Newsletter Time - August Edition

It's been fairly quiet lately on the blog front, as well as my broader activities, and I think summer just might have something to do with that. Read what you may into that, and while the content is light, my August newsletter is now out.

The main highlight - especially if you're new to the newsletter - is a set of links to the podcasts I've produced so far, and I hope you find those of interest. There's certainly more to come in future newsletters, along with other features I'm planning to add.

If you're not a subscriber, it just takes a moment. There are signup forms on my website, and if you can't be bothered to look, here's a direct link.

Feedback is always welcome, especially for new things you'd like to see covered in our podcasts, and I would consider guest posts if there's a good fit. Summer is short, and I've never been busier, so come September, I should have more to report in the newsletter. Until then, I hope you enjoy the current edition.

July 31 Webinar with Jive - Digital Transformation and Collaboration

My last blog post was for an upcoming webinar with Ziff Davis/Toolbox.com, but I'm doing another one with them before that. 

This one has come together on a shorter timetable, but it's another topic I think you'll find of interest. It's also a Ziff Davis/Toolbox.com event, but this time with a sponsor - Jive Software. That name should still register for collaboration followers, but about a year ago, the company was acquired by Aurea.

I'll be the sole presenter, with topic being digital transformation and how it can help collaboration solutions/technologies bring new value to enterprises. I should add that this engagement entails two webinars, and details will be coming soon about Part 2, scheduled for September.

Until then, I hope you can join us, next Tuesday, July 31. All the details are here, and registration just takes a moment.

My Next Webinar: Workplace Implications for Digital Technologies

It's time for another Ziff Davis/Toolbox.com webinar, scheduled now for Tuesday, August 14. The topic is based on select findings drawn from Internet Trends 2018, an annual, public report on the state of the web, produced by Kleiner Perkins.

Regular followers will know that I've written about some aspects of the report, and my subscribers also have access to a podcast I did about it, along with colleague Chris Fine. If that's of interest to non-subscribers, you can sign up here, and the podcast is featured in the my current newsletter.

There's a great deal to explore in Mary Meeker's slide set, and for my webinar, I'll be focusing on some specific takeaways and data points around how digital technologies are impacting the workplace. I hope you can join me, and all it takes is providing a few contact details here on the registration page.

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.

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!

NEC Advantage - Quick Thoughts

I've been to this event a few times, and there's a lot to like about how they run it, along with what NEC is doing in the collaboration marketplace. Will have more thoughts to share later, but the main takeaway is that NEC continues to build quality products, continues to innovate on all fronts, and continues to compete successfully. On the other hand, being more sale-driven than marketing-driven, their story is not so well known in North America. Of course, I could help them fix that, but the call hasn't come  yet.

I'll continue to patiently wait for that moment, and for now will just say that it's refreshing to hear about a company building around a different value proposition than everyone else. Cloud seems to be the only message coming from vendors now, but that's not the story here. They're very much on that path, but clearly, there's still a big chunk of the enterprise market that is premises-first, telephony-centric and still using a lot of hardware. This may not be the long-term scenario, but it's going strong, and NEC has a good handle on what makes these businesses buy.

UNIVERGE Blue is very much about UCaaS, but their view of collaboration is closer to the voice-centric legacy model. Yes, they have contact center - including CCaaS via partnership with Enghouse Interactive - but video and team messaging aren't that much in the equation. Same story with AI - their contact center offerings are definitely voice-centric, and it doesn't sound like AI is much on the roadmap.

Funny, you wouldn't know it based on Tiffani Bova's opening keynote about becoming "customer-led". She's with Salesforce, and we're very much on the same page about the need for culture change and how data and analytics are the new currency for creating customer value. However, I'm not so sure this is the highest priority for this audience, but am glad NEC is getting the message out. Now, they just need to fast track their contact center offerings, and all will be right.

Aside from what's overly familiar, the clear standout from a solid product portfolio is NeoFace Watch. They have long been leaders in biometrics, and NFW takes things to another level. Real time identification and authentication can definitely streamline workflows, so it has some tangential value for collaboration. However, it has much greater enterprise value for safety and security, both of physical assets and employees. There's definitely a Big Brother element to all this, but being able to pick faces out of a moving crowd and instantly matching them against a watch list to keep the bad actors out has its place as surveillance becomes ever-more the norm. Am not a fan, but there sure are tons of valid use cases.

