VON Evolution - What You Missed

Am trying something different here - a new way for me to share highlights from industry events I’ve recently attended. Here’s the conundrum - during events, I post as time allows on LinkedIn with in-the-moment commentary and photos, and collectively, those posts often tell the story of the event.

My intention is to write a more thoughtful, reflective analysis of the event soon after, and that usually gets published on portals like No Jitter or BCStrategies. That’s what often happens, but with travel to seven events in the past seven weeks, it’s been impossible to do that for each event during this run.

Jeff Pulver’s VON Evolution last week in New York is a great example of that. I posted many photos and much commentary throughout the event on LinkedIn, and at this point, I really don’t have much more to add. While those posts were widely-read - and shared - they pass quickly after the moment, and most people may have only caught one or two of those.

New plan - the vibe from Jeff’s event is still fresh, and to give you a sense of that, I’ve tallied all my LinkedIn posts here, listed first-to-last. This way, in one place, you can go through the links in order of events, with both my commentary and my photos. If you’re inclined to check them all out, I think that’s a pretty good proxy for being there. Let me know if you do, and would love to hear your thoughts or chat further - as I’m sure Jeff would too.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jarnoldassociates_newyorkcity-vonevolution-voip-activity-7125475487157547008-ioTq?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jarnoldassociates_vonevolution-communications-privatenetworks-activity-7125503756393213954--mVk?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jarnoldassociates_vonevolution-newyorkcity-livemusic-activity-7125589031358279680-iAcR?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jarnoldassociates_vonevolution-newyorkcity-livemusic-activity-7125635867833958400-7Fl-?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jarnoldassociates_vonevolution-chatbots-spam-activity-7125857172365721601-fNMM?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jarnoldassociates_fun-livemusic-newyork-activity-7125865293603602432-o7vK?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jarnoldassociates_vonevolution-technology-privacy-activity-7125889312813953024-usf_?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jarnoldassociates_newyorkcity-disruptive-wireless-activity-7126276587217448962-dH15?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop


NICE Analyst Summit Review - on BCStrategies

Am slowly getting through the backlog from last month’s travel run, including posting reviews of the various events I attended and spoke at.

For the NICE Analyst Summit - epic in many ways - I shared posts and photos on LinkedIn during the event, along with some short video clips. Definitely needed time to reflect on that event, and my writeup is now running on BCStrategies - you can read it here.

I’m not done with NICE, though, so here are a few more tie-ins to my post:

  • I have MANY photos to share still, both from the event and from our Machu Picchu expedition. Am planning to share some here soon, and if you follow me on Facebook, more of the fun stuff will be there.

  • For more on their analyst event, check out colleague Blair Pleasant’s review here, and yesterday, a foursome of BCStrategies Experts did a LinkedIn Live segment to review recent industry events, including NICE - you can view that here.

  • Am having a double-shot week so far with NICE, as my latest white paper for them was just published - details here.

New White Paper - Being Strategic When Deploying AI in the Contact Center

Still catching up on new thought leadership to share - been doing a lot of that lately, but with so much travel, it’s been hard sharing about them in a timely manner. Here’s one, though, that is timely. My latest white paper for NICE was just published yesterday, and it’s getting a lot of traction already.

So, ICYMI, it’s out now, and here’s the registration page to access a copy. Sorry, but long-form content like this is usually gated, but it just takes a minute to fill out the form, and you’ll have it to read in no time.

New Guest Post - Enhancing CX with Integrated Messaging Apps

My series of guest posts for Aizan continues, with the latest topic being the role for messaging apps to improve customer experience. Customer service has historically been voice-based, but the use of messaging has increased greatly, especially with mobility, and there are many scenarios where this is the best way to engage with customers. For more on this, I hope you check out my post, and more topics are coming soon.

New Guest Post - Tianjin Port: Leading Edge of 5G, AI and IoT

I recently blogged here about my visit to Tianjin as part of a media tour to China in late September. Since then, I’ve also done a guest post for Silverlinings that goes into more detail about what makes their smart port so special.

