JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - December Edition 2021

  • Season 4 of Watch This Space closed out with an episode titled “2021 in Review – Hybrid Work Realities and Consolidation Trends 2021" did not lack for interesting developments as we all struggle to make sense during these challenging times. Chris and I summed things up by focusing on two broad trends that we feel will set the stage for 2022. One would be the emerging hybrid work environment, both in terms of technology innovation and balancing the needs of workers and employers. Second would be industry consolidation, which saw both large and small deals, largely driven by the need to acquire AI pieces. As AI’s star ascends, we consider the impact on who will be driving the buying decisions, and what’s driving their thinking.

  • Flipping the switch from summer to fall seems much easier than coaxing workers to shift. Chris and I examine the role collaboration technology plays in all this, along with what else is needed to keep workers happy and in the fold.

  • For those of you who don’t subscribe to our podcast directly from a commercial platform, you can access it any time here on the new Watch This Space website

  • If you don’t know where to subscribe to Watch This Space, it’s posted now on many of the leading platforms. More are in the works, and I’ll soon be adding links to all of these on the WTS website. Currently, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Stitcher.

  • The Watch This Space website will host our episodes for 2020 and beyond. The site is formatted specifically for podcasts, including an embedded player so you can listen directly from the site – check it out here: www.watchthisspace.tech. Our earlier podcasts – Seasons 1 and 2 – can be accessed here on my JAA website


What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights from November

  • While the Watch This Space podcast is the main form of original content for this newsletter, Part 2 here is a digest of JAA activities from the previous month, including my other forms of original content, and my social media stats. More detail for most of these will be on my blog.

  • Conference roundup – there were three virtual conferences, and my first in-person event since the pandemic – finally!

    • SCTC Annual Conference - Nov. 1-4 – in person

    • Mavenir 2021 Analyst Day – Nov. 9

    • Genesys 2021 Analyst and Influencer Summit – Nov. 9-10

    • Slack Frontiers 2021 - Nov. 16-17

  • Speaking opp – I provided another lock note talk to close out the SCTC conference

  • SIPtones gig – always fun, and we got to play at SCTC – video clips coming soon, yeah

  • Podcast – I was a guest on the Channel Futures podcast, Coffee with Craig and James, talking about Copper Sunset and implications for decommissioning the PSTN. 

  • Guest posts – in addition to this month being my regular turn to write for No Jitter wearing my BCStrategies hat, I had two guest articles run; one about the benefits of deploying UCaaS and CCaaS together, and one about NAOV – New Age of Voice – links to both are in my Writing Roundup post, as well as on my blog

  • Spotlight on voice-enabling UCaaS – in addition to these No Jitter posts, I did a spotlight post on my blog, taking the form of a Q&A interview with Dawn-Marie Elder, COO of SIPPIO

  • Writing roundup – summary of my public writing is here – much busier this month, and if I had to pick one, it would be this writeup on No Jitter: Start Saying Goodbye to the Contact Center

  • Media citings – was a busy month, with 7 citings

  • Social media highlights - since these stats change every day, the metrics are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of reach beyond my blog and newsletter. For my business, I use Twitter and LinkedIn, and here are some approximate tallies for November:

    • For LinkedIn – I had 33,078 views and 26 posts – by far, the most views I’ve ever tallied, mainly due to the traffic for one of my posts from the Genesys event, featuring CEO Tony Bates

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 13,891 views and overall, 11 posts had 500+ views

    • For Twitter – there were 11,500 impressions, 1,590 profile visits, 52 mentions, 32 tweets, and 15 new followers

    • My “top tweet” was about the Genesys Summit event, with 1,789 impressions, and overall, 4 tweets had 500+ impressions


What's Coming? JAA Outlook for December

  • As the year comes to a close, event activity takes a breather – thankfully - I only have one on the calendar, and it’s in-person:

    • Avaya Engage, Orlando, FL, Dec. 12-15

  • Speaker recruitment continues for the Future of Work Expo coming this February - I’m returning as Chair, and here’s the Agenda page - please get in touch to learn more, either for speaking or sponsoring/exhibiting

  • On the branding front, I’ve been working on new logos to better reflect my business focus for 2022 – one for my company JAA, and one for this newsletter – coming soon!

  • In terms of December client work, here are the highlights for active projects:

    • Another live Twitter event with Huawei, Dec. 6

    • Speaking gig for a leading contact center vendor, for their virtual Canadian event, Dec 8

    • Two year-in-review writeups; one for a contact center vendor, and one for a leading publisher

    • Guest post to run on the company blog site for a leading cloud comms vendor

    • Starting a new white paper for a Tier 1 collaboration vendor

    • Starting a series of thought leadership pieces for a leading contact center vendor

    • Due diligence on the CPaaS space for an investment banker


Hey Did You Know....

…it takes a lot of planning to manage all these virtual events. As with last month, here are some of my screenshots and photos from the various events I was tracking or attending.

Slack Frontiers and Mavenir Analyst Day

Genesys event – CEO Tony Bates, and John Hernandez, Todd Famous, Amy Roberge Coleman

SCTC conference – my lock note and SIPtones gig (thanks Fran Blackburn!)

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - November Edition 2021

Season 4 of Watch This Space continues with an episode titled “Copper Sunset – Why We’ll Be Losing More Than a Network”.  This topic was spurred by recent news regarding British Telecom’s plans to decommission their copper telephony network, and is in line with similar plans in the US. While we take the universal access long-provided by the PSTN for granted, broadband access today is far from universal, which helps create the digital divide, where economic success largely depends on this access. We explore the implications of this, and how we’ll be losing more than a network when those copper telephony systems are taken out of service.

  • Flipping the switch from summer to fall seems much easier than coaxing workers to shift from home to office, and we explore what’s behind the current trend known as The Great Resignation. There are good reasons why many workers aren’t just not coming back to the office, but leaving their jobs altogether. Chris and I examine the role collaboration technology plays in all this, along with what else is needed to keep workers happy and in the fold.

  • For those of you who don’t subscribe to our podcast directly from a commercial platform, you can access it any time here on the new Watch This Space website

  • If you don’t know where to subscribe to Watch This Space, it’s posted now on many of the leading platforms. More are in the works, and I’ll soon be adding links to all of these on the WTS website. Currently, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Stitcher.

  • The Watch This Space website will host our episodes for 2020 and beyond. The site is formatted specifically for podcasts, including an embedded player so you can listen directly from the site – check it out here: www.watchthisspace.tech. Our earlier podcasts – Seasons 1 and 2 – can be accessed here on my JAA website


What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights from October

While the Watch This Space podcast is the main form of original content for this newsletter, Part 2 here is a digest of JAA activities from the previous month, including my other forms of original content, and my social media stats. More detail for most of these will be on my blog.

  • Virtual conference roundup – the fall virtual conference pace continued last month:

    • NICE/inContact Analyst Summit, Oct. 6-7

    • RingCentral 2021 Analyst Summit, Oct. 11-12

    • UC Expo virtual, Oct. 13-14

    • BT Annual Global Analyst Event, Oct. 13-14

    • Google Cloud, Oct. 12-14

    • Twilio Analyst and Influencer Summit, Oct. 18-19

    • Cisco Webex One, Oct. 26-27

    • Fuze productfest, Oct. 27 – despite being on my calendar, I wasn’t able to track the sessions due to a subsequent travel situation that came up on short notice

  • Podcast – our latest BCStrategies podcast was a review of the Enterprise Connect event

  • Webinar – I did another SCTC Fireside Chat, this time about the “magic” behind the Gartner Magic Quadrant

  • Video #1 – I did a Twitter Live broadcast in New York City, in conversation with Andy Purdy, CSO of Huawei USA – details on my blog, including a link to watch on demand

  • Video #2 – for the UC Expo in the UK, I was interviewed via video, providing my insights about a session moderated by colleague Zeus Kerravala – I didn’t blog about it, but you can watch the full session moderated by Zeus, along with my interview, which starts at the 39:20 mark – here’s the link

  • White paper – I wrote a white paper for Cisco about how customer experience is evolving – while it was published in April 2021, it hasn’t been publicly shared until recently – during last month’s Webex One event, the white paper was included in their Resources offerings, and here’s the link to access the white paper

  • Perspectives on customer experience - in support of last month’s CX Day event, Genesys compiled perspectives from various analysts, including myself, on the importance of CX and why it needs to be a priority for contact center leaders – see my Oct. 5 blog post for more detail, including a link to our perspectives

  • Writing roundup – summary of public writing is here, with only one this month - my latest for No Jitter: “Return to Office Challenges: What Workers Want”

  • Media citings – had two of these last month

  • Social media highlights - since these stats change every day, the metrics are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of reach beyond my blog and newsletter. For my business, I use Twitter and LinkedIn, and here are some approximate tallies for October:

    • For LinkedIn – I had 21,568 views and 38 posts – tallies are up quite a bit from September

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 1,357 views and overall, 11 posts had 500+ views

    • For Twitter – there were 17,800 impressions, 2,271 profile visits, 31 mentions, 53 tweets, and 11 new followers – trends are up somewhat from September

    • My “top tweet” was about Twilio’s CEO Jeff Lawson during a session with analysts, with 796 impressions, and 9 tweets had 500+ impressions

  • Updates were recently added about my musical interests, with both new video clips and photos. You can find all this on the My Music tab, and I continue to mention this here in case new subscribers don’t know about my fun side.


What's Coming? JAA Outlook for November

  • As with October, I have a full slate of events to track – several of these have in-person options, but I’ll be doing them all virtually:

    • SCTC Annual Conference, Nov. 1-4 – in person!

    • Mavenir – Nov. 9

    • Genesys – Nov. 9-10

    • Slack Frontiers, Nov. 16-17

  • During the SCTC conference, I’ll be doing the lock note talk on Thursday, and as part of the SIPtones, we’re performing Tuesday night

  • For the Future of Work Expo coming this February, I’m returning as Chair, and there’s lots in play for lining up speakers for the program – here’s the Agenda page - please get in touch to learn more, either for speaking or sponsoring

  • In terms of client work, here are the highlights for active projects:

    • For a leading cloud provider, I’ve written two pieces – one will run on a major publisher’s site, and one will run on their blog site

    • My 6-part blog series for a contact center vendor concludes this month 

    • Completed a white paper about CPaaS – publishing soon, along with a companion webinar

    • New engagements that should be ready to start in November will be a mix of work, including a consulting role for marketing strategy, another one that is analyst-based, a new podcast for the channel community, a white paper for a cloud provider, and a series of short and mid-length writeups for a contact center vendor.


Hey Did You Know....

…it takes a lot of planning to manage all these virtual events. As with last month, here are some of my screenshots from the various events I was tracking.

NICE CEO Barak Eilam, RingCentral executive roundtable

British Telecom CEO Bas Burger, Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson

Google and Google Cloud CEOs Sundar Pichai and Thomas Kurian, Cisco EVP/GM Security and Collaboration, Jeetu Patel

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - October Edition 2021

  • Season 4 of Watch This Space continues with an episode titled “Can Collaboration Technology Save The Great Resignation?”.  Flipping the switch from summer to fall seems much easier than coaxing workers to shift from home to office, and we explore what’s behind the current trend known as The Great Resignation. There are good reasons why many workers aren’t just not coming back to the office, but leaving their jobs altogether. Chris and I examine the role collaboration technology plays in all this, along with what else is needed to keep workers happy and in the fold.

  • For those of you who don’t subscribe to our podcast directly from a commercial platform, you can access it any time here on the new Watch This Space website

  • If you don’t know where to subscribe to Watch This Space, it’s posted now on many of the leading platforms. More are in the works, and I’ll soon be adding links to all of these on the WTS website. Currently, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Stitcher.

  • The Watch This Space website will host our episodes for 2020 and beyond. The site is formatted specifically for podcasts, including an embedded player so you can listen directly from the site – check it out here: www.watchthisspace.tech. Our earlier podcasts – Seasons 1 and 2 – can be accessed here on my JAA website.  

What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights from September

While the Watch This Space podcast is the main form of original content for this newsletter, Part 2 here is a digest of JAA activities from the previous month, including my other forms of original content, and my social media stats. More detail for most of these will be on my blog.

  • Virtual conference roundup – no shortage of events last month, but with so much overlap, I couldn’t fully track them:

    • Big 5G Event, Aug. 31-Sept. 2

    • Five9 CX Summit, Sept. 1-2

    • Zoomtopia, Sept. 13-14

    • NEC Visionary Week 2021, Sept. 16-17

    • Salesforce Dreamforce, Sept. 21-23

    • Nokia Algorithm World, Sept. 21

    • Enterprise Connect, Sept. 27-29

  • Conference presentation – this was my fourth year at Enterprise Connect presenting on the state of speech tech and AI in the enterprise – for those who registered, a replay is available for the next three months – otherwise, for now here’s a review and slide show of my talk in Channel Futures 

  • Podcast – our latest BCStrategies podcast was a review of the Zoomtopia event

  • Video – I did a short promo clip on BCStrategies for my Enterprise Connect talk

  • Writing roundup – nothing posted publicly – see my blog post for the story there

  • Media citings – had two of these last month

  • Social media highlights - since these stats change every day, the metrics are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of reach beyond my blog and newsletter. For my business, I use Twitter and LinkedIn, and here are some approximate tallies for September:

    • For LinkedIn – I had 15,354 views and 24 posts – tallies are up a bit from August

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 1,024 views and overall, 9 posts had 500+ views

    • For Twitter – there were 15,600 impressions, 2,315 profile visits, 37 mentions, 32 tweets, and 32 new followers – trends are up quite a bit from August

    • My “top tweet” was about Slack during the Dreamforce event, with 1,815 impressions, and 6 tweets had 500+ impressions

  • Updates were recently added about my musical interests, with both new video clips and photos. You can find all this on the My Music tab, and I continue to mention this here in case new subscribers don’t know about my fun side.


