My Next Webinar - with 8x8: How SMBs Can Leverage Cloud for Collaboration

Here’s my first shout-out for this webinar, happening on Tuesday, Dec. 4. It’s based on a white paper I just completed for 8x8, focused on educating SMBs about how the cloud can take them much further than just replacing premise-based telephony.

There are many stories to be told, and I’ve addressed a few of them here following some industry-based research. The white paper will be available for download soon from 8x8, but the webinar is free for all. More details are here, along with the registration form - I hope you can join us.

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!

Collaboration - The Next Generation - My Latest with BCStrategies

The main contributions I make to BCStrategies are monthly thought leadership pieces, and participating on podcasts when the stars line up. While this content reflects our ongoing insights into the collaboration space, we also produce sponsored content from time to time. This particular post is part of a series sponsored by AT&T, and while it went through extensive review at their end, the focus has remained entirely vendor/carrier neutral.

Of course, your opinion is what realy matters, but I think you’ll agree, it’s a pretty arms-length overview of where collaboration is heading. I hope you find it a good read - here’s the link - and as always your feedback is welcome.

Next Stop - Miami and BroadSoft Connections

Well, Hollywood, FL to be more precise. Miami certainly sounds more glamorous, and I am flying there, but it’s a beachfront hotel, so it’s all good. Anyhow, a quick update on my travels - this is conference 2 of 3 for November, and am looking forward to another iteration of BroadSoft Connections.

Yes, it’s really a Cisco event now; and am very interested in the updates on how this acquisition is working out. Will be blogging at some point, but for more timely updates, you can follow my tweets - @arnoldjon - and the event hash is #BSFTConnections. More details here on the Event Calendar page of my website.

Talkdesk Opentalk18 - Two Sets of Takeaways

Am just back from Talkdesk’s event in San Francisco, so it’s been a busy week. Lots to like - and learn - about what they’re doing, and I summarized that in two posts, both of which have been published now on GetVoIP.com.

If you haven’t seen them yet, the links are here and here. As always, comments and sharing are welcome.

Otherwise, here are a few of my photos from the event, and with that, we’re on to Miami, and BroadSoft Connections on Monday!

My November Newsletter is Out

Just a quick shout-out, but if you’re a subscriber, you already have it. For everyone else, if you like what I do, and want to better understand how I support my clients, you’ll want to subscribe. Here’s the link, and you’ll have it in no time.

As a teaser, the content is exclusive for subscribers, and that includes my podcast, which I do with my colleague, Chris Fine. This time around, we share our takeaways from Twilio’s recent SIGNAL conference. Subscribers get to hear that now, and otherwise, I’ll share the podcast publicly here on my blog a few weeks from now.

Next Stop - San Francisco and Talkdesk

That’s my destination tomorrow, and am looking forward to attending Talkdesk’s Opentalk18 conference. Will be a first-timer for me to meet the company, and I’ll provide updates as time allows. More details here, and for social, the hashtag is #Opentalk18.

Time to buckle up! This is the first of three industry events I’ll be travelling to in the US during November, so watch for updates here, on my Event Calendar page, and on my social channels.

My Latest Podcast - Adopting Collaboration in the Digital Workplace

Subscribers to my newsletter have already seen and/or heard this podcast, but for just about everyone else, this will be new. I produce a monthly newsletter updating my activities and sharing industry insights, including a podcast that I produce with colleague Chris Fine. Each month we talk about a current topic, or hot trend, or a recent industry event we’ve attended.

My newsletter content is exclusive to subscribers, and am happy to say that my base is steadily growing. We put a fair bit of effort into our podcast, though, and to give that particular form of content more exposure, I’m now going to share each one here, roughly a month after appearing in the newsletter. I think that’s fair, and am happy to share our perspectives with a broader audience.

That said, the rest of my newsletter content remains exclusive, so hopefully that’s enough to keeps things interesting for subscribers. If you want to become a subscriber - there’s no cost (and why wouldn’t you?) - sign-up forms are on my website, or you can just follow this link here.

If you just want to listen to our podcast from last month’s newsletter, here’s the story. The topic was a recent study produced by Aruba Networks about the digital workplace. I wrote two posts about it here and here, and the podcast gave Chris and I more runway to take a deeper dive. We hope you like it - feel free to comment, share, or suggest future podcast topics for us to cover. Thanks!

