5 Things You Need to Know About Hosted UC - My Next Webinar

That's the title of my upcoming Ziff Davis webinar, and it's definitely on trend. Whether you call it hosted UC, UCaaS, or cloud-based UC, many businesses are struggling to determine the right way to go forward. They know UC has value, but the ensuing review of the deployment options opens up a variety of questions that go beyond which technology to use.

If that's your current situation, then you'll want to join me next Wednesday - February 23 at 2pm ET. All the details are here, and I hope you can make the webinar.

Convergence in Smart Grid - Transforming the Chaos Series #3

"Transforming the Chaos" is the main theme for our upcoming Energy Thought Summit in Austin, starting March 28. Wearing my Smart Grid hat, I'm the Community Advocate for ETS16, and have been blogging about it here fairly often.

To help prime our audience for the experience, I've been developing a four-part series addressing separate but connected sub-themes. To start at the beginning, this post will take you to the first two posts, covering Transformation and Emergence. The third sub-theme is Convergence, and that article was just posted to the ETS16 website, and I hope you give it a read. The fourth post is in the works now, and I'll update you here once it's running. I've got other content in the works to support the summit, and before you know it, I'll be there in Austin.

Next Stop - Dallas and Vertical Communications

Just two days of travel this month and I'm not complaining. Tomorrow I'm going to Dallas for another vendor analyst event. This one is for Vertical Communications, a company I've followed for some time, and they haven't had an analyst event for a couple of years. They've made big strides with cloud-based UC and contact center platforms, and I like how they've developed a focus on vertical markets - as their namesake implies - namely in automotive, healthcare and retail.

Am not sure how much of the conference will be under NDA, but I'll blog and tweet as time allows. To follow more directly, their twitter feed is @verticalcomminc.

Starting next month, my travel schedule picks up quite a bit, and if you want to know more, I update that here on my website. Also, I'm doing a major refresh of my site and my blog, so all of this will look very different soon - details in due time.

Is Presence Dead? Our Latest UCS Podcast

For as long as I can remember, I've been calling presence the glue that holds UC together. Just as Unified Messaging - remember that? - was a big step forward when telephony stood alone from everything else, presence was really the key enhancement that took UC to the next level past UM.

Today, we take presence for granted, but early on, it was the most efficient way to manage day to day interactions with co-workers. That said, people were just as likely to use it as another filter or gatekeeper to make them LESS accessible. Why? Because presence was making them TOO accessible, so by setting your status to DND, the unwanted intrusions would drop off, and then you could actually get some work done.

Well, that's just one take on presence, and however you look at it, there's a strong case to be made that it's relevance has passed. It's not going to disappear anytime soon, but a lot of things have to go right - and a lot of rules have to be universally followed to get full value from presence. Basically, people rely more on text/IM/SMS now when they want to find someone, and there's not much etiquette any more about bothering people. It's widely expected that with mobility you're always available or at less reachable, and in that case you really don't need presence.

That's the gist of what we covered on our last UCStrategies podcast, and there were strong views on both sides of the coin. It's a fascinating topic, and yet another example of how the UC space just keeps morphing along. The podcast was moderated by Phil Edholm, and I hope you give it a listen - here's the link.

My Latest Smart Grid Article - Emergence Theme Around Technology and Innovation

Time to wear my Smart Grid hat again. In this mode, I'm an Advisor to Austin-based Zpryme Research, and the Community Advocate for next month's Energy Thought Summit. Leading up to the summit, I'm writing a four part thought leadership series, and this is the second piece.

The title is "Emergence - New Players and Technologies Bring Utilities to the Innovation Game", and it's posted now on the ETS16 website. Utilities are 10 years behind telcos in term of Internet/IP disruption, and my focus here is on emerging trends that are poised to transform the energy sector.

I hope you give it a read, and if you like it, you'll want to read my first instalment, and then stay tuned the upcoming pieces, which are in the works now. Beyond that, if you're interested in how this overall transformation is happening, you'll want to join us at ETS16, March 28-31.

New Article - Top 6 Tips Shaping the Customer Experience

I recently posted about a podcast interview I did with UK-based Enterprise Management 360. The focus was on trends shaping the customer experience in 2016, and I wrote a companion article to go along with it.

The article is running in their Q1 magazine, and here's the link to that.

