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.

Is the Contact Center Going the Way of the PBX?

That's the question posed for my latest No Jitter writeup, and it stems from several takeaways from last month's Enterprise Connect 2018. You don't have to look far on my blog to see what I've already written about the conference, but for No Jitter, it just seemed that a number of learnings from Enterprise Connect pointed to that big question.

I'm not saying it's happening tomorrow, but the parallels are strong, and perhaps you'll agree after giving it a read. And if you don't, I'd still love to hear from you, as would the folks at No Jitter. Are you there?

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.

The New Voice - My Next Webinar

Time's short for this one, but am doing another webinar with Ziff Davis. It's next Tuesday, March 20 at 2pm ET. Just finishing up my presentation now, and as the title implies, it's about the "New Voice", a broad trend that is being driven by the cloud, and emerging AI capabilities. There's a lot to talk about - no pun intended - and if you follow my work, you'll have a good idea of what to expect. I hope you can join me, and all the details to register are here.

Quick Shout-Out for my March Newsletter

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 March edition. Sign-up forms can be found 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.

Enterprise Connect Preview #2 - New Podcast: Interviewed by No Jitter

I can't tie up loose ends fast enough ahead of next week's Enterprise Connect in Orlando. Got back-to-back podcasts to share here that will help set the stage. Yesterday, I posted about our BCStrategies podcast, where we each did a brief preview of our talks and what to expect at the conference.

Today, I'll get more specific, with another podcast - this time, about my speech tutorial, which starts right at the beginning - 8am Monday. The interview was conducted by No Jitter's Beth Schultz, and we touched on the key themes I'll be addressing, along with why speech tech is getting really interesting now in the enterprise.

The podcast was just posted, and is titled "Talking Speech Tech for the Enterprise", and can be accessed here, on No Jitter's site, under the Podcasts tab. Small hurdle, though - you need to be registered with UBM to get it there. Just takes a moment to sign up, and then you're in. The benefit is you can then peruse all the other podcasts, and there's lots to choose from.

While you're on the No Jitter site, feel free to review this article I recently wrote about my session, and if you're planning to attend, here are the details.

Finally, if you just have to hear the No Jitter podcast NOW, and can't be bothered to register, here's a direct link. I also shared that link earlier on both twitter and Linkedin - and on that note, to follow the conference on social, the hash is #EC18, and I'm @arnoldjon.

Preview for Enterprise Connect - Our BCStrategies Podcast

The week is flying by, and the biggest conference in our space is next week, so time is short. I've already done shout-outs about my session there - and more to come - but we're going bigger picture here. Since many of us at BCStrategies (nee UCStrategies) are speaking at Enterprise Connect, we put this podcast together so you can hear all about that in one place. 

Our fearless leader, Jim Burton, did a great job moderating, and he's pulled it all together nicely, with both our podcast, and a summary table for all our speaking spots at the show. It's a lot to follow, posted now on our portal.

Sidebar - I rarely post two images, but it fits this time. Below is our BCStrategies logo, and a shout-out for my speaking spot. Also, fyi, if you register before March 9 with this link, you'll get $500 off your registration.

February Writing Roundup

Time for another monthly writing update. My mix of work has shifted a bit, so my volume of writing is less, but am plenty busy in other areas. Depending on what you did or didn't read from me in February, here are the highlights to share:

How Can Huddle Room Technology Maximize Collaboration Success?, TechTarget, Feb. 27

AI in the Workplace - Voice is All you Need, Toolbox.com, Feb. 23

EC Tutorial - 3 Big Ideas for Speech Tech, No Jitter, Feb. 20

Thoughts on ITExpo - Where the Phones Are, UCStrategies, Feb. 20

The Evolution of Unified Communications Technologies, TechTarget, Feb. 14

My Latest Cisco White Paper - AI in the Contact Center, my blog, Feb. 12

BroadSoft Survey Analysis #3 - Extending the UC Value Proposition, Toolbox.com, Feb. 8

How AI can Make Voice Collaboration Better, Toolbox.com, Feb. 6

Consolidating Overlapping Tools for Enterprise Collaboration, Network Evolution Magazine - TechTarget, Feb. 1

Thoughts on ITExpo - Where the Phones Are

That's the title of my latest analysis, wearing my BC Expert hat for BCStrategies. For this month's post, I've done a recap of last week's ITExpo in Fort Lauderdale. I posted about it here on my blog a few times leading up to the expo, and now it's time for my post-expo takeaways.

ITExpo is certainly a different vibe from next month's uber-event, Enterprise Connect, and I've been posting about that here as well. Not too many analysts make it to both events, so I'll be doing a similar recap about Enterprise Connect for BCStrategies later next month. Until then, here's my take on ITExpo, and if you were there, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Preview of my Speech Tech Tutorial at Enterprise Connect on No Jitter

Got a few messages to unpack in that headline, as preparations for Enterprise Connect 2018 kick into high gear.

1. This is my first time at Enterprise Connect, and I'll be one of the very first speakers, presenting a tutorial on speech technology at 8am, Monday, March 12.