What's Coming? JAA Outlook for October

  • As with September, I have a full slate of events to track – several of these have in-person options, but I’ll be doing them all virtually:

    • NICE/inContact Analyst Summit, Oct. 6-7

    • RingCentral 2021 Analyst Summit, Oct. 11-12

    • UX Expo virtual, Oct. 13-14

    • BT Annual Global Analyst Event, Oct. 13-14

    • Google Cloud, Oct. 12-14

    • Twilio Analyst and Influencer Summit, Oct. 18-19

    • Cisco Webex One, Oct. 26-27

    • Fuze productfest, Oct. 27 

  • In terms of client work, here are the highlights for active projects:

    • My 6-part blog series for a contact center vendor continues 

    • Completed a white paper about CPaaS – publishing soon, along with a companion webinar

    • Wrote a blog commentary for a leading contact center vendor that is part of a broader post that will run on CX Day on Oct. 5

    • Wrote an article about the value of voice for a cloud vendor for publishing this month, and that will be followed by a guest blog post

    • New engagements are being developed now with four different vendors – two are existing clients and two are new


Hey Did You Know....

…it takes a lot of planning to manage all these virtual events. Here are some of my screen shots to give you a flavor of what I was tracking last month – Enterprise Connect, Big 5G Event, Zoomtopia, Salesforce Dreamforce, Five9 CX Summit, Nokia Algorithm World.

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - September Edition 2021

  • Season 4 of Watch This Space continues with an episode titled “How to Make Virtual Work Work and Where Emerging Technologies Can Help”. Labor Day is a good time to think about the longer-term implications of virtual work, and we explore how this checks many boxes for workers, but less so for management. We also discuss how the world of consulting represents a good model for making this work, along with where emerging technologies can serve a higher purpose to build culture.

  • For those of you who don’t subscribe to our podcast directly from a commercial platform, you can access it any time here on the new Watch This Space website.

  • If you don’t know where to subscribe to Watch This Space, it’s posted now on many of the leading platforms. More are in the works, and I’ll soon be adding links to all of these on the WTS website. Currently, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Stitcher.

  • The Watch This Space website will host our episodes for 2020 and beyond. The site is formatted specifically for podcasts, including an embedded player so you can listen directly from the site – check it out here: www.watchthisspace.tech. Our earlier podcasts – Seasons 1 and 2 – can be accessed here on my JAA website.

What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights from August

While the Watch This Space podcast is the main form of original content for this newsletter, Part 2 here is a digest of JAA activities from the previous month, including my other forms of original content, and my social media stats. More detail for most of these will be on my blog.

  • Virtual conference roundup – none, but a whole lot coming next month

  • LinkedIn Live event – this was a first timer for me, but I hosted a livestream event on my LinkedIn feed, in conversation with the CSO of Huawei USA about cybersecurity, data privacy and open source – details to watch the replay are later in this newsletter

  • New kudo – was named a Top 50 Contact Center Twitter Account to Follow by the folks at Playvox

  • Podcast – in conversation with Ireland-based Arkphire about supporting home-based workers, hosted by EM360

  • August writing – had a mix of long and short pieces, but my pick would be this: “Spotlight on Global Supply Chain Management – Lessons Learned from the Semiconductor Chip Shortage”, posted on my blog, August 5

  • Writing roundup – here’s my August summary

  • Media citings – had two of these during August

  • Social media highlights - since these stats change every day, the metrics are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of reach beyond my blog and newsletter. For my business, I use Twitter and LinkedIn, and here are some approximate tallies for August:

    • For LinkedIn – I had 11,968 views and 20 posts – tallies are similar to July, but with more posts

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 1,142 views and overall, 7 posts had 600+ views

    • For Twitter – there were 14,900 impressions, 1,512 profile visits, 26 mentions, 12 tweets, and 2 new followers – a bit lighter than July

    • My “top tweet” was about my LinkedIn Live event, with 1,572 impressions

  • Updates were recently added about my musical interests, with both new video clips and photos. You can find all this on the My Music tab, and I continue to mention this here in case new subscribers don’t know about my fun side.


What's Coming? JAA Outlook for September

  • August was quiet on the event front – I’m not complaining – but the Fall is busy right out of the gate, with several virtual events that I’ll be tracking:

    • Big 5G Event, Aug. 31-Sept. 2

    • Five9 CX Summit, Sept. 1-2

    • Zoomtopia, Sept. 13-14

    • NEC Visionary Week 2021, Sept. 16-17

    • Salesforce Dreamforce, Sept. 21-23

    • Nokia Algorithm World, Sept. 21

    • Enterprise Connect, Sept. 27-29 - will be speaking – at the moment, the event will be hybrid, but I will only be virtual – details below

  • At Enterprise Connect, I’ll be giving my fourth update on the state of AI and speech technology in the enterprise. I had every intention of presenting in-person, but given the current state of things – especially in Florida – I’ll only be doing this virtually. My talk will be Tuesday, September 28 at 2pm ET – here’s a preview article of my update on No Jitter, along with details to register. I hope you can join me!

  • Also, for Enterprise Connect, if you haven’t registered to attend in-person yet, you can save $400 by using this link!

  • In terms of client work, here are the highlights for active projects:

    • New 6-part blog series for a contact center vendor

    • Planning a webinar and a series of articles for a new contact center client

    • Guest blog posts for 2 different vendors to support upcoming campaigns

    • 3 pending projects that should all get underway in September

 

Hey Did You Know....

… we sure live in a multi-media world, and I had a nice mix of that last month. Aside from the usual output of writing, podcasts and webinars, I was in three different things last month that are out of the norm for me.
First, a well-known vendor in the communications space is making a documentary, and I’m one of the people serving as an interview subject. My segment was filmed on location here in Toronto, and the finished product is set to come out later next month. I don’t know yet if I can share the film publicly, but will provide some sort of update for sure. If you’ve never been on a set, here’s a glimpse of what it looks like.

Next one - on Aug. 18, I hosted my first LinkedIn Live event, in conversation with Andy Purdy, CSO for Huawei USA – screen shot below. Details are here, and to watch the replay, sign into LinkedIn and then use this link.

Finally, this was from Avaya, where they asked me to comment about them winning a recent UC Award, where I served as a judge. Instead of including it in a press release, they created this short animation on Twitter. Kinda different, but it gets your attention!

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - August Edition 2021

Season 4 of Watch This Space continues with an episode titled “Zoom/Five9 Deal and Back to the Office – Really?”. Our timing was good to talk about perhaps the biggest tech deal this year in our space, the acquisition of Five9 by Zoom. Many implications to consider, especially for the remaining pure play contact center vendors, with more moves no doubt to come. With summer beckoning and pandemic fears easing, we also explored how crowds are back now for many sporting events, live music, etc., but return to office – not so much.

  • For those of you who don’t subscribe to our podcast directly from a commercial platform, you can access it any time here on the new Watch This Space website.

  • If you don’t know where to subscribe to Watch This Space, it’s posted now on many of the leading platforms. More are in the works, and I’ll soon be adding links to all of these on the WTS website. Currently, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Stitcher.

  • The Watch This Space website will host our episodes for 2020 and beyond. The site is formatted specifically for podcasts, including an embedded player so you can listen directly from the site – check it out here: www.watchthisspace.tech. Our earlier podcasts – Seasons 1 and 2 – can be accessed here on my JAA website.

