February Writing Roundup

Last month was a whirlwind with Future of Work Expo, conference planning, podcasts, video interviews, judging for Best Of Enterprise Connect, and starting up new projects. Not sure how, but I still managed to get some writing done, and here’s the roundup.

3 Ways CPaaS Enhances Collaboration and Workplace Productivity, Toolbox.com, Feb. 26

Avaya Engage - They’re All-In - Are You All-In?, BCStrategies, Feb. 24

3 Ways AI Takes Voice Beyond Telephony, Toolbox.com, Feb. 12

Natural Language Generation - the Next Wave in AI-Driven Speech, EM360, Feb. 11

What are the Risks and Benefits of AI-Driven Speech Technology?, TechTarget, Feb. 10

How CPaaS Differs From UCaaS, But Also Improves Collaboration, Toolbox.com, Feb. 7

Future of Work Preview, my blog, Feb. 4

New Video Talking About Tech and a Dylan Hat Tip

Well, this was fun, and since it was just posted on Youtube, I thought it would be good to share here to close out the month with a smile.

This was recorded towards the end of TMCnet’s ITExpo in Ft. Lauderdale earlier this month, and it was pretty ad hoc, but it turned out ok. The TMC folks had a videographer there to cover the show, and we happened to be alone in the press room, so we just did this in one straight take. Kudos to Arthur at amage.media - they’ve got a pretty cool-looking production company, so if you need video to spice up your messaging, tell Arthur I sent you.

That aside, I’m just talking here about what analysts do, and the key trends to watch for in the collaboration space, with a particular focus on future of work. My main role at the show was to chair the Future of Work Expo, but that’s another conversation.

I hope you enjoy the video, and if you’re too young to pick up on my homage to Bob Dylan, everything you need to know is down below! :-)

My Next Webinar - Is Your Cloud Vision 2020?

I’ve got a new webinar to post about, and this one will be hosted by Channel Partners. The sponsor is Flexential, whom I got to meet on the show floor at the recent ITExpo. The topic is about cloud migration, and how to be strategic about it. For a change, I’ll be moderating, and leading a discussion with Carl Norman, their Solutions Architect, along with Michael Piccininni of Dell Technologies.

The webinar will be on Thursday, March 19 at 2pm ET, and I hope you can join us. Here’s the landing page with more details and the registration form.

Avaya Engage - They're All-In - Are You All-In?

That’s the title of my latest post for BCStrategies, and it’s a follow-on to my earlier post about Avaya’s recent Engage event in Phoenix. I was one of a handful of analysts at Engage, so you may not have seen much coverage from our circle, and I trust you’ll find this writeup of interest.

In short, it was clear from Engage that Avaya has gone all-in, not just to compete, but to win. The bigger question is whether Avaya’s customers and partners will reciprocate and go all-in with them. There’s a lot at stake here, with plenty of advocates on both sides of the fence.

Being an analyst, I try to present a balanced perspective, and on the whole, I’m coming down on the plus side. Half-measures won’t work in this market, and if Avaya can execute on their all-in strategy, they should be able to hold their own for years to come. Here are my thoughts from Engage, and I’d love to hear whether or not you’re all-in now with Avaya.

Watch This Space Podcast - Digital Workplace Drivers and Cool Voice Tech from Chattanooga

Things are never dull around here, so how’s that for a mix of topics for a podcast?

That’s what’s on tap for my current Watch This Space podcast, and it’s now publicly available. Chris Fine and I reflected on recent conferences we attended, and on the voice + AI front, this podcast is just one of several forms of thought leadership I’ve been producing lately.

If you don’t know, I produce a monthly newsletter - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - and subscribers get exclusive access to my podcasts for a couple of weeks. Another benefit of subscribing, btw, is the inclusion of real-time transcription; so you have the choice of listening, reading, or doing both at the same time.

The public version of my podcast is audio-only, and if you don’t mind the wait, here’s the link, and I’d love to hear your thoughts after giving it a listen. If you need it sooner, just sign up for the newsletter, which also provides a digest of what I’m seeing over the course of my travels and research.