My main focus as an analyst is communications technology, but interestingly, the world of Industry 4.0 makes use of the same core technologies - 5G, AI and IoT - but in very different ways. If you want to learn more about what that looks like for the smart port space, I think you’ll find my article a good read, and to see it in action, I posted one of my video clips on the above-cited blog post.


New Podcast - Insights on CX and AI with NICE

Got another CX Pulse podcast to share. This is my latest one with NICE, where the discussion covered an all-too-familiar - but very timely - topic - the role of AI in shaping CX and the contact center.

We were just able to touch on a few themes, but if you give it a listen, I think you’re find it of interest - along with the many other episodes on their site. For my current episode, here’s a direct link via the Apple Podcasts site.

Avaya Rejuvenation - Can They Do It?

This post is a companion to my analysis and takeaways about Avaya, following my recent trip to Dubai for the massive GITEX show. My writeup has been posted here on EM360, which I feel is a good home given given their focus on regions outside the Americas. I hope you give it a read, and likewise enjoy a few of my photos below from the event. As always sharing and comments are welcome!

Below - CEO Alan Masarek in our analyst-only briefing, a nice group shot (photographer unknown, sorry), and Avaya’s ever-present desk phones - in my hotel room.

Some demos at the Avaya stand - Sestek, showing speech-to-text in Arabic, an agent wellness demo where AI tracks sentiment, not just with video but analytics for customer dialog, and keeping customer data secure with Journey.ai.

Not sure if the flashy cars draw the big crowds, but big players spend big dollars here for sure.

Various manifestations of AI on display - too cute robots, Spot - the prancing robot dog from Boston Dynamics, and ever-present drones. Anything is possible in this part of the world, and there’s no way to tell how these “devices” will be deployed, but they’re definitely here now.

Metaverse demo from DEWA - Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, Abu Dhabi government stand - one of seven emirates that make up the UAE, Extreme Networks stand - yes, there were plenty of familiar Western vendors on hand.

On the other hand, this is the Middle East - crossroads of commerce - and you don’t to have walk far to see players you’ll almost never see in the West - MCI - Iran’s largest mobile provider, China Mobile, and Huawei - with a model display showcasing their data center of the future.

Not surprisingly, Dubai is super-modern and built to impress - high noon shot of Jumeirah Emirates Towers - left tower was our hotel, nearby the Museum of the Future, and a skyline shot at night.

Next Speaking Opp - UCaaS/CCaaS and AI with Rosenblatt Securities

This Friday, I’ll be in conversation with long-time colleague Catharine Trebnick about AI-related trends in the UCaaS and CCaaS spaces. Cat is the cloud comms and cybersec analyst at Rosenblatt Securities, so we’ll bridge the worlds of financial and technology analysts.

I don’t control who can register for our session, but all the details are below, and am sure you’ll find out soon enough if you can join us. Our session will be live, this Friday, Oct. 27 at noon ET.

Global Tech Research - Cloud Comm/Cybersecurity | Expert Access

Friday, October 27th | 12pm ET

Join us for a conversation on UCaaS/CCaaS and Voice AI with Jon Arnold, Principal of J Arnold & Associates 

 Hosted by Rosenblatt Cloud Communications & Cybersecurity Analyst Catharine Trebnick

Request Attendance

Reasons to Join

  • Explore the communication, collaboration, and contact center areas that are experiencing sustained demand in the current landscape.

  • Get a comprehensive overview of the macroeconomic conditions affecting spending and changes in priorities for communication and collaboration technologies.

  • Delve into the world of CAI and discuss chatbot's reliability for basic communication and collaboration tasks, such as dictating emails, calendar updates, and meeting invites. Additionally, learn about emerging enterprise use cases for CAI.

  • Receive company read-throughs for RingCentral, 8x8, Dialpad, Five9, NICE, Twilio, Cisco, Genesys, Zoom, Microsoft Teams and others.

