BCStrategies Expert Session Calendar at Enterprise Connect 2021

7 Sep 2021

Enterprise Connect 2021 is September 27-29, a virtual event. See the BCStrategies Experts in the following sessions. The table below provides a quick view of the date and time, session title and the Experts participating in each session; click the title of the session to jump down the page to view the full description.

Date	Time	Session Title	BCStrategies Expert(s)
Monday, Sept 27	8 - 8:45 am	Don’t Get Caught by These Cloud Contract Gotchas	Melissa Swartz
Monday, Sept 27	9 - 9:45 am	Rethinking User Adoption: Leading the Way with a Personalized Approach	Blair Pleasant
Monday, Sept 27	9 - 9:45 am	End-of-Support PBX? How to Ease the Move to Cloud	Steve Leaden
Monday, Sept 27	10 - 10:45 am	UCaaS and CCaaS as Part of a Whole Cloud Strategy	Robert Harris
Monday, Sept 27	10 - 10:45 am	Taming Teams: Delivering Exceptional User Experience with Microsoft Teams	Kevin Kieller
Monday, Sept 27	11 - 11:45 am	The New Voice Technologies: How Speech, AI Are Creating New Value for Enterprises	Jon Arnold
Monday, Sept 27	11 - 11:45 am	Contact Center Tales from the Trenches	Elizabeth English, Robert Harris
Monday, Sept 27	12:45 - 1:25 pm	The Future of Communications Technology: Keeping Your Enterprise Ahead of the Curve	Jim Burton
Tuesday, Sept 28	1 - 1:45 pm	Don’t Get Caught by These Cloud Contract Gotchas	Melissa Swartz
Tuesday, Sept 28	2 - 2:45 pm	The New Voice Technologies: How Speech, AI Are Creating New Value for Enterprises	Jon Arnold
Tuesday, Sept 28	3 - 3:45 pm	Virtual/Augmented Reality: The Shape of Collaboration to Come?	Tom Brannen
Tuesday, Sept 28	3 - 3:45 pm	Cisco, Microsoft, or Zoom? Making Sense of Their Enterprise Platforms, Part 1	Phil Edholm
Tuesday, Sept 28	3 - 3:45 pm	Mobility Update: Where Are We With 5G & Other Technologies?	Michael Finneran
Tuesday, Sept 28	3 - 3:45 pm	UCaaS and CCaaS as Part of a Whole Cloud Strategy	Robert Harris
Tuesday, Sept 28	3 - 3:45 pm	Taming Teams: Delivering Exceptional User Experience with Microsoft Teams	Kevin Kieller
Tuesday, Sept 28	4 - 4:45 pm	Contact Center Tales from the Trenches	Elizabeth English
Tuesday, Sept 28	4:15 - 5 pm	Cisco, Microsoft, or Zoom? Making Sense of Their Enterprise Platforms, Part 2	Phil Edholm
Tuesday, Sept 28	4:15 - 5 pm	How to Reset Your Communications Budget & Expense	Robert Harris
Wednesday, Sept 29	8 - 8:45 am	Frontline Communications – Enabling Business Transformation	Phil Edholm
Wednesday, Sept 29	1:45 - 2:30 pm	Locknote	Phil Edholm, Robert Harris, Dave Michels

Don’t Get Caught by These Cloud Contract Gotchas

Speaker:

Melissa Swartz (Founder, Swartz Consulting, LLC)

Date: Monday, September 27

Time: 8:00am - 8:45am

Pass Type: Entire Event, Media, Speaker

Track: Unified Communications & UCaaS

Session Type: Conference Breakout Sessions

Video Preview

As enterprises rushed to spin up cloud services during the pandemic, many have now realized that contracts that they signed in haste might not provide the level of service, or guarantees, that they thought. However, enterprise IT leaders can prevent this from happening in the future. During this session, attendees will learn how best to negotiate cloud contracts and spot gotchas with insight from a veteran consultant.