Sidebar #1 - my November newsletter will be going out next week, and the podcast topic for that issue will be a review of last month’s Twilio conference, SIGNAL 2018. Stay tuned, subscribers!

Sidebar #2 - I’ll soon be adding a section to my website to archive our earlier podcasts, so if you like this one, there will be others you may want to check out.

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.

October Writing Roundup

Had a very heavy month fulfilling client work, along with attending two conferences - and a long drive to Florida for a family visit. Life happens, and there wasn’t much room for writing, but here’s what I’d like to share for October for those who want to read more of my work.

Twilio SIGNAL Day 2 Thoughts and Pix - OK Go, and do you Believe in Magic?, my blog, Oct. 19

Mavenir Analyst Day - Quick Take and Pix, my blog, Oct. 19

What Potential Security Threats Could AI Introduce?, TechTarget, Oct. 17

AI in Contact Centers Offers Agents Behavioral Analytics, TechTarget, Oct. 16

Collaboration Endpoints - Understanding the Bigger Picture, Toolbox.com, Oct. 11

Cybercrime and Collaboration - On A Collision Course?, No Jitter, Oct. 9

3 Things to Remember About Amazon Mayday, Toolbox.com, Oct. 8

Look to the Laggards to Drive Collaboration Adoption, Toolbox.com, Oct. 5

My Next Webinar - Death of the PBX

October is zooming along, and this will be my third webinar for the month, so things have been pretty busy lately.

This time around, it’s another Ziff Davis/Toolbox.com webinar, with a topic that anyone in the telephony space should be interested in. For digital natives, the PBX has about as much utility as a fax machine or a home phone line, so Captain Obvious isn’t needed here. For everyone else, however, the PBX is still a mainstay, and the installed base - for better or worse - is still pretty large.

While the vendors aren’t making ‘em any more, the IP phone business is still going strong, so the “death” thing is a bit overstated. That’s the setup for my webinar, and if you want in, here’s the registration page. We’re doing this next Tuesday - Oct. 30 - at 2pm, and hope you can join us.

Mavenir Analyst Day - Quick Take and Pix

It’s been quite a week - or two, actually. Last week, I drove to - and back - from Florida for a much-needed family visit. A day after that, I was off to Dallas for Mavenir’s analyst day, then to San Francisco for Twilio’s SIGNAL conference. Both events were first-timers for me, and Mavenir was of particular interest since I’m not that strong on wireless, so this was a good way to get caught up.

That said, the event was pretty much under NDA, so I don’t have a narrative to share. There certainly is a good story here, especially to give carriers an alternative to the Tier 1 mobile vendors, and Mavenir is one of those “best kept secrets” kind of players. Over time, my learnings will come out in other ways, so for now, I just have some photos to share.

First, some pix from the event, both during the sessions and the demos. And then, there’s this fantastical “George” poster. Take a close look - “master of magic” - and deep in the heart of Texas - kinda has that travelling medicine show look, and it’s not a stretch to say that sometimes applies to tech companies selling complicated solutions that buyers don’t really understand. But no, not here at Mavenir, right? :-)

The event was held at the hotel - Zaza - and it’s one of the most eclectic hotels I’ve been to. Definitely gotta come back here for fun. All kinds of quirky sculptures, paintings, photos and knick knacks. Check out their shuttle vehicle - soooo Texas. And then, my friendly man at the front desk. This hotel has a cool, retro vibe - really - really slow elevators, and on the desks in our rooms - pencils (not pens), paper clips and staplers - when was the last time you saw or used those? And for the topper, he’s showing off their manual credit card imprinter, which they actually use. Millennials have probably never seen one of these analog relics, but hey, they still work - even if the broadband is slow!

Twilio SIGNAL - Day 2 Thoughts and Pix - OK Go, and do you Believe in Magic?

Can’t remember the last conference that hit the ground running with intensity, passion and creativity - and stayed there end to end. That’s been the vibe here, certainly for the general sessions on both days. It was enough just to keep up taking notes and posting some pix on social, and for now, I’ll be short, just like my Day 1 post. I need to digest and recover from two weeks of steady travel, but my considered thoughts will be coming soon. Until then, some Day 2 pix.

First, there is a really strong vibe here, not just for being socially conscious, but for social justice. For left-leaning liberals, Twilio is your kind of culture - Trump not spoken here. This was best exemplified by Erin Reilly, their VP of Social Impact and GM of Twilio.org. They’re not just talking about this stuff, but they’re doing a lot about it. Check our her “I am a Voter” t-shirt (worn by other Twilio speakers, including Jeff Lawson), and her social experiment with texting to see how many in the audience agree with her - love it. They’re also using their messaging platform to help people in need, especially the disadvantaged, like those subject to racial profiling or immigrants facing deportation. Pretty strong, but inspiring stuff.

On the fun side, SIGNAL did not lack for star power and cutting edge technology. First, Tony Hawk, who sure has inspired a few generations of skateboarders. He’s a legend, but not that recognizeable, so the running joke is that people think he looks like Tony Hawk - check out this tweet that shows what he’s talking about - hah! Then we had the creators of West World, Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan - cool. Even cooler, we were treated to an amazing “performance” by OK Go. I would need a whole post to break down all the things they did, but let’s just say, as developers, they mixed technology and music in a really creative manner that involved all of us, and all of our mobile devices. Tough act to follow!

Finally, magic was a big theme at SIGNAL, beginning with a cool demo from a magician who made the mobile phones of two strangers call each other simply by touching their index fingers together. Pretty impressive way to show the power of human connection, and there was more magic to follow. Now, check this out - CEO Jeff Lawson wearing the AR/VR goggles and doing a demo with Magic Leap. In the third photo, he’s doing a virtual chat with Magic Leap’s Rony Abovitz. The two avatars are chatting and interacting in real time, while Jeff and Rony are speaking from different physical locations. Jeff says this is the first time an avatar chat has EVER been done in real time in front of an audience. Aren’t we special, and isn’t that some kind of magic?

Twilio SIGNAL - Day 1 Pix

Been a fast-paced event so far, with a firehose of updates and announcements. For now, I’ll just steer you to some press releases, but will have more to say later after the conference. Namely: Autopilot for develping bots that can be deployed across multiple platforms, Flex contact center platform going GA, and acquiring SendGrid to integrate email into their platform.

Just too much going on, so that will have to wait for a quieter time. Otherwise, here’s a flavor of what I’m seeing so far. Co-founder/CEO Jeff - great energy and a passionate vision. Same from Al Cook annoucing GA for Flex, putting the call center space on notice. And, Rahma Javed from Deliveroo - diversity definitely spoken here! More coming about all these themes, so stay tuned.

Next Stop - San Francisco for Twilio

Following my last blog post, this is “next stop” #2 for the week. I was in Dallas - still am, actually, about to board an early flight to SFO - for Mavenir’s analyst day, and now I’m heading to Twilio’s SIGNAL event in San Francisco. If the flight is on time and my Uber ride goes to plan, I should be there in time for the opening keynote at 10am.

More details are here on the Event Calendar section of my website, and I’ll be happy to be home Friday night. That’s enough excitement for me this week, but I’ll keep writing and posting about the event as time allows.

Next Stop - Dallas for Mavenir

This is “next stop” post #1 for the week. Am at the airport now, flying shortly to Dallas for Mavenir’s Analyst Day event. I’ve had this on the calendar for a while, and it’s my first time attending one of their events. Mobility comes and goes in my coverage, but this will be a good opportunity for a deep dive on the state of 5G and how carriers are embracing the cloud. Even more interesting is how they’re bringing AI to market, and leveraging the cloud for future-forward revenue streams built around RCS and messaging.

More details are here on my Events Calendar, where you’ll also see info about “next stop” #2 right after Mavenir. Watch for another post about that next day or so.

Shout-out for My October Newsletter

My newsletter is becoming a regular thing now, and the current issue has been sent now to subscribers. Of course, I’d love for all my readers to be subscribers, but that’s your call, not mine. First, you have to be following me, of course - but since the newsletter is fairly new, you need to know about that as well, and that’s why I’m writing this post.

I will have a newsletter archive coming soon, and I do plan to start posting podcasts from the newsletter here on my site a few weeks after sending out the newsletter - I’d like to keep that content exclusive to subscribers for a while first. To pique your interest, the current podcast is with colleague Chris Fine, where we discuss the findings and implications about a recent report produced by Aruba Networks on the impact of digital transformation on the workplace - very interesting stuff, for sure.

For now, though, subscribing is the only way to check out the podcast, along with all my regular updates, including highlights from our SIPtones show at the recent SCTC conference. Signing up is easy - here’s one way - or just wander around the site - you can’t miss it!

Cybercrime and Collaboration on Collision Course? My Latest on No Jitter

If you can say that title three times fast, maybe it will make more sense. Cybercrime touches just about everything these days, but it’s usually not top of the list for collaboration. It really should be, and that’s what this post is about.

At the recent SCTC conference, there was a great keynote about the state of cybercrime, and I've filtered that through the lens for collaboration. Even if that doesn’t resonate, am sure the issues on a broader, global scale will, and you can read the post here on No Jitter.

My Next Webinar - with No Jitter and Lucidchart

I’ve got a busy month on the webinar front, and here’s the next one to tell you about. This time around, I’m doing an Enterprise Connect webinar, so you’ll also hear about it through their main channel, No Jitter. I’ll be presenting on workplace trends that are making collaboration so important, and the challenges faced by IT to properly support them. One of those trends is around how workers collaborate today, and the value that visual applications can bring to make complex concepts or workflows easier to manage, especially with disparate teams.

The webinar is a little more that two weeks, out - Wednesday, October 24 - and all the details are here. I hope you can join us!

SCTC Conference - Quick Take, Pix and Video

Been all-out busy since returning from SCTC’s annual conference, and am determined to get a quick recap posted before the week is out. Aside from this post, my next No Jitter column will run early next week, and it’s about the conference keynote about cybercrime - it was very good, so watch for that.

Aside from attending, I wore a few hats, namely giving the locknote presentation, playing a gig with the SIPtones, and even playing “UC Cookoff” Jeopardy. Overall, the conference had a strong mix of content, both from member speakers and the vendors during their segments.

SCTC is a small, but very collegial group, and being the only active analyst member (and probably with the highest public profile), you may not know much about this world. Most consultants in telecom and/or the broader communications space are not members, but it seems to me they could benefit from the collective knowledge base here. That’s a topic for another day, and for now, here are some high level takeaways and pix.

• Cybercrime keynote from Lou Giannotti, IT Director, U.S. Naval Academy - really interesting perspectives, and that’s the focus of my upcoming No Jitter post.

• Cloud panel debate - healthy back and forth of the merits of both cloud and on-prem. There’s a lot of old-school expertise in SCTC, and it’s easy to forget legacy basics - but it still drives a lot of thinking in IT circles.

• Good overviews from the vendors, especially Genesys in talking about how the cloud helps enterprises prepare for the “exponential effect” of digital transformation, and Sprint for what’s coming with 5G and IoT.

• Engaging talk from consultant Dennis Goodhart on disruptive technologies. Mostly familiar for me, but not for everyone there, and more importantly, this is what their clients need know to be on the right side of technology change. That said, legacy telecom isn’t in my DNA, so the Strowger switch was new learning - gee, what a great story! Nothing has changed in terms of why people do what they do…..

• Our SIPtones gig went quite well. Too bad we only had one set, but it was fun and the dance floor was full - mission accomplished. Our time spent rehearsing the weekend before - see my “Little Pink” post for more - was definitely the right idea.

Below - welcome comments from Annapolis Mayor, Gavin Buckley, the cloud panel and “UC Cookoff” Jeopardy:

Below - another highlight - tour of the U.S. Naval Academy - tons of history, John Paul Jones crypt, inspiring architecture, and geez, I wish I could have played that organ!

Speaking of music, some of our SIPtones saga: “Little Pink” - lake house in the Adirondacks where we rehearsed, a taste of the pastoral setting, and the gig itself, held at the Naval Academy Club:

Finally, if you haven’t seen this, here’s a 10 second clip of us playing Tequila, courtesy of our guest singer, Jennifer Kang. Stay tuned - literally - more video coming. Need a band for your next event? :-)