Next Stops - SCTC in Raleigh, WebexOne in Anaheim

My run of travel for fall events continues, and I’ve got a back-to-back coming for next week.

First stop is SCTC, for our annual conference, which this year is in Raleigh. For the most part, it’s a member-based event, but certainly open to consultants and members who might consider joining. For those who know me, one of my SCTC hats is being in the SIPtones band, and we’re playing a set or two on Sunday night - that should be reason enough to come! On Monday, I’ll be speaking as well as moderating a panel session, so I’ll be earning my keep there.

My time at SCTC will be abbreviated, though, as I’m flying out on Tuesday to LA for Cisco’s WebexOne event. They’ve got an impressive list of celebrity speakers to draw a crowd, and an analyst-only program for our tribe. I’ll also be speaking on a panel session on Wednesday, so this will make for a busy week. I’ll share quick pix on LinkedIn for both events as time allows, and soon after a recap post here.

Spotlight on Operator Connect - New Guest Post

My latest guest article for TeamMate has been posted to their site, and it’s perhaps a contrary look at the “other side” of Operator Connect, and the realities faced by cloud providers as their customers decide to go with Teams.

The momentum behind both of these Microsoft offerings remains strong, but having success with both may be harder than it seems. I hope you give it a read, and as always, comments and sharing are welcome.

Jeff Pulver is Back - VON Evolution, New York City

Jeff Pulver’s VON event has gone through many iterations, and if you really want to know where voice is heading, you might want to mark this on your calendar. Having tracked telephony and voice for 20+ years, I’ve seen a lot, and Jeff has a knack for being on the leading edge for what’s next.

This edition takes place at City Winery - Hudson River Park location - running Oct. 31 - Nov. 2, and all the details are here on the event site. If I’m not reason enough to come - check out the eclectic list of speakers - it’s pretty rich. :-) Would be great to see you there, and no doubt Jeff will feel the same way too.


Next Stop - Dubai for GITEX and Avaya

From London to Lima to Dubai - not my normal routine, but this will be my third straight week of international travel - yeow. If I sound confused about what time it is or where the hell I am, now you’ll know why.

This is my first trip to Dubai, and yes, I’m a little anxious about going to the Middle East right now. Nothing is certain these days, but Dubai is pretty far-removed from the realities of everyday life just about everywhere, and am hoping that extends to the next few days.

Many thanks to Avaya for hosting me, and this is the first time the stars have lined up for me to attend GITEX. There’s a lot of buildup for GITEX, and given how large this event is, I know I’ll only see bits and pieces, and am sure all of it will be great, if not over-the-top.

I’ll do my best to share on LinkedIn and here as time allows, and will definitely follow on with a review article soon after. More details here about Avaya’s presence at the show, and if you’re there, please drop me a note and maybe we can meet!


UC Expo London - Quick Take and Photos

Am totally on the go these next few weeks, so blogging kinda has to be on the fly.

Last week was London and the UC Expo, and all told, it was a worthwhile event. Crowds were sizeable, the exhibit hall was pretty full, and the vibe seemed good. It’s always hard to gauge these things, as it all passes pretty quickly, and I didn’t have many quiet moments.

In terms of sessions, there were three for me - moderated one, was a speaker for one, and I facilitated a private roundtable with customers for a sponsor, but I can’t do any sharing for that one. Also did two on-the-floor video interviews - with EM360 - see below (click to view), and UC Today - coming soon.

Otherwise, plenty of good networking, and making more in-person connections with EU companies, both clients and prospects.

Not much else I can say for now, but maybe you’ll find some other takeaways from the interview below. Following that are some photos from the trip.


Rob Kurver leading the CPaaS panel, group selfie from Dave Michels for the analyst panel, and a full room for the session I moderated with RingCentral about AI and the contact center.

Very fun - had VIP front-row seating for this special session with math whiz Hannah Fry and famed Irish comic/tech guy Dara O Briain, Storm Troopers taking over the 8x8 booth, and a race car that really can’t go all that fast here.