Takeaways:

Assess if your service level agreements are providing real protection
Learn where to look for potential billing gotchas to avoid unpleasant future surprises
Ensure that your contract allows you to change providers, if needed, without added friction

Rethinking User Adoption: Leading the Way with a Personalized Approach

Panelists:

Alan Shen (CTO & VP of Consulting Services, Unify Square, a Unisys Company)

Eric Hanson (CMO, Fuze)

Speaker:

Blair Pleasant (President & Principal Analyst | Co-Founder, COMMfusion LLC | UCStrategies)

Date: Monday, September 27

Time: 9:00am - 9:45am

Pass Type: Entire Event, Media, Speaker

Track: Workplace Strategies

Session Type: Conference Breakout Sessions

Video Preview

Last year’s rush to remote work and rapid transition to cloud-delivered communications/collaboration services forced many enterprise IT managers to set aside or complement their traditional approaches to user adoption with more modern, automated methods. By necessity, many enterprises have had to move away from standardizing on a single communications/collaboration platform and pinpointing a cutover date. As businesses move to new hybrid workplace options, many see a best practice for change management as being about giving users options, guiding — but not dictating — their decisions, and laying out an adoption timeline that allows the flexibility to migrate as best works for their schedule. In addition, personalized in-app contextual learning is increasingly seen as a complement if not alternative to in-person classes, brown bag lunches, how-to guides, and the like.

In this session, get the guidance you need to overhaul your user adoption techniques to best serve an agile, hybrid workforce.

Takeaways:

Learn what user adoption strategies and tactics to add or adapt for the new hybrid workforce
Get the latest best practices advice for improving technology migrations and assuring strong adoption
Uncover where automation might fit in your user adoption roadmap

End-of-Support PBX? How to Ease the Move to Cloud

Speaker:

Stephen Leaden (Founder and President, Leaden Associates, Inc.)

Date: Monday, September 27

Time: 9:00am - 9:45am

Pass Type: Entire Event, Media, Speaker

Track: Unified Communications & UCaaS

Session Type: Conference Breakout Sessions

Video Preview

With growing maturity of cloud UC platforms, organizations running large, complex premises-based systems are finding themselves falling farther and farther behind on features and functionality. The situation is even more complicated when legacy systems have reached end of support, and yet the organization hasn’t committed to a cloud migration. So, what is an enterprise communications manager to do?

In this session, a leading UC consultant will teach you how to move your organization from a legacy premises-based system to a cloud model.

Takeaways:

Understand the pros and cons of legacy vs. cloud
Get best practices advice for presenting a cloud strategy to your executive management team
Discover tips for getting the most from an end-of-support PBX and vendor relationship
Learn the basics of moving from the premises to the cloud

UCaaS and CCaaS as Part of a Whole Cloud Strategy

Panelists:

Craig Walker (CEO and Founder, Dialpad)

Amrit Chaudhuri (Chief Marketing Officer, 8x8)

Sanjay Srinivasan (VP & Chief Architect, Vonage)

Speaker:

Robert Harris (President, Communications Advantage, Inc. | Audit the Cloud)

Date: Monday, September 27

Time: 10:00am - 10:45am

Pass Type: Entire Event, Media, Speaker

Track : Unified Communications & UCaaS

Session Type: Conference Breakout Sessions

Video Preview

You have decided to move to a cloud communications strategy, but which cloud will it be? Knowing more about your UCaaS/CCaaS vendor’s environment can help you to avoid quality issues, save money, and leverage next generation cloud services, such as data analytics and AI. This deeper understanding may also help you find ways to link your cloud communications environment to your enterprise’s broader cloud strategy. In this session, a consultant with expertise in cloud services will teach you how to get up close and personal with your cloud services, and he’ll leave you with concrete action steps you can take in order to have a closer, more holistic understanding of these services and how to optimize them for communications and beyond.

