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A short note for navigating this section - scroll below for the most recent posts, and then for more, click on the Blog Archive box, where you can view all of my posts, going back to the beginning in March 2005.
January ended up being more about video and podcasting than writing, so I only have one public article to share. I did, however, write four other articles last month, two of which are ghost-written, and two will run sometime this month.
Weighing the Pros and Cons of Asynchronous Collaboration, TechTarget, Jan. 4
Another update for my upcoming Future of Work Expo, taking place in Ft. Lauderdale in just a few short weeks. FOW Expo is one of the sub-events with TMCnet’s long-running ITExpo. This is my fifth go-round as Chair, and the speaking roster is just about done.
Still a handful of open panel spots, so if that’s of interest, you can review the full agenda here, and get back to me if you see a particular topic - thanks.
Since my last update, we’ve done some tweaking to the program, and there are two new topics we’ll be exploring:
ChatGPT - FOW implications - is there anything hotter right now?
Contact Center Evolution - is this a model for FOW?
If you haven’t attended before, here are some highlights from the 2022 event, and here’s the latest e-blast from TMCnet to help promote the show.
Another shout-out for my upcoming Future of Work Expo, one of the sub-events with TMCnet’s long-running ITExpo. This is my fifth go-round as Chair, and the speaking roster is rounding out nicely. Still room on some sessions, though, so if that’s of interest, you can review the full agenda here, and get back to me if you see a particular topic - thanks.
I’ll have more updates soon, including previews for some of the panel sessions, and hope you can join us. If you haven’t attended before, here are some highlights from the 2022 event, and here’s a recent e-blast from TMCnet to help promote the show.
That’s the next webinar on my schedule - running next Thursday, Jan. 12 at 11am ET. I’m one of three analysts talking about the big trends we see happening this year around collaboration, along with IR’s CEO, John Ruthven. That would be fellow BCStrategies colleagues, Blair Pleasant and Kevin Kieller.
I hope you can join us, and the registration details are here.
Happy 2023, all! As busy as 2022 was, this year is already looking like more of the same. Lots to write about and lots to talk about, and the latest from my end can be found in the current editions of JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review and my Watch This Space podcast.
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 just pick up the current episode here.
Also, if you’re not familiar with my website, there are archives now for both the newsletter and the podcast, so it’s easy to find earlier editions of each there. The current edition of WTS marks Season 6 of our podcast, so there’s a lot on offer in the archive if you want to check out earlier episodes.
With 2022 coming to a close, I just have one public writing piece for December, and it starts an exploration of a new topic for me - more to come in future writeups.
Telemarketing Fraud Presents an Unacceptable Risk to Businesses, No Jitter, Dec. 20
We all know how that song goes, and it’s the theme song for this week’s SCTC Fireside Chat. I’ll be in conversation with the host, Steve Leaden - and fellow SIPtoner - where I’ll share highlights from my recent run of travel to various industry events. This should be fun, and after the chat, you should check out the SCTC for yourself.
Here’s the 5 second trailer on Youtube, and details are here to sign up. Our Fireside Chats are from 12-1 ET most Wednesdays, and hope you can join us then!
The December issue of JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review is out now, along with the latest Watch This Space podcast. As the thumb below shows, Chris and I did a roundup of the November events I attended, along with our 2022 takeaways. Hope you like it!
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 just pick up the current episode here.
If you’re not familiar with my website, there are archives for both the newsletter and the podcast. The refresh for the podcast archive is almost complete, so it’s very easy to find and listen to earlier episodes there. For the newsletter archive, the updates are mostly done, but haven’t gone live yet - coming soon!
Another busy month with travel to events, but three public things I’d been working on were published last month, so here they are if you haven’t seen them yet.
AI for the Contact Center - It’s So Much More than Chatbots, NICE, Nov. 30
Vendors Use AI to Boost Customer Experience in the Contact Center, No Jitter, Nov. 15
The AI Opportunity: Enhance the Agent and Customer Experience with AI Application Integrations, Upstream Works, Nov. 4
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.
Just have time for a quick post before flying home from Zoomtopia in San Jose. This is the first in-person Zoom analyst event since 2019, and it was a great update on all that’s happening with them - and it’s a lot. I’ll have more to say about that in upcoming posts, so for now, am just going to share some photos.
Below - CEO Eric Yuan, in good form as always. Right - Alex Borstein, who was the event host - yes, the voice of Lois Griffin! - and kept the vibe on edge all the way through.
Eric talking about their initiatives for giving back, and later in conversation with Timbaland. Yes, he’s a fan of Zoom, but was good hear about how he overcame rejection early on, and just persevered. Eric followed a similar journey, when he couldn’t get funding for Zoom early on.