It's just one of many articles in the magazine, and the digital edition is much more polished than what the above link shows. Download options are available in several formats, and you can explore those here.

If you missed the details for my podcast, here's the link for an audio replay.

I'll be doing a few other things with EM360 in 2016, and will keep you posted as they develop.

January Writing Roundup

2016 is off to a good start, and January was another busy month on the writing front. Here's a quick digest of the highlights that will still be a good read.

Top 6 Tips for Shaping for Shaping the Customer Experience in 2016, Enterprise Management 360, Jan. 29 - link to my article now running in their Q1 edition, and it includes audio clips from an interview I did them them to accompany the post. Contact me for details to download the full Q1 edition.

Unify and Circuit Redux, UCStrategies, Jan. 29

The Case for Best of Breed with UC, Toolbox.com, Jan. 27

How not to Make UC Strategic, Internet Telephony Magazine, digital edition, Jan. 27

Hidden Costs to Consider with UC, Toolbox.com, Jan. 26

UC Experts Share Their 2016 Predictions for the UCaaS Market, Collab9 blog, Jan. 22

When the Phone System Should Drive UC Planning, Toolbox.com, Jan. 18

Transformation: Three Themes Utilities Must Embrace, wearing my Smart Grid hat, this is the first in a series for our upcoming ETS16 event in Austin, Jan. 14

Don't Set Expectations too Low with UC, Toolbox.com, Jan. 11

Emerging Scenarios for Video, Part 2, Toolbox.com, Jan. 6

Evaluating UCaaS Providers with Three Key Criteria, TechTarget, Jan. 6

Unify Analyst Conference - UCStrategies Podcast Review

Following their recent conference, Unify has been the topic du jour lately on UCStrategies, and that has culminated with our latest podcast. Several of us shared our thoughts on the current state of Unify, which is now in the larger hands of Atos.

Lots of implications business-wise, but also for where things are going for Unify in the UC and collaboration spaces. I'm parsing these out because they are respectively served by OpenScape and Circtuit. If you follow me, you'll know that I view these as different spaces, but they are often talked about in the same breath and that's not always a good idea.

That's a taste of what we covered on the podast, where views were shared from UC Experts who did and did not attend the conference. The podcast is posted now on the site, and my comments start at the 14:51 mark. If you want to follow further, you can start with my recent UCStrategies post about Circuit, and from there, links to posts from other UC Experts.

Unify and Circuit Redux - My Take, Second Time Around

Got back late last night from ITExpo, and the week prior, I was at the Unify analyst/consultant conference, so I'm pretty showed-out for now. At ITExpo, I moderated a panel about communication and collaboration, and at Unify, we got an extensive update on the business, including Circuit. Things look better now than when Circuit made its debut in late 2014, and there are some relevant ideas from my ITExpo panel to reinforce that.

I've pulled those ideas together for my current UCStrategies column, and it's running now on the site. If you're trying to make sense of the fast-changing collaboration space, and/or how well Unify is currently positioned, I think you'll find this a good read. If you do that, I hope you pick up on the links in my analysis, as my UCStrategies colleagues Blair Pleasant and Phil Edholm have also shared their thoughts, but more so about the overall Unify story.

How NOT to Make UC Strategic - My Current Column

Rethinking Communications is the monthly column I write for TMC's Internet Telephony Magazine, and in the current issue I look at things businesses do that goes against the grain for making Unified Communications a strategic investment. You really do need the right mindset, and if you're still thinking in legacy terms, you'll have a much harder time getting full value from UC.

Here's the link to the article, and it's the follow up to last month's column, where I wrote about how you do make UC strategic. I hope you read them both, and if you can share, that would be great too. If you're having any difficulty accessing these posts, drop me a line and I'll help you out.

Loose End #2 - Podcast on Customer Experience Trends for 2016

Trying to tie things up from a busy week, largely taken up by the Unify analyst conference. Flying out shortly, and this is my second loose end post to cover things I couldn't blog about earlier in the week. I just posted about loose end #1, and here's #2.

I recently recorded a podcast interview about trends shaping the customer experience in 2016, and it went live a few days ago. This was done with UK-based Enterprise Management 360, and there's a companion article of mine that will run in their next quarterly magazine - stay tuned. Until then, here's the podcast.

