“We do all of it,” says ICAS President Matthew Bonfitto. “It’s important because it give the client one point of contact, instead of discussing with many different vendors. We can take care of a project from start to finish. It’s very seamless, and there’s continuity, which is very important.” In this podcast, Bonfitto, takes us on a journey of over fifty years, establishing a cable assembly house in 1979 to working on IoT projects today. Even as we migrate to a cloud technology world, network infrastructure remains central to the functioning of major enterprise. American Express, New York City Schools, Morgan Stanley the MTA, and New York State Courts are among the many private sector, public sector, and NGO entities that ICAS serves. “It doesn’t matter what size, we get the job done,” says Bonfitto, adding that ICAS views every job and every customer as important. “We make sure everything is up and running, you call ICAS, and we take care of it.”

Visit https://www.icascorp.com/

Connected Nation IXP is a partnership between Newby Ventures and Connected Nation. They have been helping establish Internet Exchanges with federal government grants that are available.

Don Witt of The Channel Daily News speaks with Hunter Newby owner of Newby Ventures and co-founder of Connected Nation IXP about his internet traffic research where they were able to identify 14 states without any IXP and another 8 states with just 1 IXP.  The states with only one IXP location were not heavily populated with fiber or carriers, so their effectiveness in providing optimum internet performance results as an IXP is questionable.

Hunter Newby

The Connected Nation IXP goal is to not only bring the IXP, but higher bandwidth and in most cases significantly reduced latency. This will enhance the viability of the region, city, university to industry, students and a growing population.

Listen in as Hunter demonstrates his 25 years of knowledge in building and owning this technology all around the country. If you are interested in getting one of these IXPs established near you, contact Hunter or the Connected Nation IXP.

The future of the internet will require network interconnection, cloud on-ramps, and content to be located closer to end-users. IXPs improve regional internet performance by reducing latency and keeping internet traffic local that needs to stay local, while making cloud services and content faster and more reliable. IXPs also lower costs for everyone by creating a marketplace that fosters competition among middle-mile and wholesale (IP transit) providers. States that do not have an IXP strategy are simply falling behind.

For more information, go to: https://www.newby-ventures.com/research/ or https://connectednation.org/ixp/

Making Money with CCaaS

MeiLee Langley

“CCaaS has lot of technologies you can monetize,” says MeiLee Langley, Senior Director, Global Channel Marketing of LiveVox. In this podcast we learn that CCaaS is no longer at a price point where it’s cost prohibitive to mid-market and even SMB customers. Mid-Market has become a CCaaS sweet spot, as many enterprises prefer to piecemeal together a best of breed solution, SMB and mid-market customers prefer seamless all-in-one solutions. CCaaS is accessible to the partner company that sells to SMB’s and the technology is now well scaled to the SMB. At the same time, the advantages of cloud-based services have made enterprise grade CCaaS technologies something the SMBs can use and afford. Langley discusses the basics of getting started and gives a picture of how this opportunity fits well with UCaaS and even legacy practices the channel partner has in operation. Langley also argues that getting CCaaS onto the portfolio is an urgent thing to do as these technologies will be marketed by someone else, especially as the silos disappear between competing vendors for other technology sectors. She offers practical advice on how to get underway and resources to get underway.

Visit https://livevox.com/

How to talk about AI, ChatGPT, CX to HR, CX teams, non technology business managers and senior management: White Paper for AI-CX in the Enterprise

“These are the ones that touch the customers,” says Mark Daley, a noted industry consultant and leader in the communication technology space. AI is a vast place. AI is often not understood, misunderstood, or mislabeled. Here is a disruptive technology that won’t just change things in the legacy technology closet, or even the cloud. AI will potentially change the way people work and live, change the functions of jobs up and down organizations of every size, and may give rise to whole new industries. Meanwhile technology leadership, in many organizations, often have a hard time articulating what they know to their non-technology colleagues, particularly in most companies where technology is used as a tool, and is not the purpose, of the firm.

In this podcast, Daley outlines his breakthrough research and method of organizing AI into a systematic approach that people can understand. He walks us through his multi page, free to anyone, white paper. The centerpiece of the work is his one page, one frame, one slide summary of the players in the market and the space they  occupy.

“This is for the business audience,” says Daley, explaining the challenges many IT professionals face as they navigate a whole new world of AI technologies, often with a senior corporate leadership whose focus might be things like running an airline, a cannery, a mine, or a city government. Daley also focuses on where AI touches the customer, how AI might be used to deliver CX, and to understand where the companies in the field can be placed among eight different areas.

Download a PDF of the white paper

Get a Enterprise CX AI Cover PDF

Link up with Mark on LinkedIn

Nicolas Brunel

The Great Copper switch-off

“The key element is communication,” says Nicolas Brunel Executive Vice President of the Communications Business Division, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise and author of a paper entitled "The Future of Telephony". In this podcast, Brunel walks us through his paper and discusses his finding on one of the greatest shifts in the world of communications in 150 years: the Great Copper switch-off. In his paper, Brunel writes, "The move to IP and SIP will be forced, and there will be a whole new world of 5G, 6G and cloud with users multi-tasking on a range of devices, using any media from almost any location. As well as the move to hybrid working, which has accelerated enormously during and since the pandemic, cloud, high-speed internet and 5G mobile broadband will open up new ways of working, driving new business models. The future is a blended intelligent conversation which can change and morph on the move, as the user needs. A combination of AI feeds from global databases, and personal and public IoT devices will provide a whole new world of applications. But the gold standard will be a cloud-based Unified Communications platform that permits desk and mobile numbers to be available on any device, along with instant messaging, telepresence, screen sharing and file sharing with the possibility of advanced workflow automation and notifications for industry-specific applications.” Join us in this podcast as a we take in the sunset of a long standing technology and embrace a new family of technologies, many already here, many more to be refined and developed, that will bring people and organizations together in new ways.

