BCStrategies Experts at Enterprise Connect Virtual 2020

By BCStrategies

30 Jul 2020

Enterprise Connect 2020 has transitioned to Enterprise Connect Virtual: Digital Conference & Expo 2020, August 3-6 and beyond. This page contains a listing of the BCStrategies Experts participating in this year's virtual events. 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, Aug 3, 11-11:45 a.m.	Are Today's Transformations the Model for the Long Term?	Melissa Swartz, Jim Burton
Monday, Aug 3, 2:45-3:30 p.m.	Taming Teams for Distributed Work	Kevin Kieller
Monday, Aug 3, 4:15-5 p.m.	Speech Technologies: Innovations and Use Cases	Jon Arnold
Tuesday, Aug 4, 11:45 a.m-12:30 p.m.	Reconsidering Your Cloud Strategy In the Wake of Pandemic	Melissa Swartz
Tuesday, Aug 4, 3:30-4:15 p.m.	5G - Promises Unbroken?	Michael Finneran
Thursday, Aug 6, 11:45 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.	Cloud Contracts: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly	Steve Leaden
Thursday, Aug 6, 2-2:45 p.m.	Best Practices for UC&C Training and Adoption in a World of Distributed Work	Blair Pleasant, Kevin Kieller
Thursday, Aug 6, 4:15-5 p.m.	Locknote	Dave Michels
Friday, Aug 14, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.	Cisco vs. Microsoft vs. Zoom: Clearing the WFH Fog	Phil Edholm
Friday, Aug 21, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.	Practical Post-Pandemic Strategies for Success	Marty Parker

Are Today's Transformations the Model for the Long Term?

Beth Schultz (Editor / Program Co-Chair, No Jitter / Enterprise Connect)
Zeus Kerravala (Principal Analyst, ZK Research)
Jim Burton (Founder & CEO / Co-Founder, C-T Link / BCStrategies)
Melissa Swartz (Founder, Swartz Consulting, LLC)

Date: Monday, August 3

Time: 11:00am - 11:45am

Session Category: Standard Conference Sessions

The transformative power of cloud UC, team collaboration, video as a service, and advanced contact center technologies has become clearer than ever since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down physical offices and enabled rapid dispersion of workforces around the globe. But as enterprises plan their return to the office and move forward with their communications and collaboration strategies, how do they make sure the technology decisions made during this time are the right ones for the long term? And what do they need to know about how the changing nature of the communications and collaboration industry and vendor relationships might affect their plans?

Join this roundtable discussion to hear perspective from leading industry analysts and consultants on the future of enterprise communications and collaboration. Key discussion points will include:

Interoperability: Are walled gardens really going away as vendors promise greater interoperability than ever?
Best-of-breed vs. single vendor: What lessons are we learning from the work-from-home experience regarding the use of discrete tools and all-in-one platforms?
Emerging technology: How real is AI, and what are its implications for various communications and collaboration functions?
User interfaces: How important is the application — presumably team collaboration — in serving as a gateway to the communications/collaboration platform? Has video supplanted voice as the primary driver for communications?

You’ll come away from this roundtable with critical third-party perspective that can help guide your future strategic planning.

Taming Teams for Distributed Work

Kevin Kieller (Partner, enableUC; BCStrategies)

Date: Monday, August 3

Time: 2:45pm - 3:30pm

Session Category Standard Conference Sessions

With millions of new users working remotely and the likelihood that many will continue to do so, how can organizations best use Microsoft Teams to support a fully distributed workforce?

During this session you will learn:

The latest new Teams features that better support distributed work
How to access and use analytics to understand what is working well in your company and what needs improvement
Best practices related to Teams devices, training, communications, and change management
Areas where you can automate and extend Teams to streamline business processes
Key survey results from organizational surveys related to the future of work and remote work

By the end of this session, you will have a strong understanding of how to effectively leverage the power of Microsoft Teams for your organization, regardless of the where work gets done.

