ITExpo Session - Next Generation Contact Centers

This is the next update in a series of posts I'm running about what I'll be up to at next week's ITExpo in Miami Beach. My prior post covered what I'll be doing with the Government of Ontario and their economic trade mission showcasing some leading tech startups.

Now I'll focus on the sessions I'm moderating. My first panel is on Wednesday, from 9:00 - 9:45 am. The title is pretty self-explanatory: "From Call to Contact: Next Generation Customer Service Centers", and it's part of the Customer Interaction Track.

Joining me will be Max Ball from 8x8, and Rick McFarland from Voice4Net. We expect to add another speaker soon, and I'll pass that update along. This is a big topic, so we won't have time to fully re-invent the contact center, but I'm sure you'll come away with a few new ideas about what you could be doing.

For more detail, just go to the Program tab on the show's site, and scroll down to our time.

Also, an FYI, I'll be participating in Editor's Day on Tuesday, so if you're planning to be at the show, I won't be hard to find. If you can't attend, the next best thing is to follow TMC's show blog, as well as their tweets - @TMCnet and @ITEXPO - and even mine - @arnoldjon.

ITExpo Preview #1 - Ontario Pavilion Briefing

TMC's ITExpo East is now less than two weeks away, and it's time to start talking things up. Am sure you're getting regular updates on the keynotes and sub-events, and it looks like they've settled into a good thing with the Miami Beach venue. The size is about right - although it might feel crowded if the event gets much bigger - and nobody is complaining about going to South Beach in late January. We survived the Ice Storm here in Toronto, so the change in scene will be very welcome!

I'll be moderating some sessions and participating in Editor's Day, and posts are coming with more details. Thought I'd start this series off talking up what the government of Ontario is doing with their trade mission to the Expo. They're returning to the show with their Ontario Pavilion, located in booth #815. I've been involved with this initiative at previous Expos, and the idea is to showcase Ontario companies in our space. Like any trade mission, it's an economical way for these companies to get direct exposure to new markets, and a chance for attendees to see what Ontario has to offer.

At present, the delegation consists of eight companies: Advance Software Concepts, Cloud Dynamics, Excelocity, In-Touch Insight Systems, Myplanet Digital, Phybridge, SVK Software, and Telax. They're all doing interesting things, and will be on hand there throughout the show.

Aside from that, the pavilion is hosting a market briefing and meet-and-greet at the booth on Friday, from 10-11am. I'll be providing an informal briefing about market trends and opportunities that these companies are addressing, and a delegate from the Canadian Consulate in Miami will be on hand. So, if you want to see the latest and greatest coming from Ontario, please join us.

I'll also be particpating in a VIP breakfast being hosted by the Ontario government, plus there's a general reception from 2-4pm on Thursday at the booth, which has been well attended in the past. See you there - go Canada!

2013 in Review for UC - UCStrategies Podcast

Last week, we focused on 2013 highlights for our weekly UCStrategies podcast, and we really had to cut things down, as there was so much to talk about. The podcast was moderated by Blair Pleasant, and I added to her thoughts about the focus on the user experience.

There's lots more worth listening to, and the replay has now been posted to the portal. I hope you give it a listen, and next podcast, we'll be looking ahead to what we think UC holds in store for 2014.

Amazon Mayday and Your Contact Center

Amazon Mayday created a lot of buzz recently, and along with many others, I wrote extensively about it. Just because things have died down doesn't mean it's gone away. I think it's fair to say that contact center decision-makers are still assessing what it means to them, so this article should still be timely.

As you may know, I write a monthly column - Rethinking Communications -  for TMCnet, and the posts usually run in their flagship pub, Internet Telephony Magazine. Given the subject matter, this month's writeup is running instead in Customer Magazine. Unlike the near-instant world of online portals, the logistics around print-based publishing mean long lead times. This post was written a while back, and is just hitting the market now.

I think Amazon's Mayday button can impact the contact center on many levels, and if you can get past the novelty of a 15 second response time, and focus on what's really important for customers, the rest really shouldn't be that hard to do.

That's my teaser, and for the rest of the story, here's the link. I hope you find a few new ideas in my article,  and as always, comments and suggestions for new themes are welcome.

New UC Column for me on InformationWeek - First Post Running Now

If you follow me, you know I do a lot of writing, and I've got a new forum for sharing my views on the UC space. I've just started a monthly column with InformationWeek, which is part of the UBM Tech conglomerate. Independent analysts don't get this kind of exposure every day, and it's a manageable commitment given my overall workload.