Finally, I’ve been talking for a while about upgrades to the podcast, and starting next month, you’ll see a new graphic that I think will help give Watch This Space more of an identity. More upgrades are coming, so stay tuned.

Future of Work Expo - Day 2 Pix

Just trying to post content as quickly as I can, as my two week/four event travel run comes to an end.

This week, I’m chairing TMCnet’s Future of Work Expo in Ft. Lauderdale, and yesterday I posted some photos from Day 1. Things wrap up at noon today, and before heading to the venue for my sessions, here are some photos from yesterday. Over the next few days, I’ll get a writeup posted, along with writeups from last week’s events at Avaya and Cisco. Go, go, go.

Thought-provoking panels moderated by Hugh Goldstein and Doug Mohney - thanks guys. Hugh’s topic was AI’s role in comms/collaboration, and Doug’s was about issues/threats around voice authentication. We also had a deeper dive from Google about how AI and ML are being used in G Suite, and attendance has been strong - and engaged - throughout the sessions.

The Cloud Voice Alliance is one of Jeff Dworkin’s many ventures, and he invited me to speak on a panel about how resellers should be thinking about cloud voice/collab services to grow their business and help end customers move away from legacy telephony.

My Channel Partners Panel Session - Getting in on the CPaaS Opportunity

Am keeping pretty busy lately on the conference circuit, and in a few weeks I’ll be making my second visit to the Channel Partners Conference in Las Vegas. I’ll only be there two days, and on the Wednesday - March 11 - I’ll be moderating a session on how channels can embrace CPaaS to help grow their business. Joining me will be executives from Fonative, Phone.com and SkySwitch, and full details about the session are here.

Also, if you haven’t firmed up your plans yet, I can extend some discounts for registration - details here.

Future of Work Expo - Day 1 Photos

However fast I was running at last week’s events, I’m somehow going faster here in Ft. Lauderdale. Our Future of Work sessions have been solid, attendance has been strong, and lots of good questions. I only have time now for some Day 1 photos - will have more pix tomorrow, and soon I’ll have a writeup to share. I’ve been posting to Twitter and Linkedin fairly regularly, so you can follow those feeds for more in-the-moment updates.

FoW agenda, Cisco’s Zack Taylor, slides about the evolution of AI and the high cost of poor meetings experiences.

ITExpo keynotes from Cisco and Google, Frank Stinson moderating our panel on AI-enabled comms, Zack and me!

A few shots from the show floor - Avaya, Phone.com, CoreDial and Flexential

Spotlight on Natural Language Generation - Next Wave in AI Speech

Natural Language Generation is pretty new for me, but it fits squarely into my coverage for all things AI, voice and collaboration. My entree has been through Arria NLG, one of the leading players in this space, and they sure are doing some interesting things. While this doesn’t fit cleanly into the collaboration bucket, NLG has great use cases in the enterprise, especially to enrich Business Intelligence.

In short, this is about giving voice to data, and it’s a very different side of AI-driven voice that I think needs to be in the broader enterprise speech discussion. That’s why I wrote this Spotlight analysis, and it’s running now in U.K.-based Enterprise Management 360, a portal that I post to from time to time. Here’s the link, and I hope you find it a good read. If you’re attending Enterprise Connect later in March, you can learn more at my state of the market update on enterprise speech tech.

Next Stop - Ft. Lauderdale and Future of Work

Time to go from snow to sun. Florida in February - what’s not to like?

I’ll be flying to Ft. Lauderdale today ahead of tomorrow’s Future of Work Expo, which is one of several sub-events for TMCnet’s flagship ITExpo. Last year, I was co-Chair of the event, and now I’m Chair, so I’m moving up in the world. We’re still filling a few speaking slots, but the program is strong, and if you’re attending, I hope you’ll check out our sessions.

As with all the conferences I attend, details can be found in the Event Calendar of my website, and you can also peruse the FoW agenda here on the event website.

Also, in case you missed it, here’s the Q&A that TMCnet’s Rich Tehrani did with me as a preview for what's coming at our event. Hope to see you there!