What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights from July

While the Watch This Space podcast is the main form of original content for this newsletter, Part 2 here is a digest of JAA activities from the previous month, including my other forms of original content, and my social media stats.

  • Virtual conference roundup – only one - Twilio analyst update, July 15

  • Webinars:

    • Managing hybrid work for Ingram Micro Canada, July 6

    • Strategies for contact centers to adopt digital channels for NovelVox, July 22

  • Podcast - Zoom’s acquisition of Five9, BCStrategies, July 28

  • Podcast recording – security issues for hybrid working, EM360 – will run early August

  • Industry Event - UC Awards 2021, live broadcast announcing the winners, for which I served as a judge, July 29

  • July writing – pretty light output, but my pick would be: “Genesys Xperience – My Perspectives on DX and CX”, on BCStrategies, June 30 (technically June, but was fresh for all of July)

  • Writing roundup – here’s my July summary

  • Media citingsjust one for July

  • Social media highlights - since these stats change every day, the metrics are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of reach beyond my blog and newsletter. For my business, I use Twitter and LinkedIn, and here are some approximate tallies for June:

    • For LinkedIn – I had 13,314 views and 13 posts – tallies are down about half from June levels – due to being offline much of last month

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 1,446 views and overall, 4 posts had 800+ views

    • For Twitter – there were 15,400 impressions, 2,304 profile visits, 54 mentions, 16 tweets, and 4 new followers – about half less for impressions and mentions, but the other metrics were about the same from June levels

    • My “top tweet” was about the UC Awards event, with 3,578 impressions

  • Updates were recently added about my musical interests, with both new video clips and photos. You can find all this on the My Music tab, and I continue to mention this here in case new subscribers don’t know about my fun side.


What's Coming? JAA Outlook for August

  • Event-wise August is quiet – as expected – but the Fall is already quite crowded – again, as expected – with a mix of in-person and virtual events

  • In terms of client work, here are the highlights for active projects:

    • Working on a new white paper about the value of UCaaS and CCaaS together

    • Last of my 6-part blog series for a contact center vendor runs this month

    • Publishing an article on the semiconductor space and global supply chain issues

    • Publishing an article on how channel partners can build a cloud-based voice practice

    • Conducting a livestream fireside chat on LinkedIn with the CSO of a major OEM

    • Planning a webinar and a series of articles for a new contact center client

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - July Edition 2021

  • Season 4 of Watch This Space continues with an episode titled “Who’s The Boss? New Priorities for the Post-Pandemic Workplace”. As the end appears in sight for the pandemic, Chris and I explored the emerging dynamics between employers and employees. Both have been reconsidering their priorities, and while today’s technologies make collaboration easier than ever, there’s a lot more to consider than just the work itself. We review how the concept of work has become more fluid, and the importance of flexibility for business leaders to navigate this new environment.

  • For those of you who don’t subscribe to our podcast directly from a commercial platform, you can access it any time here on the new Watch This Space website

  • If you don’t know where to subscribe to Watch This Space, it’s posted now on many of the leading platforms. More are in the works, and I’ll soon be adding links to all of these on the WTS website. Currently, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Stitcher.

  • The Watch This Space website will host our episodes for 2020 and beyond. The site is formatted specifically for podcasts, including an embedded player so you can listen directly from the site – check it out here: www.watchthisspace.tech. Our earlier podcasts – Seasons 1 and 2 – can be accessed here on my JAA website.

What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights from June

  • While the Watch This Space podcast is the main form of original content for this newsletter, Part 2 here is a digest of JAA activities from the previous month, including my other forms of original content, and my social media stats.

  • Virtual conference roundup – had four virtual events, with a lot of overlapping dates, but managed to track them all:

    • Talkdesk Opentalk 2021, June 15-16

    • Fuze Analyst and Influence event, June 15

    • Genesys Xperience, June 23-24

    • Future of Work, June 23-25

  • Video segment on my analyst work – was interviewed by Joe Fields of Onalytica, as a follow on to their recent Who’s Who? reports on Telephony and Unified Communication that I was cited in both – details here, and  you can watch the interview down below

  • New white paper for Cisco – not publicly shared yet, but details coming soon

  • June writing – pretty light output, but if you want a top pick, try this: “Genesys Xperience – My Perspectives on CX and DX”, on BCStrategies  

  • Writing roundup – here’s my summary for June

  • Judging – completed my judging work for these two events:

    • Talkdesk – CX Innovators Awards – winners were announced during Opentalk

    • UC Today – UC Awards 2021 – winners to be announced July 29

  • Media citingsjust one for June

  • Social media highlights - since these stats change every day, the metrics are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of reach beyond my blog and newsletter. For my business, I use Twitter and LinkedIn, and here are some approximate tallies for June:

    • For LinkedIn – I had 23,591 views and 24 posts – a tad higher than last month, and the highest level so far in 2021 for views

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 2,348 views and overall, 5 posts had 800+ views

    • For Twitter – there were 31,800 impressions, 2,028 profile visits, 54 mentions, 31 tweets, and 5 new followers – impressions are down from May, but all else is up

    • My “top tweet” was about one of my sessions during the Future of Work event, with 5,114 impressions, and overall, 8 tweets had 1,000+ impressions

  • Updates were recently added about my musical interests, with both new video clips and photos. You can find all this on the My Music tab, and I continue to mention this here in case new subscribers don’t know about my fun side.

What's Coming? JAA Outlook for July

  • Given all the recent virtual events, July is surprisingly quiet, with none scheduled so far – on the other hand, it’s summer, and come Labor Day, travel to live events will finally resume, and I’ve got many already lined up right through early November

  • In terms of client work, here are the highlights for active projects:

    • July 6 webinar for Ingram Micro Canada on hybrid work

    • July 22 webinar on the value of digital channels for NovelVox

    • Working on a new white paper about the value of UCaaS and CCaaS together

    • My 6-part blog series for a contact center vendor wraps up this month

    • Researching/writing an article on the semiconductor space

    • Planning a webinar and a series of articles for a new contact center client

Hey Did You Know?

…every now and then, I get to be the interviewee instead of the interview. Here’s the Onalytica segment from last month, where I was in interviewed by Joe Fields about my analyst work. Click on the image below for full interview. 


JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - June Edition 2021

  • Season 4 of Watch This Space continues with an episode titled “Should Network Providers be in the Content Business?”. The jumping off point for this big topic was the recent news about AT&T spinning out Time Warner into a separate entity, and from there, it’s not hard to understand why Amazon just acquired MGM. There are parallels to last month’s podcast about the history of telecom, and it’s another example of how IP – Internet Protocol - has disrupted industries evolving from analog to digital technologies.

  • For those of you who don’t subscribe to our podcast directly from a commercial platform, you can access it any time here on the new Watch This Space website

  • If you don’t know where to subscribe to Watch This Space, it’s posted now on many of the leading platforms. More are in the works, and I’ll soon be adding links to all of these on the WTS website. Currently, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Stitcher.