That's the update for now, and here are a few photos from the event. 

This is my third different gaylord stay since march - they're all good, but there's little doubt that you're in the lone star state here.

there's lots to like about the gaylord, but this time around, not so much for the view from my room. i did a double-take when seeing this, and for a moment thought i was in san antonio visiting the alamo. :-)

Next Stop - NEC Advantage, Grapevine, Texas

Can't say I've ever been to Grapevine, but Google tells me it's near Dallas, and being in Texas, it's probably much bigger than I'm inclined to think. That's the locale for this year's NEC Advantage event, and while it's geared more to consultants than analysts, I'm going and am very much looking forward to it. More details are on the Event Calendar page of my website, and I'll be sharing on social as time allows.

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

Next Stop - Los Angeles and Ribbon Communications

Got industry events happening during the next two weeks, so it's travel time again. On Sunday, I'm flying to LA for Perspectives18, the annual confernce for Ribbon Communications. I've been to a few of these, but this marks the first Perspectives event under the Ribbon name, since the merger between Genband and Sonus happened shortly after last year's event.

I've always struggled a bit with the rationale for this pairing, and hearing more about how it's working out will be a primary focus for next week. Also, the messaging last year was heavy on Kandy, their CPaaS platform, and am keen to hear the progress report nearly a year later.

More details are here in the Event Calendar section of my website, and to follow the updates, my twitter handle is @arnoldjon, and for Ribbon's feed, it's #RBBNP18.

June 5 - our next SCTC regional event - Toronto

Just doing another shout-out for next week's one-day event just outside Toronto. It's being shared by two SCTC chapters - Canada and Mid-West US. This won't mean much to non-members, but if you're from the communications consulting community and want to learn more about what the SCTC can offer to strengthen your practice, this is a great way to do it.

Being an analyst, this isn't particularly relevant, but I'm one of a handful of SCTC members from the analyst community, and the only one in Canada. For the past couple of years, I've been actively involved with the programming for our Canadian event, and have also been a keynoter. So, I can vouch first-hand to say that we have a really strong event lined up for next week, and it will be time well spent.

That said, this is one of three events I could be attending next week, but I can only do one, and unfortunately, it won't be SCTC. Sorry to be missing it, but I've been helping make it happen, and one way is to talk it up here. So, if you're interested, or still mulling it over, all the details are here, and if you end up going, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

My Next Webinar - Collaboration Vendor Landscape Update

Lately, it seems like like each month brings a major change of some sort among the collaboration vendors - and things get even more intense as the overlap with contact centers gets larger. Cisco just bought Accompany, Mitel just went private, Plantronics just acquired Polycom - just to name a few.

Aside from the dizzying pace of acquistions, large players who either weren't in this space until now, or are themselves new companies, are creating all sorts of disruption that cannot be ignored.

That's the milieu I'm going to address in my next Ziff Davis webinar on May 24, and if you'd like to check it out, all the details are here on the registration page. Hope you can join me then.

April Writing Roundup

Pretty light month on the public writing front, but I was busy with a couple of conferences, a webinar and a lot of post-conference follow up for new business. So, just a handful of links to share, and maybe this means you'll review more of them.

1 Week, 6 Cities, 2 Conferences and 7 Takeaways, April 30, BCStrategies

Should You Buy Contact Center Services in a UC Bundle?, April 24, TechTarget

Is the Contact Center Going the Way of the PBX?, April 10, No Jitter

4 IT Success Strategies for Collaboration, April 9, Toolbox.com

1 Week, 6 Cities, 2 Conferences and 7 Takeaways

That's the title of my latest writeup for BCStrategies. 

If you follow me, you'll know that I'm a BC Expert, and contribute a monthly analysis on the portal, and get on my share of podcasts. This time around, I've summarized my thoughts for two recent events - MoNage and Cisco's Customer Care Analyst Day.

It was a hectic week, but very worthwhile, and I hope you find my reflections of value. The writeup has been posted now to the portal, and as always, sharing and feedback are welcome.

