My Next Webinar with Mitel - 2021 Roadmap for Digital CX

I recently wrote a white paper for Mitel on the importance of digital CX - customer experience - for contact centers, and the impact of COVID-19 on what constitutes a good CX. The white paper has been well-received, and we recently did a Twitter chat on the topic, which was also well-received.

We’re topping all this out now with a webinar, which will be on Thursday, March 4. I’ll be presenting highlights from the white paper, and along with Mitel’s Matt Clare, we’ll be talking about the current state of digital CX, and how contact centers should be thinking about their roadmap. You can register here to join us in real time, and if you can’t make it, the webinar will be available on demand from Mitel shortly after.

A Conversation About Conversational AI - Our Latest BCStrategies Podcast

Conversational AI is a phrase you’re going to come across regularly as you start looking at the bigger picture for voice in 2021. It’s central to my research, but I’m hardly alone in trying to understand where voice fits into a world that is becoming shaped around AI.

Wherever you are on the spectrum of the intersection of voice and AI, I would encourage you to give our latest BCStrategies podcast a listen. This edition was moderated by Blair Pleasant, with 7 BC Experts weighing in, so there’s a lot of ground to cover. Here’s the link, and you can be sure this won’t be the last time we explore this topic during 2021.

Guest Spot on Rob Barlow's Unleash The Potential Video Podcast

Toronto-based Rob Barlow produces a video podcast, and last week he had me on as a guest. Rob is a long-time telecom/tech veteran, and we’ve been recently exploring ways to work together locally. Even though I’m based in Toronto, I’m less well-known in Canada than the US, so Rob asked me to explain a bit about my practice. Otherwise, we talked about how the varoius technologies I follow are shaping not just the world of work, but our daily lives.

We kinda gravitated to the “future is friendly” theme, a well-known tag line TELUS has been using in their marketing for years. The episode has been posted now to Rob’s YouTube channel, and it can also be picked up on Spotify. Hope you like it!

Newsletter Time Again - February Issue - Podcast Too

It’s time for the next edition of JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review, along with the latest episode of Season 4 for our Watch This Space podcast.

If you’re new to my newsletter, I should mention that I’ve recently added an archive section here on my website for earlier issues. At the moment, the 2020 newsletters are there, and soon the 2019 issues will be added as well.

Subscribers got the February newsletter earlier today, 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.

January Writing Roundup

January turned into a good month to do some re -setting for 2021, and that has been time well-spent. Writing was on the light side, but that won’t last long. Whether you’re new here, or not sure if you missed something of mine from last January, here’s my monthly digest of writing highlights.

Voice-Enabling Microsoft Teams - the UCaaS Opportunity, guest post for SIPPIO, Jan. 22

Harnessing Diversity and Inclusion in Technology Key in 2021, TechTarget, Jan. 22

The Hybrid Workplace: New Opportunities for Collaboration, No Jitter, Jan. 19

How is Remote Work Affecting Enterprise Telephony?, TechTarget, Jan. 15

Embracing Contact Center AI in 2021, Insight Report for Upstream Works, Jan. 14

Unified Presence - the Real Challenge for Cross-Platform Collaboration, guest post for NextPlane, Jan. 13

Voice-Enabling Microsoft Teams - the UCaaS Opportunity - My Latest Guest Post

I produce many forms of thought leadership, including guest posts on blog sites, often for vendors in our space. To be clear, I don’t write about their products - that’s not what I do - but instead focus on the business problems their customers are having, and the role that new technologies and cloud offerings can play to address them.

My latest along those lines is for SIPPIO, a company I’ve written about before. They’re doing good things in the direct routing space, especially for MSFT Teams, in partnership with AudioCodes. That’s all I have to say about that, and will now steer you to my guest post now running on their blog. It’s gated, btw, so you’ll have to fill out the reg form to get it, but it just takes a moment.

The Hybrid Workplace - New Opportunities for Collaboration: My Latest on No Jitter

Future of work is a growing part of my focus as an analyst, and the hybrid workplace model is right in the middle of all that. It’s a big topic, and every thread of research leads to more threads. My latest post for No Jitter views this through the lens of opportunities for collaboration vendors. They’re very good at enabling communication and collaboration, but enterprises face bigger challenges to balance work from home with return to office.