Aisera - one of many partners I spoke with while walking the show floor, then later, the analysts went offsite to Zoom HQ for briefings and demos from their product managers.
A few of the demos - Zoom whiteboard, digital signage and reservations. Yes, video and screens are everywhere here, and it provides the kind of flexibility needed for today’s hybrid work. Lots of talk about inclusion to make remote workers feel part of the team, and keep everyone engaged from wherever they’re located. Digital signage - this photo is a particularly good example of a mass notification, such as if there’s an E911 incident in the office.
My analyst travel-palooza continues, with my fourth trip to the Bay area of California in less than a month. Never crossed the country this many times in so short a period as now, but that’s how the fall travel season is rolling in 2022 for analyst events.
Next stop is Zoomtopia, and it’s my first in-person Zoom event since the pandemic started. That would have been October 2019 - I wasn’t there for the whole thing, but it was memorable - especially the music. This time around, though, I’ll catch it all. Follow me here or on social for updates - @arnoldjon for Twitter, and on LinkedIn.
I usually publish these on the first Tuesday of the month, but with all the travel happening now, things had to slide for one day, but they’re running now. The timing is also impacted by how the calendar falls, and for November, the first Tuesday happens to be on the 1st, and I usually don’t have everything ready on the 1st of the month. I don’t have any sponsors, so nobody is cancelling contracts on me, and subscribers haven’t bailed, and best I can tell, the world is still turning.
So, the November issue of JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review is out now, along with the latest Watch This Space podcast. As the thumb below shows, Chris and I did a roundup of the various industry events running the past few weeks. I could easily do an episode on each event, so we only touched on a few high points.
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 just pick up the current episode here.
If you’re not familiar with my website, there are archives for both the newsletter and the podcast. The refresh for the podcast archive is almost complete, so it’s very easy to find and listen to earlier episodes there. For the newsletter archive, the updates are mostly done, but haven’t gone live yet - coming soon!
With all the event travel the past few weeks, it’s been a real challenge keeping on top of my regular work. Cisco had an analyst-only event recently as a preview for their WebexOne virtual event. The updates were under NDA until that event, so that’s another reason why I haven’t posted about it here.
At this point, none of this will be news to anyone following Cisco Webex, so my comments will be short. I’ll expand on this, though, in some upcoming posts, but time is also very short right now, so I need to get this posted before boarding my flight.
In short, Cisco looks to have the most complete portfolio to fully support hybrid work and contact center - not just for their platforms, but for the devices, the hardware and all the networking technology that makes all of this go. It’s a pretty impressive range of capabilities, but that also poses some challenges in terms of selling all of this, as there are different economic buyers for these pieces.
Also very interesting is their approach to competing against the rest of this very crowded market, especially Microsoft. Just as Teams can run inside Webex, Webex can now run inside Teams, giving customers totally flexibility for using both, and that reflects the reality of this now being a multi-platform market.
Other highlights included a new feature - audio watermarking - and they’re taking a leadership role in helping enterprises re-imaging their workspaces - quite a few new pieces around that, actually. Also, lots of AI updates, including applications that help workers manage their “focus time” to stay productive. I got a great hologram demo as well, and it’s really not that hard to envision workplace use cases coming to life as adoption gains traction. Finally, I should add that their contact center story is stronger than you might think, as are their CPaaS capabilities - Webex Connect. That’s all for now, but I’m not done with this update.
Webex execs, Jeetu Patel, Javed Kahn and Lorrissa Horton
With all the travel this month, not much writing got done, although I did share several posts with short commentary and photos on my blog, so those might be worth checking out as well. I did write a few articles, though, but only one was published on a public site this month, so this roundup will be pretty, pretty short.
Balancing Remote Work Privacy Vs. Productivity Monitoring, TechTarget, Oct. 21
Three more travel stops to go before the Fall event-a-palooza is done. Crazy time for industry events, but I’m over the hump, and the next trips are just one stop at a time, yay.
Flying this aft to San Francisco - again - and I go back yet again next week too - for the Twilio SIGNAL event. I’m not a developer, but have always loved this event, especially because they often do it with creative flair. There are actually two parts to SIGNAL, with a one-day analyst-only program tomorrow, and then the much larger-scale virtual event for everyone the next two days after that. I’m just there for the analyst program, then flying back home.
I’ll share what I can while there, and will follow on with more thoughts soon after. Still back-logged from last week, so there will be a post or two coming about that when time allows. Until then, I need to get my newsletter done - podcast is already done - and if we don’t publish tomorrow, they’ll be out on Wednesday for sure. Busy, busy….
Just have time for a quick photo mashup before flying home to Toronto. This is the end of my 9-day, 3-event road trip, and will catch up on blogging from other events next week. I’ve just finished attending the RingCentral analyst event, in posh Napa Valley.
Pretty nice place to get spoiled, but it’s rather isolated for such a short event. No complaints, though, and they gave us a pretty extensive update on the state of their business, along with lots of NDA updates coming later this year and into 2023. I’ll have more to say soon, but it’s almost time to board my flight.
Below - one of my industry favorites, CIO Kira Makagon leading off Day 2. Two panel sessions - with customers, moderated by Blair Pleasant, and the channel panel, led by Zane Long.
The Napa vibe - a few photos from walking around the venue - what’s not to like?
But wait, there’s more! They had the NBA championship trophy on display, so I had to get next to it and make sure all the Celtics titles are there - yes they are, phew. Napa = wine, so they took us to Tamber Bey Vineyards for a wine tasting meal - it was every bit as good as it looks. The owners are also seriously into horses, so this made for a really great mix, wow. Finally, a 5-minute diversion to get a photo after crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. Yeah, it’s been a good week!
This is stop two of three during my current travel run, and it sure has been good. I’ve been involved with SCTC for a few years now - Society of Communications Technology Consultants - and even though I’m an analyst, there’s a lot in this community that’s good for my business.
Their annual conference is mostly for members, so it’s not really a public event, but the challenges facing consultants aren’t all that different from mine as an independent analyst. The trends that I follow in my research, are the same ones they’re living with as they try to get their clients to adopt new technologies. Lots of good learning here, and the caliber of speakers and panels sessions has been very high, as always. If you’re an independent consultant working with communications technology, this is a community you should be part of - and if you want to learn more, just drop me a line.
That’s the story from the conference here in Dallas, and I’ll leave you with a few photos.
Below - SCTC President, Denise Munro, and our Bitrix guru, Bobra Bush. Later, my lock note talk.
Definitely the most impactful session - 911 guru/advocate Mark Fletcher brought Hank Hunt to speak and share his story for how Kari’s Law came into being. Mark is the driver who made this happen, and Kari’s Law is named after one of Hank’s daughters, who would still be alive today if 911 service worked the way it’s supposed to. Photo on right - at the White House in 2018, when Kari’s Law was signed into law.
Best for last? Maybe. I’m part of the SIPtones (mainly for keyboards), and we got to play on Monday night. Fun, yeah - wish we could do this at every conference, but we’re not quite ready for that. Pictured on right - it was a two-band bill, where local band Southern Flight opened, then joined us at the end for a lively jam. Photo credits - on left, Cyndi Crews, and on right, Donna Leaden - thanks!
If you don’t know us, the SIPtones are led by Rick Hathaway on sax, Steve Leaden on drums and Chuck Vondra on guitar. We were also lucky to have Rebecca Cihak - long-time musical comrade of Chuck’s - be our vocalist, and we hope can do this again soon. Also, missing in action was Joe Rubio, our regular bassist, who wasn’t able to make it this time. In due time, I’ll have more pictures and video to share, and otherwise, I keep an archive of photos and video clips from earlier shows on my website - here and here.
All in a week’s work, huh? Last week was Marrakesh and London, and now some US-based travel. Never done 3 events in a row, but starting today, it’s Cisco’s analyst event in San Jose. From there, off to Dallas for the SCTC annual conference, where I’m giving the locknote talk on Wed. Also, we’re doing another SIPtones gig on Monday night (you can check out some of our clips here) - woo hoo. Then, it’s back to San Francisco for RingCentral’s analyst event in Napa. Never dull!
Last week sure was a whirlwind, starting with the NICE Analyst Summit in Marrakesh (blog to come, but I shared different sets of photos on LinkedIn and Facebook), then a quick exit to London for UC Expo.
I may not get a blog post out about the Expo, but I was interviewed twice, including a video segment on the floor with EM360, which is included at the bottom of this post. Otherwise, here are some quick pix, both of the show and a few while about in London, albeit very briefly.
Below - show floor entrance and some of the activity, including a drone zone to test your skills.
With Chris Bain of Avaya, SCTC colleague Dave Mailer, and the Ask the Analyst panel session (photo credit - Anna Plavinskaja - thanks!).
Quintessential London, right? Phone booth, Sherlock Holmes, the Tube and the Thames!
More of the same - cable cars, the O2, London Eye, Big Ben, and the Docklands by the ExCeL Centre
Last, but not least, I was interviewed by Matt Harris from EM360 about the event, so here’s the four minute takeaway….
J Arnold & Associates is an Independent Technology Research and Analyst, helping businesses understand the strategic value of communications technology as they adapt to the digital transformation of work
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