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 

Shout-Out for my April Newsletter - Subscribe Here

My newsletter - Communications and Collaboration Review - is starting to become a thing now, and the April edition has just been sent to subscribers. To get it, you need to sign up, so with every new edition, I need to support it with a blog post so people will know it's out there. So, as I did for last month's newsletter, here's the story...

Visitors to my website will know that I produce a newsletter, available on a sign-up basis. I'm not asking much - just your interest to learn more about what I do, and your email address - and over time, am hoping that will drive more engagement with some of you.

Many followers sign up for alerts for my new blog posts via RSS, but I don't know who you are. If that's all you want, great, but to get my newsletter, you need to sign up. For now, the newsletter provides exclusive content, and aside from amplifying my recent thought leadership and industry activities, I'll increasingly be creating original content, along with citings from my 10+ year archive of blogs posts and photos.

That's my soft pitch to encourage you to sign up, and if you do that soon, I'll make sure you get the April edition. Sign-up forms can be found here, or on any page of my website. Otherwise, I encourage your feedback and ideas for future topics.

Also, for the right circumstances, I'm happy to consider forms of sponsorship and possibly guest posts. My newsletter is really your newsletter, so all input is welcome - thanks.

March Writing Roundup

March was light on the writing front, but I kept busy otherwise, doing a webinar, a couple of podcasts, attending/speaking at Enterprise Connect, and being a source for several stories that ran in the media, especially around Enterprise Connect.

Looking ahead, I'm also in prep mode for a speaking spot at the upcoming MoNage conference, and soon after that, I'll be playing music again with the SIPtones at the Genesys conference in Nashville. Updates coming on those soon.

On the writing front, below is a summary of what kept me busy last month. Aside from this, I also produce a newsletter for my subscribers. It's still quite new and is taking shape one month at a time, and the April edition should be out in the next few days. If you'd like to get that, please sign up here, and I'll make sure to get you on the subscriber list right away.

Media Citings Summary Following Enterprise Connect, my blog, March 27

Enterprise Connect 2018 - First Impressions, Literally, BCStrategies, March 19

What Does Messaging Have That Voice Doesn't?, Toolbox.com, March 15

Why the "New Voice" is Happening Now, Toolbox.com, March 12

Talking Speech Tech for the Enterprise - podcast, No Jitter On Air, March 8 (scroll down the list - registration required, but I can help with that)

3 Things IT Needs to Understand About the Digital Workplace, Toolbox.com, March 7

Enterprise Connect - BCStrategies Podcast Review

Many of us with BCStrategies both attended and presented at Enterprise Connect earlier this month, so there was a lot of collective insights in our circle. The best way to bottle that is with a podcast, and after recording it a few days ago, it's now been posted to our portal.

Here's the link, and I think you'll find this a very good way to tap into the essence of what came out from the conference. For more, there are several posts on our portal related to Enterprise Connect, along with various posts from us on No Jitter.

Media Citings Summary Following Enterprise Connect

One of the benefits of being at major industry events is the media presence, and analysts are often cited as sources in their coverage. Like all analysts, I have my hot streaks, and I've been on a good run following Enterprise Connect. Since then, I've been cited as a source in the following writeups, as well as a full length guest post that was written earlier. More is coming, and to follow my media citings, please viist the In the News tab for my website.

IBM's New Watson Assistant Targets Business with "White Label" Service, Computerworld, March 26

Rethinking Customer Support with Office 365 and TouchPoint Agent, guest post for SMBnation.com, March 21

The Evolution of the Digital Workspace, CDW.com, March 21

AI and Speech Advances Bring Virtual Assistants to Work, Computerworld, March 20

Ready for Artificial Intelligence in Speech Recognition?, Tech Target, March 14

Enterprise Connect 2018 - My First Impressions, Literally

That's the title of my current writeup for BCStrategies. Last week was a non-stop run of sessions, networking and walking the show floor at Enterprise Connect. Very worthwhile, as I got to speak, get to know companies a whole lot better, and take the overall pulse of the collaboration market.

It was my first time there, so these literally were my first impressions, and would welcome your thoughts on my thoughts. While you're on our site, you'll find other writeups about the conference, and tomorrow we'll be doing a podcast to talk about it collectively.