Wednesday, December 30, 2015

How to Make UC Strategic - New Article

I've been writing my monthly Rethinking Communications column for TMCnet for a few years now, and even within the world of UC&C, there is always something new to consider.

My columns usually run in their flagship publication, Internet Telephony, and that's where you'll find my current article. The value of UC has always been difficult to pin down, and in this post I examine two ways to make it strategic to the business. UC is not about cost reduction, and to get buy-in, the business has to see it in different ways.

While it's easy to assume decision-makers know how to do this, that's not always the case, and in next month's issue, I'll look at two examples of how not to be strategic with UC. Until then, I hope you start at the beginning and read my current post. Comments are welcome, and sharing is great too!

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

My TMC Interview - State of UC&C

Before you know it, we'll be covered in snow and I'll be thinking a lot more about the ITExpo, coming later next month in Fort Lauderdale. I'm ready for Florida now, but still got work to do before signing off for a bit.

I posted recently as a preview of what I'll be up to at the Expo, and more will be coming as the date gets closer. Another way to promote the event is with editorial coverage from TMCnet, and they recently did a Q&A with me about the UC&C space.

For some reason I missed this when it came out, so am just sharing it with my followers now. The interview is running here on their Shaping Influence portal, and while you're there, that's lots of other great content to read. If my views pique your interest, comments are welcome, as is any form of sharing - thanks!

Friday, December 18, 2015

5 Trends Driving UC in 2016 - New Article

Well, it's that time of the year, huh? I get my share of requests for what to expect in 2016 from the media, and I'll share those as they get published.

This post is along those lines - "5 Trends Driving UC in 2016" - but is rooted in a presentation I gave back in October rather than what a journalist asked me yesterday about the year ahead. My presentation was for the Telecom 2015 conference here in Toronto, and if you follow my blog, you'll already know that.

As a companion piece, the show producer asked me to write an article based on the presentation for publication in the next Info Telecom magazine. This is the quarterly publication of the CTC - Community of Telecommunications Consultants - of which I am a member.

The print edition is out, and so is the digital version, which all members get. However, the publisher is happy to share this and help build awareness of the CTC. I'm happy to do that, and of course, to share my article with my readers.

You can access the article here, but only after registering, which anyone can do. Instead, if you want to get a PDF of the full December 2015 magazine directly, please drop me a line.


Thursday, December 17, 2015

Cisco and the New Era of Collaboration

That was a big theme at last week's Cisco Collaboration Summit, and I've put my thoughts together around that in my current post for UCStrategies. The lines are blurring between UC and collaboration, and while Cisco only talks about the latter these days, there's a lot of UC in what the latest iteration of Spark can do. If they end up owning the market, those terms will go away and Spark will simply become a verb that encompasses all these applications. I'll bet they'd love for that to happen, but that's another conversation.

For now, I'll steer you to my post on the UCStrategies portal. I'm only touching on three big takeaways here, but there's a lot more we could be talking about from the summit. Perhaps another time, perhaps another place, perhaps on a Spark session!

Monday, December 14, 2015

Two Things to Know About Hosted UC

That's the theme of my current Rethinking Communications column for TMCnet's Internet Telephony Magazine. Every month I examine different themes in terms of communications technologies that business decision-makers might need to rethink. There's still a lot of legacy technology out there - much of which is working very well - and with that comes varying degrees of legacy thinking about the value of these technologies.

Hosted UC is one such topic, and that's the focus of my column running in the current issue. There's a lot to like about the cloud, but before jumping in - or up - a few realities need to be considered, and my post addresses two of them. I hope you give it a read, and if you care to comment and/or share, that would be great.

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Business Benefits of the Cloud for UCaaS

My UCaaS series for Tech Target continues on their SearchUC portal, where the takeup has been very good. In the first post, I defined UCaaS and explained why it's becoming so popular now.

For the latest post, my focus shifts to outlining the business benefits of hosting UC in the cloud, along with three use cases where UCaaS has strong value. This post is running now on Tech Target, and part 3 in my series will run a few days from now.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

UC Summit/BC Summit Podcast

Somehow I missed this last week - better late than never. I recently posted my takeaways about the UC Summit, and since then, we did our own post-mortem via our regular UCStrategies podcast.

Lots to digest, not just because it was a really solid conference, but also because we launched our new identity changeover from UC Summit to BC Summit. That process will unfold over time, but it reflects how the nature of UC&C has evolved, and how our focus as analysts and consultants has had to change along with that.

The podcast was ably moderated as usual by Michael Finneran, and you can download it here from our portal.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Upcoming Webinar - "BYOD Mobility or Bust"

I do my share of webinars, but for a change this one isn't mine. Am just doing a friendly shout-out for Voxvalley, who is doing their own webinar this Thursday.

The topic is a familiar one for me, and wanted to help get the word out. It's got a catchy title: "The Death of the Desktop IP Phone. BYOD Mobility or Bust!" Am not sure if that's a promise or a threat, but it's not hard to make the case that the desk phone is in terminal decline. If you accept that premise, then developing a business plan around BYOD should be a priority for 2016.

To learn more about why this is important and what businesses should be doing, sign up now. Here's the registration page, and after that, mark your calendar for this Thursday at 2pm ET.

Friday, December 4, 2015

Telecom 2015 Video Interviews - Here's Mine

I really enjoyed the Telecom 2015 conference here in Toronto back in October. On Day 2, I presented on UC trends for 2016, and am hoping to hear soon about how the video of that turned out.

Otherwise, earlier during the conference, I was interviewed by Chris Henry about my practice as an analyst as well as what I'm seeing in the Canadian market. This was part of a series of inteviews done on video by the FOX Group, and they've all been posted now to their FOX Group TV channel on YouTube.

Here's the clip Chris did while interviewing me, and will update my blog once there's news on the video of my presentation. Otherwise, to check out more about the conference, I posted about it here, and wrote a recap article for UCStrategies.



Next Stop - San Francisco and Cisco's Collab Summit

I don't travel extensively, but am in the midst of traveling three weeks out of four, but after that I'm staying local til mid-January.

Next week, I'll be at the Cisco Collaboration Summit in San Francisco - what's not to like? This has been a regular event with me for a while, and it's definitely going to be interesting. If you follow my writing, you'll know I distinguish between UC and collaboration, and next week we'll be hearing a lot about Spark.

It's too early to tell where this fits in their overall UC&C roadmap, as well as what kind of revenue contributionk Spark can bring Cisco. Given the recent Atos/Unify deal, Cisco is no doubt paying close attention to the need to properly support these new collaboration platforms, as well as get a sense how this will impact their more established UC business.

If you're wondering about the same things, check my blog next week, and for more timely updates, please follow me on twitter - @arnoldjon.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

November Writing Roundup

No two months are ever the same for me, but November was another busy one with a continued variety of articles, thought leadership and speaking at conferences. Here are the highlights, and any sharing is greatly appreciated!

Where do IoT and Collaboration Technologies Intersect?, TechTarget, Nov. 25

UC Summit - Three Takeaways - Searching for the Center - UCStrategies, Nov. 25

UC as a Service Emerging as a Viable Deployment Model, TechTarget, Nov. 24

Why Collaboration is Harder with UC, Toolbox.com, Nov. 24

How to Collaborate Without a Phone System, Toolbox.com, Nov. 18

ITExpo - Never too Early for Florida, my blog, Nov. 13

UCaaS Vendor Landscape - Microsoft and Google, Toolbox.com, Nov. 12

UCaaS - Three Reasons to Think Twice, Toolbox.com, Nov. 9

Choosing a VoIP Vendor - New Buyer's Guide - TechTarget, Nov. 6

My Next Webinar - So, You Think You Can Collaborate? - Toolbox.com, Nov. 5

UCaaS - Three Reasons to Adopt - Toolbox.com, Nov. 2

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

New Series on UCaaS for Tech Target

I've done a few series recently for Tech Target and their Search Unified Communications portal, and they continue to attract a strong readership.

My latest is on UCaaS - UC as a Service - a topic I've been researching and writing about quite a lot lately. As with the other series, I'm doing a three-part analysis of UCaaS, and each writeup stands on its own.

The first post is running now on their portal, and Parts 2 and 3 are coming soon.

Also, these writeups will be followed by an analysis of the key vendors, done by another writer. Once these run, all of this will be bundled into a free-standing UCaaS Buyer's Guide, which makes for a nice all-in resource for decision makers.