Loose End #1 - Am in Fonolo's Top Contact Center Analysts List

It's been a busy week at the Unify analyst conference, so am behind on some things. This is loose end #1 before the week is out, and another one is coming after this.

Lots going on besides Unify this week, and earlier, Fonolo published this list, which I'm happy to be included in. Fonolo is Toronto-based - so I like them already - and has been doing lots of innovative things in the contact center space. Led by Shai Berger, they know where things are going, and it's nice to see them put this list together based on what they see in the market.

Recognition is always nice, but if you want to stay on top the contact center world, this list will also help you narrow down a core set of analysts to follow.

Unify 2016 Analyst Conference - Quick Take

Yesterday was Day 1 of the Unify analyst conference being held in Bermuda. No complaints about being here, and I'll just leave it at that. I'll have a more detailed post later, as it's Day 2 now, and I need to be in the moment.

The main story here is how things will progress following the Atos acquisition. There's a big opportunity here, although the synergies will take time to realize. Our timing was good yesterday, as the official news of the deal being done was announced around noon, so we got to share it with Unify management in real time. Champagne all around, and a lot of happy faces.

Overall, there's going to be a challenge for both companies figuring out where products fit into a services-driven business. There are also realities to address in that the marketplace is still attached to a CPE model, whereas most vendors - Unify included - want to migrate customers to the cloud and have them adopt a managed services model.

Closer to what I follow more regularly - OpenScape and Circuit - there's lots of good news. Looks like they've productized Circuit nicely, with 2 free entry options and 3 paid editions that look more like a real UC deployment. Also, closer to home, it's good see a growing presence in North America, and the customer panel we're seeing today is more validation of that.

Unify is in a good position now financially, sales momentum is strong, their channel story is more focused now, and their focus on 5 vertical markets is paying off. Circuit is still finding its legs, but the developer ecosystem is growing, and as we heard on the customer panel, it gets new conversations going that helps differentiate Unify.

I'll have more to say after the event, and for now I'll leave you with some photos from Day 1.

 CMO Bill Hurley kicking things off

Norm Korey and the GTM update

Toasting the official news of the Atos acquisition of Unify

Comfy breakout pods

What's not to like?

Next Stop - Brrrmuda and Unify's Analyst Conference

Yeah, it's cold here in Toronto, and it's not quite beach weather in Bermuda, but I can live with that. Never been to Bermuda, and am very much looking forward to leaving shortly for this. For the next few days I'll be at the Unify Analyst Conference, and we'll finally get a deep dive that builds on the preview briefing we recently got about Circuit.

That will be the main focus, but I'm sure all of us analysts will be just as interested in the business side of things now that Atos is in the picture. The synergies from moves like this aren't always so clear, but in due time, I'm hoping that will change.

I'll blog as time allows, but more often, I'll be tweeting @arnoldjon, and if you want to follow the event feed, it's #UnifyAR16.

This is actually part 1 of a 3 part trip, and next week, I'll be wearing my moderating hat at TMCnet's ITExpo in Fort Lauderdale. Again, I can live with that!

ITExpo Shout-out and Moderated Sessions

ITExpo is a week away, and for those attending, I want to make sure my sessions are on your radar.

"Are You Communicating or Collaborating?"  This is on the UC track, and runs Wednesday at 2:30

"Making Video Easy - How Hard Can it Be?" This is on the Business Transformation track, and runs Thursday at 10am

For more detail, including the abstracts and speakers who will be joining me, scroll through the Conference Program to the right date/time. For some reason their site doesn't have standalone links for each session, but it won't take long to find these.

Am off tomorrow to the Unify analyst event and from there, ITExpo in Fort Lauderdale. If you're at either event, I won't be hard to find, so feel free to drop me a line.

Transformation Challenges Facing Utilities - My Latest Smart Grid Post

For long-time followers, you'll know that I've been active in the Smart Grid space for many years, and serve as an Advisor to Austin-based Zpryme Research. They're a niche research consultancy focused on the energy sector, and I work with them in various ways.

One of these is as the Community Advocate for their marquee event, the Energy Thought Summit. Here is one of my recap posts from last year's event, along with a digest of the various posts I wrote to support it.

For ETS16 - running this March 28-31, again in Austin, I'll be writing a series of similar posts, and these are getting underway now. Additionally, I'm writing a series focusing on the four main themes of this year's summit - Transformation, Emergence, Convergence and Humans - TECH - all of which support the broader message of Transforming the Chaos.

