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.

Contact Center 2.0 - More Than Just Going to the Cloud - No Jitter

That's the title of my latest post for No Jitter. Am a bit behind posting about it, as I'm on vacation this week. 

This time around, I'm drawing from a current study commissioned by RingCentral about how contact centers are trying to embrace new technology to meet changing customer needs. Digital transformation is a big theme, as is the cloud and CX, and addressing them all isn't easy.

I've taken select data sets from the study to connect those dots, with the intent being to show just how hard this really is, along with steps that I think will make that journey easier.

The article is posted here on No Jitter's site, and as always, your comments are welcome, along with any sharing you care to do.

AI - is it Really Artificial? Our Latest BCStrategies Podcast

Big topic, and lots to discuss. That's what we covered in our current BCStrategies podcast. It's on the long side - about 50 minutes - but AI is kind of like that. There's so much to learn and so many perspectives, and hopefully you'll find this a good listen.

This time around, fellow Torontonian/US-expat Kevin Kieller led the group, and the download can now be accessed here on our portal. As always, both comments and sharing are welcome.

June Writing Roundup

Sure has been a while since my last blog post. I was on the road three weeks out of four last month, so blogging has been light, and same for my writing output overall.

The time, however, has been well spent, and I now have a number of new projects starting up. No conferences til late September, and I'll be plenty busy close to home fulfilling client work. Since we're in a new month, it's time for my June roundup, but also a heads-up for my next newsletter. It should be in subscriber's hands - or inboxes more accurately - by this Friday, so if you get it, the wait won't be long.

If you don't subscribe yet, this would be a good time to sign up, and here's the form. As a sneak peak, I've got another podcast coming with my colleague, Chris Fine - and if you're a fan of Mary Meeker's annual Internet Trends report, you'll want to hear our discussion about some highlights.

Ok, back to the writing - it's a short set, but here's what I was up to in June.

How do you train an AI service for collaboration?, TechTarget, June 28

Internet Trends 2018 - How Digital Technologies are Driving Digital Behaviors, Toolbox.com, June 25

AI, Chatbots and Business Success, my blog, June 20

Is Ribbon Communications the New BroadSoft?, BC Strategies, June 19

Collaboration - Think About Outcomes, not Technology, Part 2, Toolbox.com, June 18

NEC Advantage - Quick Thoughts and Photos, my blog, June 15

Cybercrime - are you Paying Attention?, Toolbox.com, Jun 12

AI, Chatbots and Business Success

I've just completed a series of writeups for Upstream Works on the growing role AI is playing in the contact center. The third and final Strategic Insight in this series can now be downloaded from their website, and I've written a blog post that serves as a preview for my analysis.

Before steering you there, in case you haven't been following this series, here's the preview post for the first writeup, and here for the second writeup. Each of these blog posts includes a URL where you can download the full analysis, and if you read these, I'd love to hear your thoughts - as would Upstream Works.

Coming back to the latest Strategic Insight, below is the opening para of the post now running on Upstream Works's blog - to read the rest, click here, after which I hope you download the full writeup.

Technology change presents both challenges and opportunities for all types of businesses, and over this three-part series, I’ve been addressing its impact on contact centers. In particular, I’ve been focusing on the emergence of Artificial Intelligence and the role chatbots can play in driving a better customer experience. The full potential will take years to realize, but there’s an urgency for contact centers to adopt new technology, and AI presents viable opportunities that can be deployed now.

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.

AI, Chatbots and Improving Customer Satisfaction

I've been working on a series of writeups for Upstream Works on the growing role AI is playing in the contact center. The second Strategic Insight in this series can now be downloaded from their website, and I've written a blog post that serves as a preview for my analysis.

Here's the opening para of that post, and you can read the rest here on the Upstream Works blog.

Contact centers are not alone in trying to keep up with fast-changing technology, but they face two distinct challenges that are highly related. First would be various constraints that limit their ability to provide agents with the tools needed to effectively support today’s tech-savvy customers. This challenge was addressed in my previous blog post, which in turn supports a deeper analysis that you can access here.

Managing CX from the Inside-Out - my Latest on No Jitter

I draw writing inspiration from many sources - industry events, news items, personal interviews and research studies. Regarding the last item, publicly-available studies cross my path on occasion, and if there's interesting data, I like to add my own take.

Sometimes I do this because the findings simply need more attention, but other times I see things in the data that haven't been picked up on in the sponsor's writeup. In part this is due to my unconventional background, but I also come by it honestly, since I've been a market research practitioner for 30+ years. I don't see much of that expertise in this space, so I'm happy to add to the learning that can come from new research.

That's the preface for my latest No Jitter writeup, and it's drawn from a new study done by Genesys that was shared at a high level during their recent CX18 conference. I've focused on some specific findings that support what I call the "inside-out" approach to CX, and why most enterprises aren't getting it right. My analysis has been posted now to the No Jitter site, and if you give it a read, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Join Us - Fonolo's Next Google Hangout - Top Call Center Metrics

I've been following Toronto-based Fonolo for years, and they continue to stay on the leading edge of contact center technology. CEO Shai Berger hosts occasional Google Hangout panel discussions, and I'll be on the next one, taking place on May 31 at 3pm EST.

We'll be joined by Daniel Hong from Forrester, and Kevin Brown of Banner Health. This is a live broadcast, and to register, all the details are here.

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.

My May Newsletter is Out, Including a New Podcast - Subscribe Here

I'm going to do a standard shout-out here each time my newsletter is published. You need to subscribe to get it, and all you need to do is provide your email address. Not all of you follow my blog, or understand the range of services I provide, and the newsletter addresses both by providing updates on my practice, broad insights about the collaboration space, and current examples of what I'm doing with my clients.

My newsletter is very much a work in progress, and this month marks the inclusion of a podcast as a regular feature. For this segment, I'm in conversation with colleague Chris Fine, talking about the MoNage conference we spoke at last month, and how technology is reshaping the way we work.

The content in my newsletter is exclusive for subscribers, so if any or all of this is of interest, you need to subscribe. Signup forms  can easily be found on my website - including this standalone page - and hopefully that will be your next stop. I should add that many of you follow me via RSS, but we'll both be better served by subscribing as well, and if you do, thanks!