With Chris Bain, in front of signage for my panel session, with Jeff Pulver, being interviewed by EM360

Kinda cool hardware of a different kind, start planning now for 2024, and my parting shot leaving the venue after the show.

London town - endlessly spectacular views from the Shard, very familiar touristy spot that’s just about everywhere, and a typical alley entrance to a courtyard where it’s nice and quiet.

London Called, Lima Calling - NICE Analyst Summit Next

This crazy - but really fun - Fall 2023 World Tour continues, and there are several more stops ahead yet.

Am just back from London and the UC Expo - blog post/pix about that is coming next. Home barely long enough to pack and prep for alpaca country - Peru! This could be the most complicated trip I’ve ever done, but it’s all an adventure, and I know it’s going to be memorable.

This is for the NICE Analyst Summit, and if you thought Marrakesh, Morocco last year was exotic - and it was - it’s not a stretch to say Machu Picchu is even more exotic. I think we’re really splitting hairs here, but more importantly, NICE has set the bar impossibly high for analyst events, and am more than happy to be in the mix.

Most people don’t believe me when I tell them about this run of travel I’m on, so if not just to bear witness, I’d damn well better share pix. I always do that, but this time around, there will be video coming too, and I’ll explain more about that next week.

For now, I need to figure out what to wear, and double check all the travel logistics. I fly from Toronto early Monday to Newark, connect there to Lima, stay the night, then fly out Tuesday morning to Cuzco, and from there I will get taken to the hotel, and then the adventure really begins!

I have a lot to learn about Inca culture, but I do know that Cuzco is central to the origin myth for sun god worship - Inti - and it’s probably best to stay on his good side. NICE sent this guy along, and he’s coming with me as my good luck talisman.

Tianjin, China Smart Port Visit – Quick Post, Video and Pix

Last month, I was back in China on another media tour, where the main focus was a site visit to a smart port facility. This is very much the world of Industry 4.0, and while quite different from my everyday analyst work in enterprise communications, the underlying technologies are pretty similar. In particular, that would be cloud, 5G, AI and even IoT.

Data is the common denominator across all of these, and the more data you can capture, the more effective these technologies can be. That’s certainly the case for enterprise communications, customer experience and future of work in general, and equally so for the myriad of use cases related to Industry 4.0.

The latter was on full display in Tianjin, China, where I was part of a private group tour of the Tianjin Port Groups’ (TPG) site. This is the sixth largest port operation in China, but is arguably the world’s most advanced in terms of deploying smart technologies. Using 5G networks and cloud-based AI applications, the level of automation has to be seen to be believed.

These technologies power a fleet of 76 autonomous cargo vehicles that seamlessly move shipping containers to and from the docks, where gantry cranes load and offload cargo with incredible precision. In the parlance of transportation logistics, these vehicles – known as Intelligent Guided Vehicles (IGVs) – are a use case for horizontal transport, where all the movement is on the ground.

To go a step further here, another use case would be vertical transport, such with elevators or escalators, but that’s not the focus here. The logistics world takes many forms, and there is no shortage of great use cases for cloud, 5G and AI. Given the scale of operations like TPG, however, the complexity is mind-boggling, and if these technologies can win the day here, there really isn’t much that they cannot handle.

Taking all that into account, this is an IoT use case of the highest order. TPG is a world-class showcase for what’s possible with the right technology, along with a sense of purpose to automate a critical linchpin for today’s global supply chains. This isn’t to diminish the value of these technologies to power UCaaS and CCaaS platforms, but Industry 4.0 applications like smart ports really do take things to another level.

I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to experience TPG first-hand, and I think my readers will find this of great interest. Now that I’ve told you a bit, I’m now going to show you a bit. Below is a short video clip I took during the tour, and the ballet-like flow of movement speaks for itself. Everything you see is fully automated, and the only sound you’ll hear is the hum of engines and the wheels of commerce turning.

Following that are a few of my many photos, and I hope you enjoy them. If you want to learn more about my TPG visit, I’m working up a full-length article that will soon run in a leading tech publication, so stay tuned.