InformationWeek recently re-launched their online presence, with all the tools you'd expect to create two-way dialog between contributors and readers, so it's pretty dynamic. Their main portal contains many sub-portals with vertical focus, and my column falls under the Infrastructure bucket. Within that, they have a Unified Communications section, and that's where you can find me, along with many other contributors.

My first post just ran this morning, and I wanted to share this with my readers. It's titled "Becoming a Unified Communications Salesman", and you'll just have to read it to get the message. I hope you like it, and comments are most welcome - not just by me, but the folks at InfoWeek as well.

IT Expo 2014, Miami - Be There?

Happy 2014!

It's about 100 below today in Toronto, and even more than usual, I'm looking forward to the next ITExpo in sunny Miami Beach, starting January 28.

Aside from the frigid weather we're getting now, Toronto just came through an unprecedented ice storm that left over 300,000 people without power. Our house was without power for 9 days, and my business had no connectivity for 8 days. We're back to normal now, but it was pretty disruptive, and it's time to get back to work.

To get the year started - and resume blogging - I'm doing a quick shout-out for the ITExpo, an event I've been actively supporting for many years. The show continues to evolve and is doing a great job keeping up with the latest trends, including WebRTC, cloud, SDN and UC. They've also added some new tracks (co-located events, actually), such as visual collaboration and "SmartVoice". In short, it's great see some cutting edge focus on voice and video - really, the core building blocks for UC - and for the latter, you won't want to miss comms guru Martin Geddes, who's keynoting Tuesday morning. That should be a real treat.

I'll have more updates on the show, as well as details about the four sessions I'm moderating. If you're feeling the weather the way I am, you shouldn't need much prodding to make plans to join us!

Our Next Contact Center Webinar - the Holy Grail for Increasing Personalization and Engagement

If you follow me, you'll know I've been writing a lot lately about Amazon's Mayday button, and that has been a springboard for thinking about how to elevate you contact center to connect better with customers.

Last month, I spoke on a webinar about Mayday, and the turnout was tremendous. That particular event was sponsored by software giant SAP, and hosted by our good friends at TMCnet. Well, we're reprising that combination again with another webinar on January 21, at 2pm ET.

Clearly, there's an appetite to learn more about what all this means and what contact centers should be doing, and that's what we'll be talking about. The title tells the story pretty well - Search for the Holy Grail - Increasing Customer Engagement with Personalization in your Contact Center.

Joining me will be colleague Neal Shact, CEO of CommuniTech Services, and the discussion will be ably moderated by Rich Tehrani, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of TMCnet.This should be another strong event, and we hope you can join us. I'll be socializing the webinar off and on, and if you're ready to register now, here's the landing page.

My New White Paper - "VoIP Security - More Than Just IT Risk"

My blogging frequency is not a good barometer of what I'm up to, as some projects take months to complete, while other work is done on a daily basis. As you may know, I write a lot of white papers, some of which you can access from my website - along with other work samples.

VoIP security is a hot topic, and while the urgency to address it seems to come and go, the fundamental risks haven't changed. In fact, they're beoming more numerous and serious, and in my books, it's just a matter of time until some form of NSA-scale breach happens. These things do happen, but we just don't hear about it, as businesses don't generally like to acknowledge them. In the main, the thinking is typically "this won't happen to me", "we have adequate security in place", or "I don't believe those threats are real".

You can take your pick, but this misguided thinking is going to backfire sooner or later. As VoIP - and UC - gains mainstream traction, they will become attractive targets for the bad guys, who will always be at least one step ahead of most good guys.

Without oversimplifying things, that's the thesis I addressed in my latest white paper. The project was sponsored by Ottawa-based VoIPshield Systems, and if you don't know them, they've been at this game a long time, and believe the time is right to educate the market and help IT take more responsible measures.

To support that, they needed third party validation on the state of VoIP security, and that's what I was brought in to do. My research was broad-based across the value chain, and let's just say that the deeper you dig, the more there is to be concerned about. Of course, there's lots of technology out there that can mitigate the risks, and VoIPshield falls squarely into that category.

The white paper was recently posted to their website for download, and the press release to support the launch went live yesterday. VoIP security touches more bases than you may realize, and even if you have a mild curiosity, I think you'll find the paper a good read. To learn more, as well as download the paper, here's the link to press release. Comments are most welcome, and if you have war stories to share, I'm all ears.

