UC Today

 After recent job cuts, many are asking if the metaverse dream is over. In this UC Today interview, Christopher Carey sits down with technology evangelist Kevin O'Donovan to unpack the rise, fall, and future of the Metaverse.

Discover:
🔵 How digital twins and physics-based simulations are quietly transforming industries like manufacturing, energy, and autonomous vehicles.

🔵 Why early VR hype and virtual office experiments failed to gain widespread adoption, and what that teaches about realistic expectations.

🔵 The lessons from hardware limitations, fragmented standards, and over-optimism that shaped the Metaverse’s current trajectory.

🔵 How emerging technologies—generative AI, AI-powered glasses, and augmented reality—are redefining how organizations interact with digital environments.

Join the conversation: share your thoughts on the metaverse’s evolution in the comments. 

Join Kristian McCann, host at UC Today, as he sits down with Chris Reed, Head of Product and Technology at Wordwatch, to discuss how phased, risk-free data migration protects compliance and unlocks operational value.

Communication data migration in regulated financial sectors is often seen as risky and resource-intensive, and Reed dives deep into why legacy data formats, metadata preservation, and regulatory compliance make migrations daunting. 

Reed explains how approaches like Wordwatch's, with a phased, controlled approach, mitigates the fear and the risk by ensuring zero modification to original records, maintaining their integrity and audit trails throughout. 

Key points include:

• The paramount risk of data loss or corruption during migration, especially preserving metadata such as retention and legal holds, which is crucial for compliance with regulators like FINRA and FCA.
• Common pitfalls financial institutions face, including budget constraints and the complexity of handling legacy codecs that modern systems struggle to support.
• Wordwatch’s solution: migrating metadata first, preserving original call recordings unchanged, and providing continuous validation to guarantee the completeness and authenticity of data.
• The benefits of consolidating legacy and live data into a single, secure archive, enabling rapid searches, easing regulatory response times, breaking vendor lock-in, and unlocking insights from communication data.

Explore how Wordwatch’s phased migration strategy can be tailored to your organization’s legacy systems by visiting https://wordwatch.io/.

Kristian McCann of UC Today talks to Chris Reed, Head of Product and Technology at Wordwatch, to explore how financial and regulated firms can transform their communication governance from a mere compliance task into a powerful source of business intelligence. 

This video dives deep into how companies can convert compliance data into actionable insights rather than viewing it as a checklist obligation. 

Key discussion points include:

• How legacy compliance systems create silos that limit insight and operational efficiency.
• The AI-driven opportunities unlocked by making communication data fully searchable.
• The strategic benefits of a single unified archive for compliance, technical, and client management teams.
• Real measurable improvements in compliance effectiveness, risk management, and customer satisfaction driven by turning communication data into a single trusted source of truth.

If you want to discover how to unlock the hidden intelligence in your data and future-proof your compliance and risk strategy with AI-powered governance, visit https://wordwatch.io/.

In this episode of UC Today, host Christopher Carey sits down with Tim Ward, Product Marketing Specialist at Global Relay, and Irwin Lazar, President and Principal Analyst at Metrigy, to unpack the findings of Metrigy’s latest report on the rapidly expanding compliance risks across unified communications.

With enterprises adopting Teams, WhatsApp, SMS, AI assistants, and more, the discussion digs into why compliance can no longer lag behind innovation – and how leaders can avoid costly missteps that impact productivity, security, and regulatory accountability.

Unified communications is evolving faster than most compliance frameworks can keep up – and the consequences are real. In this candid conversation, Tim and Irwin reveal where organizations are slipping, how AI-generated content complicates record-keeping, and why blocking apps often backfires. They share first-hand examples of multimillion-dollar fines, the hidden risks of employee workarounds, and the operational insights companies can unlock when they treat compliance data as a strategic asset rather than a burden.

Join Kieran Devlin, UC Today host, in conversation with Bill Dellara, Chief Product Officer at VOSS, as they explore the emerging concept of digital workplace automation fabric and its transformative impact on enterprise IT operations. In this insightful discussion, Bill shares how organizations like BT, Telefonica, and Lloyds Banking Group are breaking free from manual, script-based processes that have historically plagued UC and collaboration management.

