Next Stop Update 1 of 2 - Zoho Analyst Day, McAllen, TX

Tomorrow starts a travel run of 5 industry events in 4 weeks, so there’s a lot of packing and planning to do, not to mention delivery stops for the newspaper. I’m SO analog, I know.

First stop is McAllen, Texas - definitely a new locale for me, and it’s home to Zoho’s analyst event, which will also be a first for me. The borders for the contact center space are becoming ever-more fluid, and that applies both ways. Not just for vendors outside this space adding CCaaS, but for contact center vendors reaching into the enterprise. I’ll have more to say about that after taking in the sessions, so stay tuned.

Latest Insight Report - 2024 CX Trends for Upstream Works

Been doing my share of writing and speaking for what lies ahead for 2024, and here’s my latest example. This is an Insight Report I prepared for Upstream Works to help educate contact center leaders about key CX trends to be watching for in the new year. Lots to talk about in this space, and here’s the registration link to access the writeup. If you get it, I hope you like it, and welcome comments any 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.

Future of Work Expo Redux - Press Coverage Digest

Just a quick coda to my earlier post about last week’s Future of Work Expo, with my photos and a link to a review article I wrote about it.

Time to flip the script, and share what others had to say about the event. One of TMC’s many publications is Future of Work News, and they covered several of our sessions - here are the articles they’ve posted to date:

ChatGPT session - The Reach of ChatGPT: A Discussion at Future of Work Expo

Quiet Quitting session - Engaged Employees Ward Off Quiet Quitting

Agent Experience for FOW session - Contact Center Agents Need Strong Support

AI and Workforce Management session - AI-Enabled Systems Complete Repetitive Tasks in HR

Managing Hybrid Workforces session - Navigating FOW: Successfully Managing Hybrid Workforces

New White Paper - AI for the Contact Center, with NICE

With the sub-title being “It’s so much more than chatbots”, you should get the gist pretty quickly. AI has become a must-have for contact centers, and while chatbots are often the entry point for getting on this path, the use cases are much richer.

My analysis examines the drivers for embracing AI, but also for taking a practical approach that gets beyond the hype. The white paper has been featured now on NICE’s website, and here’s the registration page to download a copy.

BCStrategies Podcast - UCaaS and CCaaS: Better Together

Our latest BCStrategies podcast is a hot topic - is it a good idea to deploy UCaaS and CCaaS together? Lots of momentum for the “yes” side, and most vendors are definitely on board - but there are certainly plenty of holdbacks and scenarios where this isn’t likely to work.

Lots to talk about, and if you’d like to hear our collective take, here’s the replay link. While you’re there, take some time to check out our other content - BCStrategies is the best one-stop resource for thought leadership around collaboration, cloud and contact center!

Start Saying Goodbye to the Contact Center - My Latest on No Jitter

It’s time for my next No Jitter post - wearing my BCStrategies hat - and I based it on takeaways from three recent industry events - NICE, Genesys and Twilio. Each is doing different things around the space we currently call the contact center, but just like we don’t make a lot of phone calls on our smart phone, customers now engage with businesses in many ways - not just via the contact center.

This space is ripe for reinvention, and my post talks about a few ways that this is happening now. You can read it here, and would love to hear your thoughts.

Genesys Xperience - My Perspectives on CX and DX on BCStrategies

I’ve been tracking several contact center events lately, and last week was Genesys Xperience. The company always has big updates to share, and the launch of Genesys DX was a highlight. I finally managed to get my takeaways organized, and have put together a post that’s running now on BCStrategies, where I’ve long been a contributor as a BC Expert.

Newsletter Time Again - January Edition, and Podcast too

It’s a new month, and a new year, so that means it’s time for the next edition of JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review, along with the first episode of Season 4 for our Watch This Space podcast.

Subscribers got the January newsletter yesterday, and if you want to keep tabs on what I’m seeing and doing in this space, it just takes a moment to subscribe here. The visual below will give you a good idea of what our latest podcast is about, and you can check it out here. Feel free to explore our earlier podcasts, and I’m in the process of adding Watch This Space to the major commercial platforms where podcast fans can subscribe directly.

Mitel Analyst Summit - my Takeaways on BCStrategies

Last week I attended Mitel’s analyst and consultant event, and while time was short, they covered a lot of ground. Probably more wide than deep, but they’re an important player to follow in the cloud collaboration space. We don’t often have just analysts and consultants as the focus of the event, so the messaging was very targeted for us, which was great. I’ve had time to digest all that, and came up with two takeaways for my latest writeup wearing my BCStrategies hat. If you don’t know, I’m a BC Expert with that group, and my post is running now on their portal. Comments and sharing are welcome as always.

Next Stop - Plano, TX and Mitel

I’ve had a good run of staying close to home, but starting Monday, travel season kicks in for me. The road begins with Mitel’s Analyst and Consultant Summit in Plano, Texas. Definitely looking forward to that, and as luck would have it, they’re taking us to the ball game on Tuesday night, and yes, the Rangers are playing my Red Sox. I will be appropriately attired, so planning for baseball will loom large in my packing plans.

