Leapfrog CX Strategies

Evan and Dave chat with the legendary tech activist and author Cory Doctorow.

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger -- a contributor to Boing Boing and the author of young adult novels like HOMELAND, PIRATE CINEMA and LITTLE BROTHER and novels for adults like RAPTURE OF THE NERDS and MAKERS. He is the former European director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group.

Enterprise users of communications and technologies need activists too.  We cover a lot of ground in this podcast. Cory has an informed opinion on the changes taking place in the tech that governs our lives. We cover surveillance, privacy, chickenization, and so much more.

Works referenced in this episode:
Attack Surface
Little Brother
How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism

Subscribe to Cory's blog here. 

Evan and Dave chat with Javier Soltero, VP & GM of Google Workspace. 

Javier wants you to re-think G Suite. Actually, he wants you re-think suites and in general. He explains in this podcast the logic and intent of rebranding G Suite to Google Workspace. We also cover some of the changes at Google Cloud, and Javier explains why enterprises can trust Google with their data.  Go ahead and download this episode, voice is a great way to meet and chat. 

Javier Soltero became the VP of G Suite about a year ago, and already worked himself out of that job. Google Workspace is more than a rebrand, it's a new philosophy about online productivity. We also cover voice, chat, and of course email. We also talk about how Google Workspace is different than Microsoft's Office 365 -- his prior gig. 

Javier landed at Microsoft after it acquired his startup, Acompli in 2014. As an MS CVP, he worked on Cortana, Outlook, and Office. Prior to starting Acompli, Javier worked at VMware, Hyperic, and Netscape. Javier attended Carnegie Mellon University and currently lives in the San Francisco area.

Evan and Dave chat with Cameron Weeks (Twitter/LinkedIn), CEO and co-Founder of Edify. 

We strive to have guests that span the industry, and this episode has it it all. That's because Edify offers UCaaS, CCaaS, and CPaaS. Actually, that's not even broad enough. Cameron and Team Edify are on a mission to redefine business communications, cloud, omnichannel, and customer engagement. He believes that the technologies today enable a totally new approach: 

Cameron Weeks is the driving force behind Edify Labs. The company is only two years old, but has decades of experience behind it. The hardest part is getting prospects to realize that they can order off the established menu. 

Evan and Dave chat with Tony Bates (Twitter/LinkedIn), CEO of Genesys.

Many factors are currently contributing to the interesting and uncharted territories in which businesses now find themselves. From the global pandemic, to the continued rise of AI and the cloud, as well as the ever-evolving understanding of customer experience. For our guest today, Tony Bates, the confluence of these forces, and a desire to constantly innovate and scale both propel and ground his work.

Tony shares some reflections on Skype, and takes us through the process he went through accepting the CEO role at Genesys. We discuss some of the changes implemented since his arrival a little less than two years ago. Tony is no stranger to industry leaders and the forefront of the tech world. He explains why his current position at Genesys is the job he "has been waiting for his whole life!" 

Our conversation covers the changes at Genesys since Tony arrived. He also unpacks the three-pronged approach to innovation that he subscribes to, underlining the importance of system synergies. We discuss balancing new talent with experienced minds, and Tony talks about the fusion of these two forces for a more successful future. 

One of the great takeaways from our chat is Tony's explanation of the idea of experience as a service, his renewed focus on the customer journey, and how this relates to their marketing strategy at the company right now. 

Evan and Dave chat with Noreen Allen, CMO of Bandwidth Inc. 

Noreen has been the CMO of Bandwidth (NASDAQ: BAND) since 2012. She is responsible for driving revenue across all lines of its business. Her specialty is building powerful, category-leading brands and creating scalable revenue engines for tech companies. Over the past twenty years, she’s been part of multiple rounds of fund raising and M&A activity and helped three companies IPO. 

Her prior roles include: VP, Global Marketing for e-commerce software provider, ChannelAdvisor; VP, Marketing for Hosted Solutions; VP of Marketing for Motricity; and VP, Marketing with SpectraSite Communications.