Bill Dellara explains why this domain has remained stubbornly resistant to automation—despite widespread success in other IT areas—and how specialized platforms are finally bridging the gap between automation expectations and reality.

Key Discussion Points:

• The Complexity Challenge: Learn why traditional automation approaches fail in UC environments, where even simple user onboarding can involve 30+ API calls, 3,500+ voice settings, and coordination across siloed teams managing voice, messaging, and meeting rooms separately.
• Four Pillars Integration: Discover how connecting automation, monitoring, analytics, and AI as unified pillars—rather than separate tools—enables closed-loop self-healing scenarios that can automatically detect issues, adjust configurations, and escalate when needed without human intervention.
• Real-World Transformation: Hear how a major enterprise reduced user onboarding from 5-10 days to under one hour while dramatically improving new user experience and eliminating configuration errors—all through integrating ServiceNow with VOSS's orchestrated workflows.

Next Steps: 

Assess your current automation maturity by mapping how many business processes truly integrate your UC and collaboration platforms versus relying on manual ticket handoffs. Evaluate whether your approach can scale to support strategic business agility or remains limited to tactical efficiency improvements within the UC domain.

Kristian McCann sits down with John Ringis, Director of Physical Security, and Salik Makda, Director of Network Engineering at New Era Technologies, to unpack one of today’s most urgent workplace challenges: how to bring employees back to the office—and keep them there.

With hybrid work now the norm, John and Salik break down why workplace readiness matters more than ever, what “good” looks like, and how organizations can rebuild trust in the physical office through safer environments, smarter technology, and seamless user experiences.

What does it take to create an office employees want to return to? In this conversation, New Era Technologies’ experts explore the intersection of physical security, network performance, and space optimization—and how each contributes to productivity, satisfaction, and long-term RTO success.

Key discussion points include:

• Workplace readiness defined: Why safety, reliable technology, and cultural clarity form the “three pillars” of a successful return-to-office strategy.
• Room, network, and space readiness: How everything from wireless density to huddle-room availability impacts daily employee experience.
• Hybrid challenges: The gap between modern at-home technology and outdated in-office infrastructure—and why network readiness is now non-negotiable.
• Best practices for scaling RTO: Standardizing security across locations, adopting mobile credentials, and using analytics to guide space planning.

If you're planning or refining your RTO strategy:

• Conduct a full workplace and technology assessment.
• Evaluate your network’s readiness for high-density, cloud-first collaboration.
• Explore modern physical security tools, especially mobile credentials and cloud-managed systems.
• Visit New Era Technologies to see how their solutions can make your RTO strategy a success

In this session, UC Today’s Kieran Devlin sits down with Kalyan Kumar (KK), Chief Product Officer at HCL Software, to diagnose a critical issue facing the Global 2000: the inability to move AI from the lab to the real world. With so many firms stuck running endless experiments without delivering hard business outcomes, this conversation offers the architectural blueprint needed to break through the deadlock. KK shares why the secret to AI success isn't actually about the AI itself—it's about how you manage the data that feeds it.

Everyone is rushing to roll out AI, but few are seeing the productivity gains promised. Why? According to KK, it’s not an AI problem—it’s a data problem. The enterprise landscape is a "tangled web" of disparate applications, and without a data-first operating model, deploying autonomous agents often results in simply making bad decisions faster.

In this deep dive, we explore why modernization doesn't mean ripping out "classic" systems like mainframes, but rather building an orchestration layer that connects them to new intelligence. KK explains why the future isn't just about picking an LLM, but about mastering metadata and preparing for a multi-agent world where governance is non-negotiable.

Key discussion points:

The Data-First Imperative: Why you must untether data from applications and master metadata before AI can succeed—treating your enterprise like a well-organized library rather than a chaotic storage room.

Solving the Integration Paradox: How to bridge modern AI agents with "classic" core systems (ERPs, Mainframes) using universal orchestration rather than forcing a total rip-and-replace modernization.