Cisco Collaboration and Contact Center Analyst Events - Quick Pix

Last week was quite the blur with back-to-back industry events, and am chairing another one this week. As such, time is short, and for now I can only manage to share a few photos from last week’s Cisco double-header in San Jose.

First was their Collaboration Analyst Summit, followed by their Contact Center Deep Dive. I was in the cohort of analysts attending both events, and there’s lots to talk about. I’ll get my thoughts collected over the next few days, and until then, here are some photos. In short, the team is solid, the vision is strong, and they seem to be executing very well. More to come.

Strong leaders, strong team - Amy Chang, Omar Tawakol, Vinod Muthukrishnan , Zack Taylor

Fireside chats with the collaboration leadership team, then for contact center. Slideware for Webex Meetings, and Contact Center Experience Management.

Cool stuff - Panorama, taking immersive video conferencing to the next level. Next - gesture-based interaction to manage your meetings. For contact center - word cloud, leveraging AI from Voicea. Finally, the biggest boardroom table I’ve ever seen - would love to see how well all this new AI technology would work here in a full room - that would be impressive!

Newsletter Time - February Issue Out

If you don’t know that I have a monthly newsletter, this post may be timely. The current edition of JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review is out now, and subscribing is real easy - here’s the link.

Aside from being a digest of my industry activity and thought leadership, I also produce a podcast with colleague Chris Fine - Watch This Space. The podcast is exclusive to subscribers for a couple of weeks, and the screenshot below will give you an idea of what our latest episode is about. So, if you just need to hear it now - as well as follow along with real-time transcription - that may be the best reason yet to subscribe.

Witz End Podcast - JAA Profile, Music, History and More

The stars lined up for me to do a podcast with Rich Williams and Millie Allen for their Witz End podcast. Was great to be interviewed for a change, and once we got past the tell-us-about-being-an-analyst part, we had some fun. They quizzed me about music and Canadian history, and there was even some impromptu piano playing. Not your everyday podcast, but it keeps things interesting, and if you want to check it out, here’s the link. Ok -back to work now.

Avaya Engage - Quick Post and Pix

It’s been a blur at Avaya Engage during the early part of this week in Phoenix, and I was only able to stay for part of it. I’ve moved on to part 2 of back-to-back events this week, and will have a more of an analysis once I get back from my travels.

In short, Avaya is “all in” - and while that can mean many things, the underlying message is that Avaya is in it to win it, and there’s a good story shaping up here. Until I can tell that story, I’ll leave you with some photos from my time at the event.

Jim Chirico going “all in”, with Vlad Shmunis from RingCentral, new CMO Simon Harrison, Ian Mofford from Avaya’s consultant relations program

Some shots from the show floor - IAUG, demo booth for ACO - Avaya Cloud Office (RingCentral partnership for UCaaS), main Avaya area, Noble Systems, one of their many partners there.

On the fun side — smokin’ house band playing during the event (didn’t catch their name), with the king of social media Evan Kirstel, lucky me to be in a zelfie with Zeus, at the Super Bowl party held at Chase Field where the D Backs play.

Future of Work Expo Preview - Feb. 12-14

Before you know it, ITExpo will be here - well, there, in Ft. Lauderdale. This is prime time for TMCnet, and I’m happy to be participating again, mainly as Chair for the Future of Work sub-event. Last year, I was co-Chair, and the program has largely filled out, so it’s time to talk it up. I hope you can join us, and to help you make that decision, I’ve got two links to pass on.

1. Event agenda - it’s still filling out, but this should give you a good idea of what to expect in our sessions

2. Q&A about FoW - both the event and broader trends - I’m interviewed here by TMCnet’s Rich Tehrani

January Writing Roundup

Another month, and another round of new writing on the usual mix of topics. I was busier last month with podcasts and client work, and should have richer update on the writing front for this month.

