Time for March Newsletter and Podcast Editions

Things are a week off-schedule this month, but the March editions are now out.

If you’re not a subscriber, signing up to my newsletter is easy - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - the signup page is here.

For my Watch This Space podcast, you can subscribe on all the major platforms, or listen to any episode directly here on my website, or here on the dedicated WTS website.

This month’s podcast was a recap of the Future of Work Expo, which was the main focus for me last month. There were lots of interesting takeaways, and to hear all about it, you can listen to the episode here.

February Writing Roundup

Am posting this on the late side, mainly due to February being a short month, along with my recent travel schedule. Along those lines, I’m including a writeup that ran in early March, which were in fact, written last month. Here’s the digest of my public, bylined writeups for last month.

The Future of the Workplace Requires a Total Rethink, No Jitter, Mar. 4

RingCentral Analyst Summit - Quick Take and Photos, my blog, Feb. 28

ZohoDay25 - The AD Era, Build vs. Buy, and Playing the Long Game, No Jitter, Feb. 13

New Research From Aizan - Reimagining the On-Hold Experience, Aizan blog, Feb. 10

RingCentral Analyst Summit - Quick Take and Photos

Am back now from RingCentral’s 2025 Analyst Summit, and it was time well-spent. Hosted at the upscale Bardessono hotel in Yountville - the heart of Napa - the setting was more than comfortable, making the almost two-hour drive from SFO a small inconvenience. More importantly was the intimate setting with a small group of analysts and pretty much all the key people we need to know and hear from at RingCentral.

Momentum is strong on many fronts, and it adds up to continued growth through 2025. There were many updates to keep track of, most notably:

• Strong Q4 results, with 2024 revenues hitting $2.4 billion

• Launch of AI Receptionist - AIR - which brings CAI and agentic AI capabilities that any business can use to automate the handling of incoming calls

• Appointment of Kira Makagon as President and COO - further solidifying an already-strong leadership team

• Updates on RingCX - powered by RingSense AI, their CCaaS offering is clearly gaining traction, both with and without the AI feature set

There were other updates of note as well, but I’m not doing a full-on review here. I posted commentary and photos regularly during the sessions on my LinkedIn feed, and with longer analysis coming on two video segments.

One is with UC Today on their Big UC News roundup, and another is a similar roundup with our group at BCStrategies. Both should run publicly next week or soon after, and I’ll share the links in case you don’t catch them.

To complement those takeaways, here are some of my photos, some of which you may have seen in isolation from my LinkedIn posts.

Below - nice overview visuals here. It’s easy to forget that RingCentral has been going for 25 years, and the first photo is a great timeline for their innovations and milestones. Second visual emphasizes a key message from the event - they have a complete, “multi-product portfolio”, and have a come a long way from from being a VoIP provider.

Some of the bright stars on their team, ball-hockey guy/MC/Mr. Canada - Amir Hameed, Kira Makagon, and Kristen Koenig (from their Hopin acquisition - another good growth story)

Zane Long leading the partner panel; RingCentral brain trust for the Exec Q&A, including Vlad Shmunis

More smart people, especially on the AI front - Jim Dvorkin, Dr. Antonio Nucci, John Finch

AI Receptionist demo (hard to see, but the 8 avatars on the screen represent the different personas that AIR can take on); the Two Mikes - Mike Stowe and Michael Brandenburg talking about what makes their platform distinct.

Thought you’d never ask - the hotel was right out of Central Casting for what you’d expect in Napa; world-famous, we-are-not-worthy French Laundry restaurant; and of course, an organic lemon tree in the garden area of the property.

This is how you do Zen at Bardessono; the personalized welcome screen in my room - nice touch, and it’s fair to say this hotel gets it with CX.

Enterprise Connect - Speaking Update

Enterprise Connect 2025 is about three weeks away, and I’ll be there for just about all of it. My calendar is getting pretty full for meetings and briefings, and if you wanted to meet, please get in touch ASAP - jon@jarnoldassociates.com. No promises at this point, but nothing to lose for trying.

If you don’t know, I’ve been presenting a state-of-the-market update on speech tech for the enterprise during the past seven years, but we’re moving on now to other things. During that time, I’ve certainly gained a deep understanding of where speech tech is going for businesses beyond the contact center - especially of course, for how AI is driving this in ways we couldn’t have imagined a few years ago. I still work closely with vendors on this topic, and if it’s a space you need some help in, feel free to reach out.

In terms of speaking, I’ll be a panelist on two sessions, both on Thursday.

First, at 10am, is a session on the “future of the workplace” - details here. Having recently run my Future of Work Expo tracks at ITExpo, this is a topic I’m well-versed in, and will share some of these perspectives on this panel.