Visit https://www.al-enterprise.com/en

CI powers up AI to overcome language barriers

Recently CI announced an integration to Googles over 131 languages. The feature, Global Language Assist, further enhances ALL callers’ experiences, in their own primary language. In this podcast, Chris Herring, Executive Vice President and co-founder of CI gives us a glimpse of where this is all going. CI is best known for its eONE Conversational AI IVR called The Virtual Concierge. Computer Instruments (CI) has been on the leading edge of CTI and IVR solution development for almost one half a century. Today however, elevating the caller’s experience and automating routine and repetitive tasks has always been the impetus behind creating CI’s portfolio of applications. Among the most sought-after of these are inbound self-service, automated outbound notification and survey delivery and lastly custom applications. Infusing AI into CI’s portfolio was the natural next step toward enriching the caller experience.

Visit https://instruments.com/

AI becomes real, reachable, and democratic.

“AI is now out of the laboratory and into the hands of the public,” says Stijn Nijhuis, CEO of Enreach. Every now and then, we pass through a time when one can sense an era ending and an era beginning. Authors, writers, and futurists have been describing the ‘digital society since the appearance of the first non-defense purposed computers began to appear over sixty years ago to preforms functions such as billing, airline reservations and other big data functions. But 2023 seems to offer a change as significant at the appearance of the first laptop, or smartphone: AI for everyone. According to Nijhuis, AI’s arrival in the hands of the public, also means that AI’s gifts and challenges, AI’s strengths, and area for improvement, are on full display. And just like those other moments of change, it’s a good idea to be open to what will come and partner with companies that have already been working on the details.

In this podcast we learn how Enreach has been preparing itself and their customers for this moment. “We have made that technology very affordable and very accessible to the SMB,” adds Nijhuis. We learn how even the smallest organizations will be able to make big gains with what’s being called a democratization of technology, meaning AI solutions that not only scale for operation but also scale on cost.  We also hear how the concurrent macro-economic challenges of the times and micro economic challenges of the small firm to find staff, and to control costs, make accessible AI a way to improve sales, customer experiences, agent and employee experiences and in turn, build scalable businesses that can be remain efficient, when and where growth occurs.

Enreach's Conversational AI technology has just earned an award ... for more info, please see the press release and the award download page: https://enreach.com/en/company/frost-award-2023.

More at www.enreach.com.

Spirent recently released its fourth annual 5G Outlook Report, based on analysis and takeaways from over 800 new global 5G engagements in 2022. The report provides insights from across the 5G ecosystem on the current status of 5G, revealing trends, technology advancements and revenue-generating use cases. In this podcast Steve Douglas, Head of Market Strategy, Spirent and Doug Green of Telecom Reseller discuss the report.

Read the report: https://www.spirent.com/assets/the-spirent-2023-5g-report

“If they make the cherry on top, it's great,” observes Timothy Truelove of Wildix, noting how some companies throw in a “free” phone, but, pile in high list prices on supposedly ‘free’ gear by folding it into other recurring charges. In this podcast, Truelove outlines how Wildix maintains a very transparent relationship with their partners, who in turn can manage their customer relationships in a straightforward and effective way. At the heart of this approach is enabling the dealers to keep it simple and effective with their customers. We discuss conversion of customers from CapEx to OpEx to create returning revenue, nurturing clients through vertical products, like x-hoppers and x-bees, the movement from PBX to Customer Communication Platforms like x-bees and/or the coming launch of WMS 7 in 2023. As some of the legacy companies in the market pass through restructuring and other major changes, Truelove sees Wildix as a place where partners can offer their customers a modern, high margin path to migration with stability. Truelove urges partners to look to the future and see that every contract signed can mean income now and equity later.

Visit www.wildix.com

“How can we keep pace?,” asks Josh Wheeler, Strategic Director, Customer Service and Experience Portfolio, Reuters Events. Wheeler argues that customers compare their experiences, not only with direct competitors but with all the companies they do business with, from airlines to insurance companies. The benchmark is set across a huge number of interactions, where those who are not looking at the whole horizon will fall behind. With that in mind, Wheeler tells us about four keys to service and experience and how these four keys will be among the things explored at the upcoming Customer Service & Experience West 2023 to be held in San Diego, May 10-11, 2023. In this podcast, Wheeler discusses the four keys: mature your data-driven strategy, redefine the agent experience, scale support with innovative technology and enshrine CX at the heart of the business. The event promises to bring new ideas and perspective to professionals charged with delivering CX. We learn the that the conference will look directly at where and how to automate, and to deliver a successful digital transformation.

https://events.reutersevents.com/customer-service/customer-service-san-diego