Takeaways:

Understand the major cloud vendor environments, regions and reliability, and how these impact UCaaS performance, including:
- How they leverage the cloud to create resiliency
- Integrating data into an analytics system
- Leveraging Cloud regions for a low latency global deployment
- Exporting call records and recordings to a customer’s Storage Area Network
- Expanding retention and real time access to quality monitoring data / * Learn how to save money by integrating Cloud Communications into your enterprise backup and storage strategy.
Learn how to get the most out UCaaS/CCaaS by taking a holistic view of your enterprise cloud applications

Taming Teams: Delivering Exceptional User Experience with Microsoft Teams

Speaker:

Kevin Kieller (Co-Founder, enableUC)

Date: Monday, September 27

Time: 10:00am - 10:45am

Pass Type: Entire Event, Media, Speaker

Track: Collaboration Platforms

Session Type: Conference Breakout Sessions

Video Preview

Many organizations have decided to use Microsoft Teams and now must plan for Teams to deliver improved business outcomes. IT professionals are being challenged to manage complex Teams implementations, encompassing collaboration, meetings and telephony.

This session will provide specific and detailed instructions to help IT professionals deliver impactful, relevant and engaging business experiences for end users by leveraging the full power of Teams.

Takeaways:

Options for deploying and managing Teams as your primary voice platform and integrating Teams with your contact center environment / Management challenges and opportunities, including using built-in analytics to identify what is working and where more work is needed
The newest Teams' features that enable end-user productivity and proven training approaches to help your users leverage Teams features
Low code and no code tools IT professionals can use to manage the Teams infrastructure and deliver unique line-of-business solutions
Specialized mobile and front line worker capabilities supported by Teams

The New Voice Technologies: How Speech, AI Are Creating New Value for Enterprises

Speaker:

Jon Arnold (Principal, J Arnold & Associates)

Date: Monday, September 27

Time: 11:00am - 11:45am

Pass Type: Entire Event, Media, Speaker

Track: Practical AI

Session Type: Conference Breakout Sessions

Video Preview

Talk is no longer cheap, and with today’s speech technologies, conversations are becoming a valuable form of currency. This session will explore the latest use cases for speech technology in the workplace, and how they are distinct from applications in the contact center and our personal lives. As enterprises adapt to the hybrid work model, and as contactless interaction becomes normalized, the value of voice only increases. This session will provide a roadmap for technology leaders to follow, along with a look at current trends.

Takeaways:

Leading trends showing why voice is growing in new ways
The current state of AI and speech technologies
Enterprise-based use cases where speech technology brings new value
How AI-driven speech applications are making workers more productive and teams more effective
What IT leaders need to know to make good investment decisions with speech technologies for the enterprise

Contact Center Tales from the Trenches

Panelists:

Robert Harris (President, Communications Advantage, Inc. | Audit the Cloud)

Greg Pittman (Principal Consultant , Pittman & Associates, Inc.)

Speakers:

Beth English (Principal and Consultant, EE and Associates, LLC)

John Purnell (Owner, Inspired Data Solutions)

Date: Monday, September 27

Time: 11:00am - 11:45am

Pass Type: Entire Event, Media, Speaker

Track: Contact Center & Customer Experience

Session Type: Conference Breakout Sessions

Video Preview

The overnight deployment of work from home to support exploding interaction volumes during the pandemic brought unexpected consequences for many contact centers. Join us for a compelling look at real world experiences from pandemic-fueled contact center interactions, and learn how technology and quick thinking improved efficiency, quality and overall effectiveness of interactions. You’ll come away from this session with lessons that you can apply to your own situation as you move your contact center into its next phase.

Takeaways:

Considerations when navigating rapid deployment of digital channels
Why documenting business process matters
The importance of a holistic approach to Contact Center architecture

The Future of Communications Technology: Keeping Your Enterprise Ahead of the Curve

Moderators:

Beth Schultz (Program Co-Chair; Editor, Enterprise Connect; No Jitter)

Jim Burton (Founder & CEO; Co-founder, C-T Link; BCStrategies)

Panelists:

Eric Spadafora (Vice President and General Manager, BlueJeans by Verizon)

Javed Khan (Senior Vice President and General Manager, Cisco Collaboration)

Harry Moseley (Global CIO, Zoom)