  • The Watch This Space website will host our episodes for 2020 and beyond. The site is formatted specifically for podcasts, including an embedded player so you can listen directly from the site – check it out here: www.watchthisspace.tech. Our earlier podcasts – Seasons 1 and 2 – can be accessed here on my JAA website.

What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights from May

  • While the Watch This Space podcast is the main form of original content for this newsletter, Part 2 here is a digest of JAA activities from the previous month, including my other forms of original content, and my social media stats.

  • Virtual conference roundup – sure was a busy month, but to be fair, with so many closely-packed events, my participation was not as full as I would have liked:

    • Five9 Influencer Analyst Summit, May 3-5

    • Five9 Influencer Summit, May 7

    • Cloud Conventions, May 12-14

    • 8x8 Industry Analyst Summit, May 18

    • Zendesk Analyst Summit, May 19-20

    • Zoom Perspectives 2021, May 19-20

    • UCX: Now, May 19-20

    • NICE/inContact Interactions, May 25-26

  • Webinars – I presented on one last month, and the link can be found in my blog posts:

    • TelcoBridges – CCaaS adoption trends, May 25

  • May writing – if you only read one writeup of mine from last month, this would be it: “CCaaS: Rethinking Your CX and Customer Service Strategy”, on No Jitter  

  • Writing roundup – not a lot to report for May, but here’s the digest

  • Speaking – I had three different roles last month – as educator, presenter and panelist, and details can be found in my blog posts:   

    • PulveREDU – along with Chris Fine, we presented our first course on Jeff Pulver’s new virtual learning platform – topic was the history of telecom and lessons learned for innovators, but you had to be there to experience it!

    • Cloud Conventions – I gave an update on last year’s talk about the cloud opportunity for channel partners – followed by a live audience Q&A with Mike Cromwell

    • UCX: Now event – was a panelist on how enterprises need to manage all the new data being generated in the digital workplace

  • Judging – on May 18, I returned to be a judge on Oracle Startup Idol, EMEA edition

  • Industry kudo – following up March’s inclusion in “Who’s Who in Telecoms?” from Onalytica, they added me to their latest report, “Who’s Who in Unified Communications?”

  • Add-on kudo – in addition to being cited in these reports, Joe Fields of Onalytica profiled me in this Q&A interview – and a more conversational video interview is coming next

  • Media citings – just one for May

  • Social media highlights - since these stats change every day, the metrics are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of reach beyond my blog and newsletter. For my business, I use Twitter and LinkedIn, and here are some approximate tallies for May:

    • For LinkedIn – I had 23,333 views and 38 posts – much higher than last month, and the highest level so far in 2021.

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 2,314 views and overall, 6 posts had 1,000+ views.

    • For Twitter – there were 45,200 impressions, 1,620 profile visits, 62 mentions, 46 tweets, and 1 new follower – for the most part, double the April metrics

    • My “top tweet” was about Bryan Martin speaking at 8x8’s analyst event, with 4,588 impressions. Overall, 10 tweets had 1,000+ impressions.

  • Updates were recently added about my musical interests, with both new video clips and photos. You can find all this on the My Music tab, and I continue to mention this here in case new subscribers don’t know about my fun side.

What's Coming? JAA Outlook for June

  • As of this time, I’ll be tracking these virtual events during June:

    • Talkdesk Opentalk 2021, June 15-16

    • Fuze Analyst and Influence event, June 15

    • Genesys Xperience, June 23-24

    • Future of Work – at ITExpo – June 23-25 – returning as event Chair, but remotely – still looking for speakers, so let me know!

  • Speaking of judging industry events, I’ve been invited to return for two other events coming up soon:

    • Talkdesk – CX Innovators Awards - June

    • UC Today – UC Awards 2021 - July

  • In terms of client work, here are the highlights for active projects:

    • White paper launch for a major contact center vendor

    • Working on a new white paper about the value of UCaaS and CCaaS together

    • July webinar for how channels can help customers adapt to hybrid work

    • July webinar on the value of digital channels for contact centers

    • My 6-part blog series for a contact center vendor continues

    • Researching/writing an article on the semiconductor space

    • Researching/writing an article for an SBC vendor

Hey Did You Know?

…that I look pretty good in a cape – who knew?

Yup, it’s the BobbleJon – from the swag-savvy folks at Five9. They sent a bunch of fun things as part of their two analyst events last month, but this one is the keeper! They went all-in on the Star Wars “fourth be with you” theme for May, and yes, the light saber does give me magic powers.

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - May Edition 2021

  • Season 4 of Watch This Space continues with an episode titled “Lessons Learned from the History of Telephony”. Telephony has a long and rich history, and provides the template for the rise and fall of all forms of technology innovation that have followed. Lots to explore, and this podcast serves as a preview for our first PulveREDU online course on May 13 – more details later in this newsletter.

  • For those of you who don’t subscribe to our podcast directly from a commercial platform, you can access it any time here on the new Watch This Space website

  • If you don’t know where to subscribe to Watch This Space, it’s posted now on many of the leading platforms. More are in the works, and I’ll soon be adding links to all of these on the WTS website. Currently, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Stitcher.

  • The Watch This Space website will host our episodes for 2020 and beyond. The site is formatted specifically for podcasts, including an embedded player so you can listen directly from the site – check it out here: www.watchthisspace.tech. Our earlier podcasts – Seasons 1 and 2 – can be accessed here on my JAA website

What’s Up? Part 2 – More Highlights and Insights from April

  • While the Watch This Space podcast is the main form of original content for this newsletter, Part 2 here is a digest of JAA activities from the previous month, including my other forms of original content, and my social media stats.

  • Virtual conference roundup – only two events tracked last month:

    • April 8 – Huawei Virtual Analyst Event

    • April 12-14 – Huawei Global Analyst Summit

  • Podcasts – aside from this month’s Watch This Space episode, I was part of one BCStrategies podcast in April – see my blog posts for the link:

    • April 14 – Roundup of Recent Industry Events

  • Webinars – I had one last month, and the link can be found in my blog posts:

    • April 14 – webinar presentation with Lumen

  • April writing – for the first time in recent memory, there were no public forms of writing – I was plenty busy with project work, but nothing on the writing front – May will be different!

  • Speaking – I did a short speaking spot on the business value of social media during the April 28 Fireside Chat with SCTC – it’s a 3-part series, and I’ll be doing another spot the week following

  • Media citingshad one of these for April

  • Social media highlights - since these stats change every day, the metrics are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of reach beyond my blog and newsletter. For my business, I use Twitter and LinkedIn, and here are some approximate tallies for April:

    • For LinkedIn – I had 14,704 views and 18 posts – very similar to last month.

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 3,419 views and overall, 6 posts had 800+ views.

    • For Twitter – there were 20,000 impressions, 850 profile visits, 45 mentions, 21 tweets, and 5 new followers – lighter activity from March, mainly due to having no industry events last month.

    • My “top tweet” was a shout-out for our upcoming PulveREDU course, with 11,837 impressions (thanks Jeff Pulver!). Overall, 6 tweets had 500+ impressions.

  • Updates were recently added about my musical interests, with both new video clips and photos. You can find all this on the My Music tab, and I continue to mention this here in case new subscribers don’t know about my fun side.