Next is the Locknote session at 11:15am, which closes out Enterprise Connect. The format is to hear collective perspectives on the event - and the year ahead - from analysts and consultants. This is my first time being on the Locknote, and will be in pretty good company, namely Sheila McGee-Smith, Dave Michels, Brent Kelly, and Steve Leaden - details here.

Finally, as a speaker, I get to offer a discount code on registration, so if you want to save $400, use promotion code ARNOLD400. Hope you can use it, and if so, you can buy me a coffee there!

Future of Work Expo Recap - Photos and Media Coverage

I’ve been Chair of the Future of Work Expo for eight years now, and as technology evolves, the future of work is always interesting. Last week’s 2025 edition went to plan, and we had a solid roster of speakers, a timely mix of topics, and an attentive audience.

During the event, I posted photos and commentary regularly on LinkedIn, so you’ll have to check out my feed to pick up on that. At this point, I’m not going to write anything more, and instead will share some photo highlights, along with media coverage in the form of articles about specific sessions, covered by Future of Work News.

First, here are the writeups from FOW News:

• Cybersecurity and Privacy panel session

• Review of Jabra’s solo presentation - Great Expect AI tions - Welcome to Work in the Age of AI

• Role of UCaaS in Shaping the Future of Work

Now for the photos.

There are too many speakers from the panels to cite here, but you can find them all on the Agenda page. Unfortunately, Squarespace isn’t letting me insert a hyperlink now, so here’s the URL - www.futureofworkexpo.com/agenda.aspx.

Below - I, Robot - the future of work? Very cute! Next - Day 1 program, and me with Mr. TMC, Rich Tehrani.

My opening keynote, joined by special guest, Jeff Pulver.

Glenn Goldberg moderating the panel on AI Business Transformation, and John Stafford with the panel on the Changing Role of IT with FOW. Thanks guys!

With Hardy Myers of Cognigy; thumbs way up with Justin Robbins of Metric Sherpa; Khurum Shafi of Twilio, with his souped-up BlackBerry (yup!) to record the session on the evolving role of the contact center.

Moderating panels on the evolving role of contact centers with FOW, and how UCaaS is driving the FOW.

Nice roundup representing SCTC attendees - Vern Fernandez of Jabra, myself, Tom Brannen of OnConvergence, Bill Magnuson of NexusBlue, and Dave Clardy of Mitel. Next - from my UCaaS panel, with Leo Boulton of Zoom, and Luiz Domingos of Mitel.

With Jeff Pulver; Harry Chapin and his classic hit, Taxi. Sorry folks, but you had to be at my keynote to get what this has to do with the future of work.

Panel of AI Innovation and FOW Skills Gaps; and Employee Engagement session.

With Brett Shockley of Journey; reprising my keynote talk in the Solutions Theater on the showfloor; speaking during opening session.

Thanks to those who took many of these photos - too many to credit here. Also, still to come - some video clips of me being interviewed by Rich Tehrani, by Tom Brannen, and a clip from my keynote talk.

Finally, if you like what you see, I’d love to tell you more about the event. It’s never too early for me to start planning for 2026, so if you want to speak, moderate, sponsor or exhibit - or just share your thoughts about the future of work - I’m not hard to find!

New Month - Time for New Watch This Space Podcast and Newsletter

The February editions of my podcast and newsletter were published yesterday, and I hope you check them out. If you’re not a subscriber, signing up to my newsletter is easy - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - the signup page is here.

For my Watch This Space podcast, you can subscribe on all the major platforms, or listen to any episode directly here on my website, or here on the dedicated WTS website.

The current episode is an excess review of all the excess around AI at the moment. Inspired by DeepSeek’s entry into the fray, we started there, then moved on to various forms of deepfakes that pose all kinds of risk to just about everything we do.

As always, we framed this through our analog lens, a perspective that digital natives lack, and we feel provides some levity to all this. Chris and I didn’t stop there, and to get the whole story, you can listen to the February episode here.

January Writing Roundup

Very disjointed month, as I was in Israel for two weeks, then flattened with a cold the entire week after getting back. Totally good now, though, and thankfully I got all my latest work done ahead of all this, so I do have some writing to share from January.

The Channel Partner Opportunity to Deploy UCaaS, CCaaS Together, Channel Futures, Jan. 28

How Call Testing and Monitoring Enhances Telephony and CX for Brands, No Jitter, Jan. 10

Getting Past the AI Hype, Contact Center Pipeline, January edition

Getting Past the AI Hype - My Latest Contact Center Pipeline Article

I’ve been a guest contributor to Contact Center Pipeline for some time, as well as being a member of their Advisory Board.

Getting Past the AI Hype is my latest article, running now in the January 2025 edition.

There’s great content in the current issue, which covers a lot of ground for the big themes and challenges facing contact centers in 2025. I hope you read my article, and here’s the link to explore the rest of the issue. If you like what you see, you can easily sign up for free to get the digital edition.