Unless plans change - and they always do - starting with Mitel, I will have travel in my schedule for every week through til December 1, with only two weeks in that stretch that I’ll be home. Good thing I just bought a new roller bag. Awayyyyyy we go…..

Guest Post for Talkdesk - WFM: the Customer is Always Right

Those who follow my blog and/or newsletter will know that I get approached to write guest posts for vendor sites, When the stars line up, I’m happy to oblige, and Talkdesk is the latest example. We’ve been exploring various ways of working together, so this is hopefully the first of many posts you’ll see from me with them.

My first guest post is about their recently-announced workforce management offering, and what their cloud-native approach brings to this core building block for contact centers. The title will make sense once you read the post, and it first ran here on Talkdesk’s website. To give it broader exposure, I’m posting about it here, so if you missed it the first time around, here’s your second chance. As always, comments and sharing are welcome.

Moving to a Cloud Contact Center - Are You Really Ready? - My Latest Report

Just doing a shout-out for my latest thought leadership effort - it’s an Insight Report, published by No Jitter and sponsored by Voxbone. There’s more to the cloud than meets the eye when using it for contact center, and that’s what this paper explores.

Being hosted on No Jitter, this is gated content, so you need to register to get a copy, but that won’t take long at all, and am sure Voxbone will be happy you did that. I’m just the author, and if you want to discuss this topic further, feel free to drop me a line.

Cisco Collaboration Analyst Summit - Our BCStrategies Podcast

Some things happen in real-time, and for others, life just happens and things take a bit longer. Cisco recently hosted an analyst event at their San Jose HQ, and it basically served as our introduction to their new leadership team. There’s a lot to like here - not just the people running this LOB, but their vision, passion and focus to keep Cisco at the front end of the collaboration pack.

BCStrategies was well-represented at the event - see below - and we shared our first-hand impressions, along with a few BC Experts who weren’t there, but still had insights to add. This time around, Blair Pleasant moderated, and here’s the link to give it a listen.

Aside from our collective perspective, some BC Experts have contributed their personal takeaways, and mine was posted recently on my blog, titled Meet the New Boss. As always, comments and sharing are welcome!

Preview Q&A Interview for TMC's Future of Work Expo

It’s busy enough with 3 conferences coming this month, but this is a good time to get the word out about another one in late January. While 2019 seems far off, it really isn’t, and planning for the Future of Work Expo has been underway for a while. In fact, the program is largely in place, but as co-chair, if you strongly feel you should be speaking and/or sponsoring, please drop me a line.

To give you a better sense of what to expect there, I just completed a Q&A with TMC’s Paula Bernier, the other co-chair for FoW Expo. There’s more to come about the Expo, but hopefully her interview with me will help you decide in favor of joining us in Fort Lauderdale in the depths of winter.

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.

Preview for New Series - AI, Chatbots and New Value in Contact Centers

I’ve recently been working with Upstream Works, an up and coming company helping contact centers leverage digital technology and migrate to omnichannel. There is no straight path to follow, and to better help contact centers find their way, I’ve prepared a series of Strategic Insights that can be downloaded from their website.

I'll be writing preview posts here on my blog as each Insight is published, and this post serves to support the first one. You can also find this post here on the Upstream Works blog, and from there, you can access the full Insight. With that said, here's my preview post...

Today, most contact centers face a technology gap between customers and agents, and as long as agents remain constrained by legacy tools, productivity will invariably suffer. Chatbots represent one of the best ways to quickly close the gap, but before doing so, contact center decision-makers need to get up to speed on two things:

Artificial Intelligence – The Basics

First, they need to understand the basics of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Aside from the rapid pace of innovation, AI is complex and not native to the contact center. Ultimately, the goal should be to improve the customer experience, but AI won’t deliver unless your decisions are well-informed.

Using AI to Improve Agent Productivity

Secondly, the use cases need to be thought through in terms of how chatbots can improve agent productivity. There’s a temptation to view AI as a way to automate customer service simply for operational efficiency and cost savings, but there’s much more to consider.

There is no straight path to follow, and to better help contact centers find their way, I’ve prepared a series of Strategic Insights that can be downloaded from Upstream Works.

This series is focused on the rapidly evolving field of Artificial Intelligence, and the various ways it can be deployed in the contact center. Chatbots are the most tangible application of AI, but it’s not easy to get past the hype to determine the best use cases. To do that, decision-makers need to take a holistic view across the entire customer care value chain, not just because there are many touchpoints along the way, but also because they are interconnected. Based on my ongoing research, this can be distilled to three focus areas – contact center agents, end customers and overall business performance.

Each of these will be addressed in separate Strategic Insights, and collectively, this series will provide that holistic view. The first Strategic Insight focuses on contact center agents, and how AI in general – and AI-driven chatbots in particular – can help improve agent productivity.