What's Coming? JAA Outlook for May

  • Got a very busy month ahead - so far, I’ll be tracking eight virtual events during May:

    • Five9 Influencer Analyst Summit, May 3-5

    • Five9 Influencer Summit, May 7

    • Cloud Conventions, May 12-14

    • 8x8 Industry Analyst Summit, May 18

    • Zendesk Analyst Summit, May 19-20

    • Zoom Perspectives 2021, May 19-20

    • UCX: Now, May 19-20

    • Nice Interactions, May 25-26

  • For two of the above, I have speaking roles, along with two others:

    • Cloud Conventions – doing a presentation on May 12

    • UCX: Now – speaking on a panel session, May 19

    • PulveREDU - Chris Fine and I are offering a one-hour education session on the changing role of voice for Jeff Pulver’s new online learning platform, May 13

    • Oracle Startup Idol 4 – am back again as a judge (not speaking), May 18

  • Speaking of judging industry events, I’ve been invited to return for two other events coming up soon:

    • Talkdesk – CX Innovators Awards - June

    • UC Today – UC Awards 2021 - July

  • In terms of client work, am researching/writing two new white papers, doing a go-to-market strategy project with a contact center vendor, starting a 6-part blog series for a vendor, a research article for another vendor, and as Chair for the Future of Work event in June, I’m working on recruiting speakers for our sessions – let me know if interested!


Hey Did You Know?

This is where I add something a bit different, noteworthy or fun that doesn’t fit anywhere else in the newsletter. The stars just didn’t line up this month, so I’ve got nuthin’ – but it was my birthday, so as publisher, I’m entitled, right? Doesn’t happen often, but will have something here next time.

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - April Edition 2021

  • Season 4 of Watch This Space continues with an episode titled “Microsoft 2021 Work Trend Index Report – Hybrid Work: It’s Complicated”. This brand-new report had some timely data and implications around a hot trend these days – hybrid work. There’s a growing consensus this will be the way forward as we come out of the pandemic, but it brings challenges that are distinct from work from home, as well as working in the office. We’ve got it covered, and for more, you can read my latest No Jitter article, featured later in this issue.

  • For those of you who don’t subscribe to our podcast directly from a commercial platform, you can access it any time here on the new Watch This Space website. 

  • If you don’t know where to subscribe to Watch This Space, it’s posted now on many of the leading platforms. More are in the works, and I’ll soon be adding links to all of these on the WTS website. Currently, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Stitcher.

  • The Watch This Space website will host our episodes for 2020 and beyond. The site is formatted specifically for podcasts, including an embedded player so you can listen directly from the site – check it out here: www.watchthisspace.tech. Our earlier podcasts – Seasons 1 and 2 – can be accessed here on my JAA website..


What’s Up? Part 2 – More Highlights and Insights from March

  • While the Watch This Space podcast is the main form of original content for this newsletter, Part 2 here is a digest of JAA activities from the previous month, including my other forms of original content, and my social media stats.

    • Virtual conference roundup – I tracked four events last month:

      • March 2-4 – Microsoft Ignite

      • March 4 – Vonage Analyst Day

      • March 16 – Fuze Analyst Update

      • March 30-31 – Cisco Live 

    • Podcasts – aside from this month’s Watch This Space episode, I was part of two BCStrategies podcasts in March – see my blog posts for links:

      • March 9 – What Was Supposed to be Here by Now

      • March 18 - Impressions from Microsoft Ignite

    • Webinars – I had three last month, and links can be found in my blog posts:

      • March 4 – webinar presentation with Mitel

      • March 10 – webinar presentation with Huawei

      • March 18 – webinar presentation with RingCentral

    • March writing spotlight – my latest BCStrategies post: Microsoft Ignite: Their Vision for a Post-PC World and Teams Highlights – if you don’t know what mixed reality is and how the physical and virtual worlds are starting to blur, this is a good read – and here are a few of my visuals to pique your curiosity:

Here’s my Writing Roundup post for March – it’s a monthly digest of my thought leadership across various channels, including TechTarget, No Jitter and BCStrategies 

  • Media citingshad two of these for March

  • Other March notables – see Hey, Did You Know? below for details:

    • Named a UC influencer in Onalytica’s Who’s Who in Telecoms?

    • Named to the UCX Advisory Council

    • Returning again as a judge for Oracle’s Startup Idol 4 in May

    • Returning as Chair of the Future of Work event during ITExpo in June

  • Social media highlights - since these stats change every day, the metrics are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of reach beyond my blog and newsletter. For my business, I use Twitter and LinkedIn, and here are some approximate tallies for March:

    • For LinkedIn – I had 14,623 views and 22 posts – about the same as last month.

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 1,217 views and overall, 9 posts had 800+ views.

    • For Twitter – there were 18,200 impressions, 1,101 profile visits, 66 mentions, 33 tweets, and 16 new followers – all these stats were up from February.

    • My “top tweet” was for my No Jitter post about hybrid work, with 1,543 impressions. Overall, 12 tweets had 500+ impressions.

Updates were recently added about my musical interests, with both new video clips and photos. You can find all this on the My Music tab, and I continue to mention this here in case new subscribers don’t know about my fun side.

What's Coming? JAA Outlook for April

  • Just finished a very strong quarter, with plenty to keep me busy this month and beyond:

    • Strangely, no virtual events for April – so far

    • Webinar – presenting on UCaaS, sponsored by Lumen, April date TBD

    • Working on two new white papers, will be starting a go-to-market strategy project with a contact center vendor, and other new opportunities are in play 

    • PulverREDU – Chris Fine and I are offering a one-hour education session on the changing role of voice for Jeff Pulver’s new online learning platform - coming in May

Hey Did You Know?

March sure was a busy month, and aside from my writing, speaking and client work, there were several other good things happening, and thought it best to summarize them here:

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - March Edition 2021

  • Season 4 of Watch This Space continues with an episode titled “The New Voice – Exploring New Worlds Beyond Telephony”. The “New Voice” is my moniker for the new forms I see voice taking in my research, and it’s got nothing to do with telephony. Aside from being a fascinating topic, the podcast explains how this will be the focus of a new course we’ll be offering on PulveREDU, Jeff Pulver’s latest venture, built around targeted, immersive learning. Details soon!   

  • For those of you who don’t subscribe to our podcast directly from a commercial platform, you can access it any time here on the new Watch This Space website

  • If you don’t know where to subscribe to Watch This Space, it’s posted now on many of the leading platforms. More are in the works, and I’ll soon be adding links to all of these on the WTS website. Currently, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Stitcher.

  • The Watch This Space website will host our episodes for 2020 and beyond. The site is formatted specifically for podcasts, including an embedded player so you can listen directly from the site – check it out here: www.watchthisspace.tech. Our earlier podcasts – Seasons 1 and 2 – can be accessed here on my JAA website.


What’s Up? Part 2 – More Highlights and Insights from February

  • While the Watch This Space podcast is the main form of original content for this newsletter, Part 2 here is a digest of JAA activities from the previous month, including my other forms of original content, and my social media stats.