Speech Technologies: Innovations and Use Cases

Jon Arnold (Principal, J Arnold & Associates, BCStrategies)

Date: Monday, August 3

Time: 4:15pm - 5:00pm

Session Category: Standard Conference Sessions

Speech technology remains a hotbed of innovation, especially when driven by Artificial Intelligence. These new applications are finding their way into the enterprise, and are quickly becoming part of the digital workplace. Telephony isn’t going away, but speech applications are using voice to create new forms of business value around collaboration, productivity and organizational agility. For example: Is Alexa for Business a novelty, or the vanguard of a new way of working? Can today’s speech technology enable meaningful automation for workflows, and will AI gain the trust of your employees? In this session, a leading industry analyst will provide updates on technologies and companies bringing innovation and disruption to speech interfaces. Leading examples of enterprise use cases will be shown.

Reconsidering Your Cloud Strategy In the Wake of Pandemic

Melissa Swartz (Founder, Swartz Consulting, LLC; BCStrategies)

Date: Tuesday, August 4

Time: 11:45am - 12:30pm

Session Category: Standard Conference Sessions

For many enterprises, keeping UC systems on premises had long made sense for a variety of reasons, including cost and control. For others, a hybrid deployment model that mixed and matched on-prem and cloud systems worked well. But then came the global pandemic, and organizations that had not yet fully embraced cloud communications found themselves flat-footed, struggling to find a way to support their newly remote workforces. The answer has been a transition to cloud communications and collaboration tools at scale, often using quick-response free licensing options from providers. But does this strategy, adopted in crisis mode, make sense for the long term?

In this session, a leading UC consultant will walk you through the key decisions you’ll need to consider now that you have time to more fully evaluate your cloud strategy.

5G - Promises Unbroken?

Michael Finneran (President, dBrn Associates, BCStrategies)

Date: Tuesday, August 4

Time: 3:30pm - 4:15pm

Session Category: Standard Conference Sessions

The 5G juggernaut is launched and the cellular industry has shifted from ‘promise’ to ‘delivery’ mode- though some of those promises seem to have fallen to the wayside. This session will take a look back at what the carriers promised us in terms of 5G services and how far they’ve actually come in terms of deliverables. We will also talk about some of the surprises we’ve encountered as deployments progressed, and will take a brief look at some of the macro issues in the wireless space that could potentially turn 5G and the existing cellular industry on its ear. You’ll come away with a clear picture of what 5G is delivering today, its near-term prospects, and what it means for your enterprise.

Cloud Contracts: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

Steve Leaden (President, Leaden Associates; BCStrategies)

Date: Thursday, August 6

Time: 11:45am - 12:30pm

Session Category: Standard Conference Sessions

UCaaS had gone mainstream even before the coronavirus pandemic, which in turn is accelerating this momentum, so that most enterprises are now considering UCaaS and CCaaS (contact center as a service) cloud options. One of the most distinct aspects of the cloud is giving the “keys of your kingdom” or control of your current environment to an outside vendor you have no control over. Redundancy, resiliency, and regular software updates are all controlled by an outside party. So what is your leverage as an enterprise? It is a rock-solid contract that has strong enough “teeth” to (a) force any vendor to pay closer attention to you and your enterprise, and (b) provide enough leverage for contract “outs” in the event the service does not meet the grade. This session will be led by a top consultant who has facilitated cloud contracts for clients from 800 – 5,000+ endpoints.

Best Practices for UC&C Training and Adoption in a World of Distributed Work

Kevin Kieller (Partner, enableUC; BCStrategies)
Blair Pleasant (President & Principal Analyst, COMMfusion LLC; BCStrategies)

Date: Thursday, August 6

Time: 2:00pm - 2:45pm

Session Category: Standard Conference Sessions

With many more people working remotely now and likely to do so in the future, many of the existing training and adoption methods may need to be modified. In this session we explore current ideas and best practices to help you run an effective communications, training, and change management program necessary to drive UC&C adoption with a distributed workforce.

Locknote

Eric Krapf (Publisher / GM & Program Chair, No Jitter / Enterprise Connect)
Dave Michels (Principal Analyst, TalkingPointz; BCStrategies)
Sheila McGee-Smith (Founder & Principal Analyst, McGee-Smith Analytics)
Robin Gareiss (Founder and President, Nemertes Research)

Date: Thursday, August 6

Time: 4:15pm - 5:00pm

Session Category: Standard Conference Sessions

After four days of insights, exploration, and unique interactions, what conclusions can we draw about the where the industry stands, and more importantly, where it’s headed at this critical moment? To wrap up our Digital Conference & Expo 2020, Enterprise Connect GM and Program Co-Chair Eric Krapf will be joined by three industry analysts, each bringing a unique perspective to the issues and challenges that enterprise communications decision-makers face as we look to the end of 2020 and into 2021. This free-ranging discussion will give you a strategic view and provocative insights to help you frame your own planning for the future.

8/14 - Cisco vs. Microsoft vs. Zoom: Clearing the WFH Fog

Phil Edholm (President & Founder, PKE Consulting; BCStrategies)
Brent Kelly (President & Principal Analyst, KelCor)

Date: Friday, August 14

Time: 11:00am - 1:00pm

Session Category: Premium Seminars

NOTE: Seminars are only open to attendees registered with a Premium Access pass. If you registered for a free Standard Access pass but would like to upgrade to Premium Access so you can view these seminars, please visit here to upgrade, or call us at (866) 203-8169 or (415) 947-6858 Monday-Friday, 8:30 AM - 4:00 PM PT.

**ALSO NOTE that Seminars take place on Fridays in August starting Aug. 7, in a separate Virtual Environment. If you are registered for Premium Access, you should have received a calendar invite with the URL for the Seminar sessions. If you haven’t received this URL, please contact us.

The work-from-home (WFH) groundswell has forced massive adoption of communication and collaboration solutions, propelled new use cases, and caused significant scrutiny of the solution providers. It is forcing enterprises to rethink their approach to communications and collaboration as WFH support will be a requirement far into the future. Solutions such as Cisco Webex Teams, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom Meetings are seeing explosive growth, but going forward, which of them should you use? Or, should you plan on using all of them?

In this two-hour seminar, leading UC analysts Brent Kelly and Phil Edholm are expanding their classic Enterprise Connect session, “Cisco vs. Microsoft,” to include Zoom. They will review the differences and similarities between the three platforms, providing detailed comparisons of the communications and collaboration capabilities, team workspace functionality, customer and guest functionality, integration with business systems and platforms, telephony and PSTN support, and platform extensions. They will also focus on security and ease of use, making this seminar a do-not-miss learning opportunity for anyone grappling with the current and future state of enterprise communications and collaboration tools.

8/21 - Practical Post-Pandemic Strategies for Success

Marty Parker (Principal, UniComm Consulting LLC; Co-founder BCStrategies)

Date: Friday, August 21

Time: 11:00am - 1:00pm

Session Category: Premium Seminars

There’s no going back after this pandemic crisis. Things have changed, and many of them won’t ever go back to “normal.”

What’s more, this crisis has spurred enterprises of all types to re-examine their operations. Which processes must change? Which can remain the same? Has this crisis changed customer expectations and behaviors? What changes will the workforce require?

These questions are going to put pressure on enterprise IT communications teams, but bring opportunities, as well. Are you ready?

In this two-hour seminar, a leading UC consultant will thoroughly explore these questions and provide a strategic planning guidebook that includes decision-making tools, logical flowcharts of your options, and detailed reviews of the essential areas that will demand your attention. With this essential guidance, you’ll be well-prepared to support your organization’s success in this major transformation.