Governance in a Multi-Agent World: Preparing for the rise of Agent-to-Agent (A2A) communication and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to prevent autonomous agents from creating conflict.

Kristian McCann sits down with Ryan Zoehner, CEO at Algo Communication Products, and Ariel Posvolsky, Director of Customer Success Engineering at Algo, to unpack how manufacturers can finally bring their industrial floors into the unified communications era.

Modern factories run 24/7, but many still rely on paging systems installed before the internet existed. In this conversation, Ryan and Ariel explain how to turn fragmented radios, DECT phones, sirens, and legacy amps into a cohesive, UC-driven communication fabric that reaches every noisy corner of an industrial site.​

Key talking points include:

• Why industrial UC is often an afterthought – and how that fragmentation creates daily communication, safety, and alerting risks on the plant floor.
• How Algo’s SIP- and multicast-enabled IP speakers, visual alerters, and paging adapters bridge legacy analog systems into platforms like Cisco, Microsoft Teams, and RingCentral.​
• Practical ways to meet OSHA and ADA expectations using a mix of clear audible paging, strobes, and IP displays for inclusive messaging in 80+ dB environments.
• What a phased migration looks like in the real world, using “Lego block” IP endpoints to protect existing investments while moving toward a full IP architecture.

Visit Algo to see how you can make your manufacturing workplace secure for now and the future.

In this UC Today session, host Kieran Devlin speaks with Will Morey, Managing Director of Channel at Gamma, about one of the most urgent challenges facing partners and end customers today: operational complexity. With organisations juggling fragmented UC, CC, and connectivity stacks, Will explains why consolidation isn’t just a commercial preference—it’s becoming a competitive necessity. This conversation digs beneath the surface of Gamma’s “one vendor, one network, one solution” promise to reveal the invisible value partners gain when everything is unified on a single, secure network.

When partners stitch together multiple suppliers, they don’t just inherit logistical friction—they inherit hidden risk. In this deep-dive, Will Morey lays out the real-world impact of consolidation, how Gamma’s network-first model enables stability at scale, and why actionable data is becoming the next major differentiator for channel partners.

Key discussion points include:
🔵 Why the “iceberg effect” explains the biggest hidden costs of fragmented vendor setups
🔵 How Gamma’s single network and unified portal create measurable operational efficiency
🔵 The rise of data-driven insights and health scoring across the full UC/CC/connectivity estate
🔵 A real example of how consolidating with Gamma enabled a partner to scale faster and more profitably

Explore how a unified vendor strategy could reduce your operational overhead, improve customer outcomes, and unlock new growth opportunities with Gamma.

In this UC Today interview, host Kieran Devlin speaks with John Christian, Vice President of Marketing at Akixi, about the urgent CX demands reshaping the telecom and IT landscape—and how Akixi is helping service providers meet them. With a rich background at Metaswitch and Microsoft, John offers a frontline view of how Teams Phone migrations are creating massive expectations around insights and experience. Tune in to learn how Akixi’s packaged analytics, CRM integrations, and call recording tools help service providers not just survive—but lead—in this evolving space.

As businesses shift from legacy platforms to cloud-first solutions like Microsoft Teams Phone, delivering exceptional customer experience is now mission-critical. In this exclusive UC Today session, Akixi’s John Christian breaks down the new expectations placed on service providers—and how Akixi is equipping them to thrive.

🗣️ Key takeaways include:

1) Why CX has become a board-level concern—and how service providers must evolve to meet it
2) The shift from infrastructure provider to digital transformation expert in the Teams ecosystem
3) How Akixi packages analytics, CRM integration, and call recording for scalable, channel-first delivery
4) Why offering CX outcomes—not just call control—gives service providers a competitive edge

From enabling vertical market specializations to driving new revenue and retention opportunities, Akixi is helping service providers turn Microsoft Teams into a differentiating CX solution.

Next Steps:
👉 Discover how Akixi’s solutions can enhance your Microsoft Teams offering: [Visit Akixi]
👉 Learn how to differentiate your services with powerful CX insights
👉 Subscribe to UC Today for more expert insights on the future of communications and collaboration