  • Virtual conference roundup – had three one-day events last month – all very different, but all very interesting:

    • February 4 – Alcatel Lucent Enterprise Connex21 Analyst Conference

    • February 17 – Learning with Google – G Suite for Education

    • February 24 – Voicebot.ai Live 

  • Project work - key highlights for last month, and links to some of these can be found in my February blog posts:

    • Wrote a guest article about telephony in Teams that will run this month on BCStrategies

    • Prepared a webinar presentation coming this month with Mitel

  • Podcasts and video – here as well, links can be found in my February blog posts:

    • A Conversation About Conversational AI, BCStrategies podcast

    • CPaaS Vendors and Tech to Watch. UC Today video panel

    • Unleash the Potential – I was a guest on Rob Barlow’s video interview series

  • February writing spotlight – my latest No Jitter post: The Hybrid Workplace – New Opportunities for Collaboration, Part 2 

  • Here’s my Writing Roundup post for February – it’s a monthly digest of my thought leadership across various channels, including Tech Target, No Jitter and BC Strategies 

  • Media citings – none for February

  • Social media highlights - since these stats change every day, the metrics are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of reach beyond my blog and newsletter. For my business, I use Twitter and LinkedIn, and here are some approximate tallies for February:

    • For LinkedIn – I had 13,252 views and 22 posts – down a bit from last month.

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 1,419 views and overall, 7 posts had 700+ views.

    • For Twitter – there were 16,900 impressions, 878 profile visits, 39 mentions, and 25 tweets – stats were generally up a bit from January.

    • My “top tweet” was for news about Poly’s Studio P series, with 4,138 impressions. Overall, 6 tweets had 500+ impressions – as with January, a pretty light month.

  • Updates were recently added about my musical interests, with both new video clips and photos. You can find all this on the My Music tab, and I continue to mention this here in case new subscribers don’t know about my fun side.

What's Coming? JAA Outlook for March

  • Got five virtual events on tap so far for March:

    • March 2-4 – Microsoft Ignite

    • March 4 – Vonage Analyst Day

    • March 9-10 – Enterprise Connect Virtual 

    • March 16 – Fuze, Analyst Update

    • March 30-31 – Cisco Live

  • Other activities to watch for during March:

  • March 4 – webinar presentation with Mitel

  • March 10 – webinar presentation with Huawei

  • March 18 – webinar presentation with RingCentral

Hey Did You Know?

…that it’s been a year – one whole year – since I had travel of any kind, business or personal. 

Seems like a lifetime ago, and over that time, I would have likely travelled to 20+ industry events. Here we are in 2021, and while I miss the travel, my business has never been better. Virtual events are the norm now, but nothing beats being with your colleagues in person, and we sure hope we can get back to that soon. 

Until then, here’s a quick flashback to early March, 2020, and this was that last time I’ve travelled anywhere since. I was conducting focus groups for a client in Tampa Bay, Florida, and let’s just say we got them done in a nick of time – a week later, and we couldn’t have done this. 

This was early days of the pandemic, and in the photo below, you can see the hand sanitizer and wipes on the table. Good measures, but that was about it. There wasn’t any social distancing, masks, restrictions on sizes of gatherings, or lockdowns of any kind. 

Seems unthinkable now, but thankfully, I’m healthy, and the client was happy with the work. And since, then, Tampa has become Titletown in the sports world. Being a Boston guy, I didn’t see that coming, wow!

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - February Edition 2021

  • Season 4 of Watch This Space continues with an episode titled “Making Work from Home Work – Are We Putting Too Much Trust in Big Tech?”, and is exactly what the title suggests. In the wake of conspiracy theories poisoning our democracy, along with unchecked market power from Big Tech, there’s a lot to be concerned about, not just for a free society, but a safe and productive workforce. Too much ground to cover in one podcast, but I hope this episode is thought-provoking, and there’s more to come.

  • For those of you who don’t subscribe to our podcast directly from a commercial platform, you can access it any time here on the new Watch This Space website

  • As time allows, I have a long list of podcast platforms to add Watch This Space to, so please bear with me. It’s only on a couple right now, but the list will soon grow, and they’ll be listed on the website for reference.

  • If you don’t yet know, this new WTS website will host our episodes for 2020 and beyond. The site is formatted specifically for podcasts, including an embedded player so you can listen directly from the site – check it out here: www.watchthisspace.tech. Our earlier podcasts – Seasons 1 and 2 – can be accessed here on my JAA website.  


What’s Up? Part 2 – More Highlights and Insights from January

  • While the Watch This Space podcast is the main form of original content for this newsletter, Part 2 here is a digest of JAA activities from the previous month, including my other forms of original content, and my social media stats.

  • Virtual conference roundup – only two events for January, and that was a welcome let-up from the past few months, which were impossibly busy:

    • January 18 – Wildix 2021 UCC Summit

    • January 28 – Uniphore Conversational Automation 2021

  • Project work - key highlights for last month, and links to some of these can be found in my January blog posts:

    • Returned to serve as a judge for Oracle Startup Idol 3

    • Guest blog post for NextPlane on unified presence

    • Guest post for SIPPIO on voice-enabling Microsoft Teams

    • Insight report for Upstream Works, Part 3 – Embracing Contact Center AI in 2021

  • Podcasts – participated in 3 of them with BCStrategies:

    • Best practices for video meetings

    • 2021 predictions for the collaboration space

    • 2020 year in review

  • January writing spotlight – my latest No Jitter post: The Hybrid Workplace – New Opportunities for Collaboration, Part 1 

  • Here’s my Writing Roundup post for January – it’s a monthly digest of my thought leadership across various channels, including Tech Target, No Jitter and BC Strategies 

  • Media citings – on the light side, with just one citation

  • Newsletter updates – during January there were two notable additions, long overdue – with more coming next month:

    • Thought Leadership section – Authored Articles – totally updated with current examples

    • Newsletter Archive – finally added this to the website with all the 2020 editions, and 2019 is coming next – now you can review earlier newsletters you might have missed or deleted, plus this adds a new layer of content that’s searchable

  • Social media highlights - since these stats change every day, the metrics are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of reach beyond my blog and newsletter. For my business, I use Twitter and LinkedIn, and here are some approximate tallies for January:

    • For LinkedIn – I had 16,558 views and 28 posts – lower traffic compared to December, which is in line with there being fewer industry events last month.

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 1,164 views and overall, 7 posts had 800+ views.

    • For Twitter – there were 15,500 impressions, 789 profile visits, 55 mentions, and 25 tweets – impressions and number of tweets were down from December, but profile visits and mentions were up.

    • My “top tweet” was for our BCStrategies podcast on video meetings, with 3,685 impressions. Overall, 7 tweets had 500+ impressions – pretty light month.

  • Updates were recently added about my musical interests, with both new video clips and photos. You can find all this on the My Music tab, and I continue to mention this here in case new subscribers don’t know about my fun side.