2. I wrote a preview article about my tutorial - all the details are there - and it's running now on No Jitter. Would love it if you could attend my session!

3. This may be my first rodeo with EC, but I'm a regular contributor to No Jitter - here's my profile page if you want to see my other posts.

4. We're all in sales, and here's my modest pitch if you haven't made plans yet. Use this link to register by midnight, March 9, and you'll get $500 off the price.

5. I hope you like the preview article, and if you do, I'm pretty sure you'll like my tutorial. Don't be shy - be social - use #EC18 and @enterprisecon to share.

The Evolution of UC Technologies - My Latest on TechTarget

Am way behind sharing my recent published posts here on the blog. ITExpo was very good last week, and I'll have a post on that any day now. Looking ahead, I've got a post coming about next month's Enterprise Connect, so watch for that as well.

For now, I'm sharing a link to this writeup I did for TechTarget. It ran on their site middle of last week, and has been getting a lot of social media buzz. In case you missed it, here's the link, along with this really nice infographic they put together to support it.

My Current Newsletter is Out - Signed Up Yet?

JUst a quick shout-out about my newsletter, which I finally got going in December. Some of you follow my blog on your own, and many track it via RSS. That's fine, but what I really want is for you to sign up for my newsletter, which I'm trying to make into a monthly thing.

That's easier said than done given all the hats I wear, but the February edition has now been sent to subscribers, and the feedback has been positive. If you don't know, it includes exclusive content that I don't post here on the blog. So, if you want "more JAA" in your life, just sign up to subscribe, and you'll soon get the current newsletter. It's real easy - there are forms in the margins and footers of my website, and it just takes a few seconds. What are you waiting for?

Updated Outlook on Avaya - Our BCStrategies Podcast

Got my hands full here at ITExpo this week, and am behind on writing and blogging. Got a few posts to get out today, starting with this one.

Having emerged from Chapter 11 and going IPO last month, Avaya has the makings of the Great American Comeback story. The elements are certainly there, but many big questions still remain, and this isn't really a clean slate fresh start.

That's the focus of our latest BCStrategies (nee UCStrategies) podcast, and it's posted now on our portal. Many of my BCS colleagues were at Avaya's recent Engage event, so they got first-hand updates on the road ahead. Lots to talk about, and I added some thoughts as well - you can listen to the podcast here, and we'd love to get your feedback.

My Latest Cisco White Paper: AI in the Contact Center

If you follow me, you'll know I've been way busy lately. Included in that mix is a white paper I've been doing for Cisco. Everyone is trying to assess what AI can really bring to the contact center, and to help educate the market, they engaged me to produce this vendor-neutral white paper. My job is provide objective, balanced insights, and hopefully you'll reach that conclusion after giving it a read.

The white paper is publicly-available now on Cisco's website, and you can access it here, under the Cisco Finesse tab. Your comments and inquiries are welcome, and any sharing would be greatly appreciated.

ITExpo Preview #3 - The Rise of Messaging in the Enterprise

Here's the final preview post for the sessions I'll be moderating next week at ITExpo in Fort Lauderdale. We're getting our share of snow here in Toronto, so let's just say the change of scene will be nice!

This session will be on the Friday at 11am in Room 210, and joining me will be David Frankel of ZipDX, Brad Blanken of Bandwidth.com, and David Walsh of VoIP Innovations. More detail about the session and the expo in general can be found in the Event Calendar section of my website.

Also, for detail about the other two sessions I'm moderating, here are the blog posts from earlier this week. Otherwise, I hope to see you there, and to follow the event, the twitter hashtag is #ITEXPO2018.

ITExpo Preview #2 - How AI is Changing the Customer Experience

This is the second of three sessions I'll be moderating at next week's ITExpo in Fort Lauderdale. Yesterday, I posted about the first one, also on the same day, and general details about the expo and my overall schedule can be found on the Event Calendar of my website.

The AI session will be next Wednesday at 1pm, and we'll be in Room 209. We've got a full slate, and joining me will be Muthusamy Selvaraj from Carenection, Eric Bauer from AudioCodes, Brett Lancaster from Ricoh USA, and Bachir Halimi from Speech Mobility. This link will get you to the full details for our session, and while you're there, you can see what else is going on at the show.

Otherwise, I have plenty of meetings booked, but if you want to connect, I won't be hard to find.

ITExpo Preview #1 - Making Chatbots Your Most Valuable Asset

That's the title of the first panel I'll be moderating a week from now at TMC's ITExpo in Fort Lauderdale. All told, I'm moderating three sessions, and there's more detail here in a recent post on my blog.

Joining me on the chatbot session will be David Lee of RingCentral, and Akshay Sharma from neXt Curve, and we're hoping to add another speaker shortly. There's a lot of ground to cover, but basically, we'll talk about how to get beyond the science experiment stage to make chatbots a new driver of business value and deeper engagement with customers.

For those attending, we'll be in Room 209, starting at 10 - see you there!