What Millennials can teach us about collaboration

Just back from a 9 day trip to Florida, and let's just say it's a little cooler up here in Toronto. Now I remember why I like Florida so much. Anyhow, back to work and lots to catch up on.

My latest Rethinking Communications column is running now on the digial edition of Internet Telephony, which is TMCnet's flagship publication. As the title of this post implies, I think those of us looking at VoIP and UC can learn a lot from Millennials, especially when trying to work in teams.

Collaboration is easier said than done, and you simply have to start from the foundational idea that the younger generation works differently that my peer group. I'm not here to judge, so you're best off saying it's different - not better or worse.

Once you accept that, tools like UC can be used very effectively if they support the way Millennials like to work. This generation is pretty independent, not to mention tech-savvy, so their expectations may not match yours. You might even learn a thing or two if you're willing to listen, but I'll stop there and hope you read my article - here's the link.

I think this is a fascinating topic, and once you digest that, feel free to share your thoughts - after, isn't that what collaboration is all about? Finally, if you like my thinking, you might want to read my other columns and thought leadership pieces, which you can find links to here.

UCS Podcast - Mitel/Aastra and Industry Consolidation Trends

Well, the recent Mitel/Aastra deal got everyone's attention, and Mitel seems to be making a habit of acquiring like-sized competitors. Ususally, M&A activity is between big fish and smaller fish, but these days, whatever works is just fine.

This has given rise to thinking about broader consolidation trends, and usually becomes a hot topic after a shakeup deal like Mitel/Aastra. That's what we covered on this week's UCStrategies podcast, and I'd urge you to give a play if you want the state of the nation on UC consolidation.

I'm in there - around the 23 minute mark - along with several other UCS regulars. Dave Michels did a great job moderating, and the link was posted earlier this morning.

JFK's Assassination at 50 Revisited - the Day the Music Died

Many of us - myself included - remembered where we were 50 years ago today, but perhaps none of us witnessed JFK's assassination at Dealey Plaza. I sure don't know anyone who was there.

For modern music fans, you know what "the day the music died" means. If you don't, it refers to Buddy Holly, who was lost along with others in a fatal plane crash a few years earlier in 1959. Interestingly, his birthplace of Lubbock is due West from Dallas - not that far away.

What he represented to the nascent world of rock and roll, along with what was to become youth culture, was exactly what JFK meant to the idealism of post-war America and all the promise that the 1960s was showing. After November 22, 1963, nothing was ever the same again, and my feeling is that this was historical high point for America and we may never get back there.

If any of this resonates with you, then today is pretty special, and that's why I'm re-sharing one of my older blog posts here.

I wasn't at Dealey Plaza in 1963, but I WAS there in 2008, and given what made that day special, I'd say this is the next best thing, and a pretty good proxy for getting a first-hand flavor for what happened then.

So what was so special in November 2008? Well, Obama got elected, and I happened to be in Dallas the day the results were announced. If you care about these things, the stars really couldn't have lined up any better, and I took full advantage of the moment in both time and place.

I don't often cite old posts, but just after that trip, I put a photo-essay together based on my experience, and if you're even just a bit reflective of what today means, I think you'll enjoy seeing it. There was hardly any social media then, so if you don't follow my blog, you probably never saw it.

As a taste, here's one of my photos. What's this?

Well, it's the USA Today headline announcing Obama's win and "dream fulfilled" at the base of the JFK cenotaph in Dallas, where another big dream died 50 years ago today. How's that for linking one American dream to another?

If you don't remember my photo essay - or have never seen it - I hope you take a look. I'm pretty sure you'll find it time well spent and maybe learn a few things you never knew or saw. If you like that, you may also enjoy my Americana posts, which I do from time to time. Whatever you do, I'd love to hear what all this means to you too!

Cisco Collaboration Summit and Q1 Earnings - is Their Mojo Back?

It's a tricky question, and I know some people would love to say YES and some would love to say NO.

I'm leaning towards yes, but this is no slam dunk, especially if you're an investor. I attended their annual Collaboration Summit a couple of weeks back in Boca Raton - what's not to like? - and Cisco had their Q1 earnings call last week. I felt badly because I didn't get a chance to blog about the summit, but the stars have lined up for now, and I found that after the Q1 earnings call, there was actually a better story to tell.