Savinay Berry (EVP Product & Engineering, Vonage)

Curtis Peterson (SVP Operations, RingCentral)

Scott Van Vliet (CVP, The Intelligent Conversation & Communication Cloud, Microsoft)

Date: Monday, September 27

Time: 12:45pm - 1:25pm

Pass Type: Entire Event, Expo Plus, Media, Speaker, Virtual Conference Pass

Session Type: General Session

Communications technology has always been business-critical; now it’s the foundation of the enterprise’s ability to keep employees engaged and support the cross-company collaboration that leads to competitive advantage. For enterprise IT/communications decision-makers, this means you must think strategically about the business while still understanding the technology deeply enough to make the right choices amid a highly competitive, constantly transforming industry landscape. To help you build this strategic vision while keeping up with tech trends, this session will bring together thought leaders from vendors that are driving that transformation, in a lively discussion led by the program co-chair of Enterprise Connect together with a top industry analyst. Among the critical issues our panel will debate:

What will the communications platform of the future look like (if there even is one)?
How much synergy, if any, is needed between employee-facing and customer-facing communications technology?
How will the role of video evolve in the hybrid work future?
What role will AI play in communications technology over the next 6 – 12 months?
How should the IT organization continue evolving to better address the new realities?

Don't Get Caught by These Cloud Contract Gotchas

Speaker:

Melissa Swartz (Founder, Swartz Consulting, LLC)

Date: Tuesday, September 28

Time: 1:00pm - 1:45pm

Pass Type: Virtual Conference Pass

Track: Unified Communications & UCaaSSession Type: Virtual Session

Video Preview

Takeaways:

Assess if your service level agreements are providing real protection
Learn where to look for potential billing gotchas to avoid unpleasant future surprises
Ensure that your contract allows you to change providers, if needed, without added friction

The New Voice Technologies: How Speech, AI Are Creating New Value for Enterprises

Speaker:

Jon Arnold (Principal, J Arnold & Associates)

Date: Tuesday, September 28

Time: 2:00pm - 2:45pm

Pass Type: Virtual Conference Pass

Track: Practical AI

Session Type: Virtual Session

Video Preview

Takeaways:

Leading trends showing why voice is growing in new ways
The current state of AI and speech technologies
Enterprise-based use cases where speech technology brings new value
How AI-driven speech applications are making workers more productive and teams more effective
What IT leaders need to know to make good investment decisions with speech technologies for the enterprise

Virtual/Augmented Reality: The Shape of Collaboration to Come?

Moderator:

Tom Brannen (Founder and Industry Analyst, OnConvergence LLC)

Date: Tuesday, September 28

Time: 3:00pm - 3:45pm

Pass Type: Entire Event, Media, Speaker

Track: Workplace Strategies

Session Type: Conference Breakout Sessions

Video Preview

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) already offer enterprises the opportunity to create innovative experiences for employees and customers. And the potential could grow even further when enterprises are able to integrate VR/AR with existing communications platforms, and then combine VR/AR and communication for use as part of business applications.

In this session, hear about today’s reality and tomorrow’s promise from a UC analyst/consultant who has explored the intersection of VR, AR, and communications/collaboration.

Takeaways:

Learn about the similarities and differences among VR and AR
Get up to date on how VR and AR will shape the future of communications and collaboration, with compelling use case examples
Understand the challenges and chief considerations for incorporating VR and AR in your communications and collaboration strategy

Cisco, Microsoft, or Zoom? Making Sense of Their Enterprise Platforms, Part 1

Speakers:

Brent Kelly (President and Principal Analyst, KelCor, Inc.)

Phil Edholm (President and Founder, PKE Consulting)

Date: Tuesday, September 28

Time: 3:00pm - 3:45pm

Pass Type: Entire Event, Media, Speaker

Track: Collaboration Platforms

Session Type: Conference Breakout Sessions

Video Preview

(First part of 2 parts)

Experts agree, the pandemic of 2020/21 has accelerated adoption of advanced communications capabilities significantly. During the pandemic, remote work and communications became everything. As enterprises return to their own version of a “new normal,” integrating these now familiar communications skills and modalities across the fabric of how they work will become a critical strategic need.

