirates Towers - left tower was our hotel, nearby the Museum of the Future, and a skyline shot at night.

CCTC Event in Toronto - Quick Post and Pix

Haven’t been able to post til now, and wanted to share a bit from last Thursday’s CCTC networking event here in Toronto. Telecom events are very rare in Canada, and given the community involved, it was great to attend and support this one. In case you’re wondering, CCTC is the Canadian Communications and Technology Consultants group, and colleague Cheryl Helm is the driving force. Happy to tell you more!

We had a solid turnout, and the content was consistently good all day long. I’m not going to recap the sessions here, but the feedback I’ve seen has been overwhelmingly positive - both the experience and the education from the sessions was worthwhile.

Kudos to Cheryl and the organizing team for putting this together, and the event bodes well for doing it again next year. Will leave you with a few photos that tell the story pretty well - all are mine, except the photo of me - thanks Nancy Gates.

Below - Cheryl Helm kicking things off - and yes, red was the color theme. Photo of the attendees, showing a pretty full room.

Scott Murphy leading the vendor panel on the future of comms tech - with Genesys, Mitel, Twilio, RingCentral and Avaya. Next - Roberta Fox on the state of 911 - nobody does it better. Roberta is retiring now, so this was her final conference session, and we gave her a nice sendoff - definitely the emotional highlight of the event.

As always, Martha Buyer giving us a rich legal perspective on AI, especially ethics - lots to think about. Next was David Dame - very inspiring locknote talk about his work at Microsoft, and his broader perspective on how input from those with disabilities can drive innovation, both in general, and for making technology more accessible. Finally, I was both a presenter and a moderator during the event.

New Guest Post - Part 2 About Teams and Telephony

Got another guest post to share - this is Part 2 for a short series I’m doing with TeamMate. The article is running now on their blog page, where you can also find Part 1. I hope you find the posts helpful.

Microsoft Teams and Phone System - Know the Difference - New Guest Post

I’ve started doing some guest blogs for TeamMate, a company that helps integrate telephony with Teams. My first post ran last week, and am just getting a chance to do a shout-out about it now.

This is actually a two-part series, and the second one will run in a few days. There’s a bigger picture to consider with Teams and telephony, and I hope you give my writeup a read.

Writing Roundup for June

Back-to-back months of hectic travel, so writing has been on the light side. Lots of new work in play, though, and over the next few days I’ll catchup on the backlog and get all of that posted. Until then, here’s a digest of my public writing from June.

Avaya ENGAGE - Takeaways for Act III, BCStrategies, June 30

SIP Trunking vs. VoIP - What’s the Difference?, TechTarget, June 15

Campaign Registry - a Higher Bar for A2P Messaging, Aizan Blog, June 9

Enterprise Connect 2023 - Takeaways (sort of) and Photos

Was quite a week at Enterprise Connect, and still trying to process all the conversations and updates. Normally, I’d have time to consolidate my thoughts, but it just hasn’t happened yet.

In lieu of that, however, I’ll be sharing my takeaways via three different video segments, with the first one recorded yesterday for Big UC News. Am attending an analyst event this week, and have two other video segments lined up then, so it won’t take long to get those done and shared here, and on my social channels.

Until those come out, am sharing some photos below from the conference - all are mine unless credited otherwise. If you want to chat further about Enterprise Connect, feel free to drop me a line. It’s not usually this hectic after an event, but that’s how things are lining up right now.

Below: Dave Michels hosting the Innovation Showcase (I was a judge), Blair Pleasant’s panel on bringing UCaaS and CCaaS together, and the super-interesting UCaaS vendor breakdown session with Kevin Kieller and Brent Kelly.

My session on enterprise use cases for AI-driven speech tech (photo: Dan Miller - thanks!), panel session on Thursday about how IT will adapt to the future of work, Vonage analyst breakfast, with Savinay Berry speaking

Long-time tech journalist Doug Green - I was his guest for an episode of his Telecom Reseller podcast - coming soon! Next - very cool demo from the most interesting thing I saw at the show - from Alan Lepofsky (another Canadian!) of Mobeus. Look closely at the right screen at his hands looking like a ghost image, and as he gestures, the outline of the hands show up on the left screen, in real time. Hard to explain, but Airglass adds a virtual layer to what’s on your screen that helps make meetings more interactive and immersive. Out of the box for sure, and very cool. Last photo - Paul Ginn speaking at Mitel’s analyst update.

