Next Stop - Maui and the NiCE Analyst Summit

This is the busy season for industry events, and am about to start a three-week run. I’ve been busier with travel in the past, but there’s plenty here to keep me going.

Next stop is Hawaii - wow - for, you guessed it, the NiCE 2026 Analyst Summit. Nobody does exotic locales better in my world, and no doubt, it will be great as always.

I’ll be sharing updates as time allows while there, followed by a review of the event overall.

Hawaii is about as far west as you can go in this hemisphere, and after that, there are events in the LA area and then working back east to Orlando. I’ll have details on those events in upcoming posts.

Lots of airplane miles ahead, but more important will be the in-person interactions and first-hand updates on where things are going in spaces that are quickly becoming re-defined by AI. More to come on all those fronts, for sure.

October Newsletter Published Now

The October edition of my monthly newsletter - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - is out now. Event travel was light last month, but writing was the main event. Over a roughly six week period, I had 11 distinct writeups published, and you can read all about that in my newsletter, and here on my blog.

As mentioned last month, with writing being core to what I do as an independent analyst, all of my work is human-centric - written by me and not AI, and written for humans to read, not for bots to mine.

For non-subscribers, now might be a good time to check out the newsletter, and I hope you do. Subscribing is easy, and you’ll get the October issue very quickly - the signup page is here.

September Writing Roundup

For those who follow me, you’ll know that August was writing-heavy (and some of July too), with many of these pieces being published during September. Some were published during late August, and there was some new writing done and published during September as well. All told, 11 writeups were published during this run - am sure that’s the most ever for me, so writing is alive and well, at least here.

Specific dates aside, I’ve been doing a lot of research and writing about a wide range of comms tech and AI topics over the past several weeks, and now that it’s all been published, this is a good time for a summary post.

I shouldn’t have to say this, but these days I kinda have to - all of my writing is done by me, not AI. No slop here. Every writeup is original with a distinctly human point of view. AI definitely has many valid use cases, but this isn’t one of them.

I don’t expect anyone to read them all - but maybe you should - and if you do, I’ll happily buy you a drink or two if our paths cross at a future event! Here goes…

Alianza Navigate26 - It’s a Matter of Time and Getting to the Crux of What Telcos Need to Modernize in the Age of AI, LinkedIn Pulse, Sept. 18

Why Network Monitoring Modernization is Crucial for Telecom Evolution, Aizan Guest Article, Sept. 16

What Am I Most Worried About with AI?, LinkedIn Pulse, Sept. 16

Getting Voice Infrastructure Right When Deploying Voice AI for CX, CIO Magazine, Sept. 15

My book review for The Negotiator’s Compass, by Dr. Howard Thaw, Amazon, Sept. 15

Why eSIM Holds the Key to Unlocking True Mobile UCaaS, No Jitter, Sept. 14

How AI Agents Transform UCaaS Workflows and ROI, TechTarget, Sept. 11

Where Voice as a Contact Center Channel is Headed in an AI World - co-written with Blair Pleasant, No Jitter, Sept. 8

Mistakes to Avoid When Choosing a CX Provider, TechTarget, Sept. 3

How to Take a Strategic Approach to Agentic AI for CX, Part 2, ICMI, Aug. 31

Moving up the AI Maturity Ladder, RingCentral Pulse, Aug. 26

Telecom Reseller News - Am Now a Contributor

The longer my run as an indie analyst goes, the more places I end up publishing in. So long as there’s a fit between the audience being served and the focus of my work, I view this as a win-win.

The latest example would be Telecom Reseller News, and it makes me wonder why this took so long. Doug Green is the driving force there, and we’ve been pairing up regularly at industry events for years. Turns out he’s from Toronto, and we have a lot of common ground outside of tech.

Their platform goes both wide and deep - definitely a broad reach across the communications tech space, but also with multiple niches, mainly with service providers - carriers, mobile players, MSPs, etc. I can’t think of a better place to reach that kind of audience, and I’m now on their roster of contributors - which you can see in the Thought Leadership section under the Writers tab.

I’ll be doing a mix of original posts there, along with sharing of things I’ve published elsewhere - both articles and reportage from industry events. Aside from my writing, of course, Doug’s main focus is producing video segments, usually 1:1 interviews. I’ve done several with him, and you can check those out in my profile.

While you’re there, this might become a rabbit hole for industry news and insights, and then you just might make this one of your go-to sites for staying current in an industry that never stands still.