Both trends will be big in 2021, and my take on this will cover two posts. The first one looks at return to office, and it’s running now on No Jitter. I’ll be following that up in my next post, looking at the work from home scenario. Enterprises have to do a lot of things right to make this hybrid model work, and I hope these posts will help them get there.

Best Practices for Video Meetings - Our Latest BCStrategies Podcast

We’re on a roll lately at BCStrategies, this being our third podcast over the past few weeks. I hope you caught the last two - 2020 highlights, and our look-ahead for 2021. They’re easy to find on our portal, as is our current podcast - best practices for video meetings.

Every vendor has a video story now, but that doesn’t mean it has to be all video, all the time. In my view, video has its place, and should only be used if it’s additive to the meeting. Of course, video helps home-based workers feel more connected to their teams, so it’s not just about having another communications channel at our disposal.

Best practices can mean many things, and if you’re looking for ways to make your video meetings more productive, I think you’ll get a lot from our collective take on the topic. Here’s the link to the replay, and kudos to Blair Pleasant for moderating. As always, comments and sharing are welcome.

Unified Presence - the Real Challenge for Cross-Platform Collaboration - Guest Post for NextPlane

My latest guest post looks at the nature of presence, and its role in collaboration. If everyone is using the same platform, it’s not problematic, but the reality is that most of us work across multiple platforms, and presence doesn’t natively tie across them.

This undermines the utility of presence, and by extension, the utility of UC. That’s the space NextPlane plays in, and hopefully this post will help UC decision-makers better recognize the problem set, and think differently about it. My post is running on their Blog page now, and as always, comments are welcome.

2021 Predictions for the Collaboration Space - Our BCStrategies Podcast

Our last BCStrategies podcast reviewed our parting thoughts on 2020, and now it’s time to look ahead to the year in front of us. The collaboration space sure was a moving target last year, and we expect more of the same in 2021.

The pandemic is still shaping the world of work, and both vendors and buyers are trying to make the right bets - can workers still be productive from home, will they want to come back to the office, how can businesses adapt to these changes? Lots of quesitons, and no shortage of answers from our group, so we hope you give our latest podcast a listen.

Embracing Contact Center AI in 2021 - My Latest for Upstream Works

I recently finished a 3-part series for Upstream Works on CX drivers for 2021, and the last piece focused on AI. Contact center has long been a prime use case for AI, both for improving CX and supporting agent engagement.

Lots of ground to cover, and this Insight Report has been posted now on their site. As with the other writeups in this series, the content is gated, so you need to register to get the download. Once there, you can download my earlier writeups in this series, as well as other content they have there.

Oracle Startup Idol - Am Judging Again

This one kinda crept up on me, as the event is at noon ET today, and am back serving to judge another round of startup pitches from the Oracle for Startups program. This time around, we’ll be hearing from ATLAS, Cognicor, HEARTio, Reengen, SmartHint and Tracifier.

These are all new companies to me, and there’s a lot of AI, healthcare and sustainability in the mix, along with a bit of blockchain. All very in-the-moment, and looking forward to be a part of this again.

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.

2020 Year in Review - Our BCStrategies Podcast

Got a two-parter podcast update to share. Around this time, we do our BCStrategies looking back/looking ahead podcasts. Our 2020 review of the collaboration space is out, and you can access the podcast here on our portal. Not surprsingly, we had a strong turnout, so 12 of us had perspectives to share. Hope you give it a listen, and we’d love to get your feedback.

We’re recording the 2021 look-ahead podcast this week so that should be ready on the site sometime next week, and I’ll post about it here when it’s ready.

December Writing Roundup

Had a strong December to close out a strong year, and while my volume of writing output has been less, I think the quality has remained high for the public pieces I’ve been producing. My readers are really the best judges of that, and I invite you to explore any or all of my current writing below. As always, comments are welcome, as well as suggestions for future topics you’d like me to write about.