What's Coming? JAA Outlook for February

  • Just two virtual events on tap so far for February, but that can change in a hurry:

    • February 4 – Alcatel Lucent Enterprise Connex21 Analyst Conference 

    • February 16-17 - UCX Tech Predictions Mini Summit

  • Other activities to watch for during February:

    • Speaking on a panel session about the state of CPaaS for UC Today

    • Guest post for a leading session border controller vendor

    • Preparing for two March webinars – one about cloud contact center, and one about migrating from legacy telephony to the cloud

    • New series of guest blog posts for a contact center vendor

  • This update is shorter than normal, but during the first month of 2021, I was very active developing my project pipeline, both with current and prospective clients – stay tuned

Hey Did You Know?

…. that the future sure looks a lot like the past. Here’s a good example – a flashback blog post of mine from December 2009, with a look-ahead to the next decade – the 2010’s. Time sure flies, huh?

For years I’ve been saying that the distinctions between telcos, cabelcos, ISPs, etc. will eventually go away, and a new order will emerge. Nobody knows yet if the new order looks like Google or a super communications entity built from the best pieces of telcos like AT&T (News - Alert). However, I’m pretty sure the answer will become clear over the course of the coming decade, and my gut says that how privacy is handled will have a lot to do with it.

Well, those distinctions for classes of service providers have largely gone away, but at that time, I don’t think anyone foresaw how Amazon could become a player in our space, or how the rise of streaming services like Netflix would almost single-handedly destroy the cable business. Who knew? I guess that’s what keeps this space so interesting.

Also, our concerns a decade ago about privacy were – and remain – valid, but this was way before AI matured and became a driving force in the world of communications. Not to mention how big tech then has become Big Tech today, and the struggle to preserve personal privacy now sure feels like a losing battle. 

Sidebar - if that’s on your mind, we explore things further on this month’s podcast, so you might want to give that a listen. With that flashback to 2009 noted, it’s time to fast-forward to 2021, and focus on what’s coming in the current decade. If I’m still in the game in 2029, I’ll certainly do this look-back again, but until then, I’ll just stay in the moment, and chronicle things one month at a time.

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - January Edition 2021

  • Season 4 of Watch This Space kicks off with an episode titled “Thinking About Bigger Use Cases for AI”, and builds on a talk I recently saw from Dr. Michio Kaku about how AI can be used to help defeat COVID-19. There is nothing bigger or more pressing for the world to solve right now, and this is the moment AI is really built for. If that doesn’t catch your interest, I don’t know what will, so it’s on you if you don’t give our this-is-how-we-save-the-world podcast a listen. 

  • For those of you who don’t subscribe to our podcast directly from a commercial platform, you can access it any time here on the new Watch This Space website

  • As time allows, I have a long list of podcast platforms to add Watch This Space to, so please bear with me. It’s only on a couple right now, but the list will soon grow, and they’ll be listed on the website for reference.

  • If you don’t yet know, this new WTS website will host our episodes for 2020 and beyond. The site is formatted specifically for podcasts, including an embedded player so you can listen directly from the site – check it out here: www.watchthisspace.tech. Our earlier podcasts – Seasons 1 and 2 – can be accessed here on my JAA website.  


What’s Up? Part 2 – More Highlights and Insights from December

  • While the Watch This Space podcast is the main form of original content for this newsletter, Part 2 here is a digest of JAA activities from the previous month, including my other forms of original content, and my social media stats.

  • Virtual conference roundup – another busy month of events to track, but the content was rich, and a great way to round out 2020:

    • December 1 - RingCentral Analyst Day

    • December 1-4 – NEC Visionary Week 2020

    • December 2 – Pexip Analyst Day

    • December 2-3 – Genesys Analyst and Influencer Day

    • December 8-9 – Cisco WebexOne

    • December 8-9 – Google Public Sector Summit

    • December 14-18 (and beyond) - Amazon re:Invent

  • Project work - key highlights for last month, and links to some of these can be found in my December blog posts:

    • Presented on 2 more Fireside Chats for SCTC – variations on the topic of AI and why it’s a great opportunity for consultants – Parts 4 and 5, December 2 and 9

    • Completed a series of 3 Insight Reports for a leading Canadian contact center vendor - the first two have been published, with the third coming in January

    • Presented on a RingCentral webinar about the benefits of cloud telephony

    • Featured in a video segment for EM360 – Top 5 Collaboration Trends for 2021

    • Published a lengthy Q&A with Steve Johnson of Ingate Systems about the state of the session border controller market on BCStrategies

  • December writing spotlight – got two top picks for this month: What Contact Centers Can Learn from the Tampa Bay Rays in Customer Magazine, and A Better Way to Do AI: Focus on the Big Problems for No Jitter 

  • Here’s my Writing Roundup post for December – it’s a monthly digest of my thought leadership across various channels, including Tech Target, No Jitter and BC Strategies 

  • Media citings – on the light side, with just one citation

  • Social media highlights - since these stats change every day, the metrics are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of reach beyond my blog and newsletter. For my business, I use Twitter and LinkedIn, and here are some approximate tallies for December:

    • For LinkedIn – I had 22,115 views and 43 posts – compared to November, total views were down about 9%, but I had more posts

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 1,077 views and overall, 8 posts had 700+ views

    • For Twitter – there were 52,400 impressions, 683 profile visits, 44 mentions, 45 tweets and 1 new follower – impressions were up 26% from November, and profile visits spiked, with over twice as many as November

    • My “top tweet” was during RingCentral Analyst Day, with 9,624 impressions – likely an all-time high. Overall, 5 tweets had 2,000+ impressions, and 14 had 800+.

Updates were recently added about my musical interests, with both new video clips and photos. You can find all this on the My Music tab, and I continue to mention this here in case new subscribers don’t know about my fun side.

What's Coming? JAA Outlook for January

  • Just one virtual event on tap so far for January, but that can change in a hurry:

    • January 18 - Wildix Virtual UC&C Summit 2021 

  • Other activities to watch for during January:

    • Guest blog post for a new client about how enterprises can truly unify their fragmented approach to collaboration

    • Market sizing project for a vendor in the collaboration space

    • Preparing a presentation for a February webinar for a leading UCaaS player

    • New series of guest blog posts for a contact center vendor

    • Guest post for a session border controller vendor

    • Returning as a judge for the next round of Oracle Startup Idol

Hey Did You Know?

We can’t move on from 2020 fast enough, but it turned out to be my busiest year ever. Am grateful for the steady workload and clutch of new clients, and it sure looks like more of the same for 2021. 

I wouldn’t expect any of my subscribers to be up on the full range my activities, so here’s one way to do that – my 2020 by the numbers. Most of these are updates from last year, but given how busy things have been, I’ve added some new metrics, including my social media tallies.

Social Media – 2020 by the Numbers

Thought Leadership and Business Activity – 2020 by the Numbers

  •   7 new clients (not including new work from existing clients)

  •   40 conferences/industry events 

  •   10 of these events I was either moderating or speaking

  •   5 events serving as a judge

  •   66 published articles/guest posts/video segments

  •  124 blog posts

  •   24 podcasts (including Watch This Space for this newsletter)

  •  14 webinars

  •   3 white papers

  •   2 Twitter chats

  •   12 editions of this newsletter 

  •   31 JAA citings in the media

  •   2 new industry accolades    

  •   2 SIPtones gigs