In this podcast you will get a better intro Bandwidth, a provider that has experienced explosive growth as it powers many of the top brands and services in UCaaS including RingCentral and Microsoft Teams. 

Evan and Dave chat with Alan Duric (Twitter), the CTO/COO and Co-Founder of Wire. 

Wire, based in Zug Switzerland, is a provider of secure collaborative communications, Wire offers messaging, voice and video calling, and file-sharing services all protected with end-to-end encryption. 

The Wire app launched in 2014 with secure messaging. Over the years it has expanded into a full communications suite while retaining strong end-to-end encryption. In this podcast Alan shares some new features that are coming, 

Prior to Wire, Duric has worked with several communications companies including Skype, Telio, Camino Networks, and Ericsson. He was also heavily involved in the development of WebRTC. 

Evan and Dave chat with Stewart Bufferfield, the co-Founder of Slack. 

Slack is the leading channel-based messaging platform, used by millions to align their teams, unify their systems, and drive their businesses forward. 

In this podcast we cover a lot of ground, including Microsoft, recent acquisitions, Slack Connect, Amazon Chime, Enterprise Grid, and more. 

Stewart has been regularly recognized for the foresight and innovation that has helped him build two companies. He was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Magazine, and one of the Top 50 Leaders by BusinessWeek; he has been included on Vanity Fair’s New Establishment List, the Recode 100, Advertising Age’s Creativity 50, and the Technology Innovator of the Year by the Wall Street Journal.

Slack was an accident, as was Flickr before it. The team invented the tools that became Slack in order to better collaborate. They eventually realized that other companies might want to improve collaboration too and Slack was born. 

Stewart has a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Victoria and a Master of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge.

Evan and Dave chat with Bruce McClelland, the recently named CEO and President of Ribbon Communications. 

Ribbon Communications is a global communications and network solutions provider to service providers, enterprises, and critical infrastructure sectors. Bruce is a technical business leader with a proven history of developing and growing businesses. Previously, Bruce was CEO at ARRIS and led its sale to CommScope, where he served as COO. During his tenure at ARRIS, Bruce held multiple leadership positions and had a key role in the successful acquisition and integration of multiple companies including Ruckus, Pace and the Motorola Home Business. 

This podcast is your chance to meet Bruce. He joined Ribbon just before the pandemic's shelter in place orders. That's probably made him more productive has he otherwise would have been traveling extensively. Ribbon's history of acquisitions has created a company that's extremely decentralized. We cover a broad swath of topics in this podcast including SBCs, 5G, wireless, IoT, and more. 

Bruce began his career at Bell Northern Research and held several leadership roles at Nortel. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering (Great Distinction) from the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.

Dave and Evan chat with Ryan Hollenbeck, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing and Customer Experience at Verint. 

Ryan Hollenbeck is responsible for driving global corporate marketing, solutions marketing, marketing communications and operations, analyst and public relations, and sales enablement. Ryan also serves as executive sponsor of the Verint Customer Experience Program that focuses on gathering a deep understanding of the customer journey and translating that information into actionable insights.

We cover actionable intelligence, the difference between WFO and WEM, how the pandemic impacted Verint and its customers, and so much more. 

Dave and Evan chat with Anthony Bartolo, the Chief Product Officer at Avaya. 

Anthony Bartolo is responsible for product development, product management, emerging technologies and corporate strategy across Avaya’s premise and cloud-based solutions. He rejoined Avaya last November, and reports to CEO Jim Chirico.

Bartolo has over 30 years of functional and general management experience in transformational, high growth environments, ranging from start‑ups to large cap public companies. He returns to Avaya after having spent the last several years at Tata Communications where he served as its EVP and Chief Product Office. Prior to Tata, Bartolo was vice president at Avaya in both the UC and contact center business units responsible for product development and the SMB business segment.

Anthony’s previous roles include President and CEO of Skyrider Limited, a social networking start-up, and VP and GM of the Wireless Infrastructure and RFID Divisions for Symbol Technologies (acquired by Motorola). He has also held multiple senior leadership positions around the globe with Nortel Networks. A graduate of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia.