New Guest Post with Ooma - 2023 Business Market Outlook

I’ve started doing some work with Ooma, a company that I have been close too since its earliest days. By earliest, I mean back when they were strictly a residential landline offering, just like Vonage. Way before cloud, way before social media, even before smartphones. That’s a long time ago, folks, but guess what? They’re still here, and have a made a nice transition to the business market, and not just SMBs.

Just did my first guest post for them, and stay tuned for more on other topics. This one is a bit tricky to find on their site, but here’s the link, and I hope you like it.

My Next Webinar - Feb. 28 at 2ET - The UCaaS Opportunity with SkySwitch

Sorry for the short notice, but I’ll be presenting on webinar tomorrow about the value of white label UCaaS to help channels grow their business. I’ll be joined by speakers from sponsor SkySwitch, and the webinar is being presented by Channel Futures. Here’s the registration page, and hope you can join us.

Future of Work Expo Redux - Press Coverage Digest

Just a quick coda to my earlier post about last week’s Future of Work Expo, with my photos and a link to a review article I wrote about it.

Time to flip the script, and share what others had to say about the event. One of TMC’s many publications is Future of Work News, and they covered several of our sessions - here are the articles they’ve posted to date:

ChatGPT session - The Reach of ChatGPT: A Discussion at Future of Work Expo

Quiet Quitting session - Engaged Employees Ward Off Quiet Quitting

Agent Experience for FOW session - Contact Center Agents Need Strong Support

AI and Workforce Management session - AI-Enabled Systems Complete Repetitive Tasks in HR

Managing Hybrid Workforces session - Navigating FOW: Successfully Managing Hybrid Workforces

Future of Work Expo Recap - Review and Pix

Last week was my fifth go-round as Chair of the Future of Work Expo in Ft. Lauderdale, and given my travel schedule, this is the first chance I’ve had to get this recap done. As good as the 2022 edition was, this was even better, and am expecting nothing less for 2024. Speakers are already asking about coming back, and am keen to start mapping out the program.

Sorry to say that the sessions were not recorded, so you kinda had to be there to take it all in. A few speakers, though, did shoot smartphone video, and have shared snippets on social, but I don’t have direct access to their clips.. Otherwise, the next best thing will be this post, where I’ll share some of my photos (and shots from others), along with a review article that I wrote, and was just posted today on EM360 (log-in required there, but it just takes a moment).

Finally, kudos and thanks to my long-term partners at TMC, for all their support to make FOW Expo happen. If you don’t know - their flagship event, ITExpo, ran its 40th edition last week as well, so clearly, they must be doing something right. If any of this stokes your interest in speaking or sponsoring for 2024, just drop me a line any time!

Managing the endpoints session, with Poly, Sangoma and CDW (photo: Ashley Battle); Making hybrid work session - moderated by David Jodoin, with Cisco, Jeff Pulver and Vizetto; full room during the ChatGPT session.

Barbara Steel from EY - new study on AI and workforce management; AI in the contact center session, with IntelePeer, Quantanite and Twilio (photo: Nadia Ciaravino); Chris Fine moderating quiet quitting session, with Mission Cloud, Premier Virtual, Focus Global Talent, Instawork.

Glenn Goldberg moderating the managing hybrid workforce session, with Vizetto, United Office and me - as a panelist for a change (photo: Barbel Wetenkamp); Agent experience session, with Upstream Works, Genesys, Five9; David Jodoin moderating the employee engagement session, with CDW, Avaya and Prodoscore.

Agenda for Day 1; group photo with some attendees and speakers (photo: unknown, but thanks Jennifer Hotai!); David Jodoin

Enterprise Connect Update #2 - Roundtable Session on Enterprise Speech Tech

Last week, I posted my first Enterprise Connect shout-out - am one of the judges for the Innovation Showcase, so if you’re a rising star in this space, you should check out my post.

Now it’s time to get my Enterprise Connect session on your radar. If you don’t know, this is the 5th year doing my update talk on the state of speech technology applications for enterprises. This time around, we’ve varied the format, now going to a roundtable.

Previously, I’ve done a standalone 45-minute talk, but now it will be a short update talk, followed by a roundtable discussion with three speakers. Joining me will be Dan O’Connell from Dialpad, Mahesh Ram from Zoom, and Edward Miller from LumenVox. By design, it’s a varied mix of voices, and I hope you’ll join us - Wednesday, March 29 at 4pm. I’ll update this post when I find out which room we’re in, but all the other details are here.

Also, below, feel free to use my special code to get $400 off your registration fee!

New Podcast with NICE - AI in the Contact Center

I’ve got a new podcast to share, this time with NICE. Am back for another episode of CX Pulse, hosted by Amelia Earhart, and this time we’re talking about the bigger picture for how AI is - and can be - deployed in the contact center.

There’s no direct link to specific episodes, so you have to scroll through their web page, but since mine is recent, it’s near the top - “AI in the Contact Center”. Also, there is a direct link for Apple Podcast subscribers, or here on Spotify, so those are other ways to access it.

Enterprise Connect Update #1 - Innovation Showcase

Calling all innovators! This is the first of two updates for Enterprise Connect 2023, and it’s shaping up to be pretty big. Another post is coming about my panel session, but this one is for the Innovation Showcase, which has been hosted by colleague Dave Michels for a few years.

I’ve been invited to be a judge for the submissions, so I have a small role to play here, albeit behind the scenes. The theme for 2023 is “Collaboration Reimagined”, so if that’s you, your application needs to be in by March 1. To learn more, here’s the link, and if you apply, I’ll be quietly assessing your entry along with the other judges. :-)

Otherwise, as the banner below shows, I’ll be speaking - and moderating - and details are coming on that in my next post. And… if you haven’t registered yet, feel free to use the code showing there to save $400.

New White Paper for NICE - Business Value of AI Beyond the Contact Center

Got a new white paper to share - this one is for NICE, and is a bit of a sequel to an earlier white paper I did for them. I touched on it briefly during a webinar last week, and to get the full story, here’s the registration link for downloading.

Big CX News - AWS, Avaya and ChatGPT

I’ve had a lot of new work hitting at the same time, and that’s put me behind on blogging, so this is an ICYMI post. I was recently invited back to be a guest on Big CX News, hosted by Charlie Mitchell, and the current episode was posted last week.

You may have caught it via social media already, but if not, I’m in the mix for some lively discussion about, well, big CX news - is AWS really a CCaaS player, where does Avaya go from here, and will ChatGPT put us analysts out of work??? Check it out here, and I hope to be back on a future episode soon!

January Writing Roundup

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

Future of Work Expo, Feb. 14-16 - Updates

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.

Next Webinar - with NICE - Tapping AI Beyond Chatbots

Got another webinar to share here. This one is with NICE, and it draws on a recent white paper I did for them. As the title in the visual below shows, we’ll be exploring the bigger picture for AI in the contact center, and why it’s much more than chatbots.

I’ll be joined by Lauren Maschio from their Product Marketing Team, and the early response has been really great, so it should be well-attended. It’s happening next Thursday, January 26 at 11 ET, and here’s the link to register.

Future of Work Expo, Ft. Lauderdale - Feb 14-16

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.

Next Webinar - Jan. 12 - 2023 Crystal Ball for Collaboration with IR

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.

New Year, New Newsletter and Podcast - January Editions Out Now

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.

December Writing Roundup

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

Telemarketing Fraud and Risks to Businesses - My Latest on No Jitter

This week was my turn to contribute an article to No Jitter from the BC Strategies team, and it’s a big topic - telemarketing fraud. As consumers, we all know what that looks like, but since we’d rather not think about it, the rest of the story tends to live in dark corners where there’s a constant struggle to stamp out or mitigate the damage done by bad actors.

There are a lot of moving parts here, and many have a direct impact on the telecom ecosystem. I’ve been researching this space recently, and the challenges are more daunting than you might think. This is my first analysis of telemarketing fraud, and there’s lot more to explore, and I hope you give this a read here on No Jitter.

Big CX News, Episode 3 - AWS, RingCentral, and Salesforce

Last week, I was a guest analyst on UK-based Big CX News, hosted by Charlie Mitchell. He had a full panel of thought leaders, and it was fun sharing all of our perspectives on some recent big news items. Hope to do it again soon, and hope you check it out - here’s the link.

My Latest Insight Report - for Upstream Works Software

Longer-form writing takes, well, longer to do, longer to be reviewed, and longer to be published. I do a lot of writing for all lengths, and here’s a current example of what I call an Insight Report. This would be longer than an article, shorter than a white paper, but substantive enough to be gated content.

I’ve been working with Upstream Works Software for a few years now, and when the stars line up, we do a couple of these annually. The latest one has been posted to their website, and here’s the registration page to get it.

The title is pretty self-explanatory, and speaks to a key trend driving just about everything in the contact center space these days: The AI Opportunity - Enhance the Agent and Customer Experience with AI Application Integrations. I hope you like it, and if any questions, just drop me a line.

My Next SCTC Fireside Chat - Dec. 14: "I've Been Everywhere, Man!"

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!