A good starting point would be long-time colleague Brendan Read’s overview - What Will 2025 Bring for Contact Centers? It’s a compilation of insights from various thought leaders - myself included - thanks - and here’s the link to read it. Plenty to digest in this issue, and am sure the CCP folks would love to hear from you.

December Writing Roundup

December was another busy month on the video front - details on that in my next newsletter - but there was writing as well, both with my byline and without. Here’s the bylined writing, and if you missed these, I hope you give them a read.

Getting Past the AI Hype, Contact Center Pipeline, January 2025 issue

How Vendors Could Help Small and Medium Businesses Navigate Change Amidst Rapid Change and Complexity, No Jitter, Dec. 17

Where Does the Human Element Stand in the Age of Automation?, Future of Work News, Dec. 16

Tech Adoption Challenges for SMBs - My Latest for No Jitter

My writing cycle is in high gear again, and I have a number of articles and papers coming to market soon. As part of the BCStrategies team, we have a regular rotation of articles for No Jitter, and my latest is out now.

The focus is a big topic that is easily overlooked - adoption of new technology for SMBs. While many cloud communications vendors strive to move upmarket, this sector is too big to ignore, but it’s a different sell than for large enterprises. One reason is a variety of challenges SMBs face to stay current with technology, and that’s the focus of my writeup.

You can read the article here, and if you like it, I’d love to hear from you!

Next Webinar - with NICE - AI, Automation and the Customer Journey

I’ve been working on a few fronts with NICE about this topic, and we have a webinar coming up on Dec. 12 to talk it through. I’ll be leading with a presentation, and will be in conversation with Elizabeth Tobey. We make a good team, and hope you can join us! Details are here, along with the registration form to attend.

November Writing Roundup

Am a bit behind on things, being away most all last week for Thanksgiving, and how month-end fell on the calendar for November. Did a lot more video than writing last month, but here’s the roundup of public posts.

Talkdesk Analyst Summit - my takeaways, on LinkedIn, Nov. 25

Pros and Cons of a Hybrid Contact Center Architecture, TechTarget, Nov. 14

NICE Analyst Summit Takeaways (ICYMI, being month-end), No Jitter, Oct. 29

Talkdesk Analyst Summit - Photos and 3 Takeaways

Last week was my first visit to Charleston, SC, and the first Talkdesk Analyst Summit since 2019. Lots to catch up on, and it was time well-spent. Below are some photos from the sessions, along with our outings to explore Charleston. To complement the photos, I’ve posted my takeaway highlights here on LinkedIn.

Below - CEO/Founder Tiago Paiva, Neville Letzerich.

Andy Flynn, Pedro Andrade and Chad Anderson doing a demo.

Memorial Healthcare customer session, welcome signs from current and previous events.

Mills House - our hotel and event venue - Charlie - one of the greeters. Some Southern hospitality in my room.

Moody moonshot, love the iron work at City Market, and during a dinner, they had a fragrance bar, where we got to choose our own scents, and they whipped that up into our personal perfumes to take home. Ooh la la…

Speaking of ooh la la - Benne’s Bakery, with their famous Ultimate Coconut cake, stacked high for all to see, and my own slice along with a sweet cocktail. More of the same at Lenoir, with another sweet and yummy cocktail. Sugar is kinda a big thing here, yup.

Next Stop - Talkdesk - Charleston, SC

Today I’m off to Talkdesk’s analyst event - it’s been a few years since the last one, so there’s a lot of catching up to do. Am keen to get the latest updates and roadmap, and will post on LinkedIn as time allows during the event - hashtag is #TalkdeskAnalystSummit. Never been to Charleston - that will be a treat, so it should be a pretty good next few days.

New Month - Time for November Newsletter and Podcast

It’s a new month, and the latest editions of both my newsletter and podcast are out now - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review, and my Watch This Space podcast, now in its 7th season.

If you’re not a subscriber, signing up to my newsletter is easy - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - the signup page is here.

For my Watch This Space podcast, you can subscribe on all the major platforms, or listen to any episode directly here on my website, or here on the dedicated WTS website.

This month’s episode is mainly a recap of current industry events Chris and I have attended or were about to - namely Verint, British Telecom, UC Expo, NICE, Cisco WebexOne, Zoomtopia, VON/vCon and WorkTech. It’s a busy time, and lots to talk about - you can check out the November podcast here.

NICE Analyst Summit 2024 - Photos from Zambia, Review on No Jitter

Last week was definitely a bucket-list trip, courtesy of NICE, to attend their Analyst Summit in Zambia. That’s as exotic as it gets in my world, and am still buzzing from the experience - not just the content, but being surrounded by nature that urbanites hardly ever see. Every day was a new adventure, and whatever I can share now is just a fraction of the whole thing.