That's what I've done for this month's contribution to the UCStrategies portal. Whether you're inside or outside the Cisco tent, I think you'll find this is a good read, and would love to know if you think they've got their mojo back.

Creative Destruction - is RIM's Loss Apple's Gain?

Am just testing something on my blog, and you may have seen this post already. If not, I think you may find this a good read!

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My latest UCStrategies contribution has taken a few turns along the way, but I think it's addressing some timely issues. You may not agree with my point of view, and that's fine. I may very well be dead wrong, but that's not really the issue.

On a few levels, I could see Apple making a UC play via RIM, but what I'm more interested in is the creative destruction that's going around this space, with RIM's woes being a textbook example. My main takeaway is that anything is possible these days, and if it's not Apple, I'm pretty sure it will be someone else from outside this space who will be making big moves in 2014. The incumbent vendors could manage to defend their territory against all comers, but given how weak many of them are, there is definitely opportunity to be exploited by outsiders with more money, vision, will, chutzpah - whatever you want to call it.

I hope you give my post a read, and would love to get your take - here's the link.

Housekeeping update - new RSS feed for my subscribers

It was recently brought to my attention that the RSS feed link for my blog is broken, and after doing some digging, I now know why. The link has now been updated and is working just fine.

So, if you have an RSS feed set up and want to subscribe to my blog, just scroll down to the "Subscribe" section on the right side of the blog page, and you'll see the "RSS Feed" link there.

Apologies for the inconvenience, and I definitely appreciate your comments, especially about things that need fixing!

Reminder - Tomorrow's Webinar on Hosted VoIP Trends for SMBs

Just a quick shout-out for my next Ziff Davis webinar. The topic is adoption trends for hosted VoIP among SMBs - this is a space I regularly follow and will have some interesting market data to share.

I'm the sole presenter, but won't have any difficulty filling the time, and am confident you'll come away learning a few new things. The webinar is at 2pm ET, and here's the link for everything else you need to know to join us.

Smart Grid Webinar - Critical Infrastructure Protection

It's time again to put on my smart grid hat with Zpryme and tell you about our next webinar. Just as the phones and Internet represent critical infrastructure that must be protected, the same applies to energy and the power grid. Actually more so - a lot more so. Until we become self-sufficient with renewable or stored energy - not likely - we will need to rely on the broader power grid, so protecting this is pretty important.

That's what we'll be talking about on the next Zpryme webinar on Thursday, November 21 at 1pm ET. Joining me will be speakers from ViaSat and Southern California Edison; as usual, the webinar is free, and all the details you need are here. Hope to have you on the call.

The Upside of Personalization for UC

Regular followers will know that I write a monthly column for TMC's Internet Telephony Magazine; it's called Rethinking Communications, and you can probably guess the types of things I focus on there.

Last month, I wrote about the downside of personalization in terms of being a hinderance to the adoption of Unified Communications. There's a lot of psychology at play here (my undergrad major is speaking now!), and I don't think businesses give this much thought in terms of what UC has to do to make an emotional connection among end users. Without that, adoption simply doesn't happen.

Well, now let's look on the bright side and the good things that personalization brings. It's all a matter of how you spin ideas, and in this month's column, I explore the upside. If you believe that giving people what they want matters, then by understanding what it is they actually want, your odds of success with UC are a lot higher.

If you're wondering what that might look like, please head over to the digital edition of the latest Internet Telephony Magazine, and give my post a read. Comments, as always, are welcome.

My AudioCodes Visit / Quick Thoughts on Israel

Finally back to blogging now that I've returned from Israel and gotten more or less caught up from being off sched the better part of two weeks.

Covered a lot of ground in Israel, and managed to work in a productive site visit to AudioCodes. They're based in Airport City, and as the name implies, their offices are right by the airport, making this a convenient stop for visitors on a short trip. As I learned, Airport City is a cluster of office buildings with a lot of tech, but once you get off that island, it's almost like being in the desert. Israel has a lot of contrasts, so this didn't come as a surprise in the least. It was a 2+ hour journey by bus from Jerusalem, but the visit was definitely worthwhile.

I had a series of meetings there, and it was a great opportunity for in-person briefings to get updates across the board, namely UC, SBC, gateways and contact center. I've always thought highly of AudioCodes, and this was actually my second time seeing them in Israel. Those impressions were certainly validated during my visit, and the company looks to have clear focus on where they fit in this space.