I've been active in the Smart Grid space because I see the same pattern of disruption from IP and the Web in telecom being played out 10 years later with utilities. The parallels are strong, and I'm not alone from the tech/comms space in seeing this.

To keep that theme going, the first post in my series was just published on the ETS16 site, and I hope you give it a read. There's plenty of time to join us in Austin, and you just might want to do that after looking over the program and speaking roster in place - with lots more to come.

2016 Outlook - One More For You - UCStrategies Podcast

This one may have gotten lost in the shuffle with all the other 2016 previews. Our last UCStrategies podcast was a roundup of what we expect to see this year. Think of it as our State of the Nation for UC&C.

Oh, in case you missed it, if you want more of the same, but looking back at 2015 highlights, here's our podcast from the week before.

Of course, everyone has an opinion, and there are lots of good insights here.This will be 30 minutes well-spent if you want a broad, but informed view, and if it sparks some dialog or questions, we're keen to hear from you.

The podcast was moderated by Michael Finneran, and my comments start at the 8:44 mark - here's the link.

Cisco's Toronto Innovation Centre Opening Event

I spent yesterday morning attending this launch event at Cisco Canada's shiny new HO, which also includes an Innovation Centre. They've been ramping up for this for some time, and it's a great showcase of a public/private partnership between Cisco and various tiers of government.

The new offices are really a side story to the Innovation Centre, which is just one of nine globally run by Cisco. As you can imagine, the idea is to nuture innovation, entrepreneurship and tranformative ideas into great products/services that create jobs and help drive the digital economy.

We had His Worship, Mayor John Tory in our midst, along with other government representatives, all helping Cisco execs do the official ribbon cutting to celebrate the launch. Of course, the ribbon was digital, so no scissors were actually needed, but it went off smoothly and the spirit was great.

There are lots of angles here related to collaboration, and as usual, Cisco did a great job showcasing how their technology will help innovators communicate, share ideas and seamlessly work as virtual teams. Nothing new for the analysts/press in attendance, but I'm a fan of efforts like this that really help businesses understand what's possible with today's technology. In that regard, Cisco is totally on the right track here, and hopefully all the public funding behind this will be money well spent.

We saw a lot of cool stuff, and Cisco made some promising announcements around new initiatives to take a leadership role in supporting tech innovation in Canada. The details are best fleshed out in the press release, but am happy to dialog further if interested.

Normally, I would add photos to a post like this, but in my haste to get downtown in very sloppy weather, I forgot my gadget - doh! You'll just have to believe me that I was there, and yes, I got to meet the Mayor. Of course, there was lots of running commentary and photo-posting on twitter, so to rummage through that, best to check @CiscoCanada and #TOinnovate.

Otherwise, I'll leave you with one flashback so you'll know I really have been there. This was actually my third site tour there, with the first one being about a year ago when they held a hard hat tour to show us how they were building a smart building from the inside out. If you like that sort of thing, you'll enjoy my post and photos here.

Three Criteria for Evaluating UCaaS Providers

I've been working with Tech Target on a few different series, with the latest being on UCaaS. The hosted/cloud-based UC space is a major trend with implications across the entire value chain. Part 3 in my series has been posted now, with the focus being three criteria to help decision makers evaluate UCaaS providers.

You can access the post here, and if you want to read the earlier posts, here's Part 1, and here's Part 2.

Digest of my Reviews for 2015 and 2016

Before the week gets out, I wanted to post this digest of my various reviews for 2015 and beyond. Am sure you've seen plenty by now, but unless you follow me very closely, you may not have come across all the different things I did around the crystal ball we all seem to have this time of year.

Business Communications Trends and Highlights of 2015 - UCStrategies podcast, Jan. 5

2016 Collaboration Outlook - 3 Things Not to Expect, Toolbox.com, Dec. 31

2016 Collaboration Outlook - 3 Things to Expect, Toolbox.com, Dec. 30

The State of UC and Collaboration, Shaping Influence, Dec. 11

Five Trends Driving UC in 2016, CTC Info Telecom, December 2015 newsletter - note: link here only takes you to the signup form to request a copy. I can send over a PDF as well - just drop me a line.