There’s an almost universal interest right now in AI and chatbots for customer service, and expectations are getting higher every day. While these technologies are far from perfect, they are certainly mature enough to be deployed, even if just for basic applications. Some decision-makers will hold off and learn from the mistakes of others, but it’s equally true that the sooner you start on the AI learning curve, the lower the risk as things improve – and there should be no doubt about that.

If the time is now to start your journey with AI and chatbots, I think you’ll find this series timely.

Empowering Frontline Agents for a More Personalized CX

My first Strategic Insight in this series examines two basic use cases that are built around improving CX. The first use case is about directly supporting agents to engage more effectively with customers, and the second one pertains to improving self-service capabilities so agents can focus on higher-value interactions.

The first Strategic Insight has now been published, and you can download it here. The next two in the series will follow over the next few months. I hope you find them of value, and your comments are welcome any time.

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.

August Writing Roundup

It's hard to focus on work during the late days of summer, but I still managed to do my fair share of writing in August. Here's a digest of highlights that kept me busy (but by no means all of my posts/articles), and a sign of what I'll be working on and speaking about as my conference schedule resumes for the fall.

Sidebar - my website evolution continues, and there will be updates coming over the next few weeks. That includes the start of a program to support my blog subscribers, where I'll share exclusive content such as research notes or podcasts with colleagues about current events.

My blog subscription base is growing, especially among new followers, but I also have many RSS followers. Am happy to have any/all followers, but would prefer direct subscribers, and to drive that, I'm starting to offer exclusive content. So, if you're following my blog via RSS, I urge you to consider a direct subscription, which you can do here, or on just about any page on my website.

Enough said - here's my writing roundup for August:

Reimagining Voice in the Age of AI, UCStrategies, Aug. 31

How do you Prepare if your UC Provider is Acquired?, TechTarget, Aug. 30

Innovation and Disruption - Know the Difference, Toolbox.com, Aug. 29

Customer Care for the Digital Generation, Upstream Works Blog, Aug. 23

Formulating Your Collaboration Strategy - be a Leader, Toolbox.com, Aug. 18

The Benefits of Improved Agility with Collaboration, RingCentral Blog, Aug. 16

Selling Management on Omnichannel - it's a Driver for Customer Care, Toolbox.com, Aug. 10

Habitat Soundscaping - and Now for Something Completely Different, No Jitter, Aug. 8

What Omnichannel Brings to Collaboration and Customer Care, Toolbox.com, Aug. 3

The Benefits of Improving Workflows with Collaboration, RingCentral Blog, Aug. 2

Genband Perspectives17 - Quick Take

As usual, I just have time to post a quick take on Day 1 from the conference, along with some photos. I'll be writing up my thoughts in a separate post after the event, and will be posting that on UCStrategies, so watch for that over the next few days.

In short, Genband is making big strides with Kandy as a platform play to help carriers compete in today's hyper-competitive market. Much like how Cisco is focusing heavily on Spark for their collaboration story - instead of all the other pieces around this LOB - Kandy is the main story so far here. Genband is transitioning away from hardware - but it's still the biggest part of their revenues - and so far, we haven't heard anything about those lines of business. So, to whatever extent Kandy is actually generating revenue, it's the big focus here, and perhaps it's necessary to keep their carrier customers in-house rather than drifting over to the unspoken competitor, BroadSoft.

That said, there's a lot to like about what Genband is doing with Kandy, and I'll have more to say about that in my proper analysis. So far, Genband has done a great job articulating the opportunity for carriers to differentiate via Kandy, but takeup has been slower than expected, and there are lots of reasons around this.To be fair, we heard about lots of success stories, so good things are happening here. Otherwise, Genband is in a "quiet period" with Sonus, so nothing is being said about where that's going, but it seems like a logical move, especially if you view Genband as a consolidator along the lines of what Mitel is doing, most recently with Toshiba.

The other partnership of note is with Five9, and we heard a good update from Wendell Black. Adding contact center may seem like a stretch for Genband, but the integration with Kandy makes this an appealing option, especially for SMBs who are frustrated by how long it takes for their incumbent vendor to make changes to enable a better customer experience. Given how service providers are being wooed away by the likes of Twilio and various OTT players, this is an important move by Genband to help their customers retain more business, especially as the lines between UC and the contact center become blurred.

Time's up, so I'll stop now, and hope you'll read my follow-on post after I digest everything from the conference. Until then, here are some photos to give you a sense of the vibe here from Day 1. Otherwise, you can keep tabs in real time by following the conference twitter feed - #GBP17.

patrick Joggerst, EVP

CEO David walsh

Judit andrasi, ceo immmr

network evolution panel

the soul tones - great band, keeping the energy level high

this private tour on monday was really great and would love to see a game here someday.

view from the press box - everything is original here for the 3rd oldest ball park in mlb - even the phones!

the WS trophy case - a lot of what we saw isn't open to the public - this stuff was great.

great statue for dodger legend #1

only in la - palm trees, baseball and a great skyline view