UC Expo 2020 - Am Doing Two Sessions Next Week

Time for another UC Expo 2020 shout-out - this time with some news and an updated visual. This UK-based event was supposed to be in-person back in May, and like everyone else, it’s been retooled for virtual, and now goes by the name of UCX: NOW. The event runs 3 days, starting next Tuesday, during which I’ll be participating in two sessions.

Bright and early at 7am EST that day, there’s a RingCentral session, where I’m in conversation with their CSO, Praful Shah. That’s kinda early for us, especially Praful, so we recorded the video interview earlier this week, and it will be broadcast at noon UK time during the event. As a sneak peek, here’s a screenshot I took during our recording.

Later on Tuesday at 11am EST - that’s 4pm UK time - I’ll be chairing a live session titled “Adapting the Future Workplace for Gen Y and Gen Z Workers”. This should be fun, and I’ll be joined by speakers - definitely younger than me - from ANZ Bank, Sony and Automation Logic.

That will take things through Day 1, and hopefully you’ll take in other sessions over the next two days. Full agenda details are here, and it just takes a moment to register. If you care to follow things on social, the hash is #UCXNOW.

New Videocast Coming - DojoLIVE! - Collaboration and the Digital Workforce

Just a heads-up about something new and different. I’ve been invited by the folks at Nearsoft to be a guest on an upcoming live streaming video interview session. Their vision for this broadcast series is “tech without borders - stories that bring us together” - I’m good with that, and I’ll be talking about the role collaboration technologies plays in today’s digital workplace.

It should be fun, and I hope you can join us - Wednesday, October 23 at 4pm ET.. Details are here, and I should have more info soon about how to register.

Leveraging the cloud to drive productivity gains and better collaboration outcomes.

Another Q&A on Future of Work with me - by Rich Tehrani

Our Future of Work conference is getting closer by the day, and it’s good to see host TMCnet giving it strong editorial support. This time around, I was interviewed by their CEO, Rich Tehrani, and the Q&A was posted yesterday. I’ve been working with Rich and his team for ages, and this will be a special time, as their flagship event, ITExpo, celebrates it's 20th year - very impressive.

If you haven’t seen the Q&A yet, here’s the link, and if you want more on this topic, this post will take you to the two-part Q&A Paula Bernier did with me earlier.

After digesting all that, and you’re ready to make plans to join us in Fort Lauderdale, feel free to use this code - Jon10 - to get a 10% discount on your registration. Hope to see you there!

Following Clues for Collaboration Success with Millennials - my Latest for No Jitter

Told you it was going to be busy today, but this will do it for now - more coming tomorrow.

My followers will know that I’m a regular contributor to No Jitter, and my latest builds on a talk from BroadSoft’s recent Connections conference. Anyone attending will remember Jason Dorsey’s animiated talk about our generational differences, and here’s my take through the lens of collaboration. Been meaning to post this, but my queue from last week is long, and if you haven’t come across this yet, I think you’ll enjoy it.

TMC's Future of Work Expo - My Thoughts via Q&A, Part 2

Been meaning to get this out sooner, but I’ve been away at back-to-back conferences. It’s the busy season for events, but there’s more to come, including this one later in January. Along with Paula Bernier, I’ll be co-chairing the Future of Work Expo, and we have a great program in place now. A few more speakers will no doubt be added, but even in its current state, we’re hoping you’ll find enough reasons to join us.

To support that, Paula recently interviewed me on what I’m seeing in the workspace, especially around collaboration technologies, AI, and the impact of changing demographics. I shared some thoughts as well for what to expect in Ft. Lauderdale and what I’ll be doing there. There was a lot of ground to cover, and I posted earlier about Part 1 from our interview. Part 2 has been published now, and you can read it here. As always, your comments are welcome, and perhaps I’ll see you at the Expo!

BroadSoft Connections - Day 1 Quick Take and Photos

As I usually do, here’s a quick first take post about a pretty important conference from some pretty important players. Day 1 of these events is usually a firehose of updates, and a lot of frantic note-taking, photo-taking, tweeting and running around. No time for reflection, but while it’s still happening, I like to get something out for readers to chew on. I’ll have one or two more thoughtful posts coming over the next few days, so watch for those.

While I’m still in the moment, here are some quick first impressions of BroadSoft Connections, followed by a few photos for the vibe here.

• Cloud is definitely the story here - that was made clear from the very start, with the message being “how do you accelerate your move to the cloud?”. No surprise here, but for service providers selling either BroadSoft of Cisco to businesses, this is the end game. Yes, they will continue to support premise-based deployments and hybrid models, but that’s not where the growth is.

• Speaking of “they”, things certainly started off being about BroadSoft, especially to mark their 20th anniversary - and that’s pretty cool - but as the day went on, it was more and more about Cisco. Again, no surprise, and that’s just how this is going to roll going forward.

• Yes, it’s complicated. A lot of time spent by the speakers about how the integration is going, both for the businesses and offerings. The deeper the dives, the more intricate things become, and despite all the talk about wanting to simplify things for customers, this is going to take time. Hopefully not too long, as that could undermine some very good technology here.