I’ll keep this short, and here I’m just sharing two sets of my photos - from the event itself, and from what I would call the Zambia experience - and the rest I’ll leave to your imagination (or if we’re connected on Facebook, I’ll be sharing lots more there).

Complementing that is my review of the event, which I’ve distilled into three themes - windmills, profitability and termites. A bit strange, I know, but it all hangs together, and you can read it here on No Jitter.

As always, comments and sharing are welcome, and I’ll likely have a small coda coming in the November newsletter next week.

First, some photos from the event:

CEO Barak Eilam, and AR leader and Head of Global Corporate Comms, Chris Irwin-Dudek

Fantastic opening with a children’s choir to sing the Zambian national anthem, with that week being their 60th Independence Day - pretty special. Next - one of several very creative visuals to showcase various success metrics, weaving in images from our various Analyst Summit locales - this one showing their revenue stat of $2.78 billion paired with last year’s Machu Picchu visit.

Gotta show a few regular slides - Hyper Platform - this is their next-level vision for how AI is helping enterprises get better outcomes, and for software vendors to evolve to meet those needs. Next - visual for 4 stages of NICE’s evolution that brings them to this vision.

Elizabeth Tobey and Neeraj Verma getting into the details.

Exec Q&A with Barry Cooper, Einat Weiss and Barak Eilam; and a farewell toast moment marking the fast-approaching end to Barak’s tenure as CEO.

Next - a few photos to give you a flavor for the Zambia experience - wow, huh?

Next Stop - NICE Analyst Summit - Destination...

NICE doesn’t do anything in half-measures. If you follow me, you’ll know that they keep raising the bar each year, and clearly, they value what analysts bring to the table. Being a public company, they're pretty transparent about things, and if they choose to take us to an exotic location - not just to share their roadmap, but to nurture important relationships - so be it. With that backdrop, they’re taking us to….

Zambia. You heard right - Zambia. I’ll leave it to your imagination and Google searches to figure out what that might look like, and am sure it will be all of that and then some. As always, I’ll share updates and photos as time allows, and a whole lot more once back. Time to pack now…

Future of Work Expo Updates - Feb. 11-13, 2025

I’m overdue for an update on the 2025 edition of Future of Work Expo, so here’s the news.

If the event is new to you, this is my 7th year as Chair, and my main role is to develop the program and roster of speakers for the sessions. You also need to know that Future of Work Expo is co-located - along with other speciality events - with ITExpo, TMC’s long-running communications show in Ft. Lauderdale. So, aside from getting a deep dive on FOW topics, attendees also get the broader ITExpo experience, which draws over 8,000 people, along with a show floor with hundreds of vendors.

I’ve got two updates to share, and I hope this tweaks your interest to attend, as well as speak or even sponsor. First is the website for the event, where you can review things in detail, including the Agenda, which just went live yesterday. Next is the latest e-newsletter blurb, which TMC sends out to its email list, and gives a nice overview of the event experience.

• Future of Work Expo website

• E-newsletter for the event

Finally, my Watch This Space podcast has a strong focus on future of work topics, so it’s quite complementary to the event. To reinforce that, TMC is now a media partner, and giving the podcast broader exposure on their various websites. If you don’t follow my podcast, it’s another way to stay current with the event, along with other topics we explore on a monthly basis. Hope to see you there!

Roundtable in NYC About Sales Automation, Oct. 10 - Interested?

I’m going to be in NYC next week with Vidyard, a company I’ve been working with recently. We’re doing a roundtable session that I’m moderating on the topic of using AI and automation to make the sales process more effective. There is no shortage of challenges for a set of needs that all businesses struggle with, and in response, there are new solutions that need consideration.

The panel is largely in place, but we do have room for a couple more attendees. If you happen to be in NYC next Thursday - or really, really want to get there on your own to join us, here’s the link to register. For anyone who plans to come, we’ll see you there!

London, Part 1 - British Telecom, Focus 2024

This was the first of two events I attended on this week’s London trip - Focus 2024, British Telecom’s analyst event, which was a first for me in-person. The second stop was UC Expo, and I’ll get to that in my Part 2 blog post after this.

Am just sharing some of my photos here with brief commentary. I was only able to attend Day 1 of BT’s event, so my takeaways are limited. In short, BT seems to be well-along the AI path, talking a lot about automation, and building flexible networks to support today’s distributed organizations. Also heard quite a bit about network security, which is a must with the growing volumes of data these networks have to handle.

Below, CEO Bas Burger, Matt Swinden and Chet Patel

Below - Charlie - special guest speaker, and totally NDA, so no photos. In short, he shared fascinating insider insights about the global state of fraud, threats, disinformation, etc., and the geopolitics of what’s happening at a state/nation level. Of course, it’s bad, and likely worse than you can imagine. On a more positive note, the food and bar service were very good! Next - during the reception, and building lobby. They do a great job with branding - maybe a bit OTT, but that’s what big telcos do.