In basic terms, AudioCodes provides a lot of options for any partner competing against Cisco. I've written before about how the telecom/UC market is coming down to two simple choices, at least for North American enterprises. Head-to-head, it's Cisco vs. Avaya, but on a broader scale, it's Cisco vs. Microsoft. Most partners need to go with one or the other now to get ongoing traction, and this duopoly is a far cry from a few years back when there was more choice among vendors of all sizes.

AudioCodes has always had solid technology, but they've also done a great job of evolving their products and expanding capabilities, especially in the gateway/SBC area. They know their strengths - namely voice - and you won't see them dabbling much in video. That's better left to partners like Polycom. I also like how they've built up their contact center reach, and from I was shown, they are currently supporting a number of global, large scale deployments.

Since they're not in the PBX business, you don't normally associate them with UC, but they provide a lot of critcal network elements for both carriers and enterprises. Outside of the telecom vendors - and Cisco - I really can't think of any other vendor who can provide such a complete range of products that enable UC and voice communications in general. Maybe Sonus or Genband, but if so, not by much. AudioCodes may not own the customer the way Microsoft or Cisco does, but it's clear to me they bring a lot to enhance any vendor's solution.

As an aside, in light of today's merger between Mitel and Aastra, it's worth noting how important scale is becoming to survive in this market. Of course, in this case, we're talking about two telecom vendors, and this is the second time Mitel has done a deal like this to get bigger. With Acme Packet now folded into Oracle, AudioCodes is already one of the biggest players in their pond, but I don't see them doing anything comparable to Mitel to get to the next level.

To sum up, both contact center and UC are huge, horizontal opportunities, and I think AudioCodes has the right focus here for long-term growth. Voice still very much matters, and while the telecom vendors are struggling to see where they fit as trends like mobility and cloud are re-defining their place in the value chain, AudioCodes is squarely in the middle of what everyone needs to do well to make voice worth paying for. I hope to get further validation as my post-visit follow ups progress, and will share what I can then.

Otherwise, Israel itself is a whole other topic. This isn't the place for that, but it was a wonderful visit, and until you've been there, it's hard to understand how layered their world is. As much as Israel is a modern democracy, the price for freedom is very high, and as much as we felt safe and welcome wandering about Jersusalem, you just never know what could come around the corner or on the next bus you board. I'm not one to share my personal life online, but we took lots of photos and will just share a couple here. Am happy to chat more any time and who knows, I might write about it further another time - or place.

Amazon's "Mayday" Button - Contact Center Implications - Webinar

Amazon's "Mayday" feature is getting a lot of attention, and while the vast majority of businesses lack the scale to offer this service promise, it sure raises a lot of questions for contact centers. One of those is "just because you can, does it mean you should?", and from there many other implications pop up. It's too early to tell if this will be a passing blip or a new stage in delivering JIT customer service, but people are talking about it now, so the webinar is definitely timely.

Thanks to the Internet, our attention span is now measured in seconds, and if you take this level of instant gratification seriously, then you need to think about what Mayday could mean for your business and how you support your customers.

If this is on your mind, then you'll want to join us on Thursday, November 11 at 2pm ET. I'm part of a panel that will be discussing the various ramifications, and will be joined by well-known consultants Neal Shact and Dennis Goodhart. TMC is hosting the event, which is being sponsored by SAP, a company that certainly wants to know where this could take things as the pathway between customers and agents gets shorter.

We're still fine-tuning the agenda, but all the pertinent details are here, including a link to the registration page. I'll have more updates as we get closer to the date.

UCStrategies Podcast - State of SBCs with UC

Alphabet soup comes with the territory in our space, and the most recent UCStrategies podcast focused on SBCs - session border controllers - and their impact on UC. I've followed SBCs since this category emerged in 2004, and not being a technical analyst, I focus on the business-level issues. However, even among the analysts steeped in IT, SBCs have always been difficult to understand. On some levels, you can ignore them with UC, but as many deployments are calling for SIP trunking, SBCs become unavoidable. I've learned that SBCs are fairly new and somewhat foreign to the UC space, so this podcast was a long time coming.

Stephen Leaden did a great job moderating, and I was happy to say my piece along with the other UCS Experts on the call. Since Acme Packet scored close to $2 billion being acquired by Oracle, everyone is wondering what all the fuss is about. Well, our podcast has been posted now, so to find out, you'd better head over to the portal now, where you'll find both the download and the transcript.