• We learned more about why Cisco bought BroadSoft, and part of it is validation for how important voice and calling still is for carriers. Yes, it’s all about data these days, but this is still core to their business - and identity - and that’s a big part of what BroadSoft brings to Cisco. Plus, it’s easy to overlook that voice - especially on a large scale - is harder to do than it looks - and that tends to get lost in all the nextgen buzz around messaging, video, mobility, etc.

• All that said, as BroadSoft gets folded deeper into Cisco, they clearly do have a strong end-to-end cloud story for carriers. With all the focus on cloud and software, Cisco still sells plenty of hardware - even headphones now - and that makes it a complete solution to make life easier for IT, and more attractive for carriers to sell.

• Finally, we were treated to a fun but thought-provoking keynote from Jason Dorsey. His company does a ton of research on demographics, and it was cool to get some glimpses of what defines all of us in the room - Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X and yes, us Boomers. Some great takeaways to help carriers understand how this impacts technology buying decisions, and I sure hope they were listening.

Enough for now - Day 2 is starting now. Check back in a few days for my longer analysis and takeaways for Connections. Time for some photos…

Below - BroadSoft…Cisco… BroadSoft - you get the idea - lots of messaging from both. We’re at the Diplomat Resort in Hollywood, FL. Sure is nice here - not a cloud in the sky, but inside, a very different story.

Below - Mike Tessler… Chuck Robbins… Scott Hoffpauir - back and forth, yet again. And, just to break up the pattern - keynoter Jason Dorsey - more about him later!

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.

My New Podcast with Genesys - Business Case for CCaaS

Well, this is actually two podcasts - a long one broken up into two parts. Been working on this one a while - it’s hosted by UK-based publisher EM360 - Enterprise Management 360, and sponsored by Genesys.

Joining me on the podcast was Bobbi Chester and Randy Carter of Genesys, and we covered a lot of ground around digital transformation, and why businesses need to be thinking about the cloud as a deployment model for contact center. This may be first nature for us, but legacy-based contact centers have a lot of catching up to do, and if this sounds like you, our commentary will be timely, and hopefully informative.

The discussion ran long, so EM360 wisely broke it up into two episodes, and you can give them a listen here. As always, your comments are welcome, as is any sharing.

Slack Frontiers 2018 - My 3 Takeaways on BCStrategies

I really wanted to get this posted before the week is out and while the conference is still fresh. My followers will know that I posted some photos and thoughts earlier about Slack’s event, but more needed to be said, and that’s what I’ve done here.

As my followers will also know, I’ve long been a BC Expert with BCStrategies, and that’s a good place to share my high level takeaways about Slack and their Frontiers 2018 event.

There’s more to come, but I hope this post gives you a good flavor for what’s coming with Slack, and how they’re pushing the frontiers of collaboration. As always, your comments are welcome, and any sharing would be greatly appreciated.

My September Newsletter is Out Now

If you're a subscriber,  you'd know that by now, but for everyone else, am just letting you know about my newsletter, which provides exclusive content about what I'm up to and what I'm seeing the collaboration market. Just takes a moment to sign up, so here you go.

Of particular interest  would be my regular podcast, this time being a recap of last month's Blockchain Futurist Conference that I attended in Toronto. In time, the podcasts will be shared on my website, but if you need to check it out now, just sign up for the newsletter.

Next Stop - Slack Frontiers, San Francisco

Not wasting any time kicking off a busy fall, both on the work front and with conferences. Tomorrow, I'm flying way out west to San Francisco for Slack's Frontiers event. They've been both disruptive and innovative, and Slack has become a household name in very little time.

This will be my first time attending their industry event, as it will be for most, so there will be lots to learn and many people to meet. More details are here on my Event Calendar page, and I'll be posting updates as time allows.

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.

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.

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?

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!

My Next Ziff Davis Webinar - 3 Collaboration Trends for 2018

Told you it was a busy month.  I've got two webinars coming up this month, and this one is with my mainstay, Ziff Davis. Being January, I've got another 2018 outlook theme, namely how three trends are now driving collaboration - chatbots/AI, messaging and the changing role of voice.

They're all connected, but each is having its own impact, and I'll be breaking that down, along with a review of the major consolidation moves from last year that are setting the table for 2018. Here's the registration page, and I'll do a couple more shout-outs to keep it on your radar.

JAA Subscriber Newsletter Launch

I've lost count tracking the time for getting this done, but it's finally launched. Many of you have signed up to get my JAA update newsletter, and the first one was sent moments ago via Mailchimp. Thank you all for subscribing, and many of you have been signed up for a long, long time.

Now that I've got this in place, you can look forward to regular updates, hopefully monthly, and things will definitely evolve as we go. I'll soon be adding a short podcast where I'll review current trends in tandem with a guest, and if you have ideas for topics, please let me know.

If you aren't a subscriber, I hope you sign up, and it's not hard to find a reg form here on my site to do so. Many of you follow my blog via RSS - nothing wrong with that, but I don't know who you are, and by subscribing, you'll get exclusive content that I won't be sharing on the blog. Your call!

For my subscribers, I hope you find the content interesting, and would love to hear your feedback, as well as any business challenges I could help you address.