Will the Pandemic Drive Further UCC Consdolidation?, TechTarget, Dec. 29

The Accelerated Need for Digital CX in 2021, Upstream Works, Dec. 11 (download required)

A Better Way to Do AI: Focus on the Big Problems, No Jitter, Dec. 8

What Contact Centers Can Learn from the Tampa Bay Rays, Customer Magazine, Dec. 2

Spotlight on Session Border Controllers - State of the Market and Outlook for 2021, BCStrategies, Dec. 1

Cisco WebexOne - Our Take - Latest BCStrategies Podcast

Last week was another busy week in the collaboration space, as the stream of large-scale developments continues. The big players keep making big moves, as dominance in this space seems to be coming down to a handful of majors. We’re still digesting Saleforce taking out Slack, and just before that RingCentral announced yet another Tier 1 strategic partnership - Vodafone - to further spread their global footprint. Not long before that, Zoom raised the bar at Zoomtopia to emerge as a full-fledged collaboration platform.

Not to be outdone, Cisco has made its latest move with the “all new” WebexOne. The collaboration business unit has undergone a major transformation since sharing their vision and new team at the last analyst gathering back in February. The stakes are just too high now, and Cisco simply has to keep pace with Zoom, Microsoft and RingCentral, not to mention other key players like Avaya, Google, and yes, Amazon - all of whom are doing well, and are all-in with cloud.

At last week’s much-hyped WebOne launch event, Cisco did not disappoint. If you’re a fan of bigger=better, they had your number, announcing 50 new features, and claming a 10X improvement for the collaboration experience. I have no idea how you measure that, but rest assured, it’s at least as good - and in many ways - better than Zoom. Cisco has long been accustomed to being a market leader, but things have slipped recently, and that’s not in their DNA.

So, here we are, and the result is WebOne, and it’s hard not to be impressed - not just for collaboration, but contact center as well. Lots to talk about, and that’s what we did on our latest BCStrategies podcast, this one hosted by Blair Pleasant. The podcast has been posted now on our portal, and if you give us 36 minutes, we’ll tell you pretty much all you need to know about WebexOne. And if we missed anything, drop us a line, and we’ll find a way to cover that.

The Accelerated Need for Digital CX in 2021 - My Latest for Upstream Works

Sure has been busy lately. This is the 6th piece of original, new content I’ve shared this week - writeups, webinars and video - plus I contributed to a podcast yesterday that will air next week; and my December newsletter and podcast went out last Friday. Yes, I’m glad it’s Friday!

I’ve just finished up a 3-part Strategic Insights series for Upstream Works, and Part 2 has been posted now on their website. It’s gated content, so it just takes a minute to fill out the registration form. However, if you want an analyst’s perspective on why digital CX is so important for contact centers, I’ll think you’ll find this a good read.

Part 1 can also be downloaded from their site, and I just finished writing Part 3, and it should be posted in the next week or so. As always, comments are welcome, and I’m sure the folks at Upstream Works would love to hear from you!

Top 5 Collaboration Trends for 2021 - My Take for EM360

The folks at UK-based Enterprise Management 360 have come up with a new series called Emerge5, where speakers like me share our perspectives in short, 5-minute video segments. Being December, they wanted my outlook for 2021, so the focus was 5 key trends to watch for in the collaboration space.

My segment is running now on the EM360 site, and if you give it a watch, I’d love to hear your feedback!

A Better Way to Do AI - My Latest on No Jitter

Sure has been busy lately with a constant stream of virtual industry events, writing, podcasts and webinars. I’m a regular contributor to No Jitter, and my latest was inspired by a talk from Dr. Michio Kaku during a recent NEC event. Sometimes, it takes the perspective from a physicist to reframe how we think about AI in the communications and collaboration space.

That sure stuck with me, and I’ve tied those threads together in this post, which has been posted now on No Jitter. There’s MUCH more to talk about, but that’s a separate conversation, and for now, I just hope this post broadens your thinking about AI.

What Contact Centers Can Learn from the Tampa Bay Rays

How’s that for a catchy title?

It’s exactly what it sounds like, and it’s all about analytics. Baseball fans know about Moneyball, and based on research I’ve been doing on contact center reporting, my view is that there’s too much focus on reporting and not enough on analytics. The latter approach seems to be working pretty well for teams like the Rays, who were certainly competitive in this year’s World Series, against a far more talented and expensive LA Dodger juggernaut.

If you’re just meh about the topic, then don’t bother reading my latest article, but if I’ve piqued your interest - and maybe hit on a pain point (no pun intended) - then I hope you check it out. There’s a lot more to talk about, but the article is running now in Customer Magazine, and if you give it a read, I’d love to hear your thoughts.