Hey, I got photo-bombed by “no kisscam” Zeus Kerravla - surprise! I was briefing at the time with Joe Burton of Telesign - thanks for the photo, Joe. Cool signage here as you walk into the event space - it reflects perfectly below on the marble floor. Another fun shot, with another Canadian and long-time colleague, Darryl Wilson from Kyndryl (Darryl’s selfie).

More social stuff - with my SCTC and SIPtones brothers - Rick Hathaway, Steve Leaden and son (thanks Fran Blackburn!); with Lisa Martin from Five9 (her selfie), and Carlos Cano from Talkdesk (his selfie).

Enterprise Connect after dark - very fun whiskey tasting with Talkdesk, firing up a smokey and very delicious Old Fashioned at NICE, and a very glam welcome sign from Twilio’s reception.

Telemarketing Fraud and Risks to Businesses - My Latest on No Jitter

This week was my turn to contribute an article to No Jitter from the BC Strategies team, and it’s a big topic - telemarketing fraud. As consumers, we all know what that looks like, but since we’d rather not think about it, the rest of the story tends to live in dark corners where there’s a constant struggle to stamp out or mitigate the damage done by bad actors.

There are a lot of moving parts here, and many have a direct impact on the telecom ecosystem. I’ve been researching this space recently, and the challenges are more daunting than you might think. This is my first analysis of telemarketing fraud, and there’s lot more to explore, and I hope you give this a read here on No Jitter.

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.

New Age of Voice - Guest Post for ISI

As often happens, one thing leads to another, and that’s the story here. In short, the folks at ISI liked a recent article of mine on No Jitter about the “New Age of Voice”, and they wanted to amplify some of that messaging to their customer base.

They put together a set of questions for me around that, and the result is this writeup, which is running now on their blog. If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the link, and as always, comments are welcome.

It's Newsletter Time - Podcast Too

First Tuesday of the month is when these go out, and that’s what happened yesterday. If you’re a subscriber to JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review, you’ll have the newsletter now, and otherwise, you can subscribe here. Same for my Watch This Space podcast - thumb for latest episode is below, and here’s the link if you want to give it a listen.

Voice - Bigger Than Ever - My Latest on No Jitter

Voice has long been one of my core focus areas as an analyst, and while it’s easy to take for granted, the technologies behind it have evolved substantially over the years. There’s still a lot of telephony-centric thinking about voice, and while that remains a valid connection, with today’s technologies, voice has become so much more.

I explored that recently with colleague Chris Fine in our History of Telephony micro-course with PulveREDU, but there are many tangents that need their own track. One is the idea that voice is bigger than ever, and while it’s a big claim, I believe it’s warranted. My latest No Jitter post helps make the case, and if this piques your interest, I’d love to hear back.

Back to School - Our First PulveREDU Course: The New Voice

Jeff Pulver is a long-time visionary, entrepreneur and community-builder in the communications technology space; especially around VoIP, which he had a direct hand in establishing as the successor to TDM. He keeps moving with the times, and PulveREDU is his latest venture. In short, he’s developed an accessible, affordable platform for learning and knowledge-sharing - think along the lines of The Learning Annex, but online.

PulveREDU’s model is to offer one-hour courses/programs, led by established experts, and at a $20 price point, it’s an affordable way to get up to speed on a topic and engage directly with the educators. This isn’t about earning credits or completing a curriculum, but it provides richer learning than just consuming content from the Web. Plus it’s live and interactive, so there’s lots of room for dialog.

The programming calendar is a work in progress, as this is still pretty new, but as the track record builds, enrollment for courses will grow, as will the roster of educators. That’s the leadup, and here’s the pitch.