Early October - Time for Newsletter and Podcast

It’s a new month, so it’s time for new editions of JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review newsletter, and the Watch This Space podcast. If you’re enamored with every/anything to do with New York City, you’ll want to check out our podcast. Same if you’re following the worlds of cloud communications and the office of the future.

If you’re not a subscriber, signing up to my newsletter is easy - the signup page is here. For my podcast, you can subscribe on all the major platforms, or click to listen to the current episode here. Hoping you’ll check both out, and would love your feedback any time.

USA Today - Am Profiled in an Article There

It’s not everyday I’m in the newspapers - yes I still get it delivered to my door - especially mainstream media like USA Today, but that’s the story here - no pun intended. I had an opportunity to be interviewed for an article about how hybrid work and digital transformation are driving the future of work, and it ran on Friday.

We don’t get USA Today in Canada, so I didn’t run out to buy a copy - does that ever happen any more? To read it, you’ll have to make do online - here’s the link: https://www.usatoday.com/story/special/contributor-content/2023/09/29/distributed-workforce-is-the-future-of-work-and-the-future-is-now-says-jon-arnold/71002261007/.

Another bonus for getting into mainstream media - when friends and family ask what I do for a living, this is exactly the thing I need to show them! Hope you like, and feel free to share.

Cloud Communications Alliance Event - Quick Take and Pix

This is week 2 of my travel run that will have me going to at least one event somewhere each week pretty much til mid-November. Busy is good, but much tougher to get the work done - that’s just how it goes as an indie analyst.

Was in New York the past two days, attending the Cloud Communications Alliance Financial Summit. Being a half-day event, it was more of an update than a summit, but top-caliber attendees nonetheless. Was very happy to be there, and in the end, I wound up being on the closing panel session with just analysts, led by Clark Peterson. Needless to say, with 5 of us, we easily went over time, but nobody seemed to mind.

There were two other panel sessions focused on the financial side of the cloud business, and it was good to hear what they’re talking about, especially for companies looking for exits. With the shift from growth to profitability, valuations are down, so the space is less lucrative now, and the players have to work harder to create sustainable businesses. There was a lot of talk about how to compete with - or align with - Teams, along with the dominance of other majors like Cisco and Zoom.

Most of the focus was on UCaaS - understandable - and less so on CCaaS, CPaaS and AI - but if a longer program, no doubt we’d hear more about these as well. Bigger picture - it was noted that 50% of the market is still legacy-based, so lots of upside ahead - fair - but UCaaS space is so crowded, and it’s getting harder to compete against the majors, esp if only selling UC and/or telephony.

Overall, I think CCA can play a central role in helping cloud providers navigate all this, particularly under the broader tent of cloud services. UCaaS is too saturated now, and providers need a wider portfolio to compete longer-term. Lots of important themes here, and it’s all central to what I do, so this was a good spot for me to be in. I’ll leave you with some photos for a sense of the vibe there, and thanks again to Joe Manion and Clark Peterson for inviting me!

Clark Peterson with opening remarks; one of the finance panels; closing panel with the analysts.

Joe Manion kicking things off; familiar faces - Jeff Pulver with Ari Rabban, and me!

Event was held at the Yale Club - very Ivy League, but worked quite well. Reception the night before at City Winery inside Grand Central Terminal. Band was great - acoustics, not so much, but very good setting for being social and networking.

UC Expo, London - Another Panel Session

Next week, it’s UC Expo at the ExCeL London. I recently posted about a session I’m moderating, and here’s another one I’ll be on. This is the ask-the-analyst panel, on Thursday at 2:10 pm, where I’ll be joined by colleagues Dave Michels, Oru Mohiuddin and Prachi Nema, and moderated by Gill Rowbotham. Should be fun, and hope you can make it!

I’ll be on two other sessions, including an invite-only roundtable, so I won’t be hard to find - maybe I’ll see you there. Details are here about the event, the agenda and registration.