In this two-part session, independent industry analysts Phil Edholm and Brent Kelly return for a deep dive on three market leaders in advanced collaboration: Cisco, Microsoft, and Zoom. They’ll highlight similarities among the vendors’ offerings, but will focus mostly on differentiators among them in four important areas:

Hybrid Work — Learn how these vendors have transformed their solutions to enable the hybrid work environment that most companies are experiencing, plus discover how each is building out the ecosystem of devices to support hybrid workers. You’ll get each company’s vision and roadmap along with an analysis of their capabilities and functionality. Phil and Brent will express their views on how compelling these capabilities and devices really are for hybrid workers.
AI in the Platform — The three companies all have strategies for extending platform breadth, and a key differentiator among them is how and where they implement AI processing in terms of the architecture and components. A decision to perform AI processing in the cloud versus in the endpoints will define overall solution capabilities and features.
Adjacencies — An emphasis on re-engineering supply chains and business processes with an ever-increasing focus on cost and efficiency creates significant adjacencies in today’s communications system. This portion of the session will look at three in particular:
Frontline — Applying advanced communications and teaming capabilities to the frontline workforce to transform business
processes and the workplace. Phil and Brent will examine each company’s focus and efforts on frontline workers, and they will examine whether telephony still has value for these workers as opposed to other communications mechanisms.
Business Processes — Many business processes are moving to cloud platforms, but does it make more sense to integrate these processes with a communications platform such as those offered by Cisco, Microsoft, and Zoom? Integration can be simple widgets, or it can be as complex as embedding the business process within the communications app or embedding communications as a subcomponent of the business process.
Contact Center — Microsoft and Zoom do not provide contact center directly, while Cisco does. The enhanced capabilities of customer care management are a significant focus for many organizations, either as part of a frontline focus or as a continuation of a typical call center. The session leaders will explore whether there is an advantage to having an integrated contact center offering directly from the UCaaS vendor.
Enhancing Meetings — The rapid adoption of advanced collaboration tools has shown both their business value and their deficiencies. This analysis will focus on the tools each vendor provides to enable better interactions and outcomes before, during, and after the meeting, with an eye on improvements to the overall experience and flow, including how these vendors are using AI to improve their offerings. The solutions each provider offers for large meetings (i.e., broadcasts and webinars) will be analyzed and compared.

To wrap up, Phil and Brent will leave you with an assessment of how they expect each vendor to address future tech direction. Join them and discover which vendor’s platform resonates most for your enterprise.

Mobility Update: Where Are We With 5G & Other Technologies?

Panelists:

Arvin Singh (Managing Director, Global 5G and Edge Innovation, Verizon Business Group)

Jason Inskeep (Director 5G Center of Excellence, AT&T Business)

Speaker:

Michael Finneran (Principal, dBrn Associates)

Date: Tuesday, September 28

Time: 3:00pm - 3:45pm

Pass Type: Entire Event, Media, Speaker

Track: Management, Networks & Security

Session Type: Conference Breakout Sessions

Video Preview

The nationwide rollout of 5G services and devices continues: Have you noticed any difference? It turns out that the answer will depend on the type of 5G service you’re on. In the meantime, WiFi—the other major mobile technology—continues to carry upwards of three-quarters of smartphone data traffic--despite a recent push to use cellular technology to deliver private networks. Other alternatives could still emerge, as the FCC has opened vast amounts of licensed and unlicensed spectrum--more than has come on the market in the last 20-years—but exact deployment scenarios around this spectrum remain uncertain.

In this session, we’ll review the state of enterprise mobility and discuss what the future might look like for enterprise use of 5G, WiFi, and more. You’ll come away with a better understanding of how you could enable your mobile workforce over the next 12 – 24 months.

Takeaways:

Is private 5G a complement or a widespread replacement for Wi-Fi? A niche market? A total fantasy?
Will the carriers continue to offer basic voice and data transport, or can we expect enhanced signaling interfaces for enterprises that expose network intelligence (e.g. can I send an SMS to this number?)
What have we learned about the capabilities and limitations of millimeter wave systems? Where do they fit, where do they fail?
Will we meet (“exceed”?) the FCC availability requirements for dispatchable location (including floor location) for mobile 911 calls?
Is 5G an effective way to address rural broadband availability?

UCaaS and CCaaS as Part of a Whole Cloud Strategy

Panelists:

Craig Walker (CEO and Founder, Dialpad)

Sanjay Srinivasan (VP & Chief Architect, Vonage)

Amrit Chaudhuri (Chief Marketing Officer, 8x8)

Speaker:

Robert Harris (President, Communications Advantage, Inc. | Audit the Cloud)

Date: Tuesday, September 28

Time: 3:00pm - 3:45pm

Pass Type: Virtual Conference Pass

Track: Unified Communications & UCaaS

Session Type: Virtual Session

Video Preview

Takeaways:

Understand the major cloud vendor environments, regions and reliability, and how these impact UCaaS performance, including:
- How they leverage the cloud to create resiliency
- Integrating data into an analytics system
- Leveraging Cloud regions for a low latency global deployment
- Exporting call records and recordings to a customer’s Storage Area Network
- Expanding retention and real time access to quality monitoring data
Learn how to save money by integrating Cloud Communications into your enterprise backup and storage strategy.
Learn how to get the most out UCaaS/CCaaS by taking a holistic view of your enterprise cloud applications

Taming Teams: Delivering Exceptional User Experience with Microsoft Teams

Speaker:

Kevin Kieller (Co-Founder, enableUC)

Date: Tuesday, September 28

Time: 3:00pm - 3:45pm

Pass Type: Virtual Conference Pass

Track: Collaboration Platforms

Session Type: Virtual Session

Video Preview

Takeaways:

Options for deploying and managing Teams as your primary voice platform and integrating Teams with your contact center environment
Management challenges and opportunities, including using built-in analytics to identify what is working and where more work is needed
The newest Teams' features that enable end-user productivity and proven training approaches to help your users leverage Teams features
Low code and no code tools IT professionals can use to manage the Teams infrastructure and deliver unique line-of-business solutions
Specialized mobile and front line worker capabilities supported by Teams
See the video preview of this session.

Contact Center Tales from the Trenches

Speaker:

Beth English (Principal and Consultant, EE and Associates, LLC)

Date: Tuesday, September 28

Time: 4:00pm - 4:45pm

Pass Type: Virtual Conference Pass

Track: Contact Center & Customer Experience

Session Type: Virtual Session

Takeaways:

Considerations when navigating rapid deployment of digital channels
Why documenting business process matters
The importance of a holistic approach to Contact Center architecture

Cisco, Microsoft, or Zoom? Making Sense of Their Enterprise Platforms, Part 2

Speakers:

Brent Kelly (President and Principal Analyst, KelCor, Inc.)

Phil Edholm (President and Founder, PKE Consulting)

Date: Tuesday, September 28

Time: 4:15pm - 5:00pm

Pass Type: Entire Event, Media, Speaker

Track: Collaboration Platforms

Session Type: Conference Breakout Sessions

(Second part of 2 parts)

Hybrid Work — Learn how these vendors have transformed their solutions to enable the hybrid work environment that most companies are experiencing, plus discover how each is building out the ecosystem of devices to support hybrid workers. You’ll get each company’s vision and roadmap along with an analysis of their capabilities and functionality. Phil and Brent will express their views on how compelling these capabilities and devices really are for hybrid workers.
AI in the Platform — The three companies all have strategies for extending platform breadth, and a key differentiator among them is how and where they implement AI processing in terms of the architecture and components. A decision to perform AI processing in the cloud versus in the endpoints will define overall solution capabilities and features.
Adjacencies — An emphasis on re-engineering supply chains and business processes with an ever-increasing focus on cost and efficiency creates significant adjacencies in today’s communications system. This portion of the session will look at three in particular:
Frontline — Applying advanced communications and teaming capabilities to the frontline workforce to transform business processes and the workplace. Phil and Brent will examine each company’s focus and efforts on frontline workers, and they will examine whether telephony still has value for these workers as opposed to other communications mechanisms.
Business Processes — Many business processes are moving to cloud platforms, but does it make more sense to integrate these processes with a communications platform such as those offered by Cisco, Microsoft, and Zoom? Integration can be simple widgets, or it can be as complex as embedding the business process within the communications app or embedding communications as a subcomponent of the business process.
Contact Center — Microsoft and Zoom do not provide contact center directly, while Cisco does. The enhanced capabilities of customer care management are a significant focus for many organizations, either as part of a frontline focus or as a continuation of a typical call center. The session leaders will explore whether there is an advantage to having an integrated contact center offering directly from the UCaaS vendor.
Enhancing Meetings — The rapid adoption of advanced collaboration tools has shown both their business value and their deficiencies. This analysis will focus on the tools each vendor provides to enable better interactions and outcomes before, during, and after the meeting, with an eye on improvements to the overall experience and flow, including how these vendors are using AI to improve their offerings. The solutions each provider offers for large meetings (i.e., broadcasts and webinars) will be analyzed and compared.

How to Reset Your Communications Budget & Expense Strategy

Panelists:

Jane Laino (President , DIgby 4 Group, Inc.)

Greg Pittman (Principal Consultant , Pittman & Associates, Inc.)

Gary Lisbon (Field Tech, Programmer, Installer and Manager , GLVoice Solutions)

Denise Munro (Principal Consultant, CRG Telecom, Inc.)

Speaker:

Robert Harris (President, Communications Advantage, Inc. | Audit the Cloud)

Date: Tuesday, September 28

Time: 4:15pm - 5:00pm

Pass Type: Entire Event, Media, Speaker

Track: Management, Networks & Security

Session Type: Conference Breakout Sessions

Last year’s rush to ensure that employees could stay connected during the pandemic had many enterprises acquiring new services and encountering unexpected costs. Even with most companies now planning a partial or a complete return to the workplace, many still plan to continue to increase spending on communications & collaboration as they build out their hybrid work strategy. Join our panel of audit and expense management experts as we discuss how enterprises can get their communications budget back on track while strategically navigating requirements that are still in flux. You’ll come away from this session with practical tips for identifying and eliminating unneeded spending while re-directing these savings toward new areas of investment.

Takeaways:

Finding the hidden costs of a remote workforce
Identifying which new costs of enterprise communications will remain
Sorting through legacy services that no longer fit in the enterprise
How to conduct a holistic audit of all communications expenses
Aligning carrier, cloud and equipment contracts with a flexible hybrid work plan.

Frontline Communications – Enabling Business Transformation

Panelist:

Karthik Arumugam (Group Vice President, Product Marketing and Commercial Management, Mitel)

Speaker:

Phil Edholm (President and Founder, PKE Consulting)

Date: Wednesday, September 29

Time: 8:00am - 8:45am

Pass Type: Entire Event, Media, Speaker

Track: Collaboration Platforms

Session Type: Conference Breakout Sessions

Frontline communication solutions integrate IP based communications, collaboration and teaming into the business processes that the frontline workforce depends on. Success with this integration could transform work for the 75% of the US workforce not served by today’s UC solutions. This in turn could drive much larger profitability gains than were generated by knowledge worker UC. From improved processes to better customer interactions, next-gen frontline communications promises to reduce churn, increase both customer and employee satisfaction, in addition to the profitability impacts.

This session will review frontline categories, and will describe how frontline communications works, the business values and integration, the major vendor positions, and the opportunities for the channel. Takeaways:

Which organizations and vertical industries will adopt frontline communications first?
What are examples of how frontline communications is changing business today?
What are the features and capabilities that customers should look for in a frontline solution?
How do you analyze business processes for frontline communications impact?