Project Voice - the Future is in Chattanooga, BCStrategies, Jan. 30

Speech Tech 2020 - More About Innovation than Disruption, No Jitter, Jan. 28

How Does AI for Meetings Improve Collaboration?, TechTarget, Jan. 27

Why Digital Transformation Needs to be Customer-Driven, Toolbox.com, Jan. 16

3 Benefits of UC for Small Business, TechTarget, Jan. 16

2020 Outlook: The State of Collaboration, Toolbox.com, Jan. 15

How Collaboration Impacts the Workplace Experience, Toolbox.com, Jan. 7

Project Voice Redux - Our Video Podcast with Bradley Metrock

Well, it’s taken some time, but this finally posted late last night, and I wanted to add this to my Project Voice coverage before the week/month is out. Earlier this week, I posted my takeaways of the event, and before that, I had some shorter blog posts and social media updates. There will be video clips coming from our SIPtones gig there, but those aren’t quite ready yet.

Prior to the conference, the event founder, Bradley Metrock invited me to guest on his long-running This Week In Voice podcast - one of his many ventures to track the latest in voice technology. Joining us were my colleagues-in-arms, Rick Hathaway and Steve Leaden. Not only are we all SCTC members, but we’re the core of the SIPtones. Fellow bandmate/SCTC member Chuck Vondra was invited as well, but couldn’t make the call.

The video podcast runs about 50 minutes, and was supposed to serve as a preview of the event, as I was leading a panel session about AI voice in the enterprise, with my SCTC colleagues up there as well. Equally important, Bradley wanted to use it as a vehicle to introduce us to the Project Voice community, not just as industry experts, but also wearing our fun hats as the house band for the event.

If you’re still feeling the Project Voice buzz, then, you’ll really enjoy this, so it’s just a click away, here, or just click on the player below. Hope you like it!

Next Stops - Go West - Avaya, Then Cisco

Got travel for back-to-back events this coming week. Every now and then, events overlap, so I’m doing my best to attend major events for Avaya and Cisco. Starting Sunday, I fly to Phoenix for Avaya Engage, which caters mainly to partners and consultants. It’s not really for analysts, but I have good reasons to be there, and it will be a great window to take in their 2020 “All In” go-to-market messaging.

On Tuesday, I depart Phoenix for San Jose for a twofer Cisco event - both their Collaboration Analyst Summit and Contact Center Deep Dive. We’ll be getting roadmap updates on both lines of business, so it’s going to be an intense series of sessions.

Considering these are two of the biggest players in both collaboration and contact center, I expect to return home next Friday jazzed about what these companies are doing for 2020. It will be a firehose week for sure of information, so I’ll be taking lots of notes. Blog updates will come as time allows, and same for my social channels. I’m not hard to find on Linkedin, and my Twitter handle is @arnoldjon.

Project Voice - the Future is in Chattanooga

That’s the title of my latest post on BCStrategies, and if you followed my earlier posts and tweets about this event, I think you’ll find my takeaways here of interest.

As a long-time BC Expert and regular contributor to our portal, I saw lots of examples in Chattanooga where consumer-based applications of AI-driven voice could translate for enterprise collaboration. Much of this is already happening in the contact center, but I found this event a pretty good test lab for what we could be seeing in the workplace sooner than later.

I could only touch on a couple of themes in this post, so if you really want to hear the rest of the story, you know where to find me. Otherwise, the post is running now on our portal, and as always, comments and sharing are welcome.

My Enterprise Connect Talk on Enterprise Speech - 2 Previews - Article and Podcast

Well, the multimedia stars lined up this time around, so I have two previews to share here. Enterprise Connect is about two months out - but it already feels near - and I’ll be doing another iteration of my update on speech technology in the enterprise on Day 1 - Monday, March 30, bright and early at 8 am.

To get a better sense of what I’ll be talking about - and why you might want to attend - my preview post is running now on No Jitter. You’ll also find details there about the location of my talk, along with a special link to save $400 off your registration fee.

Complementing that, I was interviewed by No Jitter’s Beth Schultz for her podcast series No Jitter On Air. The episode was published today, and is titled Talking Up Speech Tech for the Enterprise - here’s the link to give that a listen.