Our inaugural PulveREDU course is coming soon - it runs live, on Thursday, May 13 from 11:30-12:30pm, EST. I’ll be co-presenting the course with long-time colleague and Watch This Space podcast partner, Chris Fine. Our topic is close to home for us, titled: The New Voice - Exploring New Worlds Beyond the Phone Call, and registration details are here. We really hope you’ll join us, and if you think others will be interested as well, please pass this along.

Guest Spot on Rob Barlow's Unleash The Potential Video Podcast

Toronto-based Rob Barlow produces a video podcast, and last week he had me on as a guest. Rob is a long-time telecom/tech veteran, and we’ve been recently exploring ways to work together locally. Even though I’m based in Toronto, I’m less well-known in Canada than the US, so Rob asked me to explain a bit about my practice. Otherwise, we talked about how the varoius technologies I follow are shaping not just the world of work, but our daily lives.

We kinda gravitated to the “future is friendly” theme, a well-known tag line TELUS has been using in their marketing for years. The episode has been posted now to Rob’s YouTube channel, and it can also be picked up on Spotify. Hope you like it!

Spotlight on SBCs with Ingate - my Latest on BCStrategies

Every so often I’ll do a spotlight piece on a trend or technology, especially ones that are not well-understood. I’ve been following the session border controller space since inception - 2004 - and it falls squarely into that bucket. Ingate Systems is one of the early players, and they’re still going strong, so that makes them a good partner for this exercise, and recently I’ve been working on this with their President, Steve Johnson.

The output is a fairly long Q&A, where we discuss the evolution of SBCs, why they’re important and what to look ahead for in 2021. Our discussion has been posted now to the BCStrategies portal, where I’ve been a contributing BC Expert for ages. I hope you give it a read, and would love to hear your thoughts.

Next Virtual Event - SCTC's Regional Event for Canada, June 12

Virtual events come in all shapes and sizes, and here’s another example of an annual mini-conference that needs to be re-worked pandemic-style. In-person is what most people prefer, but Plan B has now become Plan A, and it’s better than having no event at all.

I’m the only analyst actively involved with the SCTC, and I’ve become a regular for their events, especially the Canadian versions, where our numbers are pretty small. That said, we play nicely, and we make the most of the community that’s here. Actually, this event has a broader scope, as it includes the Great Lakes region, so it’s also there to suppport members in several states near the border.

Our events are mainly for SCTC members, but also the broader consultant community that works with communications technologies - whom we’d love to have more of as members! Being a virtual event, it’s open to a broader audience, and details will be posted today - here in the Calendar section of the SCTC website.

We have a Call For Speakers out now, and that closes next week, and the event itself will be on Friday, June 12, running from 3pm ET til 6. We’re having two one-hour panel talks - I’ll be on one of them - and then a virtual cocktail hour at 5 to round out the event and the week. Hope to “see” you there.

My Next Webinar - Death of the PBX

October is zooming along, and this will be my third webinar for the month, so things have been pretty busy lately.

This time around, it’s another Ziff Davis/Toolbox.com webinar, with a topic that anyone in the telephony space should be interested in. For digital natives, the PBX has about as much utility as a fax machine or a home phone line, so Captain Obvious isn’t needed here. For everyone else, however, the PBX is still a mainstay, and the installed base - for better or worse - is still pretty large.

While the vendors aren’t making ‘em any more, the IP phone business is still going strong, so the “death” thing is a bit overstated. That’s the setup for my webinar, and if you want in, here’s the registration page. We’re doing this next Tuesday - Oct. 30 - at 2pm, and hope you can join us.

Is Ribbon Communications the New BroadSoft?

Short question - and long answer. That thought has been with me since their Perspectives18 event earlier this month, and I finally got a chance to explore it in my latest contribution to BCStrategies. Earlier, I posted some quick takeaways and photos here, but for a longer analysis about Ribbon Communications, BCStrategies was the right place to land.

My analysis has now been posted to our portal, and I hope you like it. After you're done, feel free to comment and share, and then spend more time checking out all the other content on the site - our views are diverse and the insights are very good!

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